“I’ll call Jinx and have him bring Blaze with him to the compound, and then we can go from there,” Harlen says, walking out of the room.

“You want us to do anything?” Landon asks, and I know July’s right; he’s a good kid. He was just in a situation that was out of his hands, and he was doing the right thing the only way he could, by bringing in those dogs.

“Call around and see if anyone knows where he is, or if anyone knows who he’s hanging out with.”

“Sure, man, and sorry about your woman. She seemed cool,” he says, and I lift my chin and head out the bar, meeting Harlen, who’s standing near his bike.

“They’re meeting us at the compound.”

“Let’s roll out,” I mutter, getting back on my bike.

When we get to the compound, the street is littered with bikes and cars. I look at Harlen, and he shakes his head as we park our bikes and move towards the gate. The second we get inside, we see all the guys are there, not just the few we called to meet us.

“We know you guys don’t know if you’re recruiting anymore members, but we wanted to come and show our support and help anyway we can,” Maxen says, patting my shoulder, and I look around the open area of the compound. There must be at least thirty guys standing around, some whom I know, and others I have never seen before.

“’Preciate that, brother,” I tell him then move to where I see Z talking to Blaze and Jinx.

“Where’s Kayan?” I ask Z as soon as I reach his side.

“She’s with July’s mom and dad,” he says, and I nod then put my attention on Blaze.

“You know anything about a guy named River? He has a snake tattoo on his skull.”

“Yeah, he was at Zero’s before we bought it. Management was afraid of him, so even though he had a history of stepping over the line with female clients, they never fired him. Unfortunately for him, me and Blaze didn’t hold that same fear, so as soon as we closed on the shop, we gave him his walking papers.”

“Do you know where he went?” Mic asks, and Jinx shakes his head.

Blaze looks at me. “One of his clients came into the shop and said he moved to Chapel Hill. Said he bought an old church and was going to open a tattoo shop in it.”

“Thanks,” I tell him, walking towards my room with the phone to my ear.

“You got anything?” Jax asks as soon as he answers, and I unlock the door, go in, lift my mattress, and grab my gun, putting it in the back of my jeans, pulling my shirt out and over it.

“Not sure. Seems Snake has a brother, and I think he’s the same guy who threatened the girls before. I’m gonna take a few of the guys to Chapel Hill to see if I can find anything out.”

“Meet you at the gas station off the highway in ten and I’ll follow you.”

“See you then.” I hang up, lock up my room, head straight towards my bike, and swing my leg over.

“Anything you want us to do here?” Blaze and Jinx ask, and I hadn’t even realized they were following me.

“Ask around and see if anyone heard anything, if anyone knows anything. Right now, we’re taking any lead we can get.”

“Got it.,” Blaze says, stepping back from my bike.

“Jax is meeting us off the highway and will follow us down,” I tell Harlen, Everett, Z, and Mic.

“Let’s roll,” Mic says, and it takes just a few minutes to get to the gas station, and when we do, I don’t even stop; I just circle the parking lot and let Jax follow me in his SUV. On the highway, I lead with my boys to my sides and July’s cousins to my back. It takes less then twenty minutes to get to Chapel Hill, and when we pull into town, I stop at the first mom and pop shop I see.

“Don’t really got time to stop and get cookies, Silver,” Jax says, and I ignore him and head inside the small shop, and just what I thought, an older gentlemen is behind the counter.

“I was wondering if you know anything about a church in town being up for sale?” I ask him, and he nods.

“If you take a right out of the parking lot and go about four miles then go over the train tracks, past Lord’s Jewelry, you’ll see it on the left. Someone bought it about three weeks ago, and they’ve been having work done to it.”

“Thanks.”

“Anytime,” he tells me, and I lift my chin then head out front.

“Church is down across the tracks on the left. I say one of us goes down and checks the area then comes back with intel, just to make sure we don’t need any back-up.”

“On it,” Mic says, taking off towards the church.

“You got any info?” I ask Jax.

“Uncle Nico says River and Snake are not related. They grew up in foster care together, and that’s why we didn’t know about him. Seems like River is Snake’s muscle.”

“Jesus,” I say, and I hear Mic before I see him. He pulls up close on his bike and doesn’t even shut it down before he starts to talk.

“Church parking lot is empty, and the doors have chains locking them closed. Across the street are some houses, and I saw a woman out front in her garden. She said this morning a van had pulled up, and a couple men took some stuff inside, but it’s been quiet since then.”

“Let’s go check it out.”

*

July

I look at Ellie then at the piece of wood I’m still holding in my hands. We didn’t find anything else, but I did find a hole in the roof. It’s small, but I think that with how weak it is, we can chip away at it, hopefully making it large enough to fit through.