“Streak,” Storm calls from the other side of the door and I walk over, yanking it open. He arches a brow and glances into the room. “You all right?”
I nod. “Yeah. You want to round everyone up though? I have things to show you.”
“Sure,” he answers, eyeing me skeptically as he turns and walks out of the room to get the rest of the guys. Blaze, Chance, and Moose get up from their table and nod to me as they walk into the room and when I glance up, I meet Rowan’s eyes. She peeks at the white board behind me before her gaze flicks back to me and she smiles.
Shit.
I really can’t wait to get more time alone with her later.
“Did you find something?” Kodiak asks as he walks up to the war room and when I glance back over at Rowan, she has turned away from me. Sighing, I nod.
“Yeah, I’ll explain in a minute.”
Everyone else files into the room and takes their usual seats before all turning to look at me. Blaze arches a brow as he crosses his arms over his chest and leans back in his chair.
“All right, Streak. You have the floor.”
I nod. “Right. So, I’ve been going over the interview with Veronica for the past week and something stood out to me.”
“What?” Chance asks, leaning forward and bracing his elbows on the table.
“Veronica said that the man who took her talked about a woman who he met in a bar…”
Blaze nods, scowling at me from across the room. “Right. And?”
“And I had a suspicion that it was Tawny. We knew that she met some guy in a bar and he convinced her to try and frame Moose so it just made sense. I went to talk to her this morning to see if she had any other information to give me.”
“Okay,” Fuzz says, studying the board. “And did she?”
I nod and point to the name written at the top of the white board. “She gave me a name.”
“How in the hell do you even say that?” Smith asks.
“It’s pronounced Eli.”
Blaze tilts his head to the side as he studies the board. “Did you find anything on this Warren Ehlye?”
“One thing,” I answer with a smile. It’s not the resounding victory I’d hoped it would be but it’s still something. “Warren Ehlye owns a little cabin deep in the woods.”
“Are you saying you found him, Streak?” Moose asks and I shake my head.
“No. Warren didn’t even exist before two years ago but then that leads me to the rest of this.” I motion to the white board. “I’ve laid out the entire case, in order, starting with Dina’s. She was killed in early two thousand seventeen and there was nothing else until Laney was killed in early two thousand eighteen.”
“And then nothing again until Veronica went missing in early two thousand nineteen?” Blaze asks and I nod.
“At least, nothing that we know about yet. Veronica did mention that Warren might have had a role to play or influenced shit with Ali back then,” I say, pointing to the date in two thousand seventeen. “But until it’s confirmed, I don’t want to put it up on the board.”
Fuzz sighs. “Everything picked up this year.”
“Yeah, I realized that, too,” I tell him, turning back to the board. For the first two years, there was only one death a year but this year, we’ve had a girl go missing, another die, Tawny trying to frame Moose for assault, the break-in at the clubhouse, and Veronica showing up on our doorstep. Sighing, I turn back to him. “It makes me think we’re nearing the end of his little game.”
“I don’t like the fucking sound of that,” Storm growls, raking a hand through his hair and a ripple of unease works its way through the room. Blaze sighs and sits forward.
“Okay, we need to look into the cabin… Fuzz and Storm, I want you to do that but be discreet. We can’t afford to piss this guy off anymore and I want to remind you all that we may be dealing with a lot but Fuzz and Piper’s vow renewal is coming up soon and we’re not going to let this asshole steal even a moment of their happiness. Is that clear?”
I look at each of my brothers as they all nod in agreement and all the changes that have happened in the last two years. I’ve built a real family with all of the people in this room and I have to wonder if we’ll all be standing here when this thing is finally over or if we’ll be burying more people that we love. Or if we’ll even have a club to come home to.
Chapter Nine
Warren
Big, fat rain droplets splatter against my windshield as I climb out of the car and I cast an annoyed glance at the dark gray sky hanging over me before grabbing the box of supplies I brought along out of the passenger seat and slam the door. I’ve got a long walk ahead of me since I like to park so far away to avoid detection from anyone who may be passing by and I would prefer to do it in dry conditions. Not to mention that this weather will only make it harder to do what I came here to do. I will have to be extra careful and it will take time, time I don’t have. Shoving my free hand in the pocket of my jeans, I start walking toward the cabin, eager to get there as soon as possible so I can finally put this place behind me and move on to the next stage of my plan. It’s hard to believe it’s been two years since this all started, since I managed to find this little cabin out in the woods and finally put all of this into motion. Especially since there were times when I wasn’t sure it would work, that I would actually make it here, but now that we’re nearing the end, I cannot wait to watch the destruction. After everything I’ve lost… everything they took from me… this is justice.
The forest is quiet as I walk along with the box tucked securely under my arm and I spot a few landmarks that are familiar to me. Seeing them gives me this weird sense of peace and it’s hard to believe that this is the last time I’m going to be out here. Over the last year, I’ve spent so much time at this cabin that it started to feel a little like home. I scoff at the word. I don’t have a home, not really, and it would be monumentally stupid of me to forget that fact. This place is nothing to me and once it’s all over, I doubt I’ll ever think of it again. It was a tool and it’s been incredibly useful, in more ways than one, but it’s served its purpose and when I finally end this, I’ll be walking away from everything here in Baton Rouge. Not that there is much left for me here anyway. Memories of my life before it collided with the Devils floods my mind and I grit my teeth as the pain in my chest swells. I can’t ever forget what they took from me or why I’ve put in the insane amount of work it’s taken to make all of this come together.
The cabin comes into view and I stop, moving behind a tree as I scan the area until I’m certain that no one else has been here since I left the last time. As I move closer to the little log structure, I smile. I know Streak went to go see Tawny this morning and hopefully the dumb bitch remembered just enough information to lead him here but first, I need to get the place ready. We can’t have company coming over before each room is looking its best. As I step up onto the back porch, I set the box down next to the stairs and shake off my boots as I grab the white crime scene booties from the box and slip them on. The hair net comes next and after I snap it over my head, I grab the latex gloves and pull them on. Once I’m all decked out in my gear, I grab the bottle of cleaner and sponge I brought along and step inside. The place is still pretty clean since I scrubbed it down right after I released Veronica but I need to go through it with a fine tooth comb and make sure there isn’t a single shred of evidence left for them to find.