McCoy (Golden Glades Henchmen MC 3)

"It's not your fault. We shouldn't have ever left everyone with only one guard. That's on me. Seeley will be back soon. But the prospects are making their way here too to hang with you. Let's roll," he added, waving a hand in the air.

We crammed into the cars, including two we'd borrowed from Teddy's collection, not wanting our bike sounds to give us away. Phones on to a group call, we made our way around the immediate vicinity, looking for abandoned buildings.

"Yo," Donovan called through the phone. "I might have something," he added.

"Don't stop, but what do you have?" Huck asked.

"An old bakery. All boarded up. All by itself too, everything around it is closed for the night. And there's a black SUV on the street."

"Where are we meeting?" Huck asked, turning around since Alaric had gone in the opposite direction we had.

I didn't question why everyone else had gone off in their own cars, but Huck had insisted on my going with him. He was worried about me going rogue.

And while I usually prided myself on being the most rational person in the club, even I had to admit that my mind wasn't working right since the moment I'd heard that Shy'd been taken.

My stomach had worked itself into a million knots, making bile rise up in my throat, even as an oppressive weight pressed down on my chest, making it impossible to take a deep breath as my imagination came up with more and more disturbing ideas about what might be happening to Shy.

I would never be able to forgive myself for not protecting her if that motherfucker hurt one hair on her goddamn head.

I hadn't said it yet. I had barely been able to admit it to myself yet, knowing it was too soon, knowing it was irrational, but unable to deny it either. But I was falling for that woman. For her quiet toughness. For all her sweetness. For her thoughtfulness and her good heart. For her clumsiness and obsession with fucking Eddie's cooking.

Hell, I wasn't falling.

It was past tense.

I'd fallen.

And I had to fucking get her back.

"Hey, head in the game, McCoy," Huck demanded, snapping in my face as he pulled into a parking lot where the others were all parking and climbing out of their cars as well, save for Che, who stayed.

You always needed a wheelman, just in case.

He pulled his car up beside us, cutting the engine, waiting to listen to instructions.

"I know," I agreed, cracking my neck, trying to pull myself together.

With that, I climbed out of the car.

"Okay. We are going to surround it," Huck said. "Che is going to move in as soon as he sees us get inside. You know the drill. No one lives through this but Shy and Joss."

We didn't need more than that.

We'd handled more than a couple missions that no one made it out of.

We knew what we were doing.

Sure, this was newer for Alaric and Donovan, but they would have to figure it out eventually. Trial by fire, and all that.

"Let's go get your girl," Huck said, punching my arm as he moved past me.

My steps felt oddly heavy as I made my way down the block, like I was trudging through quicksand. My heart felt just as heavy.

Sure, we knew what we were doing. But we usually had a better idea of the interior of a building before we infiltrated it. We had more time to throw together a plan. Or at least get some flashlights or some shit. Abandoned buildings didn't have working electric.

It would all work out.

It had to.

There was no other option.

Shy was going to make it out of this. I was going to bring her home. I was going to comfort her and tell her how much I was starting to care about her. I was going to eventually get a ring on her finger, get her name matched up with my last one. Then I was going to get her a house with a center kitchen, and get us a couple kids with her face on them.

That was the only possible outcome.

I refused to believe anything else was even an option.

Flattening myself against the side of the bakery, I pressed my ear against the boarded-up window, trying to hear anything at all inside. Shy or Joss or just the fuckers who took them, so we had some idea what to expect.

There was nothing.

I leaned past the corner of the building, seeing Huck and Remy moving toward the door.

Huck nodded at me, and I rushed up, grabbing the door, pulling it open, and letting them in.

Not a second later, I was throwing myself in behind them, hearing the sounds of bullets flying, tiny explosions that better not have been fucking happening to Shy.

There was a camping lantern on somewhere in the distance, and I hoped Remy and Huck were seeing better than I was behind them.