“Tinker we need to pick up Mary-Anne and go to the clubhouse,” I announce as I slide into the passenger seat of the car.
Brian and Chad silently climb into the backseat and Tinker turns around to look from them to me. “What the fuck is going on here?” Tinker barks.
I shake my head. “I don’t know. Mary-Anne’s daughters and my daughter, are missing,” I whisper. Tears fill my eyes as my bottom lip trembles and I start to shake in fear.
My baby, my baby is missing.
Tinker doesn’t say anything else, but he drives like we’re on a racetrack. I don’t care, the quicker he gets Mary-Anne, and the faster we get to the clubhouse, the sooner we’ll know what the fuck is going on.
When we pull up to Mary-Anne’s, I watch as she sprints from the house. Her guard is already on his bike when she opens up the back door. Mary-Anne climbs over Brian’s lap to sit in the middle.
“Go, go, go,” she screams at Tinker.
Tinker presses his foot to the gas pedal and we shoot out into the street. I’m thankful that the clubhouse isn’t very far from MadDog and Mary-Anne’s.
It only takes us a few minutes to get there, and the gate is already open when we arrive. When Tinker parks, we open the door and silently file out of the car, running toward the club’s entrance.
The bar is quiet, but full of men when we arrive. I look around frantically for West but he isn’t there. MadDog runs toward Mary-Anne and I watch as he pulls her into his chest for a tight embrace.
She clings to him and begins to sob against his chest. It’s too intimate to watch, but I can’t look away. They’re so in love, and so attuned to each other that even in tragedy, they’re beautiful together.
“Do we know anything?” I chance asking MadDog after a few minutes.
He glances over at me and his face goes hard. “Not yet. We’re getting footage from the mall’s security cameras. Hacker is getting into their system as fast as he can.”
Chad tugs me against his side, wrapping his arm around my shoulders and I let out a sigh. Hacker will find out whatever needs to be found out. He came to us last year, he was military intelligence and he’s the smartest computer guy I’ve ever met.
He’ll find my baby.
I know he will.
Chapter Fourteen
CAMO
My phone rings a-fucking-gain. I’m only a few hours from home so I ignore it. Then, Soar’s phone rings and my brows tug together. He sits up and fumbles with his device before he places it at his ear and barks a hello. I glance at him and notice that he’s turned toward me his jaw hard and his face unreadable.
“Yeah. Okay,” he grunts before ending the call. “How far away from the clubhouse are we?” he asks.
I glance down at the clock before I look straight ahead. “About four hours,” I murmur. “What’s up?”
“Pull over, I’m driving the rest of the way,” he announces.
I almost tell him to fuck off but there’s something about his insistence that has me following his demand. I pull the empty truck over to the side of the highway.
Without a word, I swing the door open and jump down. We switch seats and when we’re back on the road, Soar tells me what the fuck is going on.
“Rosalie is missing,” he announces.
My entire body locks up tight and I turn my head slowly to look at his profile. “Come again?” I mutter.
“She went to the mall with Riley and Finley this morning. They’re all missing. Apparently, Ivy and her gym buddies have been calling you all day. Hacker just got the video feed from the mall’s food court and watched her and the others being led out of the mall by three punk asses.”
The blood boils in my body, and it takes everything inside of me not to scream. My baby, my daughter, is gone. “Do they know who the kids are?” I calmly ask.
Soar clears his throat before he continues. “Hacker’s trying to get into the government’s facial recognition program. He says he may be able to get something there if any of them have records. I can guess that it has to do with that punk who confronted Mary though. She said he was young.”
We don’t speak again for the next four hours, and I keep my phone close. I listen to the messages, two from Brian, and one from Ivy.
She sounds small and scared, and my doubts of being the man for her come forward again. I should be there for her right now. I should be out looking for our daughter, but I’m stuck in the cab of this fucking truck.
I feel like a caged animal. Thankfully, the back of our truck is empty. Soar pushes the speed limit, and I know if we get pulled over, we won’t get hauled into jail for having anything illegal with us.
When the clubhouse finally comes into view both Soar and I let out a collective sigh of relief.
I open the door and jump out before he’s even put the truck in park and I spring toward the main clubhouse doors. When I wrench the door open, I search for Ivy. I find her sitting at a table, her friends Chad and Brian on either side of her and her girls across from her.
She must sense me because she looks up and I watch as her eyes widen. I stay planted where I am as she stands and then it’s as if all of our shit just melts away.
I hold my arms out for her and she launches herself at my chest, wrapping her legs around my waist and shoving her face into my neck. I hold her tight, feeling her warm body against mine as her tears touch my neck.
“It’s gonna be okay, baby,” I murmur against her ear. “Everything’s gonna be okay now.”
Ivy’s trembling in my arms so I carry her over to a sofa and sit down, her body still attached to mine.
“Our baby,” she whispers against my neck. I run my hands up and down her back soothingly.
“I know. Have faith, baby, we’ll get the girls back, and we’ll hunt those fucks down. I’ll take care of one myself, swear to fuck,” I whisper.
She lifts her head and looks at me in the eyes. Her face is red and splotchy but she still looks amazingly beautiful.
“I love you, West.”
Her words are my undoing and I feel my own eyes water. I shake my head and choke back the tears, my hands fisting in her tank top. “We’ll work everything out, baby.”
“Promise me?” she begs. “Promise me that we’re going to be okay, no matter what.”
Lowering my head so that our foreheads rest on each other’s I whisper just loud enough for her to hear. “I promise, Ivy. I fucking love you, baby. Nothing will keep us apart, not ever again. We’ll get our girl back, then we’ll get us back.”
I mean every fucking word too. I’ve been thinking for the past four hours about my life, about my family. I’ve realized a few things, and one of them is that I fucking love my family. They’re all that matters. I’ve been a selfish prick. That shit stops now.
Ivy loves me, and all I can ask her to do is give my desires a try, and if she’s got some as well, I’ll give them a try, too. But, at the end of the day, I love her too much to ever walk away from our beautiful life together. I was telling myself a handful of lies when I thought I could.
She’s mine, forever.
MadDog barks my name and I peek around Ivy to see his furious gaze pointed directly at me. I’m not foolish enough to think that he’s angry with me.
His daughters are missing just as much as mine is, and I know what a terrified parent looks like when I see one. Shifting Ivy off of my lap I press my lips against hers before I stand.
“I’ll be back when I can, I need to be briefed. You’ll be okay?” I ask, wrapping my hand around the side of her neck.
She nods as she bites the corner of her cheek. “Be right back, baby,” I murmur.
“Okay,” she whispers.
Leaving her on that sofa is fucking hard, but I do it. Once I’m inside of MadDog’s office I’m surprised to see Grease, Hacker, Torch, and Texas standing around. “I’ve called Fury, Sniper, and Dirty Johnny over to help us. They should be about halfway here by now,” MadDog announces.
I’m surprised
to hear that he’s called his son, brother-in-law, and another member of the Notorious Devils from Idaho over, but at this point, I’m grateful for any extra help. I don’t care who it is as long as they help me find my Rosalie.
“Texas, activate lockdown. I need everybody here as soon as possible. Get a couple of the Old Ladies to the store to stock up on food. I want enough to feed a fuckin’ army,” MadDog growls. Texas quickly leaves without saying another word.
“Hacker, update me,” I demand.
Hacker lets out a sigh. “There are thousands of faces that their system is going through. I just have to let it do its thing right now. I scanned the parking lot video and tried to find the vehicle, and license plate numbers, but they’re smarter than I gave them credit for. They covered the numbers of the white van that they put the girls in. All I have are three guys and a driver, all between the ages of about fifteen and twenty-one.”
“Fuck,” I curse.
“What about hacking their phones? Don’t they have GPS trackers on that shit?” Torch asks.
Hacker grins. “That’s my next mission.”
“Then get the fuck on it,” MadDog barks.
I watch as he scrambles out of the office and closes the door behind him. “I’m assuming this shit has to do with the fuck who confronted Mary-Anne and the one who was hanging around Bullseye?”
“I’d bet my life on it,” MadDog announces.
IVY
I splash cold water on my face and take a paper towel to dry it off, looking at myself in the mirror. I’ve been in these sweaty, stinky, gym clothes for almost twenty-four hours but I don’t even care.
The eyes looking back at me are tired, puffy, and rimmed in red. I want my baby back. I want this ache I feel to go away, and I know that it will when I have her in my arms again.
Sending up a silent prayer I hope that she isn’t being hurt in any way. I can’t let myself go there right now though. If I do, I’ll imagine the absolute worst, and I’ll just make myself fucking sick thinking about it, although I’m pretty sure I’m already just plain sick with worry as it is.
I let out a sigh and head out of the bathroom only to have an arm wrap around my waist and pull me back into the hallway.
My body is shifted and my back slams against the wall. When I look up at the figure pressing me against the wall my breathing falters.
Derek is above me, his eyes glaring down at me and his jaw hard. “What the fuck, Ivy?” he barks.
“What?”
He shakes his head once. “You think I didn’t see you run and jump in his arms? Kiss him and hug him? What the fuck?”
“Derek, please don’t. What we did, it was a mistake,” I whisper, I beg.
Derek doesn’t say anything else, his lips press against mine, hard and I put my hands on his chest to push him away. A couple seconds later he disappears and I open my eyes to see West is holding him by the collar of his cut, almost to the point where his feet are dangling in the air.
“What the fuck is going on here?” West growls.
I don’t waste even a second. “It’s not what it looks like,” I quickly announce.
“Fuck it isn’t. It’s exactly what it looks like you fuckin’ asshole,” Derek growls. I slap my hand over my mouth in shock. “You treat your woman like shit, and she’ll go sniffin’ around other dick, man.”
I gasp at his words. This is a side to him I’ve never seen before and my stomach roils. West looks from Derek to me, then back to Derek. “You get the fuck away from my wife, my Old Lady,” West growls as he releases him. Derek scrambles away from us as West stalks up to me.
He wraps his hand around my bicep and pulls me further down the hall until we arrive at his bedroom. He throws me in and I land hard on my hip against the floor.
“You leave this room and I’ll punish you, Ivy. I’m focusing on Rosalie right now, and I’m dealing with your ass later,” he barks as he slams the door closed behind him.
I hear him lock it and then I hear muffled voices. I know that he’s set someone up at the outside of the room, and whoever it is, won’t allow me to leave.
I fucked everything up.
Alone in West’s room, I pace. I feel helpless and heartless. Trying not to think about my personal dilemma, I focus on Rosalie. I wish that Remi and Reid were here with me. I want my boys. Tears fall down my cheeks and I wipe them away just as quickly as they fall.
I hope that my mistake with Derek doesn’t keep West from being able to concentrate on finding Rosalie. She’s what’s important right now, finding her is all that matters.
CAMO
Anger.
Hurt.
Betrayal.
The words and feelings flow through me with each step I take further away from the room where I’ve locked Ivy away. I’m not sure I truly have the right to feel any of them though. Sure, Ivy let another man touch her, but didn’t I push her to it?
I made it crystal fucking clear that I wasn’t fully in our relationship. I wasn’t sleeping with her regularly and I wasn’t even home. Can I really blame her? I want to. Fuck, I want to crucify her.
I can’t though.
Not really.
Then I think about the fact that she’s let another man touch her and for some reason that makes me hard. Maybe she’s more open to my desires than I had originally thought?
“Hacker has some shit,” MadDog rumbles. I quicken my steps and practically break out into a jog to get to his office faster.
As soon as I walk into the office, I slam the door closed behind me and find Hacker with my gaze, waiting in anticipation to find out anything, any piece of information I can about my daughter.
“It’s not much,” he begins. “Their GPS’ have been disabled on their phones. I have some text messages between Riley and someone named, Benny Lucky Watson. The fuck was stupid and messaged her from his fucking Facebook page,” Hacker chuckles.
“Tell me you have an address,” MadDog murmurs.
Glancing at him from across the room he looks fucking beat, and I wonder if I look the same. I feel it, inside, I feel like I’ve run a marathon and I’m just fucking exhausted. I can’t imagine this going on much longer, it’s only been a few hours and I want to claw out of my fucking skin.
Hacker shakes his head. “The facial recognition software is still sifting through people. I don’t know if Benny is a real name yet. He’s got pictures though, and they definitely match one of the guys. What I don’t want to do is spook them and send them running,” he murmurs.
“Shouldn’t they be contacting us with whatever demands they have by now?” Soar asks.
I grunt because I’ve been thinking the exact same thing. We should have heard something from them. They didn’t take our girls just because, they want something from us—from our club. We’re all looking from one another, obviously lost in deep thought when the office door swings open.
My eyes widen when I see MadDog’s youngest son, Bailey, standing at the entrance. His face is red and he looks fucking pissed.
“Where’s Rosalie?” he demands.
My back straightens and I turn to him. “Now, son you know we’re trying our hardest to find the girls,” MadDog murmurs, his voice deep and vibrating.
“Fuck that,” Bailey shouts. MadDog’s spine straightens as well at his son’s bold words. “Fucking find her. I hate this fucking club, if anything happens to Rosalie because of this, I’ll never forgive any of you,” he announces before he spins around and runs off.
I turn my head and lift my brows toward MadDog in surprise. “Obviously the boy has feelings about Rosalie,” he murmurs.
Hacker snorts but all I can think is that little Bailey Duhart isn’t quite so little, he’s had his fair share of girls in and out of here, and he’s got eyes for my baby. It was one thing knowing Rosalie had a crush on him, but the other way around makes me fucking wary.
I’ll kill the little fuck if he goes anywhere near her with his pecker. Choosing to keep that promise to myself I d
ecide to ignore the scene that just unfolded in front of us—we all do.
“We need addresses,” MadDog barks.
Hacker shakes his head. “This punk is only twenty. The only address I can find for him is his parents. I highly doubt that’s where the girls are.”
“What we need is to go to the parents and extract that goddamn information out of them of where their piece of shit kid is,” a voice growls.
I turn toward the still open office door and see Fury leaning against the jamb. MadDog’s face breaks out into a smile at the sight of his oldest child and walks over to him. I watch as they embrace and clap each other on the back.
“How’s Mary doin’?” I hear Fury murmur as they separate.
MadDog shakes his head, “She’s a fuckin’ mess. Be good to have Sniper and Kentlee here for support,” he states speaking of her brother and Fury’s wife.
“Let’s roll out to Mommy and Daddy’s house. I’m feeling like I need some release from being cooped up in a cage the whole way down here.”
MadDog nods as a grin breaks out on his face. “Blinder and Tinker are on lookout, me, Camo, Fury, Soar, and Mammoth are going to handle shit with the parents. Don’t stop whatever it is you’re doing with getting more info, Hacker. I want updates on the half-hour.”
“Tinker can’t go,” I announce. MadDog turns to me and his brows furrow. “He’s watching Ivy. She’s on lockdown.”
“Brother, all the women are on lockdown,” Torch states.
I shake my head once. “She’s on lockdown in my room, not allowed to leave. It’s none of any of your fuckin’ business why, either. Has nothing to do with this shit,” I bark waving my hand around.
“You have her locked away from her boys while her daughter is missing?” Fury asks.
I don’t know the man well, but he’s been around here and there throughout the years. However, his commentary on what I do with my own Old Lady and wife, isn’t welcome.
“It’s none of your goddamn business how I handle my Old Lady,” I state.
The Notorious Devils MC: Complete Collection BoxSet Page 185