I’m living on fumes. I look like some motherfucking junkie. I can’t even remember the last time I ate or did any of the things that you normally do to prepare for the day. I don’t even care. I’ve been casing out this motherfucking barn for two days. With each hour that passes it feels like a piece of my soul is being chipped away. The woman I love could be dying, hell, maybe she’s already dead, and I’m sitting in the weeds, twiddling my goddamn thumbs and waiting. I try not to imagine what they’re doing to her, but I’m failing. Each thing that comes to my mind is more horrific than the other, and my own imagination is slowly driving me crazy.

I just pulled to the end of an old, forgotten road that leads to the barn. I went home last night. I didn’t want to, but I needed to refuel and see if there were any new leads at the club. It’s been two days, and I can’t afford to waste more time. I need something to do. I need to find Dani. The problem is, I don’t have any more info and not a fucking source to find more. None. I pour a cup of coffee out of a thermos and watch as my hands shake. Jesus. I have to grip the thermos cup with both hands.

I know I’m fucked up. I know I haven’t been acting rationally. I keep asking myself would it have been different if I had talked to Dragon. Would he have listened when I told him that Kavanagh’s patsy did give me more information? Would Dragon admit he was wrong? The shit I’ve done…I don’t even recognize myself. I don’t know how I knew that Dani hadn’t got away. I just did. Sometimes her face would come to mind, and then I would think of my mom, and the fucking shit she put up with, and then Melly…and that horrible night when I found Melly with her brains blown out, lying on the floor beside that sick fucker of a father she had, and I’d lose it.

It seems my life has been spent surrounded by women that needed my help and my failure, to protect them. I couldn’t save my mom. I couldn’t save Melly. I had vowed to protect Hellcat, and I honestly thought I could, and yet, I fucked that up too. Would Dani have still run if I hadn’t called her Melly? Would it have made a difference if I explained about Melly? If I had talked with her? I don’t know, and all these questions and mistakes I keep making are weighing hard on me. I just need to find Dani, find her and get her home. Then, I can spend the rest of my days trying to prove to her that she’s all I’ll ever need in the world.

I slide out of the truck and trudge through the briars and weeds until I can see the old tobacco barn in the distance. My heart speeds up and skips before hammering in my chest…hard. There are cars out front. Three to be exact, and one is a fucking Mercedes Benz. My first urge is to run in there with guns blazing. I can’t risk it. If Dani is in there, then I need to make sure she’s out of harm’s way. I can’t think of her being anything but alive. I just can’t.

I slowly make my way to the barn, trying to be as quiet as I can. I have my gun ready, but I’d rather not let them know I’m around. I noticed a giant crack between the wood on the far side of the structure the other day, and I make that my goal. I get there and can literally taste the adrenaline pumping in my system. Please, let Dani be okay, please, let Dani….

All thoughts cease as I look through the crack. I want to scream. I want to put my gun in and shoot every fucker in there. I can’t. I need to do this smart. I have to, but what I see breaks me. Dani is lying broken in a corner. She’s unrecognizable. I’m not even sure I’d even realize she was a person, if not for the long dark hair that is knotted and caked with dirt and…blood. Her face is mostly hidden, but what I see is swollen and bruised so badly that you can’t even make out her features. Then, I hear the men off to the side talking.

“I planted the bomb in Dragon’s vehicle. It’ll go off when he takes it out of park.”

“It didn’t go off earlier today,” the guy I recognize as Michael says, slapping him on the back of the head.

“Ow,” he says grabbing his head. “It wasn’t supposed to. I set the system up, it’ll go off when the gearshift is moved from park now. You said you wanted them both to pay, Boss.”

Fuck. I need to get a call out to Dragon and warn him. I can’t take the time to do it now though. Doing so, would risk being found and not being able to help Dani. I pray I get through before it’s too late. It twists in my gut that I’m choosing Dani over my brothers, but it doesn’t stop me.

The men talk for a little longer, then Michael and one of the others leave. It takes all I have to let him go. I push up against the barn as they go out the front entrance. I peek around the corner to see them get in a sleek black Mercedes. When they drive off, I take a breath of relief. Before going in and getting my woman, I try and call Dragon. I want to give it enough time to make sure Michael doesn’t come back.

Dragon’s phone rings twice.

“Yeah motherfucker, want to tell me where you’ve been?”

“Drag, listen quick, man.”

“Where in the fuck are you? Do you know what went down today?”

Dragon’s voice is faint at best. The line is full of distortion and noise and I have to strain to hear him.

“Do not use the cages today!”

“What are you saying asshole, I can barely hear you?”

“Man, listen the cars are rigged to blow. I got Dani now, but you really…”

“You got Dani? Fuck, man your signal sucks. Where’d you find her? We’ll…”

“Listen, Dragon! I can’t talk. You got to hear me. The cars, especially yours—don’t use them today. Don’t use any of them, get Freak to…”

The call drops.

Fuck! I try several times to reconnect and keep getting a Call Failed message.

I have to worry about Dani, I don’t have time to spare.

I go to the front of the barn, take a breath to steady myself, and draw my gun. Then, I kick the door open, firing while searching for the fucker that Michael left behind. I train my gun on him and then shoot until the hammer clicks and nothing happens. I watch as his body falls to the ground, then reload my gun in case the others come back.

I go to Dani and get down on my knees, checking her out. The sight of her hurts. It was bad from a distance, but it’s much worse up close. She has to be dead. No one could survive this kind of beating, especially a woman as small as Dani. I should have gotten here sooner. My hand trembles as I move it to her neck, which is colored with…rope burns? Did they strangle her? I try to move her hair, but it’s so caked with mud and… shit, it’s soaked in her blood. I slide my fingers to her throat trying to find a pulse.

I find nothing.

“Oh fuck, Hellcat, don’t do this to me. You’ve got to survive, to punish this S.O.B.”

I go down flat on my ass, feeling the hurt and pain seep into my system. I let another woman down; I was too late…again. I reach out for her hand, I need to hold it, if only for a minute. Her beautiful hand that I’ve felt slide over my body countless times, is now almost as unrecognizable as her face. Her fingers have been broken and they’re swollen and distorted, bending in ways I’m not sure can ever be straightened. Then I notice she has no small finger. It has been cut right at the base of the hand. The wound is open, angry, and infected. Motherfucker.

I scream out in denial, as I pull her broken body over to my lap, and I hold her hand in mine. I feel as if I’m dying inside. My eyes close as the tears fall. I close them to try and stop the flow, but it does no good. I see her, her face as she’s laughing at me, her eyes when she needs me, the look on her face as I’m sliding inside of her, and finally, my favorite memory. The memory from the day at the beach when she kissed me in front of everyone and gave me a look of trust. Trust she misplaced…because I failed her.

“I’ll get him, Hellcat. I’ll get him and make him pay.”

I kiss her forehead in goodbye and slide her off my lap. I notice a hunting knife on the ground. Something about it is familiar, but I push it away. I need to get her out of here. My woman deserves to be at rest in the sunshine. When I get revenge on these motherfuckers, I know in my heart I’m going to join her. We didn’t have much in this life, but the next…the next I will make it my mission that she knows nothing but joy. I’m preparing to get her out of here, when I hear it… It’s faint, very faint, but I latch onto it immediately.

“Zander,” her voice whispers, it’s disjointed and full of pain.

“Oh fuck, sweetheart, you are hanging on. That’s my Hellcat. I knew you had balls of steel. Let’s get you home.”

It takes me a while to get her out of there, because every movement causes her pain, and I can’t risk them discovering us.

“Hang on a little longer, Hellcat. Just a little longer, and I’ll have you at the hospital.”

“No.”

It was one syllable but the terror in her hoarse, whispered voice spoke volumes.

“Hellcat.”

“Married. He’ll…please, Zander.”

Married. My Hellcat doesn’t know it, but she’s going to be a widow pretty fucking soon. I call Doc and arrange to have him meet us at the club. Then I try constantly to call Dragon. Each time the call goes unanswered, and I’m asked to leave a message, my gut clenches. Fuck. I hope I wasn’t too late. That’s when I notice it. I don’t know how I didn’t before, maybe it was because her injuries are so damn extensive, that I could look for weeks and not find them all. I don’t know, but there is a large stabbing wound in the middle of her chest. Thankfully, it’s nowhere near her heart, but there’s so much blood.

Hospital it is. I reach over and grab an old shirt that is lying in the passenger floorboard and push it into the wound. I wince because I know that fucker can’t be clean, but it’s all I can do for now. My foot presses harder on the accelerator, but inside I feel like time is running out.