Ride And Obey MC

Twenty-One

Knox POV

The ride back to the compound is dead quiet, just the hum of the bike and the weight in my gut. But as soon as I roll through the gates, I don’t waste time. I head straight inside and spot Glitch leaning against the bar, one hand wrapped around a soda like always.

“Need your skills,” I tell him without stopping.

He raises a brow but pushes off the bar and follows me into the church room. Echo, Ghost, and a few of the others fall in step behind us like bloodhounds catching the scent of something. Of course, it can’t just be a me thing. Nothing ever stays quiet in this place.

Glitch drops into his chair and taps at the keyboard, the screens lighting up in front of him. “What am I looking for?” he asks.

“You able to pull news reports? Old ones?”

He chuckles, half insulted. “Since when do you care about that kind of s**t?”

I shoot him a look. “Just answer the question. Can you or not?”

“Yeah, I can. I’ll need a date though.”

“November 8th, five years ago.”

He nods and starts typing. The keys click fast beneath his fingers, the screens flashing one after another. The rest of the room stays quiet, the weight of something they can all feel hanging in the air.

“What exactly am I looking for?” Glitch asks, his focus still on the monitors. “Give me more than just a date, brother. Where?”

“Here. This city. Local s**t only,” I say. “Not sure there’ll be names, but maybe.”

He works through pages of articles, scrolling too fast for me to follow.

“Need more to go off,” he mutters.

I blow out a breath and scrub a hand down my face. I hadn’t wanted to say it, but there’s no point holding back now. “It’s about Red. I think something happened to her. Something bad. Greg said to check the news from that night. Said she was attacked. I need to know the details.”

Glitch slows down and starts reading deeper into the articles. A few minutes pass before he stops. “Think I’ve got something.”

He leans back slightly so I can see the screen.

Woman left fighting for her life after brutal attack.

The headline punches me in the chest. I read through the short article. There aren’t many details. It says the attack happened late at night, she was found unconscious, taken to the hospital. They were still investigating.

“That it?” I ask. “Anything after this?”

Glitch turns in his chair. “That’s not enough for you? She was in a coma, man.”

“I need f*****g everything, Glitch.”

He grumbles under his breath and keeps digging.

“You should give her the chance to tell you,” Ghost says from the corner, arms crossed over his chest.

“I'm an impatient fucker,” I say without looking away. “And it’s not like she’s gonna drop that s**t in the middle of a casual conversation.”

Glitch’s fingers pause on the keys. “f**k,” he says, voice low.

I move beside him to get a better look. The screen shows a photo, barely recognizable. I lean in. It’s her. But not her. Face bruised, swollen, cuts and blood all over. Legs in casts. Her hair’s tangled and dark with dried blood. She looks destroyed.

“They didn’t just attack her,” I mutter. “They f*****g tried to end her.”

Echo steps up beside me. “That kind of damage… that was personal.”

He’s not wrong. Whoever did this wasn’t just out to hurt her. They were out for blood.

“There’s another article,” Glitch says. “About a month later. Says she woke up. Had no memory of her life from the last few years.”

I run a hand over my mouth. “So how’d she end up with that prick Sam? Or was she with him before?”

Greg’s protectiveness makes more sense now. He probably knew her before it all went down. Maybe even helped her get back on her feet.

Now I’m wondering if I should back the hell off.

Ghost speaks up again. “Told you I was right not to touch that one.”

I nod, jaw tight. “Yeah. And now I’m wondering if I should’ve kept my distance too.”

The room goes still.

“If she’s still trying to piece her life together, what happens if she wakes up one day and remembers she loves him? Then what? I just screw her up all over again?”

No one has an answer. Not even Echo.

But something in me refuses to back down.

“I still want to know who the f**k did it,” I say.

“Anything in there about that?” Echo asks.

Glitch scrolls again. “Not much. She was found close to midnight. Partner said he last saw her at eight before he went out. She told police she thought the guy sounded familiar, but she couldn’t remember anything else.”

“That’s it?” I ask.

“That’s all they had. No suspects, no arrest.”

“Can we get the police report?” I ask Echo.

“It’s a long shot,” he says. “I can try, but asking for a r**e file from five years ago without reason’s gonna get us flagged.”

“Tell him it’s a favor. Just want to know who did it.”

He pulls out his phone. “I’ll make the call.”

I keep staring at the screen. Her picture is still up there, and I can’t look away. Her legs were shattered. Her ribs were cracked. Her face was torn to hell. This wasn’t some mugging gone wrong. This was someone who wanted to break her beyond repair.

And now I’ve got her sitting across from her boyfriend in some resturant, trying to hold her s**t together.

I don’t know if her showing up tonight would be good or bad. I don’t know if I should let her. But I do know one thing. I’m not gonna be the one who makes her life worse.

Not if I can help it.

Regardless of what happens, I'm going to find out who did this and make sure they suffer like she did, only no one is going to find their broken body.