Page 11 of Triple the Secrets
She was safe here. They were home, and that was all that mattered.
CHAPTERFIVE
ROGUE
He walked back to his bike, which was a few blocks over. He didn’t need her knowing he was there. Hell, she almost saw him before he stepped back into the shadows. He knew she had by the way she leaned her body forward towards the window, her eyes directly focused on where he stood.
He shouldn’t be anywhere near here. He should be back at the club, drinking and fucking away the hard-on that has been pressing against his zipper since he left the damn library. Not asking Code for her address. Code had given him a sideways glance when he asked for the information, but thankfully hadn’t asked questions.
He would run her, but Rogue didn’t wait around for Code’s report when he could do his own scouting. So here he was, skulking around her home, late at night, watching her like a damn creeper. She was running from something, and if it was going to bring trouble to this town, he wanted to know about it. Especially since the kids were around her often.
He took his responsibility to the club seriously, and he didn’t let anyone, or anything, fuck with them. They had just taken down the head of a cartel in Mexico, and he would do it again. He didn’t have anyone but his brothers, and he protected his family.
Many felt he was crazy, and he didn’t deny that about himself. More often than not, he embraced it. He gladly made sure that everyone remembered it, too. The only ones safe from him were children, women, and animals. Everyone else had better watch the fuck out if they pissed him off.
He didn’t plan on changing for anyone. He’d spent some time in prison for assault, and he didn’t give a shit. Everyone inside left him the hell alone when they saw what he was capable of. He was only in for eighteen months, and while he didn’t keep his nose completely clean, he had no plans on going back any time soon.
The club needed him, and he planned on making sure he was around for it. Right now though, he had something else to figure out.
Who was Scarlett, and what was she running from?
He climbed on to his bike and started it with a loud rev of the engine. He got a perverse sense of satisfaction that he probably just woke up half of the old biddies that lived here, then roared down the road.
He loved riding. He would rather spend his time on his bike than anything else. It was the one space where his mind was quiet. No worries about the business, the club, or his own demons. There was only him, the open road, and the wind on his face. Even tonight, in the heat of the summer, it was just what he needed.
By the time he reached the compound, he was ready to see what Code had found. Might give him enough insight into who Scarlett was and if he had to pay her a visit.
Walking inside, the party was already in full swing, and he wasn’t surprised to find that most of the brothers were halfway drunk, or already there. He saw Ice and Snake in the back fucking club whores, while a few watched. Public sex was a norm around here, and normally he would join in on watching but he had shit to do first.
Savage, Steel, and Fury were nowhere to be seen, so he figured they were home with their women. He saw Razor sitting at the bar, scowling hard. He looked around quickly and didn’t see Karissa anywhere, so he figured he was pissed about that. Not his problem though. If Razor was too much of a pussy to deal with his woman, that was his own damn fault.
He walked down to Code’s office and wasn’t surprised to find him at his screens. The man rarely left his den, even to party. “Not interested in partying?” he asked casually.
Code looked over at him. “Too busy trying to find the information you wanted,” he answered. His dark blonde hair constantly looked tousled and messy, like he spent more time running his fingers through it than actually trying to make it look good. His green eyes never stopped moving over the screens, and his jaw was clenched in frustration. Code can find anything once he’s in front of a computer. Uncle Sam had trained him, and the government’s loss was their gain.
Rogue glanced at the screens on the wall in front of him. So much information was moving over them that there was no way for him to tell what he was looking at. “What’s the problem?” he asked.
“She’s not the problem,” Code said irritably. “Scarlett Roarke is clear as day and I have everything you could possibly want on her. It’s the girls that I can’t find. It’s like they appeared out of thin air when they were twelve.”
Rogue crossed his arms over his chest and eyed the screens. “You saying this is a case where she’s hiding the kids?” he asked.
“Could be. I don’t get an incriminating vibe from the stuff I’ve found so far. In fact, she doesn’t even have a parking ticket. I mean, whoever set up the girls’ new identities did a passable job of giving them a fake background, but I was able to pick it apart in seconds. Fake birth certificates, fake names, all of it. But I can’t figure out who they were before they were twelve. There’s no trail. It’s like they were damn ghosts.”
“So she’s either hiding the girls or she’s running from someone or something that she feels is a threat. Any way to tell if she’s a blood relation to them?”
Code shook his head. “I found their blood types, but chances are those are fake as well. There are no warrants, APBs, or anything on record searching for them though. So if they’re running, it’s not from the law or the governments. Nothing popping up in the military channels, so I doubt they would have come from outside the country.”
“They didn’t have accents, so I would say they’re American,” Rogue remarked. His gut was telling him that whatever was going on here, it wasn’t something the club needed to involve themselves in, but the question was ifhewanted to get involved. He didn’t like the idea of someone being after her or the girls.
Which made no sense to him, because he didn’t even know them. He had seen them this afternoon, spoken to the sassy librarian with only a handful of sentences, and now he didn’t like the idea of them being in trouble? He needed to get a grip.
“I can see if there’s anything on the dark web—”
Rogue shook his head. “Nah. I just wanted to make sure that it wasn’t something that would come back on the club. The kids go there a lot, and if trouble is coming for them, then they could be in harm's way. Just leave it be.”
Code nodded. “From what I can see, other than the girls being damn ghosts, they’re living an okay life. Small nest egg, the girls are getting good grades in school, and no trouble with the law.”
“Thanks, brother,” he said. “Shut it down and go party before you forget how to be sociable.”
