“You fucking stink,” Drifter told me, his lip curling in disgust.
I looked down at my clothes. He was right. I’d been rolling around in the piss and shit inside that pen. Bolo wasn’t going to be any better, but there wasn’t time to worry about that right now.
Movement caught my eye and I paused as I watched Relay ransack some of the dead bodies. “You that hard up for new weapons and ammo?” I asked as he pulled mags out of the dead guy’s pockets.
“Can’t ever have too much,” he said.
He had a point, so I bent over and grabbed a new knife off one of the guys. I was going to go find mine here in a minute, but I wanted to keep an eye on Ruck. I didn’t like the way he kept looking over at me. Something was up.
“What?” I demanded as soon as he got off the phone.
I glanced over as Merc nudged me. “Thanks.” I pocketed my switchblade that Merc had found.
“Carrick-”
“We know where he is,” Bolo said, walking in and interrupting our president. We all looked over at him, scowls on our faces. He just shrugged. “Just thought you’d want to know, shit.”
“Yeah. I know where he is, too,” Ruck said. Then his eyes landed on me again. He looked…wary.
Uh oh.
“What is it?”
“Drifter,” Ruck said, ignoring my question. “I need you to head back to the clubhouse. The guys got jumped. They’re not sure how Strike is doing. He got hit pretty hard.”
Every muscle in my body stiffened. Drifter ran out without another word. He didn’t ask for back up. We were going to need all the manpower we could get to go after Carrick and the rest of his crew. Plus, he had the others waiting for him at the clubhouse.
“How are the women?” Kilo asked, eyes flicking to me then focusing back on Ruck.
“Mercy’s fine. Code managed to get her into the makeshift safe room.”
“And Rue?” I asked, already knowing what he was going to say. It was written all over the grim expression on his face.
“They took her.”
Fury filled me as I looked around at the sympathetic looks on my brothers’ faces. “Then let’s go get her back.”
CHAPTER 26
Rue
Isquinted as someone opened the trunk and light poured in. Hands reached in and grabbed me by the shoulders. The men moving us weren’t gentle as they manhandled us onto our feet and shoved us from behind to get us moving.
I wasn’t gagged, and I didn’t want to be, so I didn't say anything. We followed along after the men until one of them flattened his hand on my shoulder and shoved me to the ground. I fell over, waiting to see what they’d do, but they didn't start kicking me like I expected. They saved that for my brother. “Stop!” I shouted as they ganged up on him mercilessly.
There wasn’t much I could do with my hands still tied together. They’d untied our feet after dragging us out of the trunk, but even with the ability to walk, what was I supposed to do? I had no weapons, no use of my hands. “Please! Stop it!”
Eventually they got tired of the game and walked off, laughing together. A couple of the guys took seats outside the circle of light we were left sitting in. There were floodlights pointed directly at us as we sat on the concrete. Not exactly a good sign.
“Ryan? Are you okay?”
He coughed a couple times, then hocked up some spit and blood. “I’m fine.” He managed to work himself into a sitting position, scowling at the men he’d probably once considered friends. Maybe even family.
“What happened?” I asked in a low voice.
“Nothing.”
I considered letting it go, but it wasn’t like we had much else to do as we waited. This was clearly a trap The Collective had set for the MC. “Nothing,” I echoed in disbelief.
