It was official.
I’d fallen in love with Texas.
“I’ll be back soon. I promise,” I whispered.
I cupped his cheek and kissed the tip of his nose. He relaxed at the motions, and it was all I needed to slip out of bed and away from him. I shivered in the room and wrapped my arms around myself. Holy hell, the heat must’ve gone out or something. Because I could practically see my breath. At least, it felt that way as I stumbled around in the room trying to piece myself together.
If I resolved myself to a shower after work, I wouldn't run late to work.
“Keva, sweetheart? I need you to start waking up.”
I knocked on her door softly to try and get her going. It was odd for her to not already be up, but with how cold the house was, it didn’t shock me that she was still hunkered down between the sheets. Hell, I still wanted to be that way, too. I walked into my bathroom while pulling my clothes on and cleaned myself up as best as I could. Teeth. Face. Hair. Deodorant. I sprayed myself down with some body spray to cover up whatever scent Texas had left behind on my skin, my eyes drifting back to the shower.
I’d definitely need one of those after work.
“Keva, honey. Are you awake?” I asked.
I knocked on her door again and didn’t hear any sort of sounds. So, I slowly inched her bedroom door open. The sun hadn’t yet penetrated the windows of her room, so I slowly eased the lights up with the dial I had installed myself after we first moved in two years ago.
And what I saw horrified me.
“Keva?” I asked.
The curtains of her window billowed with the fresh air pouring through it. And the air was cold. Almost frigid. My heart stopped in my chest as I strode to her bed, my hand reaching for her sheets.
“Keva!” I exclaimed.
I ripped her comforter back but didn’t find her in her bed. I dropped to the floor and looked underneath. I ran into her bathroom and tore back the shower curtain. I even checked in her closet to see if she had gotten cold and tucked herself away somewhere else.
But she wasn’t in her room.
“Keva!” I roared.
I sprinted out of her room and started running around the house. I threw open every closet and every cabinet door. I peeked behind the couches and even walked my ass out back. I cupped my hands over my cheeks and screamed for my daughter but heard nothing except the neighborhood dogs kick up.
“Ella? What’s going on?” Texas asked.
I spun around in my feet and saw him standing there, rubbing his eyes. He had on a pair of pants to go along with his mangled hair, and I could tell he was only just beginning to focus. Tears rushed my eyes. Panic filled my veins.
My daughter wasn’t in her bed.
Hell, my daughter wasn’t in her house.
“Keva’s missing,” I breathed.
Texas snapped to the present in a heartbeat. He leveled his eyes with me before he pushed off the doorway and went storming through the house. He bellowed her name as he walked through the place as tears streamed down my face.
I slowly walked back into the house, frozen in an instance of horror.
“9-1-1,” I whispered.
“Keva!” Texas exclaimed.
“We need to call 9-1-1!” I shouted.
Texas threw open the front door, shuffling around on the lawn. I ran into my room and fumbled with my cell phone, pressing down on the red button on the front of the screen. My hands shook as Texas tore back through the house. He shook the walls that were supposed to keep us safe before he appeared in my bedroom doorway, his face red and his eyes bulging.
“There are man-sized boot prints outside her window on the ground out there,” he said.
“9-1-1, what’s your emergency?”
I heard the voice in my ear, but I paused. Man-sized boot prints. I knew exactly who those were. And in that moment, I wasn’t sure if emergency or the police were the best options for me. The courts had failed to help me. Twice. And now, Keva was in the hands of Jett. A man with a storage unit who was ready to kill on sight if I made the wrong move.
What was the right move?
“9-1-1, are you there?” the voice asked.
“Hi. Yes, this is Ella Watt. My daughter’s been taken from her bed, and I think it was my ex-husband that took her,” I said.
I rattled off my information to the woman before I hung up the phone. Despite her insistence to me to stay on the line with her, I couldn't. I still had my brother to call. I needed all of this officially documented, but I also needed results.
And I knew my brother would get results.
I scrolled through until I found my brother’s phone number while Texas threw on his clothes. He was fuming. Cursing to himself as the seams of his clothes tore with his efforts to get them onto his body. I sat on the edge of my bed, my eyes staring lifelessly out the window.
He took her from her bed through her own damn window.
One ring. Two rings. Three rings before Stone finally picked the fuck up. And when his voice hit my ears, my eyes welled with tears.
“Ella?” he asked groggily.
“Keva’s gone. There are boot prints outside,” I said breathlessly.
“What?” he growled.
“I’ve already called 9-1-1, but you know how long they’re going to take. Stone, he’s got Keva. Is anyone tailing him right now?”
“Bronx is on it right now. I should’ve gotten a fucking phone call with this shit. I’m calling him right now and I’m headed your way. Do not talk to the police until I get there. Understood?”
“I hear you,” I whispered.
“Where’s Texas?” he asked.
I looked back just in time to see him dart into Keva’s room.
“He’s in the house looking around,” I said.
“Tell him to take pictures of everything and send them to me.”
“Will do.”
I hung up the phone and relayed the information to Texas. And the second I heard sirens flying down the street, I walked outside. Police pulled up, filling my driveway and my lot. There was a random fire truck that pulled up as well as an ambulance. All things I hoped to fuck on high I wouldn't need. My heart sank to my toes. Tears poured down my cheeks. And when I saw the cop that walked up to me, I seethed.
“Ella, I’m so sorr—”
“This the ‘action’ you were looking for the last time I came to you?” I asked.
The officer sighed before he looked away. Like he couldn't fucking bear to look into my eyes after telling me there wasn’t shit, he could do without Jett coming after us.
Well, now he had.
And I hoped he was fucking proud of himself.
Everything was a blur. I heard the roar of Stone’s bike pull up. I felt the warmth of Texas’ hand on my back. The police hit me with questions and Stone tried to intervene. I felt myself literally leaning against Texas to get through the questions.
“When did you get up this morning?”
“When did you notice she was gone?”
“What did the room look like to you?”
“Was Keva okay when you left her to sleep last night?”
“Do you lock your windows at all?”
“Is anything else in the house missing?
Why the fuck would I care about anything else other than my damn daughter?
The police told Stone not to intervene. They told me they’d go check Jett’s house. That they could get an immediate search warrant to bust in from one of the judges. I laughed bitterly when they told me that. Yeah. The two fucking judges paid off by my ex in the first damn place.
“Good luck with that,” I said flatly.
I gave them the most recent picture I had of Keva. I gave a description of her from head to toe. Every identifying mark I had memorized over the years and every stat I could. From her eye color to the small mole she had on her left butt cheek that the doctors were keeping an eye on.
I felt like I was going to puke.
&nb
sp; “We’ll keep you updated as we go. I’ll be the officer calling you every couple of hours,” he said.
“Sure. Yeah. That’s fine,” I said breathlessly.
I didn’t remember much else after that. I remembered Texas rubbing my back. I remembered him wrapping me up in his arms. I remembered feeling Stone’s gaze on us both and staying there until the police left. Until the fire truck knew it had no purpose. Until the ambulance turned around in my driveway and headed off into the distance.
And when everyone was gone, my brother drew in a deep breath.
“Suit up, Texas. I just got a text from Bronx,” he said.
“You know where he is?” Texas asked.
“I do. And he’s not at his house,” my brother said.
That statement alone was enough to collapse me to my knees. Because I knew Jett. And I knew exactly where he had gone.
My ex-husband was about to kill my little girl.
Twenty
Texas
We all lined up at the end of Ella’s street. We got into formation with our bikes roaring and our eyes set on that fucking storage unit. Bronx hadn’t fallen off the grid. He’d simply transferred his powers to Boulder, one of our enforcers. Apparently, Bronx had some personal shit he had to take care of, and Boulder was too busy trying to figure out how the fuck Jett slipped his tail to inform us of what the hell had been going on. It didn’t matter, though. Boulder redeemed himself the second he tracked Jett to the damn warehouse.
We knew where we were headed, and it was in the opposite direction of where the police were going.
“Boulder’s gonna meet us there. In the meantime, we need to stick to the highway. Get there as quickly as we can. Once we take the exit, we split off like we talked about. Got it?” Stone asked.
The men behind him nodded before he slipped back down onto his bike.
“And Texas?” he asked.
“Yep?”
“If you have the shot and things look bad, you take it. Got it?”
I nodded my head as pure joy bubbled in my veins. If I could put Jett down for good, I’d throw a fucking celebration every year in remembrance of it.
With Stone at the helm and me pulling up the back, the rest of our crew sat in formation. And when stone pushed off, so did the rest of us. I took one last look at Ella’s house, seeing her standing on the porch. She looked at us, but not really seeing us.
It killed me to leave her like this.
I’d called into work for her. I told them that an official police report was about to be filed if they didn’t believe me on what was happening. There was no way in hell Ella was going into work today. Or tomorrow. Or for the fucking weekend, for that matter. I pulled my eyes away from her and set off with the guys, hoping to hell on high we got there in time to save Keva.
I’d kill Jett myself with a smile on my face if we didn’t.
We rode down the highway, tearing through traffic and weaving in and out of cars. They honked their horns but stopped the second they saw the emblems on our jackets. The Lost Boys. That was us. The entire town knew us and what we did. And if they saw us in formation, they knew some shit was going down and that they needed to back the fuck off.
Eventually, cars started pulling over for us.
After racing down the highway for damn near forty minutes, we pulled off onto the exit. And one by one, each of the guys in front of me went in a different direction. We had orders to surround the storage unit while I got into place.
I was the one who’d take the shot to kill Jett if Stone couldn’t talk him down.
I shut my bike off and parked it in the fast food parking lot beside the storage place. I walked around, hopping the fence and positioning myself on top of some dumpsters. I had a clear shot of Jett’s unit, and I saw the lock hanging off it. The door was only halfway open, but with the shadows I saw moving underneath it, I knew we had been right.
Jett was in there with Keva.
Stone walked over with Boulder and Bronx. He threw open the door and I got a full view of what was happening. There Jett was with a gun to his daughter’s head, yelling at her to stay put. My trigger finger itched to put a bullet between his eyes. I hunkered down, my forearms resting along the metal of the closed dumpster as I leveled my sights on that fucker.
I had a clear shot of his head, but he was cocked at an odd angle. If he made one move to shove Keva in front of him, I risked shooting her instead. And with the way he had her hoisted into the air, it made me doubt my ability to take him down if necessary.
Stone stepped up to the plate. He waved his arms around, showing Jett he didn’t have a weapon. I knew he was trying to reason with the man, but I could also tell it wasn’t working. Jett’s face kept getting redder and redder. And soon, his voice could be heard above everyone else’s.
“Ella’s the one I want! Not Keva! Get me that selfish bitch, or I’ll teach her a lesson my fucking self!”
My vision dripped with red. Keva was screaming and crying. She tried digging her nails into her father’s forearm, but it only served to force him to pull her closer. He cocked himself at Stone, moving the gun from Keva to Stone’s head. I needed to take the shot. I wouldn't have a better one if I let this moment pass me by. I’d never felt so focused on my life, but the second he hoisted Keva further up his body, I faltered.
If I killed Jett, things would be okay.
But if I missed, I’d lose everything.
Not just Ella. Not just Keva. But everyone. Stone. The crew. No one would forgive me for laying a bullet into Keva, even if it didn’t kill her. Even if the bullet did take out Jett, no one would look at me right ever again. My entire life depended on this one shot, and I gripped my gun tighter to calm my nerves.
“Breathe in, focus, breathe out…”
Just as my finger went to depress the trigger, a gunshot rang out. I furrowed my brow and sat up on the top of the dumpster, watching as Jett fell to the ground. Stone ran to grab Keva and shielded her eyes from the bloodied mess her father’s head was.
Then, Stone whipped around, and his eyes connected with Boulder.
“Everybody drop your weapons!” Boulder exclaimed.
I slid off the dumpster and went running as he holstered his gun. Had Boulder taken that shot?
“What the fuck is going on?” Stone asked.
“Who the hell took that shot?” I asked.
“Boulder did,” Bronx said.
“If you guys don’t put your weapons down right now, I’m taking them off you,” Boulder said.
I narrowed my eyes at him as I approached him. This prospect had no idea who the fuck he was dealing with. Stone’s nostrils flared as Boulder took a step toward him, his arms outstretched to take Keva.
“Oh, no you don’t,” I glowered.
My hand slammed down onto his shoulder, and before I knew it, I was on the ground.
“What the fuck!?” I exclaimed.
“I’m an undercover cop, and you all need to give up your weapons right now,” Boulder said.
I felt something being shoved into my face as he pressed me into the pavement. Guns clattered to the ground while Keva’s soft sobs kept me on high alert. Boots fell onto the pavement as police swarmed the area and Keva started yelling for her Uncle Stone. Something warm hit my cheek. Something smooth, almost like liquid. I turned my head and took in the sight of Jett’s open eyes, watching his blood trail right for me.
And when my vision focused, I saw Boulder’s identification come into view.
“All of you are officially under arrest,” the man growled.
Holy fuck, Boulder was a goddamn cop.
Twenty-One
Ella
“Mommy!”
“Keva!”
I wrenched myself away from the police officer that had been stationed at my house. I was ready to be out of his fucking presence anyway. He kept looking at me with this pity-filled look, and I wanted to smack it right off his fucking face. The second I saw my daughter hop out of that c
op cruiser, I dashed out the front door. She ran to me with her arms outstretched and I scooped her up, spinning her around in the air.
I buried my face into her hair and breathed in deeply the smell of her cotton candy shampoo.
“Daddy fell down, Mommy. Does he need a doctor?” she asked.
I held my daughter close and rubbed her back. She clung to me in a way she’d never held me before. And as I locked eyes with the officer getting out of her cruiser, she shook her head at me.
Relief unlike none other coursed through my veins.
Holy shit, Jett was dead. He was gone, and we were rid of him for good.
Tears of happiness soared down my cheeks. I kissed my daughter over and over while she babbled on about Daddy not feeling well. I slowly walked her back onto the porch where the other officer was. The male officer ridden with guilt about not helping me sooner.
“Will Daddy be okay?” Keva asked.
“I don’t think so, sweetheart. But you know what?” I asked.
“What?” she asked, sniffling.
“That means you and I get to spend so much more time together. And no more courts. Would you like that?”
“Tex, too?”
She sat up in my arms and looked into my eyes. I sat on the porch and wiped away her tears as the two officers stood around me. I rocked Keva slowly as she settled into me, unable to answer her question.
“We’ll see, okay? One thing at a time,” I said.
“Does she mean Texas?” the officer asked.
“Yes. And while we’re on that topic, where’s my brother? Stone?” I asked.
“They’re headed down to the station for questioning. We need their statements,” the other officer said.
“Statements? Why?” I asked.
And when they both looked at one another, I knew why. They’d been caught wherever Jett had been. Which meant they were both being lugged downtown in handcuffs.
“Ella!”
I looked up and saw Joanne crossing the street. She closed her cardigan tight around her while her eyes scanned the cop cars in my driveway. She hustled up to me and shoved one of the officers out of the way, then wrapped me up tightly.
Texas: The Lost Boys MC #1 Page 13
