by A. M. Myers
“It’s my brother, Travis. I have to go get him. I have to go back.”
He shakes his head. “There is no way in hell I’m letting you go in there again. It’s a fucking madhouse but if anyone can get through it, it’s your giant of a brother. Just wait here.”
“I can’t lose him, Travis,” I whisper, my heart shattering in my chest at the thought. If they don’t make it out of that club, I’ll truly have no one. His face crumples and he shoves his gun into the waistband of his jeans before cupping my cheek and pressing his forehead to mine.
“You’re not going to lose them, okay? They are going to be fine. Both Tate and your brother are more than capable of taking care of themselves, Princess. I promise.”
I shake my head. “You don’t know that. Lincoln and Tate are the only family I have left. I have to go back for them.”
“No,” he growls, shaking his head before he presses a kiss to my lips. “I’m not going to let you put your life in danger, too. They’ll be fine.”
“So…” someone says and we pull apart, looking up as Chance arches a brow. “This is a thing?”
Carly smacks him in the chest and shoots him a glare. “Not the time.”
“Right,” he answers with a nod and shoves his hands in his pockets but as I look at everyone else’s face, I know our secret is out. There is no putting this genie back in the bottle.
“Rowan!”
I gasp, turning at the sound of my brother’s booming voice coming through the crowd but Travis still won’t release me so I throw my hand in the air.
“Over here, Lincoln.”
A moment later, he steps out of the crowd with a very angry Tate thrown over his shoulder and as soon as he sees me, he rushes over. Travis releases me just before Lincoln wraps me up in a hug, crushing me to his body.
“Thank God,” he breathes, his body shaking and his breathing heavy.
“For fucks sake, Lincoln,” Tate seethes, pounding her fists against his back. “Put me the fuck down so I don’t kick your poor sister in the face.”
He sets her back on her feet before pulling us both back into a group hug and she huffs in annoyance, fighting against it for a second before giving in. Lincoln looks up, making sure everyone else is here before he sighs.
“Everyone okay?”
The rest of the group nods but they all look anything but okay after what just happened. Although, I’m sure I don’t look much better. One thing I do know, for sure, is that after tonight, it’s clear that things are getting infinitely more dangerous and I’m terrified of what Warren has planned for us.
Chapter Fourteen
Travis
I scrub my hand down my face as the footage from the club last night plays on the screen in front of me but there is nothing to see. Literally, it’s just pitch black staring back at me as soon as the lights go out and it doesn’t matter that I’ve watched the damn thing five times, trying to see anything through the darkness or before the lights go out or after they come back on. As always, Warren had this stunt planned out perfectly. My thoughts drift back to when the lights went out last night and I shake my head as my heart starts to beat a little faster. I’ve never been so fucking scared in my life and I held onto Rowan like she was a life raft because nothing else was more important to me than getting her out of there safely. She was my one and only priority, which probably sounds awful as hell considering all of my brothers and their wives were also in the club but I knew they were all packing, just like me, and they would do whatever it took to get out of there. I didn’t need to worry about them. For as long as I live though, I’ll never forget the way Rowan’s body shook in my arms and the terror in her eyes. I’ll also never fucking forget the way Warren stared at us when he popped up the second and third time.
The look fucking chilled me to the bone.
Once we got back to the clubhouse, we all sat down with Blaze, who stayed back to babysit the kids while we went out, and told him what happened. He was furious, of course, and we all are desperate to take action but there is nothing we can do. Until we find concrete evidence on who Warren is or who he is working with, if he’s working with someone, we can’t exactly start firing shots. Maybe that is the worst part of all of this - we just have to sit here and take his attack without being able to fight back because he is always in control of the game. He has planned this thing down to the very last detail and, so far, everything has gone his way. It’s infuriating. Each day, it feels like my rage grows more and more and the longer it takes me to find him, the more I can’t stop thinking about what I’ll do to him when I do finally track him down.
Fuck…
I can’t let my thoughts go there. I’ve worked so fucking hard to not be that person, that monster, and I can’t let this situation pull me into the darkness I’ve been running from my whole life.
Shaking my head, I cross my arms over my chest and sigh as the video starts playing again. I watch as Rowan and I walk out of the back hallway and smile, remembering our stolen moments in the club before everything went to shit. After we got back last night and we had our little talk with Blaze, I hauled her up to my room because there was no way in hell I was going to let her go. We spent hours lost in each other, fucking all over this room like it was our last night on earth because it honestly felt like it almost was, before we passed out and even then, I didn’t let her go until we spent some more time tangled together this morning. It will be interesting to see what happens now that the whole club knows about us, apart from Kodiak. Maybe someone will tell him the truth… Hell, maybe someone already has but I suspect that’s not true since I’m still in one piece.
“Streak,” someone calls from the other side of the door as they knock and I turn away from my computer as Storm walks in, stress lining his face. He and Ali were close to the door when the final light came on last night but not as close as Rowan and me. They ended up fighting through the crowd as it surged out of the club and Storm said he was pretty sure he broke a couple noses in his mission to get his wife to safety. I nod in greeting as he shuts the door behind him.
“What’s up?”
He sighs and throws himself into the other chair in my room. “Just got off the phone with Rodriguez. He looked into the report from the club last night and the owner said that he was approached by someone who wanted to put on a little show in the club.”
“So he just let him?” I ask, arching a brow, as I wonder how fucking stupid this guy is. Last I checked, no one has died but there were some serious injuries caused when people fell by the door and everyone else just ran over them. At least three people are in the ICU this morning after that circus last night. He shakes his head.
“No, he told him to get fucked. At first…”
“What changed then?”
Storm grimaces. “He said the man offered him a thousand dollars to allow the performance.”
“So, of course he took it,” I scoff, shaking my head. Can’t say that I really blame the guy but it begs the question, where the hell did Warren get a thousand dollars? When I checked his account yesterday, he didn’t have that kind of money and there were never any transactions that large made in the last two years. My idea about him working with a partner springs to mind and I blow out a breath, shaking my head.
“He might be working with someone else.”
Storm sighs. “I’ve been having the same thought lately but it doesn’t help us much.”
“I know,” I agree, turning back to the video playing on a loop on my monitor. “It just makes him even harder to find. I’m almost afraid to ask but did the owner give a good description of the guy?”
“Uh, no,” he scoffs and I turn back to him.
“Why?”
“Because he never actually saw his face. Apparently, he communicated through email only and when he showed up at the club to do his performance, he was wearing the mask. He claimed it was part of his “process”.”
Gritting my teeth, I grab the pen holder off of my desk and c
huck it at the wall. “I’m so fucking sick of this douchebag!”
“We should make a club,” he quips, nodding in agreement and I scoff, some of my anger melting away as I shake my head at his shitty joke.
“Thanks, asshole.”
He shrugs as he stands up. “Got you to stop throwing shit, didn’t it? I got to go check in on my wife and kid.”
“How is Ali after last night?”
“Fucking traumatized,” he answers with a sigh, pain on his face, and I shake my head, thinking about the effect last night is going to have on all of us. “Speaking of which, though… you and Rowan?”
I shrug. “Yeah. It’s just…”
“Casual,” he cuts in, nodding as he arches his brow. “Yeah, I heard but you know that’s dumb as hell, right? The way y’all were with each other last night was anything but casual.”
“Okay, cupid. Why don’t you mind your own damn business? Just ‘cause all of you think marriage and babies are the best things ever doesn’t mean everyone else does. Rowan and I are just having fun.”
He purses his lips and nods as he turns toward the door, not buying a single word I’m saying. “Make sure you really emphasize that part when Kodiak finds out. I wanna see what happens to the human body when you drop it off the roof.”
“Fuck you.” I laugh as he opens the door. Kodiak won’t like it, for sure, but he wouldn’t murder me over this… I don’t think. He flips me off as he walks out of my room and shuts the door behind him as I turn back to my computer and sigh. Closing out of the video, I lean back in my chair and try to think of a new angle, any other way I could look at this, that might give us the lead we need but I’m drawing a giant fucking blank. My phone rings on the desk and I grab it, scowling at the unfamiliar number on the screen before I answer it.
“Hello?”
“Travis, long time no talk. How are you, my friend?” a voice asks and I scowl as I pull the phone away from my ear before shaking my head and pulling it back.
“Uh… who is this?”
The voice on the other end of the line scoffs. “You don’t remember me? And here I thought we had such a special relationship.”
“Okay, who the fuck is this?” I demand and he laughs.
“It’s your old friend, Warren.”
No…
An ice cold wave of dread washes over me as I sit forward in my chair and try to think of something to say. Why in the fuck is he calling me? His laughter greets me and the dread is quickly replaced by anger.
“Oh, that got your attention, didn’t it? Let me ask you, how did you like my little show last night?”
I grit my teeth, shoving out of my chair. “Oh, yeah. It was really something.”
“I’m so glad you enjoyed it. What about Rowan? Was she entertained, too?”
My heart pounds in my ears at the mention of her name and I clench my fists as I pace back and forth through my room, trying to calm myself.
“Don’t fucking talk about her.”
He laughs again. “Touchy touchy. I thought you didn’t do relationships, Travis.”
“I don’t,” I snap, my hands shaking out of control as I think about all of the awful things I want to do to this fuck for the hell he’s put us through over the last two years. And how in the hell does he know that I don’t do relationships?
“So, then you have no say when it comes to her, do you? If I wanted to get to know her, too, it would be well within my rights. I have to admit, I’ve watched all of your brothers meet their wives and lose their damn minds as they tripped over their own two feet in their attempts to woo them. It’s always bored me before but there is just something about our little Rowan, isn’t there? She’s special.”
“You listen to me, you son of a bitch. You stay the hell away from her or I’ll…”
“You’ll what?” he growls, cutting me off. “You gonna start taking after your daddy?”
All of my thoughts screech to a halt and I freeze in the middle of my room. “What the hell do you know about that?”
“Oh.” He laughs and the sound grates on my nerves. “I know everything, Travis Hornback.”
“Don’t fucking call me that.” I roar as I smash my fist into the wall but it does nothing to quell the rage pumping through every inch of my body. My anger only seems to delight him though because he laughs again.
“Why not? It’s your name. I mean, sure, you can get it legally changed to your mother’s maiden name but we both know the truth. Don’t we, Travis?”
I shake my head. “You don’t know shit and when we find you…”
“Oh, speaking of your little club, there is something I need you to do for me,” he interrupts and I shake my head as I spin toward the door, clenching and unclenching my fist.
“Not happening.”
A noise of disapproval greets me. “I wouldn’t be so quick to say that, Travis, or I might have to start showing you what I can really do.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“Oh, just that if you tell anyone about this little conversation, I’ll have to start coming after people you care about. Maybe I’ll even start with… ooh, Tate. Wouldn’t that just destroy your pretty little girlfriend and her brother? And then after that, I could send him the photo I have of you fucking his sweet little baby sister on your desk. Trauma like that, back to back, is enough to make anyone snap, don’t you think?”
My heart pounds in my chest and pain swarms my body at the thought of losing any of the people in this club. I fucking hate the idea of keeping this from everyone but what other choice do I have? Until we know who Warren truly is, I have to keep my mouth shut.
“Travis?” he asks and I grit my teeth and I nod.
“Fine.”
“Excellent!” he exclaims and I can hear the triumph in his voice. It tears through me as my anger flares out of control and I vow that I’ll do whatever it takes to find this asshole and put an end to him. “Well, I’ve got to get going. Plans to put into motion and all that but I’ll talk to you soon, Travis.”
He hangs up before I can say anything else and I throw the phone against the wall as I let out another scream, rage spiraling through me like a tornado and consuming everything else in its path. The door to my room opens and Rowan steps in with a shocked expression as she shuts the door behind her.
“What the hell is going on in here?”
I shake my head, holding my arms out to her and she eliminates the distance between us without a second of hesitation. Pulling her into my body, I bury my face in her hair and my body sags in relief.
“I’m sorry, Princess. I… was just frustrated that I couldn’t find anything from the surveillance videos,” I lie, the deceit seeping through my system like poison as she pulls back to meet my eyes. The concern on her face fucking kills me and my entire body aches to tell her the truth about what just happened but I think about Warren coming after her and it stops me. She presses her hand to my cheek and I lean into the touch.
“I know last night was…”
“Hell,” I supply and she nods.
“But we’re going to figure this out, okay? Don’t give up hope, Travis.”
I close my eyes as my name rolls off of her tongue, almost like her voice is erasing Warren’s from my mind, and nod. “I won’t, baby. I promise.”
“Good.” She leans up and presses a soft kiss to my lips as I tighten my arms around her waist. “Now, Storm sent me up here to get you. Blaze just called everyone into church.”
I nod and kiss her again. “Thanks. I’ll come find you afterward, okay?”
“You’d better,” she quips as I release her and when I turn to walk away, she smacks my ass. I turn back to her with a grin.
“Watch it, woman. You’re going to start something you can’t finish.”
She cocks her head to the side and smiles. “Actually, I think you’re the one who can’t finish it and besides, I still have tricks, remember? Now, go.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I tell her and
her grin widens.
“Ooh, dirty talk, I like it.”
Laughing, I walk out of the room with her trailing behind me and I marvel at her ability to make me relax even after the most stressful, rage inducing situation I’ve ever been in. When we get to the bottom of the stairs, she shoots me a wink and joins Ali, Tate, Emma, and Nix at the bar and I slip into the war room, flinging myself into my usual seat across from Blaze, who walks in and shuts the door right after me.
“Okay, so we’re not going to be long today but we’ve got a job to do in four days that we need to go over,” Blaze says as he sits down in his seat and slaps a folder on the table. Kodiak shakes his head.
“I’m sorry but what? After what fucking happened last night, you really think it’s a good idea to take a job?”
Blaze sighs. “I don’t know but this mother and her children need our help and we only have a limited window to get them out.”
“Why?” Chance asks, scowling and on edge like the rest of us.
“Because they will be traveling through Baton Rouge in four days, on their way to relatives in Arizona and we’re going to get them out when they stop at a gas station right outside of town.”
Everyone starts talking, all at once, arguing with Blaze about why this is a terrible idea and while I agree with them, my mind jumps back to my phone call from Warren and the threats he made. Listening to them bicker about this seems so fucking stupid when I think about the things he vowed to do if I said a word about our conversation and I wish that his promise of violence made it easier to keep it to myself but it doesn’t. These are my brothers and every cell in my body is screaming at me to open my mouth and tell them what is going on. How would he even know if I did say something? He mentioned having a photo of Rowan and me together and I clench my fists as I think about him, standing outside the clubhouse and watching us together.
Fuck.
We need more security and we need tighter patrols around the clubhouse but, of course, I can’t say any of this to my brothers without telling them about the phone call.
