Rogue (Rogue Angels MC #1)

Chapter 33

33

Rogue

We finally reach the ER what feels like days since we left the battle. I park right across the entrance and help Creed get Blade out the back. He’s unconscious, but I think he’s still breathing, I hope he’s still breathing.

“What’s going on here?” a nurse asks. It’s the blonde that knows Melody.

“He’s been shot,” I tell her. “Get Melody. Dr. Lockhart.”

Two doctors come running out too, neither of them Melody. The doctors are followed by two male nurses pushing a gurney and two cops. One of them is Lopez, my father’s friend from the Academy.

“What’s going on, Gabriel?” he asks.

“Blade’s been shot,” I tell him while the nurse and doctors are already checking him, yelling out stats that mean nothing to me.

“Is he gonna make it?” I ask the doc closest to me.

“We’ll do what we can,” he says and then they’re wheeling Blade in as fast as they can.

Creed follows and I try to do the same, but Lopez stops me by laying a hand on my chest. “Let them work, son. We need a word.”

“What?” I snap. “I need to be with Blade.”

“Where’s Melody?” I ask the nurse again. “Is she still here?”

“She’s gone,” the nurse says and the words take all my air.

“Gone? Gone how?” I ask looking from the nurse to Lopez and back.

“She was with a patient, a biker type like you…” the nurse says. “And then they both disappeared.”

“We think he abducted her. That’s what I wanted to talk to you about,” Lopez says. “What do you know about that?”

“Nothing,” I say, finally getting my breath back and the images of Melody stone cold dead out of the forefront of my mind.

“You know this woman, right?” Lopez asks. “You’re dating her? Could this be someone trying to get back at you? Anything you know can help us.”

I shake my head, trying to keep the images of Melody’s lifeless body out of my mind.

“I don’t know anything. There’s no threat,” I say.

The Hydras are dealt with and I don’t have any other enemies. That I know of…

“I have to go find her.”

“Leave that to us, Gabriel,” Lopez warns.

I shake my head. “No offense, but I’ll find her a lot faster than the LAPD ever could.”

Then I rush back to the van, ignoring Lopez yelling at me to stop.

I won’t stop. Not until Melody is safe in my arms again. Not until everyone who hurt her is dead. I won’t bury another lover. That can’t happen. But if it does, then the world will burn.

The drive to the clubhouse is a blur. Some of the members are back from that damn mission I sent us on, while I should’ve been keeping an eye on Melody instead. Keeping her safe.

I ignore them all as I rush across the bar on my way to Skye, ignoring all the calls for me to stop. If anyone can find her, she can.

“Hold up, Rogue. We got a situation,” Rock says as he intercepts me just as I reach for the door that leads to the back. True to his name, he’s like a damn mountain in my path.

“I’ll deal with it later,” I snap at him. “Melody’s been taken. Skye needs to find her. Now.”

“I know where she is,” Unholy says from somewhere to my left. His voice is faint like he’s speaking from somewhere very far away.

But when I turn to him, he’s standing almost right next to me, shirtless, bent double, a bandage covering his side, blood oozing through.

“Talk,” I snap at him.

He folds down into a chair. “Tito and his brother took her. They are gonna sell her to Rabid Dogz MC, who wanna use her to lure Devil’s Nightmare MC into a trap. It was my idea to do it. I know her… from before… I knew the Devils would ride for her and I…”

He takes a long, shuddering breath that sounds like it’s painful. Good.

“You planned all this?” I ask. “Why?”

“I have to find friends where I can get them these days,” he says. “Lord knows, my old friends want nothing to do with me.”

The look he gives me is so sharp it cuts me right to the quick, despite all other things running through my mind.

“But then I saw you with her today,” he adds. “So I tried to stop them, I tried to get her away, bring her to you, tell you all about it. But that bastard Tito shot me before I could.”

I see the truth of all that in his eyes too. And the guilt at how I sent him away the other night is making bile rise in my throat.

“Thank you, brother,” I say because it needs saying. “But the job’s not done. We have to find her. Where is she?”

“We were gonna take her to this crappy trailer and make contact with Rabid Dogz MC from there,” he says.

“Where?” I ask.

He stands up again, groaning. “I’ll show you.”

“You can barely fucking stand,” I say.

He glances across the room. Less than half of the MC made it back.

“I’ll be fine. Just need to walk it off,” he says. “And it looks like you’re gonna need all the help you can get.”

“I’m not gonna have you on my conscience too,” I say.

He laughs, but it doesn’t sound dark. “I’m gonna help you make this right, Rogue. You don’t get a say in the matter. But we gotta call the Devils too. They’re near here on a job. We have to tell them about the trap.”

He stands there, looking like he’s about to collapse any moment.

“Why are you helping me, Zane?” I ask. “I don’t deserve it. I never did anything for you when you needed me.”

“I made my choices, Gabriel,” he says. “And I understand why you had to make yours.”

I want to trust him. I want him riding by my side as a brother. As the brother he’s always been to me. But can I?

“I saw how you looked at that doctor lady today,” he says, answering my unasked question. “You never looked at even Angel that way. You love her and I couldn’t take the woman you love away from you. I might’ve been very angry at you for a very long time, but I can’t put you through that pain again.”

Many things are rushing through my mind, gratefulness and guilt chief among them. They’re all making it impossible to speak.

He shakes his head and grins. “We’re wasting time, Rogue. Trust me or don’t but make up your mind fast.”

I extend my arm to him, the movement happening outside my conscious control. But as he clasps it, I know it’s exactly the right thing to do.

“Thank you, brother,” I tell him. “Now let’s ride.”

His eyes are hard, like two circles of stone, but they soften for a split second before he nods.

“Thought you’d never ask,” he says.

And he’s not the only one. But welcoming Zane back feels like the most right thing I’ve done in the last ten years.

The feeling doesn’t last long though.

Melody is out there somewhere, alone, scared and in danger. And nothing will be right until she’s safe. Nothing will be right until she’s back by my side where she belongs.