Chapter 2: The Brother Who Never Came Home
Jackson read the note again.
He was hoping the words would rearrange themselves into something less impossible.
They didn't.
If Emily finds you, it means the man who betrayed us has finally come for her.
Keep her away from the old garage. Do not trust anyone wearing a silver eagle ring.
And whatever you do, don't let her see the ledger.
The note ended with two words.
Forgive me.
Jackson lowered the paper.
For nearly nine years, he had carried the guilt of Daniel Carter's death like a stone in his chest. He had blamed himself for not answering Daniel's final phone call. He had blamed himself for leaving the garage before the fire started. He had even blamed himself for surviving when the man he loved like a brother did not.
Now, a little girl stood beside him, and everything he believed about that night was crumbling.
Ryder snatched the note from his hand.
“Read that again.””
Jackson did.
When he finished, Ryder struck the tabletop with the heel of his hand.
“No. Absolutely not.””
Marcus turned toward him.
“Ryder.””
“You heard me. We watched them lower an empty coffin into the ground, and now we're supposed to believe Daniel walked away from a fire and left his daughter behind?””
“Keep your voice down,” Cole said, glancing at Emily.
Ryder immediately looked at the child.
She had gone very still.
“I'm sorry, kid,” he said, crouching beside her.
“I'm not angry with you.””
“Are you angry with Daddy?””
The question stopped him.
Ryder's jaw flexed.
“No, sweetheart. Never with your daddy.””
Emily studied his face.
“Mommy said Daddy was a good man. She said he made mistakes, but he was a good man.””
Ryder looked away.
“He was the best man I ever knew.””
“Then why didn't he come home?””
Nobody answered.
Outside, a motorcycle engine roared as someone passed along the highway.
Emily flinched so violently that her water glass tipped over. Cole caught it before it hit the floor.
“Easy,” he murmured.
“Just a motorcycle.””
She grabbed his sleeve.
“That's what the man said before he took Mommy.””
Cole's expression changed.
“What do you mean?””
“He said he was here to take us somewhere safe. He said Mommy had to come quietly because Daddy's friends were looking for us.””
Jackson exchanged a glance with Marcus.
Someone had been feeding Emily information about them.
Someone knew their names.
Someone knew Daniel's history.
And someone had been close enough to her mother to convince them that help would come disguised as danger.
Marcus pulled out his phone.
“I'm calling a friend in law enforcement. We need to get this child somewhere protected.””
Emily immediately recoiled.
“No!””
Marcus lowered the phone.
“Hey. Nobody's taking you anywhere you don't understand. But we need help keeping you safe.””
“The man knows police officers.””
“How do you know that?”” Jackson asked.
Emily reached into her pocket and pulled out a second object.
A small brass key.
“He showed Mommy a picture of a police officer and said he could make people disappear. Mommy said we had to leave before he found the key.””
Jackson stared at it.
“What does the key open?””
“I don't know. Mommy said Daddy hid something important a long time ago.””
Ryder held out his hand, palm up.
“May I see it?””
Emily placed the key in his palm.
He turned it over.
A tiny number had been stamped into the metal.
317.
Marcus leaned closer.
“Looks like a storage locker key.””
“Or an old safe,” Cole said.
Jackson looked back at the note.
Don't let her see the ledger.
He folded it carefully and tucked it into his leather jacket.
“We need to find out what Daniel left behind,” he said.
“But first, we need to get Emily somewhere safe.””
“Can we go now?”” Emily asked.
“Of course.””
She hesitated.
“Do I have to leave the picture?””
Jackson looked down at the photograph she had been clutching since she entered the diner.
“No, sweetheart. That's yours.””
Emily pressed it against her chest.
“It's the only picture I have of Daddy.””
Ryder's eyes softened.
“Then nobody's taking it.””
They paid their bill and headed toward the door.
Jackson stepped outside first, scanning the parking lot. The Texas heat struck him like an open oven. Trucks rumbled along the highway, and the smell of hot asphalt mixed with gasoline.
Their motorcycles stood in a row near the diner's side wall.
Four machines. Four men. One little girl whose life had suddenly become their responsibility.
Cole removed his leather vest and wrapped it around Emily's shoulders. It nearly swallowed her small frame.
“Too big?”” he asked.
She shook her head.
“It smells like smoke.””
Cole looked down at the vest.
“Yeah. That's probably me. Sorry.””
For the first time, Emily almost smiled.
Then she noticed the black SUV parked across the road.
Her smile vanished.
“That's him.””
Jackson followed her gaze.
The SUV's windows were tinted. Its engine was running, but the vehicle remained motionless.
“Are you sure?”” he asked quietly.
Emily nodded so hard that her braids swung against her cheeks.
“He was outside our apartment yesterday. He wears a silver ring with an eagle on it.””
Jackson's stomach tightened.
Ryder slowly turned toward the SUV.
“Stay here,” he told the others.
“Don't,” Jackson warned.
But Ryder had already started walking.
The SUV's driver-side window lowered two inches.
A man's voice drifted across the parking lot.
“Ryder Hayes. Still walking around like the world owes you something?””
Ryder stopped.
He knew that voice.
He had spent nine years trying to forget it.
“Victor Sloane,” Ryder said.
The name brought a sudden silence to the parking lot.
Marcus came up beside Jackson.
“No way.””
Victor Sloane had been their club's financial adviser back when the men were younger, more reckless, and stupid enough to believe that friendship meant the same thing to everyone. He had handled contracts, paid legal fees, and helped Daniel purchase the garage that eventually burned.
He had also disappeared three weeks after the fire.
Ryder took another step.
“You've got some nerve showing your face.””
Victor laughed softly.
“I'm not here for you.””
His eyes shifted past Ryder to the child standing beside Jackson.
Emily grabbed Jackson's hand.
The man lifted his right hand to the steering wheel.
A silver eagle ring gleamed on his finger.
“Hello, Emily,” he called pleasantly.
“Your mother must be terribly worried.””
The little girl began to cry.
Jackson stepped in front of her.
“Get out of the car, Victor.””
“Now, Jackson. Is that any way to greet an old acquaintance?””
“You're not an acquaintance. You're a threat.””
Victor's smile widened.
“I see Daniel's little girl has already found her heroes. That's touching.””
Ryder's fists curled.
“You go near her, and I swear—”
“You'll do what?”” Victor interrupted.
“Hit me? Break another man's nose? Spend another night in a jail cell while someone else decides what happens to the people you love?””
He glanced at Jackson.
“Still carrying guilt about that garage, old man?””
Jackson felt the blood drain from his face.
Victor knew exactly where to press.
Nine years earlier, Jackson had left Daniel at the garage after an argument. Daniel had called him twice before the fire. Jackson had ignored both calls because he was too proud to apologize first.
By the time he arrived, the building was burning.
Victor leaned closer to the open window.
“Six o'clock, Emily. Don't make me come looking for you.””
Then he raised the window.
The SUV pulled away, tires crunching over gravel.
Ryder started after it.
Jackson caught his arm.
“Not now.””
“Did you hear him?””
“I heard every word.””
“He threatened a child!””
“And he wants us angry, reckless, and separated. Don't give him what he wants.””
Ryder stared at him, breathing hard.
For several seconds, the only sound was the traffic on the highway.
Then Emily tugged Jackson's sleeve.
“Mr. Jackson?””
He knelt beside her.
“Yes, sweetheart?””
“Is he going to take me like he took Mommy?””
Jackson looked into her terrified eyes.
“No.””
The word came out with a certainty he didn't entirely feel.
But he meant it.
He would move mountains before he allowed Victor Sloane to lay a hand on her.
Marcus called a trusted former sheriff's deputy he had known for years, carefully explaining the immediate danger without giving away their location. He arranged for a secure place to meet and asked that any official response be coordinated through someone they could independently verify.
While he spoke, Cole noticed something strange about the photograph.
“Jackson.””
He pointed to the lower-right corner.
“Look at the window behind Daniel.””
Jackson leaned closer.
At first, he saw only a reflection.
Then the angle of the light changed.
A fifth man stood in the background, partially hidden behind a support beam.
The man's face was blurred, but his right hand was visible.
A silver eagle ring caught the camera flash.
Jackson stared at it.
Ryder swore under his breath.
“Victor was there that day.””
Marcus ended his call.
“Where?””
“Look at the picture,” Cole said.
Marcus leaned in.
His face hardened.
“That's not possible. Daniel told us Victor was out of town.””
Jackson turned the photograph over.
Something had been written on the back in faded blue ink.
A date.
And a location.
*October 14. Carter Garage. 11:43 p.m.*
The date was the night Daniel died.
Emily looked from one man to another.
“Is that where Daddy went away?””
Jackson slowly folded the photograph into his hand.
“Yes, sweetheart.””
She swallowed.
“Then that's where we have to go, isn't it?””
Nobody answered immediately.
Because across the road, Victor's black SUV had stopped at the next intersection.
Its brake lights glowed red.
And through the tinted rear window, someone was holding up a second photograph.
A photograph of Emily's mother.
Her face was bruised.
May you like
And taped across the bottom was a handwritten message.
*BRING THE LEDGER BY SIX, OR SHE DIES.*
