Doc Page 6

  Fork nodded. “I would never.”

  “I know,” Fish said and then looked back out the window, it was really the only way he was going to get this out. “Anyway, I paid her a hundred thousand dollars for her signature and to never look back. Of course, the bitch didn’t think that meant for a lifetime. She came three times over the years before Harmony turned eighteen, three times I had to pay her not to interrupt my little girl’s life. The last time was her graduation, her mother threatened to go and make a scene. She knew it was the last time I would pay, and I did. Put me off women I tell you. Only had one-nighters for years, and only when Harmony was out of town or spending the night somewhere. I didn’t do that because there was no fucking way I was going to do that to Harmony, no way. Never fooled myself into thinking that I would want a woman more than as a bedmate. But there is something about her, Doc; there is something about her that just makes me think. Finally, there is a woman who isn’t full of shit.”

  Fork nodded. “I feel ya, Creed and I felt the same about Harmony.”

  Fish laughed. “Yeah, but once again I was wrong.”

  “How’s that?” Fork asked.

  “Gave her what she wanted and that was it,” Fish admitted and then shook his head. “Just needed to get the fuck out of there and get my head on straight. Sorry, just felt like shit was closing in. I was made a fool of twice now, thinking that for now, it is all just what was meant to be.”

  Fork cleared his throat. “You know, I suck at women advice, don’t you?”

  Fish grinned and said, “Yeah, Harmony says you suck at relationship shit, too.”

  “She is right,” Fork laughed and then said, “but even at that, I can tell you that if a woman doesn’t want someone who would hang the moon for her, then she isn’t worth the energy.”

  “Maybe, or maybe I’m just not meant to have a woman. Either way, I just needed to come to terms with it and move on. The only way I know how to do that is to ride. So here we are.”

  Fork grunted and then said, “Well, brother, we will ride as long as you need to.”

  Chapter Seven

  Doc stood and looked around the living room, finally they were unpacked. It had taken two days to move to San Diego, one for their personal belongings and one for the business. The copters were now sitting at a small private airport only three miles away. The good thing was Fling and the other Furies knew the owners, which meant they got a really good deal on using their pad, and second, it was close enough that when the time came to bring the copters to the roof of their new building, it would be an easy transition.

  They were given a small hanger with a little office, so yesterday Maverick and Jugs had spent the time to set up their office. They wouldn’t allow Doc to help, mostly because she was still hiding from Fish. Not hiding, Doc would never lower herself to admit she was hiding from anyone. No, she was casually remaining on the compound, in her house, making sure everything ran smoothly. Since they arrived, not one of the Ops had been on the Furies’ land. So, avoiding them had been simple. She wanted to go see Dani, but she was waiting until her Sisters had done some reconnaissance and found out when he would be gone. But none of them had seen him, and none of the Ops was talking. If they didn’t see him the next time they went over, Doc was going to take the chance and go. Fuck that, she was going; no man was going to dictate what she did. Making up her mind, she nodded to herself and then turned and groaned.

  She had not figured out yet what the hell she was going to do about him. She was keeping the baby of course, but she didn’t really feel like she needed a man, any man. She could feel the evil voice in her head laugh loudly at that thought. Doc grimaced and shook her head. “I don’t need a man, dammit.” She was going crazy; there was no doubt about it right now.

  “Of course, you don’t,” Maverick answered her as she stepped into their shared kitchen. Right now, they had three houses they shared. It wasn’t bad, especially because they had plenty of room in the houses, but also, there were a few rooms in the clubhouse they could use if they needed space.

  Doc sighed loudly and turned and looked at her friend. “I was arguing with myself again.”

  Maverick grinned. “Sounds like you are winning this time, huh? I mean yesterday you were losing that argument.”

  “No, I wasn’t, I still don’t need a man,” Doc argued.

  “Okay,” Maverick said and held her hands up in the air and grinned.

  “I don’t NEED one; I said I would not mind not doing this whole thing alone,” Doc snapped.

  Maverick frowned and walked to her friend and grabbed her upper arms and stared at her intently. “You know I don’t lie to you, the truth is what you get even if it sucks and is painful,” she said, and Doc nodded and took a deep breath. “I understand you are scared as shit, because really, none of us thought about kids, I mean we did, but then we didn’t.” Doc nodded more, and she continued, “Our military career was dangerous, so much so, we all just gave up on the fact we would ever be mothers. But the baby aside, I have never known you to not get everything you want. You are a force of nature. You know as well as I do if there is something there between you and that biker, then there is something there.”

  Doc groaned and shook her head. “That’s just it, I literally knew him one night, and bam I am pregnant. I mean it doesn’t make sense, the shit I keep thinking, I sound fucking girly.”

  Maverick smiled and said, “Why? You have never done anything conventional in your life, why the fuck are you starting now?”

  Doc chuckled. “This is true.”

  “If you want something you go get it,” Maverick said.

  “I just need to figure out if I want it,” Doc said slowly, and her friend smiled. She knew her friend was struggling too. For years Maverick hid her feelings for the man she loved, and still, she refused to take that next step because she didn’t want to ruin their friendship. No matter how many time Doc encouraged her to do something, Maverick didn’t.

  Doc opened her mouth but never answered since Puddin’ walked into the room in a rush and said, “Shadow has an issue.”

  Doc and Maverick moved in sync to the door, “What is going on?”

  “The man Shadow has been helping the Furies find, the hacker, well, apparently, he discovered something big.”

  Doc frowned and said, “Where are the other Sisters?”

  “On their way. Shadow was way freaked when he called; he said he called everyone back to the compound and is waiting with Fling and the other Furies in the main clubhouse.”

  Doc nodded and then moved faster as they exited the house. She saw Georgie, Casey, Anya, and Jaci moving from the other direction as well. She liked the women of the Furies, they were awesome, and Fling’s old lady, Sunshine, she was great. She and Sunny had already become close since they shared the same name. They all looked forward to getting to know these women better. But right now, Doc could tell even from this distance they were pissed.

  This was the gig, though. By having the Furies as their sponsor, the Sisters would back them up in anything. When they hit the door, Doc pulled it open and stepped inside. She instantly saw all the Sisters already there, including Gypsy, who Doc knew wouldn’t have left her sister for anything less than an emergency.

  Shadow was sitting in the middle of the room, his computer opened in front of him, and several other ones sitting beside it. Doc glanced and noticed he was using all the computers. He typed on all the keyboards so fast, they all knew the problem was serious, mostly because he didn’t look stoned or happy. No, he looked deadly.

  Doc stared at him as she muttered to Puddin’ and Mav, “Get the girls.” She knew that look, they all did. They weren’t dealing with their friend; they were dealing with the stone-cold killer the military trained. There was a huge difference. All of them knew when he changed, and all of them knew if he changed into the killer, then some serious shit had come down.

  Doc ignored everyone and focused on Shadow as she reached him. “Hey, Shadow, wha
t is going on?” she asked softly and sat down. He didn’t answer her at first, but she knew he heard her, he always heard everything around him. Most people didn’t understand that Shadow wasn’t just smart, he was scary smart. His IQ was off the charts. He may be a goof, but he was a fucking smart goof.

  Doc patiently waited at his side while she saw the Sisters moving closer to surround him. The Furies and their women were just staring at them, talking quietly to themselves. The room was fucking tense. She shut them out, as did the rest of the Sisters. They had been through this before with Shadow, and they knew how to handle it. She saw Maverick sit on the other side of Shadow; if there was anyone who could deal with his personality swings, it was Maverick. Doc stared at Maverick and Shadow. She seriously didn’t think they even realized how close they were. Anyone who paid attention would see it. Especially when Shadow got this intense. Maverick was the only one who could calm him just by sitting next to him. He drew from her strength, they all saw it, but Shadow and Maverick refused to take the next step.

  “Not who they think it is,” Shadow muttered and looked up and stared at Doc for a brief second. “Jaci was right; it’s not who they think it is.” She saw Jaci step forward out of the corner of her eye and Loki grabbed her and pulled her back as if being in close proximity to Shadow wasn’t a wise thing right now. Which it wasn’t, but not for the reason Loki thought, it was more because if people got too close to him when he was thinking, it seemed to stress him the fuck out to the point he could barely function. Sometimes it took days to get him back. The girls all hated seeing him like that, so they avoided it, it was something she needed to speak to Fling about.

  “Why?” Doc asked, not asking him to explain anything, they all knew who he was talking about. “Are you sure he is not just playing you? I mean, everyone on the planet is looking for this asshole, they have all confirmed it was him. You can’t tell me the whole fucking world is wrong.” Shadow looked at her intently, and Doc sighed and then nodded. “Okay, I get it,” she said slowly. “So, you are not mistaken, then how do we proceed from here, and how do we figure out where the hell this ‘Ghost Hacker is?’ If it is not Victor Burns like you thought, then who the hell is it?”

  Shadow looked at the screen again and pointed to something. Doc leaned over, and she frowned. She had no fucking idea what he was looking at, so she waited for him to explain.

  “So, here is the IP address of the postings where he outed like everyone and their fucking brother. It has different numbers each time. Which, of course, would leave everyone to believe that Victor is moving around a lot, trying to avoid being captured, right?” Shadow said absently.

  Doc nodded as did the other Sisters who were also listening intently. “Right, but he was in Kathmandu, though, right? I thought someone said that he was spotted there.”

  Shadow nodded. “He was there, but there were two IP addresses at the time coming from there, one released the information, the other sent one email to an account asking for help that I cannot trace.”

  “That doesn’t make sense,” Maverick whispered.

  “Well, it does if this other IP address is a clone, which I believe. Whoever is releasing the information cloned Victor’s, and by doing so, they can hide behind him when they release the information. No one would have noticed the clone markings unless they had specifically been looking for them, which many people overlook since the numbers are subtle. I went with the theory that Victor Burns was not the ‘Ghost Hacker,’ from the message Jaci got when he told her it wasn’t him. It looks like it came from his original IP address, but when I trace it back, it goes to a phone of some sort,” Shadow said absently. “Then see, when I try to message it back, it says it cannot accept the message.”

  “What does that mean?” Doc said, encouraging him to think and work through the problem, that was how Shadow worked. She was used to it, they all were.

  “If I assume that Victor Burns, who is a genius computer expert according to the government, was able to get his hands on something he could use to send a message. When someone attempts to clone an email, if the receiver sends something back, it is not delivered because the IP address on the email is fake. Hell, most people can learn that shit on the internet. These days, you can get instructions for everything. Unfortunately, we have no idea if it is really Victor Burns or someone fucking with us. But either way, there is a lot more going on here than just someone releasing information,” Shadow said slowly, and then he leaned back and stared at the screen.

  “Let’s break it down,” Doc said, pursing her lips, then looked at the wall and concentrated. “The major problem we need to solve is if Burns is the one releasing the information, ‘cause if he is, we know why—presumably for money. However, if it is not Burns, then whoever it is that is doing this has another motive as well as the money. I would guess if we could figure out that, we would be able to figure out if it is Burns.”

  Shadow growled, “And you think we can pull that off? I mean, I love that you actually think that about me being able to figure out what the entire intelligence community cannot figure out.”

  Doc snorted loudly. “Brother, you know there is no fucking way you are giving yourself enough credit. People are still telling stories about your legendary hacking into the Taliban messaging system. You saved a lot of lives with that.”

  Shadow rolled his eyes and said, “I got lucky. There is a lot more to this than meets the eyes. If Burns was in Kathmandu and being held prisoner, then the Furies walked away from a man who was in danger.”

  Fish looked at Fork who motioned him to pull over and nodded. They were headed home, finally. After being on the road for seven days, his ass was dragging, and he was looking forward to sleeping in a comfortable bed.

  He glanced to the side and lifted his head up to Fork who knew they needed to pull into the next gas station so they could fill up. They were close enough it would be the last stop. Fish felt a sense of urgency to get back to the compound. He wasn’t sure why, but he seriously felt the need to move quickly.

  When they pulled into the gas station, Fork looked at him and said, “Something is wrong.”

  Fish nodded, at least he wasn’t the only one who thought that. “Call Creed right now, see if there is anything going on.”

  Fork nodded and motioned to his bike and Fish lifted his head; he would fill both bikes to save time. The call lasted less than a minute, and Fork was back and grimacing. “What?”

  “The Furies asked for Creed and Shady to come to the compound to discuss something important. He didn’t have time to go into it, but needless to say, Creed was amped up. Which means he is not saying what is going on over the phone.”

  Fish nodded, and then slid his leg over his seat and turned on his engine. Fork was next to him the whole way as they pulled out onto the highway. Their engines roared as they pressed to get home as soon as possible. Later, after they were back at the compound, Fish would realize the reason he wanted to get home was not only his club but also because Doc was there. Harmony had let it slip when she talked to him two days ago.

  “How is Dani?” Fish asked after listening to his daughter rant about not fitting into her ‘favorite’ jeans anymore. Fork had looked terrified when he had handed Fish the phone after Harmony apparently vented to him about getting her pregnant. Fish had laughed and shaken his head when he watched one of the leaders of a powerful MC become worried about how his woman planned to get revenge.

  Harmony sighed and said, “Fine, I guess. I mean, I really think that we should limit those crazy ass bitches from coming over every day. Now that they are all here, fuck, it is like a cunts-r-us reunion every time we are in the same room. There is just something that rubs me the wrong way. And that Doc, let’s just say Shady is planning on a smackdown very soon.”

  Fish looked at the door as soon as she said the Satan’s Sisters had moved. For the first time since Harmony’s mother completely fucked him over, Fish was attracted to a woman, not just because he wanted to fuck her
either. Nope, he wanted it all. During this trip Fish had made up his mind, he wasn’t going to take no for an answer. After being alone for so many years, he just wanted to find someone other than a chick who wanted to say she fucked a man in an MC.

  He had never been this messed up over a female, they were too high maintenance, so he tended to make it very clear, no emotional attachment. Then what did he do? He ignored all his rules with Doc.

  They made it to the compound in just under three hours, both men were sore, but they were back. Fish didn’t even bother taking off his chaps or jacket. Instead, he stalked into the clubhouse with the sole intent of finding out what the fuck was going on.

  Chapter Eight

  Doc leaned back in her chair, what a fucking clusterfuck, she thought. It was bad enough that they didn’t know who the hell was releasing information because as of thirty minutes ago, Shadow received a message from Burns, he gave information only he would know, and it was confirmed. The Furies were pissed off. The government had either lied intentionally, or they had ignored his messages asking for help. Either way, it was one big fuckup.

  Shadow was intense, and all the Sisters were worried about him. They saw him like this only twice, and both times, they had to be on standby if he went off the rez and delivered his own justice to people he felt fucked with innocent people. He had a very strong ethic about that, the worse part was, all the Sisters agreed. Nine times out of ten if Shadow went off, then Mav did, and so on. Doc and the twins usually were the ones to cover their asses and make sure they didn’t get arrested.