Reign (Riders of Apollo #1)

Chapter 23: Peyton Lennox

I wake up to an empty bed and frown, I like waking up with him. He's comfy and warm and the bed feels cold without him. I slip out of the covers and decide to get ready for the day and find him later, he won't be far. 

He's either downstairs or at the club.

I slip on a pair of baby blue, wide-leg trousers with its matching crop top that thankfully covers all of the hickies he decided to give me last night before grabbing some heels and a few pieces of jewellery. I brush my teeth and calm my hair, choosing not to do makeup I head down the stairs and find my biker in the kitchen, shirtless and on his phone.

I kiss his chest as I pass and he kisses my head. I make myself some tea and head to my office to have a look if I've got a reply on when I'm supposed to meet the Fed who'll give me the papers that I need. It says that he's on his way now and will be here at eleven, which is an hour from now.

He's going to meet me here which is fine, I guess. I sigh in relief when I realise we're one step closer to being done with this shit. The club will be safe as one rival will be removed and two rivals will become allies. It'll also be a fuck tonne richer but apparently that's not important since they've already got a lot of money. Can never have too much though, right?

"Everything okay, Angel?"

"Yeah, I'm meeting the Fed today about the papers so hopefully I'll have them in hand by midday today."

"If he lays a fucking hand on you, I will cut it off." I reach up and kiss him, I try to tell him that I appreciate it and that him calling me Angel hit home and that I'm excited for all this shit to be over so we can just be us but I settle with a kiss.

We chat over our drinks in the lounge while I wait for the Fed to turn up, Roman tries to leave a hickey on my neck that's visible for everybody but I manage to convince him that it would be unprofessional to go to a meeting with a Fed with a great big hickey. 

He rolled over when I gave him the puppy dog eyes.

The bell rings and I give Roman a look that says 'do not piss the Fed off' and he nods in agreement. I open the door and plaster a fake smile on my face. I hate this dickhead, he makes me angry every time. "Hello Peyton, how are you, dear?"

"I'm good, George, and you?"

"Even better now that I'm seeing you." Reign steps up behind me and the Fed looks kinda scared which is brilliant and I fight the urge to laugh. "Who's this?"

"Reign." They shake hands and I know Roman is applying more pressure than need be as George winces but tries to cover it.

"Come on, darling, let's get some lunch." I grab my purse and head out after George, I know Roman is pissed that I have to go out with him just to get my hands on the files we need but I also know that he trusts me to do what I need to to help the club. He leans against the doorframe as George pulls away.

We head to the restaurant that we went to the other day and we take a seat. The same waitress we had comes over with her pretty blonde hair and green eyes, I actually shipped her with Rubble when we were first here, even though I didn't know his name or anything about him they just seemed to connect.

"Hi Lucy." I greet with a happy smile, I like her. She has a big heart and is the sweetest girl I've ever spoken to.

"Hey Peyton, where are all your bikers?"

"Passed out at the bar I assume." She laughs and takes our order, promising to be quick with it. I check my purse and make sure I have enough cash to tip her. "So, why did you want to see me George?"

"I always like to see you, Peyton." The lunch continues quite like this, him making stupid comments, me trying not to punch him and me cramming food in my mouth so I don't have to speak as much. Also I'm not paying and free food always tastes better.

Thankfully it ends with a box of files in my hand, a fifty in the apron of Lucy and the Fed gone. I told him I wanted to stay in town when really I just wanted him to leave. I walk back to mine and Roman is already gone, that's probably a good thing because he is distracting as fuck.

I spread the files out in front of me, trying to track why Blade was even at the shooting between Fire Demons and Riders of Apollo, it was an entirely closed affair and shouldn't have included civilians. He definitely wasn't part of either MC, nor was he linked to the Niners or the Mexicans. 

By all intents and purposes, he was not part of this.

Sergeant Romero, however, should've been shot ages ago. The sick fuck has raped and killed three women, murdered seven more just because, and traffics thousands. Thankfully, the Feds came down on him hard and put him away for all of that.

Twitch has a rap sheet, he's younger than the other two but his rap sheet is longer. Drugs, drugs with intent to distribute, battery with a deadly weapon, grievous bodily harm, actual bodily harm, etc, etc. His parole officer is clean as is his arresting officer.

I focus on Blade, his rap sheet is small compared to the others. Only a few counts for drugs and unlicensed gun use so what the fuck was he doing there? I pull up a map on that area when he was there and try and see what he was up to.

I look at the addresses on all three files and only one matches up with the area. Sergeant Romero.

I grab my keys and dash out, slipping into my car and heading straight for the apartment building. Thankfully the security is shit so I'm able to just walk into the building. I know that this apartment is still being rented out to Romero with Twitch paying the bills so I stop at the room opposite. I knock on the door and a lady with a little baby opens it.

She's gorgeous but looks exhausted, sinking in on herself. She has long red hair with blue eyes and soft freckles scattered across her pale skin. She's curvaceous in her jeans and Iron Maiden top and the little baby is the spitting image of her. "Hi I'm Peyton, I'm sorry to bother you."

"I'm Lily, don't worry about it. You're the first adult contact I've had since this little one was born."

"How old is she?"

"Only a month, that's why I look like I'm dying."

"Oh, not at all, you have that new mother glow. I was wondering if you had seen anyone in or out of the apartment across the way?"

"Nope, no one's been in there since the cops came and took him away. It's starting to stink actually."

"Okay, thank you. Oh, when you're ready to come out and mingle come find me. Here's my number." I hand her a piece of paper with my number on it and she takes it gratefully, "or if you need a babysitter of course."

We say goodbye and I pick the lock on the door, slipping in a closing it behind me. I put my gloves on and search through his stuff. Playboy magazines, a few packages of weed beneath the floorboards, pictures of the Riders from both MCs. I find the cameras he has set up and sigh in relief when I notice they aren't live, they just record to this one computer.

I pull up the night in question and skip forward to a timeframe about an hour before the shooting. It's only the Sergeant and Blade in the apartment, which is normal since they're cousins. That is until they start making out, oh good Lord this is a fucking sex tape. Well I'm not surprised that Sergeant was the bottom. I grab a duffel out of the bottom of the wardrobe and fill it with all of the CDs of the surveillance on the apartment making sure to take the CD with me on it as well before putting that by the door and continuing on my search.

I feel like a detective.