Taking Her Down (Savage Brothers Second Generation 1)

“I love you, Dragon.”

“I’m sorry, Mama.”

“What are you sorry for?”

“It’s been a week and I’ve yet to find our girl,” I tell her, my voice raw.

“She’s okay. She called us on the way back to Kentucky. You said she told you she was okay.”

“Yeah, but that fucker took her. I know our girl is strong, but…” I stop talking because the thought of him hurting my girl, of doing any fucking thing with her, is like a knife in the chest. It hurts too much to breathe.

“You know Kayden. We’ll hear from her again very soon.”

“And if we don’t?”

“Then, I’ll panic with you and the two of us will blow up the state of Virginia looking for her,” she whispers kissing the side of my neck.

“God, I love you, Nicole.”

“I love you too, Dragon. Forever,” she murmurs and that one word makes me smile—just as it has all of these years I’ve had with her.

“Forever,” I agree.

She shifts on the bed and I allow her to pull me back. The minute my head hits the pillow she pulls her body in close, her head on my chest and her leg thrown over me, curling into me. It’s a move that has been familiar since the day we got together. It’s a sensation that cuts me clear to the bone and makes me feel alive. It somehow soothes any ache I have. I knew all those years ago that Nicole was my home. She was the woman that I always wanted and never knew existed. Or, if it did exist, there was no way that she would find me worthy enough to have her. I was so full of myself back then, thinking I knew everything. I didn’t know shit until a blonde with curves that went for days and a sassy mouth that alternated between driving me crazy and begging for more, stormed into my life barefoot.

“She’s okay, Dragon.”

“You can’t know that, Mama.”

“I do. I feel it. You said yourself that she didn’t sound scared on the phone,” she reminds me.

“She’s my daughter she wouldn’t show her fear.”

“She’s my daughter, too. Trust me, if she was scared you’d know it.”

“I’m going to find her, Nicole.”

“I know you will, Dragon.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because you’re you,” she says simply, her faith in me absolute.

“You know when Bull told us the lengths he and Skye were going to just so he could knock her up, and how I told you I wanted another kid? Forget that shit.”

“They’ve been together a lot of years now, Dragon. I don’t think you should say he knocked her up. You should say they decided to have a baby together.”

“Bullshit. They might have had to get medical help to make it work, but my boy made sure he fucked her extra, too—just to cover his bases. Therefore, he knocked her up.”

“Have I ever told you that you’re every woman’s wet dream until you open your mouth?” she asks with a sigh.

“Once or twice, yeah,” I respond, almost smiling, my fingers moving over her arm as we lie there in the dark. Neither of us speaks for a few minutes, each of us in our thoughts. I thought maybe she had drifted to sleep when she finally speaks.

“What’s your next step?”

“Freak has called in some heavy markers. We’re going to try to ping her cellphone through the satellites.”

“How can you do that?”

“You know that shit is too technical for me, Woman. I just know it can be done.”

“Yeah, but those markers… How would you even have those?”

“Men with power sometimes need shit done the old-fashioned way,” I mutter, stretching to touch my lips to her temple. “Go to sleep, Mama. Tomorrow will be a busy day.”

“What did Gunner say about this Chains?”

“He swears he’s a good man. He says this guy is the reason his entire patrol team made it out of Kabul together.”

“That’s good right?”

“Depends,” I say grudgingly.

“On what?”

“I’ve met a lot of men I might trust with the life of my men in battle. A lot of those same men I would kill if they got around my daughter.”

“You can’t kill this Chains until you know how your daughter feels about him, Dragon.”

“The hell I can’t. Kayden is too damn young, Nicole.”

“She’s not much younger than I was when I fell in love with a hard-headed biker who swept me off my feet,” she murmurs, pressing a kiss against my skin.

“You got lucky.”

“I can’t argue with that. Love you, Honey,” she tells me, sleep starting to thicken her voice.

“Night, Mama.”

I lay there the rest of the night, holding my woman while she sleeps. I don’t sleep. I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep until Kayden is back home where she belongs and this Chains fucker is ten feet underground.28Kayden“Damn! Now that’s a picture a man goes to war for,” Chains says, his voice coming out like a hoarse, gritty sound that sends shivers over my body.