Chapter 21 Grave
GRAVE
I skidded on the rocks as I came to an abrupt stop in front of the cabin. I left my bike running as I charged up the steps and the first thing I noticed as the bullet lodged in the doorway.
“Everly!”
My voice echoed off the corners of the rickety cabin and blood was rushing through my ears.
The place was in shambles. Cabinets were thrown open and drawers were halfway pulled out.
The refrigerator was hanging open and the couch was overturned.
I looked around for my gun and didn’t see it anywhere.
“Everly! Where are you!?”
My hands clenched at my sides as I strode down the hallway. I dipped my head into her room and there was only more carnage. A bullet lodged in the wall and her sheets on her bed were mussed. Tangled. Pulled to their limits.
“Damn it, Everly. Answer me now!”
I charged into my bedroom and I saw it. The boot prints on the floor.
Coated in dirt and dust. They were large footprints.
Wide footprints. But not as large as mine.
My eyes slowly scanned the room, looking for any other sign that someone was here.
I walked over to the bedroom window and peered out of its shattered facade and down onto the ground.
Tire tracks. Deep in the mud. Sitting right outside my fucking bedroom window.
Someone had snuck into this cabin to get to Everly.
Holy fuck. Was she dead?
I walked out of my room and turned to face the bathroom.
The door was cracked open and my heart sank to my toes.
I wasn’t ready to open that door and find her dead.
I’d never forgive myself if she was. It was my vow to protect her.
My sworn duty to make sure she was okay.
She trusted me with that. With her life.
With the progression of her future. I promised to keep her out of harm’s way, and I had thrust her back into it.
I swallowed thickly as fear clouded my mind.
My hands were trembling with fear for the first time in my life.
Never had I been one to give into my basic responses.
Never had I allowed myself to show fear in any part of my features.
But the idea of Everly being hurt? Or dead? Or anything other than smiling and happy because of my negligence?
It petrified me.
From the second that woman had waltzed into our lives with her beautifully long legs and her multi-colored eyes, I was smitten.
Bouncing between feeling her legs wrap themselves around me and protecting her and keeping things professional.
And the second I first felt her lips on mine, it was game over.
I’d allowed myself to feel something for this woman.
This strong, independent, hard-working woman who ran herself to the bone to make a life for herself.
I could see it in her eyes. That determination.
That passion. That need to make something she could call her own.
It was what drew me to her the first time. Her strength.
But it was her pure heart that kept me coming back for more.
“Everly?” I asked. “Are you in there?”
I pressed my hand against the door and slowly slid it open.
There was vomit on the tile floor and a stench that filled the bathroom.
The sink cabinets were thrown open and I could see the crowbar dangling over the edge.
I could almost see Everly throwing them open.
Searching for something to defend herself with after that Black Saddle asshole had wrangled my gun from her hands.
If he’d hurt her, I’d kill him. For every mark on her body, I’d trace his club back and slaughter them all. For every bruise I counted and every scratch found on her body, I would make him watch as I slit the throats of his friends. I’d make him watch as they choked on their own blood.
And if she was dead. God forbid if Everly was fucking dead… he wouldn't make it out alive.
None of them would.
My eyes panned to the tub, the shower curtain drawn as a strong stench continued to fill my nostrils.
My heart fluttered with blind fear in my chest as my vision tunneled.
It was an unfamiliar sensation. I’d never been that scared in my entire life.
I saw my hand reaching out for the curtain and I slung it back.
I braced myself for the worst. For her body sagging against the tub.
For her lifeless eyes dripping with dried tears.
For her blood splattered against the walls.
But the second I saw that no one was there-- not a body, not a Black Saddle, nothing-- I breathed a sigh of relief.
I had to assume Everly was still alive. I couldn't entertain any other thought.
I’d shut down at the prospect of any other thought.
I slammed out of the bathroom as I pulled my phone from my pocket.
The guys had to get together now. We had to go after Everly.
I needed them for backup, but I also needed them to keep me under control.
My nostrils were flaring and my fingertips were begging for bones to crush.
I knew they could keep me under control long enough to cage the animal I felt raging within my bone marrow.
Because if I did this alone, I wouldn’t stop my frenzied bloodlust until they were all slaughtered. I had to call the man I wasn’t sure I trusted.
“This is Diesel”
“They have Everly,” I said.
“What? Wait a second. Where are you?” he asked.
“Are you listening to me? They have Everly. The Black Saddles have Everly.”
“How did they get to Everly? You’re still at the cabin, right?” he asked.
“We don’t have time to shoot the shit. You need to call church and do it now. Because if I go after these bastards by myself every single one of them is dying as I watch the life drain from their eyes.”
“Okay, okay, okay. Hold on. Grave. How did they get past you? Are you okay?”
Guilt knotted in my stomach. This was my fault.
I was the one who left Everly with nothing but a gun to defend herself, and by the looks of the bullets lodged in the fucking walls of the cabin it was a gun that was stolen from her.
I balled up my fist and ran it through the wall, splintering the feeble plaster of the cabin hallway.
“Church is being called. Get your ass to the lodge. But you have to tell me what happened,” Diesel said.
“I was getting us out of town,” I said.
“What?”
“Look, the short of the story is I made the shittiest decision alive trying to balance Everly’s safety and what I thought was right for the situation. You’re not gonna be happy about it, but I don’t give a shit. Everly’s been taken and our priority is finding her.”
“Why were you trying to get her out of town?” he asked.
“Damn it, Diesel We don’t have time!”
“Then you’ll fill us in when you get to the lodge.
But there are holes that need to be filled and we need to know what the fuck’s happening and now.
If you fucked up, that’s on you. We’ll go after Everly, but that doesn't mean we do it blindly. You're going to have to tell us what the fuck happened and you’re going to have to be upfront about it. Okay?”
I slammed the cabin door behind me and made my way for my bike.
“Got it. I’m headed to the lodge now. But I’m like, a fucking hour out because of your bullshit cabin. Who the fuck has a cabin in the woods, Diesel?”
“I do. For reasons like this. But if they found you out there, that confirms my worst fear.”
I unhitched the trailer and tossed it off to the side. I’d come back for it later. I needed the dead weight off my fucking bike so I could get out to the damn lodge faster.
So I could get to Everly faster.
“A rat,” I said.
“Someone’s talking when they shouldn't be, and that’s something we’ll have to address. Whoever the fuck it is, they’ve put you and Everly in danger. Far as I’m concerned, no matter what the fuck’s happened, it’s that rat’s fault and not yours. You hear me?”
I hopped onto my bike and revved the engine. I spit rocks underneath my tires as I tore through the forest, one hand on my bike while the other held the phone to my ear.
“I’m headed your way. Give me forty minutes,” I said.
Then I hung up the phone and jammed it into my pocket.
I raced through the woods at lightning speed.
My wheels spun and my tires skidded. I put my foot down to stabilize myself in tight turns, and fifteen minutes later I was emerging from the woods.
I stuck to back roads where I knew the cops wouldn’t bother me and it only took me ten minutes to race through town.
I hopped curbs and raced through people’s backyards.
The few policemen I flew by I lost before they could even get their damn lights on.
Twenty five minutes later, my tires hit the split dirt of the woods and I was on my way to meet the guys.