Veronica, the woman we’re meeting with today, went missing almost a year ago on her way home from class and we were tasked with looking into her disappearance when Detective Rodriguez, a local cop we work with often, hit a dead end and was ordered to focus on other cases. We didn’t get much farther than he did, though, and we were all shocked as hell when she stumbled into the clubhouse two weeks ago, disheveled and terrified out of her mind. She had a message for us, from the man who has been targeting the club and it set us all on edge – even more so than we already were. Blaze immediately ordered everyone and their families to come stay here, at the clubhouse, so we can keep this little family we have built safe but it hasn’t been easy.
I am just getting started.
I shudder as I remember the message she delivered that day. It’s haunted me day in and day out as I try my hardest to come up with answers for my brothers but I hit a wall every time. No matter where I look or what angle I try to take, I always come up empty and I can’t help but feel like this fucker is toying with me. Like he knew who I was and he knew what I could do when he went about making this whole damn plan so it’s tailored to drive me out of my mind. Scoffing, I shake my head.
God, how fucking narcissistic is that?
Pushing the thoughts from my mind, I follow Storm as he walks into the war room and as soon as I’m in the room, he shuts the door behind me, locking it as I slip into my seat at one end of the table. Across from me is Blaze, our president, at the head of the table and Storm takes his seat to his left with Smith, our sergeant at arms, to his right. Veronica sits in the middle of the table to my left, looking nervous as hell as we all turn our focus to her.
“You all right, darlin’?” Blaze asks her and she nods, her gaze flicking around the room like a scared animal.
“Being back here just reminds me of…”
I nod in understanding as do the rest of my brothers. The last time Veronica was here, she had just been dropped off by the man who kidnapped her and she has absolutely no idea what she was walking into.
“Just know that we’re all here to help you in any way that we can,” Blaze assures her and she nods, sitting up a little straighter as she sucks in a breath. “Are you ready to tell your story?”
“I am.”
Pulling my phone out of my pocket, I open the voice memo app and hit record before setting it down on the table. “Just start at the beginning.”
“Okay,” she breathes, glancing over at me as she nods her again a little too much, almost like she’s hyping herself up and I can’t stand it. When I think about how many lives this guy has torn apart, messed with and used, it brings up shit that I would rather forget and makes me feel like putting my fist through a wall. All I want to do is end this but I can’t help worrying that the ending won’t be as pretty as I’m hoping. Veronica wraps her arms around herself as she stares down at the table and shifts in her seat, obviously uncomfortable.
“What do you remember about that day?” I ask, hoping to just get her talking. I’ve noticed that the hardest part for most people, after a trauma like this, is where to begin. They have so many thoughts running through their heads and so many emotions that they quickly become overwhelmed into silence. She sucks in a breath.
“It was so normal, you know? Like, shouldn’t days where your life is going to change come with some kind of warning? Shouldn’t there be some kind of sign from the universe that you need to pay attention?”
I scoff, fighting back memories. “I fucking wish.”
“Did you go to class that day?” Smith asks and she nods.
“Yeah. I have… had English on Thursdays and it let out early that day so I decided to go home and try to relax before my next class.”
Blaze scowls. “So, you deviated from your normal schedule that day?”
“Yeah.”
My mind spins with scenarios and possibilities as I study her. If class let out early and she did something that she wouldn’t normally do, that means he was watching her for a while, waiting for the perfect moment to strike but why pick her? She wasn’t associated with us at all and there is no way he could have known Rodriguez would catch the case. It could have easily gone to a different detective and then we never would have known about it.
“What happened next?” I ask and she shudders.
“I was walking down the hallway to my apartment and all of the sudden, it felt like someone was there with me. All the hair on my arms stood on end and when I heard footsteps, I started walking faster, telling myself that I was being ridiculous because it wasn’t uncommon for other people to be in the hallway but this time… it was just different.”
Storm nods, leaning back in his chair with his arms crossed over his chest. “According to the police report, your apartment door was open when officers went to investigate…”
“I managed to get the door unlocked but I couldn’t get inside before he grabbed me,” she answers with a nod. “That’s the last thing I remember from my apartment. I must have blacked out and when I woke up, I was in a cabin out in the woods.”
“How did he keep you there?” I ask. She meets my gaze and the haunted look in her eyes hits me in the chest. Whoever this guy is, he held her for almost a year and she could give us vital information about who he is and what he wants but that doesn’t mean it’s not fucking awful to pry these answers out of her.
“There was this thick metal hook lodged in the middle of the floor and he put shackles around my wrists with a large chain connecting the two. I could go anywhere in the cabin and I could even step out onto the front porch but that was it.”
Moose frowns. “He wasn’t worried about alerting someone if they drove by?”
“During the entire time I was there, I never saw another person.”
“What did he look like?” Chance asks softly, leaning forward and bracing his arms on the table. She shakes her head.
“I have no idea. He always wore this white mask that covered his whole face.”
I narrow my eyes. “Like a Halloween mask?”
“No… it was more like a theater mask… like those ones that have happy and sad faces but this one was expressionless.”
“What about his hair?” Henn asks. “Or his eyes?”
She shakes her head, picking at the edge of the table. “His hair and his eyes were both brown and kind of… unremarkable?”
“Right,” I scoff. Every single description we’ve ever gotten of this guy always sounds exactly the same. He’s perfectly average. The kind of guy that easily blends into a crowd which makes him even harder to hunt down.
“I’m so sorry I can’t be more help.”
Blaze shakes his head and leans forward, placing his hand on the table. “It’s not you, darlin’. This guy has just been really hard to find and it doesn’t help that he looks so damn average.”
“Oh… yeah, that’s the thing. Even if he was standing in front of me right now, I don’t know that I would recognize him. Maybe if I heard him speak…”
“I’m sure that was intentional,” I tell her. Why else would he wear a mask for an entire year? “How much time did he spend with you at the cabin?”