Chapter 13 Hayden
HAYDEN
My stomach groans as I stretch in the warm sun.
I wipe my hands on a rag and toss it aside, nodding to Kit as I head for the stairs. “Taking five.”
He raises a brow. “Round two?”
“Fuck you.” The bastard knows something’s up, and it’s not just my dick.
I need to get a visit with Oak face to face before I make us official.
I can’t have Oak finding out I’m with his little sister from anyone else but me.
He needs to hear what she means to me. This isn’t just a one-time thing for me.
I’m in this for the long haul and I’ll leave the club if I have to.
Thoughts of food draw me up the stairs, but the thought of her still naked, tangled in my sheets, waiting for me has me climbing them two at a time.
The truth is, I can’t stop thinking about her. Last night was more than just sex. It was everything. And I want it again. I want her again. Sunshine and sass and those big brown eyes blinking up at me like I hung the stars just for her.
I reach the top of the stairs, heart thudding—not just from anticipation, but also hope. Something I haven’t felt in a long time. I have to have faith that her brother will understand, because without her there’s no sun.
As I open the door to the bunk, that hope dies.
“Faith?” I scan the small open space, the bathroom door open and empty.
The bed’s made, my t-shirt crumpled on the duvet.
Her clothes are gone.
She’s gone.
My gaze snags on the plate by the kitchenette. A bacon and egg sandwich, untouched, a coffee cold on the side.
“Shit.” My stomach drops.
I glance around. Her boots are gone. So is her phone charger. A bag missing from the hook near the door.
“Faith?” I call out, like maybe she’s hiding in the wardrobe. No answer.
I pull out my phone and dial her.
Straight to voicemail.
My fingers tighten around the phone. I try again. Still nothing.
“Fuck.” I scrub a hand down my face, piecing it together. The sandwich. The bed made. The discarded t-shirt. She left on purpose.
I jog back downstairs, boots hitting metal like thunder. Kit raises a brow as I burst into the yard.
“You seen Faith?”
He jerks his chin. “Not since last night. Thought she was still up there with you.”
I shake my head. “She’s gone.”
That gets his attention. “Gone where?”
“If I knew that, I wouldn’t be asking.” I stride over to my bike, rage and panic brewing beneath my skin. “She wouldn’t just leave. Not without something happening.”
“You think someone said something?” Kit asks carefully.
I freeze, my mind darting back to earlier.
That idiot joke from prospect.
You tappin’ that now?
Don’t be ridiculous. You think I’d touch Oak’s little sister? I’m not that desperate.
Fuck.
FUCK.
She heard me.
She must’ve.
I throw my leg over the bike, twisting the throttle until it snarls. “If she comes back, call me.”
Kit nods. “Where you heading?”
“The Crow,” I shout over the engine, already peeling out of the yard. “She has to be somewhere. I’ll find her.”
I have to.
Because I can’t lose her—not like this.
Not over a joke I didn’t mean.
The Crow’s parking lot is fuller than usual for a weekday afternoon, but I don’t even clock the bikes or the familiar faces inside. I storm through the front door like a man possessed.
“Faith!” I bark, scanning the pub. “Has anyone seen Faith?”
Heads turn. A few startled blinks. Draven’s behind the bar, cashing up and raises a brow. “Thought she was with you.”
“She was.” My jaw clenches. “Now she’s not.”
Heather’s the first one on her feet, walking over with concern lining her face. “She was here earlier. Asking for Letty’s address.”
“Letty?”
“Kane’s girl. The one with Violet hair,” Heather says.
“Right. Thanks Heather.”
“Need me to come with you?” Draven shouts.
“No. Stay here. If she comes back, call me.” I climb back onto my bike and tear out of the car park.
My heart’s pounding like a jackhammer in my chest. I know I messed up—every second she’s out there, it only cements how bad.
I’ve never felt panic like this before, not even on a job gone wrong.
This isn’t club business or a botched delivery.
This is Faith. I hurt her and only I can make this right.
Gravel crunches under my tyres as I bring the bike to a halt outside Kane’s old farmhouse.
His border collie barks and circles me as I climb off the bike.
Kane walks out of his workshop, roll-up hanging from his lips as he dusts the sawdust from his t-shirt.
“I’m looking for Faith.”
He lifts the roll-up from his lips and flicks the ash on the gravel. “She came here a few hours ago, looking for Letty, but she’s at work, so I gave her a lift.”
“Where?”
“She wanted dropping off just outside of town. I assumed it was a friend’s place.”
“You gave her a lift out of town?” Blood rushes to my head. I can’t think straight as I stomp towards Kane, fists clenched.
“What did you want me to do, let her walk down the country lane? It’d be dark by the time she got back.”
I fist his t-shirt. He’s almost as big as I am and just as fierce. “You should have brought her to me.”
Kane narrows his eyes and looks at my fists, crumpling his shirt. He’s calmer than he used to be. At one time, I’d be a dead man for this. “She said you didn’t want her.”
I let go and take a step back, fisting my hair, needing to punch something.
“She overheard something I said. Of course I fucking want her. She’s all I want. But I can’t let the club find out until I’ve talked to her brother. I was trying to throw them off the scent.”
Kane scrubs a hand down his face. “Shit. Get in the truck. I’ll take you to where I dropped her off.” He turns back to the dog and points to the workshop. “Belle, basket.”
I call Faith again, but the phone goes to voicemail. Then I text the club group chat.
Text: Faith’s missing. If anyone sees her, let me know ASAP.
“Still nothing?” Kane asks as he drives down the bumpy country lane.
“Nothing.” I rake both hands through my hair, gripping the back of my neck. “She heard me. I said I must be stupid to date her, and she fucking heard me.”
Kane nods slowly. “Sounds like it.”
“I didn’t mean it.” The words burn like acid on my tongue. “I didn’t mean a goddamn word of it.”
“You find her and tell her. The lass was pretty beat when she arrived at the house. But you can make it right.”
For a second, there’s an understanding between us. A silent brotherhood of men who love women we probably shouldn’t.
We don’t talk much for the rest of the ride—just the thunder of the engine tearing down country lanes like the devil’s on our heels. And maybe he is. Because I know if she ends up back at that house—with him—I’ll burn the place to the fucking ground.