“Oh shit.” Her heart began to race. “Oh shit!” With a hand griping her stomach, she spun and began to look for her phone.
That wasn’t Judge outside her door.
Fuck! It wasn’t any of the Fury members at all!
She frantically moved about the room. What the hell happened to her cell phone?
Then she heard it.
A noise that froze her in place. That seized her heart. That sucked every last molecule of oxygen from her lungs.
Even though the door was metal, the frame was not. And it couldn’t withstand the force they were using on it. It gave way.
The lock had been useless all along.
She’d never been safe there. She’d been given a false sense of security.
That had been Sig’s mistake.
She should have left town right away. She should’ve kept running at the bottom of that mountain and never stopped.
Not for Sig. Not for anyone.
And that had been her mistake.
“Oh shit.” She was afraid to turn around.
The front door was her only avenue of escape.
And they were coming through it.
With burning eyes, she grabbed her stomach with both hands, dropped her head and whispered, “I’m sorry, baby. I’m so sorry.”
Because she would not survive going up that mountain again.
They didn’t tell him.
They didn’t fucking tell him.
They waited until he was done with that fucking tow for Dutch and had come back to the farm with the wrecker.
Because they didn’t want him to go up there alone.
Because if he had known, he would have.
Instead, he had no idea how long Red had been up there.
No fucking idea because they could only guess.
Judge had told Trip what he found when he brought Red her food. Then Trip got everyone else together.
Everyone but him.
Trip said he didn’t want Sig flipping the fuck out.
But that wasn’t good enough.
It wasn’t.
Trip should’ve told him immediately.
Trip should’ve told him that the Shirleys knocked out Easy who was guarding the end of the lane, then drove up to the bunkhouse without anyone to stop them.
Everybody had been gone.
Including Sig.
He’d left her alone, thinking she’d be safe.
She wasn’t.
He’d been wrong.
So fucking wrong.
Judge said the only way they could’ve known where Red was at on the farm was by watching. And there were plenty of woods and buildings on the farm where they could hide and do so.
Those motherfuckers spied on them. On her.
They had planned for the right moment.
They had waited for the right time.
And when it came, when all his brothers were gone, doing the shit they needed to do, taking care of the responsibilities they had, those fuckers moved in.
And they fucking stole her.
They fucking stole her.
He promised her she’d be safe.
He fucked up.
Again.
There was no way she could run this time, not in the condition she was in. She needed them to get her free this time. She needed them to go up there and steal her back.
Because the Shirleys were not keeping her.
They were not taking that kid.
They weren’t getting anything but dead.
As soon as he had parked the rollback, he received a text from Trip to come straight into The Barn.
And when he did, every fucking member of the Fury was there. Waiting.
His gut had twisted when he saw their faces.
What they couldn’t hide.
And Stella’s face was ravaged. Her eyes were red, her nose was swollen and tears slid unchecked down her face.
And that woman was tougher than any other woman he knew.
It was seeing her that almost made him fall to his knees right there. On the floor in that barn.
Somehow he’d kept himself on his feet and they circled him, blocked him from running to the nearest exit. Blocked him from jumping on his sled and riding to that compound as fast as it would take him.
Trip was talking, Judge was talking, all of them were talking.
They were talking and not doing a fucking thing.
But he heard none of it.
All he saw was Red.
That shed.
That breeding bench.
And the image on the ultrasound.
They were not getting her.
They were not getting that fucking kid.
“Everybody can’t go,” someone was saying. Maybe Trip.
Sig’s head was spinning so hard, he had a hard time concentrating on the discussion.
“Need everybody available,” someone else said. Judge. “Gotta go in quietly. They’re heavily armed. And they’ll be expectin’ us.”
He was tired of all the talk, they needed to act. And they needed to do it now.
“Someone’s gotta stay back with Easy. He might have a fuckin’ concussion.” He had no idea who said that and he didn’t care. His only concern right now was Red.
“Think they’d cut that kid outta her? Would they do some fucked up shit like that?”
“My guess is that they waited ‘til she was almost due to get her back. Who knows, maybe they’ll let her go once she has it.”
Sig’s brain exploded and he screamed, “We’re not waitin’ ‘til then! We’re doin’ this now!”
“Yeah, brother, we’re not waitin’,” Trip said, way too fucking calmly.