by Lane Hart
“Good.”
“If you still want to do this, then everything will be ready tonight at seven at the butterfly garden. Do you know how to get there?” Nolan asks.
“Ah, no but I’m sure Charlotte or Madison will know. And yes, I still want to do this. I’ve already bought my dress. We’re just waiting for them to do a few quick alterations. It should be ready in an hour. Then I need to grab some shoes, and we’ll be ready to go!”
“Good. That’s good. The prospects keeping an eye on things?”
“They are. One is standing on our left, and the other is on our right out here,” I say as I turn to glance at the guys, who are keeping busy eyeing the surroundings.
“Out where?” Nolan snaps.
“We’re just sitting on the patio of a deli near the bridal shop. Why?” I ask, starting to get a little annoyed. Having him be protective is sweet and all, but I hope he doesn’t think he can tell me when and where I can go.
“You’re outside?”
“Yes.”
“Rita, baby, do you really think that’s smart? Leroy is going to be looking for you.”
“Nolan, I thought you said everything was handled last night.”
“He left with his crew, but that doesn’t mean he decided to give up! If anything, he’s even more determined to find you now!”
“What makes you say that?” I ask, noticing the edge to his voice.
“Trust me, okay? Please just stay inside to be safe.”
“Okay. We’re getting ready to leave anyway to go check on the dress.”
“Do that,” he says, making it sound like an order. I know he’s just nervous, but by now, Leroy has probably already found some other woman back in Cape Cartwright to obsess over. “I’ll see you soon.”
“See you soon,” I agree. “I love you, even when you’re being overprotective,” I tell him with a smile.
“I’m only overprotective because I love you and want to keep you safe.”
“I know,” I reply, and then he ends the call.
“Trouble with the giant?” Charlotte asks just as her phone and Madison’s chime with a new message.
“Let me guess,” I start. “Your men telling you to keep me inside too? Are they always so bossy?”
“No,” Madison remarks. “Cannon knows better than to try and tell me what to do. He must be concerned.”
“Don’t worry too much about it. Roman would keep me in a bubble at home if I let him,” Charlotte says.
One of the prospects phone starts ringing as I shake my head, knowing it’s likely Nolan checking in with them.
Lucas talks to him briefly before ending the call.
“What the fuck,” Jake grumbles from the other side of our table. “Why did he call you instead of me?”
“Because I’m better than you, that’s why. I can almost see that big ass patch on my cut now…” the other man teases right before they both stiffen.
I look around to figure out what put them on alert. That’s when I hear the growling sound of a motorcycle coming closer.
“Time to go, ladies,” Jake says.
He doesn’t have to tell me a second time. I jump to my feet with my tray, ready to throw the trash away to get back to the bridal shop.
But it’s too late.
A Harley comes rolling by slowly. Before I even get a good look at the rider, he hops off and then the driverless bike slams right into the back of the truck sitting at a stop light. I wince at the sound of crunching metal and shattering glass.
“Oh my God!” one of the women exclaims, followed by a man shouting, “Get down!”
An arm grabs mine and jerks me to the ground just as a loud blast goes off, followed by several more in quick succession.
Gun shots. It must be.
I finally lift my head to try and see what’s going on, instinct telling me to run, not try and hide in an outdoor patio with no protection.
But it’s too late. Arms that must belong to someone incredibly strong lift me completely off the ground. When my stomach suddenly slams against something hard, all the air goes out of me.
“Get the hell back!” a deep voice that’s unfortunately familiar says.
Leroy.
Of course it’s Leroy who picked me up. What other man could lift me above his head so easily?
“You shouldn’t have run off with that son of a bitch,” he says to me as we start moving. I try and squirm out of his grip, but it’s impossible.
“Please, please don’t kill me!” a frightened male voice says. At first, I think it’s Jake or Lucas, but then I see the blue truck, the same one that was hit by the bike.
“Get out!” Leroy orders the driver, who I don’t see until the man is thrown to the ground.
The next thing I know, I’m being thrown into the front seat of the vehicle. Through the passenger window I can see Charlotte and Madison both crawling toward the two boys sprawled on the ground. Oh god, Jake and Lucas!
I grab the door handle and get it open only to be yanked back by a tight grip in my hair that hurts so badly I cry out as I reach around to try and pry his fingers loose.
The car jerks forward and his voice warns, “You can come with me uninjured, or I’ll put a bullet in your leg to make sure you don’t run. What’s it going to be?”
If I have a bullet in my leg, then I won’t be able to try and run away when we stop.
So I stop fighting. For now.
Leroy puts me in a head lock, keeping me close to him as he drives with one hand on the wheel.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Nolan
“We’ve got the rings,” Hugo says as he and Abel come walking up to where we’re all gathered around waiting near the gazebo in the garden, surrounded by perfectly trimmed hedges and rows of colorful flowers.
The sun is about to set, and all the fairy lights wound through the slats of the gazebo are lit up. I’m not a romantic, but even I can appreciate the beauty of the scene.
“Thanks,” I say as I hold out my palm. Abel drops the two white gold bands into it. Fuck, I can’t wait to put the smallest one on her finger and make her mine. “You’re just in time, but Rita’s still not here.”
I glance out toward the entrance, waiting for her with a knot in my stomach.
“She’ll be here,” Abel says with a slap to my back. “Traffic is shit downtown. Must have been an accident or something. It took us forever to get around it.”
“Yeah? I’ll call and make sure everything is okay,” I say before I pull out my phone from my cut and call her. It rings and rings before clicking over to her voicemail.
Dammit.
“Roman! Cannon!” I call out to get the men to both come. “Can you try calling Madison and Charlotte to see how much longer they’ll be?”
“Sure thing,” Roman says. Cannon has his phone out first.
Both men look surprised and concerned when their women don’t answer.
“Something’s wrong,” I say before they even end the call to try them again.
“Oh shit,” Abel whispers. When I turn to him, he’s scrolling through his phone. “There was a shooting downtown. I just got the notification from the local news!”
“Where?” I snap.
“At some café. Two men were shot and taken to the hospital…”
“Fuck!” I exclaim. With trembling hands, I try calling Lucas, already knowing he won’t answer. “It’s the prospects. I shouldn’t have let them go out!”
“We don’t know that yet,” Roman says, his voice tight with concern.
“Lucas isn’t answering.” I try Jake and hold my breath when it clicks over as someone answers.
“Hello?” The voice is a man’s but not the prospect.
“Where’s Jake?” I ask.
“This is Chris. I’m one of the paramedics who just brought him to the hospital.”
I close my eyes as I wait for him to say the rest.
“Is he going to make it?” I ask quietly as the guys crowd aro
und me trying to hear.
“It’s too early to know that yet. He was shot in the stomach and lost a lot of blood. They took him straight to surgery.”
“What about Lucas? Do you know…” I trail off.
“The other male who was injured at the scene was also shot. I believe he also has severe injuries. If he made it to the hospital, he’ll be in surgery too.”
“You don’t know if he made it?”
“No. I’m sorry.”
“What about the women?” I snap.
“Women?” the paramedic repeats in confusion.
“There were three women with the two men.”
“I didn’t see any injured or uninjured women at the scene,” he says, making my heart drop. “But someone wrapped a shirt around Jake’s waist and tied it off to help slow the bleeding…”
“Fuck!” I exclaim and then thrust the phone in Roman’s direction, giving him a chance to ask questions.
“The prospects were hit?” Hugo asks, and I nod.
Various swears go up around us.
Roman ends the call and hands me my phone back, his face creased with a pain that I can feel deep down in my soul. “We need to get to the hospital, be there when the prospects come out of surgery to ask what happened, although I have a guess…”
“Leroy took them. It had to have been him!”
“And we’re going to find them and kill that motherfucker once and for all this time!” Cannon grits out.
“I’m sorry,” I tell him and Roman. “I don’t know how the fuck he found them!”
We all jog to our bikes and mount them before I suddenly notice there’s only nine of us. “Wait!” I yell with a hand up before anyone cranks up. “Where the hell is Leo?”
“I called and told him about tonight,” Hugo responds. “He said he would close up and meet us here.”
“Shit! Marcus, you, Verek, and Winston, go check the clubhouse,” Roman orders. “The rest of us are going to the hospital. Call me when you get there!”
I don’t think I’ve ever been so enraged. Not only are the women missing, but the prospects are fighting for their lives, and Leo, hell, he could already be dead, for all we know.
And it’s all my fucking fault.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Rita
Silent tears race down my cheeks as I watch miles and miles of highway blur past us.
I don’t bother asking where we’re going or anything else. It’s obvious that we’re already at least fifty miles from Myrtle Beach, heading back near Cape Cartwright.
And once we’re there, well, I don’t want to even think about that.
When I close my eyes, I can still see the two young men lying there on the ground. God, I hope they’re not dead.
And Nolan, he was waiting to marry me, and now that will never happen.
At least Madison and Charlotte didn’t get hurt.
Nolan
The waiting room is like my own personal hell where no one tells you a goddamn thing. Nobody has any updates or answers about any fucking thing!
“Calm down,” Abel says as I pace back and forth around where our group is gathered, some sitting, most of us standing, too nervous to sit.
“Yeah, Nolan, he won’t kill her,” Hugo adds, making my boots stop so I can glare at him.
“Do you think that’s what I’m worried about?” I growl. “Death would be more mercy than what he’s going to do to her!”
Roman’s phone rings, and everyone holds their breath, knowing it’s probably Winston or Marcus calling about Leo.
He listens silently for several minutes and then sighs. “He’s alive,” Roman says to the room. He listens a little longer and then adds, “Leo’s alive, but he’s fucked up.”
“Fucked up how?” I go over and ask.
“He was tied to a chair and tortured. Parts of him are…missing.”
“Jesus,” I mutter.
Roman pulls the phone away again and says, “He swears he only told him the women were shopping at the mall, not the truth.”
“Goddammit.”
According to the news article, the bridal shop on Sand Dune Road wasn’t that far from the closest mall. It could’ve just been chance that they happened to be sitting outside of the café when Leroy found them.
“No, we still haven’t heard from the women,” Roman grits out. “Bring him in. We’ll see you then.” Once he ends the call, he says, “Leo will live, but it’s not pretty. The fucker carved him up bad.”
Cannon, who hasn’t sat still or stopped calling Madison since we got here, finally snaps. He rams his fist through one of the vending machines, busting the glass and turning away with his knuckles dripping blood.
“Why are we all still sitting here when we should be out there looking for them!” he exclaims.
“Where, Cannon? Where should we start looking?” Roman asks. “North? East? West? They could be anywhere! Trust me, I want to find them as much as you do, but all we can do is try and be patient. It could be worse. At least they’re not dead or in surgery fighting for their lives!”
“That we know of yet,” Cannon grumbles, running his fingers through his blond hair and yanking on it. His twin Conrad gets up and goes over to try and comfort him.
“Bet you’re all wishing you hadn’t voted to let me join your chapter now,” I mutter under my breath.
“We knew the danger, and we all voted to help you,” Roman says. “You were trying to save the woman you loved. All of us can understand that. Well, most of us. The rest will eventually.”
Chapter Thirty
Rita
There are several more turns onto a gravel road, and then, finally, Leroy stops the truck right outside of an old, rundown one-story house.
As soon as the engine dies, he drags me out the driver side with his arm around my neck like a child carrying a teddy bear around under their arm. He picks me up once I fall out of the cab and then carries me inside.
I hear another door inside unlock, and then we’re descending a set of stairs into what I’m guessing is a dark basement.
With a click of an old-fashioned pull string, a soft light comes on, revealing cinderblock walls in an open space stinking of mildew.
“Welcome home, Rita,” Leroy says before he tosses me down. My back lands on something sort of soft. It’s an uncovered mattress on the floor with visible stains. I think I would rather be on the hard floor, but I don’t dare move with the giant towering above me.
A second later, he kneels down on the mattress and crawls up it, then grabs my face to try and kiss me before I turn away, causing his lips to land on my cheek instead.
“Take your clothes off and get comfortable,” his voice rumbles.
“No thanks.”
“You will. Eventually. They always say no at first,” the insane man tells me as he rolls to his back with his hands propped up behind his head. “But after a few days of no food or water, you’ll cave.”
Great, so this obviously isn’t the first time he’s held a woman here against her will. Why am I not all that surprised?
“I don’t think so,” I tell him as I scoot away.
“Just wait and see. You’re lucky I haven’t hurt you yet for lying about being married and for fucking all of my friends.”
“They, um, didn’t give me much of a choice,” I tell him, avoiding getting into the lie about Nolan and how we almost made it true.
“In that case, I’m glad I killed them.”
“You…you killed them?” I ask in confusion.
“That’s right. Every single one of them after they told me you weren’t worth the trouble, not worth a war with the Savage Kings. But don’t worry, I’m not like them. I’ll wait until you’re ready to fuck me. And you will eventually give in if you want to live.”
Oh, great.
“You better not have wanted them or liked it!”
“I didn’t!” I assure him.
“Good. Because you’re mine now. No one else’s.”
“I would rather die than be with you,” I tell him before I scramble off the mattress and take off running for the stairs.
I don’t have to look over my shoulder to know he’s following me. I just hope I can run a little faster than the giant. I’m in such a hurry that one of my feet slips on a step, but finally I reach the door at the top. It’s so dark I have to slap my hands around on it to feel for the knob that’s, of course, locked when I do find it. I should’ve known it wouldn’t be that easy if he’s kidnapped someone like this before.
“Damn it!” I yell as I slam my fists against the door.
And then my disappointment is suddenly swept away as both of my legs are jerked backward. My head slams into the top step and then every other one as he drags me down each and every one like a caveman before I’m flung back to the dirty mattress.
“Now look what you made me do!” he roars. “You’re bleeding!”
I hurt so badly all over that I can’t move when he crawls on top of me. Tears pour down my face in pain and fear, and what does Leroy do? His tongue shoots out and he licks them from my cheeks!
“Stop! Stop it!” I yell as I try and push him away.
But it’s no use. His tongue just keeps moving all over my face before it starts heading lower.
Nolan
The mood in the hospital waiting room turns somber as more time passes. There’s no pacing or yelling as we all just sit still like statues waiting for updates.
So far, all we know is that Jake and Lucas are both still in surgery.
Nothing else.
And it’s so fucking frustrating.
I feel like I’m going to explode as we wait for Reece to do his IT magic to try and locate Leroy on a security camera in the area, any camera, to figure out what kind of vehicle they’re in and hopefully what direction he drove. Reece is also looking for possible properties while some of the other Emerald Isle Kings ride around Cape Cartwright searching the area. Some are sitting on every highway in the city, waiting to see if he’ll show up with the women.
