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“I have a job to do. If you’re not going to listen to reason, then sit there and be quiet. We’ll be somewhere we can talk and you’ll see I’m not out to hurt you.”
I tried a couple more times to get him to talk, but he kept his mouth shut. Finally, I gave up. I wish I had my phone. If I did, I might be able to text someone. I thought I could do it without looking at the keyboard.
The further out of town we went, the more relaxed he got. He turned off the main road and onto a secondary one not far from Sevierville. I scanned the houses we passed. They were mainly cabins and other houses set on enough property to be private. My heart sank when he turned into the driveway of one of those and drove back toward the cabin that was almost totally hidden in the trees, even without leaves on them. When he stopped out front, he looked at me.
“I’m getting out first. I’ll come around and open your door. Get out and walk to the porch and open the front door. It’s not locked. Don’t try to scream or run. You won’t like it if you do.”
I nodded. I couldn’t speak. I was terrified of what he was about to do to me. Alone out here, he could rape, torture and kill me. This was one helluva fate to look forward to. I knew that the universe wouldn’t let me live happily ever after with Blade. I was doomed to die unloved and unwanted. It had been my fate since birth.
I stumbled to the porch and up the stairs. At the door, my hand shook so badly, I almost couldn’t turn the knob. It took me three tries to get it to turn and open. Walking inside, I looked to the left. There was what looked like a living room there. He pointed toward it. I kept going. As I got to the couch and he gestured to it, movement caught my eye. I glanced up and gasped. My head started to whirl and my knees became weak.
Standing there was someone I never expected to see and seeing him told me I was in more trouble than I imagined. How had Benedict found me? He had to be here to take me back to Reuben. There was no other explanation. I dropped to the couch and swallowed the vomit at the back of my throat. Benedict came striding toward me with an evil, mocking smirk on his face.
Blade:
My phone buzzed in my pocket. I let it ring. I had to finish this wiring and if I stopped now, I’d forget what I was doing. It stopped ringing and then started again. It was the third time it happened right after the second call that I was free to answer. Taking it out of my pocket, I saw it was Lance. I quickly answered it.
“What’s up? Is she on her way home yet?”
I glanced at the clock. It was half an hour past her quitting time. Today, I wouldn’t be there to follow her like I’d done yesterday when she got off. Lance had that job today, not just watching while I was at work like yesterday. I knew if she saw him, I’d have to come clean about having her watched. I hadn’t told her what Smoke had told me about her dad and Reuben. I refused to call that bastard her husband. I’d wanted to wait until we’d heard more or had taken care of them. The less stress she was under right now the better.
“Blade, she’s not here. She didn’t come out, so when she still didn’t five minutes ago, I went in to see what was up. I thought I’d pretend to be hungry. When I asked for her, one of her coworkers, Erin, told me she had left earlier according to Jan. I asked Jan when and why she left. She shrugged and said she had no idea why, other than she’d left with a man. I asked her if she knew the man. She said she thought his name was Heath. He’d been in there a couple of times before. Her car is still parked in the alley behind the store. They left a couple of hours ago.”
An icy chill moved through my body at the mention of Heath’s name. Son of a bitch! I knew he was dangerous. How in the hell had he gotten her out of there without her raising the alarm? And why hadn’t she called me? She knew I was working in town today and would be there in minutes, if she needed me. The only answer I could come up with was that the bastard had threatened her.
“Did you tell anyone else this?”
“No, I called you first.”
“Okay, I want you to get your ass back to the compound. I’ll meet you there.”
“I’m sorry, Blade.”
I heard the remorse in his voice but I didn’t have time to reassure him. I had to find my woman. I had to make sure not a single hair on her head had been hurt. If it had, there would be a bloodbath. My road name wasn’t Blade for nothing. It was my favorite choice of weapon to cause pain.
As soon as he hung up, I called Terror. I was concise and quick about filling him in. He swore and promised he’d rally the guys to get back to the clubhouse as fast as they could. In addition, he’d see if Smoke could track her using her phone, assuming she had it with her. Heath might have thrown it away or shut it off.
The ride back to the compound was done in a blur. My mind couldn’t stop going over what might be happening to her and what she might be going through. Why hadn’t I put Lance inside with her? Hell with keeping the information about her dad and Reuben from her. If she was hurt because of this, I’d never forgive myself.
I barely remembered to put down my kickstand or turn off my bike before I tore off my helmet and ran inside the clubhouse. A few of the guys were here, if their bikes were anything to go by. There was a helluva lot more to come. Inside, I found Terror and Savage along with Jake standing in the common room. Jake was in his uniform. I had no idea if he was getting ready to go in for a shift or coming off the end of one. He worked extras in addition to his usual day shift ones, so it was hard to know. I didn’t waste time getting over to them. Terror grabbed my shoulder and squeezed.
“Smoke is on his way. He was out with Everly and the kids. He should be here any minute to get started on running that trace on her phone. The rest of the guys are on their way too. What you have to do is work on remaining calm. Take it from us, going off half-cocked won’t do her or you any good. We’ll find whoever took her.”
“I know who took her. It had to be that bastard, Reuben. He somehow found her and came to take her back.”
“I don’t think it’s him. If he left Utah, Smoke would’ve gotten an alert from his program. He didn’t. He said he would get that alert on his phone and it didn’t go off.”
“Well, I believe Smoke’s program is working, and he somehow found out about her creepy neighbor, Heath, and hired him to grab her and take her to him. Either way, I’m going to find them and kill the fuckers. I’m going to head for Utah. We have his address. Eventually, they’ll end up there. You guys can work from this end and see if you can track Heath and stop them from getting to Reuben. I was going to kill him anyway, so the trip won’t be for nothing.”
“And what if this Heath person who took her isn’t working for Reuben? What if he works for someone else and we rescue her only to have you nowhere in sight? Or he’s just the weirdo you thought he was? How do you think she’ll like that? Her man leaves others to rescue her so he can go off chasing her ex because his revenge means more than making sure he gets her back first,” Savage snapped.
I instantly was pissed and without thinking, I took a swing at him. He ducked my punch and nailed me in the side with a powerful punch. I admit, it hurt, although it didn’t prevent me from countering with another punch. With this one I clipped his jaw. There was a flurry of punches with each of us landing some until we were both pulled apart. I was struggling. Savage easily stopped and stood back, watching me.
Eventually, the words he’d said got to me and I stopped fighting. I was breathing hard. My face throbbed and my ribs hurt. I glanced behind me to find Voodoo and Jake had hauled me away from Savage. Others were standing around us watching. Instantly, I felt ashamed. What the hell was I doing fighting with my brothers? I hung my head in shame.
“Are you okay now? Ready to see what we can do to get your woman back, or do you want to waste more time?” Terror asked. My shame only deepened. He shook my shoulder. I looked up at him.
“We get it, okay. We know what this feels like. Let it go. Keep that anger inside until we find the ones who should be receiving it then you can let it all out. Smoke’s here. Let’s see what he can find,” Terror said, nodding over my shoulder. I turned to see Smoke rushing into the common room. He gave me a nod and kept going toward his office. I knew he’d need a few minutes to get his programs up.
