But even as I say it, I can’t decide if I’m simply trying to convince myself it’s true.
9
SPARK
“Vex got us a lead on the truck they were in,” King says the following evening as I walk into his office. “Found the address it’s registered at. He’s getting more details. While I don’t give a shit what happens to Iris, I care what happens to this town, and I don’t want those scumbags in it. Vex is continuing to dig on Joseph Hosea, owner of the truck and member of a group called Righteous Brotherhood. I’m gonna take a ride. Check him out. I’m guessing I can’t stop you from coming.”
I nod. I had a nightmare last night. Another. Only this time, every dead body was Iris. It’s pissing me off that King has told me to stay away, and it’s affecting the way I look at him now. I hate that I can’t follow his simple order.
Plus, I see the way Clutch is with Gwen. King laid down the law about his sister, and Clutch ignored him. Now Clutch is off fucking Gwen every moment he can and King seems to have gotten over it.
So, I decide to take to the road for a while. “Was just thinking I needed a ride to clear my head. The longer, the better. Where are we heading?”
“Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It’s only a ninety-minute ride. That long enough for you?”
I take a breath. A calm one this time. “We’ll see. If it’s not, I might take off for a couple of days, unless you need me to do anything.”
“Let me think about it.”
I stub my cigarette out in the ashtray on his desk. “When did you want to leave?”
“Around ten tonight. Get some food and rest. Get some supplies from Vex. I want some of those trackers and shit. If we find that truck, I want to put a tracker on it so we can see where it goes. I want to know every time it passes back into our state and town.”
We’ve got two hours to prepare. “Anyone else coming?”
King opens the door and yells Saint’s name. He appears a minute later. “We’re going to Bethlehem. Sounds like the kind of place you belong.”
Despite being pissed at King, I laugh.
Saint grins. “Did you know Bethlehem means ‘house of bread’ in Hebrew?” he asks.
King shakes his head. “I didn’t know that, but those new scum that were in town this weekend are from there. Thought we’d go check it out.”
Saint thinks for a moment. “Then when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, he became very enraged, and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem. Matthew 2:16. Are we slewing because we haven’t slewn in a while?”
King laughs. “No slewing, which I assume means killing the miserable fuckers. Just intel. But the day for slewing may well come.”
Saint nods. “Fair deal. Let me get my shit together.”
I head straight for Vex’s office, where he sits behind a bank of monitors. There’s one last thing I have to do before I leave.
“You got one of those property cameras? And a few vehicle trackers?” I ask.
Vex stands and cricks his neck from left to right. “You want to set your house up? I can come over and take a look for you. Figure out what would work best.”
I shake my head. “Not for me. For a friend.”
Vex shrugs. “Happy to go see what they need.”
Putting down the box I was looking at, I turn to face him. “I just need the kit.”
Vex reaches for something, then pauses. “Please tell me this isn’t for that Irish chick, Iris.”
“Can’t do that, man. Would never lie to a brother.”
“Does King know you’re kitting her house out?”
I tap the shelf. “You got something I can use, or do I need to go buy it myself?”
Vex grabs a box and offers it to me, but then snatches it back. “Wait a minute. Does Iris even know you’re kitting her house out?”
“Fuck’s sake, it’s a surprise.”
“A surprise as in, ‘Hey, Iris, here’s your fully secured and monitored home,’ or surprise as in you’re tracking her ass and not fucking telling her?”
I rip the box out of his hand. “A surprise as in I don’t punch you in the fucking face for being such a nosy bastard. She was approached by a guy we think might be a sex trafficker. I’ll apologize for her security later.”
Vex chuckles. “Holy shit, you’ve gone full stalker mode.”
“I’m not her stalker.”
“Everyone knows you’re driving by her place like a fucking weirdo.”
I grab Vex by the neck and slam him up against the shelving, and everything on them rattles. “We got her in shit. As SAA of this club, I feel we need to keep her safe too.”
Vex puts his palms up in a sign of surrender. “Peace, man. Like I give a shit if voyeurism is what floats your boat.”
“It’s not voyeurism.” Except it was. Have I fucked my own hand to the memory of it? Of course I fucking have. It’s part of why I need to ride out.
“It is voyeurism . . . or stalking . . . if you’re the one watching her rather than enabling her to watch out for herself.”
“Fuck me,” I say, letting go. “Just give me the kit.”
When I get close to her house, it’s around nine in the evening, but dark enough to move around discretely. I park up the block and walk the rest of the way to her house. Then I start with the car. A simple tracker installed just on the inside of the wheel arch. I doubt any of the scumbags from Los Reyes who shot her are going to come looking for their friends, or that those creeps at the diner know where she lives or what she drives, but on the off chance they do, I want to be able to find her.
And if they come to her house . . .
Well, at least I’ll know.
Her porch is shielded from the street on one side by a large bush, and I’m hoping that gives me the cover I need. Under the guise of fixing the broken railings the other day, I ran a cable from the socket she has outside and capped it.
I was planning to tell her . . . maybe.
I’m pitting my moral compass and her privacy against her safety. And her safety wins out every time.
In the darkness, I fiddle around until I find the cable.
It takes me ten minutes to install the camera, and when I sign in to the security app on my phone, I can see her porch and driveway. The camera’s hidden in the shadows. Hopefully she’ll never notice it.
Because if she does, there’s a chance she’ll want me to disconnect from the feed, and that isn’t going to happen while there’s a risk to her out there.
When it’s done, I return to the clubhouse. Given I’m heading out, I grab a coffee and forage in the fridge before finding leftover pie. Good enough. I put some on a plate.
“Spark, a word,” King says as he joins me. It’s quiet. Mondays usually are. I stayed over last night after getting wasted. Kenzie was hanging around, but I haven’t been feeling her lately.
Or any of the girls.
The more I see Iris, the more I know the next woman I’m going to sleep with is her.
Which is fucked up, seeing as I’m trying to put a little distance between us.
“What’s up?”