“Before he signed away his rights,” I said, my voice breaking. “He came to meet her before he walked away. She was two yearsold. He gave her this bunny and then he left. We adopted her after that.”
Sam’s face went even paler. She stood up abruptly, pulling out her phone with shaking hands.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Calling Jack,” she said, her voice tight and strained.
She stepped away from the porch, the phone pressed to her ear. I watched as she paced back and forth across the gravel driveway, her movements jerky, frantic.
The wait was agony. My hands wouldn’t stop shaking, and the bunny kept slipping in my grip because my palms were slick with sweat.
I pressed it against my chest again and tried to breathe.
In. Out. In. Out.
But all I could think about was Frankie. Out there somewhere. Alone.
When Sam came back, her face was set with grim determination. “Jack’s coming with Derek,” she said. “They’re bringing the club. We’re going to find her, Kat.”
Derek.
The name hit me like a physical blow.
I was going to have to see him. Face him. After everything that had happened at the clubhouse. After I’d dragged Frankie away from him.
And now I needed him.
I nodded, but I couldn’t stop shaking. Couldn’t stop staring at the bunny in my hands.
“She’s out there,” I whispered. “My baby is out there, and I don’t know where she is.”
Sam sat down beside me and wrapped her arm around my shoulders. “We’re going to find her,” she said again. “Derek will find her. I promise you that.”
The minutes crawled by. Maggie brought me a glass of water that I couldn’t drink. Cami sat on the steps below me, her shoulders shaking with silent sobs.
And I just sat there, clutching the bunny, waiting.
The sound came first, a low rumble in the distance that grew louder with every passing second. Multiple engines, roaring in unison.
My heart hammered against my ribs. My hands tightened on the bunny until my knuckles went white.
The motorcycles appeared one after another, kicking up dust as they turned into the driveway. Jack dismounted first, his face grim. Then cars and a familiar truck pulled in behind them.
Derek.
My chest tightened as he cut the engine and stepped out. Even from a distance, I could see the bruises on his face. The black eye, the busted lip.
His gaze found mine immediately, and I watched his jaw clench tighter.
“What happened to you?” I asked, taking a hesitant step closer before I stopped. I looked around the yard at the club members who’d gathered. “Where is Zero?”
Derek ignored my questions; his eyes scanned the porch, then landed on the bunny clutched against my chest.
“Where is she?” His voice was lethal. Controlled, but barely.
I opened my mouth, but no sound came out. All I could do was stare at him.
Derek took another step toward the porch. Then another. His eyes never left the stuffed animal.
