Crazy Bitch lazily blew on her fingernails, admiring the job she had just finished.

Looking at the clock, she reached for her phone. Calder should have been home by now.

She had come home right after dropping Lucky off, and she had actually expected Calder to be there. When he hadn’t been, she had texted him. So far, he hadn’t returned it.

Pressing his phone number, she stared down at her toenails critically, thinking on working on them. When Calder didn’t answer, she called Stud.

She didn’t give him time to say hello. “Calder at the clubhouse?”

“No, I haven’t seen him since I left him at the ceremony. He’s not there?”

Her feet went to her carpeted floor. “Did Sex Piston give him my message that I was going home?”

“Yes. He said that’s where he was going.”

“Could he have gone to the Blue Horsemen clubhouse?”

“Not without telling you.”

“Is Lucky still there?” she asked.

“I haven’t seen Lucky.”

Terror filled her. “Stud, is Sex Piston with you?”

“No, she’s at the house with the kids.”

“Where are you in the club?”

“At the bar.”

“Go to the office and lock yourself in. Now. Don’t say anything until you’re there.”

Silence met her ear, though she could hear Stud’s boots on the floor.

“I’m here. What in the fuck is going on?”

“You alone?”

“Yes.”

“You got a gun in there?”

“Yes.”

“Get it. I’ll talk while you’re getting it.”

Hysteria had her wanting to scream, but Calder and Lucky were in danger. She couldn’t let the crazy out until she found them.

“I dropped Lucky off at the club before I came home.”

“Why—”

“Shut up and listen. We don’t have much time. Someone has a head start on us. He was going to tell you that he was going to arrest several people in town who are involved in selling painkillers. I was the informant. Lucky wanted you to have the brothers to protect me and Calder until he could find Sam. When I dropped him off out back, your van was outside. You didn’t see him come in?”

“I parked the van at the club, but I drove my bike to the ceremony. I was going to drive the van home tonight.”

“Fuck, we thought you were inside. Lucky said the sheriff didn’t plant the drugs in my car, but he knew where the drugs were going to be. Someone from the club must have planted the drugs. The rental car was parked outside. I didn’t bother to lock the door.”

“So, someone in the club planted drugs on you to get you arrested, and you think they’ve done something to Lucky?”

“Yes, and Calder. That’s why he’s not answering. I’m scared shitless. What do we do?”

“You got a gun?”

“In my bedroom.”

“Get it. I’ll stay on the line until you get it. When I hang up, I’m going to call Killyama. She, Hammer, and Jonas will protect you. Don’t answer the door, even if Jesus shows up knocking. I’m going to the Blue Horsemen and will send half the men to Sex Piston, and keep the other half with me.”

“Are you going to stay in the office until they get there?”

“No, we don’t have to wait. There are twenty men out front. I’m sure the one who took Lucky is gone. If he is, I’ll find out which one it is. Who did you report to?”

“Lucky. But he gave me a number in case of an emergency.”

“Call it. Then call me back.” The call went dead.

She immediately called the number Lucky had made her memorize. It answered on the first ring.

“Hello?”

She recognized the cold voice.

“Shade, I can’t find Calder. And Lucky had me drop him off at the Destructor’s clubhouse, but he’s not there.” She held her phone tighter.

“Where are you?”

“At my apartment. Stud is calling Killyama to bring Hammer and Jonas to me.”

“I see her and Train pulling out of the parking lot now. Make sure you keep a gun in your hand until they’re there.” Shade kept his instructions short and clipped.

“I was hoping Lucky was at The Last Riders’ clubhouse.”

“He’s not. I got to go. Stud’s on the other line.” The phone went dead.

She waited several minutes before calling Stud back, wanting to give him time to talk to Shade. She took the opportunity to lower her blinds.

When she called Stud back and he answered, she could hear a commotion going on in the background.

“What’s going on?” she yelled when Stud’s voice didn’t come over the line.

“It was Bear.”

She sat down on the couch, setting the gun down next to her. “Did he say where Calder and Lucky are?”

Crazy Bitch started crying. She had loved Bear like a brother. Many times, he had spent the night on her couch. She had even cried on his shoulder when she had broken up with Joker.

“Not yet. But he will. I’ll call you back when I find something out.”

She remained on the couch, holding her phone in one hand and her gun in the other.

Calder had wanted her to download an app so she would know where he was all the time, and vice versa, but she had told him no. She hadn’t wanted him tracking her movements while she was an informant. She had made a lame excuse, and they hadn’t done it.

Crazy Bitch cried harder. She couldn’t live without him. Going through the same monotonous existence would drive her crazy for real.

Calder was so gentle. Even when he spanked her, it was like being swatted by a three-year-old. When she had shaved a rat on his head, he had never said anything to her. Even when she had pulverized his dick, he hadn’t broken up with her. A man like that would be impossible to replace.

When a knock sounded on the door, she ran toward it, looking through the peephole. She opened it when she saw it was Killyama and Train.

“Jonas and Hammer aren’t with you?” she asked, locking the door when they came inside.

“They’re watching the parking lot.”

“Stud said it was Bear who must have done something to Lucky and—”

“Sit down, Crazy Bitch.”

She had been friends with Killyama a long time, long enough to know she wasn’t going to like what the woman was about to say.

“You found Calder?”

“Not yet, but Stud found Lucky.”

She shakily sat down on the couch. “Is he alive?” She had grown to like the man since she had begun working with him.

“Barely. Bear slit his throat and stabbed him several times before throwing him down the ravine behind the clubhouse. They don’t know if he’s going to make it.”

Crazy Bitch buried her face in her hands, crying. “This is my fault. If I had just minded my own business, he would have never come out of retirement,” she sobbed. “He just had a baby. If he dies, his son will be fatherless because of me. I tried to help because I wanted to find out who kept supplying my mother with pills. It was never worth getting Lucky and Calder killed.”

“Lucky isn’t dead yet, and neither is Calder.” Train took a seat next to her. “And as far as it being worth Lucky’s life, he knew the cost of what he was doing. He always has. He doesn’t know how to turn a blind eye to what goes on around him, and he admired you for risking your life.”

“He told you?” She lowered her hands at his words.

“Yes. He told me and Killyama. He would have never let you do something dangerous without having you watched. Calder was watched, too. We can’t understand how he was taken. I was the one watching him. The last time I saw him, he was going to the bathroom in the shelter. I didn’t want to make it obvious I was following him. He didn’t come back outside, and I couldn’t find him. His bike was still where he parked it in the parking lot of the shelter.”

“That’s the parking lot that Shade said you were pulling out of. I assumed it was The Last Riders’.”

“No. On the way to your apartment, we got a call from Stud that he found Lucky.”

“Bear hurt Lucky because he must have known Lucky was going to tell Stud what was going to happen in the morning. But why Calder? It doesn’t make sense. He doesn’t even know what I’ve been doing. He would have been in danger if anyone found out I supplied the information for the arrests. But no one has been arrested yet. No one has been burned yet. Could it have been someone on the task force?”

“We’re checking them out, but we don’t think so. Those agents are highly screened. Not only that, but I know most of them, and I don’t think anyone would have taken the chance of ruining their career for a small-town bust. None of those the task force were going to arrest are traffickers. Most of them want their own fix. What little they have left isn’t enough to kill a man for.”

“Have you eaten? You want me to cook you something?” Killyama offered.

“No, I couldn’t eat.” She rubbed her arms. “Something happened to him. I feel it.” Crazy Bitch bit her lip, trying to hold back her tears.

Killyama sat down on the coffee table in front of her. “Sex Piston called me. Stud won’t let her leave the house, though she wants to be here with you. She said, as soon as she can, she’ll be here.”

Crazy Bitch nodded, her mind on Calder, going back to when she left him at the building site.

“I didn’t even say goodbye. I told Sex Piston to tell him I was going home. I’m trying to remember if I told him I loved him this morning when we woke up, and I can’t.”

“I’m sure you did.” Killyama took her cold hand in hers.

Whatever had happened to Calder was bad, so bad she could practically feel him calling for her.

The night was endless as she intermittently walked around her apartment. She found the shirt he had worn last night and took hers off, putting his on, and then changing her leggings to faded jeans.

Going back into the living room, she saw that Train had made coffee. Pouring herself a cup, she sat at the counter, staring at her phone, waiting for it to ring.

“You want to go rest? I’ll wake you if we hear anything.” Killyama came to stand at the counter next to Train.

“No. I don’t want to sleep. I don’t want to sleep knowing he could be hurt. I don’t want to be asleep and wake up to you telling me he’s dead.” She choked back her tears. “Calder, Stud, and Sex Piston were going to tell Star she was his daughter tonight. Did you know?”

“I suspected. She looks like Calder.”

“Yes, she does. She has his personality, too.” A sob escaped her. She put her hand up, smothering it. “I love him… so much. You know, it surprised me how much I love him. I didn’t expect to.”

“I know you do. Calder knows, too.”

“I hope so. I was just kidding with those pictures of Rider and Moon to make him jealous. I like it when he spanks me. No one’s ever spanked me before. No one cared enough. My mom didn’t care, none of my foster parents, none of the men.”

“If you needed a spanking to know I love you, all you had to do was ask.”

Killyama’s teasing made Crazy Bitch laugh, causing a chain reaction that had Killyama coming around the counter to hold her as she cried into her shoulder.

“We’ll find Calder. We’ll find him.”