Out of the Ashes (43 page)

“We got the pigs in on this?” he asked as if he hadn’t just decorated the clubhouse’s walls with the blood from knuckles.

They walked toward the bar, moving into Church. “Yep, Bill and his deputies are over there now,” he answered, moving to a bottle of whisky and two glasses.

“They know it all?” Bull asked, pacing the room.

“As much as we do, which is fuck all,” Cade handed him the glass.

Bull took it. He had no other choice. He needed something to stop him from crawling out of his own skin.

“Know armed guys broke into Mia’s, shot Kill, tried to take Lexie. Got Mia,” Cade sat at the head of the table. Bull remained standing as he continued.

“They’re working through their databases, trying to find out who they really are, but Wire’s got more of a chance of getting there first. Got her pic up on missing persons, all that shit.” Cade paused. “You sure you want them in on this, brother?

“Fuckin’ sure,” Bull clipped.

“But...”

Bull narrowed his eyes at his friend. “When Gwen was taken, did you not want as many fuckin’ eyes as possible looking for her?” He didn’t wait for a response. “Went down the road of shutting out the law—you know how that went down, brother,” he finished, trying his best not to let his demons in, but it was no use. They were there. Taunting him, presenting him with images of a broken lifeless body. The same one he saw in his dreams. But this time the face changed. It was Mia’s beautiful face that was lifeless and battered. A soft knock at the door barely penetrated the cloud of rage threatening to overwhelm him.

“Baby, not now,” Cade called softly.

Bull directed his gaze to Gwen, who was standing in the doorway, a grim look on her face.

“I’ve got something that might help.” Her eyes were on Bull.

Bull stepped forward, and before he even knew it he was clutching Gwen’s shoulders.

She looked up at him softly. “We’ll get her back,” she promised, sensing his desperation.

He felt Cade’s heat at his back. “Know your hurting, brother—know exactly how you feel. But gonna have to ask you to get your hands off my wife,” he requested in a hard tone.

Bull looked down at his hands, which he was sure were biting into Gwen’s shoulders. He quickly let go, stepping aside so Cade could pull her into his side, his hand resting on the swell of her bump.

“What you got, baby?” he asked quietly.

She looked to Cade a moment, then focused on Bull. “It isn’t much. Hardly anything, actually. More of an inkling,” she explained. “I don’t think the club has anything to do with Mia being taken,” she began, telling them something they already knew. Bull stiffened anyway, knowing Cade wouldn’t have told her this, which meant she knew something.

“Babe?” Cade questioned urgently.

“It was more something Mia said in passing, something I knew we couldn’t probe her too hard about. About Lexie’s dad,” she explained softly.

Bull’s fists clenched. He fuckin’
knew
there was more to the story than Mia was letting on. He had meant to get down to the details later, when her grief wasn’t so fresh, when they had time. When he had time to hunt down the motherfucker. Now his time had run out.

“What about him?” Bull clipped. His tone was vicious, laced with fury. He knew he should have locked it down, ‘specially with Gwen. But he couldn’t. She knew him, knew he didn’t rein it in.

“Not much—she just alluded to the fact she had to get away from him. And the way she had to do it. By running,” she said quietly.

There was silence as Bull chewed on what this meant. Chewed on the fact she hadn’t told him this shit.

“Maybe you should talk to Lexie, see what she knows,” Gwen suggested. “She’s pretty shaken up and will only really talk to Killian and you.” She looked at Bull.

Bull didn’t say anything; shit was swirling in his head at an alarming rate. Cade turned Gwen in his arms. “Thanks, baby. Go get Lexie,” he ordered, kissing her lightly.

Gwen reached out and squeezed Bull’s hand after her husband released her. “We’ll find her,” she promised again, before leaving the room.

Cade turned to him. “Gotta rein it in around Lexie, brother. She can’t see you like this,” he told him.

Bull glared at him. “Fuckin’ know that,” he clipped.

Cade didn’t say anything, just nodded. The room was silent until Lexie came bursting through the door. The moment her eyes landed on Bull she ran over to him, colliding with his body and throwing her arms around him.

“Zane!” she cried.

He kissed her head, reveling in the peace that came with her presence. He put his arms around her.

She pulled back, leaving her arms around his waist. “You found Mom yet?” she asked hopefully.

Bull clasped her neck. “Not yet, darlin,’ but we’ll get her home soon,” he promised.

Her face fell but she nodded. “I know you will.” The utter faith in her tone socked him in the gut.

“Gotta ask you a coupla questions Lex,” he said softly, directing her to sit.

She reluctantly let him go to sit beside him at the table. Her gaze darted to Cade who gave her a small grin. She grinned shyly back.

“You holding up okay?” Bull asked for a start, his desperation for information taking a temporary back seat.

She nodded slowly. “Gwen’s got me sorted. And Kill’s going to be okay,” she said by answer.

The strength in her tone gave Bull pause. “You’re as strong as your mom is,” he observed with pride. “Need to ask you about your dad,” he continued.

Lexie’s face paled slightly. “My dad? What does he have to do with this?” she asked.

Bull had to tread carefully. “Not sure yet, maybe nothing. Just need to get hold of him in case he knows something that will help,” he explained.

Lexie chewed her lip. The gesture pierced through Bull, it was so much like her mother. He prayed to fuckin’ God he would see Mia chewing her lip like that again soon. Yes, to
God
. He wasn’t above getting on his knees and worshiping any fuckin’ deity that would get Mia back where she belonged. With him. With Lexie.

“I don’t know my dad,” she said quietly. “Mom never told me much about him, apart from he wasn’t someone we needed in our lives,” she told him, eyes glistening. “We had a fight not that long ago. About him. I wanted to know more, to know why he didn’t want to know me.” Her voice was low and full of vulnerability. Bull reached out and squeezed her hand, not letting go.

“We never fight, Zane, but we fought about him.” She paused, her eyes watering slightly. Bull put pressure on her hand. She took a deep breath, “She finally told me that we left for our own safety. That he isn’t a good guy. That’s all she said.” Her eyes sparkled with despair and fuck if it pierced through Bull’s heart. “Do you think it was him?” she whispered, barely audible. “Do you think my father would actually do something like this, shoot Killian, try and kidnap me?”

Bull cupped her face, unable to see his girl in so much pain. She’d lost her mother, possibly at the hands of her father whom she had never met. It was enough to fuck up anyone. “Don’t know, doll,” he told her honestly. “But we’ll find your mom. I’ll find her, I promise.”

Lexie’s eyes hardened slightly. Blinking away the tears, she regarded him with a maturity beyond her years. She nodded. Her faith, her utter trust in him, went to the depths of him.

Bull kissed her head. “How’ bout you go and check on Kill,” he suggested when he saw Wire in the doorway, looking antsy. His brothers had filtered in without him even noticing.

She nodded, standing. She turned to leave and he couldn’t help it.

“Lex,” he called softly. She turned.

“Love you,” he murmured, not giving a fuck that his brothers were there, that Cade jolted slightly. He just needed this kid to know she wasn’t alone, that he was there. He’d always be there.

She smiled a sad smile. “Love you to the moon,” she said quietly, like he heard her say to her mom.

When she was gone Wire anxiously approached the table, an iPad in his hands. They found something. Finally.

“Speak,” Bull barked at the apprehensive expression on the fucker’s face. All gentleness was gone. That was for Lex, for Mia. Only them.

“Well, digging into the people in Mia’s life had me looking at the Thorndons. Hacked into DCPD, got the coroner’s report,” he started, eyes on the device.

Bull gritted his teeth. Ava and Steve. This didn’t seem like it was going any place good. He had tried to speak with the cops after they interviewed Mia, but the fuckers weren’t exactly hot on providing someone like him with info. Merely said it was a robbery gone wrong.

“They were tortured,” Wire stated blankly. “In a way that someone was trying to get information out of them. It wasn’t pretty, man,” he addressed Bull.

The rage that filtered through him at that moment caused him to still. He didn’t know these people, but they were Mia and Lexie’s family.

Wire took his silence as a cue to go on. “Their place was also ransacked. Someone was looking for something.” He was scrolling through shit on the screen.

Cade sat at the head of the table, face grim. Bull knew he was feeling fury at an old couple getting tortured and murdered. Not only that, they were connected to the club, however loosely. “They find it?” his prez bit out.

“Don’t know,” Wire looked up. “But hacking into their shit got me what I was looking for. Connection to Mia’s old life.” He grinned slightly, then when he met Bull’s eyes the grin left his face left quickly. “This is heavy shit, brother,” he warned.

Bull felt the room tense. “Spit it the fuck out,” he growled.

“Mia Spencer is actually Abigail Locke,” he started. “From Atlanta, Georgia. Born to two worthless, alcoholic, drug addicts. Lived in a trailer park until the age of fifteen, till she met Sid Gregory.” He spoke carefully.

Bull didn’t recognize the name but he didn’t miss how Steg’s mouth turned tight and his eyes narrowed.

“Got pregnant, married him soon after,” Wire went on quickly. “Moved into the family home. Fucker was only eighteen—somehow moved quickly up the ranks in a lucrative drug dealing syndicate.” There were curses around the table at this little gem. “Family ties, you see,” Wire added.

Bull clenched his fists but otherwise stayed silent.

“Got a reputation quickly. Had certain
talents
,” Wire spat the word. “’Specially good at extracting money out of people that owed his bosses. Can’t say how much Mia—or Abigail—knew. No fuckin’ intel on her for that period of time.” He paused. “Until the hospital record. She was admitted, nine months pregnant, beaten within an inch of her life.” He glanced at Bull again, his usually unflappable demeanor visibly shaken. “Not going to repeat the laundry list of injuries, bro. Found evidence of older shit too, to say this wasn’t the first time. Will say it was a fuckin’ miracle the kid survived. Emergency delivery. Three days after, Abigail Gregory and her newborn baby dropped off the face of the earth,” he finished, his voice hard.

There was silence after Wire stopped talking. The entire room pulsated with fury; Lucky had banged his fist down on the table somewhere in the middle. It was nothing compared to the utter rage pulsating through every part of Bull. Mia, his gentle, goofy fuckin’ beautiful Mia. Pregnant. Almost dying. Lexie, almost fuckin’ dying. Now the sick fuck had her again.

Bull stared at Wire a moment then turned, hurling his glass so it shattered against the wall. “Fuck!” he roared.

The men all watched him, as if waiting for him to go further, like he had those years ago. So much so they had to lock him down. He wasn’t fuckin’ doing it this time. He made a promise to his girl. He was finding his woman. Then he was killing the fuck that had her. Slowly.

“I’m good,” he grunted.

Cade gave him a long look then turned his attention to Wire. “You find the piece of shit?”

“There’s more.”

Cade stiffened and then cursed.

“The past sixteen years Gregory’s been through two more wives.” Wire turned the screen to face the table, Bull’s highly strung body turned even tighter. Wire pulled up two pictures side by side and there were muttered profanities around the table. Lucky’s normally easy face was granite; a murderous expression replaced what was usually an easy smile. Asher had stuck his knife into the wood of the table, as if he was planning on stabbing someone right there.

That was because these two women looked exactly like Mia. Could’ve been sisters. Both had golden blonde hair, curly. Heart-shaped faces. Delicate features. Didn’t have the sunshine behind the eyes Mia had.

“Both have disappeared. Filed for dissolution of marriages, both of them. Obviously he’s got a judge in his pocket that pushed this shit through,” he muttered.

“Okay, so this sick fuck is beyond dead. He’s gonna die bloody,” Gage declared icily. “Tell us where to find him so we can tear the fucker limb for fuckin’ limb,” There was a strange glint on his face, almost excitement at the prospect of it.

“You got a lock? How many men he has?” Steg asked, thinking pragmatically.

Wire grinned. “Not e-fucking-nough to stop us,” he said, the first piece of good news the hacker had uttered since he walked in. “Hasn’t even left the state.” His eyes darted to Bull. “Think he still plans on getting the kid.”