They loaded us back into the SUV after securing Gentry’s hands with zip ties. One of the leather-clad men got behind the wheel while the others gathered their bikes and offered us an escort back toward Memphis. We were taken to a warehouse on the wrong side of town, a building with so many broken windows and bullet holes in the corrugated steel walls that it looked as though it belonged in a city ravaged by war rather than this southern American city.

The Mad Dog clubhouse, I guessed. And I was pretty sure most of those bullet holes had been put there by Stone Security.

No wonder they were so pissed!

They dragged us inside, some of them taking a great deal of pleasure in shoving Gentry through the door.

“Looky here!” one of them hooted. “One of the great Stone brothers! What a fucking coup this is!”

I held Noah close to me, hiding his face in my dress as I walked under my own power into the club. It was a big empty room that looked as though it had once contained furniture and maybe a pool table or two. The only furniture there now was a group of folding chairs where they forced us to sit, tying each of us to the legs of the chairs so that we couldn’t get up and move around. One of the men grabbed my arm and forced me to let go of Noah. I cried out and the man smacked me, the pain reminding me this was no longer a game.

“Sit the fuck down, or we’ll make this little boy regret it.”

I immediately sat, holding up my hands to show that I fully intended to cooperate. “Don’t hurt him!”

“As long as you cooperate, the kid will be fine.”

I didn’t fight them as they tied me to the chair, my eyes never leaving Noah. He was shaking, but that was his only reaction to what was happening around him. I was worried that his pump had already run out of insulin and he was having a reaction to high sugars. But the alarm on my phone hadn’t begun to go off yet.

Maybe it was just shock. Whichever, he was probably doing himself a favor by not reacting to what was happening around him.

Once I was secured to a chair, they pushed Noah to the floor at my feet. They didn’t bother to tie him up, which was both a blessing and a potential sin. What if Noah came to his senses and tried to run away? What would they do to him?

“None of you ladies will be hurt as long as you do as you’re told,” one of the men said as he moved to the center of the room. “We are not interested in you. However, we are deeply interested in your men. That is why you are here.”

“If you’re hoping to draw Jack out, you’re making a big mistake.” Raelyn spat on the floor from the chair she was tied to. “He’s not stupid enough to fall for your tricks.”

“You think so, sweetheart?” The man walked over to her, bending low so that his lips were close to her ear. “Let’s just wait and see.”

“Leave her alone,” Gentry demanded.

The man turned, a smile on his thick lips. “How gallant, protecting your brother’s whore! Just like a Stone.”

“Your beef is with Jack and Brent. Why bring these women into it?” Gentry’s eyes narrowed as he regarded the man. “Seems cowardly to me.”

“Not cowardly. Brilliant.” The man walked over to Gentry, stopping just a few feet in front of him, his legs spread as he rested his hands on his hips, almost like a professor preparing to give a long lecture on his favorite topic. “Brent and Jack are, at this moment, fighting a small group of men on the property who will, in a few minutes, pretend as though they’ve been suitably defeated. Then, while the Stones are celebrating their supposed victory, we will send them a video clip of the attack on your SUV with a nice little note inviting them to come get their women back.” He smiled again, pleased with his own perceived brilliance. “When they arrive here, they’ll walk into an ambush.”

“You really think they’re so stupid that they’d allow you to trick them that way?” Gentry laughed. “You really have underestimated them.”

The man turned slowly, surveying the room. There were a dozen men dressed in leather with thin cotton ski masks over their faces, one between each of the chairs we sat tethered to.

“I know you,” he said, moving back over to Raelyn, flicking a piece of hair from her face. “You’re Jack’s bitch. And you.” Dane flinched as he walked over to her. “You’re the fucking bitch my brother became so obsessed with, Brent’s bitch.” Remy stared him in the eye as he approached her. “The sister. We’ve met before.” His gaze fell on Carson for a brief moment, but he didn’t seem anxious to approach her. Was he the one she kicked in the nuts when he tried to rape her? It wouldn’t surprise me.

Then he turned to me.

“This is your woman, isn’t she?”

Gentry sat taller in his chair, his chest puffed out like he was ready to break through his restraints and attack the closest body. The man just laughed at his show of bravado.

He moved closer to me, nearly kicking Noah in the side in his eagerness. He brushed a piece of hair out of my face, making a tsk-ing sound at the sight of the smear of blood on my cheek from the bloody lip his slap had given me.

He grabbed my chin and forced me to look up at him, admiration in his eyes along with something else that scared the shit out of me.

“You’re too beautiful for this asshole.” He shook his head as though he thought my relationship status was a real disappointment. “You’d look incredible on the back of a bike.”

“Leave her alone,” Gentry growled.

The man turned toward Gentry, his hand still on my chin. “That’s the thing about your current predicament, Mr. Stone. You’re not really in a position to tell me what to do.”

“Snake told me you were a smart guy.”

The man spun on his heel and marched across to Raelyn, staring down at her as though he couldn’t believe she had the nerve to speak.

“Snake was an idiot. There are so many bitches out there willing to be a guy’s old lady. He didn’t need to chase after someone who clearly wasn’t interested anymore. He refused to listen.” He touched her face, causing her to jerk back. “Look what that got him. Six feet fucking under!”

“I guess he was wrong about you, too, Bulldog!”

Carson stiffened in her chair as though she’d been hit with an electrical charge. And the man…well, he didn’t seem too pleased that his disguise hadn’t fooled anyone. He yanked the ski mask off his head and bent low, placing his face close to Raelyn’s face.

“We all know about you, Rae. Snake liked to talk when he was drunk and he was drunk a lot when he was here.” He caressed her face again, his fingers linger close to her pulse. “I know everything about you, know how you take your coffee, how you danced for a living until a few months ago. I even know which position you like best in bed.”

“Your beef is with me, asshole!” Gentry called out. “Why don’t you come over here instead of tormenting the ladies?”

Bulldog ignored Gentry. “I wasn’t going to hurt any of you ladies, but the idea of taking Jack Stone’s girl is kind of appealing, I must admit. Especially when she looks like you.”

Bulldog reached down and grabbed at Rae’s inner thigh. She jerked, her chair tipping dangerously back. Bulldog gave her shoulder a shove and laughed as she fell over, slamming her head on the bare floor.

“You people think you’re so much better than us! You think because you live in fancy houses and skirt the thin line of morality that you can hold your heads higher than ours.” He shook his head as he looked around the room, his angry glare resting on Carson briefly before moving on. “I’m about to show you that when it comes down to it, you’re no better than the rest of us.”

He approached Dane next. She turned her head, a small sob slipping from between her lips. He grabbed her jaw harder than he had to, jerking her head around to force her to look at him.

“You’re the bitch who got my brother locked up.” He leaned close to her, making her shudder violently against her restraints. “Wonder how his trial would go if you weren’t there to testify.”

“Stop!”

I don’t know why I said it. I just couldn’t stand to see Dane like that. She was beautiful and kind and she didn’t deserve what he was doing. I didn’t know the details about what happened to her, but I knew enough to see that it was torture for her just being in this building.

Bulldog glanced at me, a big smile slipping across his nasty face.

“Oh, this is going to be fun!”

He marched over, shoving Noah aside with the side of his foot. His eyes moved dangerously over me, his gaze like a physical touch. And it wasn’t a pleasant one.

“You are fucking beautiful!” He dropped into a squat in front of me. “What is it about these Stone guys that they attract such beautiful women? Do they have big dicks? Or is it the whole security thing? Does it make you wet to know your man is a trained killer?”

He wrapped his big hand around my ankle, his eyes never leaving mine. He watched me, gaging my reaction as he moved that hand slowly up my leg, his palm rough as it slid over the back of my calf. I kept my expression as neutral as I could even though every nerve in my body was crawling. But then he touched the back of my knee and I couldn’t help but cringe.

“Let me tell you something about bikers…”

He leaned into me, his hand sliding under my skirt and up over the top of my thigh. He was still staring at me, crazy in his eyes that grew the closer he got to my hip.

“Please, stop.”

He licked his bottom lip as his fingertips brushed the bottom edge of my panties. “We bikers tend to be pretty fucking hot lovers. Not that we take our time with a bitch—there’re too many of them out there for us to give a shit about your pleasure—but we always fuck like it’s the last time we’re ever going to do it because, well, it just might be, what with our line of work. Brothers are shot, arrested, or just beaten to death every day. So we work hard and party harder.”

I twisted in the chair, pulling as far away from him as the restraints would allow, but they didn’t allow much leeway. In fact, my movement only allowed him better access to the line of my ass. He took advantage, sliding his hand over my hip and along the curve of my ass, his fingers searching for the edge of my panties.

“Bastard!” Gentry bellowed. “Leave her alone!”

Bulldog laughed. “He thinks he has power over this situation. Hate to break it to him…”

It was almost intimate, the way he was talking to me. I jerked my body, succeeding in moving the chair a few inches, but nothing more. His hand was still inching over my body, moving painfully slow like he knew exactly what he was doing to my sense of security and was enjoying it.

I could hear Gentry pulling and tugging at his restraints, could hear his chair scraping against the ground. He was going crazy trying to get free, growls slipping from between his lips. Some of the other bikers were laughing at the show he was putting on and Dane was quietly weeping as she watched what Bulldog was doing to me.

“You promised not to hurt anyone,” Remy reminded anyone who was listening.

“We promised not to hurt any of you ladies,” Bulldog reminded her. “And I won’t. But that doesn’t mean we can’t have a little fun while we wait for your men to get here.”

An alarm went off in the silence after Bulldog spoke. I knew it immediately, but the bikers didn’t. A few guns came up as Bulldog yanked his hand away from me and stood. He conferred with one of his men as my eyes shot to Noah. He was unconscious on the floor, a dark purple lump visible on the side of his head.

“Ami?”

“His sugars are too high.” I sat up a little straighter, inching my chair to turn in the direction of Bulldog. “Listen to me! My son is diabetic and his pump has run out of insulin! He needs a doctor.”

Bulldog didn’t respond. He was too busy speaking to his buddy.

“Hey! Asshole!”

He glanced at me then, irritation clear in every line of his body. He marched over and pushed me back, leaning over me. “Who the hell do you think you are?”

“My son is sick. He needs a doctor!”

“That’s too bad. He ain’t getting one here.”

“Some water,” Carson cut in. “You could get him something to drink. It’ll keep him from getting too dehydrated.”

Bulldog was still glaring at me, his face inches from mine. But he slowly turned and focused on Carson for a brief second. Then he stood, pushing so hard against my chair that it teetered on the back legs before it finally settled back down on all four.

“Get a bottle of water,” Bulldog barked at one of his men.

I mouthed a thanks to Carson and she nodded, but there was clear concern in her eyes as they fell to where Noah was lying beside my chair. She knew as well as I did that the water wasn’t a solution. If Noah didn’t get his insulin within the next few hours, he could go into a coma. That coupled with the blow to his head he’d taken in the car could spell real trouble.

I couldn’t be here again. I couldn’t lose my son so soon after losing my dad.

My eyes shot to Gentry. He was watching closely, something like desperation in his eyes. “Hey, Bulldog!”

Bulldog turned, crossing his arms over his chest as he regarded Gentry. “What?”

“Why don’t you stop torturing these innocent ladies and prove your manhood.”

“How would you like me to do that?”

“Fight me.”

Bulldog stood absolutely still for a moment, then he threw back his head and laughed. “You’re joking, right?”

“What? Are you afraid you’ll lose?”

That shut him up. Bulldog froze, as did all the bikers in the room, including the guy who had been crossing the room with that bottle of water. It was like a massive sword had just settled over the room, preparing to take a victim.

“Are you a coward?” Gentry pushed him. “Are you afraid that you can’t match my skills?”

“You really think you’re a tough son of a bitch!” Bulldog shook his head. “You don’t know shit about fighting like a real man. While you were sitting in your plush house in Germantown, I was living on the streets, learning to fight just to survive!”

“Prove it. Prove you’re better than me.” Gentry met his gaze unflinchingly. “Fight me.”

Again, that heavy silence fell over the room. Bulldog studied Gentry, clearly weighing his options. If he refused to fight, he might damage his reputation in front of his men. But if he did and it didn’t go well, he could make things even worse for himself. It was my guess that losing both the drug and weapons business as well as the money laundering scam he had going with the former police chief, and having his own brother arrested, had taken a toll on his authority with the other bikers. If he lost this fight against one of his enemies, an enemy he’d brought into the clubhouse himself, it would ruin him once and for all.

  I hoped Gentry knew what he was doing.

“Alright,” Bulldog drawled. “Cut him loose.”

“Gentry…!”

He winked at me as one of the bikers cut his flex cuffs.

The water for Noah forgotten, everything forgotten, the room fell deadly quiet as Bulldog removed his leather vest and t-shirt, moving in a slow jog around the circle created by our chairs to warm his muscles up. Gentry stood and rubbed his wrists before removing his jacket and tie, rolling up the white sleeves of his dress shirt. He’d been in a dark suit for the funeral, a highly inappropriate choice of clothing for what was about to go down.

“No weapons,” Gentry said.

“No rules,” Bulldog countered.

“Gentry,” Remy hissed under her breath as she watched him approach Bulldog.

I couldn’t look, but I couldn’t pull my eyes away. The alarm on my phone went off again, prompting Bulldog to gesture toward me. One of his men immediately came over and took his time searching my person for the phone, finally finding it in the pocket of my skirt. He dropped it on the floor and crushed it under the heel of his boot. The alarm died along with my only source of information on Noah’s condition in that moment. There was a receiver for the CGM, but Chloe had it.

Where the hell was Chloe? Had she notified Jack and Brent that we hadn’t arrived at the house? Were they on their way?

I wasn’t even sure that was something we wanted at this moment. Did it really make sense for more of us to be placed in danger?

Gentry and Bulldog circled each other in the center of the room for a few minutes, Bulldog taking a few practice swings in Gentry’s general direction that didn’t connect. Gentry moved easily out of his way each time, his movements almost dancelike. I chewed the inside of my cheek raw as I watched, convinced that I was about to lose everything I’d fought so hard these last few weeks to get back.

I hated to contradict Remy, but this wasn’t like being married to a cop. This was living with constant chaos, never knowing what might come next.

The first blow filled the room with a sickening skin-on-skin contact, a bone-crushing pop that cut right through my heart because it was a blow against Gentry’s jaw. Blood began to flow almost immediately from a cut on his chin, dripping down to soil his white shirt.

This wasn’t going well.

But then Gentry stepped in to Bulldog and landed three quick blows to his abdomen, causing him to double over for an instant. Bulldog recovered quickly, throwing his arms over Gentry’s neck and slamming his knee into his crotch. Gentry moved at the last instant, catching the blow with his hipbone. Then he pushed Bulldog backward, causing him to stumble until he crashed into one of his men.

Raelyn laughed. Another of the bikers backhanded her, sending her chair tumbling over again. But it didn’t stop her laughter, despite the fact that I could see her eye was already swelling when one of the kinder bikers set her back up.

They sparred a few minutes longer, taking little swipes here and there as they danced around each other. Gentry got a good blow in against the side of Bulldog’s head, making him see stars for a second. But he backed off instead of going at him a second time, making me wonder what the hell he was doing. Was he just trying to buy time?

And then I realized that was exactly what he was doing. Gentry was distracting Bulldog from me and the other ladies while he waited for Jack and Brent to show up. He was trying to protect us.

Why did he have to be gallant now?

I closed my eyes, whispering a little prayer. “Hurry, Jack!”

Bulldog swung and got Gentry square in the jaw for a second time. The other bikers cheered, but it seemed to me there was a definite lack of enthusiasm in their voices. I looked around, tried to figure out what these men were thinking. They weren’t watching us, weren’t even paying that much attention to the fight. A few even looked bored.

Had Bulldog already lost the confidence of his people?

And where were the others? There were a dozen, maybe a few more. I’d heard about the things that had gone down here in this clubhouse over the past few months, heard about the raid that ended in the arrest of Bulldog’s brother, heard about the raids Stone Security had run here themselves over the past months. The news reports always made it sound as though the club had nearly a hundred members. Where were the rest?

They couldn’t all be at Stone Security.

Had they abandoned Bulldog? Did that mean we might actually have a chance?

I twisted my hands where they were cuffed behind my back, twisted until I felt the skin break and blood begin to ooze out from under the plastic. I had to get free. I had to help Gentry.

Remy cried out when Gentry took another blow, this time to the center of his chest. But then Gentry hit back, slamming his fist into the side of Bulldog’s head over and over until Bulldog pulled back, clearly disoriented. He shook his head a few times, growling under his breath as he struggled to focus on Gentry.

Bulldog was a few inches shorter than Gentry, but he probably had eighty pounds on him. So when he lowered his head and ran toward Gentry, my heart jumped into my throat. I was thinking broken bones, internal injuries. But I should have had more faith in Gentry. He stepped out of the way and Bulldog barreled into one of his own men.

“Come on, man,” I could hear the biker hiss near Bulldog’s ear. “You can take him!”

Bulldog turned and rushed toward Gentry again. I saw a flash of something just before he hit Gentry, delivering a blow to Gentry’s lower abdomen. Gentry grabbed Bulldog’s hair and yanked his head back, smashing the side of his hand into Bulldog’s windpipe. The man went limp, his big body crashing into the ground as he pressed a hand to his throat. It was quick and smooth, an expert takedown if there ever was one.

Raelyn burst into laughter again as Carson, Remy, and Dane cheered. My throat was too clogged with tears to do much more than gasp for air.

And then there was the knife.

I’d seen the flash of metal just before Bulldog offered his final blow to Gentry’s abdomen, but it hadn’t registered what it was. But Gentry was prying it out of the other man’s hand now, pressing the sharpened end against his throat.

“No weapons,” Gentry growled.

“No rules,” Bulldog gasped.

Gentry nodded, his eyes flashing to the other bikers as he held their leader supine on the ground. They didn’t move. No one took a step forward to save their leader, but they didn’t walk away, either.

“This is over now!” Gentry announced. “No more.”

“It’ll be over when I’m dead,” Bulldog countered.

“That can be arranged.”

Bulldog jerked his head back, his eyes narrowed and dark with crazy as he stared his men down. “You’re really going to just stand there and let him threaten me?”

Silence.

“Fucking bastards!”

Bulldog lunged forward and Gentry made a slicing motion and it was over in the flash of an eye. Blood was everywhere, splattered over Gentry’s shirt, on the ground, pooling around Bulldog’s head. He was holding his throat, gasping for breath, but he wasn’t going to get it this time. As we all sat there and watched him bleed out, doors and windows around us burst open, men in black cargo pants and heavy boots marching inside, their automatic weapons raised.

Stone Security had just arrived.