Page 22 of Ex-Military Biker’s Bride

Chapter Ten

LUCKY

Striker and Bethany drive up to my place. His mouth is set in a grim line, but she looks excited.

“I've been taking that file transfer apart,” she says. “Lucky… Olivia didn't send it.”

“Look.” She turns the screen to face me. “It never left her machine. Someone reached in and took it. It's a pull, from their end, using her login. I knew it looked weird. Somebody at that magazine went into her drive and helped themselves. Whoever's sitting on her editor's account has had it for days.”

I run my hand through my hair. “How can we find her?”

“That’s the other thing. I’ve finally traced her laptop. She’s out at some godforsaken truck stop where the county road meets the highway. Maybe two hours from here.” She's already reaching for her phone.

Maria calls me when I’m on my way back to the Saloon.

“You didn't hear this from me,” she says. “The Lodge jet is fueling up. Short notice, no passenger list.”

“Where's it going?”

Her voice is completely flat. “No destination logged. Lucky. They never fly that airplane back empty.”

Prez lets me talk for about a minute before he holds his hand up. I’ve scoped the area and hold up a map on my phone so he can see.

“How long by road?” Wrench, Hawk and Savage are pulling their cuts on, and Will is standing by the door with his jaw set like a man waiting to be shot.

“Hour and a half top speed on our bikes if the highway's clear. Twenty minutes in my plane.”

“You can land near it?”

“There's a straight run of dirt county road east of the diner, maybe a quarter mile. Flat and it's wide enough if the wind stays put.”

“You sure you can put a plane down on a road?”

“I've done worse.”

“Then don’t get caught.” He puts his hand flat on my chest. “You fly in and you get her out. Wrench and Savage go through the door, so Rotmere don’t see you and the plane. Hawk’s going to cause a distraction.”

“If she's in that building…”

“They’ll get her out.”

Everything in me wants to fight him on it, but I don’t.

Savage is quiet the whole way there, cracking his knuckles occasionally. He looks serene, as if he’s meditating. It’s spooky. Wrench sits up front with a headset on, asking me questions. Below us the forest rolls out toward the highway, cut through with fence lines.

Halfway there he says, “I hear she stole Savage's truck to go do this on her own.”

“She did.”

“Lila would've done the same.” He watches the ground go by. “Some women don't know how to be carried. You have to teach them.”

“That's very deep for a man with grease under his nails.”

“I'm a complicated guy.”

The county road runs east off the highway dead straight for the best part of a mile. No traffic.

Hawk’s got his backpack on. “Been a while since I did this. I hope I remember how it works.” He waggles his fingers at us, opens the top-hinged passenger door and jumps out of the plane while Savage whoops in the back.