Chapter 28
Dexter
“What happened?”
Everyone’s standing, asking me the same thing, voices overlapping, questions coming from every direction.
“Where did Lexy go?”
But all I can think about is the look on her face when I begged her to tell me the truth… and she told me I’m too much.
I shake my head.
All my life people have been saying this. You’re too loud, too energetic, too honest… too much.
A thousand thoughts and memories crowd my head, but one cuts through all of them.
I know Lexy.
And I know the Lexy who went to get cotton candy is not the same one who came back.
Something happened.
I feel it in my bones, in the way my chest won’t settle, in the way every instinct I have is screaming that something is wrong.
And I know only one person who could spook her like that. Only one man who could get into her head enough to make her walk away from me like that.
I don’t believe for a second that she left on her own.
“Dex, talk to me.”
Cas puts a hand on my shoulder, steady, grounding, but I shake him off before he can even finish.
“She left me.”
The words sound wrong the second they leave my mouth.
They slice through me anyway, sharp and misplaced, because even as I say them, I know they aren’t true.
Someone’s got something on her.
They must’ve been watching, close enough to see us, waiting for the right moment.
The thought makes something dark twist in my chest.
I turn to Cas, already moving, already thinking ahead.
“Someone has her, Cas. Check all cameras and talk to the cotton candy vendor.”
“Are you sure?” he asks, already pulling out his phone.
“I am.”
I pull out my phone and call Mason.
Straight to voicemail.
I call him several times but he never picks up.
My grip tightens around the phone until my knuckles ache.
That’s not a coincidence. Not tonight. Not with everything lining up the way it is.
I move over to where Cas is questioning the vendor while Ethan talks to deputies about the security cameras, my eyes scanning everything, everyone, like I might somehow catch something we missed.
“She got her cotton candy,” the vendor says, “then some men blocked my view. When they moved… those were on the ground.”
He points.
My gaze follows.
Two abandoned cotton candies.
Small. Pink. Out of place.
My stomach drops.
That’s it.
That’s all the confirmation I need.
They have her.
Cas turns to me, his expression tight. “This is not right.”
I open and close my hands, the need to use my fists crawling under my skin in a way I haven’t felt in years. Not like this. Not this fast.
“Got something.”
A deputy calls out, and we all move at once as he pulls up security footage on a tablet.
“See? There she is.”
We watch.
Lexy stands in line, looking like she always does. Like everything is normal. Like nothing’s about to go wrong.
She orders. Pays. Turns.
Three men move in behind her. Too close. Too coordinated.
And then, out of the shadows, a hand clamps over her mouth.
Fast. Clean. Practiced.
She’s gone before anyone even realizes what happened.
Something inside me goes still.
“I’m going to kill them,” I say, my voice low and certain.
“Do you recognize them?” Cas asks, eyes still on the screen.
At first, I shake my head. Ball caps pulled low. Faces hidden.
Then something catches my attention.
A tattoo.
My eyes lock onto the hand covering her mouth, and everything else fades.
“Stop.”
I step closer, pointing at the screen.
“I know that tattoo.”
I remember exactly where I saw it.
Exactly how it looked covered in blood when I beat the hell out of its owner four years ago to save the prez’s kid.
“I beat the crap out of him four years ago,” I say, my voice dropping colder. “That’s Russel.”
The name burns on the way out.
Every memory of him hits at once. Every reason I should’ve finished the job back then.
I turn to leave.
Standing here is wasting time.
Every second matters.
But Cas steps in front of me, Ethan right beside him, blocking my path.
“We go together,” Cas says.
I shake him off, already moving.
“I’ll rejoin Michael’s Legion. They’ll handle this.”
Ethan steps in front of me again, forcing me to stop.
“Don’t do it. You have us. You have the sheriff and his deputies. Don’t make a mistake.”
His eyes search mine like he already knows how far I’m willing to go.
“Trust us to do whatever it takes to get her back,” Cas adds.
“On one condition,” I growl.
Cas waits.
“When I get to Russel… you let me do what I need to do.”
Cas shakes his head immediately. “No. You’ll kill him.”
I shrug.
We both know he’s right.
“I’m wasting time here. They have my girl, I…”
My voice falters.
I swallow hard.
Because what hits me next isn’t rage.
It’s fear.
Real, bone-deep fear.
The kind that settles heavy in my chest and won’t let go.
The kind that makes every second feel like it matters too much.
Like I’m already too late.
“I need to go.”
I push past Ethan, but Cas grabs my arm, stopping me.
“You know I can do this alone and have you held by my deputies,” he says calmly, “but I know what it’s like to have the woman you love in the hands of someone like that.”
That lands.
Hard.
I remember the night Penny was taken.
I remember everything.
“So I want you with me,” he continues, “but you have to promise you’ll listen and behave.”
Behave.
The word grates against everything in me.
Against the instinct screaming to tear this place apart until I find her.
Cas holds my gaze, waiting.
Giving me the choice, even though we both know there isn’t one.
I force myself still.
Force everything down just enough to nod.
But there’s nothing controlled about what’s coming.
Because there’s not a single thing in this world
not the law, not my past, not even my own brother
that’s going to stop me from giving that psycho exactly what he’s got coming.
The drive to the Black Nemesis clubhouse barely registers. I’m aware of the engine roaring beneath me, of gravel spitting out behind the tires, of Cas saying something over the radio, but it all feels distant, like it’s happening somewhere outside my body.
All I can see is her face.
The way she wouldn’t look at me.
The way her voice broke before she forced it steady.
Something was wrong. I felt it then, and now it’s clawing through my chest, louder, sharper, impossible to ignore.
By the time we pull up, I don’t wait for the truck to stop completely. I’m already out, already moving, already pushing through the doors hard enough that they slam against the wall behind me.
The first thing that hits me is the silence.
Not the kind I’m used to in any clubhouse. Not the low murmur of voices, the scrape of chairs, the constant hum of something alive.
This is different.
Too still.
My gaze sweeps the room, fast, searching.
And lands on prospects.
Young. Unpatched. Nervous in a way that tells me everything I need to know.
No Russel. No Legion. No sign of her.
They didn’t just leave.
They cleared out. Fast.
And they left the prospects behind to deal with the fallout.
The realization settles cold and heavy in my gut.
They’re gone. She’s with them.
Something inside me snaps so fast I don’t even feel it happen.
“Where is he?”
My voice cuts through the room, sharp enough that every head turns, but no one answers fast enough, and that’s all it takes.
I grab the closest one, young, barely twenty, and slam him face-first into the bar. The crack of wood and the sharp clatter of glass echo through the room, but it barely registers over the sound of my pulse roaring in my ears.
“Dex!” Cas’s voice comes from somewhere behind me, but I don’t let go.
Not yet.
My grip tightens on the kid’s collar as I drag him halfway back up, just enough for him to suck in a panicked breath before I shove him forward again, harder this time, his hands scrambling against the wood to keep from collapsing.
“You’re going to start talking,” I say, my voice low now, controlled in a way that’s far more dangerous than shouting, “and you’re going to do it now.”
“I… I don’t know…”
I lean in closer, my jaw tight, my vision narrowing until it’s just him, just this moment, just the need to get to her before it’s too late.
“Try again.”
He’s shaking now, fear written all over his face, his eyes darting like he’s looking for someone to step in and stop this.
No one does.
Because they see it.
They know I’m past the point of stopping.
“They cleared out before we got here,” he stammers, the words tripping over each other. “We thought this was the main location…”
“You thought wrong.”
My fingers curl tighter in his shirt, the urge to hit something, someone, so strong it burns under my skin.
“Dex.”
Cas again, closer this time, his presence steady, grounding in a way I don’t want but can’t fully ignore.
I don’t turn.
“Where is he?” I repeat, quieter now, the kind of quiet that makes people listen.
The kid swallows hard, panic flashing across his face before something clicks.
“There’s another place,” he blurts. “An old factory, just outside town. They’ve used it before. For runs. Storage. We weren’t sure, but…”
My heart slams against my ribs.
“Where.”
He gives the address fast, like he’s afraid I’ll change my mind and decide he’s not worth the effort.
I release him so suddenly he stumbles, catching himself against the bar with a shaky breath.
I don’t look at him again.
“Move,” I say, already turning toward the door.
Boots hit the floor behind me immediately. Cas. Ethan. The others falling into step without a word.
No one questions it now.
No one hesitates.
Because they all understand the same thing I do.
This is it.
? ? ?
Alexis
Consciousness comes back slowly, like I’m being dragged up through something thick and heavy that doesn’t want to let me go, my mind surfacing before my body follows, awareness settling in piece by piece until the first thing I try to do is move.
And I can’t.
Not my hands, not my legs, not even my fingers.