Chapter Eight
Tessa knew something was wrong the moment Dillon didn’t show up for their check-in. He was late sometimes. Fifteen minutes, maybe twenty, when his anxiety got the better of him or his guardian dragged him into another pointless argument.
In the end, Dillon always came. Apart from the two nights when he’d been missing, Tessa made the kid promise to send her a text or leave a note. Dillon now didn’t disappear without warning.
By the time an hour passed, unease had crawled its way up her spine and wrapped tight around her ribs.
She tried his phone, but it went straight to voicemail. Tessa tried again, but there was nothing. By the third call, her hands were trembling.
“Tessa, slow down,” her colleague murmured gently from across the office. “You said he’s been unstable. Sometimes they run. That doesn’t mean anything.”
“I told him to call me,” Tessa whispered. “I told him if he felt scared, if the Iron Serpents MC contacted him again, or if he felt even a little unsafe. He was supposed to call me.”
And he hadn’t. The guilt came fast and vicious. She’d promised him he wasn’t alone. Tessa told him the MC would keep him safe. She assured him that Brick would know if something was wrong.
Brick. Her chest tightened painfully at the thought of him. She pulled out her phone and dialed his number without thinking.
It rang once, twice, then three times. Then it went to voicemail. Her heart sank.
She tried again. Nothing. Texted him quickly, tapping her fingers across her screen.
Dillon is missing. I can’t reach him. Please call me.
The message showed delivered, but went unread. Fear shifted in her gut. She tried the clubhouse. No answer. It went straight to voicemail.
Tessa sent him another text, then she tried Dillon’s guardian but was told Dillon hadn’t replied or answered any of his calls or texts either.
Then Tessa remembered something vital. Brick had told her he might be out of contact today. The Devil’s Crown MC had a run that couldn’t be postponed. He told her the job was dangerous and he might not be able to get back to her right away. The word echoed now like a curse.
She stared at her phone, willing it to light up. It didn’t. Her instinct screamed at her to go to the prospects. Brick and the club had helped her before and they would again.
But the idea of dragging more people into danger also made bile rise in her throat. If Dillon had been taken because of her...
No. She couldn’t think that way. Still, the truth pressed in anyway. The Iron Serpents hadn’t been subtle. The threat at the school. The look in that man’s eyes when Brick pinned him to the wall.
They hadn’t pulled anything but they didn’t back off. Instead, they just waited. Tessa grabbed her bag and her keys, pulse hammering as she headed for the door.
She decided she couldn’t sit and wait. Not while a scared boy who trusted her might be alone with men who trafficked in violence.
She started where she always did, with Dillon’s last known route. Tessa took the bus. From there, she walked to his school.
The walk from school to his bus stop, however, felt longer tonight, every shadow stretching thin and predatory beneath flickering streetlights.
She forced herself to breathe evenly as she retraced his steps, checking behind dumpsters, peering into alley mouths, calling his name in a voice that sounded too loud in the quiet.
“Dillon?”
Nothing. She reached the convenience store on the corner where he sometimes bought cheap soda and candy with crumpled bills. The clerk recognized her immediately.
“He was here,” the woman said softly. “About two hours ago. Looked scared. Kept checking the door.”
Tessa’s heart skipped. “Did he say where he was going?”
The clerk hesitated. “Two men came in after him. Rough-looking. They wore leather jackets. He bolted out the back.”
Ice flooded Tessa’s veins.
The Iron Serpents had finally made their move, using Dillon to lure her in so they could hurt Brick.
She thanked the clerk with numb fingers and stepped back into the night, breath shallow now.
Tessa followed the alley behind the store, shoes crunching softly over gravel as she searched for any sign of him.
“Dillon?” she called again, louder now. “It’s me. You’re not in trouble.”
Her phone buzzed in her trembling hand. Hope flared so fast it hurt. For one breathless second, she believed it was Brick. That despite being busy on club business, he was checking in on her. That everything was about to be okay.
Then she saw the unknown number. Her stomach dropped so violently she nearly gagged. Tessa’s fingers shook as she opened the message.
We have Dillon.
The world seemed to tilt. The Iron Serpents. It had to be them. There was no one else who would use Dillon as a weapon.
The words blurred, burned into her vision at the same time. She had a bad feeling earlier that the Iron Serpents were involved but receiving this text felt like a finality.
“No,” she whispered, horror crawling up her throat like bile.
Her pulse thundered in her ears as she slowly lifted her head and scanned the alley. It was eerily empty and that unsettled her.
The trash bins sat unmoving. There were no footsteps or voices. No movement at all and the silence felt wrong and charged. Like the air itself was holding its breath.
Her instincts, usually so calm and measured, finally screamed. You’re not alone. Cold dread flooded her veins. Every nerve ending lit up. She felt it then.
A pressure at her back, prickling at the nape of her neck. Invisible eyes locked on her. Prey doesn’t see the predator until it’s too late.
Tessa turned and ran. Her lungs burned instantly as she sprinted toward the mouth of the alley, fear ripping through her so violently her vision tunneled.
Her shoes slapped wildly against the pavement as her coordination unraveled under panic. She stumbled once, barely catching herself on the brick wall, skin scraping painfully against rough stone.
Tessa didn’t look back, she couldn’t. Her heartbeat thundered so loud she was sure they could hear it. Tears blurred her vision as she burst out of the alley and into the street beyond, night swallowing her whole.
For half a second, she thought she might make it. Then an engine roared, the sound startlingly close. Headlights flared from the side street, blinding white.
A black van fishtailed into view, tires shrieking as it cut her off with brutal precision. She skidded to a stop, terror locking her muscles.
“No!” Tessa yelled, hoping that someone was nearby and would hear her.
Too bad it was just her and the van. She spun, desperate to flee back the way she’d come, but someone reached out for her, their grip strong and ruthless.
They slammed into her from behind, knocking the air from her lungs in a strangled gasp. She screamed, the sound raw and animal, and fought with everything she had.
She kicked backward wildly, heel connecting with a shin. Someone swore viciously. Her fingernails raked across flesh and leather, drawing a howl of pain.
“Bitch!” her attacker yelled.
Tessa wasn’t planning on giving up easily. She twisted violently, elbow striking ribs, teeth snapping inches from a man’s cheek.
Still, it wasn’t enough. An arm locked around her throat from behind, iron-hard, cutting off her air. Stars burst across her vision as pressure crushed her windpipe.
Her scream collapsed into a thin, broken wheeze.
“Quiet,” a voice hissed into her ear, breath hot and foul. “Or the kid dies screaming.”
The words slammed into her harder than any blow.
Dillon. Her body went instantly rigid.
Every fight drained out of her in a rush of cold terror. Her hands fell uselessly to her sides as the weight of the threat crushed her spirit far more effectively than the arm at her throat.
The world tilted violently as they dragged her backward. Her shoes scraped uselessly against the pavement. The van door slid open with a metallic snarl.
Darkness yawned wide. She was thrown inside hard enough to knock the breath clean out of her lungs. Her body slammed into cold metal, pain blooming through her side as the door slammed shut with a final, brutal echo.
The lock clicked and she swallowed. Tears gathered at the corner of her eyes. How did things end up this way?
The van lurched forward. Tessa curled instinctively, gasping in ragged, panicked pulls as her lungs struggled to relearn air. The floor vibrated beneath her with the engine’s growl.
Rough laughter bounced off the metal walls around her. Shadows shifted, men looming indistinct in the dark.
Tears spilled down her face, hot and unstoppable. This was all her fault. She’d gone alone. Brick had told her to wait. To call him. To never chase danger by herself.
Now the Iron Serpents had both her and Dillon because she thought she could handle it on her own. Her chest hitched with silent sobs as terror hollowed her out from the inside.
Brick had been unreachable. What if he only saw her text hours later and by then, who knew what would happen to her and Dillon. They were both in enemy hands.
Her thoughts shattered into panic, guilt, and one overwhelming certainty that cut through everything else like fire.
Brick would come for her, and when he did, the Iron Serpents wouldn’t survive what they’d started. Tessa took comfort in that knowledge.