Cocky Secrets (Cocker Brothers #29)

33. Jett

THIRTY-THREE

Jett

A knock on my motel door jars me awake. Fuck, I haven’t slept like that in…years? Yeah, feels like it’s gotta be years. Stretching with my eyes still closed, I shout to whoever is on the other side, “HANG ON!”

Rolling over, I discover I’m alone in the bed.

Sitting up with a start, I scan the room and see the bathroom door shut. Relaxing, I call to her, “Hey Sunshine, you wake up before me?”

The name is ironic. She’s a dark girl. Disturbed and tortured by a past I want to know more about.

Rolling off the bed, I trudge over and rap on the door. “Whatever your name is…get on out here. Time for breakfast and you never answered my questions.”

No response.

I knock again then try the handle.

It’s unlocked and… “Motherfucker!” She’s not here.

Whipping around I search for the backpack.

The gun.

The girl.

They’re gone.

“FUCK!”

Quick, angry strides get me to the motel room door. Scratch waits on the other side, framed by bright sunlight.

“Did you see her leave?”

He somberly shakes his head. “No, man. I was just comin’ to wake you. We’ve been up for over an hour. You’re usually first one up.”

Dragging angry fingers through my hair I shout, “SHIT! I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS!”

“She stayed over?”

Honey Badger walks up and before he sees my face, asks, “Did you find out what she was…oh fuck. She took off on you, didn’t she?”

Fuse and Tonk walk up behind them. I’m buck-naked. They don’t say a word. They just overheard what is going on and there’s no way they’re gonna fuck with me right now.

Glaring my answer, I snatch up my jeans and snarl, “I need some food.”

“A girl ran out on Jett?” Fuse mutters, like he can’t believe it.

It’s true. I’m normally the one leaving.

Furious and feeling like an absolute fuckin’ idiot, I shout, “FUCK THAT. I need to shower first. Get the smell of this bitch off me.” Slamming the door, I swear under my breath. In fact, I can’t stop swearing.

How’d I sleep through her sneaking out?

Did she drug me?

Nah. I just took my guard down.

This’ll teach me never to do that again.

Even after we eat, the air is still stiff. We’re sitting around a table at ‘Four ‘n 20 Restaurant and Pie’ on Laurel Canyon when Tonk pulls out a phone and throws it on the table.

“That the one?” Scratch asks, picking it up.

“Yeah.”

Shoveling omelet into my mouth, I grumble, “What is it?”

“A burner phone. I grabbed it off one of the guys I knocked out last night,” Tonk says.

My eyebrows shoot up.

Tonk’s learning.

I grab the phone and say with a full mouth, “Nice work,” as I check it out.

As he mops syrup up with a last, lonely waffle chunk, Honey Badger shrugs. “Yeah, but what do we do with it?”

The five of us finish our meal, ruminating over the problem. There are three dialed numbers in its memory, but it’s not like we’ll be able to find the addresses by Googling these digits. People don’t have their addresses on display like that, unless they’re totally clueless. Not the case here.

We’re not spies. We don’t have access to Internet geniuses.

“It’s a useless piece of plastic,” Scratch grumbles, turning it over in his big paw.

Suddenly I remember my brother. “Give me that. I might have a way.” Scratch hands me the thing and I head out to the parking lot, pulling my own phone out and dialing as the warm sun digs into my scalp.

Justin answers on the first ring. “Jett! How the hell are ya? I haven’t heard from you in months.”

“I’m good. In California.”

“No way!” A thunderclap sounds in the background. “Hear that?”

“Fuck, I miss those storms. It’s not rainin’ where I am. Ever.”

He laughs. Justin shares one major thing with our father, he’s a politician and well connected with the power players. Only unlike our dad, he plans to be in the Senate. I think he wants to one-up Congressman Michael Cocker, which I wouldn’t mind at all. But if I’m honest, Dad would be proud of Justin if he surpassed him in power. It’s me he’s never proud of. Fuckin’ asshole.

“How are ya, Justin?” I glance over to our Harleys, checking them out like I always do. “How’s Jason?”

“Why does everyone always ask about my twin? We’re not attached,” he laughs, adding, “Thank God. You know him, Jett. Forever tangled with some crazy chick. He’s got a new girl. Real piece of work. I hate her.”

“You hate all Jason’s girls.”

I can hear by the echo of his laughter that he’s in his huge office. It’s three hours ahead there, so I might have caught him just before lunch. Good. Need him near his resources, and somewhere private.

“I think you’re just jealous, man,” I tell him, referring to Jason’s women.

Justin laughs again, loud and heartily, like there’s no way that’s true.

I grin and walk over to my saddlebags, adjusting the strap on one side just because.

“You meet Jake’s woman yet?” Justin asks.

“Not yet. Heard about her when I saw him in Colorado though. We talked on the phone a couple months ago, he told me he was pretending to go slowly because she had a problem with his age, still. But then Ma told me it got serious, last time we spoke.”

“I’d say so. They’re getting married. You should come.”

A pang twists my chest up and my smile leaves me flat. Gazing up at the never-ending Southern California sunlight, I mutter, “We’ll see.”

“Fuck what Dad thinks, Jett. You need to be there. Hang on a second…what?” A woman’s muffled voice is in the background. She’s saying something official. Justin tells her, “Okay, let him know I’ll call him back after I talk to my brother.” He returns to me. “You better come, Jett. You’ll regret it if you don’t.”

“I’ll be there in spirit.”

“You’re here in spirit all the time. Try to be here in person for once.”

“We’ll see.”

We’re silent a second. I know my younger brother is seriously considering whether or not to try harder, but he knows me too well. “Why’d you call, Jett? I can tell you’ve got a motive. You sound tense.”

“I need to see if you can run some phone numbers for me. I need addresses.”

“Hang on…Mary? Will you give me a minute? I’ll buzz you when I’m done here.” He waits and I hear a door close in the distance. Then another thunderclap. Justin’s voice gets lower. “You guys fighting the good fight again?”

“Always.”

“Look, I’ve got some buddies on the force, but finding addresses…I need a reason.”

Glancing over, I lock eyes with Scratch through the window. The others are deep in conversation.

“Justin, this one’s deep. Not just some gang terrorizing some town. I’m talkin’ human trafficking. I don’t know how Scratch got the call, but we’re about to shut something major down. Only we can’t find the guy without your help. This phone might have the answers if it’s not too late.”

Justin whistles long and low. “Wow. I think you’re doing better things than I am.”

“When you work outside the law you can get more done.”

“Alright, don’t say things like that on my cell phone.”

I chuckle, “You’re too low level for them to be watching. When you reach Senate, I’ll send ravens.” He laughs, but I hear the tension isn’t only in my voice now. “I need this, Justin. There are women involved. We can give them a way out. You can help. That’s why you want to be a politician, right?”

“Alright. What are they?”

Going through the burner I give him all the numbers called. There are only three.

“Jett, you know these may not lead anywhere. Where’d you get the phone?”

“We went dancing last night. A gentleman didn’t need it anymore, once the music stopped.”

He exhales. “Please use code like that from now on. I’m serious. I’m here for you. You know that. But I have a future I’m building. If we’re going to…work together…it’s gotta be discreet.”

“You got it. I appreciate it, Jus.”

“I’ll tell Jake you’re comin’ to the wedding.”

“Don’t you fuckin’ dare. Don’t tell him that shit.”

After silence, he says, “Try to make it.”

“I hear you. Say hi to Jason. Tell him I’ll call soon.”

“I’ll tell everyone you said hello,” he says with meaning.

“Asshole,” I laugh, and hang up.

Yeah, tell Dad I said hey. Let’s see how riled up he gets when he hears that.

Never got a thank you for what I did for him with Jake.

He can go to hell. Fucking hypocrite.

Nodding to Scratch through the glass, I watch him rise and tell the others to join. They amble out and squint as the sun hits them. That’s the darkest diner we’ve ever been in. Why they want you to start your day in a cave beats me.

“Now we wait,” I tell them.

Scratch nods. He’s the only one I’ve shared my family connections with. No one needs to know my dad’s up in Washington and my brother’s heading there.

The only person Scratch has talked to in my family is my mom. She asked to speak to him when I was on the phone with her early on. Then she went and acted old-school telling our V.P. to watch over her boy. He didn’t let me live that down for a long time. But I think he was secretly jealous.

I come from the best family of all the Ciphers I know.

It’s not because of my problems with my father that I ride in this club. It’s because of the burning itch in my soul, the urge to fight, and for a cause. I’m not the sit in an office, kiss babies type.

Fucking shit up, that’s more my life.

I’m suited for it.

We all are.

Fuse asks, “You have some internet nerd in your back pocket?”

I smile at the idea of anyone thinking of Justin as a nerd— he and his identical twin Jason are probably the prettiest of us Cocker Brothers. “Something like that.”

Scratch squints at the sky, thinking. After a moment, he grumbles, “Saddle up. Let’s ride.”

“Where?” Tonk asks.

“Anywhere,” Honey Badger tells him, knowing there’s nothing better for us to do while we wait.

Scratch gives me a look and jerks his head away from the others. “Jett, come here.”

We walk to get some privacy.

“You got nothing out of the girl?”

“Not anything we can use.”

He smirks at my joke, but his eyes see more than I want them to. Why’d he have to remind me? For the last half hour I’d managed to forget about her.

An unfamiliar beep goes off on my phone. I frown as I read an alert from my credit card company warning me about an unusually large charge in a new city…this one. We just got here yesterday, and now someone is… What the hell?

“Motherfucker,” I whisper, stunned.

“What?”

“She stole my credit card! What the hell did she buy for almost six hundred dollars at a fuckin’ Bed Bath and Beyond?!”

Scratch makes a hissing sound and cranes over to check out what it says on my outstretched phone. “What the hell…”

“Fucking cunt stole my credit card!”

He sighs like he sees something I don’t.

“What, Scratch? What’s that face for?”

“You never call women that.”

“Well, I just did.”

“She got to you.”

“SHE DIDN’T FUCKIN’ GET TO ME.”

I head for my hog.

The other Ciphers look away quickly, except Fuse. He’s got a son from a woman who drives him crazy, Melodi. He gives me a look like he gets it. Before I have a chance to tell him to go to hell, he breaks eye contact and flips his ignition on, motor roaring to life.