Chapter 31
MAX
The ride back to Hawthorne was excruciating. Knowing Wren had been shot and was now dealing with a bullet wound and a psychopath had me on the brink of sanity myself. When we crested the road up to Axel’s, the sun was dipping in the sky. His driveway was lined with bikes and familiar SUV’s, the majority of the club having gathered no doubt to help how they could.
As I stalked into the house, my gaze immediately locked on Caleb and nothing else. Before I was even aware I’d moved, I had him by the throat and pressed to the nearest wall. “I trusted you to protect her!” I roared, my face inches from his. I wanted to tear him limb from limb for failing Wren, for failing me.
I distantly noticed through my rage-filled haze that he didn’t fight me, but simply stood, seeming ready to accept whatever punishment I doled out.
A hand appeared on my shoulder, pressing firmly. “We don’t have time for this,” Sal’s voice sounded in my ear. “Leave him be and get your head on straight. Wren’s waiting for you.”
After a moment, I nodded, shoving Caleb away from me in disgust.
I turned to face the room full of my family and brothers. “What do we know?”
“Already went by the house he grew up in. It was sold a few years back, so that’s a dead end,” Gunner shared in frustration. It was in that moment, I realized that Wren wasn’t just mine. No, my girl had worked her way into the hearts of the entire club throughout her life and more recently, when we’d gotten together. “Now that we know who we’re dealing with, we’ve been learning what we can. X and Wes are out talkin' to some guys Caleb said he seemed tight with in school.”
I shot another glare at Caleb before turning my attention back to Gun. “That’s it?”
He shook his head, as though reluctant to share more. “I did some digging. He was locked up for a few years. I haven’t had much time to get into the details, but it looks like he was stalking a woman at Penn State. He got locked up for failing to comply with a restraining order and a few other misdemeanors.”
“That’s why he didn’t show up in Oregon until recently,” I surmised. “Is that it?”
“For now.” Gunner nodded reluctantly. “We’re doing everything we can, man.”
“Fuck.” If there hadn’t have been a couch behind me, I would have collapsed onto the ground as the sheer severity of the situation gripped me.
My mom sank to my side, wrapping an arm around me. “We’re gonna find her, honey,” she murmured. “And Wren’s a fighter. She’s not gonna give up, not when she knows you’ll never give up on her.”
“She’s been shot,” I rasped in torment. “We don’t know how bad it is or where he took her. The thought of what she must be going through right now is making it hard to think past anything else.”
“Well, you’re going to have to,” she replied steadily. “She needs you. And if anyone can figure this out, it’s you.” Her confidence in me was the motivation I needed.
I clenched my jaw, nodding once. My girl was out there somewhere waiting on me to find her, and I’d be damned if I let her down.
****
At dawn, I stood out on my back patio, staring blankly out at the tree line. It had been a sleepless night that had brought no new information. There was no way I could sleep, not while Wren was out there somewhere.
When the slider opened behind me, I didn’t turn, but instead watched in my periphery as Sal leaned against the railing alongside me.
“Figured you’d be up. Your mom let me in,” he explained, his tone as gruff as always but with a raw edge that was new.
I nodded. My mom and Emmie had spent the night. I couldn’t get rid of them if I’d tried, and I hadn’t.
For a while, we just stood side by side, watching the sun rise further in the sky, lighting the tree line with a rose-colored hue. “She was determined from the moment she was born. Our stubborn little raven-haired girl with eyes as big as saucers. Shit, she was gorgeous,” he murmured, his tone taking on a reverence that painted a picture I could almost see. “Wanted to do everything herself.” He chuckled. “Kat and I tried for years to have another one, but we couldn’t make it happen, and after a while, we realized that Wren was more than enough. She was always enough,” he said, and I wondered if he was speaking to himself or to me.
“She was defiant, but not in the way most kids are. She just wanted to do things her own way, and if that meant doing things that boys typically did, then so be it. I’ll never forget her marching out to our garage, she must have been six or seven, wearing her little pink dress she loved so much with a tool box in her hand.” He chuckled at the memory. “She demanded I show her how to fix up a car. So, I did.” He shrugged. “And shit if she wasn’t better than me before she was a teenager.”
“Doesn’t surprise me.” I shook my head, thinking of all the times Wren had proven how goddamn special she was. I swallowed hard against the emotion clawing at my insides. “Should have put a ring on her finger,” I lamented, dropping my head and leaning back on my arms. “I was waiting. Why did I wait?”
“You’ll have plenty of time for that,” he assured me. “We have years ahead of us to fight over who gets the first dance at your wedding, and you’ll get pissed when Kat and I steal your babies once you have them. I’ve already planned on years of you being a pain in my ass, can’t have that preparation goin’ to waste.”
I looked up at him in surprise as he offered a pained smile.
“I definitely get the first dance,” I shot back, a ghost of a smile tugging at my lips.
He eyed me intently for a moment before he nodded. “Yeah, Max, you do.”
“I’ll take care of her.” It was important to me that he knew that—that he believed it.
“I know you will.” He nodded, clapping me on the back. “She chose well.” The note of pride in his tone had me swallowing hard against emotion.
I simply nodded, unable to reply as he lifted his chin toward the house. “I think your mom put some coffee on.”
It was a good thing too, because I’d need a pot or two of it. Today, I was bringing my girl home.
My living room was full of Knights members by the time I was on my second cup. Most of them had been up all night as well, trying to do anything they could to figure out where Wren had been taken or might be headed.
Gunner, Cash, and I were trying to find more links to Jared when Maddox strode in, an unfamiliar brunette in tow.
I looked at him in confusion since this wasn’t the time to be bringing strangers around, and I expected him to know it.
The girl looked nervous, hanging close to Maddox as he kept a protective hand on her lower back.
“What’s goin’ on?” I asked.
“This is Francesca,” he introduced. “She might know where Jared would take Wren.”
My gaze sharpened on her as hope and distrust waged a war inside me. “You’re the source.”
She bit her lip, looking up at Maddox for guidance. At his nod, she spoke, her voice soft. “I am.”
“And how would you know where Jared would take Wren?” I demanded. She’d mislead us before; I wasn’t about to let that happen again.
She took a deep breath. “Jared uses his mother’s maiden name. His father is Angelo Rossi.”
I took a step back, floored by what she’d just shared. “And you know this because…?”
“Because Rossi is my last name too,” she murmured.
The room erupted with questions and tension after she’d dropped her little bomb. Maddox pulled her protectively into his body, his expression deadly. “Everyone chill the fuck out,” he barked. “Frannie’s on our side. She’s risking her life being here, going against her family so she can help Wren. Shut the fuck up and listen.”
He was right. All I cared about was finding Wren.
Francesca licked her lips nervously, and it was clear she wanted to be anywhere but here. Whatever her motives were, whether they were pure or not, I’d take any information she had.
“Jared and I aren’t close. I had no idea he was stalking your girlfriend until Maddox came to me on the off chance I might know something. When he showed me a picture of Jared, I couldn’t believe it,” she admitted shakily. “I don’t know where he took her or what he has planned, but I overheard him bragging a few months back about a house he bought in Hawthorne that he was fixing up for his girl.”
I glowered at her words but forced myself to remain silent.
“I don’t have the address, but he said it was in the Windsor Park neighborhood.”
“Could be something,” Gunner spoke up, already in investigative mode. Out of all of us, he was always best with that shit. “I can look up the real estate records and narrow down which places were sold in that time frame.”
I nodded, urgently hoping like hell this was the lead we needed.
Cash cocked his head to the side, visibly sizing up Francesca. “You told Mad the Rossis were planning a drop, when really Jared had an attempted kidnapping planned. How do you explain that?”
Maddox growled, clearly ready to take on anyone who questioned her. “It’s okay, Maddox,” she assured him softly before turning her eyes to Cash. “I think my family suspects something and purposefully fed me that information. It’s why I’m here. I think my cover is blown regardless.”
If that was true, then she was in a hell of a lot of danger. Maddox’s posture and expression proved he already knew this.
“Why risk it?” Cole asked, speaking for the first time. His tone wasn’t skeptical but curious, as I was sure we all were.
“I have my reasons.” She shrugged, her gaze sliding to the side.
Gunner set his laptop aside, his gaze locking with mine. “I think I might have something.”
I was grabbing my keys before he’d even finished the sentence. I looked to Sal; if he wanted to ride out with us, I’d never deny him that.
He wrapped an arm around Kat, his eyes on me. “Go get our girl.”