“Goddamn it! Why didn’t I get her the tracker? I planned to and then I forgot. I wasn’t thinking that anyone was going to take her.” I moaned.
“Shit happens. We’ll find her. Bear, you stay with him.” Her dad nodded at Bull and took a seat.
The next fifteen minutes were some of the longest of my life. I saw that April’s car headed toward town. I saw when she got there and then I lost her on the main street video feed. I was about to throw my monitor through the window when Payne came back.
“We got the rest of the guys up to speed. We’re going to divide up into groups and go out looking for April’s car. Are you positive she’s the only one to come or go while Tarin was alone at the house?”
“Positive. It had to be her. How else would she have gotten out of here? Anyone else would still have to have a vehicle. None were along the wall perimeter. When I get my hands on April…” I growled.
“We’ll worry about making her pay after we find your woman. Bear, are you riding with me and Outlaw?”
I guess Payne had been assigned our babysitter. Probably a good thing, because neither of us was going to be very forgiving when we found April.
“Yep, I’m going with him. Let’s go. All I need to do is send Ilara a quick text. Who’s staying behind at the compound?” Bear asked him.
“We’re leaving Tate, Alex, and Mitch here. Come on.” We followed him out.
It was cold, so it looked like most were going in vehicles and not on their bikes. I got in my truck. When I found her, I didn’t want her on my bike. Payne got behind the wheel. I rode shotgun and Bear got in the backseat. The rest divided up to two per vehicle. I sent a group text and assigned each vehicle to a road. I planned to head the way I’d last seen April’s car going before I lost her and stay on that road, while the others would break off to search the side roads along that route.
The fifteen minutes it took to get to Hunters Creek and then headed out of town had me ready to pull out my hair. I tried not to think of what might be happening with her. Where was April taking her? What did she think she would accomplish by kidnapping her? Could she possibly be mixed up with whomever was sending the texts and notes to Tarin?
“Jesus Christ, can we go any faster?” Bear muttered.
“We could, but then we risk missing them if they might be along the road. There are a lot of roads between here and the next town, Bear. They could have gone to any of them. I know it’s slow, but we need to investigate them,” Payne told him quietly.
“I know. I just can’t stand not knowing where she is or what’s going on. April has been here for several years. I never imagined she’d do something like this.”
“I didn’t either, but she makes me wonder about the others. Are all of them feeling like she is? That our women are somehow cheating them out of being old ladies? If so, that’s fucking crazy. I know we have to have them around for the single guys and whenever guys who are single come to visit from the other clubs. Believe me, if we didn’t, I’d vote them out in a damn heartbeat,” I told him.
“Don’t think you have to keep them around for me. I’ve gotten over the taste for them and their bullshit. I can find my own women in town if it comes to that,” Payne said with a smirk.
“Or at that club you like to go to in Nashville,” Bear said with a grin.
“Or at the club in Nashville,” Payne agreed with a smirk. Our brother could be a little darker than the rest of us and when he wanted to play in that mood, he went to his club. He could find like-minded people there. I didn’t care what any of my brothers did when it came to sex, as long as it was with a legal-aged man or woman and consensual.
We were slowly looking from side to side as we went further down the road. I’d directed the others to take the main offshoot roads we’d passed. I planned to go so far and then work our way back to meet them somewhere in the middle. It would be tedious, but I didn’t have a choice.
We’d been driving for another half hour when we came around a dark turn. Being outside the limits of any town, it was dark as hell. No streetlights and we hadn’t seen a car. I was turning to look over toward the opposite side of the road when something light colored caught my attention. It was up ahead and appeared to me to be coming in our direction. I pointed. “What is that?”
All three of us strained our eyes to see as we came up on the form. As we got closer, I realized it was a person. Someone walking in light clothes. My heart started to beat almost out of my chest. I didn’t want to get my hopes up, but it looked the size and shape of Tarin. Payne sped up and stopped about fifty feet away. At this distance, I could see it was Tarin. She was shielding her eyes from the glare of the headlights.
I jumped out of the truck and ran toward her. “Tarin, baby, it’s me, Damian,” I yelled. I could hear Bear right behind me yelling her name too. As I got up to her, I saw she looked dirty and her hair was a mess. I wrapped her gently in my arms in case she was hurt. She sagged against me. She was shivering. She was in her nightclothes and it was cold.
“Oh my God, baby, are you alright? Are you hurt? Why are you walking in the dark? What happened to April?” I knew I wasn’t giving her a chance to answer, but I couldn’t stop. Bear had gotten to us and he gently took her out of my arms to hug her. While he did, I ran my hands down her arms and ribs.
“I’m okay. I’m okay,” she kept repeating. Payne moved the truck closer and got out. He was on his phone typing away. He must be telling the others we’d found her and where we were. I couldn’t stand it, I had to take her back. Bear didn’t look happy, but he understood. I rocked her in my arms.
“Thank God. What happened? We thought April took you.”
She raised her head and nodded. “She did. She surprised me. I thought it was you coming in the door. I was in the living room reading. Next thing I knew, she was on me. We struggled, then she hit me with something. I couldn’t focus. She forced me out to her car, which was in the driveway. I should have realized you wouldn’t be driving to the house. She put me in the backseat and tied my hands and then hit me again. I blacked out.”
“I’m going to kill that bitch,” Bear snarled.
“How did you get away? Where is she?” I asked even though I just wanted to hold her.
More vehicles came roaring up. She paused until they shut off their engines and the guys got out to run over to us. Thankfully, one of them had a blanket. I wrapped it around her. It took a minute or so to get them to quiet down. “I got away because she was a dumb bitch. She knocked me out but tied my hands in front of me and she didn’t do a very good job of it. When I came to, I forced her to stop.”
“How did you force her?” Payne asked with interest.