I knew how eager Hawk was to find Danny, so I wasn’t surprised to find him in the conference room with Menace. They were going over all the information Menace had uncovered, hoping they might be able to find something he’d missed. As I walked in, I heard Menace say, “I’m telling ya. Other than that credit card of Grant’s, there’s nothing to be found. It’s like these guys were wiped off the planet ten years ago.”
“You sure the facial recognition software brought up the right names?”
“Checked it three times. It’s spot on.” Menace reached for the photographs and arranged them on the table. “Tyler Evans. Mike Turner. Jeff Williams. Denis Ford. Dalton Grant. The photos line up with their driver’s licenses and old social media sites, but as of 2010, there’s not been a single thing on any of these guys.”
“Probably a good reason for that.” They all turned to me as I said, “You heard Viper. These are a bunch of fucking vigilantes. They’ve taken every precaution not to be found.”
Hawk turned to Menace as he said, “If that’s the case, then we got lucky when you were able to track down Grant.”
“Only if Shotgun is able to find out what we need to know.”
We sat there going through everything time and time again. Even Viper came in to join our efforts. Unfortunately, Menace was right. There was nothing to be found. We were all feeling frustrated, which was only amplified when Shotgun came into the room. The man looked completely defeated as he looked to Viper and said, “I fucked up and pushed Grant too hard. Now, the motherfucker’s gone into shock.”
“You gotta be kidding me.”
“I wish I was.” Shotgun sounded completely defeated as he explained, “I knew he was gettin’ close. Sure you saw it, too. The motherfucker could barely speak when you came in there, but I just kept pushin’ and now his whole body is close to shuttin’ down.”
“It happens, brother.” Viper leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms with an aggravated grumble. “The timing sucks, I’ll give you that, but it is what it is.”
“Doc is in there with him now. He’s pumping him up with fluids. I’m gonna have to give it a couple of hours, maybe even longer, before I can get back at him.”
“Then, go take yourself a shower and get a few hours of shuteye. That way you’ll be ready when he comes around.”
“Yes, sir.”
It was times like these when every second counted, so it gutted us to know it would be that much longer before we got the information we needed. Unfortunately, our hands were tied. We couldn’t move forward until Shotgun got Grant talking, and there was no telling how long that would take. Viper glanced down at his watch as he said, “We might be on lockdown, but we still have a business to run. We’ve only got an hour before the clubs open. You boys need to go get ready for your shifts. I’ll let you know if anything new comes up.”
“Yes, sir.
“Keep your eyes open, boys. I want you ready if these assholes try to pull something.”
“Understood.”
Chapter 14
Frankie
After a long, agonizing day, the kids and I piled up in the living room to watch TV. Sean was sitting next to me on the sofa when I checked my phone for the hundredth time. I was hoping I might hear something from Roman, but there was nothing. I let out a disappointed sigh, and seconds later, Sean asked, “What’s wrong?”
“Oh...ah,” I mumbled, quickly pulling myself from my thoughts. “Nothing, honey. I’m fine.”
“No, there’s something,” Sean argued. “You’ve been acting weird all day.”
“I’m just tired, sweetie.” I wasn’t exactly lying. I really was exhausted. I’d been up all night thinking about Roman and the promise I made him. It was all I’d been able to think about. I hated the idea of something happening to him, but there was no way I could tell Sean that. “We’ve been really busy down at the coffee shop, and I didn’t get much sleep last night.”
Corry looked up from his phone as he asked, “So, there’s nothing going on with you and Widow?”
“No, what makes you ask that?”
“I don’t know.” His freckled nose crinkled as gave me a slight shrug. “You’ve just been different since he started coming around.”
“Different how?”
“You’ve just seemed happier or whatever, but ever since he left last night, you’ve been all bummed out.” He looked down at his phone as he muttered, “I figured y’all must’ve broken up or something.”
“Broken up? Wait, you know that he and I have been talking?”
“Come on, Mom,” Sean piped in. “We’re not little kids anymore.”
“Yeah. We know you’re into him,” Corry added.
“And how do you know that?”
“It’s pretty obvious. You act all weird around him.”
I sat up on the sofa as I gasped, “Weird how?”