Chương 4
“Could someone have used his account?”
Marcus looked at her.
“Yes.”
“Then why are you looking at Ryder?”
Marcus did not answer quickly enough.
Ryder noticed.
Everyone noticed.
“I’m not looking at him,” Marcus said.
“You are.”
“No.”
“You are.”
Ryder stepped closer.
Not threatening.
Not angry.
Just tired.
“Say what you’re thinking.”
Marcus held his gaze.
“I’m thinking someone wants us fighting each other.”
“That’s not what your face said.”
Marcus looked down.
“My face says a lot of things I don’t always mean.”
Ryder almost smiled.
Almost.
That had always been Marcus’s problem.
He was terrible at lying because his entire body betrayed him before his mouth did.
They went back inside.
The atmosphere had changed.
Nobody knew exactly what happened outside, but they knew enough to feel the tension.
People became quieter when they sensed trouble.
They did not need facts.
They only needed the feeling that something was wrong.
Lily was still at the counter, drawing on a napkin with a borrowed pen.
Ryder stopped when he saw what she was drawing.
A motorcycle.
Two people sitting on it.
One adult.
One child.
“You like bikes?” he asked.
She looked up.
“My dad did.”
Ryder pulled out the stool beside her.
“Did he teach you?”
“No.”
She looked back at the drawing.
“He said I was too small.”
“That sounds like him.”
Lily smiled.
Then the smile disappeared.
“He promised he would teach me when I was bigger.”
Ryder did not know what to say.
Promises were dangerous things.
People made them when they wanted to believe they controlled the future.
Then life came along and ignored them.
“Maybe he still can,” Ryder said.
The words surprised even him.
Lily looked at him.
“You think he’s coming back?”
Ryder looked toward the window.
He wanted to give her something certain.
Something a child could hold onto.
But certainty was something he had wasted most of his life pretending to have.
“I think,” he said slowly, “your dad has spent a long time running from something.”
Lily listened.
“And I think he might be tired.”
Sarah watched him carefully.
Ryder knew she heard the other meaning.
Maybe Evan was not running away from them.
Maybe he was running toward something.
The question was what.
That evening, Ryder closed Iron Horse Grill earlier than usual.
Nobody complained.
They understood when something important was happening.
That did not mean they trusted him.
Trust was not repaired in an afternoon.
Especially not in a group of people who had spent years believing they knew each other.
Ryder drove to the storage facility with Marcus following behind.
Sarah stayed at a nearby motel with Lily.
She did not want the child involved.
Ryder respected that.
For all his anger, he understood one thing.
Children should not have to carry adult secrets.
The storage facility was almost empty when they arrived.
Rows of metal doors stretched beneath harsh white lights.
The place smelled like dust, oil, and old cardboard.
The manager, a tired man wearing glasses at the end of his nose, looked at the key.
“You’re late.”
Ryder looked at him.
“For what?”
The manager shrugged.
“Your friend said you would come eventually.”
Ryder froze.
“When did he say that?”
“About a week ago.”
Marcus stepped forward.
“Evan was here?”
The manager looked between them.
“Yeah.”
“Are you sure?”
The man frowned.
“I don’t forget faces.”
Ryder almost laughed.
People always said that right before describing someone completely wrong.
But then the manager continued.
“He looked different.”
Ryder stopped.
“What do you mean?”
“Older.”
The manager looked uncomfortable.
“Like somebody who had been sick.”
Ryder looked at the storage unit.
“Did he leave anything else?”
The manager shook his head.
“Only instructions.”
“What instructions?”
The man reached beneath the counter and pulled out a small envelope.
“This was supposed to go to you if you showed up with the key.”
Ryder took it.
Another envelope.
Another message.
Another piece of a conversation with a man who was not there.
He hated how much it felt like Evan.
Marcus watched him open it.
This note was longer.
Ryder read silently.
If you are reading this, it means I was right about one thing.
You would come looking for answers before you admitted you were hurt.
Ryder stopped.
That was exactly the kind of thing Evan would write.
Annoying.
Personal.
Accurate.
The note continued.
I know what you are going to think.
You are going to think I should have trusted you.
You are going to think I should have come home.
You are going to think I chose strangers over my own family.
You are wrong about one thing.
I did not trust strangers.
I trusted you.
That is why I stayed away.
Ryder’s hand tightened.
Marcus noticed.
“What?”
Ryder shook his head.
“Nothing.”
“Ryder.”
“He knew.”
“Knew what?”
“He knew I would blame myself.”
Marcus became quiet.
Because he knew too.
Inside the storage unit, they found boxes.
Not many.
Evan had always hated keeping things he did not need.
There were old photographs.
A laptop.
A notebook.
A small recording device.
And a stack of financial documents.
Ryder picked up the notebook first.
The first page had one sentence written across it.
Nobody steals money from a club.
They steal loyalty first.
Marcus read over his shoulder.
“That sounds dramatic.”
Ryder looked at him.
“It sounds like Evan.”
Marcus gave a small nod.
“Yeah.”
They spent the next hour going through everything.
The documents showed transfers.
Small amounts at first.
Amounts nobody would notice.
Then larger ones.
The money moved through several businesses before returning to accounts connected to the club.
Ryder recognized some names.
Some surprised him.
Some made him angry.
One name made him stop completely.
Marcus noticed.
“Who?”
Ryder turned the page.
The name was written clearly.
No mistake.
No possibility of confusion.
It belonged to someone who had stood beside him every week for six years.
May you like
Someone who had eaten at his table.
Someone who had called him brother.
