What would’ve happened had he not? Would I have spent until late tonight, when she was supposed to arrive home, thinking she was okay?
“What about her cell phone?” Shine asked. “The sister’s?”
I shook my head. “Not turned on. I tried to circumvent the firewalls to get them turned back on, but…”
“Fuck.” Shine looked sickened. “I’m so sorry, man.”
I didn’t have the nerve to tell him it was all right.
Mainly because it fucking wasn’t.
I threaded my fingers through my hair.
Then I did what any sane man would do.
I called my brothers, real and MC alike, and shared with anyone that would listen that I couldn’t find Banger.
I never thought that I would catch her with her brother, though.
Not in a million years.
• • •
The first indication that I wasn’t going to like the news that Hank had for me was how abruptly he stopped talking in the midst of our conversation.
The second was when he inhaled deeply, as if he was steeling himself for what he was about to say next.
“I found her,” he said into the silence.
“Where?” I asked, feeling that jolt of adrenaline start to creep through me.
That sickening sense of hope that I knew better than to feel.
The room around me, Donnelly, Trouper, Beckham, Trouper’s wife, and Hunt, all looked at me with hopeful expressions.
He gave me the address, and my stomach dropped.
“Son of a bitch,” I said stiffly, looking toward Trouper.
He knew what that address meant.
Mostly because he’d helped put the prisoner there.
I reached for my phone and started heading outside in the next moment, knowing everyone was following.
The rest of the MC members, both my brother’s MC and my own, were out on their bikes hitting up their contacts, searching for Banger.
Meanwhile, I’d been at my office, collecting data where I could.
“Drive carefully, dumbass,” Trouper called to my back.
I didn’t even spare him a glance as I got on my bike and sped away, letting Haggard know what was going down.
The drive took less than ten minutes from my office.
And in every single second of those ten minutes, I wondered what I was about to walk in on.
Would Banger be alive?
Would she be mentally okay? Physically?
Would she hate me for what I’d done to her brother? For not telling her everything? Would she leave when she realized just how fuckin’ awful I could be?
Every single scenario played through my head. When I finally pulled up outside of the hut, the place that we used to do our dirty work, or in O’Ryan’s case, to be his prison cell, it was with Haggard pulling in directly behind me, Trouper coming in second.
Hunt and Price pulled up seconds after that, but I was already off my bike and heading inside before they could stop me.
In hindsight, I shouldn’t have done what I’d done.
I should’ve waited to see if I could do it more delicately than I’d done, yet… I couldn’t.
I just couldn’t leave her in there a second longer without her knowing that I was there. That I would always be there if she needed me.
The door opened underneath my fingers, the need for a security code unnecessary thanks to whatever Sareen had done to get inside.
I’d expected a lot.
I looked at her, wondering if she was joking, only to find something else completely shining in her eyes.
Desire.
“So… about O’Ryan,” she said, gesturing to me.
I thought she wanted help off the table. But the moment I got close, she curled her arms around me and held me tight, going as far as to put her legs around me, too.
“What do you want to know?” I asked, pressing my mouth against her neck.