Chapter 15 - Sunrise AgainDawn was breaking when Stone returned to the motel.
The sun rose over the highway.
Same sunrise.
Different world.
The wreckage of Room 17 smoked quietly.
Stone stood outside.
Jax joined him.
“You really going down there?”
Stone nodded.
“Victor wants us to.”
“That doesn't mean it's smart.”
Stone smiled faintly.
“No.”
They entered the ruins.
Under what remained of the old room, they found a trapdoor.
Stone lifted it.
A ladder descended.
At the bottom was a concrete chamber.
Victor Hale sat against the wall.
Unarmed.
Waiting.
Stone aimed his gun.
“Where's Clara?”
Victor laughed softly.
“Safe.”
“You're lying.”
“No.”
He pointed toward a monitor.
The screen showed the clubhouse.
Clara sat beside Mara.
Noah was there too.
Alive.
Safe.
Stone lowered his gun slightly.
“What do you want?”
Victor stared at him.
“To tell you the truth before Elias's people kill me.”
“Elias is dead.”
Victor shook his head.
“No.”
Stone froze.
“Crowe worked for him.”
“Crowe worked for himself.”
Victor leaned closer.
“Elias Voss disappeared eight years ago.”
“We know.”
“No.”
Victor smiled.
“You think the man disappeared.”
Stone felt a chill.
“The body was never found.”
Victor pointed to another screen.
A live camera feed.
A warehouse.
A man standing alone.
Older.
Silver hair.
Dark suit.
Stone recognized the face.
Elias Voss.
Victor whispered:
“Your enemy never left.”
Stone turned toward the staircase.
“How many?”
“Enough.”
“Where?”
“Everywhere.”
Stone stared at the screen.
Elias was speaking to someone.
The audio came through.
“You failed me, Victor.”
Victor closed his eyes.
Then Elias looked directly into the camera.
As if he could see Stone.
As if he had been waiting.
“Derek Mercer.”
Stone stepped closer.
Elias smiled.
“You have something that belongs to me.”
Stone said nothing.
“The child.”
Stone's jaw tightened.
“She doesn't belong to anyone.”
Elias laughed.
“Your father said that.”
Stone looked at Victor.
“What does he want?”
Victor answered:
“The blue box.”
Stone lifted it.
“It's mine now.”
“No.”
Victor shook his head.
“It belongs to Samuel.”
Stone looked at the old cassette recorder.
He understood.
The box wasn't just evidence.
It was a final message from his father.
He opened it again.
A hidden compartment clicked.
Inside was a key.
A simple brass key.
And a note.
THE TRUTH IS BURIED WHERE WE FIRST MET.
Stone stared.
Jax read it.
“Where did you meet Samuel?”
Stone looked toward the road.
The Rustline Roadhouse.
Before it became a biker bar.
Before Stone led the Iron Vale Riders.
Before his father disappeared.
There had been an old mechanic's garage there.
Stone remembered something.
A basement.
A wall.
A place his father once told him never to open.
He turned.
“Jax.”
“Yeah?”
“We're going home.”
Victor grabbed Stone's arm.
“Don't.”
Stone looked back.
“Why?”
Victor's eyes were filled with fear.
“Because Elias wants you to open that door.”
Stone pulled free.
“Then he can wait.”
They climbed out.
Outside, Clara was standing across the road.
Barefoot again.
Watching the sunrise.
Stone walked toward her.
“You shouldn't be out here without shoes.”
Clara looked up.
“I wanted to see the sun.”
Stone crouched.
“What do you see?”
She thought for a moment.
“Tomorrow.”
Stone smiled.
Behind them, the bikers mounted their motorcycles.
Mara and Noah were safe.
Daniel had survived.
Crowe was in custody.
The first layer of the conspiracy had fallen.
But the real war had only begun.
Stone looked toward the Rustline Roadhouse.
Then toward the horizon.
His phone vibrated one last time.
Unknown number.
A photograph.
Samuel Mercer.
Alive.
Standing beside a young Clara.
The date on the photograph was yesterday.
Stone's blood ran cold.
A message appeared beneath it.
YOU SAVED THE GIRL.
A second message followed.
NOW FIND HER FATHER.
Stone stared at the screen.
Clara tugged his sleeve.
“Stone?”
He looked down.
“Yes?”
She pointed across the road.
At the motel.
Room 17.
Smoke drifted through the shattered windows.
Then, for one impossible second, a man appeared behind the glass.
Samuel Mercer.
Stone stopped breathing.
The figure lifted one hand.
Not waving.
Pointing.
Toward the ground.
Toward something buried beneath Room 17.
Then he vanished.
Stone turned to the riders.
“Dig it up.”
Engines roared.
Shovels came out.
And as the first rays of sunlight spread across the broken motel...
someone beneath the earth knocked three times.
Stone froze.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
Then a child’s voice came from below.
“Please.”
Everyone stared at the ground.
The voice continued.
“I'm Clara.”
Stone looked beside him.
Clara was standing there.
Right beside him.
Her face had gone completely white.
Because she whispered:
“That isn't me.”
May you like
And beneath the motel floor...
the other Clara began screaming.
