“She’s here?” I was surprised Doc was the one who picked me up at the airport and not my mother. And if she was here, how was she not out already? She’d called me every fucking day when I was away that sometimes I had to ignore her calls; I understood I was her only son, but Jesus.
“Roar is keeping her busy. He hid the time of your arrival from her and told her to go check on the strip clubs until you came home.”
“Why?”
“Beats me. He’s inside waiting for you. He said he had a surprise for you he didn’t want her to see.”
I chuckled, as one of the girls stretched on her toes and whispered a slutty proposition in my ear, telling me she could take a ten-inch like a good girl.
I leaned in and whispered back, “but can you take it with a Jacob's Ladder and a Prince Albert while my hand is around your neck and the other fisting your hair?”
Her nipples hardened as she smiled. “Bring a belt, too.”
“Oooh. You’re on.” I spanked her as she sauntered to go inside. I took the curvy girl, too. I loved curves.
But when I went to my room, Roar was there, and he wasn’t alone.
He rose off the bed, his long, greasy, dark blond hair bouncing off his cut, and gave me a hug. “Welcome back, Son. I have a very nice surprise for you.” He glanced at the bitches and dismissed them with one gesture. I was too occupied with the guest in my room to object.
“You must be tired of patch whores,” he laughed. “I have something way fucking better to celebrate your return.”
CHAPTER 3
Cameron
Two Months After Annie’s Abduction
Annie’s beautiful, innocent face stared back at me as I laid the stack of posters I’d been peppering San Francisco with for two months on the diner table.
“I can’t believe they closed the case and set him free.” Bianca, a waitress I’d become friends with at Alfarez, the diner I’d been having breakfast at every day since the abduction, poured me some coffee.
I’d waited for months for the police to do something. To bring my sister back. To search Rosewood. To interview the members of that fucking motorcycle club. To give me any form of justice. The president of the Night Skulls and his bike fit the description the neighbors gave the police, but all they did was bring him, and only him, for questioning once, and the result? An obnoxious smirk on Roar’s face when he was released the very same day.
“Roar must have bribed them.” A single tear dropped from my eye as my raspy voice came out overtly hoarse. “I don’t care what they said. The Night Skulls have my sister.”
“I’m so sorry, Cameron. I wish there was something we could do to help.” She pointed at the posters. “Do you want me to post those?”
A troubled sigh burst out of my chest as I shook my head. “Thank you, Bianca, but there’s no point anymore. You’d better go check on your tables. I don’t want Mr. Alfarez to be upset. He’s been very kind to me, letting me here every day, putting Annie’s posters and annoying the customers with my questions about seeing her.”
She patted my shoulder gently and left to refill coffee. I grabbed one of the posters, the fire of missing my sister blazing in my heart. What was I thinking seeking help or justice from the police that were in Roar’s pocket? They would never have helped, and Annie… What were they doing to her now? “Oh my God, Annie,” I broke with tears.
“Uh…excuse me?”
My head whipped to the side toward the voice. A girl my age was standing at my booth, her hair a dark ponytail and her eyes covered with sunglasses.
“I’m sorry to interrupt you, but we’ve met before. I study at USF. I helped with some of the posters around campus.”
Her face began to look familiar. She was one of the girls that was moved by Annie’s story and asked everybody on campus to help find my sister. “Yes…of course. I remember. Thank you for your help. I’m sorry I don’t think I caught your name, though.”
“It’s Jo. Jo Meneceo.”
I wiped my nose. “Thank you, Jo. Your help is truly appreciated. What’s your major?”
“English. Senior year.”
“I wish you all the best. I used to study Engineering at CIT. Third year.”
“Used to?”