Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 79360 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 265(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79360 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 265(@300wpm)
My hands were fisted at my sides, and with each step that I took, my adrenaline started pumping.
I made it into the hallway and looked down the hall at the waiting room.
Ellen was crying softly with her arms wrapped around her upraised knees, but I couldn’t find it in me to apologize for the awful words that I’d said to her when she came up to me and tried to apologize.
Jessie was sitting on Ellen’s right, jaw clenched and just as pissed off now as he had been when I arrived at the hospital and started spewing my mouth at the woman we all knew he loved but wasn’t acting on it.
The moment he saw me emerge, he got up, patted Ellen awkwardly on the head, and headed toward us.
Ellen shot daggers at his back, her eyes shooting invisible death rays at his retreating form as he made his way toward us.
“Blood trail leads down the street,” Jessie recounted, breaking into the silence. “I followed it. Leads to an empty house, a house that it looks like it’s been squatted in for a while. He cleaned himself up in the bathroom with an emergency first aid kit that was still out on the counter. We got DNA. Sent it to the lab.”
“They expedite it for me like I asked?” Dad asked.
Jessie nodded. “Yeah. I also have a grainy photo that some woman took while she was walking her dog. It’s not much, but it’s something.”
Jessie showed me the photo, and I cursed. We couldn’t do anything with that.
“Hold on,” I said. “Can you forward that to an email?”
Jessie nodded.
I rattled off the email and then placed a call.
Though it was late at night, Jack answered, and he didn’t even sound pissed.
“Yo,” he sounded like he was awake.
“Jack, I sent you an email of a picture. I know you’re not as good with the photos, but I was hoping you could talk your wife into taking a look at it,” I swallowed. “My woman was attacked by this man tonight, and I need to know who it is so I can look for him.”
Jack said something that wasn’t to me, and suddenly I heard his wife say, “I got it. Give me five.”
Jack relayed the message, even though I heard what she said.
“Thanks.”
I hung up.
And waited.
And waited.
And waited.
My hands clenched and unclenched while the men around me spoke. They all offered ideas on where to look, offered to search the surrounding hospitals and clinics in the area, but I knew it wouldn’t be enough.
I needed more.
And Jack’s wife didn’t disappoint.
My phone rang five minutes and thirty-seven seconds later. I pulled it out of my pocket and answered it with barely disguised anguish.
“Pulled the pic. Ran it through the database. Man’s name is Walton Whitley. Goes by the name 2W. Forty-seven. Member of a motorcycle club that is based out of Corpus Christi, Texas,” Jack said without preamble. “I pulled up a photo of the man from a news article, and he was standing next to a biker who wrecked a few months ago. I’m sending you everything I have on him. He also used his credit card at an ATM on the outskirts of Mooresville about thirty minutes ago.”
The minute those words were said, I knew exactly who it was without seeing the photo. Things started to fit into place as I finally solved the puzzle. Too late, but I’d solved it.
“Thanks, man,” I grated out. “I’ll owe that wife of yours a hug.”
Jack snorted. “No. I’ll give her the hug and say it’s from you.”
I laughed darkly and hung up, then turned to the men of my club who were waiting for the news right along with me.
They’d be scouring the street if I thought it’d help, but they were waiting for direction on my end before they started.
“Walton Whitley or 2W. Ring any bells?”
My father was the one to answer.
“No.” He shook his head. “But the fact that you’re so calm right now tells me that you do.”
He was right.
When things got confusing or complicated, I centered myself.
I never, ever went off half-cocked. I thought everything through before I did it, and prided myself on the fact.
Right now, though, the need to tear this man apart with my bare hands for what he did to my woman was almost overwhelming me, and it took a lot for me to try to calm myself enough to fill my club brothers in on what I’d learned.
The only reason I wasn’t was because we were in the hospital hallway right outside Naomi’s room.
“You remember that guy that I nearly got into a fight with at the smokehouse a few months back?” I asked. “The one that was looking at Naomi? Touching her?”
The moment I mentioned that, their confusion clouded.
“It does look like him,” Jessie voiced. “I can definitely see it now.”