Six hours? Damn. “Since when do you need someone to hold your hand?”
“You said you’d call me back.”
“Yeah, well, shit happened.”
“What Stone did is fucked-up. We need to find her kid.”
I picked my head up and stared out at the ocean. “You find her. I’ll pay for it.”
André was quiet a minute. “Look, I don’t know what went down between you two but you’re both in a bad way. You should talk to her.”
“Fuck that, I’m done talkin’.” And chasing. She’d lied, not me. I understood it now, but I wasn’t over it, not that it mattered.
“Randy was looking for the kid.”
I glared at him. “If he’d stayed away from his piece-of-shit old man in the first place, he wouldn’t have put his daughter in danger.”
“He—”
“Do not defend that fucking asshole in my presence!”
André held his hands up. “Fine, bro. All I’m saying though is that Stone found out about Maddie while Randy was on his last deployment. Randy hadn’t told Stone he had a daughter.”
“I don’t need the details. It’s your problem now.”
“Classic. You know anything besides your fuck-and-run routine?”
Motherfucker. “Get the fuck outta my car.”
“What’s pissing you off more? That she had a kid with him or that you think she dumped you?”
“We weren’t together!” I yelled.
André didn’t say shit.
I turned the engine over, cranked the AC and stewed. Shit was all fucked-up in my head.
André broke the tense silence. “I don’t do missing persons. I need a team.”
“So get one.”
“Neil and Roark are on their way.”
“Great,” I said sarcastically.
“You’re my number three.”
“I told you, I’m not doin’ this.”
“Then I’m out.”
I turned on him. “My stupid ass is sittin’ in a car because I’m too much of a fuckin’ pussy to go back to the house where Siren is. You tell me what part of that makes you think havin’ me in on this is a good idea.”
André held my gaze for a second then dropped a bomb. “I don’t know what kind of shape we’ll find her kid in.”
I hadn’t vomited in ten years but right then, bile rose in my throat and I thought I was going to lose it in my car. I clenched my jaw tight and breathed through my nose. “Jesus fuck,” I muttered.
“We need your medical background.”
It never occurred to me that this child could be abused, or worse. It should’ve been the first thing I thought of. Not to mention if Stone still had the kid, what was he going to do with her now? “I got a bad feelin’ ’bout this. What’s Stone’s incentive to keep the kid alive now that Carter’s dead?”
“Don’t know. That’s why we need to move.”
Jesus. I’d wasted the whole day wallowing in self-pity. I threw the car in gear and got my head in the game. “What do we have so far?”
“Not much. Randy tracked a few leads but nothing panned out. He thought Stone had hidden her with an LC but Nicole said Randy had checked every member out and didn’t find anything solid.”
“Siren told me right before Carter died, he’d said he’d found her.”
André shrugged. “People say all sorts of shit when they’re dying.”
Christ, didn’t I know it. “You find anythin’ through your sources?”
“Nicole had her daughter’s social memorized. I called in a favor and got a hit. Three months ago, someone used Maddie’s social security number at a doctor’s office near Lexington, Kentucky.”
I didn’t want to know how he’d gotten that information. “Any LCs near there?”
“Don’t know. I thought you could call Candle and ask.”
I remembered Carter’s phone in my pocket. I pulled it out and handed it to André. “This was Carter’s.”
André looked at the bloodied phone with disgust. “Seriously?”
“Stop bein’ a pussy. Check the call log.”
André shook his head but took the phone. I dialed Candle.
He picked up on the first ring. “You cocksucker, you left her alone?”
Asshole. “Kendall’s a big girl. She can take care of herself for a few hours.”
“If something happens to her on your watch, you’re a dead man.”
“Take a fuckin’ number. I need information.”
“Fuck off.”
I ignored him. “Who does the club have in Lexington, Kentucky?”