Cupcake Explosion (Cupcakes 4)

“You know I’m not happy Cade’s missing, right? I mean, it’s terrible, and I know everything is going to be okay and your wedding will go off as planned. I’m just happy to be working with you, out on an actual case, instead of sitting back in my office at the paper.”

“I know, Carmen, don’t worry about it. I’m happy you’re working with me too, and although I wish we were on a different case, I’m confident that we will find him and everything will be fine.”

“Me, too.”

“And, you’re right, let’s start at the beginning,” I said, and turned the van toward the outskirts of town where the gas station was located.

Luckily, when we arrived, there were no cop cars in sight.

We parked at the gas station and walked over to the crash site. The car was pretty toasted and Cade’s bike was trashed.

Boy, is Cade going to be pissed . . .

Carmen took pictures with her shiny new Nikon, while I did the same with my phone.

The license plates were fried, the inside of the car was charred, and there was nothing left that could give us a clue as to who the car belonged to.

“Shit,” I muttered as I walked in a big circle on the outside of the crash, looking for anything that may have been flung from the wreckage.

“Hey, Lila, that guy’s trying to get your attention,” Carmen said, and I looked up to see Junior standing at the back of the gas station, waving his hand for us to come over.

“That’s the guy with the video of the crash. Maybe he’s seen or heard something else,” I told her.

I took one last look at Cade’s bike, my chest contracting painfully, then went to see what Junior wanted.

“HEY, JUNIOR, WHAT’S up?” I asked as we followed him around the back of the gas station.

He looked at me, then slid his eyes over to Carmen, before bringing them back to me.

“This is Carmen, she works with me,” I told him.

“Not a pig?”

“No, she’s a civilian, like me,” I said, resisting the urge to throttle him.

He gave her one more suspicious look, then whispered, “They came back.”

“Who? The MC? My fiancé?” I asked, keeping my voice low as well. I wasn’t sure who we were afraid was going to overhear, but if Junior was paranoid, then I’d go with it.

“The ones who took your man and set the explosion.”

“Did you get a name? Find out where they’re keeping him? Anything?”

Junior looked around, so I did too. There was no one else there, so he leaned back in.

“They’ll be back tomorrow night with a tow truck. After dark, when the cops aren’t around. The guy I talked to had a name patch, name’s Scam, he’s the one who I talked to before. I bet he knows where your man is.”

“Did you notice any other patches, maybe one with their MC name on it?” Carmen asked.

See, I knew having her on my team was a good idea.

“Uh, yeah, Diablos Rebeledos, or something like that . . .”

“Diablos Rebeldes?” she asked.

“Yeah, that’s it,” Junior said with a creepy smile.

“Diablos Rebeldes?” I asked her, never having heard of them before.