MY MOMMA TAUGHT ME to never hit a woman, but if ever I wanted to plant my fist between a bitch’s eyes, it was Cherry. As soon as Reaper and I walked in, she was up my ass. No matter how many times I gave her the brush-off, she kept coming back. After the shitstorm she stirred up with her little stunt last night, I could have easily throttled her with no remorse. This was just icing on the cake of shit she had stirred up.

Reaper had even told her to get lost. That motherfucker can be a scary bastard when he wanted, so she had stayed away just until he left to take a piss. She had slithered up in my lap quicker than I could blink, and I was fighting to shove her off without making a big scene that would call attention to us back in the corner. We were supposed to be observing the comings and goings while being unobtrusive. Every time I pushed to get her off my lap, her arms tightened around my neck. If I peeled her arms from around my neck, she was climbing back in my lap. She was like a fucking octopus.

Reaper came stalking over, looking pissed as hell. Join the fucking club, buddy.

“Cherry! Knock it the fuck off!” he growled. “I swear I’m going to lock you in the backroom if you don’t get lost. I would have Arnie cut you loose, but your ass wouldn’t leave. Now, dammit, Cherry, get the fuck off Hollywood. Now! Don’t make me fire your ass and ban you from the place.” She looked over at him and batted her fake eyelashes. He rolled his eyes. Little did she know, neither of us had sympathy for her shit.

“What the fucking hell?” My eyes closed in dread. That was a voice I was not expecting to hear tonight, especially not at that particular moment. It was one I ordinarily would have loved to hear, but with that slut on my lap, I knew shit looked bad. Real bad. Hell, I wasn’t sure how she knew where I was, but it was not good.

Cherry slid off my lap, running her hand over my jeans and along my dick as she got off. After having something as golden and good as my girl, this tramp didn’t do a damn thing for me. It seemed like she figured that out when I didn’t respond to her, so instead, she started running her mouth to Becca after I had already told her ass to beat it.

Becca turned on her, and I thought she was going to jump in her shit with both feet. Reaper must have seen it too, because he wrapped her up and held her, whispering in her ear as she thrashed and fought his hold. I was so pissed at the situation, I could barely think straight.

Becca was a fury as she twisted out of Reaper’s arms and lashed out at us both. With every fiber of my being, I wanted to try to explain to her how she misunderstood the whole situation. I wanted to hold her and have everything be okay, but she was pushing her way toward the door by the time I pulled myself out of my agitated inertness. Reaper shoved my shoulder, getting me to move, but by then she had gotten a head start on us. Girl could move. We both rushed to cut her off before she got to the door, when we saw her suddenly cut off and go to the back door.

Shit! Losing precious time, we had to weave back through the place. Of course, it had to be a busy as fuck night.

She was out the door by the time we made it through the crowd. We rushed out the door in time to a sight that was a complete blow to my gut. No, worse. The sight that greeted me eviscerated me.

No. No. No! My heart and lungs near to exposing in my chest, I ran toward the two men who were dragging my girl kicking and fighting toward a plain black panel van. Reaper shouted, hot on my heels. No idea what they had done to her, but I screamed her name just as I saw her go limp and they tossed her in the van like a sack of trash.

The van pealed out as they were still climbing in, doors swinging. My instinct was to jump on my bike and follow them, but Reaper held me back with one arm as he was rapidly talking on his burner phone.

“Stop! Hollywood! Man, I know that’s your woman, but we can’t follow them blindly. It could be a trap. Snow is pulling everyone from the other tasks and is diverting them here. Hacker is running the plates. I was able to get them before they threw her in.” Reaper tried to reason with me, but my mind was shattered. I was seriously losing my shit as I gripped my hair and paced back and forth.

Fuck this shit. I need to go after my girl. Fuck!

Hopping on my bike, I revved it and peeled out, shifting gears like a Grand Prix racer as I tried like hell to keeping the disappearing taillights in my sights as they swerved in and out of traffic down 18th Street. When they turned down a side street, I lost them after a jacked-up truck pulled out in front of me, and I slammed on my brakes to avoid being a bumper sticker.

Reaper skidded to a stop next to me mere seconds later. My rage knew no bounds as I kicked my kickstand down and jump off my bike. Hands fisted with my arms straight at my sides, I roared in outrage before swinging wildly when Reaper approached me. Vision straight red, it didn’t matter who he was, as everything in my body was on disconnect.

“Hollywood! Stop! Fuck!” Reaper’s words barely penetrated my haze of wrath. “Let’s go back to the main road to meet up with the brothers. We lost them. There is no sense in riding off half-cocked. Man, I told you, this could be a trap to get one of us alone.”

Not caring if it was a trap, I was going out of my fucking mind waiting as I headed in the direction of my bike. As I passed by a road sign, I punched the metal. My hand was throbbing, but my adrenaline prevented me from really feeling any damage I may have done.

Let me tell you, I have never been a very religious man, but I prayed to whatever God may listen to me that we found her before anything happened to her.

Deep in my heart, I was terrified I was going to lose her one way or another tonight.

Reaper grabbed my arm, turning me toward him in a blurring half circle. “Hey, Hollywood. Man listen to me. They have an ETA of about five minutes. We’re going to find her, bro. You just need to hold your shit together and keep your cool. This is just another mission. Pull yourself together. You can’t go racing off and possibly getting yourself killed. We got this, bro, we got this. Now let’s head up to the road so they see us. Okay?”

The breath I was holding came out in a rush. He was right, and I knew it, but fuck if I wasn’t coming unraveled inside. The woman I loved had been taken, and I knew those fucking piece-of-shit Demon Runners had her. But why? Why her? Did they figure out she was the old lady of a patched member? Regardless, they had signed their death warrant. Legit be damned. Even if it meant turning in my cut, I would hunt down every one of those worthless bastards and kill them slowly if they harm her in any way.

My leg swung over my bike as I settled in, anxious to take off. Reaper and I rode up to a gas station and sat waiting for the guys to get here. Less than five minutes later, we heard the roar of their bikes, but hell if it didn’t feel like five hours. Snow, Vinny, DJ, Soap, Hacker, Two-Speed, and Dice all pulled into the lot and stopped in front of us.

“Hacker says the van is stolen. Go figure. Good news is, your woman had her phone on her. We were able to trace the tracker you had him put on it, but that’s only as good as the signal. He’s tracking her now. Brother, we’re going to get her back. No one takes one of ours without retaliation. Now keep your damn head screwed on straight and we’ll get her. Let’s ride out, boys.” Snow was calm, but I could see in his eyes he was pissed that these motherfuckers had taken it to this level. Like I said before, we’d been trying our best to stay legit and on the right side of the law for a while, but fuck with our families and all bets were off.

“We need to get moving. They’re moving at a fast rate, and they have a good head start on us.” Hacker was messing with his phone. He was one wicked-smart motherfucker. Like, I mean the man was seriously tested as a genius. He could crack almost any program out there, and the ones he actually designed blew my mind. Thankfully, he had his tracking program tied to his phone so he could follow through his GPS and shit. My agitation level was exploding, because I’d been ready to go before they arrived. I needed to get this show on the damn road.

We all pulled out in a tight formation and roared off into the night. Even though Snow, as prez, would usually be in lead, Hacker was this time due to the tracking program he had running. By this time, we were heading down toward Spencer when Hacker motioned we were turning off the highway soon. The gravel roads meant we had to slow down. When Hacker motioned for us to stop, I was pissed.

What the fuck now?

“Damn, I think they ditched her phone,” he exclaimed. I watched helplessly as Hacker worked furiously with his phone. My heart felt like it had been ripped out while it was still beating, the pain was so great.

“What happened? What do you mean you think they ditched it?” My frustration was building, and I was starting to come unraveled again.

“I mean, it’s showing her phone is right here.” He motioned toward the ditch. “They had to have thrown it out,” he said as he scanned the ditch with a high-powered flashlight. “Either they found the tracking program, which I doubt, because it was embedded pretty deep and saved to look like it was just a random background program running, or they were just being cautious. There is nothing out this way except for a few old farms and fields. Bro, I’m sorry.” Hacker looked like I felt. It wasn’t often he was bested. This was damn near Steph’s situation on repeat, and I knew how that had played out. My nausea circled and churned in my gut.

“Fuck!”

We all got off our bikes and walked the ditch in search of Becca’s phone. Not that it would do us much good, but maybe Hacker could get something off it. He had done some kind of CSI shit in the Marines with the Force Recon. Searching the overgrown grass for a cell phone felt like the proverbial needle in a haystack search.

“Hey! I think I got it!” Soap yelled out. He used his bandana to scoop it up before he came running over to Hacker with it. Hacker stowed it in one of his saddlebags to go through it when we got back to the clubhouse.

“Since we’re out here, let’s check out the farms along here to see if they’re using one as a home base or a place to keep her. We can’t all go, because all these bikes would sound like the sky is raining down. Soap, your bike is the quietest since you’re running stock, so I want you to ride past the few farmsteads along this road. If you notice anything, keep moving and call us when you get to the end of the road.” In a different time, I would have laughed at the slam to Soap’s bike; at that time, I just wanted to get going. Snow returned to his bike. “All right, we wait here until we hear from Soap.”

More fucking waiting. Dammit.

When my phone started ringing, I was pissed. Who the fuck is calling me? I did not have time for stupid bullshit right now.

Digging my phone out of the inside pocket of my cut, I saw it was a restricted call. My eyes met every brother standing around before I answered the call.

“Yeah?”

“Is this ‘Sexy-Ass Mason’?” a snide, gravelly voice asked me.

“This is Mason. Who the fuck is this?” Right away, I knew this had something to do with those fuckers who had Becca. I knew I needed to keep my cool because I didn’t want to give anything away in my temper.

“We have something that belongs to you. Listen carefully, because I won’t repeat myself. Get in contact with the Demented Sons MC and tell them we have your hot little number… you know… a certain pretty little redheaded dancer… and if they don’t want to keep losing their little dancers, they’ll meet us unarmed at a time and an address I will text to you in the morning. If you value your woman, you will convince them to be there. If they don’t show up, it won’t be just dancers they start losing.” He laughed before the line went dead.

“Stupid motherfucker doesn’t know who he has. They think they have one of the dancers. They want me to ‘get in contact with the Demented Sons MC’ and tell them to meet them unarmed at a location and time they will text me in the morning. If we don’t show, they said it won’t just be dancers we start losing.” My expression wavered between angry and bleak, my fists clenched in rage. For a moment, everyone was silent before Snow spoke up.

“All right, Soap, get moving. As soon as he scopes out this road, brothers, let’s head back toward home. Get your families and get to the clubhouse ASAP. We’re on lockdown until we find the sonofabitches. You got me?” Grimly, everyone nodded.

Soap took off down the road, his taillights blinking out when he shut down his lights to decrease his visibility. It wasn’t long before Snow’s phone rang, and he looked at me shaking his head. We mounted up and headed back toward home, frustrated and on edge. It killed me to turn my back and not search every road in the county in an attempt to find them tonight, but I knew I wasn’t thinking rationally. So, I followed Reaper to his house since there was nothing for me at mine. Just the thought made me want to explode. Made me want to scream into the dark night sky. Made me want to rip my own heart from my chest to alleviate the retching pain crushing it.

Reaper woke Steph and told her to get Remi, Wyatt, and enough stuff for a few days. Steph looked at him in concern as she quickly carried Wyatt and his car seat out from the back bedroom. He carried a sleeping Remi, and I took the packed bag from him to carry it out to their SUV. Steph looked at me after securing the babies, and her question took me out at the knees.

“Where’s Becca, Hollywood?” her soft voice whispered with blue eyes full of worry.

Grabbing my hair in both fists, I turned away before I completely lost it. Panted breaths rasped from my lungs as I struggled to breathe.

Breathe.

Breathe.

Just fucking breathe.

Gasping, heart shredded, I faintly registered Reaper speaking to Steph in a low tone. My eyes sought the bright stars as I fought to keep my sob at bay—a desperate, aching sob that I was afraid would mirror the one I heard slip from Steph.

Jesus, I don’t fucking cry.

Please, God, if you’re listening, please bring my baby back to me safe. I fucking need her.