“I wouldn’t call them close, but it wasn’t because of Aunt Gracie. Hell, she was always trying, but Derek wasn’t having any part of it.
“I think I found something. It might be the link we’ve been missing. Your aunt had a sister named Gertie who lived in Alberta.” He stopped just long enough to show me a picture of a woman who looked a lot like my aunt, then he continued, “She rented out her upstairs apartment to a man named Logan Stewart around the time when Derek left Clallam County. He was about the same age as Derek, and there is no record of him before he moved into Gertie’s apartment. Now, here’s where things get interesting.” He handed me another picture of Gertie, standing next to a man wearing a biker’s cut, and said, “Her husband was a member of a small MC that had connections with several clubs in Alaska… including Anchorage.”
“Okay. So talk me through all of this. Are you thinking Derek is this Logan Stewart? And if so, how does that help us find him now?”
“All it takes is one connection. We work off this Logan Stewart intel, and find one person who Derek is associated with now. Then, it’s just a matter of tracing their steps. One swipe of a credit card, and we have him.” It sounded simple enough, but I knew nothing with Derek had ever been simple.
“I want this done, Big,” I grumbled. “Don’t care what it takes.”
He stood to leave, but before he walked out of my office, he turned to me and said, “We’ll get ‘em, Prez. We’re close. I can feel it.”
As soon as he was gone, I reached into my desk and pulled out the folder he’d given us a few weeks ago. Big had been able to pull all the intel off of one of Derek’s computers, which gave us all the information he’d been able to uncover about every brother in the club. Each folder contained all the intimate details of our lives, including pictures Derek had taken over the past six months, pictures of us and the people we cared about. I sifted through all the pictures of Cass. Damn. She was beautiful. My stomach turned at the thought of him even looking at her, much less watching her every move. The pictures were very detailed, letting me know she’d sparked an interest in Derek, and it pissed me the hell off. I knew how obsessed he could become over something he wanted. I continued to flip through the pictures until I came across a couple of old shots of Sara and I together. I had no idea where Derek had managed to find them. I hadn’t seen any of them in years. We were at the clubhouse, celebrating Sara’s high school graduation. We’d been dating for almost a year, and back then, we were crazy about each other. I studied the photo, first noticing the bright smile on Sara’s face and then my own. We were happy. I remembered how we talked about plans to conquer the world together, but life got in the way. I glanced back down at the picture, and that’s when I noticed Derek lurking in the back corner of the clubhouse bar, gawking at Sara. I wasn’t surprised. We all knew Derek was obsessed with her. Hell, he’d almost gotten himself killed when he tried to drug and rape her, but even that didn’t stop him from pursuing her. He was always pushing her to go out with him, and even tried to convince her I’d been unfaithful a couple of times. She never listened and just continued to ignore him, which only made him angrier with me. Luckily, Derek’s lust over Sara settled down when she left for college. His interests were quickly drawn elsewhere, and he’d soon forgotten about Sara… or so I’d thought.
I spent the next hour going through everything Mike had uncovered about Logan Stewart and eventually made a connection. I was able to lock in on two possible aliases Derek had used since he left and found two clubs he’d had dealings with over the past year. We were finally making headway, and it was only a matter of time before we found him. Derek’s little game of cat and mouse was coming to an end.
Henley was sitting at the bar with her hand resting under her chin, looking like she hadn’t slept in days. I sat a bottle of water in front of her and asked, “Are you going to tell me why you have those dark circles under your eyes?”
“I don’t know. I’m just tired, I guess. I’d do just about anything to sleep in my own bed tonight,” she pouted. “I mean… I’ve enjoyed being at the club and all, but this lockdown is getting old. I miss my big, fluffy pillows and my soft down comforter. Maverick’s stupid mattress is hard as a rock.”
Laughing, I said, “Well, tell him it’s time to get a new one.”
“It is a new one! Apparently, he didn’t get the memo that beds are actually supposed to be comfortable.” She took a sip of her water, then said, “Don’t mind me. I’ll get over it.”
“Maybe you’re coming down with something. You don’t look so good, sis.”
“Yeah, it’s probably just a bug or something. I’ll feel better in a couple of days,” she assured me.