Chapter 7 - Everyone Has Someone to LoseMurray Hayes had been an Iron Saint for eleven years.
“This date stamp accurate?”
Cole nodded.
“Looks like it.”
Sarah pointed to the corner.
“August 14, 2001.”
Cole's mother had supposedly died in 1998.
Car accident.
Closed casket.
He had been seventeen.
Ethan fourteen.
Now Cole understood why Ethan had saved the picture.
Another dead family member who might not have been dead.
Sheriff Ward looked at him.
“Your family ever do anything normally?”
“Not that I can remember.”
Sarah squeezed his arm.
They had no time for grief.
Pike was gone.
Rachel's brother remained missing.
And somewhere in the county was Storage Locker 814.
The brass key Ethan had given Cole came from a facility called Red River Storage.
Locker 814 was rented under the name Margaret Hale.
Cole's mother's maiden name.
The manager tried to refuse access until Sheriff Ward showed a warrant.
At 3:40 p.m., the metal door rolled upward.
Inside were cardboard boxes.
Old furniture.
A motorcycle frame.
And twenty-seven banker boxes labeled by year.
1996 through 2023.
Bear whistled.
“That's a lot of secrets.”
Sarah opened the first box.
Property records.
Bribery ledgers.
Payoffs.
Photographs.
Cole found files on judges, state officials, contractors, union leaders, police officers.
Pike hadn't merely protected his father's organization.
He had built an invisible empire using information.
Then Sarah found a folder labeled MARGARET MADDOX.
Cole's hands trembled.
Inside were medical reports.
Psychiatric evaluations.
A private clinic.
Arizona.
Records continuing until 2004.
His mother had survived.
“She lived six years after the accident,” Sarah whispered.
Cole said nothing.
Then he found a document.
VOLUNTARY WITNESS RELOCATION AGREEMENT.
His mother had agreed to testify against her husband.
Pike moved her.
Then convinced Cole and Ethan she had died.
Sarah covered her mouth.
“Why?”
Cole kept reading.
A handwritten note answered.
Margaret refuses to cooperate unless sons are protected.
Another note.
Older boy remains resistant to father's influence. Younger boy increasingly unstable. Separation recommended.
Cole felt physically ill.
Pike had manipulated the entire family.
Not because he cared about them.
Because isolated people were easier to control.
Bear opened another file.
“Cole.”
It contained surveillance photos of the Iron Saints.
Years of them.
Every member.
Every gathering.
Pike had watched Cole build his life.
Then Sarah found a recent photograph.
Lily leaving school.
Cole went cold.
“That's from last month.”
Pike had been monitoring his daughter before she ever entered the Halo.
Sheriff Ward immediately placed Lily under protection.
Cole didn't like the word protection anymore.
It had been used too often by people who lied.
Instead he moved Sarah and Lily into a secure cabin owned by Bear.
Two Saints stood outside at all times.
Cole stayed too.
That night Lily sat at the kitchen table eating pancakes for dinner.
Because she wanted pancakes.
Cole cooked badly.
Sarah watched him burn the first three.
“You used to make breakfast.”
“I used to set cereal on a table.”
“That explains a lot.”
Lily giggled.
Cole turned.
The sound hit him harder than any punch.
He wanted six years of that laughter back.
Impossible.
So he concentrated on the next six minutes.
“Blueberries?”
Lily nodded enthusiastically.
Sarah smiled.
It was the first relaxed moment any of them had experienced.
Later, after Lily fell asleep, Sarah joined Cole on the porch.
He held Ethan's photograph.
“I should hate him.”
Sarah sat beside him.
“You can.”
“I do.”
“Then you can miss him too.”
Cole looked at her.
“I missed you.”
“I know.”
“That wasn't romantic.”
“I know that too.”
He looked back toward the woods.
“I was angry every day for the first year.”
“You should have been.”
“I told myself if you ever came back, I'd shut the door.”
“And?”
Cole glanced through the window at Lily.
“Then you sent my daughter through it.”
Sarah's eyes filled.
“I’m sorry.”
He nodded.
For once, he believed the apology without needing it to fix anything.
“Why didn't you ever tell Lily about me?”
“I did.”
Cole frowned.
“She knew you as the man with the broken-wing tattoo. I told her if she was ever in danger and couldn't find me, she should find you.”
“So she knew I existed.”
“She knew someone existed who would protect her.”
Cole swallowed.
“She asked me earlier if I have kids.”
Sarah's mouth trembled.
“What did you say?”
“I said I'm learning.”
Sarah laughed through tears.
Inside, Lily suddenly screamed.
Cole was through the door in two seconds.
Lily sat upright.
“Mom!”
Sarah ran in.
“Nightmare?”
Lily shook her head.
“Someone was outside.”
Cole turned toward the window.
Nothing.
Then Bear called from the perimeter.
“Cole.”
“What?”
“We found a camera.”
A tiny wireless surveillance camera was attached beneath the roof gutter.
Recently placed.
Cole looked into the woods.
Pike knew where they were.
Again.
That meant either surveillance had followed them…
or someone inside their circle was still communicating.
Ethan had claimed Danny Pierce was the traitor.
But Danny had been dead six years.
Pike had said Danny too.
Maybe both wanted Cole to stop looking.
Bear arrived carrying the camera.
“Signal is local. Someone had to be within half a mile.”
Cole looked toward the two Saints guarding the driveway.
Ronnie and Murray.
Both had been club members more than a decade.
Both had access to the cabin location.
Cole whispered, “Lock the gate.”
Bear understood.
Nobody leaves.
At 1:12 a.m., Doc arrived carrying records from Ethan's storage unit.
“I found payroll.”
He handed Cole a page.
Monthly payments.
Coded names.
One continued into the current year.
RAVEN — $8,000.
Bear frowned.
“No Raven in the club.”
Sarah said, “Could be a nickname.”
Doc turned the page.
A handwritten note.
RAVEN KNOWS WHERE COLE SLEEPS.
Every man in the room went silent.
Cole looked at Ronnie.
Then Murray.
Then Bear.
Then Doc.
Then Sarah.
The traitor wasn't merely associated with the Saints.
He was someone close enough to know where Cole slept.
Bear spoke first.
“Search everybody.”
Cole shook his head.
“Pike wants us turning on each other.”
“And if Raven's here?”
“We find proof.”
Sarah suddenly looked toward Lily's backpack.
“The clubhouse.”
“What?”
“When Lily was taken, somebody packed her backpack.”
Cole frowned.
“Doc?”
Doc shook his head.
“I didn't.”
Sarah grabbed the bag.
Inside were Lily's clothes.
Crayons.
A stuffed rabbit.
And a black phone.
Not Sarah's.
Not Cole's.
Cole turned it on.
One contact.
SP
Samuel Pike.
The last outgoing message had been sent at 11:41 a.m.
THEY FOUND BLUEBIRD. MOVING TO MILL.
Bear stared.
“Whoever packed Lily's bag sent that message.”
Doc went pale.
“I saw Murray carrying her backpack.”
All eyes turned toward the driveway.
Murray was gone.
So was his motorcycle.
Ronnie stood alone beside the gate.
Cole walked outside.
A note was pinned beneath his windshield wiper.
PIKE HAS MY SON. I'M SORRY.
Cole read it twice.
Murray had a son.
Twenty-one.
College student in Kansas City.
Cole's anger shifted.
Not betrayal.
Coercion.
Pike didn't build loyalty.
He built cages.
Cole called Murray.
No answer.
Then a text arrived.
An address.
A warehouse near the state line.
May you like
And four words.
HELP ME END THIS.
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