I think I’ve found her.

I stared at the text, blinking my eyes in disbelief.

Pete?

My fingers trembled as I sent the return text to Beckett, breaking out in a cold sweat. Where?

Juniper Hills.

Fuck. Really? The same city Mack lived in? How the hell did that happen?

Works 2^nd shift at Billiards & Buds.

My baby was working in a bar? I sat down with a muted thud on the barstool of the clubhouse, my head falling in my hands. How was she so close all this time and we couldn’t find her?

Address? I sent the reply and waited, not realizing I was holding my breath until my cell chirped with his response.

439-C Harbor Ridge High Rise.

Huh, I knew the place. A ritzy building for young, wealthy singles and couples. Fairly new. Built about five years ago if I remembered.

Of course. Why not put Rae up in a brand new high-security building?

Thanks, Beck. I owe you one.

NP bro. Go get her.

I smiled and shoved the cell in my pocket. A nervous twitch made me jump up and start walking toward the billiard room. As soon as I saw R.J., I blurted his name startling him and causing him to scratch on the eight ball, “R.J.!”

“Fuck Edge! Damn,” he dropped the pool stick and headed my way, ignoring the low laugh from Ghost.

“Don’t get too comfortable Ghost. I need you and Jake on back up. Watch your damn phone,” I barked, turning on my heel as we left.

“You got it V.P.”

“What the hell is going on?” R.J. dropped onto the seat of his hog and started the engine once we were outside and out of earshot. The loud noise of the throttle nearly cut out my words.

“Beck found Rae.”

He nodded, fully on board. “Where to?”

“Juniper Hills.”

My phone chirped while I drove and vibrated against my leg. I must have had an incoming text. We parked in the lot of a local convenience store so I could check my messages once we arrived in town. I swiped across the screen and instantly regretted it. A shit storm was brewing. I could feel it.

Beckett’s text left me feeling numb.

Bryce was hit.

Wow. My old nemesis? When?

Last night. Stabbed and shot.

Is he dead? I don’t know why that thought bothered me. I hated the fucker.

No. Critical at Juniper East.

Damn. You on his six?

Yep. Shane, Dante, and I are all taking shifts.

Good. Keep me in the loop.

Will do.

This was bad. Who would put a hit on Bryce? He was the son of the craziest MC in town. The Outlaws had a rep for being ruthless and hardcore. They were badass motherfuckers. Even I knew that.

What the fuck was going down?

I just got out of prison and certainly didn’t need a reason to violate my fucking parole.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw movement and nearly fell off my bike.

Rae.

Right there. In the flesh.

A surge of emotion jolted through my body like a flash of lightning. Being this close I felt her connection again, so strong, so intense, and it rocked me to the core. I could sense her . . . just like I always have been able, but until now I hadn’t realized how much I relied on our connection to make it through the last five years. Seeing her again was a brutal shock to my system, one I had longed for and dreamed of for so long that I was nearly unable to move.

She was walking into the store and hadn’t noticed us. I needed a minute to recover my composure and then R.J. and I walked in, scanning the store until we saw her sexy little ass gathering up fresh fruit in the aisle. She still had a body and curves that made me want to sink to my knees in gratitude.

All I could do was stare at Rae, afraid I’d blink and she would disappear.

R.J. didn’t seem any better, he cleared his throat awkwardly.

For a moment I wanted to run to Rae and then reality sunk in.

She was too pure, I knew that now. Too good for my soiled and bloodied hands to touch. I didn’t deserve her and I sure as hell wasn’t good enough for her. Rae was out of my league, and I didn’t think for a second that she would actually accept my life and the RRMC.

My sordid past and connections to the Riders meant I was owned body and soul and I couldn’t, I wouldn’t, drag her into my shit. Once she found out the truth of what I had become, she would run, and I knew it was the right thing for her to do. If she really cared, wouldn’t she have made an effort to find out what happened that night? Did she know I went to prison? Did she bother to find out if I was alright?

My head was fucking all over the place. I couldn’t think straight. My brain went haywire and seemed to sort of short circuit. I blinked once or twice in an effort to calm my shit down, but I was starting to lose it. It was too much – of her, my past, and I couldn’t fucking deal.

All the while Rae stood, staring up at me with her wide brown eyes so doe-like in their innocence and trust. Fuck. So many conflicting emotions. So much chaos raged within me.

I’d have to give her up. I already made that choice and now that the moment was here, five years in the making, I fucking felt like I was going to have some kind of nervous breakdown. My heart broke at the thought of pushing her away, but there was no other choice.

“How are you Rae?” the words sounded forced from my throat and stilted.

She didn’t seem to notice.

Instead, she sucked in the right corner of her bottom lip, chewing nervously. A sure sign that she was nervous and uncertain. Funny how after all this time I still remembered every little quirk in her personality. Branded and seared into my brain, every little nuance, every like and dislike, every look and smile – she had so many – surfaced the moment she shyly whispered my name in response.

“Peter.”

Every thought in my head disappeared. Blank. Like I was a fucking moron.

What the hell?

“Pete,” she repeated with emphasis.

My reaction was instantaneous. A single shiver spread throughout my entire body as liquid heat coursed through my veins and burned with a desperate longing that almost made my knees buckle. She always had this effect on me. Time had deepened the connection and intensity of loss as if she gouged me with a sharp blade dipped in poison and the wound had festered and never fully healed, lingering beneath my skin only to burn in reminder. She was like a dangerous and addictive drug, one that would fucking kill me if I wasn’t careful.

Fighting for control over my body, I merely nodded, afraid if I spoke aloud she would see how much I still loved and wanted her. My fingers itched with the need to reach out and touch her, to feel the softness of her skin, to know the warmth of her lips once more. I wanted to brush my mouth across hers and taste her, see if she was as sweet as I remembered.

Rae was the epitome of temptation and desire, but I wasn’t stupid enough to risk her life more than once. I tried everything in the past, gambled, and lost; all in an effort to save her.

That was all that really mattered.

Rae was alive. Safe. Unharmed. Free.

Things I would never be, not now, not ever.

“Peter?”

Her soft question made me want to snarl and punch something like the caged and wild beast I had become. My voice was low and nearly guttural as I replied, crushing her hope as if it was a tangible thing I could break with my own two hands. “Nice seeing you Rae. Take care.”

Without a word I stomped past her and toward the glass doors of the QuickMart, my expression hard and unwavering as my heart shattered and broke into a thousand tiny pieces and scattered to the wet pavement below. R.J. was close by my side, his eyes cutting at me sideways but not questioning my choice. We both understood the danger our lives presented. As full members of the Ravage Riders, we could no longer make singular or selfish decisions.

Everything was about the club . . .

And we answered to Rafe.

I dared to look back just once and nearly crumpled at the expression of devastation and hurt that crossed her beautiful face. Rae, oh baby. I’m sorry. My heart called to her, but there was nothing I could do. I – Edge – was no longer free and I wouldn’t take the chance that a repeat of the past may take her life next time.

For all my good intentions, all the waiting and all the lonely empty nights, none of that was enough to bring her into my shit show of a life. All the effort and time wasted in search of her. The minutes I counted down until she was mine again. None of those things mattered anymore. Seeing her was torture but proved she was better off without me . . . and our past. She was out of danger in her world, safe and free.

Rae didn’t need me anymore.

Even if I needed her like oxygen to my deprived lungs.

Even if I felt hollowed out and empty, broken and alone.

What bothered me the most, the thing that surely broke and shattered my black fucking heart was the glistening diamond ring she wore on her left index finger. The ring I used to propose to her right before she gave me her virginity. She still had it. Still wore it.

Fuck!

I revved the throaty engine of my Harley next to R.J. and forced my gaze ahead, taking off on my hog before the urge to turn around and grab her was too strong to resist. My chest was so tight I could hardly breathe, my airways constricting to the point of suffocation. Goddammit! Not now, I thought, shit this couldn’t be any fucking worse!

R.J. followed me a short distance away as we sat, engines rumbling, and waited for Rae to leave the store. Keeping at a distance, we made sure she returned home safely, careful not to be discovered.

“I want Ghost on her tail. He reports directly to me if anything suspicious occurs,” my order was barked out quickly as my eyes narrowed, watching Rae walk into her apartment building. A parking garage was located just to the left, where she entered an elevator that took her inside. I confirmed the place was nice, high-security, and fairly safe. Good. The only vulnerability was the garage. I noticed the cameras and smiled a devious grin. “I want those cameras hacked. Her every move to and from that building is recorded. Anyone comes to visit her, I want to know immediately.”

R.J. nodded and scowled, “She’d be so pissed if she knew the truth.”

“I don’t give a shit. She’s back in my world now. Just because I can’t have her doesn’t mean Rae isn’t under my protection. Any news, day or night, inform me right away.”

“Fine bro,” he relented and glanced at the open window of Rae’s third-floor apartment. She sat cuddling a large gray Calico cat like her old one, Feefee. R.J. chuckled at her innocence as she talked to the cat and nuzzled her nose into the fat feline’s face.

A small smile graced my lips for a few seconds before I turned to R.J., “No exposure R.J. She doesn’t see us. Not ever. If I find out otherwise, I’ll kill the sorry asshole who compromised us and placed her in danger.”

“I got it,” R.J. grumbled as I rode away.

I didn’t say a word about the tumultuous thoughts jumbling in my head, but something wasn’t right. Rae wasn’t that far from Providence. Witness Protection usually relocated people much farther than a few cities away, especially on such a dangerous and deadly case like the one involving Rae’s family.

She was in Green County, one over from where she grew up. More importantly, it was the same county her father grew up in, where Ron worked at a warehouse when he was young and met her mother Sarah on a night out at the drive-in with his fellow RRMC Brothers. Specifically where they lived when Rae was a baby before they bought their home in Providence and Ron built his Rae of sunshine the treehouse.

This wasn’t a coincidence.

It was time I did some digging into this so-called witness protection. My gut told me this wasn’t right. Something underhanded was taking place, and I was suddenly afraid for her safety. Putting the surveillance on her was a good idea, now more than ever.

I would keep Rae safe or die trying, but no longer would I sit back and do nothing.

I still meant every word of every promise I ever made to Ron and to his beloved Rae. She may not know it, but I had staked my claim years ago, and I wasn’t about to give her up. Maybe I had to keep my distance, but that didn’t mean I was letting her go or allowing anyone else to move in on my girl.

Rae belonged to me, the man who loved her for over a decade, the sinner who swore to place her life above his own, and that shit wasn’t going to change.