I jogged out to the curb as Romeo pulled up and tugged the SUV door open. “Meyah isn’t answering her phone, they should have been back by now.”

Romeo nodded. “Get in. We’ll go to the place they had dinner and ask around.”

“I’m coming with you,” Dakota called as she ran out of the dorms, pulling on a coat.

“Don’t you have work?” I asked with a raised brow.

She stopped and looked at me like I’d lost my damn mind. “Work can shove their job up their asses. Meyah wouldn’t not come home. Something’s wrong.” I could hear the worry in her voice. Dakota and Meyah had gotten extremely close since Meyah moved here, and I was thankful she had someone at her side who wasn’t afraid to stand up and have a voice.

“Get in.”

Meyah had sent me a text to tell me where she and Huntsman were having dinner and that things had been going well. The place was closing as we pulled up outside.

I leaped out of the car. “Hey! Excuse me,” I called, the young guy pausing at the door before he pulled it shut completely. “I’m looking for a couple people who were here tonight. Pretty girl with purplish hair and a biker.”

The kid looked a little nervous, but he nodded. “Yeah, they left ages ago. Walked off down the street,” he explained as he pointed off to the right. “There’s a parking lot about a block down. It’s hidden out behind the buildings. Not many people know about it, but a lot of people use it because parking here can be hell on busy nights.”

“Thanks, man,” I praised as I turned on my heel and jogged back to the car. “Back that way. Few blocks down, there’s a parking lot,” I ordered, gripping the ‘oh-shit’ handle above my head when Romeo ripped a U-turn in the middle of the street.

“Yes, Meyah and I park there all the time. It’s sort of a locals best-kept secret, but it can be kind of creepy at night,” Dakota rambled. “There’s the entrance.”

My stomach was already twisting, I knew something was wrong. If they had made it to dinner and then walked out after, fine with no issues, something had happened since then.

The second we sped into the open parking lot, I spotted Huntsman’s truck not too far from the entrance. Romeo was driving straight toward it when I saw something sparkle on the ground.

Dakota must have seen it too because she started to scream. “Stop! Holy shit, stop!” she cried, and Romeo slammed on the breaks, the vehicle skidding to the side before it managed to pull to a stop. We all took a couple seconds to breathe and try and take in the scene in front of us.

“Oh, my fucking God. Huntsman.”

Dakota tugged at the door handle, her shaking hands having to pull a couple times before she actually managed to get it open. Not wasting a moment, she leaped out and ran toward the body that lay under the one light in the entire lot. Like it had been placed there on purpose.

“Crazy bitch,” Romeo cursed, switching off the engine and jumping out behind her. “She’s gonna get us killed.”

Romeo was right, and suddenly I was moving quickly to get to Dakota and trying to pull my gun from the holster at my back. We had no idea if this was a trap. We had no idea if this was even Huntsman with the way he was lying flat on his face. The only real deciding feature was the cut on his back.”

Romeo managed to grab Dakota, pulling her back before she touched him, holding his arms around her body. She struggled against him for a moment. “I need to check his pulse.”

“You need to let Ham check the situation first, and make sure we aren’t about to be blown to smithereens,” Romeo growled, pulling her back as she kicked and fought against him like she wasn’t some kind of five-foot little girl struggling with a six-foot mountain.

I looked around, my eyes searching the surroundings for any sign of danger. The problem being, we were in the open, surrounded by buildings, shadows, alleyways, and hiding places. Basically, this was the worst position to be in, and we were in it.

“Damn it,” I cursed under my breath, inhaling deeply as I dropped to my knees next to the body. The tattoos on his hand instantly told me that this wasn’t a dummy. It was Huntsman. My gut sank even further as I stared at him for a few seconds, waiting to see some kind of movement. A breath. A twitch in his hand. And as much as I wished it to happen. There was nothing.

“Damn it, you can’t do this,” I barked. “Breathe goddammit!”

Huntsman was a hard man, but he was my Old Lady’s father, he was an MC President, and he was an asshole who was loyal to a fucking fault if you were family.

I respected the hell out of him and what he’d accomplished, even more so now he’d chosen to listen to what I had to say and not give up on Meyah. It took a real man to admit when he’d made a mistake and to try and make it right.

I tugged on his shoulder, rolling him onto his back, his body floppy. I couldn’t hide the shock in my reaction, and Dakota gasped. There was blood everywhere. His face almost completely covered, swollen and bruised, almost unrecognizable.

Romeo let go of Dakota, and she rushed over, falling to her knees on the other side of his body, her hand shaking as she reached out to touch his face.

My temper was rising, my heart hammering against my chest as I tried to figure out what the hell our next step was. Romeo was just standing over us, a dark look in his eyes that told me he was considering the same thing.

Who had Meyah? And how the fuck were we going to get her back?

“I’ll kill them,” I hissed, balling my hands into fists and falling back onto my ass.

I looked up, meeting my brother’s eyes. “I have plans to do far more than just that,” he murmured through clenched teeth, his dark mask back in place.

“He’s still alive,” Dakota exclaimed, and I whipped my head back toward her, scrambling back onto my knees beside Huntsman’s body.

She was looking up at me, her fingers pressed against his throat and tears streaming down her face. “We need to get him to a hospital. His pulse is weak, really weak, but it’s there.”

Thank fuck.

Romeo and I both rushed to lift and carry him to the SUV.

I wouldn’t let him die. He was Meyah’s father. I had a lot of respect for this man, especially knowing he had taken a beating as intense as this, and he was still breathing.

Stubborn fucking bastard wouldn’t even die.

And not only that, but he was the only one who would be able to tell us what happened. Who took Meyah.

And who I was going to have to kill.

Heavy footsteps thumped down the hallway, and I knew who was going to come around the corner before he even appeared.

Ripley froze, his eyes wide and worried as he focused in on Romeo.

Luckily, Romeo knew the club and how to get in touch with them, and Ripley had already been on his way down from Las Vegas with the intention of seeing his sister again when his father was done with his apologies.

It was around four hours ago we came in. Huntsman was rushed away to surgery after the doctor determined he possibly had some internal bleeding and was the luckiest motherfucker in the world to be still alive.

“Where is he?” Ripley asked urgently, and I stood up, moving Dakota’s head off my lap and placing it gently on the chair, barely stirring her.

Romeo climbed up off his place on the floor and rolled his shoulders. I knew how he felt.

The both of us were itching to get some kind of info on what happened and then make a plan. I’d already had a pretty fucking uncomfortable conversation with Optimus, leaving it up to him to give Leo the news, and hopefully contain him until he could calm down and think rationally.

Leo was going to lose it.

He was going to fucking destroy everything in sight and then probably come after me.

“He’s out of surgery. They think they managed to get everything and stop the bleeding, but he’s still recovering and because we aren’t family…” I pointed to the double doors that lead back to the ICU and recovery unit, “… they won’t let us back to see him or let us know how he’s doing and if he’s awake or anything.”

Ripley stormed past on a mission, heading for the nurse’s station and slamming his palms on the desk.

Dakota almost leaped out of her skin, sitting straight up and looking around like we were under attack.

I placed my hand on her shoulder. “It’s okay, it’s just Ripley making a scene.”

She seemed to relax a little and snorted as she rubbed at her eyes. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think Ripley was gay.”

Romeo scoffed, looking at Dakota like she was fucking crazy. “You’re kidding, right?”

She shook her head and pointing at him as he slapped his palm on the desk again, making a small nurse jump and drop the phone she was holding in her hand. “Have you ever met a straight man who liked to always make that much of a scene when he enters a room?”

I shook my head and held back the laughter.

So Dakota had a thing for Ripley.

I could only imagine with her smart mouth and his bad fucking attitude what that relationship would be like.

“Oi!” his voice boomed across the small waiting room, and he waved his hand for us to join him while the double doors buzzed open. He stomped through, not even looking back, leaving us to catch up and run after him before the doors closed again. “Keep up,” he ordered, not looking back. “I’ve got an itchy trigger finger, and the sooner I know who to kill and where to find Meyah, the better because I’m about to rain hell down on some motherfucker.” He looked from one side of the hall to the other, switching each time we passed by a room until he finally stopped on the spot.

Room 666. How fucking convenient.

The door was open, and I was waiting for Ripley to walk through and start making demands—whether Huntsman was awake or still fucking close to death. But instead, he froze, just staring at the entrance like the fires of hell themselves were raging around it.

I looked at Romeo and raised an eyebrow, but he just shook his head.

This was Ripley’s dad.

Huntsman was a man who was larger than life, a man who was hard to imagine as anything but a pillar of strength. Men like Huntsman weren’t ever broken, they were never beaten, and they never fucking lost. And when that man was your father, I could only imagine what Ripley was going through. When you’re faced with the idea of losing a parent, no matter how old you are, you’re suddenly transformed back to that small child who looked up to them. Who idolized them, and who never thought that there would be a time where you would have to be the strong one.

Suddenly, there was no one there to be strong for you.

Just when I thought shit couldn’t get any fucking weirder, Dakota stepped up beside him, not looking at him, not touching him, not saying a single word. She just stood at his side.

A few seconds later, he nodded and took a deep breath and walked inside, Dakota following behind him.

Before we could even step into the room, the sound of Huntsman’s deep and gruff voice had me breathing a little easier. And even though Meyah was still missing, and my need to find her and hold some asshole responsible by putting a bullet through their brain, I couldn’t help but at least be thankful that Meyah wouldn’t have to go through all this shit, and also deal with losing a part of her she’d only just discovered.

“Get me out of this fucking bed,” Huntsman roared, and I looked over at Romeo again to see a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. “And get me my goddamn gun. I’m going hunting.”

I stepped inside and looked at the man in the bed.

Beaten.

Bruised.

Not fucking getting out any time soon.

He stared directly at me, and for a second, his body slumped. I knew what he was feeling, exactly how I would be if someone had managed to take Meyah from me. I’d feel guilty, responsible, all the things Huntsman shouldn’t feel given he nearly died trying to protect her.

“I’ll get her back,” he promised. His version of an apology.

I shook my head. “We’ll get her back.”

“Isiah will need at least twenty-four hours to get photos, get word out about a new website, get them up online and start taking bids before it gets shut down,” Romeo started, but then he soon stopped and looked at me. “We need to get to her first.”

Ripley cut in, “Slow the fuck down. What are you guys talking about?”

I clicked about what Romeo was saying.

Isiah still didn’t know our connection. Even if he’d followed Huntsman down here to Meyah, I never left the building, he wouldn’t have seen me.

“I’m going to buy her.”

“Excuse me,” Dakota exclaimed like I was fucking nuts.

“If you’re gonna buy her, can’t we just go in now?” Ripley argued. “She might not have much time. I know that asshole. I know what he does to those girls.”

“Meyah is strong,” I argued. “I have a plan, but we need all the time we can get.”

Everyone else seemed to let the idea sink in. And at this stage, it was the only one we’ve got.

“We’ve got less than twenty-four hours,” Huntsman noted.

I pulled my phone from my pocket and hit dial. “What are you doing?” Dakota demanded, looking from one of us to the other with her eyes wide.

Out of her depth.

And things were only going to get deeper.

“I’m calling in reinforcements.”