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The familiar sound of her voice steals my breath. I have to clamp down every instinct inside of me that’s screaming at me to just yell something to her—anything—to let her know I’m here. But I’m not going to gamble my life like that, not when there’s a gun pointed at me by my ambivalent companion.
"Coraline Carter?"
"Yes," Cora hedges. "Who's this?"
“I found something that you might be interested in. The rest stop by mile marker seventy-nine.” The woman ends the call, pops the sim card out of the side of her phone, and tosses it out of the open window without a word.
I nod my thanks and swallow hard, my mouth suddenly dry.
A minute later, I exit the road to the right, pulling into a rest stop. There aren’t any other cars or trucks here, just an octagon-shaped brick building with one side made entirely of glass. An array of vending machines in the little lobby area and signs for restrooms. As far as rest stops go, this one isn’t bad. I just hope that it stays empty.
I shift into park and get out of her car without a word. This time, she crawls over the middle console instead of getting out and walking around the hood of the car.
“Mary.” She pauses with her hand on the door handle.
“What?” I ask distractedly, my gaze straying to the corners of the parking lot.
“My name is Mary,” she grits out through clenched teeth.
My brows lift at her admission. I nod in acknowledgement. “Pretty name.”
She smirks but it’s all hard lines and thinly veiled violence. “‘Pretty name for a pretty girl.’ That was the last thing he said before I cut out his tongue.”
My eyes widen at her confession. Her gaze crawls over my face, her smirk growing like she enjoys my shock.
“See you around, pretty girl,” she murmurs with a flash of her teeth. She slams the door closed, and she’s gone in a cloud of gravel dust.
16
BANE
“You have something for me?” I glance over my shoulder at Duffy, one of the Reapers who was lucky enough to walk away unscathed after the attack on us.
“Fuck, Bane, I . . .” Duffy drags his hand across the back of his neck. “It’s like they vanished into thin air. No one has seen or heard anything, not since they fled here.”
I nod my head a few times, looking at Duffy without really seeing him. It’s been three days since someone snatched our girl right from underneath our noses. Broad daylight in the one place we told her she was safest.
For fuck’s sake, we had her move to the compound so she was safer than being alone at Magnolia Lane. Though she was never really alone. I slid into her bed most nights, and I had eyes on her all the time.
And still, she was stolen from me just like that.
There must be something I’m missing. There’s pieces here I didn’t anticipate. Too many fucking pieces. There’s a whole goddamn playing board I didn’t even know about.
“The warehouse in Silverstone?”
“It’s abandoned.”
“And what about Crestview? Have the Hell Hounds been seen around town yet?”
Duffy shakes his head. “Our contacts in Crestview said the Hounds haven’t left their clubhouse in three days. No sign of any other kuttes, Savages or otherwise.”
I cut him a look, my eyes going into focus. “Has something happened with any of the other MCs? What about the Outlaws?”
The Outlaws mostly keep to their claimed strip of desert in the west. It’s full of all kinds of shit to fuck someone up. They've never waded into anything before, and not for lack of manpower. But for lack of fucks. They literally couldn’t be fucked to get involved with anything. And now I hope they don’t change their philosophy.
If the Outlaws align with the Savages, we might be well and truly fucked. I don’t even know if all of our alliances and favors could get us through a war if they join in.
Duffy leans his shoulder against the wall, propping his foot up. “No, no sign of the Outlaws leaving their territory. But you thought there could've been prospects here too, yeah? The number of guys they rolled up with doesn’t match what we thought they had. So either they’re pulling in other clubs or they’re adding bodies.”
