“Can we bring these?” I’d already pulled one picture from the wall.
“Hell, yeah.” Priest took the two framed photos and tucked them under his arm. “Let’s get moving. I want to get you settled and make it back up the mountain before sunrise.”
With my heart in my throat, I followed him outside, where his truck idled. The woods surrounding his cabin were peaceful. A fresh layer of snow made everything shimmer in the moonlight. I couldn’t believe that someone would threaten this beautiful place.
“What’s wrong?” Priest stopped next to me.
“I just want to look at it one last time.” My eyes watered as I looked back at the cabin. Even in the dark, it radiated comfort. This was where I wanted to spend my life with Priest, to have our babies, and watch them grow. “Will you do something for me, my love?”
“Anything, Sunshine. Name it, and it’s yours.”
“Make those bastards pay for threatening our home.”
CHAPTER11
PRIEST
LeavingRae at the clubhouse was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do, and I’ve had to do some pretty difficult shit. The only reason I didn’t stay with her was because I needed to be the one to look into Eight Ball’s eyes as the light inside him dimmed. Bear or Stone would have been happy to do the job for me, but I wanted to see him suffer. A man couldn’t threaten the love of my life and expect to get away with it. He’d pay for what he’d done, and I’d enjoy delivering his just rewards.
“How much farther?” Stone’s voice came through my earbud.
I tapped my mic to respond. “If they really are at the Bodean’s old place, it’s another quarter mile.”
We’d left our vehicles a mile down the road and were making our approach on foot. According to the guy Thunder had picked up outside of Stella’s, the Savage Bones had been holing up in abandoned cabins that dotted the mountain. There were plenty to choose from thanks to the economy in the area going to shit.
If the tip we received was any good, we ought to be coming up on the cabin they’d been using in the next five minutes. It was times like this that made me grateful for the training I’d received as a SEAL. It was also times like this that made me painfully aware of Lennox’s absence. I hoped with all my heart that if he were alive, he’d be willing to bless the love Rae and I shared.
I shook the thought out of my head. Now was a time to focus, not dwell on my past mistakes. I took a few more steps through the woods and approached the edge of a clearing. Kneeling against a thick tree trunk, I gathered my bearings.
A small cabin sat on the opposite edge of the clearing. Warm light peeked out between a space in the front curtains and smoke spiraled up from the chimney. Someone was inside. The only problem was we didn’t know how many people were holed up and whether they were just members of the Savage Bones. The motherfuckers had been known to hold people against their will. We’d found that out earlier this year when Six came across Ginger trying to escape and Bear freed Emerson.
My gut clenched at the memory of what they’d done to Ginger. The members of Savage Bones were some of the most inhumane assholes I’d come across, and after spending time in war zones overseas, that was saying a lot.
“What’s the plan?” Bear asked. “Can we go in with guns blazing?”
That would be Bear’s style, though not how I wanted to handle this particular situation. “Hold off. I’m going in for a closer look.”
I crept toward the cabin, trying to keep my boots from crunching in the snow. There was no sign of a vehicle, though tracks in the drive showed there’d been one recently. Getting this high up on the mountain this early in the year would require four-wheel drive. That didn’t help, since ninety-nine percent of the vehicles on the road in Mustang Mountain fit that description.
The curtain moved. I ducked behind an outbuilding to stay out of sight.
“We’ve got one AW in the window,” Thunder said.
“AW?” Bear asked.
“Asswipe,” Thunder and I said in unison.
“Copy that,” Bear said.
The three of us were closest to the cabin, though there were three more of my MC brothers staked out in the woods. I wouldn’t risk bringing any more of the guys up here. They needed to stay by the clubhouse to keep an eye on Rae. If I were in Eight Ball’s shoes, she’d be the target. The best way to get back at a man was to threaten what was most important to him. Eight Ball might have threatened to burn down the cabin, but even if he had peanuts for brains, he’d know Rae was my true treasure.
My phone vibrated against my thigh. The only reason anyone would be calling right now was if something had gone wrong at the bottom of the mountain. I pulled it out of my pocket and ripped my glove off with my teeth so I could answer.
“Yeah?” I whispered. Voices carried a hell of a lot farther, with so much snow on the ground. I wasn’t ready to let whoever was inside know they were under surveillance.
“We’ve got a situation,” Stone said.
I retreated from the cabin until I was far enough away to speak. “What kind of situation?”
