I shook my head. “No, I didn’t ask. He mentioned it wasn’t the FBI and it wasn’t local law enforcement—”
“He’s working with a team that hired Wave as an independent consultant. He called me when he heard about the arrest.” Fuck. I should’ve known Wave was somehow involved. He used to run an independent special operations team, for lack of a better description, that was contracted out for particularly difficult cases. He retired years ago, but still did some independent consulting on cases from time to time. Coincidentally, Luke used to be on his team.
“Did Luke know Aim was working with the good guys?” I asked.
“No, he didn’t, and he’s beyond pissed about it.”
I dropped my head and blew out a slow breath. “So, what do we do now?”
“Huh, I thought you’d be demanding to know where Layla is,” Phoenix mumbled.
I raised my head and met his eyes. “You wouldn’t be sitting here right now if you knew she wasn’t safe. Do I want to know where she is? Yes. Do I think you’ll tell me? No. All that matters right now is that she’s out of harm’s way.”
Phoenix studied me for a few moments before he nodded and answered my previous question. “There’s not a whole lot you can do. Aim can’t be released without his cover being blown. You can’t go after the club because the feds will be watching their every move. At this point, your hands are tied.”
Well, wasn’t that just fan-fucking-tastic? I had to sit idly by while a psycho, who was now in charge of an outlaw motorcycle club, ran around free, planning to do who knows what. All while my girl was hidden away in an unknown location, probably thinking the worst of me.
Not knowing where her head was at was killing me. Did she think I didn’t care about what happened to her? Did she think I was okay with human trafficking? Did she know that I was in love with her?
There was no way I could sit around twiddling my thumbs waiting for something to happen, for someone else to take care of the problem. No, I needed to come up with a plan so I could get my woman back.
30
Aknock at the door had me jumping three feet in the air and screaming bloody murder. Supposedly, only two people knew my whereabouts, and they both had keys. No one should be knocking. And since I screamed like a banshee, I couldn’t pretend no one was home. That didn’t mean I had to open the door, though.
I tiptoed through the living room and peeked through the blinds to see who was knocking on the door. A man I had never seen before was standing on the front porch. A huge man. And he was looking right at me. I jolted away from the window, tripped on the rug, and fell on my ass.
He knocked again. “Open up, Layla! I know you’re in there.”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuckity fuck. How did he know my name?
“No fucking way, man. I’m going to give you five seconds to get off my porch before I start shooting through the door,” I yelled. Did I have a gun? No, but he didn’t know that.
He responded with a chuckle, which unnerved me even more. I ran back to the kitchen and grabbed the biggest knife I could find while frantically trying to think of a place to hide. This was a safe house, for fuck’s sake. How did it not have a panic room?
I darted around the corner and headed for the stairs when arms wrapped around my chest from behind and halted my forward momentum. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
“Says the man who just broke into my house!” I screamed and moved my arm forward, preparing to plunge the knife into his side. Before I could swing my arm back, I flew across the room and hit the wall with a thud, the knife clattering to the floor.
“Fuck! Shit! Are you okay? I didn’t mean to push you that hard, but fuck if I was going to let you stab me,” the man said from the other side of the room. What the hell was going on?
He held his hands up in front of him, but didn’t try to approach me. “I’m Phoenix. Phoenix Black. Did Copper tell you about me?”
I straightened myself and glared at him. “Yes, he did. I can see being an asshole runs in the family.”
He had the decency to look embarrassed. “I’m truly sorry. I know you’re a runner, and I didn’t want you to take off before I had a chance to talk to you.”
“I’ve ran because I had to, not because it’s a compulsive habit,” I spat.
“Fair enough. Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’m fine. What is it you need to talk to me about?”
“Can we sit?”
“Hell, no. You stay right where you are and start talking.”
He sighed and rubbed his chin with his thumb and forefinger, just like I’d seen Copper do numerous times. “The man Copper had tied up in the shed, the guard who let you get away from the stables, was working undercover to bring down an outlaw motorcycle club, the same one that took you. He’s also your half brother.”