in my life now. Who knows what fucking choice I would have made that day they showed up with him if it hadn’t been for her? For her big mouth, for the way she wasn’t afraid to tell me to wake my fucking shit up and remind me that having a toxic parent wouldn’t make me one.
Because of her, I chose to be the father mine never was. And I wasn’t about to walk this path without her in it.
She was made to be by my side.
Wearing my colors.
Raising my son.
Our son.
We sped back to the clubhouse, my intention to call church, bring my brothers in, and let them know what the fuck was going on and to see if we could come up with something. Fucking anything that could help us find her.
Though, when I pulled in through the gates, I caught sight of someone sitting at one of the barbecue tables out the front, and a wave of fucking anger rushed through me. It was so hot I swerved my bike, pulling it to a sharp stop beside them and climbing off.
“Shotgun…” Shake warned, stepping out of the building and falling in behind me as I stormed toward her. She leaped to her feet when she saw me coming like she was preparing to run if she had to. Shake stayed hot on my heels, but the rest of my men I could feel settling into the background, keeping their distance, not wanting to crowd her in case she freaked out.
Her hands came up, her palms flat like she was surrendering or trying to let me know she was unarmed.
“The fuck are you doing here?”
She swallowed hard but didn’t answer.
“I don’t have time to deal with your issues right now, Holly. I’ve got bigger fucking prob—”
“I know where she is.”
It was like a punch straight in the gut. Her voice was different, her posture different, the air swirling around her calm. So fucking eerie.
The fact Holly knew she was fucking missing told me something. She wasn’t just in the shit with Beta Beta, she was somehow twisted up with Garrett Drake. I tried not to lose my shit. She knew where Avery was, so I needed to breathe and listen. “How do you know where she is, Holly.”
“Because I’m a cop.”
Or not.
AVERY
A groan vibrated in the bottom of my throat. My mouth was dry, and the taste on my tongue was bitter. I blinked and blinked again, trying to fight past the darkness to see where the hell I was, but as it turned out, no matter how hard I tried to clear my vision, the room stayed pitch black, the single sliver of light coming from what looked like the bottom of a door.
My body was sore, aching, and it wasn’t just the muscles, but all over.
I yanked hard at my hands which were tied to the side of the bed I was on. My body turned on my right side. I pulled again, the pain shooting through them and up my arms forcing a painful whimper from my mouth.
“Don’t pull. They just get tighter.”
It was like ice moving through my veins, the voice coming from the darkness.
The effects of Garrett’s drugs were still sitting under my skin and fogging my brain, but I knew instantly who I was with. “Thayleah?”
Silence.
Our breathing growing heavier.
“How do you know my name?”
“We’ve been looking for you,” I told her. “My name’s Avery. Emma put my boyfriend’s name down as Gage’s dad. He’s been with us since...” I held my tongue, knowing right now wasn’t the best time to discuss her sister’s murder.
More silence and shuffling sheets.
They sounded like plastic, definitely not Egyptian cotton.
“Shotgun?”
“You’ve heard of him?”
“Emma talked about him sometimes,” she explained. I even thought I could hear a smile in her voice. “She told me he was the club president, that he was in charge of protecting everyone, and that if anything ever happened, I should try to find him.”
Emma knew.
She knew at some point something was going to happen, so she made contingency plans. She made sure Gage would be given to Shotgun, and she made sure that if Thayleah hadn’t gotten tangled up in this mess, she would have found him eventually too.
Emma wanted them to be together. She wanted them to be safe. Protected. And I was going to get the both of us out of here, so Thayleah could finally feel that safety and move on from this horrible fucking torture Garrett was putting her