Forgiving Nancy (Last Hangman MC, #5)(14)

“What does that have to do with us?” Callum asks roughly.

I look up at him and hold his gaze as I answer him. “She was my girlfriend. We loved each other and were planning on running away when she turned eighteen. But we never got there. Her parents hated me and accused me of being the reason why she disappeared. Th-”

“Again? Link with us? Don’t make me waste my time on a fool’s errand, Bennett.” Callum growls as he shakes his head at me.

“I’m getting to that part, if you would let me finish. They called me last night to look for her.”

“How are you supposed to look for her if you haven’t heard from her in years? I know we have means to find people when we want to but something about this doesn’t seem right.” Ant considers. “What makes you think she’s still alive?” I dread hearing that question. I’ve asked myself the same thing for so long and until an hour ago I didn’t know the answer.

“Because of these.” I slide a bunch of pictures I printed from the email her parents sent me and pass them around. “Some date back to when she was taken and others were taken a couple of days ago according to the dates on the pictures. She doesn’t seem to be aware of the pictures being taken.” I sigh and rub my face, hating seeing these pictures of her again. In some she’s alone, in really skimpy clothes, in some she’s with different men, and is even naked in some of them. She looks like a shell of her former self. My Gorgeous Girl is physically present in those pictures, but I’ve lost her beautiful eyes.

“Fuck,” Gabe mutters looking through the pictures. “Is she the one we were talking about yesterday?”

“She is,” I reply emotionlessly. I have so many questions are racing around in my head. Is she okay? Is she safe? Does she still think about me? Would she still want me? She doesn’t look hurt in those pictures but I can’t be sure. I need to be sure. I need to see her.

“What do you want us to do?” Ant asks, shocking everybody around the table. He’s the Prez, he’s the one who’s supposed to be calling the shots not me.

I take a deep breath, square up my shoulders and look at everybody around the table. “We need to look for her. I know none of you know her but she’s top priority.”

“Brother, you know that if she’s top priority to you then she is to us,” Aleck says and I nod at him in thanks.

“Jase, think we could get Lewis involved? We could use some cop help with this.” I look at him, hoping that he’s stayed in touch with her.

“On it,” he says as leaves the room to call her.

“We need to come up with a plan to find her. Some of these pictures were taken outside so that could give us the upper hand in finding her,” I say getting anxious to go out and find her.

“You do realize that she might enjoy the life she leads now,” Callum says, crushing what little hope I have of finding her.

“Or it could be a ploy to lure you into a trap. Don’t you find it weird that all of a sudden her parents call, in the middle of the night, to find their daughter who’s been missing for four years? They’ve had those pictures for a while by the looks of it so why now? Why all of a sudden?” Ant asks himself and us.

“I don’t know,” I admit, feeling defeated. “All I know is that I need to find her. I don’t care about the consequences. I need to know what happened to her.”

“Bro, by the looks of it, it’s not good, she’s naked in most of the pictures taken indoors,” Callum says, knowing exactly how to piss me off.

“I’m very aware of that fact,” I say through gritted teeth.

“We’ll do all we can to find her, don’t worry Bennett.” Ant tries to reassure me. I nod and look at Jase as he walks back in the room.

“She’s in. She’s going to find her file and come here. It might take a few hours, but I told her we’d all be here anyway.” I sigh in relief with the knowledge that they all have my back and that, even though I hate cops, we’ll have the help of one of them.

Two hours later, we’re still sat around the Chapel table when Lewis shows up. She sits across from Ant but not without glaring at Callum. We all know these two spent some time together but none of us know exactly what exactly went down, but my guess is that nothing good happened.

“What did you find?” I ask her.

“Not much more than what Jase mentioned on the phone. Cops dismissed the case as her being a runaway. They gave up searching for her long ago. She’s still listed as a missing person but that’s it,” she says looking at me.

“Great, nothing new then.” I sigh.

“That’s just on the surface, when I dug deeper I found more information. She didn’t run away. She was taken. By whom, I don’t know, but one witness mentioned a young girl falling down a couple of steps and not long after a van showed up and the girl was gone. They didn’t get the plate number, but at least you know she didn’t just run away. Her parents have shown the cops the pictures they’ve received but they won’t do anything. It could be an ongoing internal matter which will only complicate things a lot more if cops are involved in this.”

“What do you mean by internal matter?” I ask.

“It could be that one of the cops is behind this. Her parents might have been rich but they were stirring shit up and someone didn’t like that. I know you’ve experienced it firsthand with them accusing you of taking her and killing her. Her parents had a run in with the Satan’s Inferno of Texas. Mr. & Mrs. Larkin asked the cops to help them but they didn’t want to go against an MC. Her parents messed with the wrong person and th-”