circling but they seemed to be well aware of who we were and how dangerous it would be to force their presence on us uninvited. “Stop kneeling there with her and take her to a fucking ambulance.” He shoved Fox who got to his feet, clutching her tighter against him.
We all moved after him and I picked Mutt up, rubbing his head and whispering a thank you in his ear for finding her. He whined as he stared at her, looking as desperate as I felt to be closer.
We got down to the ambulances and paramedics hurried together, laying Rogue on a stretcher as Di, Lyla and Bella came running over from where they’d been digging.
“Holy shit, bitch!” Lyla cried, tears rolling down her cheeks. “We were so worried.”
“Just a little house on my head, no big deal,” Rogue said through a hiccup of laughter then winced as one of the paramedics started cleaning the wound on her leg. Her gaze found mine and darkness swirled in her eyes as tears gathered there. I stepped closer, placing Mutt on top of her and he snuggled down on her stomach, licking her arm.
“Find Chase,” she ordered me. “Please, JJ. You have to find him.”
Di, Bella and Lyla all piled into the ambulance and I expected Fox to go too, but he just squeezed her ankle and stepped back.
“We’ll find him, hummingbird,” Fox promised, his brows knitting together as the doors were pulled closed and the ambulance drove away. We stood there for several long seconds and I was surprised when Maverick strode straight back up onto the wreckage and started digging again.
I shared a look with Fox and we strode after him while Luther headed off to speak with some of the Crew. The three of us fell back into a rhythm as we dug for our brother and my heart started to crack again as I feared the worst.
“If you hadn’t kicked him out of the Crew, he would have been with us. He would have gotten out,” I bit at Fox, fear cleaving my chest apart.
“Don’t,” Fox warned, his jaw ticking as he threw a huge piece of marble over his shoulder.
“He’s all alone down there, and what if he died thinking we hate him?” I demanded, my throat sore from inhaling the dust and making my voice hoarse.
“Stop it, JJ,” Fox growled, digging more furiously, his muscles bunching and flexing as he refused to look at me.
“He was sorry,” I croaked. “Things could have been different. We could have worked something out.”
“I said stop it!” he snapped, looking up at me with a snarl on his lips. “Just dig.”
“You didn’t have to do what you did,” I pressed, my heart like a wild animal in my chest as emotion tore me apart. “You didn’t have to banish him.”
“I should have killed him,” he hissed, glaring at me with his upper lip curled back. “Don’t you get that? He should already be dead, Johnny James, but I let him go. He got off lightly for what he did. He betrayed us. He betrayed Rogue.”
“He didn’t mean it,” I rasped.
“You’re only soft on him because it’s Chase,” he spat. “If it was anyone else you would have cheered me on to put him in the ground.”
“That’s the point though, isn’t it?” I demanded, stepping closer to him as fury pounded through me. “You know Chase. You know who he is, and he’s not some traitor.”
“That’s exactly what he is,” he growled, staring me down, a warning in his eyes.
The whole Crew was here, if I challenged Fox he was going to put me in my place, but right now maybe I’d relish the violence.
Maverick was watching us curiously, but he kept his opinions to himself, if he even had any.
“You didn’t give him a chance,” I snarled, getting up in his face.
“Back. Down,” he said through his teeth.
“You don’t get to be the king when it comes to the five of us,” I snapped. “I should have had a say in what happened to him. So should Rogue. It wasn’t Crew business.”
“Everything is Crew business.” He shoved me back a step but I came at him again, just an inch away from his face as my muscles tightened with the need for a fight. “We don’t get the luxury of being a democracy anymore, JJ. We’re not kids. This is real life. And he fucked us over. I had to send him away.”
“No you didn’t!” I threw my shoulder into