COLE SPED AHEAD of us on his bike halfway through the drive back to the city, which was fine with me. I was just glad Bullet and I didn’t have to spend the ride with him.
“How’s Baby?” Bullet asked as we neared the Plaza. It was only the tenth time he asked me.
“Maybe you shoulda bonded her so you’d know,” I said. And then, because I couldn’t blame him, I felt her out. “She’s okay. Seems like Books and Tornado are spoiling her.”
“Good,” Bullet said, gruff and short. “It’s not that I think Scorch ought to decide when we bond her or anything. I just don’t want it to be like we all bond her behind his back, you know?”
I blinked out the window of the passenger seat. I had bonded Baby behind Scorch’s back. I didn’t think of it that way, though. Baby was the planet I planned on orbiting around for the rest of my life, and no one needed to be involved in that decision but me and her. Simple.
“Glad to know romance hasn’t made you a completely agreeable dude, Green,” Bullet muttered when I failed to answer him.
I smiled to the window and then hid it away. My smiles were for my girl. I planned on saving them until I could head back north to her.
We pulled into the Plaza and I took a deep breath, readying myself for the battle ahead, however it turned out.
DIM FACTORY LIGHTS cast strange shadows over enemy faces at the pack meet that night.
It was difficult to keep my cool around the Hangmen, knowing they were trying to step in and steal Baby out from under our noses. It was even more confusing facing the ugly fuckers while feeling Baby simmering with desire and affection through the bond. There was just no way I was closing the bond while this far away from her. I swallowed a purr that belonged to ears eleven hours north of me, and narrowed my eyes, scanning the opposing club across the open warehouse. It was a border spot between our two territories, and the man who owned it could be trusted to keep the police uninformed provided we all agreed to not start shit on the premises.
And if shit did start, the man could be relied on to call the cops and make sure a fight was broken up before major damage could be done.
“What is it about this truce you’re having such a hard time with, Buzz?” Scorch asked, standing in front of our whole club with his arms crossed and legs spread in an open stance.
It wasn’t the lazy, cocky, relaxed pose of Buzzard who was propping himself up on the shoulders
of a new beta sweet butt, who clearly hadn’t gotten the full Buzzard experience based on her cheerful and giddy bouncing gaze. Scorch looked like a real Prez of a club. Confident. In control. Strong. Now if he could just get his head out of his ass when it came to bonding our girl.
“Look, man, you can ask sixty-five million more ways but the fact is, you can’t prove shit.
Someone trashed your man’s bike, but no one saw a Hangmen. Wasn’t us. A side piece walked off, and you don’t wanna blame your own limp dicks.” Buzz shrugged and his cronies chuckled behind him. Bullet and Red held Chef in the line as he snarled at the Hangmen.
Buzzard smirked and studied us all. “Looks like maybe your sweet little omega walked off too.
Gotta say, I thought all omegas were created equal, but that one was especially…delicious.”
He had no fucking idea. And he never would. Luckily, the attempt to get a rise out of our pack failed. Baby was safely tucked away with Tornado and Books. Emmy, on the other hand, needed us to keep our head on and get answers. As far as I could tell, the Hangmen had changed for the worst over the years and all the new and remaining members fell in line with Buzz’s particular brand of despicable bastard.
“You keep pushing the line, Buzzard, sooner or later you’re gonna fall in your own trap,” Scorch said in a low growl.
“Man, the truce is standing. Seems like you’re the one lookin’ for trouble, not us. Maybe it’s time for you to circle the wagons back at your little shopping center before you lose anything else important,” Buzz said, chin jutted, fluorescent lights bouncing off his greased hair.
“Is that a threat?” Scorch growled.
“Friendly fucking warning,” Buzzard answered, hands raised at his sides. I wanted to pummel that crooked grin of his right off his face. He was starting to remind me of Coal, and brother or not, Coal was on my shit list.
Speaking of, Coal still hadn’t shown up. Bomber said he’d called on his way down and was heading to scout around Old Uptown to talk to some of his old contacts. Him not showing up to the meet didn’t look great for our club, although it was probably one less distraction. His old ties with the Hangmen were ugly. Leaving a club was frowned upon, leaving the Hangmen was nearly a death sentence.
Although it would’ve been a death sentence for Coal to stay with them too. He left their club and came to us looking like skin and bones, and jonesing for his next fix. I’d admired him at first when he got himself clean and moving straight. Four years later and one unfortunate fact was clear, impressive will-power or not, the brother was an asshole.
The meet was breaking up, and I went to join Bullet and Red guiding Chef out to his bike.
“This was a waste of fucking time,” Chef hissed.
“Can’t say I don’t agree,” Red muttered.
“We’re gonna get back to HQ, contact the police again,” Bullet said, pulling Chef along with
him.
“They said it would be at least—“ “Don’t care,” Bullet said. “We’ll hound their asses a bit more. Maybe all the shit Books dug up is doing some good.”
“It’s been almost a full day,” Chef breathed, face going as gray as his beard. His eyes trailed over my shoulder, narrowing as the Hangmen rode north into their territory with a roar of engines.
My stomach turned for him. If it was Baby missing, I’d be out of my mind, definitely incapable of facing the Hangmen like Chef had just done. I reached out and grabbed my friend by the shoulders.
“I won’t lie to you. It might be another day. It might be a bit more, but we are gonna find Emmy.”
“We fuckin’ have to,” he said, meeting my gaze with a hard stare, daring me to break the promise.
I wouldn’t. Even if it meant cutting down every one of the Hangmen in the search.
“Come on, saddle up,” Bullet said, heading for the loaner bike Dusty had dug up for him.
I went to my own and wondered how long it would be before I’d be on my way back to Baby.
While she was safe, I couldn’t fairly leave Chef and the rest of my pack to deal with the Hangmen without me. Maybe Tornado would take a shift… I reached out to them and grinned as I realized what they were in the middle of. Good for them.
Good for Baby. Whatever Scorch thought, she deserved us. We would love her to within an inch of her sanity if she let us. We were on our way back to the Plaza, air cold and damp in the early spring night, when Books and Tornado appeared in the bond. I shared my happiness with Baby, savored her own.
The mood had settled and the Howlers were nearly back to HQ when a sudden spike of alarm shot through me, so vivid and sharp it was almost as if I was seeing out of Baby’s eyes. My bike skidded on slick pavement and I wobbled as I reached out to her, shared panic racing through my blood. Something was happening at the mansion.
I rolled off my bike as it spun out from under me, my arms rolling into my chest, body screaming at the sudden impact. All of it, the crash, the pain, was buried under terror.
Baby. Baby! What’s fucking happening?!
“Green!”
The pack came to screeching halts at the corner of the Plaza, bikes dying out and boots running to me. I was flat on my back, heart racing, eyes staring unseeing up at the charcoal city clouds.
She was terrified, angry, panicking, fighting… My lungs were seizing as Bomber and Bullet reached me, their eyes wide, and voices calling to
me.
Baby, run! Whatever it is, run!
Except panic was being replaced by something deeper, frustration and horror, the bond winking in and out, there but muted.
“Baby!” I shouted, bolting upright, the pack gathered around me. “They got her. Someone has her!”
“What?!” Scorch shouted. “What happened? Did Books text?”
“Green’s bonded to her. He can feel it,” Bullet whispered, skin paling and eyes dulling. He pulled me up from the ground, and I winced. I was sore, no doubt bruised, but nothing seemed broken.
“We have to get to her,” I said.
“Callin’ Books,” Red said, digging his phone out of his pocket.
“You bonded her?” Scorch snarled, grabbing my elbow and twisting me to face him, his eyes wild.
My eyes were wild too, I kept looking around as if I’d find my girl.
“We fuckin’ agreed—“ “No!” I snapped. “We didn’t agree. You told her you would bond her later. That’s between you. I love that woman and I’m not wasting any fucking time. She wants me. She wants us. Jesus fucking Christ, Scorch! Something has happened!”
“We gotta get north, fuck,” Bullet hissed, gray horror turning to red fury on his cheeks.
Suddenly, stashing Baby a full day’s drive away seemed like the worst fuckin’ idea anyone ever had.
“Books ain’t answering,” Red growled.
“She won’t be there,” I said, looking at Scorch. “Hangmen sat right in front of us, lied to our faces. They have Emmy, now they have Baby.”
“They’ll head straight there,” Bullet murmured, running it through his head. “We follow them, Buzz won’t wanna wait and risk us catching up.”
“Is she…” Scorch trailed off, staring at me, shoulders sagging and anger sapping away.
“She’s out,” I said. “They all are.”
“I shoulda bonded her the first fuckin’ time she asked…” he whispered, wincing. At his side Bomber’s arms were wrapped around his own chest, worry and fear freezing his expression.
“What are all of you assholes waiting for?” Tiny shouted, arms flapping at her side.
Together we whipped our stares to her. Her eyes were wide and her lips were pressed thin, the other sweet butts at her back, equally incredulous and angry.
“Go get your fucking gear in order, call the police, and get those bikes chasing the Hangmen,”
Tiny snapped. “Our girls need us.”
Red’s arm shot out, scooping Tiny off her feet and dragging her up to his chest for a fierce and sudden kiss. With Tiny out of the way, Lizzie was revealed, standing alone at the back of the crowd with her eyes down on the ground, brow furrowed. It hit me slowly, like ice melting down my spine, my fists hardening into hammers at my side.
“Where’s Coal?”
Her head shot up at my question and around us the others stilled.
“I don’t know,” she whispered, head shaking slightly. I believed her, Lizzie was sweet and she’d been Nine’s girl back in the day. But she was Coal’s lately. She swallowed as I stared at her, and then she nodded slowly. “But I do know that he’s been in touch with his brother recently.”
“His brother?” Bullet asked.
Lizzie bit her lip for a long pause. “Buzzard. He’s his half-brother, not just from the Hangmen.”
“Fuck!” Chef roared.
“Bullet, where were we when he disappeared on the road?” I asked.
“He coulda been doubling back or jumping ahead,” Bullet said grimacing.
“It’s a starting point,” Scorch said, shoulders squaring. “Chef, contact the police now, keep in touch with us. Keep calling Books too. You’ll catch up with us, but if we wait much longer we could lose the Hangmen’s trail.”
I ran for my bike, abandoned on the pavement. It was scuffed, but nothing looked broken. I would’ve ridden it like a goddamn unicycle if I had to. I didn’t care if we were hunting through every little town between here and Bullet’s estate, I was gonna find Baby.
“Call the Diamonds,” I shouted to Bullet. “They’ll keep their eyes out.”
He nodded, and then the pack was pulling themselves back onto our bikes, readying for war.
