Axle's Brand (Death Chasers MC 3)

My veins run a little colder. “Where is he now?” I ask him, but Sarah plucks his phone out of his pocket before he can answer.

“What are you—”

“Where is he?” I interrupt Smitty as Sarah does something with his phone.

Smitty faces me again, his jaw set. “Troy loves her. He’d never do this. They’ve been like brother and sister their entire lives.”

“She has terrible luck with brothers,” Dash points out.

“They tend to get jealous,” Jude adds.

“Where is he?” I ask again through gritted teeth.

“He wouldn’t be that stupid if he did something like that,” Smitty goes on. “He’d know better than to disappear, too. Someone would be setting him up. He’s still in New York.”

Sarah walks back over, her creepy chipper-smile gone, and a dark expression on her face as she hands Smitty his phone. “Troy is twenty miles away,” she says tightly.

Smitty just stares at her for a minute, before he has to stagger back.

“No,” he says hollowly. “Even if he was that horrible, he wouldn’t be that stupid,” he goes on, talking more to himself than anyone else.

“I don’t care if it starts a war. If I get my hands on your son, I’m killing him,” I bite out, then turn to Sarah. “Where’s the signal from?”

“My guy is trying to pi it down, but I have a general location. He had to turn the phone on via remote access, then turn on the GPS via remote access, all from the number I got from Smitty’s phone. He did it fast. It won’t take—”

“Got him,” Drex says, jogging up to us as he pockets his phone. “Nicholas is his runner. He only told me where to find him because I told him Lathan took Axle’s old lady and explained the highlights of the situation, minus the mafia thing.”

He starts jogging out, and we all follow. Smitty’s men follow, but Smitty struggles to get up. I don’t have time to fucking wait on him to absorb it, so we leave without him.

Drex yells at Drake as he pokes his head out of the tattoo parlor, telling him to keep an eye on shit. Then we’re gone, driving like hell through the mostly quiet streets as fast as we can go.

Sarah is on the back of Dash’s bike as I pass them, racing to get beside Drex. My stomach is in knots, my heart is in my throat, and everything on me is throbbing.

If she’s dead because I sent her back…

I can’t even think about it. I just need to focus on finding her.

Alive.

CHAPTER 38

MAYA

Half of them have given up, the other half must work out a lot.

Doubled over and heaving for a few bursts of air, I look around, seeing my small canyon-like crater coming to an end, stealing all that coverage with it. I keep tripping over rocks or bushes, and my body feels like it’s been banged to hell from the unforgiving ground, but I’m not ready to give up just yet.

Lungs protesting, I start running again, ignoring the burn in my legs. Why couldn’t they have been in the back? Then I could have ran through the front and stolen a car instead of making a run for it.

ATVs sound in the distance, coming for me. They can’t drive through the canyon, but they can sure as hell drive above it, looking for me. I duck behind more coverage, just as I’ve done on each of their sweeps.

Once they’ve moved on, I start running again. I can see the solid, steep wall just ahead, and I whimper a little. How the hell am I going to get out of this mess?

Loud, rapid gunfire echoes through the canyon, and I curse, diving to the side. It sounds too far away for the shots to be firing at me. Are they just hoping to make me scream so that I’ll give myself away?

Lathan told them not to shoot at me, damn it.

He needs my money before I’m allowed to die.

More and more gunfire has me questioning what’s going on. Especially when the ATVs suddenly take off in that direction.

After several long minutes of a lot of gunfire, I peer around the edge, wondering how many are still chasing me.

No one is there.

The gunfire sounds like it’s coming from the direction of the house, and I look around, finding some roots poking through the canyon wall.

Hoping like hell those extra five slices of pizza I’ve been having all week don’t break the damn roots out from under me, I start climbing them. Technically, I was starved for two days, since they sort of almost killed me, or whatever.

Admittedly, the more height I gain, the more I start cursing the pizza. I also curse Lathan for how weak I feel. That running wouldn’t usually bother me. This climbing wouldn’t normally be an issue.