Chapter 22
Rebel
“Congratulations again.” Lincoln calls out as he comes up to me while I’m searching the crowd for my wife. It should not be this hard to find a redhead in an elegant white wedding dress. But she doesn’t appear to have made it back yet.
He claps me on the back while he takes a swig from his champagne glass. “Remember when she didn’t want anything to do with you?”
He chuckles to himself. He’d been there the night I finally broke her down enough to admit she felt the attraction and connection I did.
“I knew then you would marry her,” he says. “Speaking of… where is Mrs. Maddox?”
“That’s a good question.” I’d left her with Danica when Agent Lane asked for a moment of my time. Lily Hawthorne is uber dangerous and on the ranch somewhere. She killed the goat. And Alec. And a whole lot of other people.
But he hasn’t made the connection between Lily and Dizzy, and I didn’t tell him that she’s in West’s cabin. Not yet, anyway. But I could and that way Ivy would be angry with me and not Rogue. Either way I should talk to Rogue first. And West.
“She’d said she was going to check on Kelsey too and then rejoin me out here,” I tell him.
My wife shouldn’t be the one dealing with my youngest brother’s clusterfuck of a personal life. Instead, he’s tossing back champagne and letting Sonatina get way too cozy for a man who is supposedly not single.
Unless… did they break up tonight?
“I’d like to offer Summer my condolences,” Lincoln says. “A lifetime of putting up with you. I’m not sure I’d sign up for that. She’s a brave woman.”
“She can handle it. She’s my wife.” His ribbing isn’t going to bring me down from the high I’m on tonight. “I’m going to go find her.”
Maybe we can finally find that quiet, intimate moment we missed out on earlier.
Leaving Lincoln and the rest of our friends, I head up to the house.
“I’m so excited,” Sonatina speaks into the microphone as I jog up the stairs onto the verandah. “Riot and I… want to play you a very special song. One he recently rewrote for this new era in our life. It’s called 'Chokehold'.”
I had no idea he was rewriting it.
The familiar song starts as I step inside. There’s catering crew in the kitchen. They’re prepping meals onto trays.
Kelsey hobbles toward me, a furious look on her face. She mutters to herself, “that bitch ass whore.”
Whether that is directed at Riot or Sonatina, it’s hard to tell.
Either way it would probably be for the best to see if I can de-escalate her momentum.
Placing my hands on both her shoulders, I stop her from moving past. “Are you doing okay, Kelsey?”
“Uh-huh.” The stiff way she’s carrying herself tells me she’s more than a little upset. “I will be. I just need a quick word with Riot.”
“Perhaps you should give each other a bit of space instead.”
That fire she’s carrying around gets levelled at me. “You should get out of my way.”
“All I’m saying is you’re both frustrated.
You might end up saying or doing things you regret if you go out there now.
” If they haven’t already. I try to soften her up with a sympathetic smile.
Riot loves her. Has since they were kids.
Crossing the line of friendship into something more…
he was serious about it. Probably why he’s taking it so hard tonight that all they seem to be able to do is bicker.
“Talk about it in the morning. When you’ve both had some time to cool down. ”
She stares unseeingly at the door to outside while she makes up her mind. “Perhaps you have a point.”
“I do.” I sling an arm around her because her ankle is puffy and it’s starting to turn shades of bruised that suggest she needs a doctor or at the minimum some ice and heat for the injury. “You should not be stomping around on that anyway.”
She grimaces. “Yeah, it kind of hurts.”
I pick her up and carry her down the hallway to her room where I place her carefully on the bed and secure a pillow under her ankle.
The other security guard comes through from the joined room to check on her.
“Find the first aid pack in the kitchen and then talk to Adira. One of the queens is a paramedic I believe.”
He rushes off to do what I said.
“It’s going to be okay, Kelsey. Not just the ankle, but with Riot too.” I fluff the pillows behind her back. “Even if you’ve broken up.”
“We’re not broken up.” She scowls as she tries to climb off the bed. “Where did you get that idea? Did he tell you we were?”
“No. No. He’s just upset.” I press her back until she caves to the realization that she’s not going anywhere. “Taking this afternoon hard. He adores you.”
“That’s why he’s giving her 'Chokehold'.” She pouts. “Sorry, you’re having to take care of me. You should be celebrating.”
“And I will be once I’m sure you’re good.” I perch on the edge of the small writing desk. “Where is my wife anyway?”
“She’s not outside enjoying the party?” Kelsey asks.
“She was checking on you.” I’d literally left her to do that when I went to talk with Agent Lane.
I get an uncomfortable sensation at the base of my throat.
It’s a lot like acid reflux. But accompanied by a lot more worry about how it doesn’t make sense that Summer would hide away from our own celebrations.
“I haven’t seen her since the vows.” Kelsey starts to sit up, but one of the queens bustles in with the first aid bag. “Oh no, you’re not leaving that bed until I’ve had a chance to examine that ankle. No more heels or kicking ass for you, sweets.”
“He’s right.” I straighten to my full height. “I’ll find Summer. She was probably waylaid. That’s all. It’s been happening all night.”
So why does it not feel like that’s all.
I hurry out of the room to check our room and ensuite. When she isn’t there, I hunt through the rest of the house, growing more restless each time she doesn’t appear.
She’s not mingling with the guest outside. Or talking to any of the wedding crew I pass on my way to check the garage.
“What are you doing?” Owen falls into step with me, as I head toward the barn. “Besides looking like a mad man. You lost something?”
“Yeah,” I admit. Dread growing the longer it takes to find her on this giant fucking ranch. “Summer. Have you seen her?”
“No, I…” Worry lines crease his face. We both break into a jog. Reaching the barn before me, he flips on all the lights. “Summer, you in here?”
There’s a shuffling sound at the side of the stage. My lungs finally loosen enough to expand properly. The curtains that line the walls shift and Adira sticks his head around it. “Summer’s not in here. Just me, myself, and…”
The curtain shifts some more but doesn’t reveal who Adira is with.
“Probably a serial killer.” Adira sighs and moves away from the curtain at a rate that tells me he doesn’t think whoever he’s with is all that dangerous. “Have you tried down at the cabins?”
Owen and I glance at each other.
“I’ll check,” I say.
“I’ll check that all vehicles are accounted for,” Owen says as he rushes out.
“Do you want me to tell security?” Adira calls out to me.
“Yes.” I run full pelt toward the cabins when I leave the barn. The more eyes searching for her the quicker we’ll find her.
I bang on each door but none of them open, because everyone is up at the house. Except West who is looking after Dizzy. Rogue and Ivy came down here to check on her too.
“Summer?” I yell, desperation clawing at my insides. “Red, are you here? Please make some noise if you can hear me.”
What if our trap failed because whoever is working with Nicole realized what we were up to and decided to grab Summer instead?
What if Dizzy gave West the slip? She’s not herself, and even if she were, she’s more dangerous than we knew.
She killed the goat in a fury. Could she do something to Summer?
My steps echo on the wooden boards as I run up to West’s door and pound on it. “West, you in there? Open up.”
When he doesn’t answer immediately I keep pounding.
“Hold up, bro.” Rogue’s voice comes through the wood before he opens it. Barring the doorway, he looks sheepish. “What’s going on?”
“Where’s West?” I shove past Rogue into the main room as Ivy closes the bathroom door behind her. There’s something I see out of the corner of my mind that my brain can’t make sense of. It doesn’t matter. I face West. “Tell me you know where Dizzy is.”
“I do,” he says.
The room is tiny with the four of us in it.
“I need to see her with my own eyes.” I need to be certain.
“That’s not going to happen,” he says in that inarguable tone he thinks makes him superior.
“Summer is missing.”
“What do you mean Summer is missing?” Rogue asks. “First you find your bride, then you immediately lose her…”
“It’s not a joke,” I snap at him while I march up to West and grab him by his shirt collar. “Dizzy is losing the plot. Anyone can tell that. She killed the goat.”
“She did not kill the goat.” He shoves his hands down on my wrists until I’m forced to let go. “And she would never harm Summer.”
“Summer is actually missing?” Rogue’s voice changes with concern.
“Rebel, I’ve seen Dizzy,” Ivy says. “She’s in the bathroom.”
“Great.” I storm toward the bathroom.
Rogue positions himself between me and the door. He grabs my shoulders. “I promise you Dizzy is in there.” But I can’t let you in there. “And that she has nothing to do with Summer’s disappearance.”
I have no idea what they’re hiding, but I trust my identical twin no matter what. Something akin to relief washes over me at eliminating the possibility of Dizzy having my wife. It doesn’t last long. She’s still missing. We still have enemies.
“Rogue and West will help you look,” Ivy says. “I need to stay here with my sister.”
“Yeah, we’ll help,” Rogue says.
“I’m staying here.” West digs his heels in.
“You have to give me a chance to handle this,” Ivy says to him. “If you hover, you’ll only be in the way. You want to be able to trust that I have her back. That won’t happen unless you give me the opportunity to prove it.”
“Fine.” He grumbles. “But if she complains about pain or pins and needles you need to let me know immediately so I can walk you through adjustments. If anything goes wrong…”
Rogue was correct. I don't want to know what is going on in the bathroom.
“I’ll let you know straight away,” Ivy assures him.
Rogue holds the door open. “Let’s go.”
We run into Owen, Jett, and Storm outside. All three of them have seriously pissed off looks on their faces.
To add insult to injury the sweet spring evening has given way to swollen, black clouds that hang low overhead. The breeze whips up, causing a howling in the trees nearby.
“You didn’t find her, did you?”
“No,” Owen says. “But we know where she was twenty minutes ago. And I have a good idea where she is now. Duke’s.”
“Are you certain?” Did those fuckers come onto the ranch and take her from under our noses? Because if they didn’t that means she went of her own accord, and that doesn’t make any sense.
“She was at Violet’s,” Owen says as we run for the vehicles. “I’ll fill you in on the way.”
Storm and Jett climb into the truck bed where Burke is loading rifles. West and Rogue jump in the back.
I take shotgun next to Owen. “Who saw her?”
“We all did.” He indicates the men riding in the truck bed.
“Storm had an alert for the camera we set up for Violet. We thought it would be smart to have footage of any follow up altercations with Kyle. Turns out it was the right thing to do. The shop windows were smashed in tonight and Violet walked out with two men. They hid their faces well, but we’re pretty sure it was Duke and Kurt. ”
“Get to my wife, Owen.”
“Summer turns up about ten minutes after that. She goes inside a couple times then hightails it out of there in an awful hurry. Those two have one thing in common that makes me think we’ll find both of them with that sorry son of a bitch, Duke.”
“Summer was alone?” She shouldn’t have been. She should have come got me. Or at least told me where she was going. The fact that she didn’t…
“We don’t know what we can’t see,” Owen says. “But no one else appeared in the video.”
“They lured her. They must have.” God help me, if anything happens to my wife or our babies. “If they hurt her…”
“Nothing is going to save them if they hurt her,” West says darkly.
“I’ve been waiting for a chance to put these dogs down.” Owen puts his foot to the floor. “I doubt Summer will want to stop us this time.”
Nothing better happen to her or there will be one hell of a reckoning.