“Don’t you leave this room.” Wraith glowers at me. “You don’t need no fucking bag. Anything you need will be provided. You stay right there where I can see you. You’ll come with me willingly, or I’ll fucking tie you up and gag you.” His mouth twists in a sadistic snarl. “Or maybe I’ll just tie you up. That way, you can scream. I like it when women beg.”
“I’m not a virgin!” I cry out. Desperate to save myself from the fate my father has planned for me.
Wraith looks at my father.
My father shrugs. “I didn’t realize she was still fucking that dirty biker. Still… you’d be taking what he wants, even if she’s damaged goods?”
Wraith nods.
I can’t just stand here and let this happen. Have them talk about me as if I’m an object to be traded or sold to the highest bidder. Panic chokes me, and my feet move before my mind catches up. I edge closer to the door and then it is there, at my back. I twist the handle frantically, nearly falling on myface when it springs open. I run, run like my life depends on it because it does. I burst through the front door, and I make it about twenty feet, before, like Wraith promised, I’m tackled to the ground from behind.
The beast on top of me smells like stale sweat. I fight back, kicking and clawing at him, even though the breath has been knocked right out of my lungs. I don’t need to breathe to fight.
I manage to claw at the asshole’s face, drawing a few stripes of bright red blood before his hands lock around my throat. He squeezes me unmercifully, crushing my throat, almost collapsing my windpipe. Is he going to kill me?
I fight until the first black dots dance on the edge of my vision. I fight for my life, for my future, for my love. I fight for the only thing that has been good in my life, for the man I might never see again.
Steel.
His face is the last image that swims through my mind before everything fades to black.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Steel
“We’re gonna get her back.”
I stride through the clubhouse, each heavy footstep punctuating my words. When Tracker bursts through the clubhouse doors to tell us that the Black County fucking Sinners took my woman, I broke one of my own rules and put my fist straight through the wall. I wanted to keep going, breaking shit, but fortunately for the clubhouse, Edge was there to pull me back.
Instead, I kick the black leather couch in our lounge.
“You about done there, Prez?”
I stare at him for a long second, my chest heaving, black closing in on my vision. I want to fucking fight, damn it. I have to let out a hard rush of air until my chest feels like it’s collapsing in on itself. I don’t want to fight Edge. He’s not the real target I have in mind.
I think about Wraith. Fucking Wraith and his band of sinners. I imagine Donovan Harris’ face, the life bleeding out of him as I sink my teeth into his fucking jugular. I am not above tearing his throat out for what he has done.
“Want to fuckin’ ride out and tear those fuckers limb from fuckin’ limb,” I snap.
Edge stares back at me anxiously. “Don’t worry. We’ll get her back. We’ve got two of our best guys after them and Tracker rode out to join them. They’ll lead us straight to wherethey’re taking her. The guys won’t lose them, and they want her alive. She’s a good bargaining tool.”
“Last time I checked, the Sinners don’t bargain.”
“Wraith might be an asshole, but even he sees sense once in a while.”
My hands clench into fists at my sides. “So what the fuck do you think we could offer him? The only thing he wants is this town. Us in the ground. You gonna make that happen for him, Edge?”
Edge backs off, but the way his lips thin out and brow creases say that I have gone too far. I’ve pissed him the fuck off, and I can’t come back from it.
“Sorry, brother,” I breathe out an agitated breath that sounds more like an animal growl. “Fuckin’ losing my mind here.”
“I know.” Edge’s frown disappears, and something close to compassion glistens in his eyes. “I say we get the men together, ride out, and go in guns blazing.”
“This isn’t the wild fucking west.”
Fuck me if I don’t want it to be though. I want to light up the entire fucking place. I’ll burn down the world to get my woman back. Fear and horror twist in my gut. Fear that I’ll be too late. The horror of knowing I might have lost the best part of me. She really has become myeverything.
I know Edge’s waiting for my orders. I force my brain to work through the rage and despair coating it. This is my fight. I sent Leah back to her asshole father. I should have insisted that she stayed at the clubhouse. They took her because I couldn’t put a fucking plan of attack together fast enough. Thisis my fault and mine alone. I can’t risk the lives of my brothers to avenge me and clean up my mistakes.
