I examined the mysterious Duke. He was a tall, handsome, muscular man, with a five o’clock shadow on his jaw that gave him a rough look. He had some of the most haunted eyes I’d ever seen on a person. I could tell that he’d had a difficult past. I fished through my memories, trying to remember what Dom had told me about Duke.
“Honey.” Dom’s voice snapped me out of my internal rolodex of memories. “Duke is the one that helped find you.” He kissed my temple. I knew the memory still haunted him.
I pulled away from Dom and wrapped my arms around Duke’s neck. “Thank you,” I whispered. “I can’t thank you enough. You don’t know how much we appreciate all you’ve done.” I pulled away, wiping the tears from my eyes.
“My pleasure, ma’am,” Duke said. “Dom has told me a lot about you. I’m glad that you’re okay and everything worked out.” He turned to Dom. “I have a therapy session that I have to get ready for. Dom, I’ll call you later.” I hugged him one last time and so did Dom before we walked away.
Driving home, I asked Dom to remind me about Duke. When he told me that Duke was a homeless vet that had helped him out from time to time, in addition to helping find us girls, it finally registered.
“Duke is the one you have on the inside watching Storm, isn’t he?” Dom nodded. “What were you guys talking about?”
Dom sighed. “He said she’s doing well. At least he thinks so. She doesn’t share in the group sessions, but he can tell that she’s slowly healing. He’s planning on introducing himself to her soon, that way she has someone on the inside that she knows who can help if she needs it.”
Seeing the way Duke and Storm had looked at each other, I knew Duke’s reason for introducing himself was more than just to help Storm. I smiled. Good. He seemed like a good man. Maybe he’d be just what Storm needed.
25
Dom
After we got back from the visit to the clinic, Jules went to find the girls and I called the guys together to see what they’d found out about Ernie.
Viper started out. “So, he was raised by his mom. His dad took off when he was a baby. Pretty much a loner through school. Started hanging out with the Jersey Charter after high school. After about a year, he patched in. The other members say he never really fit in, so he stayed for another year or so and then transferred here.”
He hadn’t even clicked with his own club? That wasn’t good. I shook my head and moved on. “Ezra, what do you have?”
He settled in his chair, looking uncomfortable. “From what I heard, Ernie is a creeper. I spoke to some of the sweet butts from Jersey, and they say he was a watcher, and that he’d take pictures of them and shit.” He held up some papers. “Tech was busy, but he sent these. Tech found some texts and stuff to an unknown number.” Ezra shot a worried glance at me. “Brother, I hate to say it, but he may be tied to John in some way.”
The fucker was using my own brothers against my woman and the other girls. Oh, he’d pay for that. I didn’t give Mac a chance to speak. We had to move now. “Where is he now?”
Viper flicked his chin. “He’s in his room, last I knew. He took some chick with him.”
I stood up, trying hard to keep from throwing my chair. “Well, let’s go get the fucker. It’s a bonus we get to cock block him. We need answers and something tells me that shit stain has them. Let’s grab the prick and have some fun.”
We marched up the stairs and knocked on his door. There was a moan and a thud.
“Let’s go, asshole!” I threw the door open and it slammed against the wall. I walked into the room and Ernie stood there butt ass naked. The chick was huddled in the corner crying, topless. What caught my attention was the big ass red handprint on her face and the fingerprints around her neck. “What the fuck?” I boomed.
“Dude, get out!” Ernie yelled.
“Not going to happen, Ernie. We need to talk. Now.”
Mac walked in and he and Viper grabbed Ernie and dragged him toward the door.
I pointed to the chick. “Ezra, get her cleaned up, then take her to Axel and let him know what’s going on. Then find the Prez and ask him to call me. Tell him it’s important.” I glanced around the nasty ass room. “I need to have a look around.”
Ernie struggled, trying to break free from Mac and Viper. “Fuck you!” The boys held him tight. “Is this about that little bitch from the other night? She got mouthy with me first! I don’t give a fuck who she thinks she is, ain’t no bitch gonna talk to me like that!”
I reared back and punched him hard in the mouth. “Shut the fuck up about my girl, you piece of shit!” I pushed him out the door. “Boys, escort him to the shed.” I’d kill him if I had to keep looking at him.
As everyone followed orders, I got to work trying to find dirt on the fucker. I just knew I’d find something to confirm our theory that he was working with John. But searching through his shit, I didn’t find anything interesting. That was until I started looking through the closet.
In the corner, on the top left side, was a beat-up shoebox. Pulling it down, I opened it, getting more pissed as I looked at the stuff inside. My gut rumbled as I realized this shit was all planned well in advance. Unfolding
