How the fuck was it possible that our plans had been blown to bits by two drunken party girls? After hours of running through it all with the guys, and more hours of agonizing over whether or not it would go our way, I was livid to be thrown off track by two bimbos who were in the wrong place at the wrong fucking time.

The Hand, of course, was thrilled. He had a scapegoat. And he had her at knifepoint.

Son of a bitch.

Regardless of how furious I was at the girl for letting herself be caught, I was more pissed at the goon holding her hostage. He had no morals. None.

“Let her go,” I snarled.

The Hand smiled wickedly at me and jerked his head in a sharp “no.”

I took a menacing step forward, and he tightened his grip on the pretty brunette. She sucked in a sharp breath, and Sabian moved up beside me, planting a hand in my chest. He pushed me back into line with the others and planted himself between us and The Hand.

I could feel the air vibrating with tension all around us.

“She has nothing to do with this,” Sabian said slowly. He was known for being the smoothest talker in the MC, and he knew it. “Just let her go, and we can sort this out like adults.”

The Hand chuckled deep in his chest. The sound made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. The girl in his arms thrashed around and whimpered. He tightened his grip on her and whispered something in her ear. She fell still, and he lifted his eyes to Sabian. “You and I both know your little posse will slice and dice me if I let her go. And I don’t plan on dying here tonight. I’m a free man. Didn’t you hear?”

“We heard.” Sabian nodded. “If you let her go, we’ll give you a head start.”

The Hand seemed to consider the offer. Then, his eyes flicked back to me, Ryder, Caleb, Axel, and Jax. He shook his head. “Something tells me you don’t speak for all your boys. They have murder in their eyes.”

Sabian didn’t look back at us. “They’ll honor my word.”

“Will they now?” The Hand chuckled again. “Well, I hate to disappoint, but I’m not biting. You lot go back inside. Then, I’ll let her go.” He pressed his nose against the girl’s neck and inhaled deeply. “You smell like roses and sunshine, sweetheart. I’m sorry we had to meet under such uncomfortable circumstances. On any other night, I could have shown you a real good time.”

The blond girl on the pavement let out a furious string of curses. “Evelyn! It’s going to be okay. Let her go, you piece of shit!” This only made The Hand laugh harder, and the blonde became more and more furious. Her wide eyes swung over to us. “Help her! Please!”

The brunette, who now had a name, Evelyn, shook her head at her friend. “Leave it, Penny. It’s all right.”

The Hand nodded approvingly. “Someone with smarts. How sexy.”

Evelyn bit down on her bottom lip and closed her eyes.

Fuck him for taunting her. Fuck him for thinking he had any right to use innocent women as a shield against us. I moved up beside Sabian. “You’re a coward, you know that? A fucking coward.”

The Hand shrugged. “If you say so. I’m just proactive regarding my self-preservation. I will do whatever it takes to stay alive. Maybe if your buddy had the same will, you wouldn’t have had to bury him.”

White hot lances of fury shot through my veins. I heard my brothers shift uncomfortably behind me as my hands balled into fists at my sides. “Shut the fuck up.”

The Hand rested his chin in the groove of Evelyn’s shoulder. “What are you going to do about it, tough guy? You willing to sacrifice her to get to me? Huh? You gonna waste a pretty thing like this on me? On revenge?”

I forced myself to relax. I loosened my hands and fought down the tension in my shoulders. “No.”

“Good,” The Hand mused. Then, he moved his back off the wall and started creeping backward to the mouth of the alley. He didn’t loosen his grip on the girl. He pulled her back with him, and she stumbled more than once in her high shoes. He shook her roughly, and she whimpered. “Don’t try any shit with me, girl.”

The blond girl was getting to her feet. Her knees were bloody from when she’d fallen, and her palms were scraped up. But she was fierce as hell. She yelled her friend’s name and moved to go after him again. I caught her wrist and yanked her back. She screamed at me and drove her fist into my chest.

It didn’t hurt.

But she kept pounding desperately, so I caught both of her hands and looked her in the eye. “Enough. He’ll let her go. We have to trust that he’ll let her go.”

The girl’s eyes were swimming with tears, but she nodded once and looked down the alley to her friend, who was inching slowly backward with The Hand. He was whispering in her ear again.

They arrived at the mouth of the alley. The Hand stared us down. “I’ll see you boys again, I’m sure. Especially you, Moretti.”

Then, he threw Evelyn down on the pavement and spun to run around the corner. Sabian took off at a dead sprint after him. The others followed, blowing by me in a rush of wind. All except Caleb, who stayed behind with me as I rushed to Evelyn.

She was on her hands and knees on the pavement. She wasn’t crying like I thought she would be, but she was breathing quickly. I reached out tentatively to touch her shoulders and push her upright.

Her brilliant green eyes locked with mine, and for a moment, I forgot about everything that had just happened. I saw a lot in those green eyes: courage, anger, fear, intelligence. She blinked at me and broke the spell.

“Are you all right?” I asked.

Then the blonde was there, her words coming out in a jumbled rush. She sobbed loudly and reached out to Evelyn, who was still in shock. She shook her shoulders and tried to pull her up.

“Slow down,” I said, pushing the blonde’s hands down. What had Evelyn called her? Penny? “Penny, she needs a minute. So do you. Take some deep breaths, both of you. With me. All right?” Both of them stared blankly at me as I guided them through some deep breathing. They followed along, and soon the panic in their eyes was being replaced with exhaustion.

That was a good sign. They were coming down from the fear.

“Evelyn, are you all right?” I asked again.

She had looked up sharply when I spoke her name. She ran her hands up and down her bare thighs anxiously. “I think so. He didn’t hurt me.”

Penny threw her arms around Evelyn’s shoulders. The two girls stayed on their knees holding each other as I got to my feet and faced Caleb.

Caleb was frowning. “This is bad, man. Real bad.”

“I know.”

“If they don’t catch up with him—”

“I know,” I said again a little more harshly. We’d revealed our hand and lost the element of surprise. Any chance we had of catching the big bald bastard by surprise was spoiled. He knew we were coming for him, and he knew we meant business. If he got away, he would have time to prepare himself or worse, strike back. And we all knew the damage he was capable of inflicting. “Fuck,” I spat.

“What do we do?” Caleb asked.

I had no fucking clue. Ryder was off chasing the psychopath down. He was the one who would keep a level head in a situation like this and give orders, not me. All I wanted to do was go back inside and pound back shot after shot until I forgot how badly our plans had been ruined. But that wasn’t the answer.

I looked down at the girls. “I’ll get them out of here.”

Caleb nodded. “I’ll go inside and keep an eye out for his boys. Maybe he’ll come back. I doubt it, but you never know.”

“Be careful,” I warned.

Caleb smiled sheepishly as he made for the emergency door. “I can take care of myself.”

I wanted to say, “That’s probably what Hyde thought” but thought better of it. Saying something like that would only make matters worse, and they were already pretty bad.

Caleb disappeared inside, and I turned back to the two girls, Penny and Evelyn. “Do you two want to go home?”

They both nodded, but I could see that they were afraid of me. I didn’t blame them. The whole shit show from their perspective would have made us all look like villains. And maybe we were.

“Come on,” I said, tipping my head to the mouth of the alley. “I’ll drive you both home, and then you’ll never have to lay eyes on any of us ugly fuckers again.”

Penny shook her head. “We can call a cab.”

“All right,” I said. “Let me wait with you then.” I extended my hand to help them up. Penny stood on her own, but Evelyn accepted my help. She was unsteady on her feet and swayed on the spot. I grabbed her by the elbow to steady her, and she stumbled into my chest. I supported her until she was fine to stand on her own.

She looked up at me with pink cheeks. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. You just went through a lot. I’m the one who’s sorry.”

Her brow furrowed. She looked like she was deep in thought. Then she glanced at her friend. “I think I’d like him to take us home, Penny.”

“Are you mental?” Penny whispered redundantly. I could hear her perfectly fine.

Evelyn shook her head. “No. He helped us. Come on. I just want to go home, and we’ll have to wait for a cab. I need to sleep.”

Penny shot me a dark, overprotective look, the kind of look a worried best friend gives to an enemy. I respected her for that. “Fine,” she said. Then she pointed a finger at me. “But if you try any shit—”

I held up my hands. “No shit. I just want to make sure you get home safe.”

She narrowed her eyes but nodded, and then the three of us walked down the alley and took a right to get to my truck parked at the curb two blocks away.