I slammed Warren against the back of the bench and struck him across the jaw. He yelped and clutched at his already reddening face as I wound back to hit him again. Rhys caught my arm and yanked it down.

I spun on him, far past furious and ready to strike out at anything that got in my way.

“Derek!” Rhys yelled at me. “Leave me with him. I’ll take care of it. Go get your girl. You can’t leave her with him.”

His words cut through my fury and forced me to see reason. I pointed a finger at him. “Don’t think your convenient appearance is going to make me trust you again. I know you’re playing a game. I know you fucking want something.”

“Now is not the time to talk about it.”

I took a menacing step toward him. Rhys didn’t back down. I jabbed him in the chest. “Don’t let him go. I’m coming back for his ass.”

“All right. Now, get the hell out of here,” Rhys said, tipping his head toward the parking lot.

I went. I went as fast as I could, legs pumping as I dashed across the park to my truck. I leaped inside and started it up to reverse out of my stall with squealing tires.

How could I have let this happen? What part of my brain had thought this was a good idea? I was set up. Plain and simple. The big bastard knew exactly what strings to pull to get the better of me, and he’d done it expertly. This was why people feared him. He always came out on top.

Not this fucking time. He’d fucked with the wrong guy.

My place was a fifteen-minute drive on a good day. I was halfway there in four minutes. My knuckles were white as I gripped the steering wheel and jerked from right to left between traffic. I had to get to her.

I fumbled to get my phone out of my pocket and called Caleb, praying he would answer. He did, and his voice brought me a flickering moment of relief. Just a flicker. “Caleb! Fuck. I need you to meet me at my place. Call everyone. He’s at my fucking house. And so is Evelyn.”

“Wait. Hold on. He as in—” Caleb asked.

“The Hand. Yeah. And in case I don’t make it out, I have his name. Isaac Reed.”

“How did you get that information?”

“It’s a long story, but it’s reliable enough. I wanted to pass it to you just in case.”

“Where are you right now?” Caleb asked. His voice was as tight as my heart felt. I could hear his boots striking the floor. He was either at home or the shop. I couldn’t be sure. I heard keys jingling.

“I’m on my way back to my place now. Five minutes away, tops.”

Caleb paused. “I’m not going to ask you not to go in because you have to help her, but you have to be careful, man.”

“You think I don’t fucking know that?” I growled, taking a right turn and driving over the curb. A few pedestrians shouted at me.

“You know what I meant. I’m leaving my place now. I’m at least fifteen minutes away, Derek. I’ll call the others, but you might be on your own for awhile. See if you can get her the fuck out of the house. Stay alive. That’s priority number one.” I didn’t say anything. I just listened to him start up his car. “I’m on my way. Watch your fucking back, Derek.”

I hung up the phone.

The following five-minute drive was the most excruciating five minutes of my life. All I could think about was how Evelyn had looked in my bed when I’d left her. Sleepy and happy and far too good for me. Too good for this fucking life. She was innocent and pure, and I’d tainted her with my body and brought her into this dirty, messy, violent life. I was like a ship anchor.

Now, she was at his mercy.

If he had any mercy in his blood.

This was why I never got attached to women. It was why I let them go after one night, never to see them again. It was to protect them and my heart. It was self-preservation, plain and simple.

My thoughts turned darker than they’d ever been. There was only one way I was going to get to her in time, and that was if he was taking his time. I hated myself for wishing it, but I did. I prayed that whatever he was doing, she was alive and that I would be able to get there in time for her. Thinking it sickened me.

A middle-aged man in a silver luxury sedan cut me off. I didn’t slow down for him. I drove right into his backend, crumpling his bumper, and jerked my steering wheel to rush by him in the oncoming traffic lane. He rolled his window down and screamed bloody murder at me. I didn’t even waste time giving him the finger. I kept going, pulling back in front of him. He could take my license down, and I’d pay him later.

If I was lucky enough to have a later. Maybe I’d be dead, and he’d have to pay it on his own. Served him right.

My phone rang, and I answered the call through my truck. It was Ryder. “Caleb just called me. I’m on my way to your place right now. Dani is bringing her team. Derek, if you go in there alone—”

“I know what might happen,” I said. My whole body was tense. I was not in the right state of mind to have this conversation. Nothing was going to keep me out of that house.

“I’m worried he might already be gone,” Ryder said. His voice was thin. He knew the weight of what he’d just said to me, what he’d just inferred.

He was warning me that I might be walking in to find Evelyn’s corpse.

“It’s not going to happen,” I said, more to convince myself than him.

Ryder didn’t say anything. I could hear the roar of the engine of his car as he wove through traffic like I’d been. He was dead set on getting to me as quickly as possible. I knew all the boys would be. But I’d beat them all there, and I’d be the one who had to go in.

“We’ll get him,” Ryder finally said.

“Yeah.”

“Are you there yet?”

I turned into my driveway and raced up it. My front door was wide open. My heart caught in my throat, and my stomach twisted itself into a thousand tiny knots. “Yeah. So is he. I’m going in. I’ll see you when you get here, Ryder.”

“Don’t do anything stupid,” he said.

But I was already out my truck and racing to the door. Each step felt too short and not fast enough. When I burst through it, my boots crunched over broken glass of a picture frame of when the MC opened our first bike shop. Hyde was in the middle, smiling like a high school kid who’d just had his first beer.

I ran into the kitchen and living room. Nothing was disturbed there. It was exactly how I left it. There was the faint smell of coffee in the air. Evelyn had gotten up at some point and made herself a cup. Then where did she go? Had she left? Maybe The Hand—Isaac—had already come and gone, and she was safe back at Penny’s house.

I wasn’t dumb enough to believe the lie my brain was desperately trying to weave. She was here, and so was he.

My ears pricked to the sound of running water from my bathroom. Lots of it.

I sprinted down the hall, ducked into my bedroom, and rushed to the bathroom where I caught myself in the doorway.

Rage unlike anything I’d ever felt surged through my veins. My vision went dark and tunneled in on the man who was holding Evelyn beneath the surface of the water in my filled bathtub.

She was thrashing around wildly trying to get free of him. There was no telling how long he’d had her under and how much longer she would last. Water was spilling over the side as it overflowed over the edge. Evelyn’s limbs pushed more of it out in sloshing waves as she panicked and fought for her life.

Isaac hadn’t even heard me come in. He was staring down into the tub. His arms were in the water up to his elbows. He must have been pinning her down by her shoulders. There was a smile curling his lips, and I was filled with a single purpose, to beat that smile off his face.

Evelyn’s feet kicked out above the tub and one connected with Isaac’s chest. He let out a low growl and used his big size to lean over the tub and force her leg back down. She planted her foot in his chest, and all the muscles strained, but she wasn’t as strong as him. The view she must have had lying on the bottom of the tub would have been terrifying. She’d be staring up through the sloshing water into his smiling face.

She had no idea I was there.

I had to play this smart. If I fucked this up, he was going to kill her after he killed me. There was no room for error here. Even if I got her out of the tub, she would be in just as much danger as when she was under water.

She’d stay in danger until he stopped breathing.

I grabbed the first thing I knew I could use as a weapon. I yanked the porcelain cover off the back of the toilet and charged full speed ahead, holding it over my shoulder like a fucking baseball bat.

He heard my boots slapping across the wet tiles and looked up just in time to duck right. The porcelain slammed into his shoulder, and he let out an angry shout of pain. He stumbled back and released Evelyn, who burst up out of the tub in a spray of water and desperate breathing.

I didn’t have time to look to her and see if she was okay. Isaac dropped his head and charged low, taking me out around the legs.

I fell back against the wet tiles with him on top of me.

The fight for my and Evelyn’s lives was on.