I grab my weapon and secure it to my side before pullin’ on my cut. Alba went downstairs fifteen minutes ago to let my sister in. The two of them will be here alone for awhile today until Reid can make it out. I checked the whole property earlier this morning and everything is running the way it should, and the camera feed is working properly as well. Knowing I can tap into the live feed with the app on my phone gives me a little comfort leaving her without one of the brothers for a couple hours.

We have a long drive ahead of us and having so many miles between me and my woman has me on edge and nursing a mild migraine this morning. So far, Reid hasn’t been able to dig up much on this Calvin Green except for the facts we already knew. I’m hoping we turn up some more information once we get to the only address we have on the guy.

To top it off, we have a snow storm threatening to move in north of us later tonight. It’s about a four hour drive we have ahead of us just to get there, then the drive back, so we’ll be taking Logan’s ride since his truck is best suited for the rougher weather and he can throw his plow attachment in the bed of his truck just in case when we make it back home we can get through these back roads we live on.

On my way downstairs I replay the way Alba got upset last night when she found out her brake lines were cut, and someone intentionally tried to harm her. It may not be the smartest move, but I couldn’t tell her who we are trying to dig dirt up on because I fear the stress will overwhelm her at this point. She rescheduled her doctor appointment until tomorrow and she’ll be hunkered down in the house with someone by her side all day. Maybe with the men having made their presence known in town the past few days it will have made this guy think twice about showing up in our town again.

Maybe.

I find Leyna and Alba sitting on the couch in the living room in front of the roaring fire I started in the fireplace for Alba this morning. Walking around the edge of the couch I bend down, giving her a deep kiss, "I need to go. Logan is waiting on me down at the bike shop," I tell her.

"I’ll miss you. I promise I’ll be fine. Your sister and I are going to sit here and enjoy this fire. Please be safe. The weather could get bad before you get back home," she says with worry.

Alba knows I’m not telling her everything but hasn’t pressed the issue. Giving me a beautiful smile she grabs a hold of my hand, "I love you."

"Yo te quiero más I love you more," I bend down and whisper into her ear, "I’ll check on you soon."

As I’m walking out the front door and setting the alarm from my phone, I can’t shake this uneasy feeling I have. Brushing it off I climb into my truck that’s been sitting out here warming for the past ten minutes and make my way down the long driveway to the main road and head towards town.

When I make it to the shop, Logan is out front sitting in his truck waiting on me. I park mine, lock it up and walk over to the passenger’s side of his and open the door.

"Hey, brother. You ready for this long ass ride this morning?" he asks, lookin’ really fuckin’ tired himself.

"Yeah, lets hit the pavement and make some time, brother."

I climb in and shut the door. He hands me a large thermos that I know has hot coffee in it.

"Bella made it. I have my own over here, so help yourself."

Untwisting the lid, I pour some into the cup attachment. Nothing is going to relax the tension I have building up in my shoulders and neck, but it tastes good going down.

An hour later my phone chimes with a text alert. Pulling it from my pocket I swipe the screen. It’s from Alba,

Cariño: I’m ok

She knows I’m worried about her, and I’m sure throughout the day she will send texts my way to let me know she is doing alright. Pulling up my security app I tap into the camera feeds from outside the house. Seeing nothing I put my phone back into my pocket.

So much for the damn weather report, looks like the storm is moving in quicker than they predicted. We’ve been on the road now for almost four hours and about half an hour ago the snow started falling and its steadily increasing

"I think we’re keeping ahead of it. It’s a good thing we’re only one exit away from being in Bozeman," Logan remarks.

Leaning forward I enter this guy’s address into the GPS system—752 Claremont Blvd. and it lets us know our destination is another twenty minutes from the first exit. So fuckin’ close to finding answers.

The nearest neighbors look to be about two miles down the road. He lives on the outskirts of town in a rural area. After taking in the property we both check our weapons and pull gloves over our hands, so we leave no evidence that we were ever here before getting out of the truck. Once done casing the perimeter of the home, we make our way around back.

Yesterday, Reid showed Logan how to reset the alarm system once we gain access to the home with a universal hack code he can punch into the keypad. Pulling a small leather case from his coat pocket, Logan uses a set of tools to pick the lock and after a couple tries the lock pops. We walk inside and as I’m closing the door he disarms the alarm. I didn’t even know someone could do that shit until he got to talking about it on the ride here. Ever since my mind’s been running a mile a minute. I thought my system at home was top notch and now I’m not so sure.

Quietly Logan and I make our way through the house doing a sweep through every room. I took the upstairs while Logan took the main floor. I come upon the only room I find furniture in. A queen size bed that was slept in at some point because the bedding is disheveled and there is a chest drawer to my left. I walk to it first pulling open the drawers only to come up empty. They had nothing but clothes inside them. I notice the only bedside table and proceed to dig through it coming across a piece of mail with his name on it, a rent receipt. Thinking we can possibly lift a full set of prints off it I take a plastic bag from my back pocket that we both have on us for any evidence we happen to come across, place it inside and seal it shut. I find nothing else of importance, so I head back down to find Logan. As I’m rounding the stairs I notice a small door underneath the staircase. Logan comes walking from the kitchen, "No signs of the guy. What did you find upstairs?" he asks.

"His room and a rent receipt. I stuck it into a bag, so we can check it for prints later. Where do you think that small door leads?" I ask him, pointing to the door I notice to my left.

"We have one of those. It’s usually a storage space," He says walking to the door and opening it up.

Peering inside we see nothing—at first, but upon closer inspection I notice a handle attached to a door on the floor. "Does yours have that?" I point.

A puzzled look crosses his face, "No."

Squatting down, I grab the handle and pull. The fucker is locked. Logan digs the lock pick tools out of his back pocket and hands them to me. I haven’t picked a lock in years. It takes three attempts before the locking mechanism on the inside clicks. Handing the tools back I lift up on the handle again and find stairs leading down underneath the house.

"He had this locked for a reason. Let’s get down there and see what we can find."

Trying to fit my large frame through the small and narrow stairwell wasn’t easy, and the thick stagnant air that engulfs us as we make our way down is suffocating. I pause trying to let my eyes adjust to the darkness as I reach inside my jacket pocket and pull out a flashlight.

A dim light comes on overhead and I turn my head to find Logan has found the switch on the wall next to stairs and a stunned look in his eyes. I spin around ready to take some fucker out only to be met with a sea of pictures covering the wall in front of us.

All of them pictures of Alba.

The cords in my neck tighten and my breath gets caught in my throat. I’m looking at some kind of shrine. There has to be at least fifty pictures pinned to the old wood wall. This guy has been watching her for months. Even before she left for college because one of the photos I recognize is from the day of her party when she wore that breathtaking blue summer dress. I reach out and rip it off the wall.

"Brother, focus. We need to dig through here and find anything we can to who this guy is and where he could have gone."

Logan’s voice is muffled. I can only half-ass make out what he said through the rush of adrenaline that has started pumping through my veins. Desperately trying to shake it off I start canvassing the room and come upon another door located near a shelf full of boxes by the back of the room. When I turn the knob, it opens without hesitation and I walk inside.

What I find makes my stomach knot up. Shackles hanging from cold damp walls. Off to the right a twin-size bed and a toilet in the corner of the small room. It’s a small fuckin’ jail cell is what it is.

Did this guy have plans to take my woman and keep her prisoner in here? The more I take in, the more my heart rate increases. It’s to the point I hear it roaring in my ears.

"Gabriel," Logan shouts from the other room, "I found something."

"Yeah, I found something too, brother," my voice catches in my throat as it echoes off the bare stone walls. I hear his footsteps as he walks up behind me flashing his light inside, getting a look at what has me rooted in place.

"Fuckin’ hell, man," he says stunned by what’s in front of him as he hands me a stack of papers mixed with photographs. "It seems this psycho has done this before. He has various pictures of women, and tons of news clippings about their disappearances. And that’s not all, man," he hands me one more bundle, this time containing more pictures. I know right away by the look on his face I’m not going to like what I see. I look down and shine my light on the stack of photos in my hand.

I am never going to be able to get these images out of my head. The site of these women as I sift through them one by one chained to the wall. Some of them so emaciated you can make out their backbones and their backs are scarred with slash marks.

A sudden need to call and check on Alba hits me. I haven’t gotten a text from her lately. I need to hear her voice to settle the storm brewing inside me.

Handing the pictures back to Logan, I dig my phone out and swipe the screen bringing up her number then putting the phone to my ear. Nothing happens. I look at the screen noticing that I have no bars down here.

"Need to go upstairs. Can’t get a signal down here," I tell Logan. I let Logan lead the way back up the narrow staircase opening and back into the foyer area of the house. Once I check my phone and make sure I have reception I tap send calling Alba again.

"Hello," her sweet voice says.

"Hey, babe, how you and my sister doin’?"

"We’re good. Your sister just fixed us the most amazing coconut pastry turnovers."

"We’re about to head back. I needed to hear your sweet voice a moment. See ya soon, mi amor," I tell her.

“I love you,” her voice softly says before hanging up.

Logan strides towards me, "Get on out to the truck and start it up for me," he tosses me the keys, "I’m about to trip this alarm so Bozeman’s finest can find all the shit we found down there."

Walkin’ out the door, I make my way to his truck get in and start it up and wait. As soon as he jumps into the passenger seat, I take off.

Before we reach the exit to Polson, Logan is on his phone talking with Prez filling him in on what we found. I decide to check on Alba again and pull my phone from my coat pocket. The snowfall is heavy, so I pull off to the side of the road before swiping the screen. It rings but goes straight to voicemail, so I try again.

It rings and rings.

Come on baby, answer the phone…

Nothin’.

"Wasn’t Reid heading to your place over two hours ago?" Logan asks, "Maybe she is away from her phone or something."

"Yeah, I’ll call him," I inform, as I’m pulling up Reid’s number then hit send, and wait.

"Motherfucker! He ain’t answering."

"Okay listen, I’ll call Prez and tell him what’s going on. We’ll get someone out there to check on things," Logan tries to reassure me even though worry flashes across his face when he says it.

"Fuck!" I yell. Starting the truck back up I pull out onto the road. We’re roughly thirty minutes from my place, we’ll probably make it before someone else does.

Five minutes later my phone rings. Reid’s number lights up the screen and I hand my phone to Logan, so I can pay attention to the road. "Put it on speaker," I tell him.

* * *

I’m in my truck driving out to Gabriel and Alba’s house. He and Logan left for Bozeman a few hours ago. My ass should have been out there already, but I fell asleep sitting at the damn computer earlier.

I was up all night trying to find out who this Green fella is and I’m nowhere closer than I was. I’m pretty sure he’s done this kind of thing before. No fingerprints or paper trail anywhere. This guy knows how to hide his tracks. I’m positive Calvin Green isn’t his real name, which makes finding the asshole a lot harder. Maybe Gabriel and Logan were able to find something—anything.

It’s a fuckin’ mess out here on the roads. When I make it out to Gabriel’s place, I’ll have to borrow a room or the couch for the night. There’s no way I’m going to be able to make it back out in this mess if it continues coming down the way it is. It’s getting heavier by the minute. Thirty minutes just to drive fifteen miles…this is fuckin’ insane.

Finally, I’m able to pick up my speed once I get outside the downtown area where it looks like most people have chosen to stay off the roads. About another five minutes and I should be pulling off the road onto their driveway.

I get why a lot of the guys live out here and I almost bought myself something not far from here until the owner of the old firehouse put a for sale sign up. She was selling the historical building to help pay for her husband’s medical expenses…

"FUCK!"

Bright red flashing lights come out of nowhere snapping me from my thoughts causing me to jerk my steering wheel hard to the right. To avoid hitting the stalled vehicle, I take my truck off the road before skidding to a stop.

Once I regain my train of thought I put the truck in park, leave it running and get out checking for any damage. My door doesn’t even close completely before squealing tires catch my attention and a white SUV comes barreling towards me. I try to move out of the way but I’m not fast enough.

The force of the impact sends me flying. Instantly I’m finding it hard to breathe and the pain radiating through my body is indescribable. A few seconds later I realize I’m on the ground because the cold from the snow-covered ground is starting to seep through my clothes.

"You still breathing?" A male voice I don’t recognize speaks from above me. I open my eyes to look at him. "Looks like you’re pretty busted up there," he says as he kneels down to the ground, "She was supposed to be mine you know. I paid those dirty fucking bikers for her and then you guys took her."

It takes me a few seconds to process his words before it hits me.

"I think I’ll leave your broken body right here. You’ll be dead before anyone finds you in this storm and I’ll have what’s mine before anyone knows what happened. Don’t worry, I’ll let Alba know you won’t be making it after all," he spews.

Lying on the ground I watch him walk off. The only thing I can see through the snow are the taillights as he pulls away.

I’m screwed.

I’m busted up good, but somehow, I need to find a way to get to my truck because my phone is sitting on the seat next to my laptop. I start trying to move my limbs and instantly realize I can’t feel much from the waist down. As much as I want to take a moment to curse the situation I need to focus all my energy on trying to drag myself towards my truck, which looks to be about twenty yards away. The pain that pulsates throughout my body as I put weight onto my right forearm and pull causes my vision to blur. And with each pull I cough up blood and gasp for more air.

I have no idea how long it takes me or how many times I was on the brink of passing out, but I find myself near the passenger’s door. My body is so cold at this point I have lost all feeling in my hands. Reaching up I fumble with the handle of the door. I’m able to pull on it enough for it to swing open. Spent, I lay there on the ground wondering if I have another ounce of strength to give when I hear my brother’s voice inside my head—

You fight. Fight for her and that baby. Fight for yourself. Fight for me. Get your ass up, Reid.

His voice sounded so real it felt like he was right beside me as I took my left arm and used whatever was left in me to hoist my body into the floorboard of the truck and reach for my phone. I can’t get my chest to expand enough to take in a full breath anymore and I know I’m about to lose consciousness any moment because adrenaline and willpower have all but gone. I pull up Gabriel’s number, swipe the screen, and wait.

"Where the fuck are you?" he asked frantically as he answers the phone.

I suck in every last bit of air I possibly have left in my body, "He’s here."