Gunner tells me he’s just getting back into town from his run with the club. It doesn’t even take him fifteen minutes to get to the Golden Cup, but it feels like hours.

As soon as he ends the call, I start pacing back and forth in front of the coffee shop. My pulse is racing and I’m having trouble breathing. A few moments later, the door to the shop opens and Sydney comes out.

“Alix, are you okay?” she asks in a worried voice.

“No,” I whisper. My heartbeat is pounding in my ears. “I don’t think I am.”

“Come back inside and sit down.” A hand goes around my arm and pulls gently.

“I can’t,” I wheeze. “I have to wait out here for Gunner. He’ll be here soon.”

“Well, then, I’ll wait out here with you,” she says firmly. “You look like a ghost.”

Thankfully, Sydney doesn’t ask me to explain. She sits down on the curb with me, and tells me her customers can wait.

A few minutes later, Gunner comes flying up, and skids to a stop in front of us. He jumps off the bike and is in front of us in a second.

“I’m not sure what’s wrong,” Sydney tells him. “She looks sick, but she says she’s not.”

“I know,” he says. “Thanks for taking care of her.” He turns to me. “You okay to ride?”

I nod. “Yes,” I manage to say.

“Okay, then. Let’s go. I’m taking you to the clubhouse.”

* * *

“This is the text I got from her phone.”

I pull out my cell and show Gunner and a thin, lanky man he calls Tweak. We’re at the Lords of Carnage clubhouse, sitting in a small, sparse room with a few computer monitors on a long desk in front of us.

Gunner takes the phone and peers at it, then passes it to the other man.

“At first, I thought it was her. I was so excited that she’d texted me, and then so crushed by what she said, that I didn’t look very closely.” I swallow and try to push down the panic. “But then I noticed how she spelled my name.”

“A-l-e-x,” Tweak reads.

“My name’s spelled with an ‘i’,” I tell him. “Eden would never have made that mistake. This can’t be her.”

Gunner takes the phone back from him and reads the entire text out loud.

“Alex, I don’t want to see you. Go back to Lynchburg and leave me the hell alone.”

He frowns at me. “‘Go back to Lynchburg’?”

I nod. “I know.” I turn to Tweak. “Yesterday, I did something stupid and went to the Smiling Skull myself,” I explain. “Gonzalo wasn’t there. But maybe someone there heard me asking about him, and warned him someone was looking for him. Maybe he put two and two together.”

Tweak nods. “That makes sense.”

“Shit,” Gunner rasps. All the anger he didn’t let out at me last night comes rushing to the surface. “Goddamnit, Alix. I told you to let me take care of this! If Gonzalo’s figured out you’re still here sniffing around —”

“I know!” I say, cutting him off. “I know. And I’m sorry, Gunner. I really am. I was an idiot.” I glance back down at the phone. “And this is bad. But maybe it’s good, too. It tells us something. Maybe Eden really does need help. And maybe this tells us she really is with Gonzalo!”

“She’s right,” Tweak says to Gunner. “It’s better than nothing.”

Gunner’s jaw clenches angrily. He looks at Tweak. “Keep looking for Gonzalo’s address. I need to bring Alix up to speed on some shit.”

“One more thing,” Tweak asks me. “You got a picture of your sister?”

I take my phone back from Gunner and flip through my photos until I find one. I hold it out to show them. Eden’s basically a brunette version of me, with light chestnut hair, darker brows, and the same wide, light brown eyes that we got from our mom. In this picture, a coy, flirtatious smile graces her features, making her look like she’s issuing a challenge to whoever took the photo.

Tweak whistles when he sees it. “She’s a knockout.”

Gunner flashes him a warning look.

“Yes,” I say softly. “She is.”

Tweak has me send the photo to him and Gunner. Then Gunner and I leave to let him work, and go back down the long narrow hallway back toward where we came in.

The large main room we enter is deserted. Gunner walks over to a long bar counter off to one side and leans an elbow on it. “I found out Gonzalo is based out of a town called Red Hawk,” he says without preamble. “Red Hawk’s about twenty minutes south of the Smiling Skull. The town’s in territory occupied by another MC, called the Death Devils.” As I digest this information, he continues. “Tweak’s looking for where Gonzalo lives right now. After that, he’ll work on getting the location of where his crew operates out of.”

“Operates? What do you mean?”

For a few seconds, Gunner doesn’t respond. “We’re pretty sure they’re involved in drug dealing. Mostly heroin.”

Shit. Is Eden mixed up in all that? I know she used to smoke a lot of pot in high school, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s tried other stuff, too, but heroin? It’s almost impossible for me to imagine her taking drugs that hard. But I have to admit to myself I might not know my sister nearly as well as I hope I do.

I open my mouth to ask another question, but just then the front door slams open with a loud bang. Male laughter reaches my ears. I swivel around to see half a dozen Lords of Carnage striding in. All of them are big, tattooed, and dangerous-looking.

“Gun!” one yells with a lewd chuckle. “You brought me a present? Hell, it ain’t even my birthday!”

“Shut it, Sarge,” Gunner growls. He leans close. “Stay close to me,” he tells me. “At least at first. None of the men will try anything once they know you’re with me. But until then, you’re better off not wandering.”

For the first time since I hopped on his bike to come here, it occurs to me that place could be just as dangerous as the Smiling Skull. Maybe more dangerous. Even though I’m with someone I’m pretty sure will protect me, a wave of fear squeezes my lungs until it’s a little hard to breathe.

At the sound of the men entering, a few women filter in from other rooms in the clubhouse, chattering excitedly. Most of the them look like plastic blow-up dolls, made up like porn stars with the clothes to match. Even so, the men are looking at me with open curiosity, and some with unconcealed lust. A few of them give me leers that I’d be shrinking from if Gunner wasn’t here to protect me. The women examine me with expressions ranging from indifference to contempt.

“This is Alix,” Gunner calls in a loud voice. “She’s with me. Understood?”

Another male voice calls out, “Did you bring enough to share with the rest of the class?” Raucous laughter erupts.

Gunner leans toward me. “It’s okay. The men know you’re off limits now.”

I’m not sure I believe him, but at this point I don’t have much choice. As we stand there, three of the Lords walk toward us. My eyes widen as I recognize two of them.

“Alix,” Gunner growls. “This is Angel, Thorn, and Brick.”

“Hi,” I say in a small voice, blushing in spite of myself.

“Welcome to our castle, little lady,” the one called Thorn says with a wink and a roguish grin. “Remember me?”

“I do,” I smile shyly at him. “You were at the Smiling Skull that night.”

“I was,” he nods. “Glad to see you’ve recovered. That was a bad business.”

“And actually, I know you, too,” I say, turning to Brick. At his surprised look, I continue. “I was just at the Golden Cup coffee shop. You came in to talk to Sydney.”

Brick frowns, and then his eyebrows raise in recognition. “You were sitting over by the window.”

“Yes!”

He nods. “Huh. Small world. That your first time in the shop?”

“Uh-huh. Sydney was really nice to me.”

“Good to hear.”

I can’t believe I’m standing here just talking to these outlaw bikers like I would be to any other normal person. The strangeness of almost everything that’s happened to me in the last few days comes telescoping up at me suddenly, and I have to fight the urge to start laughing half-hysterically. Gunner is looking back and forth from me to Brick, like he can hardly believe it either.

Just then, something across the room catches his eye. I follow his gaze and see Tweak raising a finger at us. Leaning down, Gunner murmurs in my ear. “I know I said to stay next to me, but you’re good now. I need to talk to Tweak for a second. I’ll be right back.”

I watch Gunner walk off. Brick takes his leave of us, too, and goes over to join another small group of men. Beside me, Thorn speaks up.

“So, you’ve decided to stay and experience the bustling metropolis that is Tanner Springs,” he says, giving me another wink.

“For now. It’s a little smaller than I’m used to,” I admit. “But actually, I kind of like it so far.”

“Are yeh staying here in town, then?” Thorn asks.

“Yes.” I hesitate for a second. “Actually, I’m staying at Gunner’s place for now. In his guest room,” I add quickly.

Thorn smirks like he doesn’t believe me for a second. “Uh-huh. Funny, that. Gunner doesn’t often have ‘guests’.”

“He’s helping me try and find my sister,” I say, ignoring the flush that heats my cheeks. “That’s who I was looking for that night at the Smiling Skull.”

Thorn nods sagely. “I see. No luck so far, then?”

“Not yet.”

“Well.” Thorn raises a bottle of beer and takes a swig. “If Gunner says he’ll find her for you, he will. You can count on that. Gunner’s a man of his word.”

Sydney said the same thing when I was in her shop. But somehow coming from one of his club brothers makes my heart leap. “You really think so?”

“I do.” He lifts his chin toward Gunner and Tweak in the corner. “He’ll do what he says he will. That’s a promise. And if he needs the club to help him, we’re there.”

My eyes unexpectedly fill with tears, and I have to look away and blink several times to hold them back. For the first time since I left Virginia, I actually feel almost hopeful.

“Here, and I’ve been talking your ear off all this time,” Thorn says cheerfully, “And no one’s offered you anything to drink. Would you like a beer?”

“Actually, yes,” I say thankfully.

He goes behind the bar to grab two cold bottles. “Our normal bartender’s not due in until a bit later,” Thorn tells me. “So I’m at your service.”

I can’t help but laugh at being waited on by a man who’s almost twice my size. Thorn nods approvingly. “There’s her smile,” he says. Twisting off the cap, he hands the beer to me. “And this will make you feel even better.”

“I hope so,” I say as I raise it to him and take a drink. “The last few days have been kind of tough.”

Thorn stays and chats with me flirtatiously, which should make me nervous but somehow doesn’t. By about halfway through my beer, I’m laughing uproariously at something he’s said, which seems to only spur him on.

Suddenly, Gunner’s there, standing next to me and eyeing Thorn with an expression I don’t quite understand, but which makes Thorn burst into loud laughter.

“Don’t worry, brother, ye’ve already marked yer territory,” he says in a teasing tone. “Seemed like the lady could use some cheering up, though, so I thought I’d oblige.”

“Yeah. Well, go oblige somewhere else,” Gunner warns in a tone I’ve never heard from him before. Thorn snorts and gives me a final wink, then moves away.

“Why were you being so rude to him?” I snap at Gunner as he pulls up a stool next to me. “He was just being nice.”

“Yeah,” Gunner mutters. “I’ve seen his ‘nice.’ That ain’t it.”

If I didn’t know better, I’d think Gunner was actually jealous. “Are you saying he was trying to make some sort of move on me?” I ask, half-angry. “I thought you said no one would try anything if you told them not to.”

“Thorn can’t help himself.” Gunner rolls his eyes and shakes his head. “He knows all he has to do is open his mouth and panties drop as soon as women hear the Irish accent.”

“So, you’re saying what?” I ask, my voice rising with my anger. “That I have no self-control? That I just automatically drop my panties whenever a guy wants me to?”

“Goddamnit, that’s not what I’m saying at all,” he grunts in exasperation. “Look. Subject closed.”

“No,” I spit back, my chin jutting out. “Subject open. Just what are you trying to say, then?”

Gunner’s eyes turn dark and stormy. “Right now, I’m trying to say you’re being a colossal pain in the ass.”

What the hell? Gunner’s never been like this with me. I don’t even understand why he’s so angry with me. It can’t be because he’s jealous of Thorn. Can it?

The idea that maybe he is jealous is enough to give me a little thrill. But unfortunately, I’m mad enough at what a jackass he’s being that anger overrides everything else.

“You know what, Gunner?” I hiss. “I appreciate that you are trying to help me find my sister. But after me waiting by myself for the better part of two solid days in your house with nothing to do, while you mostly ignore me, now you’re pissed that I’m actually having a conversation with someone else?” I plant my fists on my hips and square my stance. “I can talk to whomever I want, thank you very much. And just because you think you’re being some kind of hero protector doesn’t mean you get to control what I do and don’t do.”

“Little girl, you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about,” he growls.

“Don’t give me that,” I scoff. “You know damn well you’re trying to control me.”

“I ain’t trying a damn thing,” he half-roars. “I’m doing. It’s about time you learn that I’m already in control, darlin’.” Gunner grabs me roughly by the arm and pulls me toward a staircase leading to the second floor. “And two minutes from now, you’ll never doubt that again.”