Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 77961 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77961 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Her eyes glisten. “No matter what happens, I want you to know that these past few days have been the best of my life.”
Fuck.
“No matter what happens, you need to sit real still and stay down, okay?” Moving slowly, I put my hand on the door handle. Drawing a deep breath, I hold it for a count of three before cracking open the door and yelling, “Hold your fire! We surrender!”
In the first seconds of the chaos that follows, I quickly hit send and start a call before throwing my phone under the seat and walking out with my hands up.
28
DIESEL
“Shut up back there, Church is in fucking session.” Eagle-eye sits on the bar, putting him up above the rest of us, overlooking every single Screaming Eagle that could get here on short notice. Me and Bull are standing on the floor next to him. He might be running the show, but we're the ones who need the help.
No sluts or old ladies here. Church is members only. When club business gets serious, this is how we figure shit out.
Once everyone's quiet, Eagle-eye gets everyone up to speed. “So the short version, if you fuckers were sleeping, is that Shrapnel and a woman we're supposed to protect have been lured out of the compound. She’s Connor Whittaker’s daughter. You might’ve heard of him.” There’s a mix of nodding and blank stares. “He’s likely kidnapped too but fuck him. The important part is getting our brother and the innocent home.”
I climb up on the bar so everyone can see me. “Brothers, it fucking warms my heart to see all of you here, ready to help.”
“Stop the ass kissing and tell us what to do,” Chef yells from the side.
“Fine. Sorry for trying to be fucking polite. Here's the deal. We know which direction they drove, but we don't know more than that. Snark, you're the fucking nerd.”
He grins. “At your fucking service. Now treat me nice, or I’ll throttle your Wi-Fi and turn your porn into kitten videos.”
“Yeah, yeah. How’s the street cam tracking going? Any luck?”
“Scouring it now. It’s a big fucking city, guys, but I’m tapped into the police network and we’re keeping an eye on the highways. I’ll get there, but it could take time.”
Bull crosses his arms over his chest, putting on his game face, but he’s not hiding his worry from me. I know him too well. Fuck, we're both worried. Shrapnel's a brother, and our best friend on top of that. We know he's gonna do his best to keep Rory safe, but we also know he'll do stupid shit if he has to. And Rory… fuck. All this cyber-crime crap made it easy to forget about a good old fashioned kidnapping, but fortunately, that’s more in our wheelhouse. If we can get to her, I don’t give a shit how advanced someone’s tech is. A bullet to the head solves most problems permanently.
“That's great for Snark,” Bear yells. “What about the rest of us? We're here to help.”
I can't even imagine a life without the club anymore. Without the brotherhood. Fuck, without it, I would’ve checked out years ago. The Eagles gave me somewhere to belong when I didn’t think I was worth it, and if we lose Rory, I’m going to be right fucking back there. “We're gonna organize search teams, like we did for Mad Dog and Piston. We'll concentrate on the direction the limo drove, and hopefully Snark will be able to get us better data to narrow down the search. And when we figure out where they are—”
My phone dings, followed quickly by a call from Shrapnel.
Everything's fucked. Both still breathing for now. Would love to see you guys.
I answer. “Hello?”
There’s nothing on the other end but muffled shouting. I hand it to Snark. “Fucking do something with that!”
“Five minutes!” He dashes off to his geek cave.
“You heard the man,” Eagle-eye shouts. “Change of plans. We're gonna saddle up ASAP. Dress for violence. Let’s bring ‘em home, boys!”
The excited roar that lifts the roof off the common room gives me hope. Shrapnel and Rory just gotta hold on a little bit longer.
Bull pats me on the shoulder as the crowd clears. “We got this.” It might be as much to reassure himself as it is me, but I nod.
“You're right. We fucking got this. Let's go save some lives.”
“And maybe take some.”
“Fuck, yeah.”
29
RORY
My ankles and wrists are tied together, and they tossed us into a windowless room with a steel door. It’s not exactly overflowing with escape opportunities. It's not a real cell, at least I don't think so, but it might as well be. It’s basically a cement box with a single door and a bare lightbulb hanging from the ceiling. We're not getting out of here until they let us out.