Page 35 of Property of Hayride
What do you do for a living?
Oh, I embalm bodies, get rid of evidence, bury corpses, and spend a lot of time with dead people.
Charon stares at me like he just read my mind. “Just thought I’d show up and lend a hand. It’s fucked up that Natalya’s brother is missing.”
I’m instantly on edge. He sounds too familiar with my woman. “What do you know about it? Or Natalya?”
He shrugs. “She’s had it rough. Wasn’t she in the tent when Madam Serena, you know?” He keeps his voice low, but it doesn’t matter.
I’m agitated. “I’m helping Nat through it.”
“You sure you’re the right man for the job? Because, brother, I can take over,oof,” he exhales as I slam into him, knocking us both into the trunk of a nearby tree. “I’m fucking with you, Hayride.”
“Don’t fucking talk about my ol’ lady.” I swing at him, and he ducks.
Charon whistles. “Damn. Phantom was right. I owe the fucker twenty bucks.”
They fucking bet on me?
Now I’m pissed. I shove Charon away, spinning to look for Phantom.
He’s not far, leaning against a similar tree about thirty feet away. Never mind that all around us, people are combing through the woods and looking for anything that might be connected to Thad Scott’s disappearance. Nat is searching with her father.
But us? The club?
We’re here for show. To support the search. It’s not our main focus. Later, when the search ends, we’ll head to Rashell Allen’s house. Scythe and Voodoo already scoped out the address last night while I was with Nat. They couldn’t see much. Scythe thinks it’s either abandoned or someone wants it to look that way.
“Phantom,” I growl as I stomp toward him, but he just poofs away before I can reach him. He reappears a few trees away. In frustration, I clench my fists. “Leave Nat alone.”
“We’re fucking withyou, not your woman,” Phantom laughs.
He’s right. Why am I getting so worked up?
I wave them off and search for Scythe. I need to do something. Standing around and being idle makes me short-tempered and twitchy. Probably because I know there’s nothing out there in the woods to find. At least, not with Thad.
Wherever he is, it’s got something to do with Rashell Allen. I don’t know if that means he’s getting brainwashed by a cult, fed to them, tortured, or something equally horrible. And Nat and her father have to wait for news.
That fucking sucks.
I spot Scythe as I walk through the woods, standing with Boomer. They’ve got a huge map open on the hood of Scythe’s old truck. I know the forest is sectioned off by grids for the search. Boomer organized that this morning.
Most of the searchers have returned. Only a handful are still out there, including Nat and Hank. I asked Mayhem to stay with them since I had shit to do for Scythe. He asked me to text Ellie and see if she remembered anything else, but she never responded.
“Still no word from Ellie?” He asks as I reach the truck.
“Nope.”
“You go by the Hanging Tree?”
I did. “No contact, Pres. And no one has been in the room that Nat booked to share with her brother. Not even the maid. I paid it through Sunday, just in case.”
“Good. The staff let you peek into it?”
“Yeah. I grabbed Nat’s bag and left everything else.” I stashed her bag in my room at The Barn, making a quick stop at the clubhouse before coming back to help with the search. “I’m going to join Nat and Hank.”
Scythe nods. “They’re—”
Boomer’s walkie-talkie cuts him off. “Sheriff?”
