Totally Captivated - Chapter 2

This is an unedited rough draft. The final, published version of this book may be different.

When I skip town my brother, president of the Four Horsemen MC, sends his best friend and second in command out to bring me back: Ryder, the man I've secretly loved for my entire life.

But there's a reason I can't go back to Baker, and I can't let anyone discover it. My new life is built on lies and Ryder's presence could not only expose me, it could destroy everything I've sacrificed so much to protect.



Chapter 2Ryder

I ran the name, found her credit cards. She’d left a huge paper trail. At first I thought I’d been set-up, but no, she’d already donated $10 from her modest paycheck from Benji’s to the Humane Society. Most of the purchases were pretty standard and didn’t give me much information on what she’d been doing. She shopped at the local grocery, bought gas, and, for some reason, got her clothes from a thrift store called Hanging by a Thread.

But I really didn’t have much time to ponder her odd shopping sense. Something stood out.One not-so-nice purchase. $2,000 at Naughty Pink Lace.
I hadn’t heard of the store before, but I had a pretty good idea about what kinds of goods they sold. What the fuck was Jess doing shopping there? Spending $2,000 there? Where had she even gotten that kind of money?
I ground my teeth and tried to keep my head on straight. Amherst, Nevada was a hell of a lot closer than Seattle. I’d get my answers in eight short hours. If I left now, I’d be there just after dark.
***
They lived in a three bedroom ranch styled home. Lawn hadn’t been mowed in a while, which I guess didn’t matter since it was Nevada and half the yard was dead as shit. My sneakers crunched as I made my way to the cheery yellow front door.
Wasn’t hard to pick out Jess’ room. She had Kiss posters on the walls. She was still pissed that she was too young to go to the Kiss Goodbye tour a while back. Never forgave me or Gracie for not taking her with us. I glance through the drawers. Pay stubs from some place called Benji’s. Remembering the amounts she gave in her bank account, she wasn’t depositing all of her checks in her personal bank account. Which meant she either walked around with a ridiculous amount of cash or something else was going on.
I didn’t like the sound of either idea. My feet catch on discarded t-shirts and jeans. Damn Jess was a slob. Her closet shows more of her tomboy style…except three dresses in the back.
The white one should be the most subdued, or so one would think, but the flaps of fabric in the front drop way low. They’d show off most of her cleavage. And the back? Nonexistent. I didn’t even think that slab of fabric around the bottom would cover her ass.
Definitely not good.
I sit on the end of her bed. How can a girl with baby dolls and a moldy rug her grandmother gave her also have so many thongs?
It’s 9pm and they weren’t home. Not good. At least there hadn’t been any signs of struggle. I did find evidence of the $2,000 Jessie spent at Naughty Pink Lace, though.
I slam the door to my van and start driving. Danzig’s Mother blares from the dashboard and I sing along with it, bitterly and out of key, trying to make sense of this. Jess wasn’t the kind of girl who bought fancy, designer underwear. No, make that fancy, designer thongs. And garters. And all kinds of other shit she shouldn’t even know existed.
If Benny was telling the truth, she had Liz and Talia with her, which was the only reason why I hadn’t called up the gang and had them roaring through town searching for her. Well, that and it would probably take them six hours to get here, by which time the girls would probably be home.
Or at least they should be home.
God, I really didn’t want to think about them not coming home.
I turned left at the barely-hanging flashing red light at the intersection in the center of town. 

Unfortunately, there were more boarded-up buildings than boutiques in this area. The recession had hit small towns like this pretty damn hard. I knew; I came from one. So did Jess. Why she’d trade one for another was beyond me. The girl was smart. She should be off in college making something of herself. Not hiding out in the middle of nowhere and buying astronomically priced underwear.
My fists gripped the wheel. What the fuck was she doing? I didn’t want to entertain the possibility, but it was starting to look like a guy was involved. Some sniveling asshole from the looks of it, since she had to move to a different state to be with him. She must know that Gracie wouldn’t approve of him. And while it’s true that no guy in Baker County with any sense of self preservation would touch Gracie’s sister, I’d like to think he’d accept the right guy.
Alright, he totally wouldn’t. No one was good enough for Gracie’s sister. But still, I could just tell this wasn’t the right guy. And if it wasn’t a guy…well, I had no answers. Why the fuck didn’t she tell any of us where she was going? None of this made sense.
Benny seemed to think they were just living young and free or some other shit. I didn’t buy that. But at least, whatever she was in, she didn’t skip town alone. Then again, those three girls got pretty dumb ideas in their pretty little heads. Who knows what kind of fool plan they’d concocted? Or what kind of trouble they were in.
I gunned it across the railroad tracks. Well, one thing was sure, trouble was coming for them. When I could find them, that is. Why the fuck weren’t they tucked into their beds? It was 9pm!
I debate whether or not I should move on. There’s probably a place down the road that’s less crowded and not filled with strippers. I look up the bars in town on the phone. The first few have no very few people in them. All the girls are the waitresses, and none of them are Jess.
I don’t know if that makes me happy or not. On the one hand, I like that she isn’t being forced to serve alcohol to local guys who’d undoubtedly be trying to get into her pants. On the other hand, she isn’t home and I’m running out of places she could be. The boyfriend or cult ideas are starting to look more and more possible.
I ground my teeth. A drink. That was what I needed. If this place was anything like Baker, there’d be no shortage of bars. Those were pretty much the only establishments going back home.Neon pink and piss yellow lights flash up ahead. Stella’s, it read in some retro font so over-stylized it was practically illegible. As I drive closer, I notice how many cars are parked in the lot. I also notice that, just behind the neon Stella is a painted billboard of a winking woman with a cowboy hat, one leg folded over the other.
Well, no surprise what this establishment is serving.
I debate whether I should drive back to the other bars, but damn, I need something to take off the edge.
A horrifying thought takes hold of me. What if she’s here.
I banish the thought. No, she couldn’t be. I knew Jess, and this was as far from Jess as humanly possible. I pull into the parking lot and take the keys out of the ignition and get out of the van.
***
Music throbs inside. I don’t know if everyone carpooled here or took a cab, but it feels like there’s twenty times as many people here than any of the other bars. There are even a lot of chicks, for some reason. Well, of course there are a lot of chicks. It is a strip club. But not all of them are working.
I scan the room quietly, doing my best to scowl. Unfortunately I think it makes me look more like the romantic villain than the piece of shit criminal I am. Girls who go to places like this are looking for a good time. A dangerous time. And I’m the kind of guy who can give that to them.
And, unfortunately, that’s all I can give them.
I don’t return eye contact. There are plenty of pretty girls in the world. I’m only here for one, and then I’m here to take her home.
After a few rounds of the room, it’s pretty obvious that I’m not going to find her here. It was a ridiculous thought. But hey, while I’m here might as well enjoy my beer before heading back to Jess’.Two girls are working the poles, and they’re damn good. One has glossy red hair I can already imagine running my fingers through and fair, freckled skin that just begs to be touched. An African American girl dances next to her with long, strong muscular legs, her bronzed skin glowing beneath the shining lights.
Wish I could see their faces. Girls that pretty should be appreciated in their entirety.I’m just about to get up when a man stands out in the middle of the stage.
“And for our next act, one of our best dancers and the girl with the biggest ass in Nevada!”I spin on my stool. Biggest ass in Nevada? That’s quite a claim. I guess I could stick around for a few more minutes.