Page 5 of Cole (Dirty Misfits MC 4)
Sandy gasped. “Like Bill Nye The Science Guy on TikTok!?”
I blinked. “You know that’s not where he got his start, right?”
Cody smiled. “I like Bill Nye. Can we do his experiments?”
I shrugged. “Sure! That’s fine with me. But have you guys ever done the Coke and Mentos experiment?”
Cody rolled his eyes. “Everyone’s done that, Miss Molly.”
Sandy shrugged. “I haven’t.”
Cody scoffed. “Figures.”
Sandy got up from the steps and shoved him and I quickly stepped between the kids. “How about we go to the store and get some things we need for our experiments? It’s supposed to rain a lot this afternoon, so we can totally put down some towels in the living room and do them there.”
Cody slipped his hand into mine. “Can we get snacks while we’re at the store? I ate all the goldfish last night.”
I peered down at him. “And why were you eating goldfish last night without permission?”
Sandy giggled. “Busteeeeeed.”
Cole sighed. “If I say ‘please,’ will that help?”
My face grew stern before I winked down at him. “Healthy snacks. That’s the punishment.”
Sandy groaned. “I’d rather go back to reading.”
Cole clutched his heart. “I’m dying. Someone help.”
I threw my head back with laughter. “Come on, you drama queens. We’re headed to the store to get some supplies for today.”
The kids pouted about as long as it took them to slide on something appropriate for the grocery store in town, and once we all piled into the car everyone was all smiles once more. Cody and Sandy were in the backseat of the SUV the Reeves’ let me borrow whenever I watched them, and they both had their phones out. Bill Nye’s voice filtered through the speakers and I felt myself reliving the better parts of my childhood. Eating popcorn with Mom while we watched his special on PBS. Cuddling up with her and watching Golden Girls whenever I was home sick from school. Hell, even watching Bob Barker on The Price Is Right whenever I wanted to have a random lazy day in bed in the summer raced across my mind as we pulled into the parking lot for the grocery store.
But no matter the memories the kids brought to the forefront of my mind, I was simply glad they weren’t about my father. Because as children, they deserved to be laughing and enjoying their summer breaks.
Unlike what I went through with my own fucking father, who shall remain nameless until the day I died.
Three
Cole
With every update, Brooks’ plan became more and more brilliant. We raced around town for two entire days, clocking Chops’ blood trail and entering any store that he may or may not have stopped at. If the parking lot had his blood in it somewhere, we entered the store to take a look at things. We followed it throughout town, and with every parking lot and store that surfaced, we had more to dig into.
But Chops didn’t rear his head.
“Does any of the blood head out of town?” Brooks asked.
Porter shook his head. “No, it doesn’t. It’s all in town, and every main road, side road, and back road that leads out of town has no trace of him anywhere.”
Brooks chewed on his nail bed. “Did you drive at least a mile down those roads? Maybe his bleeding—”
Finn cleared his throat. “I was the one that did that, actually. With Tanner. We checked all of them too, Brooks. No sight of his blood anywhere to tell us how he got out of town.”
Brooks clicked his tongue. “So, is he hiding in town? In plain sight?”
I shrugged. “He could’ve called someone and had them come pick him up. You know, toss him into a van, haul his bike on a trailer or some shit. That might explain the lack of a blood trail.”
Brooks pointed at me. “He’s got a point. We need to start going through all of the footage we’ve pulled. Cole? Can you spearhead that with Porter?”
I nodded. “Can do.”
Brooks pointed at Tanner and Finn. “You two, come with me. We’re going to go check all of Chops’ hideouts that we know. If he really has gone underground, then you all know what that means.”
I grinned. “It means we get to take a vote.”
Brooks smirked. “And a fucking vote is what it’ll be if Chops doesn’t resurface today.”
Energy thrummed through my veins as I watched through hours of security footage with Porter. We put it on a 2x fast forward, trying to get everything to pass by a bit faster. We had some videos that documented Chops pulling into the camera’s line of sight. On more than a few occasions, he stopped to check his phone and clean up his wounds. He pulled little first aid kits out of the back storage on his bike, and every time he popped up into a new camera’s field of vision, he looked a bit different.
