Chapter 147
-Logan-
Ramirez’s voice was a drill bit in my skull. All I could think about was slamming my krakles into has fucking seats
Well… not all I could think about. I needed to get back to Hailey, or get Scarlett to her. Make sure she was safe behind a locked door.
I scanned the room, searching for my sister through the wall of brothers standing between me and the cops.
Ramirez was droning on. He stood just inside the open door, playing soldier in his little uniform, flanked by five jumpy- looking officers.
“Your parole agreement is very specific, Nash. You can’t just pick and choose which laws you feel like following this week”
Talon was a solid wall between us. “You’re trespassin, Ramirez. You got no warrant, you got no cause. This is harassment, an we all know it.”
“I’ve got plenty of cause,” Ramirez shot back. His eyes flicked past Talon to land on me. “Community standards. Public safety. The fact that your boy here seems to be a magnet for violent incidents. Speaking of which, let’s talk about Detective Becker.”
God damnit. If I could go one fuckin day without hearing about that asshole..
“What about him?” I growled.
Ramirez smiled. “Well, it’s quite the coincidence, isn’t it? A decorated detective goes off the rails, nearly kills a civilian who happens to be your girlfriend…. and then suddenly the entire case he was building against your club starts to look shaky Almost like someone planned it that way…”
My vision started to tunnel. The asshole was trying to rewrite history. Paint Becker as some kind of victim
Then he went in for the kill.
“I mean, think about it. Becker puts a bullet in your girlfriend’s shoulder just as the Director shows up. Pretty convenient for you people. Makes you wonder who the real criminal is here.”
The memory hit me like a freight train. The crack of the gunshot. Hailey’s body jerking. Dark red spreading across her shirt
I saw red.
I didn’t think. There was no room for it. There was only the need to erase the smug fucking look on his face. To shut hún the fuck up. Maybe forever.
A raw sound tore from my throat as I shoved past Talon’s outstretched arm. The world narrowed to the few feet of space between me and that badge.
I didn’t make it halfway.
Two sets of hands locked onto me. One on each arm, hauling me back. River on my right and Maverick on my left, talking into my ear. “Logan, no. It’s what he wants.”
I fought against them, and I almost broke free before Talon put his hands on my shoulders.
Ramirez didn’t even flinch. He just stood there, smile getting wider. More mocking.
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“And there it is. Threatening a police officer. Attempted assault on a police officer. We can add that to the list. See? This is why we’re here. You can’t help yourself, can you, Nash?”
The clubhouse roared with shouted profanities and shifting bodies behind me.
My eyes finally landed on Scarlett. She was across the room by the bar. Her eyes were fixed on Ramirez with a venom that probably mirrored mine.
I opened my mouth to shout at her, to tell her to get upstairs to Hailey, but Ramirez started up again, pulling my focus bac
“Your entire operation is a stain on this town,” he declared, preaching to his captive audience. “And it’s past time it was scrubbed clean.”
His cell phone chose that moment to start ringing. He held up a finger in a fucking ‘wait one second‘ gesture and pulled it from his belt. He glanced at the screen and put it to his ear.
“Yeah,” he said. His eyes did another slow sweep of the room as he listened. “Yeah. Okay. Copy that.”
He ended the call and slipped the phone back onto his belt.
“Well,” he said, clapping his hands together once. “It seems we’ve accomplished what we came for. We’ll be in touch. Logan Talon. Enjoy the rest of your night.”
He turned on his heel and strode out the door. His lackeys followed, but they looked as confused as we were.
Just like that. The pulsing lights outside cut off and the engines started up.
Everything went quiet. The boys were stunned, murmuring, looking around the room at each other.
I didn’t give a single fuck about the why. The second the squad cars were gone, the hands on my arms loosened. I shrugged
them off.
My entire world shrank back to a single focus. Getting back upstairs to Hailey.
I shoved my way through the crowd, ignoring everyone. My boots hit the first step, and I took them two at a time. My heart was hammering against my ribs, but not from the fight. From the sudden desperate need to see her face.
The door to the apartment was still locked. I fumbled with the key and pushed inside. “Ace?”
No answer.
“Hailey?” I called again, heading for the closed bedroom door.
A knot started to form in my gut.
She’d actually listened. She’d locked the door. She was probably buried under the covers sound asleep.
But no, it wasn’t locked. I pushed the bedroom door open.
The bed was empty.
The knot in my gut turned to ice. “Hailey!”
I checked the bathroom. The door was open, light off. Empty. The closet. Nothing.
“He took her.*
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Chapter 147
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The thought slammed into my head uninvited. Anatoly. While we were all distracted by Ramirez’s fucking circus, he’d slipped in and taken her. Right out from under me. Right out of my bed.
A raw sound ripped from my throat. I yanked my phone from my pocket, and my hands were trembling so bad I almost dropped it.
I stabbed at her contact. My vision was blurring with a red haze of pure terror.
I put the phone to my ear. It rang once.
And then I heard it.
A sharp, vibrating buzz. Not in my ear… in the other room.
It stopped ringing. Her voicemail picked up. I lowered my phone, staring down the dark hallway. The buzzing stopped.
My heart was done hammering. Now it was a dead weight in my chest.
I walked slowly back into the kitchen. The buzzing came from over here.
My eyes
landed on the counter. And there, in the center of it, lit up with a missed call from me… was her phone.
And under it was a folded piece of paper.
The world tilted. The terror immediately shifted to rage.
I reached out slow, like I was handling a live grenade. I picked up her phone. The screen went dark. I set it down and picked
the note.
up
I unfolded it.
The handwriting was hers. Messy, like she was rushing.
I read it once.
I read it again.
The words didn’t make sense. They were just shapes on paper, arranged to destroy me.
I have to do this.”
‘Don’t follow me.”
“When I get home.”
She wasn’t taken.
She left.
The icy rage in my veins turned to burning fury. My hand closed into a fist and crumpled the note.
A roar built in my chest, but it had no air behind it. It almost choked me on its way out.
I threw the wad of paper. It hit the fridge and dropped to the floor.
I stood there, breathing hard, staring at it. The truth was a knife, and it was twisting. Carving out everything I thought I
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Chapter 147
knew.
*Punish me all you want when I get home.
She thought this was something she could come back from. She thought there was a home to come back to.
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After a minute, I walked over to the crumpled note. I bent down, picked it up, and smoothed it out against my thigh.
I didn’t read it again. I folded it and shoved it into my pocket. Evidence.
Then I picked up her phone. I held both phones in my hands, one in each. The weight of them was all wrong.
She left. On her own. During a standoff with…
The pieces clicked together with final, devastating clarity. The call to Andrews. The secret texting. The way she’d been jumping at her own shadow. It wasn’t fear. It was guilt.
She played me. She played all of us.
I left the door hanging open behind me. Took the stairs back down. I needed to find Ledger.
I found him hunched over his laptop at a corner table.
I dropped her phone on the table in front of him. He looked up, and his smart–ass remark died on his lips when he saw my face.
“She’s gone,” I said.
“Gone? What do you-? Ramirez didn’t-”
“Not them. Her. She left. Pull up the feeds. The back alley camera.”
He blinked, then his fingers started flying across the keyboard. “The fire escape?”
“Yeah. That one. Now.”
The screen split into four quadrants of grainy black and white. Ledger clicked on one to enlarge it.
It showed a shot looking down the length of the back alley. The time stamp in the corner read 23:31.
“Go back to when Ramirez showed up.”
He pressed a key. The time code flew backward. 23:45, 23:40… The alley was empty except for one of Viktor’s guys on patrol.
“Stop. There, Play it.”
The footage rolled at normal speed. For a few seconds, nothing. Then a figure appeared on the fire escape wearing a baggy
sweatshirt.
My sweatshirt.
The hood was up, covering her face. But I knew the shape of her. The way she moved. It was her
She didn’t look scared. She didn’t look like she was being forced. She moved like she had a plan.
Chapter 147
the weed and deed down for lady. She was carrying something but I conside’s well what it was.
gers seven Selger med. He corked, and the view changed to a wider shot from a camera mounted
shoomets the back alley and the perimmer leser.
the cornered the building
1 gened up for buld a second to sexx crowd of brothers gathering behind me.
We watched her drop the last few feet from the fire sexy so the alley. She landed in a crouch and pressed herself again
A guard paused at the far end. She waited until he was gone, then daned down the alley toward the fence.
“Camera nine Indyer said, dicking again. This angle was from a pole across the street, showing the outside of the fence a the sidewalk beyond. It had a dear new of the section the was headed for
She got to the fence and unfolded the thing the was carrying, it was a jacken
My jew flexed, I know that jacket. The old be worthis weather riding jacket I’d had since I was sixteen
She flung it over the razor wire and started to dimb
It wasit graceful. She unuggled over the top, dung to the other side for a second, then dropped to the sidewalk
Then she ran
Disappeared down the dark mouth of the alley across the wreet
Just gone
Ledger let out a low whistle.
The proof was right there in black and white. No one had grabbed her. Nobody had a gun to her back. She scaled the fence
herself
She ran away,
I reached into my pocket and grabbed the note. Dropped it on the table next to her phone Lit a smoke
“Find her,”
I turned toward the door. I wasn’t waiting around
I’m with you, brother, River said behind me as I headed for my bike.
Sara Lili is a daring romance writer who turns icy landscapes into scenes of fiery passion. She loves crafting hot love stories while embracing the chill of Iceland’s breathtaking cold.
