by Wilder, L.
The second we pulled up to the old, rundown store, there was no sign of Gauge’s SUV, but that didn’t stop Blaze and Shadow from jumping out and rushing inside to see if they could locate Kenadee and Alex. When we raced in after them, Glen, the old man who ran the store, came to the door. His face was pale and sweat was trickling down his forehead as he pointed and said, “You need to get around back. Hurry.”
I nodded, then turned to Riggs. “Get in your truck and drive around back.”
As soon as he headed towards the SUV, Gunner and I took off towards the back of the grocery store, and I was totally unprepared for what I found. Gauge’s SUV was parked next to the back door, and as I got closer, I could hear someone huffing and puffing as they dragged something across the ground. I continued towards the sound, but stopped when Alex came rushing out of the back door covered in blood with an armful of towels. Her face was riddled with panic as she hurried to the back of the truck and said, “Here are some more towels.”
Gunner and I raced over to see what was going on and froze as we looked down and saw Gauge and Alex hovering over Dane, pressing towels against his chest. Neither one was aware that we were standing behind them as Gauge shouted, “Fuck, you’re gonna have to get a hold of the brothers.”
I knelt down and pressed a towel against one of Dane’s wounds. “We’re here, brother. It’s going to be okay.”
When Blaze and Shadow came barreling out of the back door, Alex stood and rushed over to Shadow, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck. “Thank God, you’re finally here.”
“Are you okay?” Shadow asked as he pulled her close.
“I am now,” she cried. “I’ve been trying to call you, but I couldn’t get through. Kenadee—”
“What about Kenadee?” Blaze roared. “Where the fuck is she?”
“I don’t know.” Alex’s voice trembled as she looked over to Blaze and said, “It all happened so fast. They took her.”
“Who took her?”
“The Disciples,” Glen answered for her.
“Are you sure?” Blaze pushed.
“Yes, son. I’m sure.” Since his store was so close to the clubhouse, we’d stopped by many times. Over the years, we’d gotten to know Glen as a man we could trust. “I saw the gang stamp on one of their necks.”
“Dammit!” Gauge was doing what he could to help Dane, but it wasn’t enough. Panicked, he looked up at Shadow and said, “We need to get him to Mack before he loses any more blood.”
Mack was the club’s doctor, in charge of tending to all the brothers’ medical needs—from simple coughs to gunshot wounds. After serving as a medic in the Marines, there wasn’t much he hadn’t dealt with. As Shadow started towards them, he ordered, “Let’s move.”
It wasn’t until we started to lift him off the ground when I noticed that Dane wasn’t the only one who was wounded. “Damn, brother. You’ve been hit.”
“I’m fine.”
After I saw the amount of blood Gauge was losing from bullet wounds in his shoulder and thigh, I argued, “No, you’re not.”
Showing that he wasn’t the least bit concerned about himself, he shook his head and said, “Told ya. I’m fine.”
I didn’t argue. Instead, I helped the others get Dane into the back of Gunner’s SUV. There was no missing the concern in Gauge’s voice as he urged, “We need to hurry. He’s running out of time.”
With that, we all piled in the SUV and rushed Dane to the clubhouse. As soon as we were parked, Shadow took Alex to his room to get cleaned up, while we got Dane and Gauge down to the infirmary. When we walked in, Gus and Moose, along with several of the other brothers, were already there waiting for us. They could all see that Dane was hanging by a thread as we carried him into one of the med rooms and lay him down on the gurney. Mack rushed over, and a look of concern crossed his face as he started to assess his wounds. We all knew it was bad. We’d all seen that Dane’s clothes were completely soaked in blood and how he’d been barely able to keep his eyes open, but it wasn’t too long ago that Mack had brought Gunner back from death’s door. I just hoped that he’d be able to do the same for Dane.
Wasting no time, Gus went over to Gauge and asked, “What the hell happened?”
“I fucked up, Prez. I don’t know what I was thinking.” Anguish crossed his face as he continued, “I told both Kenadee and Alex that they didn’t need more eggs, but Kenadee wouldn’t let it go. She kept saying that it would only take a few minutes…that they’d run in and run out. No big deal. I finally gave in, and Dane and I took them over to Glen’s place.”
“So, you got there. What happened after that?” Gus pushed.
“Since they were just going for some eggs and milk, I figured it would only take a minute, so I just pulled up to the door.” Gauge shook his head and continued, “Sent Dane inside with them and waited on them to come back. Such a stupid fucking move. I should’ve gone in too. If I had, none of this shit would’ve happened.”
“Gauge.” Gus’s tone was firm, but compassionate. “I’m gonna need you to pull it together, brother. We gotta know what happened after the girls went inside the store.”
Gauge nodded. “Those assholes must’ve been watching…followed us there or something, ’cause I’d only been waiting there but a couple of minutes when I heard gunshots. I went straight inside, and Glen motioned me to the back of the store. That’s where I found Dane and Alex laid out on the ground. Dane was still conscious and told me how the two guys came up behind them, knocking Alex out and shooting him before going after Kenadee. She tried to get away, but she just wasn’t fast enough. They carried her out the back, and I never saw a goddamn thing.”
I looked over to Gus and said, “Glen saw them. Confirmed it was the Disciples.”
“Damn.”
“As soon as he saw what was going down, Glen closed the store. Tried to give us time to get cleared out before anyone knew what was happening.”
“We owe him for that,” Gus replied. “We’ve got to see if we can figure out where they took Kenadee. You stay put and let Mack fix you up.”
“I’m sorry, Prez. This is all on me. I should’ve—”
“Can’t dwell on that right now, brother. What’s done is done. Right now, you focus on getting these wounds tended to.”
“Yes, sir.”
While we all wanted to stay there and make sure both of our brothers were going to be okay, we didn’t have that option. We not only had to find Kenadee, but also figure out a way to get her back before Lewis did something stupid. After Gus whispered something to Mack, he turned and motioned for us to follow as he headed out the door. We all gathered in the conference room and set to work on finding Kenadee. Without her phone to trace, we were limited to the security cameras that Riggs had installed over near Lewis’s place a few days earlier. Unfortunately, they weren’t much help.
“I just don’t know,” Riggs huffed with frustration. “His car is there, but the place looks pretty quiet. Doesn’t look like anyone is coming or going.”
“Can you back the feed up…see what was going on half an hour ago?” Moose asked.
“Yeah. Give me a minute.” After a few keystrokes on his laptop, he was able to rewind the feed, and as soon as he noticed that the car hadn’t been in the driveway a few minutes earlier, he stopped the feed, slowly moving it frame by frame until he spotted his car. “You guys seeing this?”
We all looked up at the monitor on the wall and watched as Lewis’ black Mercedes crept up to the back of the house. Because of the distance from the cameras and the fenced-in backyard, we didn’t have a clear view of what was going on. We could see a good deal of movement, several people came in and out of the house, but that was it. Just as Riggs started to zoom in, Blaze shouted, “Hold up!”
“You see something?”
“Yeah. Go back a couple of frames.” Riggs started to reverse the feed, and after several seconds, he slammed his hand down on the table. “Damn. It was nothing.”
“Y
eah, that fucking fence is making it pretty hard to tell what the hell is going on over there,” Riggs added as he tried to zoom in closer.
“You know, we’re gonna have to change the plan.” Gus ran his hand over his beard as he said, “There’s no way we can go in there tonight…not like this. Lewis has at least ten guys holed up in that house. We’re gonna need a good deal of gun power to take them out. Right now, we have no idea where he’s keeping Kenadee, and if we aren’t careful, we’ll be putting her in harm’s way. We can’t take the chance.”
“But we gotta do something, Prez,” Blaze urged. “If she’s there with him, there’s no telling what he’ll do.”
“We’ll figure it out, brother. One way or another, we’ll get her out of there,” he assured him. “Riggs, we gotta get eyes inside that house. We’ve got to know where he’s holding her.”
“I’ve been trying, but there’s always somebody at his place.” He shook his head with frustration. “Haven’t been able to get inside without being seen, and now that they have Kenadee, I don’t see that changing any time soon.”
Frustrations were building by the second. Hell, I could feel the tension radiating off my brothers and me, crackling around the room like a fucking electrical storm. We needed a break, and we needed it bad. The only bit of good news we’d had during the hours we’d been meeting was the fact that Mack had been able to stabilize Dane, and he’d patched up Gauge. While they were both going to pull through, the fact that our brothers had been wounded by the Disciples made us even more determined to take them down. Each of us were trying to come up with some kind of plan when there was a knock on the conference room door. No one ever disturbed us when we were in a meeting, so at first it was completely ignored. But then, there was a second knock—much louder than the first. All eyes turned to the door as Gus got up and opened it, slowly revealing Darcy standing on the other side. I knew the second I saw that look of apprehension on her face that things were about to go from bad to worse. Fuck.
CHAPTER 14
Darcy
I’d been sitting in that family room with the others for what seemed like hours when Gunner messaged August and told her that they’d found Alex. He said she was safe and sound but didn’t mention much else. We were all left wondering about Kenadee and whether or not she was okay. The not knowing was eating at all of us. Unfortunately, there was nothing we could do but sit there and wait which wasn’t one of my strong suits. I was beyond impatient, and with my overactive imagination, I was becoming more anxious by the minute. I couldn’t stop thinking about the conversation I’d overheard between Reece and Riley. There was no way I could be sure, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that KeShawn Lewis was behind Kenadee’s disappearance, and it terrified me. From the first time I’d met the guy, I knew that he was bad news, and when I learned that he was the leader of the Disciples, I quickly realized that I was right to be leery of him. They were always on the news for causing some kind of trouble, from shootouts to robberies, and that was just the start. If I was right, and he really was involved in all this, then I feared the MC was gonna have to pull out all the stops to get Kenadee back.
I wanted to do something, anything to help them get her back, but I didn’t have a clue as to what that could be. I thought about it and thought about, then, out of the blue, it hit me. Without thinking it all through, I got up from the sofa and asked the girls, “Where would the guys be right now?”
“The conference room, I guess.” Reece shrugged as she continued, “At least, that’s where they usually meet when something’s going on.”
“Okay. Where’s the conference room?”
“It’s just down the hall on the right. Why?”
As I started towards the door, I told her, “I’ll explain later.”
“Darcy, wait!” Reece shouted. “You can’t go in there while they’re meeting.”
Ignoring her warning, I continued down the hall and stopped when I got to the large wooden double doors on the right. I paused for a moment, taking a deep breath as I considered what I was about to do. After I mustered up the courage, I knocked on the door and waited several seconds, but no one answered. I knocked a second time, harder than before, and when I heard footsteps coming in my direction, a wave of apprehension washed over me as the door opened. As soon as I saw the look on Gus’s face, my mind went blank, and I was suddenly at loss for words. “Darcy? You need something?”
I nodded. “I know I’m not supposed to ask questions, and I won’t, but…umm…I think I might be able to help with finding Kenadee.”
“Oh, really? How’s that?”
Before I could answer, Caleb came over to the door, and with a harsh tone, he growled, “You can’t be here, Darcy!”
“I knew you were going to say that.” I sighed. “But—”
“But nothing. What the hell are you doing here?”
“I came to talk to you about Kenadee.”
Clearly furious that I was there and had interrupted his meeting with his brothers, he leaned towards me with a scowl. “We’ve got it covered, Darcy. You need to go.”
“But I think I might be able to help.”
“I just told you. We’ve got it covered.”
“Fine, I just thought you might want some help getting close to KeShawn Lewis.” I looked at both of them, studying their facial expressions for some sign that I was wrong about my suspicions, but neither of them so much as flinched. I knew then that I was right. “But if you’ve got it covered, I’ll be on my way.”
When I turned and started back down the hall, I heard Blaze shout, “Hold up! Let’s hear her out.”
“Darcy, wait.” When I turned back around, Blaze had come up next to Caleb and Gus, eagerly waiting as Caleb said, “Say what you came here to say.”
“Okay.” I stepped back over to them and tried to keep myself calm. “If I’m right about KeShawn Lewis and his Disciples having something to do with whatever happened to Kenadee, I might be able to help.”
“First…what makes you think that Lewis has anything to do with this?” Gus asked.
“I overheard something one of the ol’ ladies said.” I shrugged. “That, and I saw his car this morning.”
“When did you see his car?” Blaze asked.
“When I went out with August to put my bag in my truck. We were on our way back inside when I spotted his black Mercedes following Gauge’s SUV.”
Blaze snarled, “And you didn’t say anything.”
“Why would I? I had no idea that he was causing problems for y’all!”
Gus’s eyes narrowed as he asked, “How do you know he drives a black Mercedes?”
“His grandmother and I live in the same trailer park, and he comes by from time to time to check on her.” Making sure he didn’t think I was trying to hide something, I looked him right in the eye as I continued, “The last time he was there, I noticed he was driving a black Mercedes with both a rear and roof spoiler and after-market rims.”
“And you saw the same vehicle this morning?”
“Yes, sir. I did.”
There was no missing the look of concern on Gus’s face as he stood there going over what I’d just said. After several moments passed, he finally looked back to me and said, “So, how exactly is it that you think you can help us, Darcy?”
“The last time KeShawn came to see his grandmother, he mentioned that he had a Suzuki GSX-R he wanted to have painted and asked if I would check it out.” I glanced over at Caleb. “I told him I’d need to see it first, so he gave me his number and address. He wanted me to come by his house to see what I thought.”
“And how exactly does this help us with our situation?”
“I could go over there and tell him that I’ve come to see about painting his bike,” I explained. “While I’m there, I can take a look around for any sign of Kenadee.”
“No fucking way you’re going over to that house.” Caleb’s eyes lit up with rage as he stared down at me. “Not now. Not ever.”
“So, you have a better idea in mind?” I asked sarcastically.
“Doesn’t matter. It’s too fucking dangerous!”
I placed my hands on my hips as I argued, “You aren’t even going to consider it as an option?”
“Not a time for your stubborn bullshit, Darcy!”
“We need to at least consider this,” Blaze told him.
“I said no.” His tone changed when he turned to Gus. “We can’t send her over there, Prez. You said it yourself, this guy was a loose cannon, and we don’t know for certain that Kenadee is even there.”
As soon as the words left his mouth, I pushed, “You would know if you just let me go check it out.”
Caleb stared back at me with one of his warning looks, and I knew right then that my stubborn, snarky side was about to get me in trouble. I needed to rein it in before I said something I would regret, so I inhaled a deep breath and tried to collect myself as I waited for Gus’s response. I could see the wheels spinning in his head as he turned and looked at Riggs. He pondered a moment more, then brought his attention back to me. “Gonna need you to give us some time to talk this over.”
Realizing that he was trying to get rid of me, I nodded. “Okay, I’ll be in Caleb’s room if you need me.”
As I started down the hall, I thought Caleb might come after me; instead, I heard the large doors of the conference room close behind me. I was more than a little curious about what they might be saying, and I had to fight the urge to rush back over to the doors and eavesdrop. I knew it was a bad idea, so I decided against it and continued on to Caleb’s room. As soon as I walked in, I crawled into his bed and pulled the covers over me. I was immediately enveloped in his scent, and it wasn’t long before my mind drifted to the night before. With everything that had been going on, I hadn’t had a chance to really stop and think about it, much less make sense of it. I knew I was attracted to him. Hell, with his good looks, there wasn’t a woman in a fifty-mile radius who wouldn’t find him desirable, but there was so much more to my attraction towards him than just his looks. The way he spoke, the way he smelled, and the way he looked at me like I was the only woman in the world set off a spark inside of me, burning through me from the inside out. I didn’t know it was possible to feel the kind of passion I felt when I was in his arms, which only made me want him even more.