by S. Nelson
“Nothin’.” His answer was curt, and when he continued to remain silent, I turned my attention to the outside world, thankful it was sunny. We all needed a bit of sunshine to brighten our otherwise stressful days.
Not knowing what was gonna happen day to day, hell, hour to hour, took its toll on everyone, some more than others. The guys were stressed out and edgy, the slightest remark or glance sending some of them into a verbal tirade.
I, on the other hand, while in the same boat as my buddies, took some solace in knowing Chelsea was now mine. I counted our solidified relationship as a win, a stressor that had been weighing me down for quite some time. Now, I just had to make sure she listened to me and didn’t unnecessarily put herself into harm’s way.
“It’s just that even though I know Braylen, Roman and Zoe are fine, as is the baby, I can’t stop thinking they could’ve been seriously injured, or worse.” Ryder’s hands clenched into fists, resting on the tops of his jean-clad thighs, the veins thickening with the force. “I hate that we’re back here again. I thought all this shit was behind us for good.” His words trailed off toward the end, his shoulders tense as he looked at the world passing us by at fifty miles an hour.
I couldn’t imagine what he or the other guys who’d been members for decades were going through. I’d unfortunately heard details of most of what happened, but I was sure living through it was completely different than just hearing about the war between us and the Savage Reapers. And to have families who could now be in danger put the situation on a whole other level. I was worried about Chelsea and she hadn’t even been in my life for long, although my feelings for her were genuine and deep.
“We won’t let anything happen to anyone.” Besides Chelsea, these guys were my family, and I’d be damned if I didn’t do everything in my power to ensure everyone was still breathing at the end of each day.
Ryder mumbled something, but I didn’t ask him to repeat himself for fear he’d either blow up or tell me more that would not only rile me but heighten my nerves more than they already were.
So, instead, I directed my attention onto Tag, glancing at him in the rearview. His expression was solemn, but I had an idea how to put him in a slightly better mood.
“What are you gonna hit her with today, lover boy?” I teased, my eyes finding Tag’s in the mirror. His frown morphed into an ear-splitting smile.
“You know you can’t fuck her, right?” Brick asked, causing Tag’s grin to falter.
“I didn’t say I wanted to have sex with her.” He looked away from the big guy, glanced once more at me, then turned to focus out the window, much like Ryder had done moments ago. A second passed. Then two more. “Just out of curiosity, why not?” His question made me chuckle because I half expected him to ask.
“’Cause we’re only supposed to be checking on her to make sure she’s not in any danger. We’ve already overstepped by allowing you to chat her up each time we come here.” We’d come by every day, even though it probably wasn’t necessary. But after what our club did to Tag, he needed something to look forward to.
“I don’t see any harm in it. It’s not like I want her to be my woman. I’d never bring her into….” He snapped his mouth shut in the next heartbeat, breathing hard and scratching the side of his face.
His snafu got Ryder’s attention. Not good, considering he was already in a mood. He swung around in his seat and glared at the prospect.
“You don’t wanna bring her into what? Our club?” If Ryder frowned any deeper, the crease between his brows would be permanently etched into his skin.
“Uh… yeah… I mean… no, but…” Tag composed himself before attempting another answer. “You said so yourself, you’re worried about your family getting hurt. All the guys are. The feud with the Reapers goes back a long time, and even though I don’t know much about what happened, nor do I think I want to, I know it’s a dangerous time right now. Um, thanks, by the way, for making me part of this shit,” he grumped.
“You’re lucky to be part of the Knights.” Brick spoke up. “You won’t find a more loyal group of guys.”
“I wasn’t given much of a choice, now, was I?”
“Call it fate,” Ryder spat before turning to face front.
“Call it fate,” Tag mocked, his voice dropping and muttering something else I couldn’t hear.
“What’d you say?” Ryder wasn’t to be messed with right now, so I hoped Tag’s next words were chosen wisely, or else I’d have to break up a fight while driving.
“Not a word” was the prospect’s only response.
Ten minutes later, we pulled up and parked across the street from the coffee shop as usual. Tag hopped out before I could ask him to grab me a drink.
“What the fuck is his problem?” Ryder asked, checking his phone before clicking off the screen.
“For starters, he was kidnapped. Then he was strapped to a table, beat up, sliced into courtesy of Cutter’s handiwork, then—”
“I know what happened. But all that’s under the bridge now. Besides, didn’t Prez pay for his mom to see a top-notch doctor, and take care of all her bills?”
“Would that make you fall in line quickly, without reservation, if that same shit happened to you?” Brick asked, hitting the back of Ryder’s seat, and bumping him forward.
Ryder never responded, which was all the answer Brick needed.
A heavy silence fell over the interior of the vehicle, all of us busying ourselves with either people watching or checking our phones. Tag wasn’t inside long at all before I spotted him jogging across the street, pulling open the back door and hopping in, his brows drawn tight and his lips set into a firm line. He always came back with a drink, but his hands were empty.
“What’s up?” I asked, a gut feeling telling me something was wrong.
“She’s not in today.”
“Okay then. We can go,” Ryder spoke up, tapping the dashboard with the side of his fist, but I didn’t kick over the engine just yet.
“Why do you look worried?” Brick inquired that time, his eyes landing on mine before turning back to Tag.
“’Cause the one chick in there said it wasn’t like Erin to just not show up. In fact, she couldn’t remember the last time she took a scheduled day off. They’ve been calling her all morning, but she’s not pickin’ up.” He took a quick breath. “Somethin’s wrong.”
“What do you want us to do about it?” Ryder turned around to face the back seat.
“I think we should swing by her house and check things out” was Tag’s only response.
“She’s probably just playin’ hookie from work.”
“They said she doesn’t do that. I’m tellin’ ya, somethin’s wrong.”
“How is this our problem?”
“Because you told her brother you’d watch out for her.”
“I didn’t tell him shit. Linc did.”
The two of them went back and forth, neither of them relenting. Typically, the newest member of the club didn’t talk back to a patched member, no matter what, but Tag wasn’t our typical prospect by any stretch of the imagination, so leeway was given. But if he didn’t stop going tit for tat with Ryder, I had no doubt the situation was gonna escalate inside this SUV and I didn’t have the mental energy to deal with it today.
“Why don’t we just swing by her place quick, then be done with it?” I agreed with Brick’s suggestion. It wouldn’t take us long and we could put Tag’s worry at ease.
“Do we have her address? Where’s the file?” I asked, leaning toward Ryder and popping the button for the glove compartment.
“I know it.” Tag tapped his temple twice.
“Of course, you do.” Brick elbowed him and they shared a quick smile.
After he rattled off the address, I entered it into the navigation system. She lived twelve point four miles from her job. Figuring the trip would be a quick one was my last thought as I inched out of the parking space and traveled down the road to our destination.
How wrong I was.
30
As I made a left-hand turn, then a right, then another left, getting closer to the address, I noticed three motorcycles spaced several car lengths from each other. I’d never been in this area before, but the information about Erin never having missed work before, combined with the sight of the three chrome machines, put me on alert.
“You see those?” I asked to no one in particular.
“Yup,” Brick and Ryder answered at the same time, both straightening in their seats.
“See what?” Tag leaned forward.
We were two blocks from Erin’s house, a perfect place for people to park so as to not seem conspicuous. Could those bikes belong to neighbors? Sure. With our luck, would that actually be the case? Hell no.
“The bikes” were the only two words I mumbled before I pulled the vehicle over, parking beneath a huge tree that was in dire need of some trimming. The overgrowth worked perfectly in our favor, however.
“This isn’t her place.” Tag peered out the window and took in the surroundings. “Not her street.”
“I know. We’re gonna go on foot in case somethin’ is goin’ on.” All four doors opened and we stepped out, being sure not to make too much noise when closing them. Walking together, wearing our cuts, wasn’t a sight that blended in, and while the area seemed a little rough, we appeared rougher. We stuck out, and the faster we got to the house, the better.
Two blocks over, we quickly but as inconspicuously as possible, surrounded the house where Erin lived. At first, nothing seemed alarming, but when we circled around to the back, the screen on the door was sliced apart and a ceramic planter had been kicked over, the dirt spilling over each of the five steps.
Glancing around the property, I quickly realized the cut screen and tipped pot weren’t in sync with everything else, which had been kept up pristinely.
“Her mom lives with her, right?” Brick asked.
“Yeah.” Tag tried to look through the window but couldn’t see anything because of the drawn curtains.
Ryder jiggled the handle of the screen door, but it was locked, as he probably expected it would be. He pulled, pushed it back into place, then pulled again, his left hand resting a foot above the handle. He repeated this motion several more times until he’d broken the lock, but because of the positioning of his hands, the shattered hinge didn’t make much noise.
“Now we’re breaking in?” Tag lowered his voice once Ryder glared back at him. “You wanna get arrested?”
“No one’s gettin’ arrested,” I answered, hoping I spoke the truth. With the screen door open, I gripped the backdoor handle, but that too was locked. “Okay, wait.” I tapped his shoulder. “We shouldn’t just barge in. What if she was skipping work? Or maybe got drunk and overslept? What if it’s as simple as her forgetting she had work today?”
“That’s not the impression I got of her from her coworker,” Tag answered. “But I agree. I don’t think us assuming something is weird about someone we barely know gives us the right to break into her house.”
The second the last word left Tag’s mouth, we heard a noise coming from inside the house.
Then quiet.
Then a pounding sound.
Then nothing for almost a full thirty seconds, all four of us frozen in place.
Then we heard a piercing scream, which quickly turned muffled. It was all we needed to justify barging in unannounced and uninvited. Brick, Ryder, and I quickly pulled our guns from our waistbands, holding the weapons at our sides in unison. Tag hadn’t been given one, but I was happy to see he at least brandished what appeared to be a large hunting knife. I glanced at the metal tip, then to him.
“After what happened to me, I don’t go anywhere without it.”
“Don’t blame ya,” Brick uttered, moving closer to me and Ryder, Tag two feet behind the rest of us.
Ryder slammed his shoulder against the door, and while there was movement, the lock remained steadfast. Until he repeated the motion, practically falling into the kitchen once the frame splintered and the door flew open.
We rushed inside, our guns up and pointed, waiting for any sign of life inside, but there was no one else present in the room besides us.
Another noise sounded from upstairs, then another but from the other side of the dwelling.
“We have to assume there’s three of ’em here,” Ryder said, talking low and taking the lead out of the kitchen and into the narrow hallway toward the staircase. From what I could see of the house, it was old but clean, basic necessities for the people who lived here. Not that I had much time to take in the décor, all my focus on keeping my breathing regulated and making sure my heart didn’t burst out of my chest due to a spike in adrenaline.
Caged between Ryder and Brick, with Tag taking up the rear, our footsteps were quieted by the carpet beneath our feet. As we crept up the stairs, stopping briefly when we heard a thud right above our heads, we surveyed the spaces we could see. Once we reached the top, noticing the hallway was thankfully clear, we moved to the first bedroom, peering inside to see the room was also vacant.
But when we came to the second one, we saw a woman hanging halfway off the bed. The only thing we could see was from her shoulders on down, her head not visible from where we stood in the entryway. Her dress was pushed up to her waist, her panties dangling from her left ankle.
We stealthily filed into the room, and Tag rushed to the other side of the bed. “Fuck!” He raked his hand through his dark hair, shaking his head before looking back at us. “It’s gotta be her mom. Someone slit her throat.”
“After they raped her,” Brick added, bristling with anger behind me. Tag’s eyes darkened and he tried to shove past all of us and out the door, but Ryder held him back.
“Nope. Not gonna happen. You can’t rush out of here until we have some sort of plan.”
“But they’re probably… doin’ to her what they did to….” He glanced back over at the deceased woman. “I need to help her.”
“And we will if we can. But we’re not goin’ in blind only to get our heads blown off,” Ryder finished. “That’s not what we do.”
Brick, Tag, and I would have to take his word for it because we had no idea what we were and weren’t supposed to do, finding ourselves in more precarious situations every fuckin’ week.
A house this small probably only had three bedrooms max, and we’d already been in two of them, leaving one final room to check.
Brick quietly closed the door but not before we heard low voices followed by a string of groans. “The bathroom is right next to us. They have to be in the room next to that.” His eyes landed on the most tenured member here. “What’s the plan?”
A shrill scream bounced off the hallway walls and seeped under the door, but it was followed with a grunt, then a heavy thud. Tag again tried to move past the wall of us, but it was Brick who stopped him this time, whispering something into his ear to make him stand still, although from the strained look on the prospect’s face, he struggled to obey.
“I told you… I don’t know. Please,” Erin cried. Another grunt echoed through the upstairs. Her plea fell on deaf ears when we heard a man respond, “Your turn with her. Make it count.”
“I don’t care what happens, I need to help her,” Tag said, his chest rising and falling quickly, choking on each breath that entered his lungs. “I can’t just stand here while they torture her.”
None of us said a word. Ryder moved to open the door, peering into the hallway to make sure no one was waiting to ambush us. With guns raised, we followed him out only to halt our steps when one of the Reapers stepped from the room at the end of the hall, his weapon resting at his side. I couldn’t recall his name, but he’d been at the fight where Lincoln took Maddie from them, the burn scar on the right side of his face distinguishable.
“Wanna join in, boys? She already took the three of us, but I’m sure she can take the lot of you.” I snatched Tag’s arm to stop him from mov
ing. “No? Okay, more for us. Unless dead bitches are your thing. If that’s the case,” he said, pointing back from where we came, “her mom’s kinda sweet.”
“Just let her go and we’ll get out of your hair,” Ryder offered, sounding bored and taking a daring step forward. The Reaper retreated into the room without a response. The entire scene left the four of us baffled. Not only did the fucker not care he had three guns pointed at his head, he acted like we weren’t enemies.
Ryder turned to look back at us. “Focus. Shoot any of ’em who makes a move toward us.” He zeroed in on Tag, then to the knife gripped in his hand. “If you get close enough, drive that right into their fuckin’ brain.”
I counted every second, praying for time to freeze, but of course, no such luck.
In fact, what happened next blurred together, time speeding up and escaping before any sort of rationale could take hold.
31
The moment we stepped into the room with them, they drew their guns. I couldn’t say I was shocked, yet I was.
“Welcome,” one of the other Reapers cockily greeted, looking like our arrival was nothing more than an amusement to him, the pupils of his eyes so dilated I was surprised he was able to string a sentence together. There was a sheen of sweat covering his bald head, and his gut hung over the unbuttoned waist of his jeans. I’d never seen him before, but that didn’t matter because if I had a prediction for the outcome of this encounter, I wouldn’t ever have to see him again.
His arm swung out toward Erin, who lay limply on top of the mattress, naked from the waist down, blood soaking the sheets beneath her. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Brick place a hand on Tag’s arm to stop him from running toward her, and probably to his death.
“This is how this is gonna go,” the bastard said, grinning as his attention flipped between us before landing on our prospect. “You’re gonna tell us where Pike is, or I’m gonna put a bullet in her brain.”
“Who the fuck is Pike?” Ryder asked, and it took me a moment to realize his question wasn’t a serious one, although they might not know that.