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“Yeah, that’s your favorite insult.” My heart raced but I refused to let it be fear, no this was just adrenaline from facing down a boogeyman.

He straightened completely and glared at me. “I’ll kill you both.”

“You’re a liar,” I accused. “You lied about everything. About Mom.”

He stopped and a wide smile spread across his face. “Dumb bitch thought she could leave me.”

“But in the end, she did leave you, Rex. You gave her the exit she wanted because she didn’t love you.” I swallowed the lump that threatened to crack my voice. “I don’t love you.”

Something flickered in the depths of his gaze before it quickly disappeared. “I don’t give a shit about your love,” he spat. “You’re here now and your husband will give me what I want or the two of you will be whored out until you’re no longer useful.” He laughed.

That laugh was the reminder I didn’t need about who Rex was and who he would always be. A man who used brute force to achieve his goals because he couldn’t handle the thought of losing.

I smiled and shook my head because I knew it would rile him up. “See, Rex, you only know what you know. It never occurs to you that anybody will do anything other than what you demand.”

“You’re here.”

I nodded. “I am.”

“Alone,” he added and took a step forward.

For a brief second, fear flashed and pulsed through me.

Rex saw it and it fueled him. He grinned wider. “All alone.”

“I have Dani,” I said, sliding a glance to my best friend, who stared at me with naked fear in her eyes.

“She’s tied up and scared shitless,” he laughed.

“It’s just me and Dani,” I admitted and crossed the room to my friend. “Right here.” I knelt down to work on the ropes tied around her wrists. My fingers moved fast, unraveling the simple knots.

The moment she was free, Dani tore the tape from her mouth. “Thank fuck,” she whispered. “Ivy!” she warned but it was too late.

I felt the crack on the back of my head, heard Dani’s screams.

And then everything went dark.

Chapter Thirty-One

Knox

Iwas headed back to the clubhouse from the brothel when I got a call from Switch. “We’ve got a situation, brother. Ivy left the compound.”

My heart stopped. I don’t even know how I managed to keep the bike upright. My hands tightened on the handlebars, and I focused on keeping the bike on the road. I forced myself to breathe. “Tell me.”

“Rex took her friend. Dani.”

“Shit.” I already knew what that meant. Dani was the only person in the world Ivy loved without conditions, the one constant in every bad year she’d lived through. Rex knew it too. Of course he did. He had spent years cataloguing every weakness she had. I already knew what that meant but I needed to hear him say it. “And?”

Switch gave a humorless laugh. “And she went after her. Of course she fuckin’ did.” He let the words sit for a second. “She ain’t alone, Knox. We wouldn’t let that happen. She got the message and went straight to Hatchet.”

“Don’t tell me he’s with her.” He was still a badass, but the idea of him out there alone didn’t sit right with me.

“Warden, Torque, and Ace went with her. With a plan.”

I listened as Switch laid out the plan, focusing on the asphalt in front of me while he talked. They had eyes on the building, but Ivy was going in alone to get the friend, and to give Rex the show he expected to see. They would move on her signal. It was a plan. A solid one. The kind we ran a thousand times before without a problem.

I trusted my brothers, of course I did. I trusted them with my fucking life. I would bleed for my club brothers, and it went both ways. None of that changed the fact that I needed to see Ivy. Needed to know she was okay, needed to watch her walk out of there on her own two feet.