Chapter 39 Night visitor
Ryder's POV
I was in the clubhouse garage working on an old truck when Sage's call came through.
Her voice was tight with panic. "Someone's outside my window. In the yard. Jaxon is not home."
"I'm on my way. Lock your door and stay away from the windows."
I was on my bike before she could respond, Tommy and Snake were right behind me. We made it to Vincent's house in under five minutes with engines roaring loud enough to probably scare whoever the intruder was away.
The front door was unlocked and I went in with my gun drawn, clearing rooms as I moved toward the stairs. Tommy and Snake split off to check the perimeter.
Sage's bedroom door was locked. I knocked. "It's me."
The lock clicked and she pulled the door open. Her face was pale but her jaw was set with anger instead of fear.
"They're gone," she said. "I heard the motorcycles and looked out again. Whoever it was ran."
"Show me where they were standing."
We went outside and I scanned the yard with my flashlight. Snake called out from near the fence.
"Got footprints. Fresh ones."
I walked over and studied the dirt beneath Sage's window. They were boot prints, size ten or eleven. The owner of the prints must be of medium build based on the depth. They'd been standing there for a while based on how the prints overlapped.
Tommy crouched down and picked something up. "It was a cigarette butt and it was still warm."
I took it from him carefully. Whoever was here had left in a hurry when they heard us coming.
"Bag it," I told Tommy. "Maybe we can pull DNA or prints."
We searched the rest of the property but found nothing else. There were no other signs of the intruder, and no indication they'd tried to break in. The person had just been watching.
When we went back inside, Sage was sitting on her bed with her arms crossed. But the look on her face wasn't scared looking. It was furious.
"I'm tired of being watched," she said through clenched teeth. "I'm tired of being threatened and hunted and treated like I'm helpless."
"You're not helpless."
"Then why do I feel like it?" She stood up and started pacing. "Someone killed my father. Someone's been bleeding the club dry for years using a dead man's identity. Someone wants me scared enough to stop asking questions. And I still don't know who any of these people are."
"We're getting closer."
"Not fast enough." She stopped pacing and looked at me. "I want to find whoever killed my father. I want to know what he was protecting me from. And I want to end this before Diego Vasquez shows up and everything gets even more complicated."
I admired her fire even as I worried about where it might lead. Sage angry was dangerous. Sage determined was unstoppable. The combination of those two sides of her might get her killed.
"Then we work the case harder," I said. "We find the connections and follow them until we get answers."
"How? We don't even know where to start."
"We start with what we know. RC Enterprises, Dr. Martinez, Robert Cordova's murder. There's a thread connecting all of it and we just need to pull until something unravels."
She nodded and grabbed her jacket. "Then let's go. I'm not staying here tonight."
We went back to the clubhouse together. Snake called Jaxon and gave him the breakdown of what happened as we were on our way. Jaxon was waiting in his office, looking like he hadn't slept in days.
He rubbed his face when he saw me and the look of relief washed over him. "Diego arrives in less than two weeks. We're running out of time."
The meeting broke up without any real resolution. We were all tired, frustrated, running in circles while the clock ticked down toward a deadline none of us wanted to face.
I was heading to my bike when Tommy grabbed my arm and pulled me aside.
"There's something you need to know," he said quietly.
"What?"
He looked around to make sure we were alone. "I saw Jaxon last night. Around two in the morning. He was in the office going through Vincent's old phone records."
"So? He's been trying to piece together Vincent's last days."
"Yeah, but when he saw me, he looked guilty as hell. Like he was hiding something big." Tommy's expression was troubled. "He shoved the papers in a drawer and told me to go back to what I was doing. He wouldn't explain what he was doing or why he was doing it in the middle of the night."
I was shocked. "You think he found something?"
"I think he's been looking for something specific. And whatever it is, he doesn't want anyone else to see it."
"Did you tell Sage?"
"Not yet. I wanted to talk to you first." Tommy shifted his weight. "Jaxon's our president. Your friend. But if he's hiding evidence about Vincent's murder..."
"Then we need to know why." I finished the thought. "And we need to know what he found in those phone records."
Tommy nodded and walked away, leaving me standing in the parking lot trying to decide what to do with this information.
Jaxon was secretive, protective, controlling. But he loved his father and his sister. He wouldn't hide evidence unless he had a damn good reason.
The question was whether that reason justified keeping secrets from the people who deserved the truth most.