Page 13 of Grave Stone

“Stay alert. We’ll handle the rest.”

“Thanks, Boss.”

“Well,” Sin said as soon as Johnny was gone. “I think we should pay the Wood brothers a visit. Any objections?”

Juice raised his hand. “Not an objection. Can you clarify who’s paying the visit? I don’t think all of us need to go, but I think a few should.”

I almost laughed. Since stepping down and letting his son take over as president, Juice had tried to guide Sin through urgent issues without giving him blatant instructions. I wasn’t sure if the other brothers had noticed, but it was hard to ignore once I had.

Sin nodded in acknowledgment. “Danger and Tomb will go with me to speak with the brothers.”

“And me,” I said.

“And you if you’re feeling up to it.”

It didn’t matter how I felt; she jumped out at me. I was going.

* * *

When we walked into Wood Pawn, the brothers seemed surprised to see us, but that quickly changed.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Tate demanded.

“This is not how we do business,” Nate added.

“That’s why we’re here. Because of how you do business,” Sin said and slapped the picture of the girl on the counter. “She was in the body bag with Glenn. We don’t offer two-for-ones.”

Tate grabbed the picture and briefly glanced at it before passing it to Nate. Nate shook his head and crumpled the paper into a ball. “Never seen her before. I suggest you look elsewhere.”

Crossing his arms, Sin stared at Tate for several seconds. “You expect me to believe that?”

“Yeah,” Tate said, crossing his arms to match Sin.

Sin nodded once and turned to leave. We wordlessly followed him outside and got in the truck.

“They’re lying. And as soon as we have proof, they’re dead.”

“What about the girl?” I asked.

“We need to figure out who she is and find her. I want to know what she knows.”

* * *

When we arrived at the clubhouse, Glitch was waiting for us in the common room. “I’ve got an ID on the girl.”

“Church!” Sin yelled.

Once everyone was seated around the table, Sin nodded to Glitch. “Tell us what you found.”

“The girl’s name is Whitney Carlson. She’s twenty-nine years old and lives on the west side of Palmetto Harbor with a roommate, Stephanie Hackman. She dated Glenn Warner for three years, but they broke up last year. I haven’t found any direct ties between her and the Wood brothers, but⁠—”

“Speaking of the Wood brothers,” Sin interrupted, “they said they’d never seen Whitney before and denied putting her in the body bag. We know that’s bullshit, but we need proof. We need to find her and find out what she knows.”

“I’ll go to the house,” I volunteered.

Sin paused and gave me an odd look. “You need to see Stitch.”

“I’m good, Prez,” I assured him. “And I’m the only one who’s seen her in person. I should go.”