Total pages in book: 122
Estimated words: 117752 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 589(@200wpm)___ 471(@250wpm)___ 393(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117752 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 589(@200wpm)___ 471(@250wpm)___ 393(@300wpm)
“I haven’t slept since the night before Calder disappeared.” He didn’t seem to be upset by her attitude. She even wondered if he was capable of emotions, unless Lily was concerned.
“I’m sorry. You look like you just got of bed.”
“I can go days without sleep.” He shrugged.
“Have you found anything else about Calder?”
“No. From the moment he went into the shelter, no one has seen him. It’s like he dropped off the face of the earth.”
Her shoulders slumped in weariness. Discouraged, she wanted—needed—to find something to do to keep her from losing what sanity she had left.
“Can I have some of that coffee?” Shade asked Train as he made himself a cup.
Turning back to her, he stoically stated what had been going on since Calder hadn’t come home. “The drug task force took Bear into custody last night. Stud handed what was left of him over when they found Lucky. The Last Riders had already been worried because he didn’t show up to pick up the baby after work. We assumed the last place he was, was the groundbreaking ceremony, so we went there and found his and Calder’s bikes. That’s about the time you called. Then Stud called and said he found Lucky in the ravine outside the club. If Stud hadn’t convinced Bear to tell him where he was, his luck would have run out. The doctor said he had minutes to live.”
“How did Stud know Bear was involved?” Crazy Bitch shook her head when Train offered her coffee, too disgusted with what Bear had done. She didn’t want to burn anyone if she slung it against a wall.
“Stud gathered all the brothers in the room and told them that Lucky was missing and that someone planted the drugs in your car the night of your arrest. Dozer remembered seeing Bear near her car when he pulled into the parking lot from work. Ginger said that Bear was the only one in the clubhouse when she left to go to the liquor store. The brothers had him confessing that he didn’t know Lucky was there and that he came in the back door when he was talking on the phone with Sam. Lucky must have heard and tried to leave, but Bear heard him leaving—”
“A chime sounds in the bar when the door is opened and closed,” Crazy Bitch said. “It’s not very loud. It’s from when the club used to be a restaurant. It’s old as fuck. Most of the time, we ignore it. He must have come in when Bear was talking and he didn’t hear Lucky come in then heard him leaving after he hung up.”
“Bear caught him in the parking lot. When he heard the brothers parking in the front, he threw him down the ravine. He thought he was dead.”
“Where’s he now?”
“Nowhere you can get to him anytime soon.” Shade set his coffee down on the counter. “He’s sitting on ice, with Sam in the next cell. He was found where Bear said he would be—in a small apartment that Bear had rented so he and Sam could stockpile their products and meet where no one could see they were connected. That’s why Stud, Calder, and the task force couldn’t find him.
“None of the prescriptions that Sam forged were in Bear’s name. They used aliases or used patients’ names of the doctor he worked for. Sam worked part-time for another doctor. He and Bear had been raking in the cash until you made waves. That’s why they decided to frame you and take you out of the picture. The deputy who stopped you was one of their best clients. Instead of issuing summons, he was a delivery service to their buyers.
“And the sheriff, he was in on it, too. The problem is, when you stack the deck, one misplaced card can topple the rest of the cards down around you. You were the wild card. You sent them all crashing down. The sheriff and two deputies have been removed from duty.”
“So where is Calder? Let me see Bear. I’ll convince him to tell me—”
Shade shook his head. “Both Sam and Bear say they don’t know where Calder is. Bear said he only attacked Lucky because he heard him talking to Sam. He said he had no reason to hurt Calder because neither of them knew about his involvement. I believe him.”
“What about Sam?”
“Sam said the only one he wanted to kill was you.”
“He could have done something to Calder to get back at me.”
“He passed a lie detector test.”
She went into her living room to sit down on a chair, burying her face in her hands. “So, the only lead we have is a seventy-year-old man and his ninety-one-year-old mother?”
“That about sums it up.” Shade placed his hands on the back of the couch, where T.A. and Fat Louis were sitting, jerking his hands back when Manson swatted at him. “Have you given any thought to the fact that maybe he wanted to disappear?”