Chapter 9
Viper
The call comes in just as I’m lighting a cigarette, boots planted on Saint’s porch, tension crawling under my skin.
I promised her I’d be the one to take her home from the coffee truck.
Promised her and failed.
“Road Captain!” Tanner’s voice is ragged, hoarse.
“What?” I snap.
“They took her. Ava. Four men and a woman. They jumped us. We tried. We fucking tried, but they knew what they were doing.”
My world tunnels.
I drop the cigarette and crush it under my boot.
“Where the fuck were you when they took her?”
“Outside the cabin. We didn’t see them until it was too late. She opened the door and they came out of the trees. I swear, man, I tried—”
“You’ll answer for this later,” I growl. “There will be consequences.”
I end the call.
Saint and Havoc are already watching me. Havoc’s leaning against his bike, arms crossed, jaw clenched. Saint holds his burner in one hand, a cigarette in the other, eyes gone dark.
“Someone better be dead,” Saint says flatly.
“Two prospects almost are,” I bite out. “Ava’s gone.”
Havoc straightens. “What the fuck?”
“They lured us out,” I snap, pacing. “That trafficking tip was bullshit. Ghost said it went cold the second he checked it. Whoever fed us that wanted us gone.”
Saint flicks his cigarette to the ground. “So this was a setup.”
My phone buzzes again.
Ghost.
I answer. “Talk.”
“I’ve got something,” he says. “Her stepfather. Richard Smith. Moved money this week. Pulled private security funds. Traced to a cabin outside Maple Woods. Remote. Surveillance drops two miles before the road ends.”
I’m already moving. “You sure?”
“He took her, Viper. I’d stake my patch on it.”
“Then I’m going in.”
“You’ll need backup.”
“I’ll take my gun. That’s enough.”
I hang up.
Saint steps into my path. “We’re coming.”
“This one’s mine.”
“Fuck that,” he snaps. “She’s family now.”
Havoc nods. “You go, we go.”
We ride hard.
The night stretches over the highway like a loaded gun. My engine screams under me, wind cutting through my cut, the road blurring past. I don’t think. I burn.
Every second she’s gone, my rage grows.
No one touches what’s mine.
No one.
Maple Woods rises out of the dark an hour later. Dirt roads. Towering pines. One way in. We kill our lights a mile out and roll in silent.
Saint pulls up beside me. “Plan?”
“I go loud through the front,” I say. “You two circle the back. If you see Ava, you get her out.”
Havoc grins. “Loud works.”
“No survivors,” I growl. “Unless it’s her stepfather. He’s mine.”
Saint nods once. “Let’s end this.”
I dismount, gun heavy at my side, heart pounding like war drums.
They think they can take her from me.
I’ll show them what breaking looks like.
The first man steps out of the trees. Big. Smug.
Two shots drop him before he finishes blinking.
Another charges from the porch.
Mistake.
Inside, the house erupts in chaos. Ava’s scream tears through it.
Basement.
I kick the door open and take the stairs two at a time.
At the bottom, I find her.
Tied to a chair. Blood on her cheek. Hair tangled. Still fighting.
The blond woman turns.
I shoot her in the leg. She drops, screaming.
A man steps out of the shadows. I know that face from Ghost’s photo.
Richard Smith.
“She came back on her own,” he sneers.
I hit him so hard he crumples like paper.
“Mason,” Ava chokes.
I’m already untying her. Her skin is ice. Her lips split and shaking.
“I’ve got you,” I murmur. “I’ve got you, baby.”
Saint and Havoc crash in behind me.
“We’re clear,” Havoc pants.
I lift Ava into my arms. She clings to me, trembling, face buried in my neck.
“I thought you weren’t coming,” she whispers.
“I’m here,” I tell her. “I’ll always come.”
Outside, Saint is already calling in an anonymous kidnapping tip. Our cleanup crew handles the rest before the sirens ever get close.
I carry her away from the house, away from the woods, away from the man who hurt her.
And I swear in my bones, he will never touch her again.