Chapter 17 Cage
CAGE
“That woman of yours is a sleeper,” Brewer said.
“Yeah, it’s almost eleven in the morning,” Diesel said.
“Trust me, I know. I’m up at the ass crack of dawn and she sleeps until the apocalypse cometh. It’s insane,” I said.
“You know, Brynn has been that way since the baby. You know, sleeping in and struggling to get up,” Diesel said.
“Piper’s never had that issue. But she’s also used to working third shift at the hospital when necessary,” Rock said.
“Everly became a morning person once we had the baby,” Grave said.
“Can you pass some of that onto Brynn? Because sometimes, it’s lunch before she’ll roll out of bed on the weekends,” Diesel said.
“She gave birth to your child. She’ll be perpetually tired until she dies,” I said, grinning.
The guys fell apart in laughter and Diesel looked at me with a grin.
He held his hand out to shake mine, and I gladly took it.
My cheeks hurt from laughing so hard. My stomach was knotting itself up from all the cramps.
I’d thoroughly enjoyed joking around with them after the church meeting, especially to lighten the mood it brought down onto the lodge.
The guys were great. Both the prospects and the original members.
I enjoyed learning about their history and what they did to make money.
Some of the struggles they’d gone through and how they came out of it on the other end better for it.
But I was beginning to worry about Sutton.
“Hey, you fucking laugh now. But wait until Sutton has a kid. She might end up shifting to a morning person and getting up before you. Like Makenna does with me,” Brewer said.
“Makenna’s always done that with you, though,” Rock said.
“I still think she should take the opportunity to draw on his face,” Grave said.
“And that’s why I never let you come over,” Brewer said, chuckling.
I held up my hands. “Yikes let’s slow that train down a second. No one’s thinking about having any children right now.”
“Trust me, neither of us were, either,” Rock said, chuckling.
A laugh worked its way through the guys in the living room, but I tried to shove everything out of my mind.
There was no way in hell I was ready for kids.
Neither was Sutton. We were still getting to know one another.
Trying to figure out how this would work and how the hell we’d get away from her father.
However, I didn’t hate the thought of Sutton having my children.
“Guys, I want to thank you again,” I said.
“I told you,” Rock said.
“You owe me fifty, Diesel,” Brewer said.
“And you owe me a drink, Grave,” Toxin said.
“What?” I asked.
Diesel rolled his eyes. “One, you don’t need to thank us anymore. You’re family, even if you’ve been long lost for a while. We’ll protect you the best we can until we can figure out how the hell to get you out of this mess.”
“And it’s a mess I’m sorry for dropping on your doorstep. You guys have families. Children. I feel like I’ve—”
Brewer held up his hand. “You leave protecting our families to us. It’s what we do. All you need to be focusing on is Sutton and getting your asses out of this unscathed with whatever plan we come up with.”
“And speaking of Sutton, is she still not up yet? I’m about to offer her a bacon sandwich instead of bacon and eggs,” Bear said.
“I’ll go check on her. Give me a sec,” I said.
I eased myself out of the chair and groaned.
I would have never thought my fucking shoulder muscle played such a role in literally everything I did.
There were very few moves I made that didn’t tick that muscle for flex it in some way.
Including getting off the couch. The guys looked at me with worried glances and I wiped them away.
I waved my hand in the air, trying to play off the pain I was really in.
After checking on Sutton, I needed another one of those pain pills.
“Sutton?” I asked.
I knocked on the door softly before opening it.
“Sutton, just wanted to see if you… were…”
I furrowed my brow when I saw the bed tousled the way it was. Because it looked empty.
“Sutton?” I asked.
The light was still on in both the main room and the bathroom. I closed the door behind me and walked over to the bed, ripping the sheets off it.
“Sutton!” I exclaimed.
I rushed over to the bathroom and dipped my head into it, but she wasn’t there.
The shower wasn’t wet. The sink wasn’t wet, either.
I glanced around the room, taking stock of the pile of women’s clothes in the bottom of the closet.
I took stock of the shoes scattered on the other side of the room. Then, my eyes found it.
The empty bedside table where her burner phone no longer was.
I didn’t even see her fucking purse.
“Sutton!” I roared.
I charged out of the room and barreled down the hallway. The guys must’ve heard me calling out, because half of them were already out of their seats.
“Sutton!” I exclaimed.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Settle down. Cage, what’s going on?” Diesel asked.
“Sutton! Where are you!?” I yelled.
A pair of hands came down on my chest and another on my shoulders.
I was pressed down into a chair that magically appeared behind me while Diesel started giving instructions.
Footsteps fell behind me, men scrambling around me.
The front door was thrown open before some of the guys yelled her name outside.
It wasn’t until Diesel crouched in front of me that I found my voice.
“She’s not in the room, is she?” he asked.
“We agreed we’d be safer together,” I said, swallowing hard.
“I don’t think she’s been taken,” Ryker said.
“Nothing looks disturbed, knocked over, or broken,” Toxin said.
“I’ve got footprints at the side of the house!” Saint exclaimed.
I went to scramble out of my chair, but Diesel caught me before I could stand.
His hands pressed down onto my shoulders, lowering me back into the chair.
I felt myself panicking. It was becoming hard to breathe.
And as the guys slowly filtered back inside, wrapping around me in a double ring, dread filled my veins.
“If he finds her before I can—”
“Nothing is going to happen to her. Okay? Not on our watch,” Rock said.
“I need you to calm down, Cage,” Diesel said.
“It’s been—I’m so—”
My eyes watered in front of all those guys before I slowly closed them.
“Dad,” I whispered.
“Get the man some water,” Diesel commanded.
“Get him a snack, too, while you’re at it,” Grave said.
“He gonna be okay?” Toxin asked.
“Yeah. He’s just in shock,” Diesel murmured.
And as my heart slammed wildly against my chest, someone put a cool washcloth on the back of my neck.
I’d lost my mother. I’d lost my father. Sutton was gone, and if I couldn’t find her, she’d be lost at the hands of her father.
My worry for her mounted. I had no idea how long she’d been gone, which meant she had either minutes or hours ahead of us.
I tried to compute how far she could get. I tried to run scenarios in my head.
But my mind had come to a grinding halt.
“Looks like she snuck down Hideout Hallway and slipped out the side door,” Saint said.
I didn’t know which was worse. Her leaving me of her own volition, or her being taken against her will.
“Good. It gives us a place to start. Prospects, I want a search party made up of you guys headed in the direction of those footprints. If anything looks suspicious, you call me immediately,” Diesel said.
“On it,” Bear said.
“Guys reach out to the girls. See if maybe she’s gotten in contact with one of them. I know they left their numbers with her. At least, Brynn did. Maybe we’ll get lucky,” Diesel said.
“Got it,” Brewer murmured.
“I’ll have Piper put out a request to all the hospitals in the area to keep an eye out,” Rock said.
“And I’ll have Everly call all her connections in town. That woman can network unlike anyone I’ve ever seen,” Grave said.
“What should I be doing?” I asked
I looked into my brother’s eyes and watched as he held up a glass of water.
“For now, you need to drink. Because if you pass out on me, you’re staying on that floor,” he said.