Chapter 12
Wrath
We're mounted up, engines rumbling like caged thunder. I grip the handlebars my knuckles pressing against skin like they're trying to break free.
We’re just waiting for Steel to give the word to ride out when he pulls out his phone and checks the screen. His eyebrows climb toward his hairline, and something shifts in his expression. "It's Viper."
What?
The Iron Serpents president is calling Steel's direct line. There's only a handful of reasons that happens, and most of them end in blood.
“Answer.” My voice doesn't sound human. Doesn't sound like me at all—it's the voice of something that lives in the darkest parts of me, the thing I usually keep chained down. "Put it on speaker."
Steel's finger hovers over the screen for a heartbeat. Then he hits the button, and Viper's voice fills the night air.
"Steel." There's tension in that single word, but also something that might be regret.
"You've got about thirty seconds to tell me why I shouldn't bring hellfire down on your compound and burn it to the fucking ground with everyone of you fucks inside."
"I fucked up, Steel.” Viper's voice is steady despite the death threat. “Massively. And I'm calling to make it right before this turns into a bloodbath neither of us wants."
"You kidnapped an ol' lady from our compound.” Steel's tone is low and ominous, each word delivered like a blade. "There's no making that right. There's only war and vengeance and bodies in the ground."
"I know what I did. And I know how it looks.” Viper pauses, and I can hear him breathing on the other end. "But she's safe, Steel. Unharmed. And I’d like to return her to you. No conditions. No negotiations. Just want to get her home where she belongs."
Safe. Unharmed. They want to return her.
I don't trust the asshole. Won't believe it until I see her, touch her, confirm with my own eyes and hands that she's whole.
I grab the phone from Steel's hand before I can think better of it. "Where is she? Let me talk to her. Right fucking now.”
"Wrath." Viper's voice gentles fractionally, like he's talking to something wild and dangerous. Smart man. "She's okay. She's safe. She's with some of our women—”
"I don't give a fuck." I'm hanging on by my fingernails, about to lose it completely. About to burn down the world to get to her. "I want to talk to her. I want to hear her voice. I want confirmation she's alive and unharmed. Now."
Silence stretches. I can hear muffled voices in the background, movement, a door opening. Then—
"Rhett?"
Her voice breaks something inside my chest. Cracks it wide open like an earthquake fault line. She sounds upbeat. And alive. Whole.
"Baby." My throat closes around the word, emotion choking me in a way I haven't experienced since I was twelve years old finding my mother's body. "Are you hurt? Did they touch you? Did anyone put their fucking hands on you?"
"No." She's crying now, I can hear it in her voice. "I'm okay, Rhett. I promise I'm okay. They didn't hurt me at all. They’re actually being very nice right now. I just—I just want to come home. Please come get me. Please."
The please guts me. Like she thinks I might not come. Like there's any force in this universe that could keep me from her.
"I'm on my way right now." I force the words through my constricted throat. “Ten minutes, angel. Maybe less. Just hold on for me. Just keep staying strong for me.”
"Okay." A shaky breath. Then, so quiet I almost miss it, "I love you, Rhett."
The words hit like an arrow to the chest. She loves me.
"I love you too, Cami.” My voice cracks completely. "So fucking much. I'm coming, baby. Just hold on."
Viper's voice comes back on the line, and I have to force myself not to crush Steel's phone in my grip.
"We're at our compound. Main building. Come in through the front gate—it'll be open, the guards will pull back.
No tricks, no ambush, no weapons visible.
Just me and my club trying to make this right. "
Steel takes the phone back gently, like he's disarming a bomb. "If this is a trap, Viper. If this is some kind of play—"
"It's not." Viper's voice carries absolute conviction.
"You have my word as president. And I know that's worth fuck-all to you right now, but it's all I've got to offer besides her safe return.
" He pauses. "I've also got something else.
Something I think will go a long way toward making amends.
But we'll discuss that when you get here. "
The line goes dead.
For a heartbeat, nobody moves. The assembled brothers watch me, watch Steel, waiting for orders. Waiting to see if we're riding into a rescue or a massacre.
"Could be a trap," Steel says quietly, for my ears only. "Could be Viper playing us. Using her as bait."
"Don't care." I'm already revving the engine, my body ready to ride. "I'm going."
"We all are." Steel's voice carries to the assembled brothers. "But we go smart. First team with me, Wrath, Diesel, and Tank. Everyone else hangs back half a mile out. If this goes sideways, you come in hot and hard. Understood?"
A chorus of affirmatives.
The ride to the Iron Serpents compound takes seven minutes that feel like seven hours. Every second stretches into eternity while my mind races through possibilities, scenarios, nightmares.
Is she really okay? What did they do to her? How terrified is she? Did anyone touch her?
The thought makes my vision go red. If anyone put their hands on her, if anyone so much as looked at her wrong, Viper's apology won't mean shit. I'll paint their compound with their blood and sleep like a baby afterward.
The Iron Serpents' gate stands open like Viper promised. Members line the main building's entrance, but their hands are empty of weapons. At least visibly empty.
Their faces are carefully neutral. It's a show of respect. Of surrender.
Doesn't mean I trust it.
I kill the engine and I'm off my bike before it fully stops, my boots hitting the ground hard enough to jar my spine.
Viper stands waiting at the entrance, flanked by two officers whose patches mark them as VP and Sergeant at Arms. All three men have their hands visible, relaxed at their sides. Non-threatening.
But I see the tension in their shoulders. The wariness in their eyes. They know how close they came to war. How close they still are.
"Where is she?" The question comes out flat, dangerous.
"Inside. Common room." Viper steps aside carefully, gesturing toward the open door.
"Wrath—before you go in, you should know—"
I don't wait to hear the rest. I push past him, past his officers, through the entrance. I follow the sound of female voices down a hallway that opens into a large common room.
And there she is.
Cami sits on a worn leather couch surrounded by three women, a mug of what looks like coffee or tea in her hands. She's actually smiling. Her eyes are bright, animated as she gestures while saying something that has the women grinning and shaking their heads in amusement.
She looks relaxed. Happy, even. Not traumatized in the least.
But the second she sees me, everything else disappears.
"Rhett!"
She's off the couch and running toward me before I can take another breath, the mug forgotten on a side table. I catch her mid-stride, lifting her completely off her feet, crushing her against my chest hard enough that she gasps into my neck.
But she doesn't complain. Her arms wrap around my neck, her legs around my waist, her face buries against my shoulder.
"I've got you." The words come out rough as I breathe in her familiar scent. "I've got you, baby. You're safe now. I'm here. I'm right here."
"I knew you’d come.”
I press my face harder into her hair, one hand cupping the back of her head, the other splayed across her lower back holding her against me like I can absorb her into my skin.
Even though everything in me is relieved and grateful to find her happy and smiling, there’s still a white-hot, vicious rage inside.
Someone's going to pay for this.
She pulls back just enough to look at my face, her hands framing my jaw. She's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.
"I love you." She says it again, clearer this time, like she needs me to hear it. Needs me to understand. “I mean that. I love you so much."
"I love you too, angel." I kiss her forehead, her temples, her cheeks, everywhere I can reach without letting her go. "The thought of losing you—" My voice breaks completely. "I can't do it, Cami. I can't exist in a world where you're not in it."
She kisses me then, hard and desperate, tasting like salt and fear and relief. I kiss her back just as desperately, needing this confirmation that she's real, that she's mine.
Behind us, Steel clears his throat. The sound pulls me back to reality, to the fact that we're standing in the middle of an Iron Serpents clubhouse.
"Wrath." Steel's voice carries quiet authority. "We need to talk to Viper."
I want nothing more than to take Cami and leave. Get her out of here, get her home, lock her in our room where nothing can ever hurt her again.
But we need answers.
I ease Cami down but keep her pressed against my side, one arm locked around her shoulders. She burrows into me, her hand fisting my cut like she's afraid I might disappear.
"It's okay," she whispers. "I'll stay right here with you. I'm not going anywhere."
We turn together to face Viper. The Iron Serpents president looks like he's aged a decade in the last few hours. His jaw is tight, eyes shadowed with something that might be genuine remorse.
"I owe you an explanation." Viper addresses Steel first, proper respect to rank, but his eyes keep sliding to me. To us. To Cami tucked against my side. "And an apology that probably won't mean shit given what we did. But I'm going to give it anyway because you deserve to know the truth."
"Talk." Steel's voice is flat, dangerous. The voice of a man barely holding onto his temper.