“Thank you, Allie. You’re my last hope,” he said as he reached over and squeezed my hand.
“Can’t promise you anything, Tony,” I told him. “I have no idea if I can pull this thing off, but I’ll do everything I can. You can’t expect me to steal from my work, though. That’s not an option, but I’ll do what I can. I love you. You’re not alone in this,” I promised. “I’ll contact you as soon as I know something.”
He quickly stood up and towered over me, his eyes glowing in urgency. “You have to, Allie. You have to!” He slammed his fist against the table, causing everyone in the bar to look in our direction. When he saw them looking, he lowered his voice to a strained whisper and said, “I’ve gotta get out of here. I’ll be in touch… and Allie?”
“Yeah?”
“Hurry!” he pleaded before he turned and walked out of the bar.
Shit…. it was so much worse than I thought.
*
Chapter 6
Guardrail
?
As soon as I left Allie, I headed straight to the clubhouse. I had to get to Big Mike. After hearing that Tony had contacted Allie, it was on. Even though she told me he didn’t plan to meet up with her until Sunday, I wasn’t leaving this in the prospects’ hands. Tony was desperate and could turn up at any time. I wanted to know the minute he showed up, and Big Mike was the best man for the job. In addition to being one of the bigger guys in the club, he was also our best hacker. He could get into any computer system in just a matter of seconds, so I knew he wouldn’t have any trouble getting into her phone messages. Luckily, he wasn’t hard to find. After pounding on his door, I walked into his room and found him hacking away at his computer.
“Hey, Big Mike. Tony contacted Allie. It’s time to move on this. I need you to hack into her phone and monitor all of her calls and texts from this point on.”
“You got it, brother. I’m on it,” he reassured me. “I’ve got this.” He patted me on the shoulder. “You don’t have to worry about me monitoring it. Here’s a shadow phone. I’ll have it up and running in less than an hour. You’ll be able to monitor her yourself directly. It will automatically ring when hers does. Every phone call or message she gets will come through this phone as she gets it, instantaneously. You can answer, and she won’t even know you’re listening.”
“Perfect. Let me know if anything else comes up,” I told him.
“Will do,” Big Mike nodded. “I’ll check every angle and go through the numbers that Tony used to contact her and see if we can get a lead from them, too,” he said.
“Good. I need a beer. I’ll check back in thirty,” I told him as I left his room and headed to the bar.
I needed a minute to clear my head and was relieved to find that the bar was fairly empty. Most of the brothers were still at work, so it was quiet. Cassidy was behind the counter and smiled when she saw me walking in her direction. There was a time when I would’ve been interested in that smile. Not anymore.
“Hey there, Guardrail. Want a beer? Or something stronger?” she asked.
“Just a beer. Give me my usual,” I told her as I sat down.
“You look like you have something on your mind, hun. You want to talk about it?” she asked. Of all the sweet butts, she was the only one with an actual heart. I wouldn’t have wasted my time on most of the club girls around there. They were only interested in getting their hands on a property patch, and you can’t make a hooker a housewife. Cassidy was different, though. She seemed to really care about the club, and I liked that about her.
“Always got something on my mind, Cass. Today isn’t any different,” I told her as I took the beer from her hand. That wasn’t exactly true. I’d never had my every thought wrapped up in a woman like this before, and I could feel the tightness growing in my chest when I thought about something happening to her.
“Well, I’m here if you want to talk about it,” she offered.
“Thanks. Just want to drink my beer.”
“Let me know if you change your mind,” she said as she turned and headed over to finish cleaning the bar top.
I’d just finished off my beer when Big Mike stormed up to me with an anxious look on his face. “Tony made contact about thirty minutes ago. He’s meeting her at Lancaster’s right now.”
“Fuck!” I shouted.
“Want me to head over there?” he asked.
“We’ll both go… and get a few of the others to come along. If he’s still there, we don’t want to risk him getting away,” I ordered. “And tell the prospects to stay at her place. I want to know when she gets back.”
“I’ll meet you out front in five minutes,” Big Mike told me.
True to his word, five minutes later Big Mike met me out front with three brothers and four prospects. We headed straight for Lancaster’s, but by the time we got there, Tony was gone. There was no sign of anyone. When I described Allie and Tony to the bartender, he said that we’d only missed them by a few minutes.