“They know you took me. They’ll come for me.”
“They won’t find you.”
With those ominous words he walked out and locked the door behind him.
Chapter Four
It was just after six AM and I was standing in the bedroom Waverley had been staying in since she got back to New Jersey. I’d found her phone on the floor by the bed. There were a number of missed calls from War, but they had all been during the time we were with Declan. The bed was unmade, and I remembered going to sleep with her, finding it hard to believe it was only two nights ago. It felt like she had been gone for weeks.
When we got back from seeing Ranger last night, Ballistic and the other officers disappeared into King’s office. War had been quiet, frustrated at not getting any further in finding out what had happened. We’d got nothing from the few Kingsmen we’d captured. It was clear they weren’t in on whatever plan Nytro had concocted.
Now they were just languishing in the warehouse, no one sure what to do with them, knowing we couldn’t just let them go, but no one wanted to mass kill them either. That wasn’t how our MC worked. I’d decided to leave those decisions to Ballistic and the rest of the council. I was more focused on finding Waverley.
War had left the compound and gone to Connor’s place. I wasn’t sure him spending the night there was for the best and offered to go withhim, but he said he needed time alone. I’d checked in a couple of times and got one-word responses, but at least he was replying.
When he heard about our talk with Ranger he’d been skeptical but prepared to try and approach their VP because despite the animosity between our two clubs, he did have a tenuous relationship with this guy Mace. Everyone was tired and although I’d put up a fight about keeping on with the search, King had other ideas.
We’d argued back and forth for a while until he threatened to lock me in the shed and keep me out of any of the search, so I relented and went up to my room. Between War and Kansas doing computer searches they’d still been unsuccessful tracking down Omen’s truck, they did have some idea of where it had gone but lost it very quickly. I wasn’t sure Omen was smart enough to avoid traffic cams, it just meant there weren’t many. Living in such a rural area, that wasn’t unexpected.
King was pulling his usual bullshit and keeping everything close to his chest, telling War and I we were too close to think rationally. That was total bullshit too but after his threats and actually feeling like I was dead on my feet, forced me to take his advice and go to sleep. I’d only got around four hours before I woke up and headed here to the Old Ladies house.
It was quiet, I didn’t think anyone had spent the night here, so no one bothered me. I’d stood in the kitchen for a while. Someone had tried cleaning things up but I could still see evidence of what happened. Blood in the cracks on the flooring, the strong smell of bleach, which did shit all for getting rid of traces of blood.
I’m sure if I had a black light, the whole fucking room would light up like a Christmas tree. And I didn’t want to see that. I wasn’t sure how he had done it, but King managed to convince the Sheriff not to start an active investigation, so there was no official crime scene to speak of. As far as King was concerned, this was our problem, and we would deal with it.
Another reason why we’d been forced to rest was that Connor had been moved to a level two trauma hospital an hour’s drive away in Paterson. I hadn’t even thought about where he was, assuming he was in the local hospital, but given the severity of what he'd suffered, they’d airlifted him straight to a waiting surgical team to operate. We had to go and see him, to check he was okay.
A couple of the Old Lady’s had gone down there but I didn’t want to think of him being alone. Although it would take some time out of the day for us to see him, given we still didn’t have much to go on, I figured it was something I could do to keep occupied and also, no matter what he said, War needed to see Con, to be reassured he was alive. At least, as far as I was aware, he still was at this point.
The scent of her took over my senses, her discarded clothes were lying over the back of a chair and a pair of sandals poking out from the bed. She’d always been obsessively tidy when we were kids, so it was weird seeing her things out of place here.
I couldn’t stop thinking about how I’d reacted in the garage, how I walked out without speaking to her, hating she was falling apart over the asshole she’d been dating in North Carolina. I’d behaved like a fucking idiot, but what was new. Where Waverley was concerned, I didn’t seem able to think rationally. She was mine, she always had been, and over the last week, I’d started to feel as if she was coming back to me, accepting that I’d claimed her. She was starting to believe she belonged here again.
A sound at the door had me whirling around. Rosa was there. She was wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt, and what looked like one of Ballistic’s shirts over it, it was so huge on her. She looked as lost as I felt, her whole expression forlorn, her eyes red-rimmed either from tiredness or crying, most likely both.
Neither of us knew what to say. I pocketed Waverley’s phone and walked towards her, enveloping her in a hug. Rosa always looked out for us when we were kids. She became the mother figure we were all missing growing up. She was closest to Waverley, the only person who kept in touch with her after she left. Waverley turned to her in her hour of need and Rosa hadn’t let her down. Unlike me.
I hadn’t lived with Ballistic and Rosa long before I moved into the clubhouse but in that time, I’d come to love her as more than just one of the Officer’s wives. She was hilarious, brash, and tough when she needed to be, hell she went after Reinhart after she found out what he had done to Wave, even threatened him with a gun. I hated to feel the tremble in her body now.
“You get any sleep?” I asked her.
“How am I supposed to do that?” she shrugged.
I pulled back. “Just try okay. Even I’ve had a few hours.”
She studied my face. “Not long enough.”
My turn to shrug. “It was enough. I need to be doing something. I’m taking War to the hospital.”
“Good, I think he needs that.”
I eyed her quietly for a moment and she stared back at me, not giving anything away, but it did make me wonder what she knew about War and Connor’s relationship. Regardless, I wasn’t going to say anything. I’d sworn to them both and if someone was speculating or suspicious, they’d get no confirmation of it from me.
“How are you holding up, Hudson, really?”
“Not great,” I said truthfully. “But doing the best I can.”
“You’ll bring her home,” she said, certainty ringing in her voice as she squeezed my forearms before pulling back. She looked around the room, feeling the loss as keenly as I was. “They’ll both be fine,” she said softly. “They have to be. There is fresh coffee in the kitchen, you don’t want to be falling asleep at the wheel.”
