33. Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Three
Levi
“ D o you really believe Rikki doesn’t know where Clayton is or how to get ahold of him?” Mason asked. “Maybe we should’ve kept her here. Tried to use her as bait.”
“He doesn’t care about her enough for her to be bait,” I said, hating how harsh it sounded. Even if she had betrayed us, the way Clayton had used her was terrible.
“Don’t worry about it,” Tucker said from where he was sitting in front of his laptop. “I slipped a tracker in her purse before she left. She went straight back to her apartment. If she leaves, I’ll know.”
Mason and I both slowly turned toward our youngest brother.
“You did a what now?” I asked.
Tucker gave me a sheepish sort of smile and rubbed the back of his neck. “Remember when Mom was saying how she was worried about Isabel and Jenna going on their honeymoon because two women in a foreign country are more likely to be targeted for kidnapping than a husband and wife?”
“Yeah,” I said. “And then Jenna reminded Mom that they’re going to Canada, not South America.”
“Right,” Tucker said. “But when Isabel mentioned that they’d use one of those Find a Friend apps so Mom could see where they are, it got me thinking about what would happen if someone was taken and the kidnapper pitched their phones.”
“So your response, naturally, was to buy a tracker?” Mason asked.
“Not exactly,” Tucker said. “I wanted something small enough that it wouldn’t be easily detected. Something that could go in an earring or necklace.”
“Something you could give to our sister without her realizing what it was,” I said.
“Give me some credit,” he said. “I would’ve told her, and she would’ve been fine with it because she wouldn’t want Mom to worry either.”
“You said you didn’t exactly buy it,” Mason said.
“I built it.”
I sighed. We’d always known that Tucker was genius-level smart, but it was times like this that I wanted to shake him and tell him how much more he could’ve done with his life if he wasn’t such a damn hothead that he got kicked out of school.
“And when were you planning on telling us about this tracker you built?” I asked.
“I only just finished it right before everything started with Evie,” he said. “And then I kinda forgot about it until Mason went to go find Rikki, and it popped into my head that it might come in handy if she wouldn’t tell us anything and we needed to follow her somewhere.”
“But you didn’t leave the room,” I said.
“I might’ve also forgotten that it’s been in my wallet since I finished it.”
I shook my head. “You are the dumbest smart kid I know.”
“Anyway,” Tucker said. “I knew that you weren’t going to let her stay, so I thought it’d be a good idea to try it out in case we needed her again.”
“I guess if we don’t have any luck finding Clayton, we could try to talk to her again,” Mason said. “Or maybe Clayton will call her when he realizes the camera isn’t transmitting anymore.”
I didn’t realize that the office door wasn’t completely closed until a woman’s voice said, “Are you talking about Clayton Pierce?”
Jenna stepped into the room, a strange expression on her face.
“Yeah,” I said. “We’re looking for him.”
“I came here to yell at you three idiots for not protecting Evie, but I might’ve fucked up just as bad.”
“What happened?” Mason asked. “Are you okay? Is Evie?”
“Why do you need to find Clayton?” she asked instead of answering his question.
“He’s the one who got Rikki to put a camera in my room,” I said. “We don’t know why, or if he’s the only one behind it, but we’re gonna ask him when we find him.”
“And I don’t plan on asking nicely,” Mason added.
“I don’t know where he is right this second, but I passed his car on my way here.” Jenna sat down like her legs couldn’t hold her. “He was on Evie’s road, heading for her house. And he doesn’t live around there.”
“Where does he live?” Mason asked as I pulled my phone out of my pocket.
“I don’t know,” Jenna said. “I just heard him saying something to RJ once about being on the opposite side of Bedford.”
My heart thudded painfully against my ribs as I tapped on Sweeper’s name. Fear coated my tongue as the call rang…and rang…and rang. I’d been in a lot of dangerous situations, times when I didn’t know if I was going to make it out alive. I’d had my brothers—both blood and chosen—in harm’s way and saw them hurt more times than I could count.
The only other time I’d ever felt this sort of fear gripping me was when I saw those Cobras shooting into Rocky’s and knew that Evie and Jenna were inside.
“This is Sweeper. I’ll probably answer a text, but if you need to talk to me, tell me why and I’ll get back to you.”
The phone beeped to tell me to leave my message, but I just stared at it for at least five full seconds before ending the call. I felt my siblings’ eyes on me, but I didn’t look at them, focusing instead on sending a text.
911 call me
I watched it show as delivered and waited to see if it would be read. I’d known Sweeper for years, and the only way he didn’t answer a text pretty much immediately was if he was sleeping or fucking, and I knew he wasn’t doing either of those things when he was supposed to be watching Evie. Hell, I’d actually even seen him answer a text while he had a club slut bouncing on his dick in the main room. It was the reason I’d picked him. I knew I could trust him to stay on task the whole time.
“He’s not answering,” I said finally.
“Me either,” Mason said. “And I doubt both of us don’t have our texts getting through.”
“Three,” Tucker said grimly. “And this is worse.”
We all looked at him, Jenna’s face so pale that I thought she might pass out or throw up. I knew she wouldn’t want me focusing on her, though—not right now.
“Sweeper is one of the guys who decided to put that Find a Friend app on his phone. And this one’s damn accurate.”
“Where is he?” I asked.
“In front of Evie’s house,” Tucker said. “But that’s not the bad. I hacked into the personal information part of the app, and it shows that the phone suddenly fell about ten minutes ago and it hasn’t moved since.”
“Go,” Jenna choked out. “Go find my friend and beat the shit out of anyone who has her.”
As we started toward the door, Jenna added something else.
“And if you have to, kill the fuckers too.”
None of us said anything as we ran for our bikes. We didn’t need to. We were all thinking the same things Jenna had said. We’d get Evie back, even if we had to kill someone—or multiple someones—to do that. And even if it wasn’t necessary, Clayton was going to be hurting before the night was over. If he so much as touched her, he’d probably end up in the hospital. Knowing that our sister wasn’t going to judge us for any of it just made it that much easier to take care of business.
And I had a feeling even Mom would be okay with violence for this. This was about protection of a person, a person who we all cared about very much.
Just how much was something I was only starting to understand.
“What’s wrong, Prez?” Judge called from where he stood near the bike garage.
“Something going down,” Mason answered for me. “Get the guys ready. We might be calling everyone in.”
“I know what to do,” Judge said, nodding at us. “We’ll be waiting.”
Knowing that the Riders would have our back for anything we needed, my brothers and I tore out, barely waiting for the gate to open before we were through and on the road. As we sped toward Evie’s house, I found myself doing something I hadn’t done since my dad died.
I prayed.
I didn’t know who was listening, or even if anyone was, but if there was even the slightest chance that some higher power, deity, or the fucking universe itself was listening, I was going to ask it for one thing.
Please don’t let anyone else I love die. If it has to be someone, let it be me. Not anyone else. Not her.