I nod. “Yeah. Go get ‘em.”
She thanks me before practically running out of my room and as soon as she’s gone, I lean back in my chair, running my hand down my face as my mind drifts to Warren’s note last night.
One down, four to go.
Honestly, it scares the shit out of me and maybe it’s me just being fucking full of myself but I can’t help but think this is just another way to torture me. I’ll go down the rabbit hole trying to figure out which four of us he’s specifically targeting and it will, undoubtedly, make me lose my mind. Which is what he wants.
Fuck.
Am I on his list?
Piper walks back in with a box of stuff before plopping it down at my feet and I arch a brow as she sits back down and I push the thoughts of Warren’s threat from my mind. Glancing down, I sigh. The box is full of personal stuff, little trinkets and several thick notebooks that I can only assume are Lillian’s diaries.
“First, I gotta ask, does your husband know about this?”
Shaking her head, she leans over and starts digging through the box. “No. He doesn’t want me thinking about her or what she did anymore… he thinks it’s not good for me but I need to know.”
Shit.
Why are all these damn women asking me to do shit that will most definitely end up with me getting my ass kicked by one of my brothers?
“Okay,” I sigh before nodding. “I’ll do this but you gotta tell Fuzz right after. Deal?”
“Deal.”
She grabs one of the notebooks and hands it to me before grabbing another for herself and we start flipping through them. Most of the entries are bland, talking about her day and shit like that but occasionally, one pops up that makes my eyebrows shoot up. Not that they have anything to do with Warren but Lillian was cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs and it fucking shows on these pages.
“Wait,” Piper says, her eyes scanning the page in front of her. “I think I found something.”
She hands the notebook to me and I read the entry on the page.
Dear Diary,
I went down to the coffee shop today and met this wonderful man who listened to me for almost an hour as I told him all about my Pip. He said she sounded like a really great girl and that if I loved her as much as I claimed then I should do whatever it takes to get her. I left there feeling so confident and he’s going to meet with me again tomorrow to go over a plan. I haven’t felt this hopeful in a long time and I can’t help but think that this is all going to work out. Piper and I are fated to be together, I just know it. The way she looks at me, I can feel the power of our connection…
I drop the notebook on the desk and shake my head as I blow out a breath. God, I feel fucking crazy just from reading that.
“What do you think? Could the guy be Warren?” Piper asks and I shrug.
“It’s possible but I’ll have to keep digging to know for sure and even then, we probably won’t find anything concrete.”
She shakes her head. “I don’t need anything concrete.”
“Can I ask why you want to know?” I can’t see any way that knowing Warren had a part in this is going to help her and it might even make it all worse but that’s just my opinion. She chews on her bottom lip as she stares at the notebook and finally, she looks up and sighs.
“I know what Lillian did was insane and that her obsession with me can’t be blamed on anyone else but…”
I nod, leaning back in my chair. “You want someone else to blame.”
“A little bit,” she admits with a nod. “It’s just hard to reconcile these two people that were Lillian… like my friend is a completely different person than the one who did all these crazy things.”
“Can I be honest with you, Piper?”
She nods, sucking in a breath. “Of course.”
“I think you need to let this go. It can’t be healthy,” I tell her, hoping my voice doesn’t sound too harsh and she sighs before nodding.
“I know I should just let it go but maybe these notebooks will help you somehow with Warren as well as giving me closure so I have to pursue this.”
Sighing, I nod. “Okay, well, I’ll keep looking into them and if I find anything, I’ll let you know but please don’t get your hopes up.”
“Thank you,” she says, her voice full of emotion as she stands up and walks over to me before leaning down and hugging me. “I really appreciate your help, Streak.”
I nod, patting her back. “Don’t mention it and don’t let your husband kill me.”
“Don’t be stupid.” She laughs as she pulls back and turns toward the door. “You’re way too important to this club for any of these guys to kill you. I can’t promise there will be no maiming, though.”
“Oh, excellent,” I answer, rolling my eyes and she laughs again as she walks out of the room. As soon as she’s gone, I turn back to the notebook laying open on my desk and sigh before grabbing it to dive right back into the rabbit hole I desperately want to escape.
Chapter Eighteen
Rowan
“They’re pulling into the gas station now,” Travis says into his phone laying on the desk, his fingers flying over the keyboard as he leans closer to the monitor, his complete focus on helping Blaze, Storm, and Chance complete the rescue they are doing right now. Apparently, the wife contacted the club and asked for their help but the issue is that they are only passing through Baton Rouge on their way to visit family so the club has to step in and rescue the wife and their two kids at a gas station along the interstate while this woman’s husband is in the bathroom. It honestly sounded insane when he told me about it earlier but this is what they do. As I watch him work, I can’t help but smile at the tiny little crease between his eyebrows and the way he bites his lip in concentration. Shaking my head, I turn back to the newspaper laid out on the bed in front of me, open to the help wanted pages.
Yesterday, Lincoln, Tate, and I drove the three hours to Grand Isle to sprinkle Mom’s ashes in the ocean just like she wanted and it was intense. We went to the same beach where Lincoln and Tate were married last year, the last place we were all together as a family because it seemed like the perfect spot to scatter her ashes and even though she has been gone for over a month now, actually watching her ashes sink below the water felt like I was truly letting her go. All of the pain I’ve been running from smacked right into me and I spent the night, sobbing into Travis’s chest while he rubbed my back and pressed kisses against the top of my head. When I woke up this morning, I was still sad but I also knew it was time to move on with my life and finally put some roots down here in Louisiana, starting with a job.
“Dad just went into the bathroom,” Travis says, distracting me from the paper and I lean back against the wall and cross my arms over my chest as I watch him. “Move now.”
“We’re fucking going,” Storm answers.
“Asshole,” Travis mutters, making a face at the phone that makes me laugh. It’s nice to see him like this since the last two days have been hard on all of us. After the wedding, the mood in the clubhouse was even darker before and it’s uncomfortable to be stuck here. Everyone wants to be jumping into action, doing something to find Warren and stop whatever evil plans he has but there is just nothing to do. But that doesn’t stop any of them from trying and when they can’t find answers, they come harass Travis. It weighs down on him so much and I’m just about ready to tell them to take a fucking hike the next time they barge in here demanding answers that no one has. Which I can freely do now since I told my brother all about Travis and me yesterday. To say he wasn’t pleased would be an understatement but after Tate and I talked him down a little, he agreed to let me run my own love life. He hated every second of it but I think it went as well as could be expected. I mean, Travis is still in one piece and there isn’t a single bruise or broken bone on his body so I consider it a win. Lincoln did make it very clear, though, that if he saw me crying even once and Travis was the cause, he would break every single one of his fingers. So, like I said, it went as well as expected.