“Spike?” Trevor asked, confused as hell to see the man who’d kidnapped Rachel and Phoebe. “What the fuck are you doing here?” Trevor asked.

He put his hand to the gun at his hip and sized up the guy who’d suddenly driven up on a Harley and parked in the driveway, behind the RV, as if he belonged there. Spike was about the same size as him and looked like he’d fit right in with a biker gang. But he was wearing a leg brace, so he was probably weakened, recovering from that bullet Rachel had put in his leg.

He’d shown up alone, so Trevor decided to hold off pulling out his gun and waited for an explanation. He had to be connected to the group from the mountains. “You their messenger?” Trevor asked as Spike stepped off his bike.

“Yes, I’m here to bring you a message,” the man answered with a surprisingly deep and melodious voice, “but not from who you think.”

“Spike?” Adam growled. Trevor turned to see his friend standing behind him, practically morphing into the Incredible Hulk. Adam was normally pretty level-headed, but when he was finally sent over the edge and angry, he wasn’t someone to mess with. And Spike was the guy who’d kidnapped Rachel and thrown her in a cage. This guy was in for a world of pain.

Trevor crossed his arms, ready to enjoy the show.

The new guy narrowed his eyes at Adam. “Do I know you?”

“You don’t know me, but you know my wife, Rachel.”

Spike’s jaw clenched. “Your wife?”

“Looks like today isn’t your lucky day,” Trevor remarked.

Adam strode forward and got right in the guy’s face. “You kidnapped my pregnant wife, caged her and threatened to rape her.”

Trevor grinned, enjoying watching Adam-the-Marine in action.

Spike stilled, his hands clenched. He leaned forward, raised a fist.

“Go for it, motherfucker,” Adam said. “You take a swing at me, I’ll lay you out.”

“Fuck you.”

Adam grabbed him.

“Spike?” Rachel gasped. “What the hell is he doing here?” Trevor turned around. Rachel stood there, her blue eyes wide, staring at the man who’d tormented her that one dark night.

Adam held the asshole by his throat. “Is this the motherfucker who caged you? The asshole you shot in the leg?”

“Yeah, that’s me,” the fucker gasped.

“You’re also the asshole we watched murder a man in Oxnard in order to pass his woman around to your motorcycle gang.”

Trevor pursed his lips. He hadn’t known about that. He hated this guy more.

Adam loosened his grip on Spike’s neck so he could speak.

“You saw that?” Spike gasped. “You were there?”

“We were watching you from across the street, the both of us,” Adam crooked his neck in Rachel’s direction. “We watched what you did. That’s why she was scared shitless of you the whole time you had her.”

“Let go of me, dammit, so I can talk. I have…a message. That’s why I’m here.”

Adam reluctantly released the guy and stepped back. He lifted his chin. “Talk.”

Spike rubbed his throat. He looked at Rachel. “First, that thing in Oxnard…I did that guy a favor,” he said hoarsely.

“You say?”

“If I hadn’t shot him then, he would’ve had to watch all those men share his woman and there wasn’t a thing he could’ve done about it. He would’ve had to listen to her screams and sat there tied up, shouting his voice hoarse. And in the end they would’ve tortured him and then killed him. It was best to end it then. I did him a favor.”

“Like you did that woman a favor?” Rachel cut in. “She killed herself in order to get away from you.”

“I couldn’t have stopped it, but I wasn’t going to join in. I don’t rape women.”

“Could’ve fooled me. Seemed like you were ready to rape me. The only thing that stopped you was my Glock.”

Spike turned his head, his cheeks ruddy. “I was drunk,” he muttered.

“Who the fuck is that?” Sebastian said with a hard voice. He stepped up into the group they’d formed out on the front lawn. “Is that who I think it is?”

“Things just got even worse for you,” Trevor muttered to Spike.

“Yep, it’s Spike,” Rachel told Sebastian. “But this time he doesn’t have his entourage.”

“Jesus Christ, what is this? The old folks home? Is this where everyone comes to meet, like it’s fucking Cheers or something?”

“Phoebe?” Sebastian yelled. “Come out here.”

Spike stiffened. “Hey, I’m here to deliver a message. A very important message.”

Adam crossed his arms. “First things first.”

A moment later Phoebe’s head popped out the front door. “What’s so important?” She glanced over and saw Spike and gasped, hand over her mouth.

“Where’s Josie?” Sebastian asked.

“Watching a movie.”

“Okay, leave her. Come out here. We need your help. You remember this guy from before?”

Phoebe carefully closed the door behind her and stepped off the porch and met them on the front lawn. “Of course I remember him,” she answered, her eyes bright with unshed tears.

“Did he rape you?” Sebastian demanded.

“I didn’t fucking rape her,” Spike exploded.

Adam caught him with a deadly gaze. “Didn’t ask you, did we?”

“No, he didn’t rape me,” Phoebe whispered, her eyes wide with relived anguish.

“Did he hit you, touch you in any way?” Sebastian asked.

“No,” Phoebe said. “It wasn’t him. He stayed out of it. It was the others. Spike was too busy getting drunk and planning how he was going to have sex with Rachel.”

Adam growled. “He didn’t participate, but he didn’t stop those assholes from raping you, did he? Sounds like he just sat back in the front room, drinking, letting his buddies do what they wanted.”

“Yeah,” Phoebe answered. “That’s about right.”

“Hey, you assholes, I came all the fucking way down here to give you important news about Rebel Case. How about we stay on topic.”

“Rebel?” Trevor came to attention, his whole body lighting up as he heard her name. “What about Rebel?” The last he’d heard, Rebel was on a road trip with Justin and the other women. They were set to arrive at the farm in a couple of days to pick up the RV. He’d been biding his time, waiting for that moment, planning out what he was going to do or say to try to win her back.

Because he had to get her back. Failure wasn’t an option. His heart and his mind, hell, his cock too, they all couldn’t live without her. Everyone on the farm missed her sunny demeanor and those bright “Rebel Case” smiles. They were all mad at him for screwing that up and chasing her away. They tried to hide it from him, but he knew.

He had to fix everything he’d done wrong and his number one wrong had been lying to Rebel. The woman he loved.

“I saw her about two hours ago with a man and three other women. They asked me to bring you a message.”

“Why? Why would you do that? What do you care what happens to her, to any of us?” Phoebe cried.

“She said she was a friend of Rachel’s! Jesus.” The asshole locked eyes with Rachel. “I’m here to help. To help you.”

Trevor glanced over his shoulder and saw Rachel’s face, pale, tears streaming down her cheeks. He felt a sense of foreboding. A feeling in his gut that something was wrong with his woman.

“Tell me, right now. What’s happening with Rebel,” Trevor snapped.

“I’ll tell you what I know, if you let me leave. Alive. I don’t want any trouble.”

“You tell us the message and what happened and we won’t kill you. How’s that?” Adam barked.

“Spike. What happened?” Rachel whispered. “Tell us, if something’s wrong, we need to help them.”

Spike looked down at the ground, took a deep breath, looked up again. “…I was exiled for letting you get away and for the other men dying. They took me up to the compound in the mountains and they had a doctor look at me.”

“They have a doctor?” Rachel breathed.

“Yeah, of course,” Spike answered. “He took the bullet out of me and fixed me up. I stayed in bed for a week. They at least let me lay up and heal, and the doctor gave me this brace, but after that their leader brought me in for a group meeting in front of all the brothers and pronounced I was exiled for my fuck-up concerning you. I couldn’t come back. I’d just left and come down the mountain when I met up with another group of survivors who knew you.”

“Why didn’t the group in the mountains just kill you for messing up? Why bother to heal you up and let you go?”

“I saved their leader. At the end of the world I found him and pulled him from a burning building. He owes me.”

“How do you know the new group you met knows us?” Trevor asked.

“They told me, even gave me the address. Smith’s group found your women and took them and they have the man, Justin, too. They also have the movie star, Rebel Case.”

Trevor’s blood ran cold. His fists clenched. “They have Rebel? Who are these fuckers?” He needed to know so he could tear them limb from limb and leave them bleeding out for daring to touch his woman.

“Smith Byrdman and his Ayran Brotherhood gang. They’re trying to restart the human race, but it’s a whites only club. They’re high up in the mountains, living in a hotel and the surrounding cabins. Sort of a mountain compound.”

Trevor literally stumbled back. Smith Byrdman? It wasn’t possible. How was that possible?

“They’re white supremacists? But they took Tiana?” Sebastian asked.

“Yeah, they’ll probably pass her around, throw her to a group of the uninitiated. My guess is he’ll give the other two white women to his two right-hand men, his enforcers, and Rebel will be saved for Smith to use.”

“Who are you? You’ve got their look, their same tats. Are you one of them?” Adam asked.

“I wasn’t part of the Brotherhood, I was part of a motorcycle club based near Tahoe. We weren’t into that racist bullshit the Aryans are into. I’m the only one who survived in my club. I met up with other bikers like me along the way as I was driving around the state, looking for other survivors. Some of them are an element I’d normally avoid but,” he shrugged, “you do what you gotta do.”

“Oh wonderful,” Rachel exclaimed. “A group of Aryan Brotherhood members, the most vicious gang in America, survived the virus? Not Barack Obama, not the Pope, not Chris Evans, no…a bunch of evil criminals survive the apocalypse. I can’t believe this.”

They were all quiet for a second.

“No offense, Trevor. Present company excluded,” Rachel muttered.

“None taken. I can’t believe they’re alive either. The last thing we need is a group of those assholes together. Smith is the worst of the worst. He was a General in the Brotherhood. It’s said he once tortured a disloyal member of his gang by hanging him upside down, naked, for hours. He beat him and violated him with a gun, drained some of the guy’s blood into a bowl, dipped bread in it and ate it, then made the guy eat it too.”

“Oh my God,” Phoebe gasped. “That’s disgusting.

“Sounds about right,” Spike said. “Weird shit goes down up there.”

“What hotel did they take over?”

“John Muir Lodge, next to Grant’s Grove.”

“You’re not kidding. They went up high,” Trevor said. “Okay then. I’m leaving to go get her back. We need to save Rebel and the three other women and Justin too. Immediately.”

Spike looked up. “Rebel is your woman?”

“Yeah.”

“You’d better leave soon. Smith will take her as his own and he already has a woman, so he’ll have two. One good thing, he doesn’t share, but the bad thing is that he’s all into having his female play the submissive in public. He has his woman collared and leads her around on a leash. I’m certain she hates the fuck out of it. Has this look on her face like her life is a living hell. I’m sure he’s salivating at the thought of doing the same to Rebel Case. You want your woman safe and unharmed, you’d better get up there soon and get her back. Her pretty face and famous name will wear off and they’ll all want her. I’m certain at some point she’ll piss him off and as punishment he’ll pass her around to the other men.”

“You and I will go, and Christian too,” Adam said. “We’ll leave Sebastian behind with the women and Josie.” Adam eyed Spike with disgust. “You’ll stay here too. We’ll all decide what to do with you when we get back.”

“I don’t like that idea,” Sebastian said. “I don’t want him near Phoebe and Josie.”

“It’s okay,” Phoebe answered. She glared at Spike with the intensity of a lion stalking its prey. “He can stay for now since he brought good information that we can use to save four people’s lives.”

“And don’t worry,” Rachel answered. “We’ll keep him out of the main house and away from Josie and I’ll shoot him again if he gets out of hand.”

Adam laughed and pulled her in close. “I love it when you threaten to shoot people.”

“There’s only three of you,” Spike warned. “Smith has forty men up there. You’ll never make it out of there alive.”

Adam grinned. “First, we have the element of surprise. Second, we’ve got plenty of ammunition and explosives.”

“Third,” Trevor said, pointing at Adam, “he’s a sniper.”

“Yeah, they’ll never know what hit them.”