PART 2 — FIND JACK’S BROTHER

Jack read the note again.

FIND JACK’S BROTHER.

His hands тιԍнтened around the paper.

“Who gave you this?”

“My daddy.”

“When?”

“Before he died.”

Jack looked toward the six men outside.

They were still standing in the parking lot.

Waiting.

Watching.

One minute was almost gone.

Jack turned back to the girl.

“You said your father told you to find me.”

She nodded.

“Did he tell you anything else?”

“He said you wouldn’t believe me.”

Jack frowned.

“Believe what?”

Emma reached into her backpack again.

This time, she pulled out a small pH๏τograph.

She handed it to him.

Jack stared at it.

The pH๏τograph showed two teenage boys standing beside a motorcycle.

One was Jack.

The other was his brother.

His ᴅᴇᴀᴅ brother.

Jack’s face went pale.

He hadn’t seen that pH๏τograph in fifteen years.

“Where did you get this?”

“My daddy had it.”

Jack flipped the pH๏τograph over.

There was writing on the back.

His brother’s handwriting.

Three words.

HE’S STILL ALIVE.

Jack stopped breathing.

His brother had supposedly died fifteen years ago.

But now, in his hand, was proof that someone had known otherwise.

The diner door rattled.

One of the men outside shouted:

“Time’s up!”

Jack folded the pH๏τograph and slipped it into his pocket.

He looked at Emma.

“Can you trust me?”

She nodded.

“My daddy said I could.”

Jack grabbed his jacket.

“Then stay close.”

They moved toward the back exit.

Before Jack opened the door, Emma suddenly stopped him.

“What?”

She pointed at his vest.

“The wolf.”

Jack looked down.

“What about it?”

“My daddy said the bad men would wear the wolf.”

Jack’s expression hardened.

“And I’m wearing it.”

Emma shook her head.

“No.”

She pointed through the front window.

One of the six men had stepped into the light.

A wolf patch was clearly visible on his jacket.

Then another man stepped forward.

Another wolf.

Then another.

Jack finally understood.

The warning wasn’t about bikers.

It wasn’t about his club.

It was about someone who had stolen the symbol.

Someone who had been using the wolf to hunt people connected to his brother.

Jack opened the back door.

But before they could escape, his phone vibrated.

Unknown number.

He answered.

A distorted voice spoke.

“You should have stayed in prison, Jack.”

Jack froze.

“You know my name?”

“We know everything.”

“Who are you?”

A pause.

Then:

“Ask your brother.”

The call ended.

Jack stared at the phone.

Emma whispered:

“Your brother is alive?”

Jack looked toward the dark road beyond the diner.

For fifteen years, he had believed his brother was ᴅᴇᴀᴅ.

Now someone was telling him otherwise.

And six men wearing the wolf were waiting outside.

Jack took Emma’s hand.

“We’re leaving.”

“Where?”

Jack looked at the pH๏τograph one more time.

Then at the words written on the back.

HE’S STILL ALIVE.

“I don’t know yet.”

“But we’re going to find him.”

Because the little girl hadn’t walked four miles through the darkness to find Jack Mercer by accident.

Her father had known something Jack had never known.

His brother wasn’t the end of the mystery.

He was the beginning.