“Where are you?!” I blurt out, my voice trembling. “They’ve got her. How close are you to the house? Can you stop them?!” I fire off questions, needing to know if he got to her in time. I’m fighting to keep calm but my world has been flipped upside down. After a brief pause, he finally answers,
“I’m already here, Mav,” his voice cracking like he’s holding back tears. “She’s gone. The house is wrecked, there’s a dead body in the hall, but there’s no sign of Ember. No sign of my baby girl,” he mutters, finally breaking down. The defeat in his voice nearly shatters me but I know we don’t have time for that. As gently as possible, I tell him to sit tight while I make some calls.A small surge of pride hits me, knowing she fought back. I wasn’t sure who fired the shot I heard over the phone, but now I know it came from my Ember, defending herself and our home.
“I swear, we’re going to find her,” I assure him before hanging up. Scrolling through my contacts, I hit the button to call my hacker. Turbo picks up instantly, while Demolition, Hellhound, and Avalanche standby for orders. Until we have a solid plan, there’s no point of rushing in blind, searching in the wrong place.
“Turbo, I need you to tap into the tracker in Ember’s wedding ring, now!” I order, immediately hearing his hands fly across the keys. “Send her location to all of the brothers. No mistakes.”
“I’m on it Prez. Give me two minutes.”
“You have one!”
“Okay, got it! Sending the info now,” he relays as I silently pray that we aren’t too late. Surely they haven’t gotten that far.
“Tell everyone to assemble and wait for my call and pull up everything you have on the Savage Knights for me,” I say, hanging up before he could respond. Pulling up the link, it shows the tracker beeping in a location just past the Alabama state line. The guys at the clubhouse are closest to Ember and Londyn’s location so I put in a call to Steel, instructing him to get moving with all hands-on deck.
“When you get to her, I want the streets running with Knights’ blood but leave Fury to me!” I growl. He will pay for touching what’s mine.
“You got it Prez. I’ll give you a call when we have Ember secure.”
“Sounds good. We’re on our way.”
God, I hope they get to them in time, I think, trying to keep it together in front of my men. I’m barely holding on, feeling as though I’m gonna lose my shit at any moment. Fury is going to wish he never knew Ember once I get my hands on him.But, I can’t stop thinking about how terrified Ember must be, ripped away from her home, enduring God knows what. That twisted bastard has been holding onto this grudge for the last six or seven years. A man with that kind of patience and rage is a dangerous mix and now he’s taken my wife. What’s his end game? He didn’t come all this way just to kill her, did he? Or is this some sick game of cat and mouse for him?
Traffic islight as we head back down the highway. Elijah’s on his way to the state line too, determined to get his hands on Fury. Meanwhile, Dementor and his crew are going to swing by my house to deal with the body. We’ve got about a four-and-a-half-hour drive ahead, but we’ll make it in three if we don’t get stopped by the cops. I can’t stand the thought of Ember being with Fury any longer than necessary. I wonder how she’ll react when she sees me wearing my Kutte, realizing I’m the president of a motorcycle club and I’ve been lying to her all this time. But I’ll deal with that later. Right now, the only thing that matters is getting Ember to safety.
Londyn
The clock on the bedside table reads eleven o’clock, indicating that a few hours have passed since my secret was exposed. Fury’s muffled voice seeps through the thin door as my mind wanders, thinking of how to explain this to Ember so she could understand. My head's been swimming ever since Fury yanked me out of the bed, only to throw me back down, where I landed awkwardly on my side.
It broke my heart when she tried to move her body away from mine as if I were a pariah. It’s not my place to tell her who her husband really is and I have to be careful what I relay to her. She’s been sitting next to me, quiet, expressionless, but I can feel the anger generating from her body. Every time I start to explain, she stares at me, eyes blazing with betrayal, filled with countless questions.
“All this time,” she finally rasps, voice barely steady. “You’ve been lying to me. A motorcycle club? Seriously?! How could you hide something like that from me, Londyn?” She’s in obvious pain but there’s nothing we can do, so I try to focus on the conversation we need to have. I swallow hard, trying to find the right words.
“I wasn’t trying to hurt you, Ember,” I start, but she cuts me off.
“Not trying to hurt me?” She scoffs. “We’ve been friends for years and you kept this entire part of your life a secret. Like I wasn’t worth the truth. After everything I’ve shared with you about my life, how could you do this to me, Londyn?”
The disappointment in her voice wrecks me. I know she’s right, but I need her to understand… this wasn’t my call, it was Maverick’s. I take a deep breath, releasing it slowly, trying to gather the words carefully.
“It was never about not trusting you,” I murmur, meeting her gaze, hoping she hears the regret in my voice. “It was aboutkeeping you safe. So many times, I thought about telling you the truth, but I was compelled to honor my loyalty to my club.”
She shakes her head, frustration etched in her face. “So, everything we’ve shared, all those moments... was it all just part of your cover?” She inquires, her eyes filled with hope that our relationship was authentic and not a cruel joke.
“No, Em. Our friendship is real, always has been. I kept my involvement with the club from you, but everything else was the truth. You mean the world to me, Ember, but I didn’t have a choice.”
She stares at me for a long moment, the silence weighing heavy as if I’m awaiting my fate for crimes I’ve committed.
“I just don’t know what to believe anymore,” she sadly says, hurt never leaving her eyes that are now, shining with tears. Moving in as close as possible, I lock eyes with her, letting her see the truth reflected in mine.
“You can believe that every girl’s night we had, every crying session we shared, and every word spoken between us was real. I didn’t expect to care about you. My mission was to protect you. Maverick placed you in my care and I screwed up.
The truth is, Ember, I love you as if you are my sister and every time we’ve spent time together, the club never crossed my mind. Maverick thought it was a good idea to have someone that could get close to you without you knowing you were being protected. We may have gone about this the wrong way, but I have no regrets about gaining a best friend.”
“Wait, who’s Maverick?” she asks. After everything that’s just happened, I hesitate, unsure if I should expose Silas’s truth and face the fallout. I’m about to respond when the screech of tires pierces the air, followed by gunshots. The window explodes, sending glass flying in every direction. Instinctively, I throw myself over Ember, shielding her as best I can.
My heart skips a beat when I feel a warm wetness through my jeans… her blood, panic surges through me. There's no doubt the baby’s gone, but if we don’t get her to a hospital soon, I could lose her too. Ember screams in pain, clutching her thigh. It’s then I realize we’ve both been hit by some of the large shards. Just when I thought this night couldn’t get any worse.
Loud voices, followed by screams of agony, echo through the shattered windows, and within seconds, the chaos gives way to an eerie silence. The door forcefully swings open, and I turn to see Fury stepping inside, hands raised, blood streaming from a bullet wound in his shoulder. Steel has his gun trained on him, ordering him to back into the far corner. My brothers are here, quickly taking down the Savage Knights. To be honest, I wasn’t sure they’d make it before the worst happened. I knew about the tracker in Ember’s ring, but judging by her labored breathing, we’re running out of time.
