I was sitting on the couch in Ravenous’ lounge area. Jade, our senior dancer, was patching me up. A bullet went right through my left shoulder. It was painful, but I was more anxious to get back to Chastity. When I awoke they had to hold me down in order not to hurt myself. I wanted to kill those fucking bastards. But Riggs injected me with some bullshit sedative and knocked me out. Now here I was, slumped down in Ravenous ready to escape as soon as they let me be.

The whole area was full of fucking bikers. Not just the Hellbound Lovers. Father King was seated to my right, drinking a bourbon and Ryan Simon was seated right across from him. The Fallen Kings had heard about the mess we were in and had made their way across the country just to help Wolf out. Looked like Father King had a thing against The Porcupine. He’d been searching for him for a while now. Said it was personal. Used to work for him. He owed him something major. The Death Row Shooters were with us mostly for backup. But Ryan Simon was a good man. And he was our eyes in this whole mess. He had been a part of that filth and he still held his connections. Which made him powerful in Wolf’s eyes. Better to have him as friend than foe, for sure.

I looked over at Father and he stared back at me. It had been a while since we’d seen each other, but we were always on friendly terms. I respected the man, he reminded me of Wolf in so many ways. He’d also suffered in his life yet he did the best he could with that pain.

“Hey Father. Maybe I should confess my sins to you now before I get shot at again,” I smirked and hissed as Jade poured liquor on my wound.

“Fuck, Jade!”

“Stay the fuck still, Gunner!”

Father laughed and shook his head. “You’ve got way too many sins to confess, man. It would take us months to go through them.”

Ryan laughed and shook his head, downing a shot of whiskey. Grayson came over and sat down.

“Are you sure it was Rex...”

“It was that motherfucker! And because of him Chastity’s in trouble! I swear I’m going to tear his spine out when I see him.”

“How about we focus on getting your girl back?”

“They’re coming. You know they’re coming! Why is everyone so fucking calm!”

Diesel came over and shook his head at me. “Dude. Calm the fuck down.”

Riggs’ voice suddenly rang through the place. “We’re ready! Let’s go!”

“Wait!” I grabbed Diesel’s sleeve jacket. “Where the fuck are you going without me?”

“Where do you think?”

“Fuck no!” I stood up and a wave of dizziness nearly sat me back down.

Diesel reached out to steady me and I brushed his arm away. Instead, I focused on Grayson. “You really think I’m gonna let you go fight my battles?”

“This isn’t an option. You’re fucking injured. You could barely stand.”

“Nothing is stopping me from getting to Chastity, nothing. Not you, not a fucking bullet!”

I grabbed my jacket and managed not to flinch at the pain as I put it on. I saw the look Grayson gave Diesel and the nod of response he gave him.

“Fine. You go with Diesel .” I opened my mouth to voice my opinion and he raised his hand to stop me. “Enough! Do as I say or I’m tying you to that goddamn chair!”

His voice boomed across the area and everyone looked up at us. I glared at him for a long moment, and then I realized he’d do it. He’d stop me one way or another. There was no crossing Grayson, there was a reason he was second in command. And since Wolf was currently in the hospital, Grayson was acting President, so it was listen to him or be left behind.

Conceding, I nodded. Diesel came to my side and signaled for us to go. I shook my head as I followed him. I needed my wits about me and the dizziness wasn’t going to hinder my mission. I refused to let it.

* * *

Diesel and I were up on the roof across the street from the bar, although I wanted to be down on the ground with the brothers. At some point I needed to find Chastity. I had used the rifle to search through each and every room, starting with hers, but there was no sign of her. On the contrary, it was too quiet.

Wolf’s voice suddenly came through the mic. “What the fuck! The place looks empty. D, what do you see?”

“Nothing.”

“Same here,” I reassured him.

“Fuck!”

Grayson’s voice came through. “You think they’re on that ship?”

Riggs answered. “Doesn’t hurt to check.”

“We’ll do a quick sweep of the place.” Seth and Cain’s shadows suddenly appeared crossing the street. My eyes never left the place as I prayed they’d find my angel.

“Fuck!” Seth’s voice came through.

“What is it?” My voice sounded more alarmed then I wanted it to.

“Sorry, bro. Looks like they had her in the back. Looks like a room with a cot. There’s blood on the floor, chains on the ceiling.”

“Blood?” I whispered.

“Not much. But there was a struggle.”

“Motherfuckers!”

Diesel suddenly put his hand on my shoulder. “Breathe, man.”

I was fucking furious as I glared at him. I quickly stood, checked that I had my gun up against my hip and took off running.

“Gunner!” I heard Diesel yell and then voices rang through the headset. I ripped it off my ear and kept running. I hopped on Diesel’s bike and took off not caring if I had any backup. She was in trouble and there was absolutely no way I could leave her. She needed me.

I saw La Cruz’s sailboat as I pulled up to the docks. It was actually floating right near the cargo ship, partially hidden by it. I parked behind a warehouse and made my way down to the dock. From the corner of my eye I spotted bright lights and suddenly they were gone. I pulled out my gun and managed to hop onto the lower deck of the ship.

Through the headset I could hear Diesel and Grayson asking me to hold off, but it was too late. I was on the godforsaken boat, and my mission was to protect the only thing that mattered to me. The only person in my life that made me feel like I belonged.