54. Kane
FIFTY-FOUR
KANE
My throat closed off as I stared at the broken bracelet. The realization pummeled me like a thousand fists.
“What the fuck is that?” Otto growled through the disorder from where he stood panting in the doorway to Emery’s room.
“My sins catching up to me.”
A scowl marred his brow. “What does that mean?”
I shot to my feet. “It means Maci’s mom wasn’t some chance encounter in my bar. She knew who I was. Back from the MC. And I think Emery took Maci with her and is running scared.”
She thought I was responsible. That I was the one who hurt her.
Horror slashed through my spirit, and I ran from the bedroom.
Otto was right on my heels. “What the hell are you talking about?”
I threw out as much of an explanation as I could as I bound downstairs, spilling the secret I’d kept for the last ten years. What had become my burden. One I had the honor of shouldering.
For them.
For all of them.
Emery.
My guts knotted when I thought of what she’d been through. The pain she’d suffered. The fear she’d carried .
And the trust—the trust she’d given to me.
“Oh fuck, man,” Otto wheezed as we ran into the kitchen. It was the only way they would have been able to get out without Otto noticing.
Thoughts battered through my brain. What didn’t make sense was Emmalee. She’d sought me out. But why? It was like…memories spun…like she’d wanted something from me.
Then I found her snooping around my office, and I kicked her out.
I told her it was time to leave and not to come back.
Fear pillaged the hope in my spirit. So many questions wheeling I couldn’t make sense of them.
“We have to find them,” I gritted.
I ran for the back door, threw it open, and bolted out onto the back porch.
The sound of motorcycles rumbled in the distance, the roar of my crew as they growled up the road to come to stand at my side.
Thinking that Emery had been taken by whoever the monster was who’d tried to get to her at the store.
Turbulence blustered through my senses, and I scanned the thicket of trees that hedged my property, terrified by the thought of Emery and Maci running scared through them.
It wasn’t that far into town, but there were plenty of dangers they could come upon on their way. Wild animals and rugged terrain and the cliffs that lined the lake on this side, especially if Emery was terrified and trying to get away.
You took far more risks when you were in that type of position.
Motorcycle engines chugged as they came to a stop on the other side of the house, and one by one, they shut off. I grabbed my phone and dialed, the command biting out of me the second River answered. “In the back.”
Thirty seconds later, River, Theo, and Cash came running around the side of the house. Aggression lined their bones. Each of them prepared for war. To fight for these two girls who’d become an intrinsic part of us.
A part of this family.
Exactly where they’d always been purposed to be .
I just needed to convince Emery of that.
I was already shouting as I ran down the steps in their direction. “Everyone spread out in the woods. Think Emery and Maci are running.”
Confusion twisted Theo’s dark features. “Why?”
“Emery found out something about me that she doesn’t know how to handle.”
“Fuck,” Cash rumbled, and his gaze swept over the dense forest. He lived in the farthest recesses of it, and no one knew its hazards better than him. “You think she’s running for town?”
“Hope so.”
It was then a piercing scream ricocheted through the summer air. Riding on the cool breeze that carried through the trees.
Panic seared through my being. A cold draft that threatened to freeze me over.
Emery.
“Oh fuck,” I wheezed, and I took off in the direction it came from.
My brothers were right behind me.
“Emery! Emery! Maci!” Their names ripped from the deepest parts of my soul. Bellows of desperation as I raced into the woods.
It was instantly dimmer here beneath the towering pines, their spiked tips reaching for the blue sky, the branches of the stately oaks covered in lush leaves a woven tapestry overhead that obscured and shaded.
Not to mention the dense vegetation that grew on the forest floor. Bushes and vines and shrubs that gathered thick to obstruct our path.
I blew right through them, angling in every direction as I ran through the maze. My pulse pitched and screamed. An anguished pound that thundered in my ears.
My ears that suddenly picked up on cries.
Cries to the left of me.
Cries that I recognized.
Terror crushed my chest, and I turned course and raced through the woods in that direction. Branches slapped against my face as I barreled through.
“Oh my God. Maci. ”
She was on the ground in a ball. Rocking. Her hair matted. Blood was smeared on her face and shoulder.
Dropping to my knees, I scooped her up as a rasp of shock and horror and relief blistered through.
A clash of confusion.
Where was Emery?
She would never leave her.
“Daddy!” Maci wailed it as her little arms locked around my neck.
“Maci. Maci.” My hands ran down the back of her head.
Searching.
Soothing.
“What happened? Where is your auntie?” I was barely able to force it out.
“We were supposed to be pwayin’ hide and seek from Uncle Otto, but a really mean man got my auntie. She told me to run really fast, but I fewl down,” she hiccupped.
Oh fuck.
Oh fuck.
“What’s going on?” Cash demanded as he burst through the shrubs.
I climbed to my feet and jogged his direction, holding Maci tight against me. “Someone has Emery. He’s here. Take her,” I grunted as I shuffled Maci toward him.
Cash didn’t hesitate.
“No, Daddy!” she cried.
Frenzied, I ran my fingers through her matted hair. “It’s okay, baby. It’s okay. I just have to go get your auntie, then I’ll be right back.”
Sniffling, she turned those sweet, trusting eyes on me. Her precious face smudged with blood and dirt. “Okay, but hurry really fast.”
Cash cradled her softly, so much care in his muscled arms, while he slanted me a vicious look.
Get that motherfucker.
I absolutely intended to.