“She’s fire,” one of them sneered. “Wonder how long before it burns out.”
The world tilted as they shoved me inside. My head cracked against metal, stars bursting in my vision. The door slammed shut, and the engine roared to life. My heart thundered. Every instinct screamed at me toget out. But tied hands and smoke-filled lungs left me with only my thoughts and Jay’s voice in my memory.“Surviving is your strong suit.”
I forced myself to breathe, even as fear clawed up my throat. I’d admitted it to him, said it out loud.“I’m scared.”
Now, locked in a van with the Fangs and the world outside burning, I realised how right I’d been.
But in my life, fear didn’t mean giving up—fear meant fighting.
Chapter 33
Reaper
We’d sat in the shadows for hours, engines off. Riot, Link, and I waited for Lucy to come back to us or at least give us an update. By the time the emergency services had left, I was getting antsy. As soon as the coast was clear, we pulled into the empty lot. The motel was nothing but a crumbling building of ash and ruin, smoke still bleeding into the sky. But there was no sign of Lucy. We’d scoured the whole place, and then there it was—a Fang patch pinned to the wall with a knife.
Not just any blade, buttheblade. The one I gave Caleb the night he swore he’d never take another order that wasn’t his own.Myknife, now hammered into blackened wood.
They knew I’d see it, knew I’d work out how they got it, and they knew who mattered most to me.
Lucy.
The Fangs weren’t only coming for the club anymore. They were coming for me, and for the last thing Caleb tried to keep out of our world. The one thing I could never seem to let go of.
Blood roared through my ears, my chest felt tight, and black edges crept into my vision. I pushed it all down hard. I couldn’t afford to panic because Lucy needed me. She needed Reaper, not Jay.
“Pres?” Riot strode around the corner, eyeing the patch on the wall.
“Fangs got Lucy.” My voice cracked.
“Fuck, then we go get her back.”
I ripped the knife free, steel gleaming too clean in the morning light, and pulled the burner from my pocket. It had one number in it. I hadn’t used it in years, but family’s a curse you can’t erase. I didn’t know why, but I felt the need to hear his voice.
It rang once, twice, then the line connected.
“Rox?”
The gravelly voice I knew too well responded, “You sound like a man already bleeding.”
“They took Lucy.”
“Where from?”
“Motel on the edge of town. Last night.”
Silence, then a sigh. “They know your weakness.”
I clenched the knife tighter. “I’m going to take them down.”
“You’ll need help.”
“I’ve got my brothers. I don’t want help.”
“You’ll get it anyway,” he said, same tone as when I was seventeen, standing over my first fight. “Meet me where it started.”
The line went dead.
I shoved the phone back in my pocket, jaw grinding. My uncle didn’t ask who she was. He didn’t have to because he already knew. Caleb’s blood.
