Chapter 4 - The Men Who Had Been Waiting
Tank did not touch Daisy until she moved first.
The girl stood in front of him for several seconds, studying the tattoos, the leather vest, and the tears running into his goatee.
Then she placed one small hand against his shoulder.
Tank closed his eyes.
He did not pull her into an embrace.
He allowed her to decide.
Daisy leaned forward.
Only then did he wrap both arms around her.
The bikers turned away one by one, pretending to check motorcycles or scan the road.
Boone did not.
He kept reading Anna’s letter.
The final paragraph changed his expression completely.
“Tank.”
Something in his voice ended the fragile moment.
Tank looked up.
Boone held out the letter.
Anna had written that the person searching for Daisy knew the Iron Vultures from the inside.
She trusted Marcus.
She did not trust the club.
Beneath the warning was one name.
Raymond Kane.
Tank’s uncle.
The man who helped form the original Iron Vultures.
The man who had raised Marcus after his father left.
The man who taught him that loyalty mattered more than blood.
Raymond had died three years earlier.
At least, that was what Tank had been told.
Boone looked toward the older bikers standing nearest the clubhouse.
“Who confirmed Raymond’s body?”
No one answered immediately.
A biker named Slate shifted his weight.
Tank noticed.
“What do you know?”
“Nothing.”
Tank rose slowly, keeping Daisy behind him.
“You looked away.”
Slate’s jaw tightened.
“I said I know nothing.”
A motorcycle engine roared in the distance.
Then another.
Boone moved toward Daisy and guided her behind the metal table.
Tank’s emotional collapse vanished beneath a colder expression.
Three black motorcycles entered the lot.
The riders wore no visible club patches.
The man in front removed his helmet.
Raymond Kane was older, thinner, and very much alive.
Daisy gasped.
Tank stared at the uncle he had mourned.
Raymond smiled.
“Marcus.”
No one called Tank that anymore.
Not unless they wanted the past to answer.
Raymond dismounted.
“I see Anna finally sent you her little insurance policy.”
Tank stepped in front of Daisy.
“She’s a child.”
“She’s holding something that belongs to me.”
Tank opened his empty hands.
“The bear is mine.”
“The key isn’t.”
Raymond’s eyes moved toward Daisy.
She shrank closer to Boone.
Tank’s voice became low.
“Look at her again, and you won’t leave this parking lot standing.”
The Iron Vultures shifted.
Some moved behind Tank.
Others hesitated.
That hesitation revealed more than open betrayal would have.
Raymond laughed quietly.
“You still think this club belongs to you?”
Tank surveyed his men.
For years, fear had made loyalty difficult to distinguish from obedience.
Now his daughter stood behind him, and the difference mattered.
“What did you do to Anna?”
Raymond’s smile faded.
“I gave her opportunities to cooperate.”
“Is she dead?”
“I don’t know.”
Daisy stepped out from behind Boone.
“She wasn’t dead when I left.”
Tank turned sharply.
“What?”
Daisy’s face crumpled.
“She woke up before Mrs. Bell took me away.”
Hope hit Tank so hard it looked like pain.
“Why did you say she didn’t wake up?”
“She told me to tell people that.”
The child reached into the pocket of her yellow dress.
“She gave me this too.”
Inside her palm was a hospital wristband with blurred writing.
Anna had staged her death.
May you like
Or someone had helped her disappear again.
And Raymond had arrived before Tank could understand why.
