Page 6 of Cole (Dirty Misfits MC 4)
Like, at one point in time he ditched his leather jacket.
And at another point in time, he lost his boot.
And even during one of his other encounters with a stop in a store parking lot, he tore his t-shirt apart and wrapped tourniquets around the wounds he could deal with on his own.
But there was no evidence of a van, or anything that might explain why the blood loss stopped.
“Maybe he died and he’s in an alley somewhere,” Porter sighed.
I raked my hand through my hair. “Or the tourniquets worked.”
He chuckled. “He couldn’t even get one around his shoulder. He would’ve still been bleeding.”
I pointed at him. “You make a solid argument.”
Porter leaned forward. “Maybe if we pulled other shops’ cameras? Or possibly traffic intersection cameras? The man doesn’t just disappear.”
Then, Brooks charged through the door with the rest of the guys. “No, a man doesn't just disappear. And I think I know what happened to him.”
A a loud bang sounded and I whipped my head around only to find Brooks heaving what looked like a partial bike handlebar up onto the kitchen counter. Porter and I walked over to it as we all gathered around, staring down at the mangled piece of scrap.
“The fuck is this?” Porter asked.
Then, Brooks tilted it back and showed us the blood spatter beneath it. “I think it’s part of Chops’ bike.”
My eyes widened. “You think he got into an accident.”
He shrugged. “Either that, or he’s leaving us a trail to throw us off his scent.”
Tanner whistled lowly. “Dismantling the bike in order to evade us is a pretty serious move.”
Porter nodded. “And if he did that, that means we can’t just look up his license plate or some shit. It’s actually pretty genius.”
I licked my lips. “And it makes sense with what we saw in the videos.”
Brooks crooked an eyebrow. “What did you see?”
I slid my hands into my pockets. “I believe Chops was discarding random items of clothing in different places. He kept showing up on subsequent cameras, and it was like his clothes were disappearing. First, his leather jacket. Then, his boot.”
Brooks pointed at me. “Show me the footage. I want to see it with my own two eyes.”
After getting everything set up to play on the flatscreen television in the living room, we played the clips of footage I had bookmarked at regular speed. I showed the guys where the pieces of clothing on him were missing, and it all but verbally confirmed our theory.
“Son of a bitch,” Brooks growled.
But Porter announced his next words as if a king were about to enter the room. And we all took a strong stance as Brooks froze.
“All in favor of Brooks assuming the role of President, raise your hand.”
All of our hands shot into the air like lightning as Brooks looked around.
“All in favor of removing the title of President—or any title for that matter—from Chops, raise your hand,” Brooks said.
We all put our hands down before thrusting them back into the air once more. And as Brooks’ hand crept into the air, relief washed through my veins.
We had finally overthrown Chops.
“All right,” our new President, Brooks, said as we all inched our hands down, “as your new President, my first order is for all of you to go home and get some fucking sleep.”
Porter blinked. “Wait, what?”
Brooks stared hard at him. “You heard me. There’s a fight coming. A fight we’ve all been waiting for. And we’re going to need our strength when it finally kicks down our door. I want you guys to stay alert, but I want you to stay alert while getting some rest. Spending time with those you love. Enjoying life for once. That’s my first command to all of you.”
“Should we instate a time to meet back here, then?” I asked.
Tanner nodded. “Especially since the girls are still here. Weren’t we going to hand them over to the police?”
Brooks snickered. “Already got it handled. You guys go home. Sleep. Eat. Enjoy life for a little bit. And come Tuesday morning—in four’ days time—we’ll all meet back here at noon for lunch. Got it?”
A small sea of heads bobbed before Brooks dismissed us, but I found myself taking the long way home. I knew Opie–my German shepherd—would be happy to have me home for a few days. But time off for most people wasn’t like time off for myself.
The club kept my mind occupied. Our tasks kept my body occupied. And when I had nothing to occupy either of those things, my mind started playing tricks on me.
It’s gonna be a long-ass four days.
Still, I pulled up the driveway and parked my car in my garage. Opie barked in the kitchen, and when I opened the garage door that led into my home, he leapt into my arms. I caught him as I kicked the door closed with my foot, and my beautiful service dog that had saved my life more times than I cared to admit licked at my face as if I had been away on deployment for months on end.
