“You don’t help that fucker,” Viper ordered when Lucky would have tried to help him again.
“Viper, he’s had enough! Someone is going to call the police,” Lucky warned.
Viper glared at Lucky before walking away. Shade followed, now that Lily was gone there was nothing left for him there.
Chapter 14
Shade carried his coffee to the front door of the clubhouse. He hated supervising the factory yet had drawn the punishment from the bag for beating the brothers at the picnic. He had another month to endure before Viper took it back over. Viper disliked the job as much as him, but Shade was a night owl and the job required early mornings, so it was his idea of Hell.
Opening the door, he stepped onto the front porch then closed the door behind him. He was about to go down the steps when his gaze skimmed across the parking lot. Shade’s foot hovered over the step before backing up onto the porch.
He held his coffee, drinking it as he rested his hip on the banister. Viper had a tire jack in his hand and was smashing his bike to pieces then throwing the separate parts across the parking lot. Shade knew from experience that whatever had caused that rage was bad, and Viper needed to release it.
He saw no need to interrupt Viper until the man went to his knees next to what was left of his bike. Leaving his coffee cup sitting on the banister, he went down the steps, coming to a stop next to his president.
“If you’re done, I’ll clean up the mess,” Shade offered, not asking him why he had trashed his bike.
Viper lifted his head, staring back at him with vacant tear filled eyes until Shade finally saw reason return. Then his president rose to his feet, looking around the parking lot.
“No, I’ll get Rider to do it. I want you to call Cash and meet up with him. He’s searching for whoever nearly beat Winter to death last night at her school. The bastard left her to fucking die.”
“How bad is she?”
“The sheriff doesn’t think she’s going to make it. I’m going to the hospital.” Viper turned toward his bike then stopped, realizing he had destroyed his means of transportation.
Shade pulled his bike keys out of his pocket, handing them to Viper. “Take mine. I’ll take one of Rider’s, and we can switch later. I’ll call Cash and find out where he is, but I want to stop at the high school first and see if I can find anything.”
“Okay.” Viper went to Shade’s bike, taking a seat before starting it up. Gunning the engine, he took off at a speed which made Shade think he would be lucky to get his bike back in one piece.
He went inside the factory’s office, taking a set of keys on a peg nailed to the wall, then headed back outside. Shade found the bike he was looking for at the end of the row. The club always kept several extras for the brothers to use—someone’s bike would break down or one would crash, but the extras kept everyone mobile.
Once Shade reached the high school, it was easy to see where Winter had been attacked since it was still taped off. The amount of blood on the pavement didn’t faze him, but it did give him an indication as to how severe her injuries were. Winter was lucky to still be alive.
Shade went over the school grounds thoroughly, finding an oil spot that was still fresh. It was away from the student and faculty parking and gave the best spot for watching Winter’s car unobtrusively. He also found several ashes on the ground before his keen gaze noticed something in the grass a few feet away near a large tree.#p#分页标题#e#
He walked closer, using the toe of his boot to move the grass. A cigar butt lay on the ground. Shade used a stick to pierce it, picking it up from the ground then packing it back to his bike where he took a napkin from the saddlebag. He wrapped the cigar butt and placed it in the saddlebag before taking out his cell phone to call Cash.
“Where are you? Viper thought you might need some help.”
“Nah, this fucker was easy to find. He left a trail my grandmother could have tracked.”
“Who was it?” Shade asked curiously.
“Jake. Remember the kid Lily hit with the horseshoe?”
“It was him?” He was surprised the kid had possessed the balls to touch another woman after the beating Shade had given him. He had thought the punk came off as a poser, pretending to be worse than he actually was.
“Yeah, he stopped at his girlfriend’s house first and set it on fire. Luckily, no one was home. The girl’s parents had taken her to stay with a relative. It’s what set him off and made him crazy enough to set the fire and attack Winter. Seems Winter was the one who gave the parents a heads-up to the kid mistreating their girl.”