Chapter Twenty-Eight
Hades
He’s taking her. He’s fucking taking her!
My heart raced in my throat as Viktor’s hand wrapped around Raven’s arm and yanked her out of the coffee shop.
Diesel’s voice came through my earpiece, loud and strained. “Hawk. T-Bone. Follow whatever car Raven gets into and don’t let them out of your fucking sight.”
A shot rang out and my gaze immediately went in search of Raven.
Where the fuck was she? Scanning the area through my scope, my eyes finally found her and my shoulders relaxed.
That asshole still had his paws all over her, but she was okay.
She was scared as fuck, her skin was pale, but she was doing her best to look unaffected.
Another shot rang out, followed by a loud cheer from Sniper who was set up about two hundred feet to my right. “Got one of the fuckers,” he cheered through my earpiece.
Then shit got crazy. More shots rang out from both sides. Two black SUVs pulled up quickly and six men stepped out with the guns aimed at the rooftops. Sniper took another one out with a direct shot to the head and I switched on my focus because Raven and my brothers needed me to.
I picked off one of Viktor’s men with two to the chest. I found another acting as a shield for Viktor and hit him right in the side of the head.
Bullets flew in both directions. Shit was too crazy to focus on Raven but every once in a while, my gaze landed on her just to make sure she was all right. Because I couldn’t not do that.
I loved her. Yeah, I fucking loved her even if she didn’t believe it.
Yet.
“That’s five,” Sniper called out. “There’s just one more.”
“Driver,” I called out and swung my gun to him just as Diesel’s voice sounded in my ear. Again.
“Leave him. We need to follow them back to find out where the fuck they’re keeping Falcon.”
Shit. Falcon. My finger inched away from the trigger, and I watched with my heart in my throat as Viktor shoved my woman in the car and drove off.
Carrying her away from me.
“Fuck!” I couldn’t fucking think or breathe. I couldn’t do anything but feel just how scared she was being whisked away, back to the life and the man that tried to break her.
“Get off your ass,” Sniper shouted. “We need to follow them!”
I nodded and lowered my gun. “I’ll take care of this. Go get your girl.” Reaper’s hands gripped my gun carefully, but with the kind of certainty that gave a distracted man no room to argue.
“Thanks.” My legs moved like I was trudging through thick mud or maybe quicksand. Every step required effort and I swear a fucking eternity passed before I made it to the bottom with Sniper at my side.
“Come on, brother. We’ll get them.”
“We don’t even know where the fuck we’re going,” I grumbled, kicking one leg over my bike as I settled onto the seat.
This was where I belonged and where I did my best thinking.
The roar of the engine beneath me settled something within me, letting clarity take over.
I had a fuckin’ job to do, save my woman and my brother.
That was the goal, the only thing I needed to focus on right now.
Once they were safe and back where they belonged, I could worry about the rest of it.
Sniper punched my shoulder, showing off a wide smile. “That’s what we got Slate for. The bracelet decoy worked, he didn’t frisk her, so she’s still got the tracker. He’ll find ‘em and we’ll get ‘em. Stop worrying.”
Easy for him to say when his woman was safe and sound at the clubhouse. “I’m not worried,” I said instead, because I was an asshole, but not that kind of asshole.
“Right,” he replied, drawing the word out to four syllables with a smug fucking smile on his face. “We’ll have them both safe soon, so you don’t have much time to figure out what you’re gonna say to Falcon.”
I froze for a beat too long to pretend I didn’t know what he was talking about, so I kept my fucking mouth shut. “Don’t have time to worry about that right now.”
“Then let’s take care of business, yeah?”
I nodded before revving the engine and taking off with one of my brothers at my side.
The road wove through Vegas proper before it turned to residential streets lined with trees, manicured lawns, and evidence of happy families all around.
Then, the residential neighborhoods turned into something else entirely, big ass mansions hiding behind tall fences. Where the fuck were we going?
Sniper pulled ahead and waved his hands to indicate I should follow him, which I did. We circled the block twice and then drove a few blocks away, close to a park. “You turned off your fucking headset,” he accused the moment he jumped off his bike.
I blinked because it took a fucking second for his words to register. The headset. “No I didn’t.” I pulled it out and inspected it. “What did I miss?”
He shook his head and fisted his hands on his hips. “Asshole took her to some mansion in that neighborhood. Slate’s got the address but he’s trying to hack into the surveillance systems in the area, so we don’t go in blind.”
A mansion? That made no fucking sense. “Why would he bring her here? And is Falcon there too?”
Sniper nodded. “I’d bet money on it. But we need to know.”
“Yeah,” I sighed because I did. If we went in there with guns blazing and Falcon wasn’t in there, whoever was holding him would absolutely kill him. “So we just wait?”
He nodded. “We just wait. You could tell me what’s going on with you and Raven while we wait.” His lips spread into a wide, knowing smile. “And don’t even tell me nothing because it’s pretty obvious to everybody, but Falcon.”
My nostrils flared and my jaw tensed in an effort to hold the truth within me, but I crumbled under the weight of Sniper’s gaze. “It just sort of happened.”
“Bullshit,” he shot back. “You’ve been crushing hard for a while.”
I wanted to argue, but I couldn’t dammit. “Even if that was true, I kept my distance.” I had to. Even though I didn’t know what she’d been through, I knew Falcon would lose his shit if I tried anything with his sister.
“Until you didn’t.”
I nodded and looked away, staring at the empty park across the street. “She was so fucking vulnerable. So real when we were alone at the cabin. Still a smart ass but underneath, there were layers. I shouldn’t have touched her, but I did.”
“And it wasn’t just scratching an itch. You felt something.”
I nodded. “She did too.” And there was a good chance I already fucked it up.
“She’s been stuck in her room until today.” It wasn’t a question, but an opening for me to keep talking.
“Yeah.” I shook my head to erase the image of her so fucking sad today. “Shit is complicated, man. I don’t know what’s going on but I know what I want, and as soon as this is all over, I plan to do something about it.”
“Good for you. I’m sure saving his life will go a long way to softening the blow once he finds out you’re in love with his sister.”
In love with his sister.
Hearing it out loud from someone else’s mouth was less scary. In fact, it gave me the confidence I needed to do what needed to be done. After this shit was over.
“How long are we supposed to wait?”
Sniper shrugged. “As long as it takes.”
I hated that fucking answer more than anything.