I frowned, asking, “What do you mean scrubbed?”
“Better than anything I’ve seen, even for witness protection.”
My stomach tightened, that same aching feeling I had been having. Like my body was kicking my own ass.
“So? Is she hiding something?” I asked.
Cypher shook his head slightly. “I think someone hid it for her. Someone good.”
I leaned against the wall, feeling older than I had in a long time, but he continued, “At first I thought maybe we were dealing with the same person, whoever was fucking with Four and the club… and Bex erased past, but the method is different.”
I waited, because I didn’t really have a clue about anything Cypher got into.
“Whoever erased Bex’s past did it clean,” he said finally. “Like the files never existed.”
He made a motion, like poof. Then tapped the side of his laptop.
“But whoever framed Four?” He grimaced, saying, “They used an eraser. It just took me a while to see the pattern. But once you do… you can follow the smudges.”
Something about that eased a knot in my chest, just a little, but there were still too many unanswered questions.
Later that evening I took another ride, I didn’t have a destination in mind. We didn’t have any new leads, or sightings… nothing.
I just felt like I needed the road, the wind and space to think.
About a mile from Four’s house I saw a stretch of land that made me slow the bike without realizing why. The parcel was wide and open, with rolling grass broken by clusters of trees on the edges. The kind of place where someone could build something real.
I parked the bike at the edge of the dirt road and started walking, I didn't know why. I just felt drawn to the place.
The air smelled like fresh earth and wild grass. Birds wheeled overhead and for a moment I could almost see it. A house sitting on the rise, with a garden and a wrap around porch.
A life that didn’t revolve around the clubhouse.
The thought hit me before I could stop it.
This is exactly the kind of place Bex would want to build our house.
I stood there a long time staring out over the land. Because for the first time since she disappeared…
I realize I might finally understand what she was asking me for all along.
Now all I had to do was find her and make it right.
I am watching the sun settle and my phone buzzes in my pocket. I reach for it and the breath stalls in my chest. A text from Angel, they found Kori and are bringing her into the compound.
CHAPTER 23
CLUTCH - LOST OUR WAY
I wasn’t sure what to expect as I parked my bike at the compound and burst through the front door of the clubhouse. Whoever had been helping Razor, hadn’t had time to mess with the footage from the day he ran, so we knew Kori was the one who helped him leave and Cage let them through the gates.
Finding Kori was the first and only thing that had panned out since everything went to shit.
I scanned the space frantically. Connor, the prospect, was behind the bar, with Cypher and Lacey sitting with several laptops open at a table together.
Angel came out of his office down the hall, with Axel trailing behind him, wiping his hands on a rag.
“Where is she?”