Broken Chrome

Chapter 16

BROKEN CHROME

Chapter Sixteen

The Woman They Buried

The first light of morning had barely begun to creep over the trees when Ryder and Emma finally made it back to the clubhouse, both exhausted from the night’s events and carrying the kind of silence between them that came from knowing there were still too many unanswered questions waiting for them.

Emma climbed off the motorcycle and stood beside it for a moment, letting the quiet settle around her.

The clubhouse was usually loud at this hour.

Engines warming in the parking lot.

Men laughing near the garage.

Music coming from somewhere inside.

The smell of coffee drifting through the open doors.

But that morning, everything felt different.

People were awake, but nobody was talking.

Everyone knew what had happened.

Everyone knew Silas was alive.

Everyone knew Emma was his daughter.

And now everyone knew Cole was her twin brother.

Ryder removed his helmet and looked at her.

“You okay?”

Emma gave him a tired smile.

“I don’t know.”

He stepped closer.

“That’s fair.”

She looked toward the clubhouse.

“I thought finding my mother was supposed to make everything better.”

“It doesn’t usually work that way.”

“No.”

She sighed.

“It just gave me more questions.”

Ryder reached for her hand.

“Then we’ll find the answers.”

Emma looked at him.

“Together?”

“Together.”

She smiled faintly.

“That’s becoming our thing.”

“What?”

“Finding trouble together.”

Ryder laughed.

“I’d prefer to call it an adventure.”

“An adventure?”

“Sounds better.”

She shook her head.

“You have a strange definition of adventure.”

“I ride motorcycles for a living, Emma.”

“Fair point.”

He leaned down and kissed her forehead.

“Come on.”

They walked inside.

⸻

Cole was already waiting in the main room.

He looked like he hadn’t slept at all.

His jacket was still covered in dirt from the previous night, and there was a small cut across his cheek, but the moment he saw Emma, his expression softened.

“You okay?”

Emma nodded.

“You?”

“Been better.”

She walked toward him.

“Where’s Marcus?”

“Still at the mill.”

“Is Silas gone?”

Cole nodded.

“We searched for him until sunrise.”

“Did you find anything?”

“His motorcycle.”

Emma’s stomach tightened.

“But not him.”

“No.”

Cole sat down.

“We found something else.”

Ryder’s expression immediately changed.

“What?”

Cole reached into his jacket and pulled out a folded piece of paper.

“This was inside Silas’s office.”

Emma took it.

The paper was old.

Yellowed around the edges.

There was a name written across the top.

Elizabeth Brooks.

Emma stared at it.

“What is this?”

Cole shook his head.

“I don’t know.”

Ryder unfolded it.

His eyes moved across the page.

Then his expression changed.

“What?”

Emma looked at him.

He handed her the paper.

It was a hospital record.

The date was twenty-eight years old.

Emma’s eyes moved down the page.

Mother: Elizabeth Brooks.

Children: Male / Female.

Father: Unknown.

But there was another name beneath it.

A name that made Emma’s blood run cold.

Emergency Contact: Evelyn Callahan.

Emma looked at Ryder.

“Who’s Evelyn Callahan?”

His face went pale.

“My mother.”

⸻

The room went silent.

Emma looked at Cole.

“Your grandmother?”

Cole nodded slowly.

“Yes.”

“She knew?”

“I don’t know.”

Ryder stared at the document.

“My mother died when I was fifteen.”

Emma looked at him.

“Are you sure?”

He nodded.

“That’s what I was told.”

Cole frowned.

“Who told you?”

“My father.”

Everyone went quiet.

Emma slowly looked back at the document.

“So your mother knew about us.”

Ryder shook his head.

“Apparently.”

“Why would she be listed as the emergency contact?”

“I don’t know.”

Cole stood.

“There’s only one way to find out.”

Ryder looked at him.

“My mother’s dead.”

“Maybe.”

Cole pointed toward the paper.

“But this was filed before we were born.”

Emma frowned.

“What are you saying?”

Cole looked at them.

“I’m saying whoever put her name down as an emergency contact knew about us before we were born.”

Ryder stared at the paper.

“Which means…”

Cole nodded.

“She knew Elizabeth.”

Emma’s heart pounded.

“And maybe she knew Silas.”

⸻

They spent the next two hours searching through old club records.

Photographs.

Membership files.

Bank statements.

Letters.

Anything that might connect Evelyn Callahan to Elizabeth.

Finally, Bishop walked into the office carrying an old metal box.

“Found this in storage.”

Ryder looked up.

“What’s inside?”

“Old club records.”

Bishop placed it on the desk.

“There was a name on the bottom.”

Ryder frowned.

“Whose?”

Bishop looked at Emma.

“Thomas Brooks.”

Emma’s heart stopped.

They opened the box.

Inside were dozens of documents.

One photograph caught Emma’s attention.

It showed Thomas standing beside Evelyn.

They were both smiling.

Emma stared.

“My father knew her.”

Ryder picked up another photograph.

This one showed Thomas, Elizabeth, Evelyn, and Silas together.

Emma’s stomach twisted.

“They all knew each other.”

Cole looked at the photograph.

“Before any of us were born.”

Ryder turned the picture over.

There was writing on the back.

Blackwater, 1997.

And beneath it:

The night everything changed.

Emma looked at her mother.

Elizabeth had gone completely pale.

“Mom?”

She didn’t answer.

“Mom, what happened in 1997?”

Elizabeth sat down.

Her hands began trembling.

“I thought those memories were buried.”

Emma knelt beside her.

“They’re not.”

Elizabeth looked at her daughter.

“No.”

She touched the photograph.

“They’re not.”

⸻

Elizabeth finally began to speak.

“Silas wasn’t always the man you know.”

Emma listened.

“Before the club, before the money, before the Black Rose, Silas was different.”

Ryder frowned.

“My father?”

Elizabeth nodded.

“He was reckless, arrogant, and angry, but there was still something human inside him.”

“What happened?”

“Power.”

Elizabeth looked down.

“He discovered how easy it was to make people afraid.”

She paused.

“And once he realized fear worked, he stopped caring about anything else.”

Emma looked at the photograph.

“What about Evelyn?”

Elizabeth’s eyes filled with tears.

“Evelyn tried to stop him.”

Ryder froze.

“My mother?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because she discovered what Silas was doing.”

Elizabeth swallowed.

“She knew about the Black Rose before anyone else.”

Ryder stared at her.

“Then why didn’t she tell me?”

“Because Silas threatened you.”

Ryder’s face changed.

“He threatened me?”

“You were fifteen.”

Elizabeth nodded.

“He told Evelyn that if she exposed him, he would make sure you disappeared.”

Ryder’s fists clenched.

“So she stayed quiet.”

“She tried to protect you.”

Emma looked at Ryder.

“Just like everyone tried to protect me.”

He looked at her.

“Maybe.”

Elizabeth shook her head.

“No.”

She looked at both of them.

“There’s something you need to understand.”

“What?”

“Your mother didn’t die.”

Ryder froze.

“What?”

Elizabeth’s voice was barely audible.

“Evelyn Callahan is alive.”

Silence.

Ryder stared at her as though he had forgotten how to breathe.

“My mother is alive?”

Elizabeth nodded.

“Yes.”

“Where?”

“I don’t know.”

“You just said she’s alive.”

“I know.”

“Then where is she?”

Elizabeth looked away.

“Silas moved her.”

Ryder’s voice broke.

“When?”

“Six months after you were told she died.”

He stared at her.

“Who told me?”

“Silas.”

Ryder’s face hardened.

“He told me she died.”

Elizabeth nodded.

“He wanted you to believe that.”

“Why?”

“Because he needed you to stop looking for her.”

Emma reached for Ryder’s hand.

He didn’t move.

His entire world had just changed.

Again.

His mother wasn’t dead.

She had been alive all these years.

And someone had deliberately kept them apart.

⸻

Ryder stood suddenly.

“I need air.”

Emma followed him outside.

The morning sun had risen higher now, casting a warm glow across the parking lot, but Ryder seemed oblivious to it.

He walked toward his motorcycle.

Emma stopped him.

“Where are you going?”

“I don’t know.”

“Ryder.”

He turned.

“I’ve spent my entire life believing my mother abandoned me.”

His voice cracked.

“Every birthday, every Christmas, every time I needed her, I told myself she was gone.”

Emma stepped closer.

“She didn’t abandon you.”

“I know that now.”

He looked at her.

“But knowing doesn’t erase twenty years.”

“No.”

Emma touched his hand.

“But maybe you get the chance to make the next twenty different.”

He looked at her.

“What if she’s changed?”

“Then you’ll meet the woman she became.”

“What if she doesn’t want to see me?”

“Then that’s her choice.”

Emma smiled softly.

“But at least you’ll know the truth.”

Ryder stared at her.

“You always know what to say.”

“No, I don’t.”

She laughed quietly.

“I’m just good at pretending.”

He smiled.

Then he pulled her into his arms.

“I love you.”

She rested her cheek against his chest.

“I love you too.”

They stayed there for several seconds.

Then Emma whispered,

“We’re going to find her.”

Ryder nodded.

“Yeah.”

“We’re going to find your mother.”

He kissed the top of her head.

“Together.”

⸻

Inside the clubhouse, Cole was staring at the photograph.

Something about it bothered him.

He turned it over again.

Then noticed something he hadn’t seen before.

A second piece of writing had been scratched into the back.

Not written.

Scratched.

As if someone had been desperate to leave a message without being noticed.

Cole read it aloud.

“If Silas tells you Evelyn is dead, don’t believe him.”

Bishop frowned.

“Who wrote that?”

Cole looked at the handwriting.

“I know.”

“Who?”

Cole’s face changed.

“Thomas.”

Emma and Ryder had just walked back inside.

“What?”

Cole handed the photograph to Ryder.

Ryder read the message.

His face went pale.

“My father knew.”

Emma looked at the photograph.

“He knew your mother was alive.”

Cole nodded.

“And he was trying to leave us clues.”

Ryder looked toward Elizabeth.

“Why didn’t you tell us?”

Elizabeth stood slowly.

“Because Thomas made me promise.”

Emma sighed.

“Another promise.”

Elizabeth looked at her.

“He made me swear that if anything happened to him, I would protect all three of you.”

“All three?”

Emma looked at her.

Elizabeth nodded.

“You.”

She pointed toward Cole.

“Him.”

Then toward Ryder.

“And him.”

Ryder stared at her.

“Why me?”

Elizabeth’s eyes filled with tears.

“Because Thomas loved you like a son.”

Ryder looked away.

Elizabeth continued.

“He knew Silas would eventually come after you.”

She paused.

“And he knew that one day, you would have to choose whether you wanted to become like your father…”

Her eyes moved toward Emma.

“…or become the man Thomas always believed you could be.”

Ryder swallowed hard.

Emma reached for his hand.

He took it.

“I choose her,” he whispered.

Elizabeth smiled through her tears.

“Then Thomas was right about you.”

⸻

That evening, they gathered around the clubhouse table.

For the first time, there were no secrets.

At least, they hoped there weren’t.

Cole placed the photograph in the center.

“We find Evelyn.”

Bishop nodded.

“And Marcus.”

Ryder looked at him.

“Marcus first.”

Emma frowned.

“Why?”

“Because he knows where Silas is.”

Cole shook his head.

“And Silas knows where Evelyn is.”

Ryder looked toward Emma.

She knew exactly what he was thinking.

“We find them both.”

He nodded.

“But we don’t split up.”

Cole smiled.

“Agreed.”

Bishop looked around the table.

“Then we ride at sunrise.”

Emma smiled faintly.

For the first time, the phrase didn’t frighten her.

We ride.

It sounded like a promise.

A promise that no matter what waited on the road ahead, they would face it together.

But none of them noticed the black motorcycle parked across the road.

The rider sat beneath the shadows of the trees, watching the clubhouse through a pair of binoculars.

After several minutes, he pulled out his phone.

“She’s here.”

A voice answered.

“Good.”

“What do you want me to do?”

The rider looked toward the clubhouse.

“Nothing yet.”

“Why?”

“Because Silas made one mistake.”

“What mistake?”

The rider smiled.

“He thought Emma was the key.”

A pause.

“She’s not.”

“Then what is?”

The rider’s eyes moved toward the clubhouse window.

“Ryder.”

He ended the call.

Then he started the motorcycle and disappeared into the darkness.

Inside, Emma rested her head against Ryder’s shoulder, unaware that someone had just put a target on the man she loved.

And somewhere far away, in a house hidden beyond the edge of Blackwater, a woman sat alone beside a window, staring at an old photograph of two newborn babies.

She traced one tiny face with her finger.

Then the other.

Tears rolled down her cheeks.

“My babies,” she whispered.

She lifted the photograph to her chest.

“I never stopped looking for you.”

Then her phone rang.

She answered without speaking.

A man’s voice came through the line.

“They found Emma.”

The woman’s entire body went still.

“Who?”

“Ryder.”

Her eyes filled with fear.

“Then it’s time.”

“Time for what?”

She looked once more at the photograph.

“Time for me to go home.”

And for the first time in nearly three decades, Evelyn Callahan stood up and walked toward the door.