by L. E. Bross
With his free hand, he taps his hip and lifts an eyebrow.
I know what’s under his shirt. Nate never goes anywhere without a gun. When he decided he wanted to move up in the ranks from a lowly dealer to a distributor, it pissed some people off. He started carrying everywhere he went. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are a few of his guys hanging around nearby too.
Nate squeezes my hand and doesn’t let go until I cringe. I cradle my throbbing fingers in my lap, frantically calculating my options.
“There are none.” He knows what I’m doing. “How this plays out is up to you, babe. Either way, you come with me. It’s just a matter of whether or not anyone else gets hurt.”
Nate sips his coffee like he doesn’t have a gun tucked into his jeans. Like he hasn't just threatened to hurt people. I look around at all the students in the crowded coffee shop, oblivious to the fact that there’s a killer sitting feet away.
Because that’s what Nate is: a cold-blooded killer.
He has no remorse, no regard for life.
He’s a gangster and wouldn’t hesitate to shoot random, innocent bystanders if he thought they were in his way. Goosebumps pop up along my arms.
“I’ve been watching you for weeks. Seen those guys you’re with. The ones that can barely get home to you. Accidents happen all the time. You know that. It would be a shame if they got hurt because of you.”
I grit my teeth to keep them from clattering together.
I don’t have a choice.
The grin that plays over his cruel lips tells me he knows it.
His gaze goes cold as he pushes to his feet.
“It’s time to go. You’re done being the princess, Ever. Back to the gutters where you belong. And if you play nice, maybe I won’t kill you right away. Hell, babe, you show me how grateful you are to be alive and I might just keep you around indefinitely.”
A sob builds in my chest and fills my throat. There is no way out of this. He pulls my phone from his pocket and holds it out to me. I’m so numb I didn’t even feel him take it.
“Now text those boys of yours and tell them goodbye.”
Chapter Four
Riot
I push through the door with Ever’s name on my lips.
The familiar aroma of cinnamon and vanilla from the housewarming candles Wendi gave us fills my lungs. It’s the scent of home. Usually it calms me when I walk in, but ever since X called, I’ve had a fucking lump in my throat.
I need to see my girl, to make sure everything’s okay. I have no idea what’s going on, but she’s not leaving this house again until she tells us.
If she’s hurting, we’re going to fix it right the fuck now.
Baz and X are in the kitchen and they both straighten when I walk in.
“The fuck’s going on?” I hate the dread washing down my spine at the look in their eyes.
“Is Ever with you?”
Baz’s jaw goes hard when I shake my head.
“Thought she was home. You said we needed to meet up tonight, but I couldn’t wait.”
“Same. I got here an hour ago, right before Baz. Ever’s shift should have been over by now. Been texting but she hasn’t answered,” X says.
I drop my bag and pull out my phone.
The fuck are you?
After a minute I look up. “Maybe her phone is dead? Or she’s shopping or something?”
“Her car’s in the garage,” Baz says. “And when has she ever gone shopping?”
“If you had seen her today.” X looks at me then Baz and shakes his head. “Something’s wrong. Neither of you has noticed anything?”
When none of us speak, X drags his fingers through his hair.
“Something else happened today.”
The guilty look on his face that makes me clench my fists.
“What did you do, X?”
He cringes. “Nothing on purpose. I went to the cafe with my Econ TA…”
“Isn’t that a chick?” I bite out, already getting more pissed at him. The fuck is he doing hanging out with his TA?
“Yeah. Ever was working and it took me by surprise. I may have frozen up for a few seconds.” He throws his arms out. “We never talked about how she wanted to be introduced, okay? I fumbled and she thought I was there with Sara.”
A growl rumbles in my throat. If X is the cause of her pain, I’m going to make him hurt.
He sends a glare my way. “Her girlfriend is the manager at RYN. I smoothed things out with Ever and apologized, but there’s something else. She’s off, guys, and I don’t know why. I saw it in her eyes.” His eyebrows dip down. “She’s sad.”
“Because you were with another fucking woman, X,” I grit out.
“To talk about my Econ paper. I’m telling you that’s not it. When Baz and I got here, shit was all over the floor, like she threw it. College brochures and applications everywhere. Something is wrong.”
“Can you blame her?” Baz asks quietly. I cut my glance to him. He rubs his hand over his face. “I saw it before we took Belle to see Aria perform. We made it through all that shit with Peter and things were supposed to get easy. Except they’re a hundred fucking times harder and we’re all going in different directions right now. When’s the last time either of you checked in with her?”
“I’m here every night,” I grit out. “Unlike the two of you.”
“Whoa, back the fuck up, man,” X growls, shoving off the counter to come at me. Baz steps between us before X gets close, but he leans around and glares at me. “I’m in class all day and I have to live on campus. I’m here as much as I can be.”
“Yet you have time for coffee with your TA.”
“Fuck you, Ry. If something was wrong, you’re the one who should have seen it since you’re the one here with her every fucking night.”
My body goes rigid under his accusation.
“Fuck you, X.”
“Both of you knock this shit off. Is this what we do now, fucking fight with each other?” Baz shouts, shoving X back and pointing at me, then himself, then X.
“All of us dropped the ball and it’s obvious because we don’t know where the fuck Ever is right now or what the fuck is wrong. She didn’t come to any of us. Why? Because we aren’t fucking present.”
“We’re doing this for her. Getting our shit together so we can take care of her,” I tell them. “This is for our future. Together, however the fuck that works.”
A weary sigh escapes Baz. “Look at it from her position. We are all so wrapped up in trying to make things better for her future that the one thing we’ve all been neglecting right now…” His gaze pierces right through to my heart. “Is Ever.”
“Fuck,” X and I say at the same time.
I look at my brothers and let out a ragged exhale. Having your fucking heart walking around outside your chest is hard. I’ve never felt this way about anyone in my life before.
I don’t know how to deal with doubt. She is ours and we are hers. Bottom fucking line.
“Why hasn’t she said anything? Not like she doesn’t say what’s on her mind. If we fuck up she’s supposed to grab us by the balls and put us back in line,” X says.
“I am here every night, why the fuck hasn’t she talked to me?”
“Have you asked?” Baz says quietly. “I’m not throwing blame, Ry, fuck knows I’ve been absent trying to clean up the mess at Panchard, but out of the three of us, you have the luxury of sleeping in her bed every night.”
Guilt stabs me in the gut.
What kind of asshole am I not to see that my girl is hurting? I’ve been so wrapped up in this damned sponsorship that it’s all I’ve breathed for weeks. Months even. Talk about being fucking selfish.
Baz clasps me on the shoulder.
“We’re all feeling it, man. But right now, the most important thing is to find her. We’ll figure out the rest, but not when she’s missing. Get your shit together, ‘cause we need to bring our girl home.”
Baz’s phone vibrat
es and we all freeze.
“It’s from her.”
He looks at his phone and his eyebrows drawn down.
“The fuck?”
“Where is she?” I demand before grabbing the phone out of his hands.
I can't do this anymore. I’m sorry. Goodbye.
My fingers shake as I type out a reply.
Get your ass back here. You don't just leave.
I hold my breath as I watch three dots appear. It feels like for-fucking-ever before words pop up.
Not your decision.
“The fuck it isn’t,” I growl at the phone.
“What the hell is going on?” X pushes into my space and tries to grab the phone, but I twist away, already typing.
“She said goodbye,” Baz says quietly.
X freezes, then his face goes as white as mine feels.
“She can’t.”
“No, she fucking can’t.” My jaw clenches as I type out another text. “She’s going to get her ass back here and talk to us.”
I wait, but the three dots don’t reappear. Minutes pass. Incredulous, I glance up at Baz.
“She’s not responding.”
“Let me see.”
I hand him his phone and he swipes, then types, then tucks it away, already halfway to the door.
“She’s still at the nuthouse. Let’s go.”
Baz installed the tracking app on her phone after the shit with Peter. Thank god he had the foresight to do it, too. I grab my keys off the counter and jog out the door. My heart is pounding against my ribs so hard it hurts. She is not fucking leaving us. No way. Whatever it is that we fucked up, we’ll fix it.
She’s more important than anything else.
And she doesn’t get to walk away, not when she belongs right here with us.
∞∞∞
“Can I help you?” a rainbow-haired chick asks when we stop at the counter.
“Have you seen Ever?” I demand and Baz shoots me a look.
I glare at him. I don’t have time to be nice, I need to find Ever. So that I can shake her and kiss her in the same breath, then lock her in her room for a month so I can show her how sorry I am.
“I was here earlier with Sara, Kaylee’s girlfriend,” X says, giving her a tight smile. “Ever and I had a little argument, but I came to walk her home.”
I grunt and Baz elbows me in the ribs. I can’t help it, I haven’t been this ramped up since Peter had Peep arrested. I need to do something.
“Popular girl today,” she says.
Baz goes still next to me.
“What do you mean?” he asks.
“She left a little bit ago with a guy.”
“Are you fucking kidding me.” I glare at X because this has to be his fault. If she’s doing this to get back at him I swear to god I’ll fucking kill him.
“She knew him. He said they were old friends. They sat at a table for about a half hour talking, then left.”
I storm toward the door, ready to rip it off the hinges. Of course I don’t see her when I rush out to the sidewalk. Fear and anger spiral out of control in my chest. X comes out right behind me.
“Who the fuck…”
I turn and slam my hands against his shoulders, shoving him against the side of the building.
“The fuck, Ry,” he wheezes, trying to push me back.
Red clouds my vision. Several people around us watch warily and sidestep to get into the café.
“She’s fucking gone,” I grind out. “She left with some guy. Maybe if you hadn’t of shown up with some random chick today, X, she might have just come home when she was supposed to.”
Fucking hell.
“Don’t put this all on me.” X shoves hard against my chest and takes me by surprise. I stumble back a step.
Baz steps between us. “Knock this shit off. It was Nate. Her ex.”
That stops me in my tracks. “She went with her ex? The fuck was he doing here?”
“Sav said he showed up and that he and Ever sat and talked for a while, then they got up and left. Guys, I read about him in Peter’s files. He’s bad news. Really fucking bad. If she went with him, I doubt it was willingly.”
“Then we need to find her.”
“Already on it.” He pulls out his phone. “I’ll track her. They can’t have gotten far.”
He punches buttons, then glances through the window into the café. After another look at his phone, he goes back inside and we watch as he makes his way to the back. It only takes a few seconds to see what he’s doing.
He returns with two phones.
“She left it here.”
I meet his gaze and I’m sure the emotion raging through me is the same I see reflected in his eyes. Panic. Uncertainty. She knew there was a tracker on her phone; she let Baz put it there. So if she left it here, it means she didn’t want to be followed.
If she was taken against her will, wouldn’t she have brought her phone with her, knowing we could find it?
“We need to find her,” I say again.
“How the fuck do we do that? She left her phone here,” X says, dragging his fingers through his hair. He meets my stare. “Why the hell did she do that?”
I grit my teeth. I have to believe that she was taken, otherwise I am going to lose my shit even more. She did not leave us.
Baz is back on his phone, typing furiously, but the way his eyebrows dip down, I know it’s not good.
“Ever’s file isn’t there anymore. Peter must have gotten rid of it before we set him up.”
Baz scrubs his fingers over his face. He looks fucking exhausted and the dark circles under his eyes tell more than he’s been letting on.
“I need to get to Panchard. I need the supercomputer there, the one I can run my tracking program on.”
“We’ll all go.” I pull my keys from my pocket and head toward my car. I pulled in so fast that I jumped the curb and took up two spaces. Baz slides into the backseat and X climbs into the passenger seat.
I get in and slam the door, cranking the engine.
“I fucked up,” X says quietly.
I meet Baz’s stare in the rearview mirror. His eyes look haunted already.
“You’re not the only one. But I promise we’ll find her and this will be one of those stories we tell the grandkids.”
I shove the car into drive and the tires squeal when I hit the gas. We need to get to our girl and bring her home safe. Any other alternative isn’t acceptable.
With every mile that passes, the fear grows stronger.
And the rage.
I’m going to drive my fist down the throat of the fucker who took her. I know that Ever went unwillingly because she’d never leave us, even if she was pissed as hell.
She’d fight because that’s what she does. She’s strong and fierce and protective and fucking loyal. She took on Peter in order to keep us all safe, to make sure that our futures were secure.
I grip the steering wheel until my knuckles turn white.
Fuck.
With a growl, I press down on the gas. The car shoots forward and Baz swears from the back seat. It would explain why she left her phone behind.
“I think she’s doing it again,” I grit out.
Chapter Five
Ever
It’s dark when Nate pulls the car up to a warehouse I don’t recognize.
He drove us around for hours, taking side streets and backtracking, obviously to confuse me. He did a good job. I have no idea where in the hell we are.
It could be another state for all I know.
Chills dance over my arms when he kills the engine and drapes his forearms over the steering wheel. Tilting his head, he looks at me.
I haven't thought about what happens now. My main goal earlier was to get Nate out of RYN and away from anyone he could hurt. Now reality sets in and as I stare at the rundown building in the middle of nowhere, sourness coats the back of my tongue.
Now we’re alone.
Someone paid him to
take me.
To make me disappear.
It’s too dark to see what’s around us, so I have no idea if I could run without getting caught.
“You can try it, you might even succeed.” His voice is level, without an ounce of threat woven in. As if he’s carrying on a normal conversation. “But then I’d have to hunt down those guys of yours and do you really want to have that on your conscience for the rest of your life? Are their lives worth saving your own?”
He hits me where it counts. I’d never risk the guys and somehow he knows it. During the drive, I kept coming back to one person who would want me to disappear. One who knows how much the guys mean to me. Someone who already knows I’d do anything to keep them safe.
Someone who would want to hurt me.
“Peter paid you, didn’t he?”
I already know the answer and by the way Nate smiles, he knows I do as well.
“How did he get to you? He’s in prison.”
“I’m not going to tell you because that’s just bad business, but trust me when I say, keeping you gone is his number one priority.”
He gets out and comes around to my side, opening the door and grabbing my upper arm to haul me out. I stumble against him and he spins me around, pinning me against the car.
“So you might want to play nice, babe. If you have any value at all to me, then I might let you live. Keep that in mind.”
With a vise-like grip on my chin, his lips crash down over mine.
I twist and buck, refusing to open against the pressure of his tongue until he digs his fingers into my cheeks and I’m forced to open. A scream builds in my throat as he ravishes my mouth and when he finally pulls back, dragging my bottom lip between his teeth, I let it loose.
Nate just laughs and reaches out to swipe his thumb over my throbbing lip.
“I might just keep you around after all.”
With that, his grip tightens and he drags me across the parking lot to a thick industrial-looking door. Two pounds of his fist, and a small panel flips open.
All I can see are eyes peeking out at us.