“Where is she?” I ask Fuzz. He’s only a prospect, and I charged him with the responsibility of following Nate, and he’s done a fucking good job. As I suspected would happen, Nate led him all the way to San Fran, and consequently, to Sadie. I didn’t give a shit what Vaughn and Nate were up to, but I had to know if Sadie was safe. So I had him keep tabs on her until I could get here. It fucking killed me to hear that she spent hours crying at the graveyard. Fuzz said Vaughn came for her, but she yelled at him and sent him away. And the fucker left! He left her, upset and vulnerable, and I wanted to rip his throat out for that fact alone. I wouldn’t have left her, no matter how mad at me she was. He doesn’t deserve to have her in his life, and I plan on taking her from right underneath his nose.

“So where is she now?” I ask Fuzz after getting the full rundown on what’s been happening.

“She’s in a club on the edge of Colombus street.” He points in the direction of the club, and I see a blue neon light flashing on the corner. “Looks like a strip bar.”

“A strip bar?” I growl. Fuck that. If she’s come back here to work in a strip bar, I’m gonna lose my shit.

“Yeah, Shotgun Blue, or something like that.” He nods, running his hand back and forth over his bald head.

“How long has she been in there?” I question, hoping against everything that she isn’t in there taking her fucking clothes off.

“Five, maybe ten minutes.”

“Let’s go.” I jump back on my bike, my heart thundering in my chest. It was bad enough that I had thoughts of someone else taking her from under my nose—someone that would be better for her and that she would see it, too. But thinking that a whole club full of assholes might see her taking off her clothes… Man, I’m losing my shit.

I cut the engine by the sidewalk and Fuzz pulls up next to me.

“What d’you want me to do, boss?”

“Stay close, be alert, and follow my lead. Got it?”

He nods tightly, eager to get in on the action and prove his worth. “Got it.”

As we approach the entrance, the guy on the door looks me up and down then raises his chin. “Evenin’, boys,” he says, blocking the doorway. He’s as wide as two of me and taller by at least a couple of inches, but that doesn’t faze me.

“Evening,’” I reply casually. He doesn’t move aside when I step forward to enter, and I can feel frustration starting to push through every pore in my body. “There a problem?”

“No. No problem. I just can’t let you in,” he says firmly, standing straight and widening his shoulders. He has his right hand hovering over his blazer pocket, and I know he’s readying in case he has to pull his gun. Everyone that works the door in these parts will be packing a gun, sometimes two.

“We’re not here to cause trouble, man.” I hold my hands up. “Just want the dancin’ pussy like everyone else in there.”

“Not here. Not tonight. No cuts, no gang colors, no trouble.” He stands his ground, and I want to cut his fucking throat because all the while I’m out here arguing with him, my girl is in there doing fuck knows what with fuck knows who.

“Okay,” I relent, and Fuzz looks at me as if I’ve grown two heads. “Have a good evening.” I smile, walking away.

“Boss, you just gonna give up?” Fuzz shout-whispers as he catches up.

“The fuck I am,” I spit. “We’re going in the back entrance.” I glance back. The guy on the door is watching us as we stand next to our bikes. “Can you be a distraction?”

He eyes the bouncer, the looks back to me. “What, like cause a scene?”

“Yep, I need to get up there.” I indicate to an alleyway. “Five minutes, and I’ll be back here with my woman, so be ready to make a fucking quick exit, okay?”

“You got it,” he says, nodding rapidly.

Fuzz starts up his bike, looking ridiculously excited at the prospect of kicking up some shit, and pulls away, giving me a wink before popping the bike up onto the sidewalk and revving the fuck out of it. I laugh and shake my head as he rides right up to the bouncer, then starts to circle, riding up and down the sidewalk, making people get out of his way, and annoying the fuck out of the guy.

I take my chance when the guy on the door turns his head into his jacket, speaking into a radio, and I jog up the alleyway, looking for a way in. If I have to scale barbed wire, or broken glass-topped walls, I’m gonna do it, because, with each passing moment, visions of Sadie getting naked for money supersede anything else.

I hear a man cry out, “No, please don’t do this. Please.” And as I round the corner I see her. My Sadie.

The raven-haired girl with a gun.

The man glances at me, and so does Sadie, her jaw dropping open when she sees me. I pull my gun and aim it at the guy. “Put it down, Sadie,” I tell her quietly, moving slowly to her side.

“No,” she replies with a hard and stony expression.

“He’s not worth it. This isn’t you.”

“You don’t know me,” she snaps. Her hands start to shake, and her finger starts to squeeze the trigger.

“Yes, I do!” I shout, and think fast, shooting the guy in the thigh. He cries out and drops to the floor, writhing in pain. “Let’s go.” I grab her wrist and tug her toward me.

 “What did you do that for?” She frowns, twisting out of my hold. “I thought you—”

“No time for that. We need to get out of here…”

“Hang on.” She steps forward and swings her boot into the man’s stomach. “You touch another child ever again, and I will be back to gut you like a fish, do you hear me?” He nods frantically, his hands clutching at his leg and the color fast draining from his face.

She tucks her gun in her waistband and grins at me before taking my hand and allowing me to drag her back down the alley behind me. “How did you find me?” she calls out.

“Just get on my bike, and shut the fuck up,” I call back as we exit the alley onto the sidewalk. “Fuzz!” I yell, and he snaps his head in our direction. “Let’s go.”

Sadie jumps on behind me and wraps her arms tightly around my waist. I’ve got what I came for—now it’s time to get the fuck out of this shithole.

We take the I-80 out of San Francisco, and we don’t look back. It’s been almost forty-eight hours since I’d seen Sadie, and it was forty-eight hours too long. I crave her. I need her by my side like I needed my next breath, and now that I have her on my bike, her body pressed tightly against mine, I’m never letting her go. I’ll kill anyone that tries to get in between us, and that includes Vaughn and his useless fucking bodyguard, too. I don’t give a shit that he’s brought her up as his own. I’ll show her that I’m all she needs.

We ride for as long as it takes for my mind to process everything. I’ve survived the last couple of days on autopilot. If I had let my guard down, I would have crumbled, knowing that everything—everyone, that had been taken from me—were possibly being tortured at the hands of The Wolves. Tortured because of the move I made, and the choice I took to fuck with their men and force their hand. But I’ve stayed strong for my brothers and tried to keep a level head when the world was going to shit and falling down around us. Losing Ruck and Sadie was a huge fucking wake-up call. My heart stopped beating when JJ and Tex told me The Wolves had them, and I instantly blamed myself for starting this shit up and forcing them out of their mangy fucking den.

The life we live is dangerous. It’s the most fucking exhilarating way to live, but it can all be gone in the blink of an eye, in the pull of a trigger, and it’s not until you really face losing people that you stop and take stock. I won’t leave this life. It’s in my blood. It is my blood. The guns, the uncertainty, the sheer animalistic nature of how we live, it’s the breath in my body. But then Sadie came along, and I need to figure out how to have both. How to find a balance. My blood brother, my Soul brothers, and my girl.  JJ’s right, it feels like I’m being torn in the worst way possible, my mind’s being pulled in every direction to try and make it work.

When I can’t stand the thoughts any longer, I pull off the highway and into the parking lot of a motel. Fuzz pulls up alongside us, and I hold up my hand to stop him from getting off his bike. “Go home, brother. Eat, drink, fuck.”

“You all good?” He thumbs up, and I nod.

“Yeah, bro. I’ll call JJ, let him know you’re on your way.”

“Okay, if you’re sure.” He salutes as he swings the bike around in a large circle and pulls back onto the highway.

I tap Sadie’s hand, and she unlocks her arms from around my waist and silently climbs off.  Despite spending the last hour on the back of my bike, with her body pressed against mine, there’s a distance between us, and I need to sort it out, right now.

“Stay there,” I tell her sternly, and she nods, staring at the ground.

I walk off, just out of earshot, to call JJ, telling him that I have Sadie and we’ll be back in the morning. Ruck’s resting, apparently, and hasn’t really said much, but it looks like whatever it is they jabbed in his system is slowly starting to work it’s way out. The old ladies at the club will be making sure he’s well looked after, and I have no worries about leaving him until I get home tomorrow morning.

I come back to Sadie and clasp her hand firmly, dragging her behind me. She skips to catch up as I throw a fistful of notes at the guy in the kiosk for a room for the night. It’s not the most luxurious establishment, and the speed he threw the keys at me with such little information tells me that we will be serenaded by banging headboards for the duration of our stay. But I don’t care. I don’t care about anything other than Sadie and me right this moment.

I unlock the door, pushing it open, and pulling her in behind me. I don’t even flick on the light before slamming the door closed, forcing my chest against hers and pinning her to the door with her hands above her head. I brush my cheek across her hair, taking in the familiar, comforting scent, my head swimming with want and need for this damn frustrating woman.

“You left me,” I accuse, my voice hoarse with frustration.

“I didn’t have a choice,” she pleads quietly, fighting against my grip. Her survival mode is kicking in, and I secretly love that she won’t just give it up, even for me. “He said you didn’t want me.” Her gaze drops, and I bang her wrists against the door, making a sharp breath shoot through her chest.

“Who said that?” I growl, forcing her to look at me. I’m met with wide, scared brown eyes, which instantly makes me feel like an asshole. She’s frightened, lost. She needs me to understand, not take my frustrations out on her. “Does this feel like I don’t want you?” I grind my hips against hers and release my grip to free my hands before cupping her cheeks. I push her chin up, forcing her to look at me and she snaps her eyes shut, turning away as a tear drops from her long, thick lashes. “Look at me,” I order. And as she opens those beautiful, brown eyes, streaks of mascara making tracks down the soft skin of her cheeks, her chin starts to quiver.

So I kiss her.

I force my lips against hers. Pressing hard, claiming, and showing just how much I want her. She’s mine—nothing, and no one is going to take her away from me. Not even Vaughn.

“Never leave me again,” I growl against soft, plump lips, and as she goes to reply, I force my tongue through the opening and take her mouth for my own. She whimpers. A sound that could make me come on the spot if I wasn’t so determined to be inside of her.

“I’m sorry,” she whispers, gasping as I suck her neck and graze my teeth against soft, sweet skin.

“Don’t be sorry.” I hold her face in my hands, staring into the window to her soul. “Just don’t ever leave me again.”

“But, Ruck, he—”

“He’s fine,” I say abruptly, not wanting to have this conversation until I’ve reminded her exactly who I am, and what I mean to her.

“And, Dev …”

“Let me get one thing straight, Raven.” I tangle my fingers in the long, dark tresses of her hair, tugging her head back so she’s looking up at me—under my mercy, in my control. “Don’t ever let another man’s name escape your lips when I’m touching your body.” She inhales a shaky breath, with her pupils dilated, and her skin flushed pink. “I don’t give a fuck if you’ve just seen God himself. If my hands are on your body and my lips are on your skin, you’re mine. Your thoughts are mine. Your body is mine.” I hover over her lips, making her wait, anticipation building at the very thought of what’s to come. And boldly, she pushes forward, ignoring the tight grip I have on her hair, and meets me with more force than before. Our teeth clash, our tongues war with each other, and I drop my hold on her to tear open the fly of her jeans. We battle with each other’s clothes, only moving apart to toss clothing aside, then meeting again more viciously than before.

As she kicks her boots off and peels off her jeans, I unbutton my fly and drop my pants to my knees.

I pick her up, and she wraps her legs around my waist as I press her back up against the wall with a thud.

“I’m all yours,” she groans, throwing her head back as I slip my hand between her legs, my fingers stroking and probing, and spreading her wetness. Her arms tighten around my neck when I find her sweet spot and circle with my thumb as my fingers work in and out of her. When she starts to circle her hips, with her head thrown back and her chest arched, bucking in my arms, I know she’s close to orgasm.

I walk us to the bed, lowering her gently, and she eyes me up and down as I whip off my jeans. She tugs off her tank and unclasps her bra, leaving nothing between us, and as she raises her arms above her head, everything comes to a grinding halt.

“What the fuck is that?” I growl, stroking my fingers across her ribs.

“Oh.” She squeezes her eyes tightly shut, wincing. “I was hoping you wouldn’t notice.”

“Wouldn’t notice!” I yell, standing upright, dragging my hand through my hair. “Did he do this? Vaughn? Or was it that cocksucker, Nate? Because I’m about two seconds away from getting on my ride and filling their bodies with lead.”

“No. NO! It wasn’t them. Please don’t be gentle with me, Ram. It doesn’t hurt.”

“How can it not hurt? Who did it? Tell me, Sadie, NOW!”

“I fell.” She frowns, looking at me uncertainly, and I know she’s lying.

I grab up my jeans and start to dress. “If you don’t tell me the truth right now, Sadie, I’m going back to San Francisco to kill both Vaughn and Nate,” I tell her, leaving her no option but to be honest.

“It was the officer!” she blurts out. “In the cell. He kicked me.”  She averts her gaze, and I can see that she hated telling me that. I know she wants to be independent. She doesn’t want a knight in shining armor coming to save her. But she doesn’t have a choice.

“Name,” I bark.

“I don’t know.” She shakes her head with a frown.

“NAME!” I yell louder making her jump.

“I don’t know, Ramsey!” She sits up, yelling back at me.

“I’m gonna kill him,” I tell her, my eyes wide with rage.

“It’s not worth it, Ram.” She shakes her head, looking at me with a brokenness that calls to me. “It’s over. Done with. Please, come back to me. Here. I want you,” she begs, and I can’t deny her. I see the cracks under that tough exterior. I feel the pain in her voice.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” I say softly, my words holding a double meaning.

“You won’t.” She smiles up at me, and I drop my jeans to the floor and close the distance between us. There was a moment when I thought she was gone. I can’t even let myself think about what the possibilities were, but I knew that my heart would be emptier without her in it. Her presence didn’t merely fill a moment of physical desire—I was allowing her to tear apart my soul. She would be my ruin, and I was willing to let her.

I lay my body carefully against hers.

Flesh against flesh.

Man against woman.

Raw emotion dancing with fiery passion as we clash in a moment of desperation and need for each other. I need to be inside her, to claim her.

I stare into her eyes as I enter her smoothly, feeling every inch of her contract. Her skin heats, and her body gives into mine.

“Don’t be gentle with me,” she whispers, whimpering as I grind into her slowly.

“Never leave me again,” I whisper against her lips as I begin to rock my hips back and forth.

“No,” she whispers back. “Never again, Ram.”

The way she pants when she says my name has me all kinds of crazy. I thrust into her harder, pushing her limits and showing her my pain. The headboard bangs against the wall and my body relentlessly slams into hers, over and over until we’re clawing at each other’s skin and our climaxes rage through both of us with a scream and a roar.

I rest my forehead against hers as I fight for breath and my body jerks as we come back down to earth. I kiss her nose, her cheeks, and finally her lips, placing contrasting gentle kisses against her bruised mouth where we kissed so fiercely before. 

“Are you okay?” I ask, and she nods with a sated smile.

I climb off her carefully and lay by her side. She curls in to face me, and I hold her hand to my lips. “I thought you were gone for good,” I whisper, placing soft kisses up and down her fingers.

“I’m not going anywhere, Ramsey,” she answers, placing her hand on my chest. My heartbeat settles into an even rhythm—a settled beat knowing that she’s safe in my arms. My brother is safe at HQ, and at least for now, The Wolves have lost a lot of their men, and their Prez is nowhere to be found.

Although the war between us might not be over, the threat is certainly lowered.