I ripped it free of the cord, frantically jabbing at the contact.
It rang three times before Trent’s recorded voice came on the line.
“Fuck,” I spat, then started to rattle off the message when it beeped. “There’s trouble, Trent. Carlo is here and the bastard is after Salem. Think Darius is somehow involved. I don’t know…fuck…I just…”
Could barely get it out, words breaking as I tried to explain. “There’s a bunch of shit I don’t have time to explain, but I think she’s in danger. She left here panicked. Need you to keep a lookout for her at her place. I know she’s set on leaving town, but I’m not sure if she will go there first. I’m gonna…”
My eyes pinched closed.
Because I didn’t fuckin’ know…didn’t know what I was going to do. I just knew I couldn’t sit there idle. Couldn’t wait. “Just keep an eye out.”
Ending the call, I grabbed my jeans from the ground and yanked them on, pulled my tee over my head before I was shoving my feet into my boots. I tucked my phone into my back pocket, then I made a beeline to my closet where I kept my safe. I punched in the code and cranked it open.
I tossed on my holster, loaded it up, and I was blazing out the main door and running downstairs.
Ready to go on a hunt.
Hitting the ground floor, I jogged for my bike.
I stalled out when I saw the dark figure curled up on the floor near the middle bay. My eyes narrowed, and my heart hammered.
Shock slammed me when I realized there was a person bound on the floor.
I streaked that direction, pulling my handgun from the holster as I went.
Dread nearly dropped me to my knees when I saw it was Logan. Tied up and beat to hell. A thick piece of tape covered his mouth.
Blood pooled around his sagging, limp form. Felt bad that I took comfort in the moan that vibrated from him where he lay on his side.
“Fuck, Logan, I’ve got you, man. Hold on.”
I tried to get the tape off without ripping it, without hurting him more, but he was shouting something behind it.
“I’m sorry, man.” I issued it before I gave up and tore it free because I didn’t see any other way around it.
Except, in an instant, he was screaming, “Go, Jud, go. It’s a distraction. I’m a fucking distraction. Go!”
“What—”
He cut me off. “I’m just a warning, Jud. A distraction. Pulled me from my bed in the middle of the night and planted me here. It’s clear it’s not me he wants. It’s you and Salem. They would have put a bullet in me rather than kicking the shit out of me otherwise, and you know it. Go. Find her.”
I warred for the barest fraction of a second before I pulled my switchblade from my pocket, flicked it open, dragged it through the thin rope to free him.
Second he was, he shouted, “Go, man. Go!”
I was on my feet, racing for my bike, pushing the button to the garage door as I passed. It opened, and I dialed 9-1-1, shouting the address to the shop, saying I needed a paramedic at Iron Ride, then shouting I needed an officer at Salem’s house, that a mother and child were in danger.
The operator tried to ask for more details, but I ended it and hopped on my bike, and I was on the road, flying through town. Traveling so fast that the streets blurred beneath me. Lines becoming one. The sky a quickened haze above.
I only had one thing I could see.
One destination.
One purpose.
I would set this one thing right.
Give a new life to this girl who’d become everything. One who I wanted to live. To find joy. For her sweet Juni Bee to fly free.
In a daze of fury, I made the last turn into their neighborhood. I pinned the throttle, flying up the short hill where the houses rested back in the cover of trees.
Then the air heaved from my lungs, and I thought my ribs were gonna cave. A gush of horror shocking free as I squinted into the distance.
Juni.
Juni was running up the sidewalk.
Alone.
A cyclone of terror rippled around her.
I skidded to a stop beside her and was off faster than I could make sense of it.
She ran for me, her precious little face soaked with fear. I had her in my arms in a flash of desperation.
Relief slammed me. A punch to the gut. A riot in my soul.
“Motorcycle Man. You cames to save us. The bad man is here.” She cried it where she’d burrowed her face in the side of my neck, words distorted in my beard.
But I felt them ricochet through my spirit.
And every promise I’d made to myself fell away.
The commitment to be better.