Cocky Secrets (Cocker Brothers #29)

19. Honey Badger

NINETEEN

Honey Badger

I grip the handlebars of my hog, its engine a roar beneath me. The moon hangs low in the sky, casting an ominous sheen over the twisted roads of South and North Vacherie. Every second counts, and every mile feels like an eternity. My daughter is out here somewhere, and I’m not going to rest until I find her.

“Keep your eyes peeled!” I call out to The Ciphers as we roll through dimly lit streets. The glow of a neon sign flickers in the distance, hinting at the motel we’re targeting. “The Spiders gotta be hiding her somewhere!”

Our faces are set with determination. Each of us knows the stakes. Sage is thirty, a spitfire, but even the strongest can be broken.

I can’t let that happen.

We pull into the parking lot of yet another motel, its rusty sign creaking in the wind, letters lit in neon: “Starlight Motel.” We kill our engines and look around.

Bear’s patrol vehicle pulls in last, stopping next to me. He jumps out of the car, siren off. I told him before we left our home that The Spiders might be expecting us, ready for a fight, but if they know a cop is with us, they’ll run. We can’t let that happen. He told his friends in the force to check motels, then he came with us. Alone.

“Split up,” I instruct, voice low so we don’t alert them to our plan, if they’re here and listening. I don’t see their bikes, not a good sign. But with a kidnapping, maybe they parked them elsewhere, then walked here. You never know and I’m not leaving any stones unturned. “Luke, Atlas, ride around back and look for their rides.” To the others, “Check the rooms, see if anyone’s seen anything.” The Ciphers nod, and we’re off to carry out our search, the hard crunch of gravel under our boots as we split up, cutting through the night.

Bear and I approach the front desk, a tired-looking woman behind it. Her eyes widen when she sees the odd pair of us, his uniform, the cut on my leather jacket. Both of us angry.

“Can I help you?” she asks, a hint of fear in her voice.

Bear says, “Yeah, we’re looking for a woman. Thirty years old, red hair. Brown skin. Freckles. Beautiful. She might be with some guys from The Spiders Motorcycle Club.”

“And they’re dead men,” I add, rage underneath my words.

She shakes her head slowly, her expression grave. “I haven’t seen anyone like that. But...” she leans in closer, lowering her voice, “there’s been some trouble around here. Might want to check Room 10.”

My gut tightens. “Thanks.” I turn and signal to Bear, and we head to it. Around every corner I scan the shadows, expecting to see someone lurking, waiting to pounce. Nothing.

The night is alive with the sounds of cicadas and distant laughter. It feels like a trap. We reach a row of rooms, fellow Ciphers knocking on them. I pass by Jett and Luna and mutter, “Clerk said maybe Room 10.” Jett turns and follows me and Bear. Luna continues knocking on Room 8, just in case.

I bang on Room 10’s door, shout, “The Ciphers are here! Open up!”

So much for a surprise visit.

Silence.

I exchange glances with Bear and Jett, and Bear kicks the door in, the wood splintering under his force. Impressed, I follow him in to find it’s empty. Bathroom door wide open. Shower curtain, too. Leaving nothing to the imagination.

Jett points, “Look.”

There’s a door adjoining it to the next room. I bang on it, and it swings open to reveal a scruffy-looking man, sunken eyes darting nervously. “What do you want?” Jett and I exchange a look. He’s no biker, just some beat-up guy. But one look at Bear and the old bastard goes white. “I didn’t do nothin’!”

Jett says, “That’s a double negative.”

Bear strides inside the adjoining room, straight for the shut bathroom door. We all hear the whimpering. He raps on it with his knuckles, “Open up. Police.”

The door cracks open and a young woman barely out of her teens, if that, peeks out. Seeing his uniform, she widens the door, wearing only a towel to cover herself. “You okay?” Bear asks.

She shakes her head. “I just needed the money. He’s a creep! He’s into weird things!”

“It’s okay. It’s over. Put your clothes back on.”

“He hid them from me.”

Jett punches the guy. “Where’d you put her clothes?!”

The scrawny sicko falls and we see for the first time he’s got a gun stuffed in the back of his belt. I wrestle it free, hand it over to Bear. “Call your buddies for this one. We don’t have time to waste. Unless you want to stay.”

Bear pulls out his phone, dials dispatch. “I need a perp picked up at Starlight Motel on charges of assault with a deadly weapon, and a bunch of other things I’ll get to later. We’re still on the search for Sage Martinez.” Bear hangs up. “They’re on their way.”

The other Ciphers investigate what we’re up to. Jett motions for Sofia Sol and Celia to tend to the victim while we give the three of them privacy.

Scythe reports, “Nothing in the other rooms.”

Tonk Sr. confirms, “We checked.”

Atlas and Luke show up, shaking their heads.

“You found nothing?” I ask.

Luke says, “Not even motorcycle tire tracks.”

Atlas adds, “The dirt was thick enough we’d see them. Only car tracks.”

“Where’s Sage?” I demand of the moon. “Where’s my little girl!!!”

Bear handcuffed the creep, has him sitting on the dusty sidewalk out front of the office.

He stutters, eyes wide. “I…I don’t know what she’s talking about.”

A fresh cop car skids into the lot, lights blazing. Two police officers, one male, other female, leap out. Bear faces them as they eyeball us. “Find anything?”

“Not yet,” the male cop mutters.

The female cop asks, “What’d you find here?” jogging one shoulder toward the handcuffed, jabbering creep.

Sofia Sol and Celia appear with the girl, now dressed, arms wrapped around herself, right behind them. Soph says, “Leeza will tell you what he tried to make her do, at gunpoint. We have to go.” She turns to Tonk Sr. “Tonk, what was the name of that hotel farthest from town? The one you took Carmen to for a weekend getaway a few years back? We haven’t checked that one.”

“The Moonsong Inn.”

But the female cop shakes her head. “We just came from there. No sign of The Spiders.”

Jett looks at me. “Warehouses.”

“Let’s go!” I roar, mounting my bike once more. The Ciphers follow suit, engines roaring to life.

Over the rumble of my engine, standing next to me, ready to jump into his car and follow, Bear says, “Honey Badger, you think they want to be found?”

I dart the question to Jett with a look of my eyes. He nods, and answers Bear, “They have a vendetta against us. We…got in the way of something they were trying to do, about six months back.”

Tonk Sr. revs his throttle. “They want a fight.”

I roar, “And a fight is what they’re gonna get!”

Bear jumps into his cop car, waits for all The Ciphers to pull out ahead of him, with me and my rage leading the club tonight. We take off, the search for Sage burning in our blood, our hearts.

We’ll tear through all of North and South Vacherie and beyond until we bring her back home.