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“You’re not ridin’ with me,” Rumi announced, shoving Titus hard enough that he stumbled a few steps. “There aren’t many lines I’m unwillin’ to cross, but having my baby brother ride bitch on my bike is one of ’em.”
“The singin’,” Will groaned, throwing his arm over Titus’ shoulders. “So bad, kid. It was so bad.”
“I was tryin’ to keep her from freakin’ out.”
“It worked,” I replied. “Good job.”
“Mom’s gonna kill me, huh?”
“Probably.” I shrugged.
“When I got to her house, they’d locked her in her room—”
“Save it,” Will muttered as we reached the bikes. “We can talk about it at the club.”
I helped Noel put my helmet on, buckling the strap under her chin. “Your sister’s gonna be real happy to see you.”
“My dad was really angry,” Noel whispered, looking over my shoulder to where Titus was climbing on the back of my dad’s bike.
“Don’t worry about that now,” I reassured her. “Let’s just get back to Esther, yeah?”
Beyond the fact that Noel had her arms so tight around my waist that I could barely move, the ride back to the clubhouse was pretty anticlimactic. I wasn’t sure what the hell the next steps were, but for once, I was thankful that I wasn’t going to be the one making the decisions. All I wanted was to get back to Esther, take a fucking shower, and crash for the next twelve hours.
It was a nice dream.
The minute we rolled down the driveway, there was a group of women hurrying out of the clubhouse, searching the group for each of their men. Esther hung back a little with my mom, clearly trying to seem unaffected, but she wasn’t hiding her relief very well.
I knew the moment she spotted me and her sister.
As soon as I parked the bike, Noel was scrambling off with absolutely no finesse whatsoever. I cursed under my breath, trying to keep it from going over and sighed when she was finally clear, putting down the kickstand so I could get off too.
“What are you doing here?” Esther asked, fumbling with the helmet strap. “Are you okay? Where’s Titus?”
As people filed back into the clubhouse, my family gathered up so we could give them an abbreviated version of events—mostly the part where we found Noel and Titus tied up in the church.
“I wouldn’t leave,” Titus explained. “I knew she was in trouble, so I just kept makin’ a nuisance of myself until they let me see her.”
“I thought they were going to call the police,” Noel added.
“No chance of that,” Rumi muttered under his breath.
“After they finally let me in to talk to her, some dickwad punched me in the jaw.”
“I tried to stop them,” Noel cut in angrily.
“We’ll talk aboutthatlater.” Titus glared. “Anyway, they beat the shit out of us and then threw us in the back of a car.”
“Where was Mom?” Esther asked like she was afraid of the answer.
“With Aunt Lacey,” Noel replied. “Dad took her over there after he locked me in our room. I didn’t even know anyone was downstairs until I heard Titus talking to someone at the door.”
“They took us to the church and tied us up,” Titus finished. “Bailed right after, and eventually, you guys showed up.”
“How you doin’?” I murmured in Esther’s ear, running my hand down her back.
“I’m okay,” she replied softly. “You?”
“We got some shit to talk about.”
