Uncover Me (25 page)

“Me too,” Anthony chimed in, sitting back in his chair, calm and relaxed.

“Joe,” I said before he could reply. “You have a baby on the way. I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to be there. You have the most to lose.”

“Fuck that shit, Thomas. I’m there. If you’re in trouble, it affects us all. You’d do the same for me. Baby or not, I’m there for my family. Suzy will understand.” His stare was steely and serious. I knew that once he’d set his mind to something, there was no way in hell I’d be able to change it.

“Right.” I turned toward my pop as he looked around the table. “Pop, Ma will be so pissed if you come with us. I think you should—”

He put his hand up. “If my boys are going, then I’m going. No one can stop me, especially your mother. I’m the one who taught you boys everything you know. Plus, I’d be going freaking crazy sitting at home when I knew shit was going down and you were all in danger.”

“Pop—”

“Not another word, Thomas. I’m coming with you.”

I sighed, dragging my hands down my face as I blew out a breath. If I didn’t die in hail of bullets, my mother might finish me off for involving him.

“I’ll send a text when I have more details or when you need to come back. For now, go home and act as normal as possible. I don’t want the girls in a panic.”

“Uh, dude,” Mike grumbled, raising his index finger.

“What?” I snapped.

“The girls already know. I mean, what the fuck did you expect? It’s Monday morning and you summoned us here. They know something is up. I can’t lie to Mia.”

“Don’t tell them that Angel’s been kidnapped. Make something else up.”

“Your stories better match,” Anthony blurted, pushing the chair up and standing. “You know they’re going to talk to each other. One slip-up and you’re all history.”

“Fuck,” James hissed, kicking the floor with his foot. “They’ve probably already done a party line by now.”

“Just tell them that I thought someone broke into my house and I needed help checking it out.”

“You think they’re going to buy that crock of shit?” Anthony asked, shaking his head.

“Why not?”

“Bro, you seriously underestimate the ladies. They’re slick and smart. Nothing gets by them,” he replied, picking at his nails as he smirked.

“Your lady problems get by them.” I sat back and smiled, seeing his eyes shooting to mine.

Everyone around the table turned to him with a look of shock, especially my father.

“Traitor,” Anthony snarled, glaring at me and looking like he wanted to lunge across the table.

Pop put his hand on Anthony’s shoulder. “You have some explaining to do, son.”

“Coffee?” I asked, a small smile on my face because I knew I’d thrown Anthony under the bus. I’d outed him and his dirty little secret. I didn’t know exactly what it was, but I knew it involved a woman who had him by the balls.

“Nah. I better get home to Suzy. She’s probably starving by now.” Joe stood, squeezing Pop’s shoulder before holding his hand out to me. “Call me anytime, day or night, and I’ll be here.”

“Thanks, Joe.”

“I better get home and washed up,” Mike said. “I have to be at the clinic in a couple of hours to help. Wait up for me, Joe. I’ll walk out with you.” He followed Joe into the foyer with a quick wave and a nod.

“I’m out.” Anthony stood, staring down at Pop. “Ready to go, old man? I’ll take you home.”

The “old man” turned to Anthony, his head tilted and his eyes sharp, and stared at him. “You need to watch yourself, son.”

“Sorry, Pop.”

“I can’t wait to get home and tell your ma that you have a girlfriend,” Pop said, holding Anthony on the shoulder as they walked out the door.

“You wouldn’t.”

“Ain’t so old anymore, am I?” Pop asked, closing the door.

“Want a cup?” I asked James, knowing he wasn’t a morning person, much like myself.

“Please. I’ll call Bobby and have him do a background check and dig into Angel’s past. We need to isolate any potential problems and determine which ones are credible threats.”

“I’ll pour, you call.” Standing by the coffee pot, I stared outside and wondered where she was.

Had they hurt her? Was she in pain? Had they killed her? The thought of that made me want to hurl, my stomach clenching tightly in a knot from thinking I’d never touch her again.

“Bobby,” James said, pulling me from my thoughts as I grabbed the pot and poured him a cup. “I’m putting you on speakerphone.” I placed the coffee in front of him as he said, “Bobby, we have a problem.”

Chapter 20

It had been twenty-four hours since she’d disappeared. Fear gripped me at times, but the anger kept me going, driving me forward to find her. During the day, my family had been there for me. One by one, they had come over to sit with me and attempt to calm my fears. My brothers and James hadn’t been able to keep the information to themselves and had to bring the girls over with them. I couldn’t be angry that they hadn’t kept their promise to not tell the ladies.

I’d racked my brains for hours, trying to figure out why someone would do this to her…and to me. Was it one of my enemies, or were they truly after Angel?

There were so many people who would want to bring us harm. It boggled my mind.

My family was putting their lives on the line for Angel, someone they barely knew, because I’d asked. Without their saying it, I knew they were watching me, worried I’d go Rambo and try to rescue her myself. Although it did pop in my mind from time to time, I knew it wasn’t wise.

There were several things we knew for certain:

1. Sarah Roxanne Parker had created a post late Sunday afternoon, about seven hours before her disappearance. The post was about being happy and how quickly life had changed. Her location had been turned on, and anyone in the world could have tracked her because the post was set to public. It was a mistake many people made, not knowing they were giving their location to every stranger who bothered to look.
   
2. Besides Facebook, online connections were minimal. We were unable to check her messages without risking tipping off the people responsible for her disappearance.
   
3. She had very few enemies or people who could be classified as a threat, but I had too many to count. The suspect on the top of the list was her mother. There were no other people Bobby could identify as possible assailants.
   
4. After hours of trying to track her cell phone, he had been able to determine that they were located in the northern part of Orlando. They would have a better idea after I received another message.
   
5. Although she’d had a sketchy career, she was a decent person. The people she’d worked with were sleazeballs and scumbags, and any of them could have played a role in her disappearance.
   

We didn’t have much to go on, but I assembled the guys. They were ready to roll at any moment. The waiting was driving me fucking crazy.

A few hours ago, I’d received a text with instructions for the drop. I’d receive a text tomorrow at noon with details.

Sitting at the kitchen table, I sipped on whiskey and dragged on a cigarette as I plotted my revenge. Bobby was working on an exact location and a possible cast of characters as Flash kept tabs on her social media and any other possible information that could be leaked from her account. My job: just hang tight.

Who the fuck could hang tight in this situation? I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t relax. The only thing I could do was smoke and stare at the second hand of the clock while it moved as if it were in slow motion. Tick. Drag. Tick. Drag. Tick. Sip. Tick.

Getting drunk wasn’t the answer. If something happened, I couldn’t take the chance of being shitfaced and wallowing in self-pity. It would put her life at risk as well as my family.

As I stubbed out my cigarette, my phone moved against the table like a Mexican jumping bean. I checked my text messages.

Anthony: You up?

Me: What the hell else would I be doing?

Anthony: I’m coming over

Me: You don’t have to. I don’t need a babysitter.

Anthony: STFU. I’ll be there in 10.

I poured another half glass of whiskey, needing an extra dose to deal with Anthony’s grumpy ass at a time like this. After a few sips and about six hundred ticks later, there was a knock at the door.

“Yo!” I yelled out, too exhausted to even get up and answer the damn door.

Anthony walked in, stopped in the doorway to the kitchen, and stared at me. “Dude, what the fuck is wrong with you?”

“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.” I swirled the whiskey in my glass, watching the liquid hug the edges.

“You leave your door wide open, you’re drinking in the dark, and you don’t even get your lazy ass up to answer the door. It’s not like you to be so careless, Thomas.”

I tore my eyes from the glass and glared at him. “You don’t even fucking know me anymore, Anthony. I’m not the same person that I was when we were growing up.”

He glanced at me for a moment before heading for the cabinet to get a glass. He sat down, pulled the bottle across the table, and poured.

“Here’s what I know,” he began, and took a swig. “At your core, you are the same man. I can’t imagine what you went through while working for the DEA. I know it was some hardcore shit. But you need to listen to me, little brother.”

I sighed, rubbing my eyebrows to relieve some of the tension that had settled there. “You’ll never understand,” I muttered, digging my fingers into the inside corners of my eyeballs as I pinched the bridge of my nose.

“I don’t say much. I watch everyone. I take it all in. Store that shit away for a later date. I’m not the chatty one like Mike or the aggressive one like Joe, but I know everything that happens in this family. It doesn’t matter what went down while you were with the Sun Devils. It doesn’t matter what heavy shit happened. It does not define you.”

“Some sins are unforgivable, Anthony.” I shook my head, feeling the weight of my actions on my soul.

“There’s nothing that’s unforgivable in the eyes of your family. You’re still the same man you were when you left for training.” He sloshed the whiskey in his cup before taking a swig, his eyes not moving from mine.

“I’m not. I have blood on my hands, Anthony. I’m not better than the criminals in the MC.” I closed my eyes, breathing in slowly.

“We’ve all done shit we regret. You’re a victim of your circumstances. Stop beating yourself up for what happened while you were doing your job. They put you in that position. You needed to stay alive and did what you needed to make that happen.”

I opened my eyes, looking up at him. I knew his words were true. What had happened wasn’t my fault. Protecting my family, surviving, and getting out alive were the reasons behind everything I had done during the time I’d been a member of the Sun Devils MC. Even though my mind knew it, the guilt ate at my heart.

“Anth, I feel that what happened to Angel is God’s way of punishing me.” I felt the anxiety clawing at my insides. “There are things I can never tell you. Things that happened that only James knows about, and we both live with the guilt each day. I’m not the same happy guy who walked out the door over a year ago. Some of my joy has been replaced by darkness, the sins of my past unable to be extinguished by my deeds of the future.”

He wrinkled his nose and snarled. “That’s such a crock of shit. No one defines you but yourself. Your deeds of the past do not weigh on who you are as a man. Fuck what other people think of you. The only people who matter in your life are your family and friends. I know you’d jump in front of a bullet for any of us, and we’d do the same for you. That’s the measure of a man, not the shit they did to stay alive.”

I stared at my brother as he reached for the whiskey bottle and topped off his drink. “When did you get so wise?”

“I’m just old. Fuck. I’m older than I care to admit. Forty is creepin’ up on my ass, and it scares the hell out of me.” He blew out a breath and pulled the glass to his lips before taking a slow sip.

“You still have years until you hit forty,” I scoffed.

“Whatever. I know who you are, Thomas, and so does the rest of the family. You’re a good man. Case closed.”

I sighed, knowing I wasn’t going to be able to make him understand.

No one ever would.

The only people who knew my dirty deeds were James and Flash, and in many ways, they were just as culpable as I was. James put the bullet in Rebel’s head, but we buried the body and covered up the crime.

I’d helped the Sun Devils take out members of rival clubs.

I’d helped secure drug shipments and create distribution channels.

I’d been there for every shady deal and criminal act.

I wasn’t innocent.

I’d spend the rest of my life repenting for my sins and trying to reverse the bad I had done.

“What’s the plan for tomorrow?” he asked, setting the glass on the table and resting his head against the wall.

“I’ll know more around ten. I’ll get details at noon, and we’ll move from there.”

“You want us here at ten?”

“You can stay here if you want. I probably won’t sleep, but the guest room is yours.” I rolled my glass between my fingers, watching the liquid move inside.