Ham didn’t acknowledge his smart remark. He’d been quiet since Chelsea was gone, the two had gotten close and he was taking it hard.
I knew the feeling.
I looked up at the rundown house. It didn’t look like anyone had been there in a long time. The shutters were falling off and I could see boards missing on the deck that ran around the outside.
“Where are they?” I growled as Grant stood, wiping the blood from his nose.
“Inside.”
I started walking forward, ready to get my woman and murder the bastard who’d thought he could take her from me.
My phone began to ring.
In the back of my mind, I wanted to ignore it, but my gut made me stop and pull it from my pocket. I frowned seeing Kit’s name come up on the caller ID.
“I’m a little busy—”
“Don’t go in that fucking house. It’ll blow,” he yelled in my ear.
I spun around to look at my men. “What the hell are you on about?”
I watched as Grant shifted nervously on his feet.
“Rose called Harmony from Chelsea’s phone. It’s a trap. The door’s rigged,” Kit said, obviously relieved he’d caught me in time.
I stormed forward, grabbing Grant by the throat and slamming him against Wrench’s ride.
“She gave me an address. I’m gonna text it to you now.”
“Thanks, brother.” I tossed my phone on the ground and slammed my fist into the lying bastard’s face. He cried out in pain like the little bitch he was and fell to the ground, writhing.
“That was the plan, huh?” I boomed. “Make us walk through the door and blow us all up.”
My brothers stood stunned.
The little shit even had the balls to smirk. “It was Rosalie wasn’t it? She didn’t have the balls to go through with it?” He snorted. “Stupid bitch.”
I pulled my gun from its holster. “Seems she’s a lot smarter than your fucking dumb ass.”
He shook his head and I saw his eyes searching, smiling as he found my VP.
“Every time I fucked her I knew she was thinking about you.” He leaned to the side and spat a mouthful of blood into the grass. “Made it that much fucking sweeter knowing that a piece of biker trash wanted her and it was my cock insi—”
The bang echoed in the wide open space and Grant’s body fell limp.
Blizzard still held his gun on the asshole even though he was dead. His breathing was heavy and I knew if we didn’t go now he was going to lose it. I put my pistol away and picked up my phone seeing a text had come through from Kit.
I tossed my phone to Wrench. “Put this address in your GPS and go fucking fast. We’ve wasted too much time.”
I didn’t even have to explain to my brothers what was going on. They jumped on their bikes and we followed Wrench as he tore out of there like a bat out of hell. It wasn’t long before we pulled into a suburb of Athens that was what you might call the wrong side of the tracks. I saw a group of bikes parked up, down the street. The rest of my brothers. Wrench pulled up behind them.
“It’s just around the corner. Think we should go on foot so they don’t hear us coming,” Wrench explained.
I nodded. The last thing I needed was for them to get wind and take off running.
I saw people glancing out of their curtains as we hurried past. It was hard for a group of fourteen bikers to not draw attention to ourselves. At that point, though, I didn’t give a fuck. All I could see was Chelsea’s face.
“That’s it,” Kev murmured, pointing to a black Mercedes that was parked in the driveway of a house. Just as we reached the front step a man stepped out, he was looking down pulling a cigarette from its packet. I raised my gun, clicking off the safety which alerted him to our presence. The pack of smokes hit the deck and he stumbled backward into the doorframe.
“Don’t move mother-fucker,” I said, trying to keep my voice low and my steps light as I climbed the stairs.
“He was with Grant at the bar,” Ham informed me.
The guys eyes flicked from me to Ham and back.
“Where are they?” I demanded.
“In uh…” he stuttered, “in the basement.” I pointed behind him and spotted a red mark on the pristine carpet.
It was blood.
She was bleeding.
“Slider, grab him,” I said, pushing past and walking down the hall until I found an open door with a staircase. I could hear voices, one was a girl’s, not Chelsea’s, though.
“Shoot them,” a deep voice said, followed by heavy steps. My brothers crowded the small hall, guns drawn. Slider had the sleazy looking fucker by the throat. I tipped my head toward the staircase and Slider’s face lit up. With one huge push, he sent the bastard flying down the stairs, rolling and crashing and screaming like a baby.
Slider cupped his hands around his mouth. “Honey, I’m home!”
With that, I bounded down the stairs, taking two or three at a time. My men weren’t far behind. The guy we’d thrown down the stairs was out for the count. The man under him, who I clocked to be Marco DePalma groaned as he threw the body up and climbed to his feet. Leo had a gun pointed at his head in a flash and his back instantly stood straight. A gun clattered to the floor and Kev had another man pinned to the wall.
That was when I found her.
I almost dropped to my knees.
Rose was slumped over her body, a gun in her hand, waving it around like a mad woman.
“Rose,” Blizzard stepped forward, tucking his gun back inside his cut and holding his hands up. “Babe, put the gun down.”
“I didn’t know they would do this. I didn’t want them to hurt her. I called Harmony and told her,” Rose choked on her tears.
“Fucking bitch, you aren’t my daughter,” her father yelled from behind me. It was followed by the sounds of flesh hitting flesh.
But I couldn’t turn around. I trusted my brothers to watch my back because all I had eyes for was Chelsea.
“Rose, I know. It’s okay. You did the right thing. But babe, I can’t tell if she’s okay and Optimus here is about go crazy if he doesn’t check on his girl.”
I admired Blizzard’s ability to keep his voice soft even though I knew he was thinking exactly what I was thinking. I couldn’t see her breathing.
Rose looked down at Chelsea and screamed, “No!”
Blizzard dashed across the room, picked her up around the waist and pulled her away. Ham moved and took the gun from her hand and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
But not me.
I dropped to my knees and shuffled across the concrete floor. She looked so small, so delicate. I reached out slowly and touched her cheek. It was cold and her lips were tinted blue.
My breath caught in my throat.
No.
I would know if she was gone.
No.
I let out a roar and it filled the small space, “No!” I leaned over her and pressed my forehead to hers. I’d wasted so much time fucking around, thinking I was keeping her safe when really I should have had her at my side. “You can’t go,” I whispered. “I told Harlyn everything would be okay. I pinkie promised.”
How much time had I wasted pushing her away instead of holding her close? I was a fucking idiot. I’d lost another person that I loved. And it was my own God damn fault.
It was at that point I did something I never had before. I fucking prayed. I prayed for a chance to see her smile again. I prayed for a chance to feel her body warm and soft against me. I prayed for a chance to tell her I loved her and that she was it for me.
She was my ride or die.
I prayed to a fucking God that I didn’t even believe in to bring her back to me.
Hadn’t he taken enough from me already? Hadn’t I gone through enough pain—hadn’t she?
I heard sirens in the distance.
I didn’t care. I was going to kill this asshole and they could lock me up. Give me fucking life for all I cared. Without her, it didn’t matter anyway. Just as I turned my head to look over my shoulder, I felt it.