The one holding Dylan by the bicep tosses him to the side as if he were nothing more than a bag of horse feed. Dylan cries out, and my heart aches for him. I hate hearing him cry.
I take a step toward Dylan to check on him, only to be blocked by one of the men. One of them slams a fist to my face, knocking me to the ground.
“You have no clue what you’ve just agreed to, bitch.” The other laughs and pats me down, taking my phone out of my back pocket, tossing it across the barn. “Can’t have you bringing that with you.”
Everything seems to happen in a whirlwind as both my feet and hands are zip-tied, duct tape slapped over my mouth, and I’m thrown up and over the first guy’s shoulder.
Neither said names nor spoke any other word as they carried me out of there. It didn’t matter to me here or there what they did. I didn’t care about my safety. All I wanted was to make sure they didn’t take Dylan. It was a chance I took when they tied me up. They could have still grabbed him, but thankfully, they seemed to be fine with taking me in his place.
“You know that kid’s gonna tell someone,” the one with me over his shoulder grumbles once we are far enough away from the barn.
“Yeah, that’s the whole point.” The other snickers. “They won’t locate her or discover who took her. They’ll dismiss it, just like what happened at the bar. Hell, right now, those bastards are all scratching their heads trying to figure it out, but they won’t. We’ve got this shit in the bag.”
It wasn’t smart for them to brag while I was awake, but with duct tape on my mouth, I couldn’t point that out. I didn’t think they’d care either way.
After a long while of them walking, they stop, and I find myself none too gently thrown in the back of a van. The door slams closed, drowning out my whimper of pain from being tossed against the wheel well.
Here I thought the worst thing to happen to me was me being raped, until now, I think that was the case. These men, though, they’re going to kill me unless Shadow finds me first, which is what I’m betting on.
Once Shadow finds out I’m missing, he’ll do whatever it takes to find me. He’ll never stop until he does, and that’s what these men don’t understand about what they’ve just done in taking me. My man was going to hunt them down.
Hours pass by, and the only reason I know is by the setting of the sun. My body hurts, and it’s all I can do to stay awake. The men have both taken turns kicking, punching, and hitting everywhere they could. According to them, I wasn’t pretty enough to fuck because the sight of me didn’t do it for them.
This worked for me. I didn’t want to go through that form of violation from them.
This didn’t mean they didn’t take enjoyment out of cutting my clothes off me. They taunted me while they did so, and it made my stomach coil tight. With the tape over my mouth still in place, I haven’t been able to cry out or scream, though I still make noise. I’ve had to swallow back bile several times from the impact of the blows they’ve delivered to me.
I’m not sure how much more I can take before they end up killing me, which they confirmed was their end goal. To leave me as a message to my brother. Not to Shadow. But to my brother. All of this is over land. A land that he and I both wanted to protect.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Shadow
The call from Maddox came in, my gut told me to brace, but I didn’t. Finding out my woman was taken and my cousin was hurt had me seeing red. I left my woman at the ranch thinking she was safe there, and I was wrong. I failed her. She and my nephew both. He was good at least. Maddox had him. He and Amelia both.
But not Della.
She was missing.
Nowhere to be found.
Not knowing where the fuck she is has me losing my mind. The only thing keeping my brothers from locking me down is the fact that I’m trying to keep it together.
If I hadn’t been distracted by the fact that the bar had been hit and trying to find who was behind it. One thing I know for certain, it’s not a coincidence two days after Rodeo Roundup was hit, they’d go after my woman.
I’d already been to the hospital to check on Dylan and to hear from the kid what he witnessed. Swear I want to kiss my woman at the same time as put her over my knee for what she’d done. First, for protecting Dylan from being taken. He could be the one missing if not for her. Second, for allowing them to take her away from me.
She’s got to be scared out of her mind right now with worry, not knowing if someone will find her.
I was gonna find her if it was the last thing I ever did.
My brothers all know what Della means to me. She’s my everything. The woman meant to be mine. I’ll do whatever it takes to get her back. I just hope when I find her that she’s still alive.
The only thing stopping me from already finding her is that we’re out of leads. Our first thoughts were that it could be another club. We’ve made enemies over the years, but when looking down that route, nothing came of it. Lucifer reached out to Esparza for a second time to see if her being taken was connected to him in any way, only that was also a dead end. The women he’d had us transport to the safe house were deep in hiding, and no one knows where they are except for the men protecting them.
I slam my fist into the wall across from the bar in our clubhouse, not even feeling the pain as my knuckles split open. Blood drips down my hand, but I don’t give a damn.
“Shadow,” Lucifer says, his voice steady and full of fury. “Breaking your hand won’t bring her back. You need to lock it down before we end up locking you down. She needs you on your game right now.”
