Road Tripped (Satan's Devils MC Utah #1) - Manda Mellett Page 0,86

is missing, I cut my engine at the same time as the others and dismount.

“Careful!” Snatcher holds up his hands. “Thor, Preacher. Fan out. You’re searching outside and be fuckin’ careful. Someone could be setting us up. Road, you’re with me.” He puts a hand to his ear. “You getting this, Stormy?” He listens for a moment, then turns to us. “He’s got a good line of sight. He’ll let me know if we’re likely to have visitors.”

I notice the front door is wide open. I start to approach when Snatcher pulls me back. “There could be booby traps. We go in carefully. And wear these.” He hands me a pair of latex gloves.

My eyes go wide as I turn to him, sliding the gloves over my hands. “What are we doing here, Snatcher? Is this another kidnapping? Whose house is this?”

“You don’t fuckin’ know?” His eyes are wide.

Sheepishly I tell him, “Not a clue, man. I got to the meeting late.”

“Fuck.” His lips narrow. “It’s Swift’s house. Her security system’s gone dead.”

“Swift?” I feel frozen to the spot. “She’s in there?”

“Hopefully we’ll find her fast asleep in bed with not a clue anything’s wrong.” But from Snatcher’s face, he doubts it.

I try to push past him, and he holds me back. “Careful,” he growls. “Keep your fuckin’ eyes open. We don’t know what’s happened here. Could be a home invasion.”

And Swift wouldn’t have heard a fucking thing, not with her security system taken out.

My hangover now pushed far back in my mind, holding my gun in front of me, I swing right and left, searching for any fucking thing. Snatcher waves me to the kitchen area, but there’s nothing there, and no sign of Swift. Having cleared the main room, even checking behind curtains, making sure no one’s hanging around, I follow the direction where Snatcher had gone. This hallway leads to a bathroom and two bedrooms. The door is open to one. It’s obviously a guest room, minimal furniture in here. Snatcher’s in the next. He holds out his hand to prevent me entering, but looking around his head, all I can see is an empty bed. For a brief second, I’m relieved not to see Swift’s dead body lying there.

“Looks like a struggle.” Snatcher points to the sheets tangled on the floor. “And she’s fuckin’ gone.”

Gone? Swift? How the fuck? And how could anyone get the better of her? “She’s a fuckin’ expert in self-defence. She wrote the fuckin’ book. No one could get the drop on her.”

“They could,” he answers, while smoothing his hand around the doorframe. “She’s deaf, remember?”

“Not with her hearing aids.” But she takes them out at night, I remember, and easing to stand alongside him, I notice them on the bedside table. Shit and double shit. But still, I can’t see how anyone could get the drop on her. “Her room at the clubhouse, she told me that was all set up with warnings which vibrate or lights which flash.” But she wasn’t in the clubhouse. A chilling thought occurs to me. “You let her live off compound in a home that was unprotected?”

Snatcher’s face is dark as he abandons his check on the door and rounds on me. “Did you not hear a word Pip had said? What do you fuckin’ take us for? Swift had every piece of equipment it was possible to procure and install to keep her safe.” He flicks the switch beside the door, and points to the overhead light which remained dead. “Every electronic fuckin’ device.”

Comprehension dawns on me. “The electricity was cut off.”

“We’d catered for that too. Whoever did this, knew not only how to get to the mains, but to cripple her backup generator as well.”

“But why take Swift?” I try to focus on that, not to think of the woman who, expert she might be at defending herself, is terrified and vulnerable when her ability to remain alert is taken away. I try not to imagine how scared she must have been when intruders broke in and stole her away. I hit on a better solution. “Maybe something happened, and she’s gone somewhere.”

“I would love to think that, Road. But someone knew how to take her electronics out. They knew what they were doing.” He puts his hand to his ear and shakes his head. “Her jeep and bike are in the garage. She wouldn’t have walked anywhere, not this time of night. And not without taking those.” He points to the hearing