My head’s throbbing, and the road is blurring into three. I concentrate on the middle one and thrash the throttle. Avery’s words and the images of her injuries have left a pit in my stomach that’s expanding with every second I’m not with her. And that spineless cunt is out there. I’m going to take him apart, limb by limb, and then I’ll take a rat to his junk, trapped beneath a bucket. When rodents become trapped, they eat their way free. He was in for a world of pain, and I’m going to make it last days. Hell will be a relief for his black soul when I’m through with him.

I pull in to the club and dismount my bike, almost tipping it and falling on my ass. Alcohol dilutes my blood and helps wash away the constant screaming of hopelessness I feel inside my chest.

Kicking through the door, all eyes turn to me. They know without having to ask that it’s as bad as I’d feared and Avery’s not coming back to us…to me. I keep waiting at the hospital in hopes she will change her mind. But I don’t get in. Now security keeps watch for me and don’t let me even get through the entrance doors.

She was transferred to Rosie Steele’s because they have a specialist team who deal with sexual assault victims. God, she was a victim. I let her become a victim.

The mood is sober as fuck, everyone deflated with our fucked-up situation. We allowed two of our women to be taken.

There’s a weird atmosphere surrounding me, and no one is looking me in the eye.

Fuck ‘em! They probably blame me or pity me. I dunno which, is worse.

Marching up to the bar I order a whiskey straight from some new piece that’s appeared from nowhere. She’s timid looking and young, really fucking young. Before she’s even finished pouring the drink, Prez is summoning me to his office with a head jerk. I let her pour the liquor and then make my way inside.

“I want to do Cutters club tonight. Kill everyone in it and send a message!” I growl out, thinking about what weapons I’m going to arm myself with.

“Sit down.” Prez orders but I’m too fueled with the devil’s juice to sit there and listen to club business. My whole life is in the shitter, and if I sit and let the enormity of it settle in, I may never get up again.

“I want Axe and everyone wearing the same cut as him to burn for what he’s done. We can take their territory, their businesses, their property.”

“Axe is in the hospital,” Prez announces as if reading my mind.

An icy chill skitters down my spine at learning that knowledge.

“Been there a few days apparently,” he adds.

That doesn’t make any sense.

He continues without me having to ask any of the questions racing through my mind. “Gunshot wound. It wasn’t him, Slade.”

Thud. Thud. Thud.

“Brenner had her.” He almost whispers his name, like it’s a bad fucking omen to even speak it.

My knees buckle, and I collapse into a chair like the tendons in my legs have been severed.

My brother did that to her. Raped her. Tortured her. Left her for dead.

It shouldn’t shock me as much as it has. I know what a sick bastard he is. Brenner hurt her before, but this?

“Brig will know about Axe. I figure he’s kept this information to himself for a reason.”

“Revenge?” I laugh bitterly. It’s what I’d want. Retribution. We took his daughter and failed her drastically. How could we not see how far down the rabbit hole Brenner has spiraled?

“My informant says one of the Cutters prospects has taken the rap for most of the charges brought from the raid.”

“So Brig won’t be doing time?” I ask, already knowing the sneaky bastard would have a fall guy. We all do. Someone young with no family who can do a decade stretch and still be young enough when he gets out to start his life again. The respect and brotherhood that comes with that kind of loyalty will set a brother up for life.

“Any leads with Rhi?” I ask. The overload of information has started to sober me up and my skin itches so bad I want to tear it from my bones.

“We recovered Brenner’s cellphone. It was left in his old room, of all fucking places. There’s a message from Buzz. He wants a trade. Brenner for Rhiannon.”

The door bursts open and Scorch stands there breathing heavy. “We’ve found the bitch who lied to us about Brenner being up at that squat place.” He exhales.

I jump to my feet and follow him out to the forecourt.

“We’re taking my truck!” he bellows giving me a side eye. Disgust is written in his pinched features when I climb into the passenger seat.

“What the fuck’s your problem?” I grumble, rubbing a hand over my eyes and resting my head back on the seat.

“Your coping vice!” he spits.

Taking my hand away from my eyes I look over at him to gauge what the fuck he means, but he just stares ahead and pulls out the club. “Getting off your face on anything that will give you a high isn’t going to help anyone, Frost. We need you with your fucking head on straight.”

“Just drive, Scorch,” I warn, the silence deafening when he does just that.

* * *

We pull up at a rundown trailer park. There are only six trailers that I count, and there’s just two with lights on. Owl’s bike is parked next to one and a truck that I recognize as Miranda’s, his old lady.

The door opens, and Owl appears, wiping his hands on a rag and tossing it into the overflowing trashcan. “Bitch is a mess, she’s walked out of the hospital because of no insurance.”

“You fuck her up?”

Pulling a cig from his pocket and lighting it, he takes a long drag and shakes his head. “Cutters got to her, and before them, Brenner had done a number on her.”

“Fuck!” Scorch bellows, kicking the trailer in a rage.

“Fuck is right,” Owl continues. “He cut her nipple clean off and told her if she didn’t do what he asked he would be back for the whole thing. Bitch is scared outta her mind.”

I move past him and up the three steps to her trailer. Opening the door, I step inside. Miranda is sitting next to the bitch, holding a cloth to her eye. She’s battered up pretty bad and begins to shake uncontrollably when she sees me closing in.

“How the fuck did the Cutters know to come here?”

“She said a couple of the other tenants here had run their mouths.”

I kick at her leg, and she whimpers. “Did you send them on the same goose chase you sent us?”

She grips onto Miranda like she’s a lifeline, but Miranda is loyal when it comes down to the club and her old man. No one could save this bitch if I wanted her dead.

“Answer me.” I roar, pulling my gun.

“I sent them to a trailer where my brother lives. Brenner is there.” Her terrified, wet eyes beg me for mercy. She won’t find any kindness today.

My entire body hums with the possibility of that being the truth. She sits up and reaches for a purse. Miranda gets to her feet to give the bitch room to move when she pulls pen and paper and jots down the route.

“He would have killed me,” she mutters, crying. Fuck her. I’m all out of compassion. Rage is the only emotion I feel.

“Because of your bullshit, he was able to take something precious from me.”

“He will kill me!” she screams.

“No, he won’t,” I tell her, pulling the trigger. The bullet lodges right between her pleading eyes. Her body falls in a heap.

“I’ll light the place up,” Miranda assures me, unaffected by the fact I’d just shot a bitch and blood was now splattered across her light gray tee.

Both Owl and Scorch are armed when I kick the door open and step outside.

“I have an address.”

“Let’s go,” Scorch says, already heading back to his truck.

I slip into the passenger seat and keep my gun resting on my thigh.

“You can’t kill him. Promise me.”

“You think you care more about Rhi than I do?” I bark.

What the fuck is his problem, he’s been acting like she’s his, like me with …

I sit up straighter and turn slightly to face him. My finger is twitching on the trigger of my gun. “Is there something you need to fucking tell me?” I snarl, my blood heating with the possibilities of his answer.

“What do you mean?” His eyes flit to me, then back to the road as sweat beads on his forehead.

“Scorch, answer me carefully. Are you fucking my baby sister?”

The confinements of the truck get smaller with every intake of air.

“What the fuck, Frost? No! Why would you ask me that?”

Fuck. Thank fucking fuck. I couldn’t handle if he’d been sneaking about behind my back with Rhiannon.

I sling myself back into the seat and sigh a relieved breath. “Because you’re acting an awful lot like a man who’s lost his woman.”

“I’ve known her a long time, Frost, watched her grow up. I’m always fucking sent to ship her here, there. I’m going to catch love for the girl and want her back safe. Fuck.”

He’s right and part of that is on me. He’s always stepped up when I’ve not been there to.

“Would it be that fucking bad if we were into each other?” he adds. I pin him with a glare. “Just saying. I’m a catch.”

A snort leaves me. “It’s what she would catch that’s the problem.”

“Fuck you.” He flips me the bird and I chuckle. It’s brief, and then the fucking guilt slithers in like a snake infecting me with its venom.

Avery…

* * *

“Kill the lights.”

Scorch complies and slows the truck. Owl’s tailed us here, but it’s too quiet. If Brenner’s here, he’s either dead or waiting for company. The Cutters could have got here earlier and taken him.

“Slow, stay vigilant,” I warn Scorch as we roll to a stop and get out of the truck.

There’s one lone stationed trailer. Tracks under the hue of the moon, confirm bikes have been here, more than one.

Owl creeps up behind us. “I’ll take the back,” he whispers, taking off towards the rear of the trailer.

Both Scorch and I crouch low and jog to the door. I nod my head for Scorch to try the handle. It opens, and I aim my gun at the empty space between the frame. I rush inside, weapon aimed, checking every corner. It’s empty.

“Fuck!” I hear Scorch bark.

When I step outside Owl comes around from the back with a Cutter, holding a gun to his head.

A few more appear from the bushes, weapons raised.

“Thought you were that coward brother of yours.” Brig’s eye narrow on me.

“Well, I ain’t.” I drop my arm and rest my gun against my thigh. We’re outnumbered, and Owl’s brains will be splattered all over the dirt if I get cocky here.

“He’s mine,” Brig tells me.

“You knew about Axe?” I accuse.

Rubbing a hand down his beard, he steps almost toe to toe with me. “We tracked his truck, found him bleeding out.”

“Why let me think he had her?”

“So you were looking for him and not that cunt brother of yours. He’s mine, Frost, even if you all have to go to ground with him.”

Scorch tenses beside me, his shoulders straightening as his eyes flare with undiluted rage.

“We need him for a trade.”

“I know about your sister. That’s something you bastards are good at, being careless with your women.”

I let the dig go, he’s right for one, and we’re both temperamental. The last thing we need is for us all to die today and leave both Avery and Rhi vulnerable.

“What will it take for you to back off?”

Scorch growls beside me, not happy with me backing down and offering anything to a Cutter.

“More than you have. You ain’t holding that gavel yet, son.”

“How about we fucking kill you all?” Scorch thunders, raising his gun to Brig’s forehead. “Who will command your gavel when you’re eating dust out here in the middle of nowhere?”

The dark chuckle that comes from Brig has always been chilling.

“You’re outnumbered son.”

“I ain’t your fucking son,” Scorch warns.

“Neither is someone else we know,” I add smirking. Brig doesn’t know Avery has spilt his secrets to me. That the son of his whore isn’t even his.

The fist collides with my jaw, causing my teeth to pierce the gum. My head snaps to the side. I spit blood, still smirking. “You get that one for free.”

“We either all leave here breathing or some of us stay forever,” Owl announces.

“Brenner is mine,” Brig says again, backing away. He whistles and waves his hand for his brothers to fall back. They all disappear through the brush as quickly as they appeared and then revs shatter the air and bike lights illuminate the bush.

“Where the fuck is he?” I bellow. I’m so sick of this fucking chase.

We need to get to him before they do or we’re never getting either him or Rhi back.