I look at my president and nod.
When we step inside, I can see blood on the wooden floor, and I’m glad I’ve already been sick, because there’s nothing left in my stomach to throw up this time, despite my nausea. Something sparkles by the couch, and I pick it up. A little silver earring.
“I think that’s Isla’s,” Quinn says, touching my arm. “There was a box on the floor with jewelry spilled out of it. I thought I’d picked it all up. I’m so sorry.”
I place it in the pocket of my cut, where I keep a button from the shirt Garrett wore the first night we were together. The one that we laughed at when it hit the floor as I eagerly ripped his shirt open.
I found it the following morning, and it’s been my talisman ever since.
“I’m gonna hunt him down to the end of the fucking earth and kill him.”
Wraith steps up onto my other side, squeezing my shoulder just like Grudge is. They’re the only things tethering me down.
Raven appears, and I look up from the blood to see that the old ladies are all here. “We made food because we thought you might be hungry after spending all day on your bikes.”
“Food is the last thing I need,” I snap.
Wraith huffs. “It’s gonna be a long night. And until we have a lead or set out to search in the dark, you’re gonna take some of whatever’s been cooked and shove it down your fucking throat.”
Atom steps in front of me. “Do you trust us to get you through this like we have for every other brother who’s been in your position?”
The house smells like wet ash and chemicals from the fire across the street. Through the living room window, I can see the burned-down shell of Isla’s home. “She could have died. I don’t know why it was so late when she ran, maybe she was napping or some shit. But I almost lost her in that. And now, this…” I shove my finger in the direction of the blood. “Garrett was still hurting from the accident. This says he’s badly injured. I could still lose them both.”
Atom grabs me away from Wraith and Grudge’s support and shoves me up against a wall. The fucker has a few inches on me and a lot more pounds. “Fucking look at me, brother.”
His forearm is pressed hard against my chest, making it tough to breathe. It’s enough to shock me out of the tailspin I was just about to enter and do as he asks.
“I asked, do you trust us to?—”
“Yeah, I fucking trust you,” I say, the words angry.
“Good. Let your anger be your true north. But don’t let it consume you while we figure this out. I get he’s Garrett to you while you’re in your home. But he’s Shade to the rest of us. A trusted brother. We’re going to bring him and Isla home. You have to fucking believe it.”
I want to shove him away. Tell him to go fuck himself. Instead, I drop my forehead to his shoulder. “I won’t survive this if they don’t.”
Atom grabs the back of my head. “I’m not going to let either of those things happen.”
Lucy marches in with Smoke. There’s soot on her face. “They’re done for the night. We’ll have an official report in a few hours, but it was set deliberately. Accelerant was used. So, they’re treating it as arson, but the police say it’s too early to declare it’s connected to the abduction.”
I hate that word. I hate what it means. “So, the police are out looking for them?”
Ember steps up next to Atom. “We tried to explain. But the sheriff couldn’t get his head around the three of you being together, so…”
“So what?” I ask.
Quinn steps over and wraps her hands around Smoke’s bicep. “The police are floating ideas that the two of them left together. That, perhaps, the abduction was staged. That Isla set fire to her own house. They’d rather come up with any absurd idea than actually look at the evidence and truly help.”
“Fucking cops,” Grudge mutters. “They hate bikers.”
“I’ve sent them the video excerpt of them being led away,” Catfish says. “But no one is getting back to me.”
“I’ll keep on them,” Lucy says. “I’ll apply any legal pressure I can.”
“Atom,” Grudge says. “Go with Taco to see Sheriff Tanner Radcliffe. Make him watch the footage Wren sent over. I know how much you like fucking with him.”
“My pleasure,” Atom says. “I’ll make sure every last man is out looking.”
Grudge turns to me. “Atom once ripped up the floorboards in Tanner’s home, put him beneath them, and hammered the nails back in to leave him there. The guy will shit a brick, and then do anything Atom says. Smoke, can you call in any of your fire buddies? Extra feet for a search?”
