Uncle Jack’s eyes were glassy, showing how upset he was, but from the way his jaw was clenched I knew he was thinking. I turned my full attention on him as he pulled out his hunting knife and started scrapping the tip under his nails, a sure sign that he was considering someone’s end. “There’s a place just outside of Creswell Springs. Abandoned, secluded. Belongs to the university, but its worth a look.”
I didn’t hesitate to get back on my bike. Bash split our group up, sending Razor, Trigger, and Tanner searching any possible haunts that Harley was liable to hole up. Raider and Matt he sent to Harley’s house. “Search it. I want to know what he’s been doing behind closed doors recently. When you’re done, if we haven’t called you, help Razor, Trigger and Tanner.”
Uncle Jack led the rest of us across town and outside of the city’s limits. We all did twice the speed limit, but it felt like we were moving in slow motion. My heart felt like it was going to explode in my chest, my lungs struggling to take in oxygen. I prayed for the first time since I was a kid, praying that we would find her and that she would be whole once we did.
When we stopped in front of an old, run-down building I knew that we hadn’t found the right place. There was no sign that anything in or around the building had been messed with in years. Cobwebs hung from the broken windows; there were no tire tracks, no glimmer of any lights coming from inside the abandoned building.
It took everything in me to not start freaking out. My female was in danger, and I had no fucking clue where she was.
Spider pulled his phone from his pocket and put it to his ear. “Yeah?” All eyes turned to our enforcer. His black eyes were narrowed in the headlights from our bikes. “What did you find?” When he said nothing for a long pause, but just continued to listen to whoever had called to check in, I had to grip the handlebars of my hog to keep from reaching out and snatching the phone from him.
“Watch him. If he moves, you jump his ass. We’ll be there in ten.” He put the phone in his pocket. “Trigger checked Jack’s parts warehouse. His truck is behind the warehouse, and Harley is pacing the office. Gracie is with him—”
I didn’t wait for him to say another word. Revving my bike, I tore up dirt as I hauled ass across the ten miles to Jack’s spare parts warehouse. By the time I got there it had been more than thirty minutes since Gracie had called me. Thirty minutes alone with a man who I wasn’t sure wouldn’t hurt her in a way that would scar her for life.
I’d known Harley all of my life. His dad had been friends with mine, and had taken a bullet not long after my dad had. Harley had patched in at eighteen, after prospecting for three years. I’d done the same thing, started prospecting when I was sixteen and patched in not long after he had. We’d known that we were going to be lifers, knew that it was tradition, but kind of like a family business. Outlawing tended to be a family-run organization, and an MC was just that.
One big, happy family. A band of brothers that had each other’s backs.
Trigger was leaning against his bike when I stopped just a few feet from him. Trigger had come by his club name honestly. He was our best shooter, never missed anything he aimed at. He’d been a sniper in the army; he still was when we needed him to be.
I was jumping off my bike before the others even reached us. I didn’t stop to get any details from Trigger, didn’t wait for the others to make a plan to get into the warehouse. I was going in blind. Harley could have been holed up with a dozen guns, could have been waiting to end me. I didn’t give a shit. I was getting my female back.
Now.
Gracie
My head was killing me.
Moaning, I lifted a hand to my head, wincing when I came into contact with a tender knot in the middle of my forehead. A sticky, tender knot. My stomach rolled with nausea when I tried to open my eyes and a flash of florescent light felt like it had developed the power of a laser beam, shooting pain straight to my brain.
Fudge. I was going to be sick.
The thought had barely flirted through my dazed mind before I was turning on my side and retching. I didn’t care where my vomit landed, just that it got out of me as quickly as possible in t
he hopes that it would make my pain stop. I didn’t try to open my eyes again; I just blindly vomited into an unknown abyss.
From somewhere behind me I heard someone curse violently and curled up into a tight ball. I didn’t know who it was, but I didn’t trust them. Another wave of nausea washed over me and I threw up again and again while trying to make myself as small as possible. Tears leaked from my tightly closed eyes as I remembered my mother doing exactly that same thing several times during my childhood.
Just as she had been then, I knew I had a concussion. A bad one, from the pain that felt like it was slicing my brain into huge chunks.
Slowly, as my stomach began to calm a little, I began to remember the events leading up to this point. Flashes of memories overloaded my aching head and I moaned again, trying to piece them all together. Leaving Aggie’s after work. Feeling so tired I could barely keep my eyes open. Harley. Feeling scared. Calling Hawk…
Hawk. I mentally whispered his name as more tears fell. I wanted Hawk so much. He would help me, make my head stop hurting. But I didn’t even know where I was, couldn’t open my eyes long enough to figure out where Harley must have taken me after he’d slammed my head into the steering wheel of Hawk’s Chevelle. Did Hawk know where I was? Was he coming for me?
The sound of something loud suddenly echoed through the room. I covered my ears, trying to hide from the painful loudness of what had sounded like a gunshot. The shot hadn’t even faded when I heard another loud noise, this one sounding like a door crashing open.
I heard the voice that had cursed earlier yell out seconds before the room went strangely quiet for a moment.
“Did you end him?” a voice I thought belonged to Jack asked in a tone that was void of all emotion.
“Not yet.” I knew that voice! It represented everything that was safe and warm. “Just knocked his ass out.”
I couldn’t contain the whimper that left me as I tried to lift my head, seeking Hawk blindly. “Baby,” his rough voice was closer and a second later I felt his rough hands on my face. “Oh, baby. Your head… Ah, shit.” I whimpered again, embarrassed because he must have stepped in my vomit. “She needs a doctor. Has anyone been able to get hold of Doc yet?”
“Not yet, but I’m on it,” another familiar voice called out. I thought it might have been Matt or maybe Tanner. They sounded so similar.
“Baby, can you open your eyes?” I tried to shake my head, but it caused stars to flash behind my closed eyes and nausea to rise again. “It’s okay, sweetheart. I’ve got you.”