Lucas sat at the bar in the lounge, staring at Josephine’s phone. He’d gone to her mom’s house to talk to her, but her caretaker wouldn’t let him wake her. She was set for surgery in the morning, and the big ox refused. If it hadn’t been for the fact that she wouldn’t be able to make much sense of things given the medication she was taking, he would have forced his way in. As it was, the old bat was right. Josephine’s mom was sick, and she wasn’t in any condition to be startled awake and given the news that her ex–her murdering ex– had snatched her daughter–her pregnant daughter.

 

When he got back to the house, he’d already talked with Cutter. Croc and Zack had been found in the bushes under the front windows. Two shots each, one to the head the other to the chest. Joe was taking care of informing their families.

 

“Hey. You’re up early.” Cutter walked into the lounge, sporting a loose pair of sweatpants, scratching his stomach. Most of the members of the club chose to stay at their own homes. Because tensions were so high with Iron Rebels, the board members had been sequestered to the compound. Others, those who had some connection one way or another to anyone in Iron Rebels, had brought their families for safety. Joe hadn’t made the lockdown formal, but if things escalated, he’d call all members and their families in to stay behind the club’s locked gates until the situation was control.

 

“I couldn’t fucking sleep, man.” Lucas put the cell phone down and rubbed his eyes. He’d been up most of the night. How the hell was he supposed to sleep while he didn’t know where Josephine was or if she was safe?

 

“I know what you mean.” Cutter took the seat next to Lucas, reaching over the bar to find a pack of smokes and grabbing one. Lighting it, he took a long drag and stared off into space. “I don’t like this. I mean, I fucking hate Clay and that whole nest of assholes, but I don’t like this not being able to sleep because I’m worried about her. Cherry’s young, real young. She doesn’t understand the world yet, and she has a lot of fears, fears that if what Clay said is true, he knows about. He could be playing all sorts of mind fucks with her.”

 

“He said they were with Reaper, right?”

 

“That doesn’t exactly make me feel any better, you asshole.” He took another drag. “He’s Josephine’s father. Worse come to worse, he’ll have to take out one of them, and you think he’ll choose his own blood? No, he’ll take out Cherry.”

 

“We’ll get to them first.”

 

“Any luck with the mom?”

 

“No. She was sleeping. She probably won’t be much help anyway. Her nurse said the hospital moved up her surgery. She’s going into the hospital this morning. With all the medications and the surgery itself, she’ll be out of it for at least a week.”

 

“We better fucking find them by then.”

 

“We will. I put a call in to our connection at the police department. Christian is gonna do a little digging and see if he can’t find us an address for a one Martin Reaper Bridgewater. Hopefully, he put the piece of shit he lives in under his own fucking name.”

 

Josephine’s cell phone began ringing, dancing along the bar. He grabbed it and answered it without looking at the display. “Hello.”

 

“Uh, hi. This is Lucy. Is, uh, Josephine around? She was supposed to start her shift half an hour ago, but she’s not here.”

 

“Oh. Shit. No, I mean she’s not going to make it in today. She’s…well, there’s been some trouble.” Lucas didn’t want to go into details, and telling her work that she’d been kidnapped would probably open the door to a whole mess of questions he didn’t want to answer at that moment. He was damn sure she wouldn’t want to relive this drama when she got home. Because she was coming home, there was no doubt about that. It was just a matter of when, not if.

 

“Oh. Um, okay. She okay?”

 

“She’ll be fine. The doctor wants her to sleep. I didn’t wake her, yet. I forgot about work.” He ignored Cutter’s glare and finished the call.

 

“You gonna keep her asleep for a few more days? What if we don’t get them back today?”

 

“You know, you’ve turned into a real pain in the ass. We’ll get them home today.” Lucas pushed the cell phone into his back pocket. “Christian will call me back as soon as he has something, and we’ll ride our asses out there.”

 

“What about the rest of the shit? Even if we get them home today, how the fuck will we do that with the fucking REAPER holding them? Say we do it; Clay isn’t going to give up. What are we going to do, live in lock-down forever?”

 

Just because the point was valid didn’t mean it didn’t piss Lucas off. “I’m working on that, too.”

 

“Good, you assholes are up,” Joe called from the hallway. “Get in my office. I have some news you’ll want to hear.” They watched him hobble back to his office before getting off their stools and following.

 

Joe sat behind his desk, drinking antacid straight from the plastic carton. Lucas took a seat while Cutter sat in the back corner where the ashtray was. Joe didn’t give a shit if people smoked around him, but he wanted it farther away. Like five feet was gonna make a difference, but Lucas saw no point in arguing with Joe. It was his office.

 

“Okay, what’s up?” Lucas prompted when Joe said nothing.

 

“I got a call this morning. You aren’t going to believe this, but I got a call from the VP over at Iron Rebels. He was calling on behalf of the club and Reaper. Said Clay isn’t acting on behalf of the club. The club voted down this shit. They don’t want the heat this expansion would bring, and they don’t want to go to war with us, or anyone else, just to get some small ass town like this.”

 

“So, he knows he’s going through with all this, and no one’s stopping him?” Cutter asked.

 

“They’ve been letting him spin his wheels but didn’t think he’d ever actually go against the club’s vote. Reaper and the rest of them had no idea what he was up to. When Reaper showed up yesterday at your house, he didn’t know what he was walking into. In fact, Pat said Reaper has been pulling back from the club lately, like he wants to retire or some shit.”

 

“I heard they took away that shit, no member just leaves,” Lucas said.

 

“Yeah, another one of Clay’s fucking lines of bullshit. The man has lost his fucking mind, taking his club right into the shitter.”

 

“So what does he want from us? Is he going to take care of his own shit, or we sitting around waiting for Clay to finally crack?” Cutter snuffed out his cigarette and moved to the chair at the desk.

 

“He wants our help to take him down. Clay’s not in contact with Pat anymore. He’s gone like off the grid or some shit. He’s got those little kids we saw yesterday with him, and he thinks he’s got Reaper on a leash, too.”

 

“Has he talked with Reaper, the girls?” Lucas interrupted.

 

“Reaper. He talked with him this morning. The girls are fine; he’s taking care of them. They’re not in any danger, at least from him. Now if Clay shows up, there could be trouble.”

 

“Then let’s go get them.” Cutter jumped from his seat.

 

“No. Not yet. We call Clay. Tell him we want to negotiate the terms, but let him think we are basically on board with his plan. Once we have a location, we pass it on to Pat.”

 

“We go to this meeting?”

 

“Yeah. We show up, but once he’s there, Pat and his men will do the rest. But we can’t get the girls until after this meeting. We can’t let him think anything is different than what he has planned.”

 

“Fuck.” Lucas jumped from his seat and dragged both hand through this hair. If she was with Reaper and he was on Pat’s side of this little civil war, then she should be safe. She should be fine, unless Clay showed up and she got that mouth of hers going, her or Cherry.

 

“I’m thinking the same damn thing, brother.” Cutter nodded. “The only danger is if Clay shows up. Neither of our girls know how to keep their mouths shut when they’re pissed, and Cherry is going to be pissed, especially if Reaper has her locked up somewhere. She doesn’t do good with that.”

 

“You mentioned that earlier. Why is that?”

 

Cutter sighed. “When she was a kid, time-out took place in a dog kennel. You know, one of those cages you put outside for the dogs? Her parents would lock her up in that shit. A few times, they were too drunk to remember she was out there, and she stayed out there for a full night before they stumbled out the next morning and found her.”

 

“Fuck,” Lucas whispered. “We didn’t do right by that girl when she came to us.”

 

Cutter nodded. “No, we didn’t. I’m making up for it, don’t worry. Right now, we just need to get through this shit.” Cutter turned to Joe. “Make the call. Set the meeting up for now. I want this over with.”

 

“Yeah. This morning, before Clay has a chance to head over to Reaper’s.” Lucas’s cell began to ring, and he took it out the hall to answer.

 

“Hey. I got a few different addresses for that name you gave me.” Christian, their cop contact, offered. “There’s one that’s way out of our town, a small cabin-in-the-woods type place. Then, there’s a place a mile or two from your own house—241 Hillcrest.”

 

“241 Hillcrest? You sure that’s in his name?” Lucas repeated. That was Josephine’s mother’s house.

 

“Yep, that’s what I see. Just him. Why?”

 

“Uh, no reason. Can you give me the address to the cabin?” Lucas walked back into the office and grabbed a pencil off Joe’s desk, jotting down the information on a piece of paper. “Thanks, Christian, we owe you one.”

 

“Or a dozen.” Christian laughed. “Anything else I can do to help?”

 

“Uh, yeah, maybe. I’ll get back to you on that, though. Sort of in the prepping stage.”

 

“Okay, man. Just give me a ring if you do.”

 

“Will do.” Lucas hung up. “Christian gave me the addresses for Reaper. He’s got two houses listed. One is Josephine’s mom’s place. The other, he said, is some cabin outside town.”

 

“Okay, well, let’s sit on that for now. I’ll get the call out to Clay and shoot you both the information for the meet. Don’t go fucking far.”

 

Lucas checked the time. “I might shoot over to the hospital and see if Josephine’s mom’s in surgery yet.”

 

# # #

 

“Josephine, are you sure you’re okay?” Reaper sat on the edge of the bed.

 

“I’m fine. Just tired.” She smiled. The cramping had finally stopped.

 

“I don’t believe you.” He narrowed his eyes on her. You came out of the bathroom looking too white for my liking. You have a few minutes to rest up, but if you aren’t looking better, I’m taking you to the doctor.

 

“If you can take me to the doctor, you can take me home,” she shot back but felt too weak to argue with him. “I’m sorry. I just, I didn’t want this. This is exactly what I didn’t want.”

 

“I don’t think anyone wants to be kidnaped.” He cracked a smile, and she met him halfway with her own.

 

“I mean, this drama. I told Lucas— “

 

“Ah. Too dangerous, his life is too dangerous for you and the baby.” He nodded. “I get it. Tell me, how’d you end up with him anyway? You’ve been working at that dental clinic for years, dating straight-laced guys…how’d this happen?”

 

“You knew where I worked? Who I dated?”

 

“I told you, I kept tabs. Your mom may have thought I walked away, but I never did. I may have a few gaps in my Josephine history, but I tried to make sure you were always safe.”

 

She didn’t know what to say or how to react to that. “I met him at the hospital when mom was first admitted.” She wasn’t about to tell him all the details. No way was she admitting to the proposition she gave Lucas in the hospital.

 

“And one thing led to another, and you’re carrying his baby.” Her father supplied for her when she hesitated to continue.

 

“Yeah. Something like that.” She leaned forward as another cramp grabbed ahold of her stomach.

 

“That’s it.” He jumped off the bed. “Cherry, get your shit.”

 

“What shit would I have…oh, shit.” Cherry stopped dead in her tracks. “She doesn’t look good.”

 

“Get my keys,” he barked at her as he scooped up Josephine in his arms. “Let’s go.” He carried her through the living room and out the front door.

 

“I’m fine,” she tried to say again, but she could tell she wasn’t. The cramp was big, and she was so tired, so damn sleepy. She just wanted to close her eyes for a few days.

 

She let him put her in the truck and felt Cherry slide in beside her. The truck revved to life, and he took off, but she didn’t look to see where they were going. She leaned against Cherry and closed her eyes. Just a little sleep. Just a quick nap.