I knew Harmony wasn’t going to make it easy on me. The drive down south back to Troy was tense to say the least. Harmony acknowledged me with grunts and yes’s and no’s, but other than that she barely said a word.
I followed my boys into a gas station about an hour and a half out of town. It wasn’t a long ride and we could have done it easily without stopping, so I was curious so see why they had pulled off.
“Need to use the bathroom?” I asked Harmony as we pulled into a parking space next to my Brothers.
She nodded and climbed out of the car without another word.
I sighed, wiping my hand down my face in agitation before jumping from the cab onto the ground. “We stop for any particular reason?”
Mix blew out a puff of smoke and nodded toward one of my boys Grease, who was pulled up at the garage connected to the gas station. “He said his bike’s been running weird since we left. He thinks maybe he’s leaking something. Just went to borrow some tools so he could check it.”
I rolled my eyes. I wasn’t the most mechanically minded with bikes, leaving that shit up to the boys in the garage that we owned. But we all knew the basics and I was hoping it was something simple so Grease could fix his shit and we could get moving.
I needed to have Harmony back at my clubhouse and in my room, so we could finally start a path toward making her feel comfortable. I want her comfortable, and not fighting me every step of the way. Harmony was a complex creature. Definitely not the kind of girl I was used to. Being in an MC had given me more than my fair share of women. I’d been fucking since I was fourteen. Girls wanted that bad boy, whether it was because they thought they could tame him, make him settle down or whether they just wanted a moment of rebellion. Every girl at some stage in their life wanted to ride on the wild side.
I’d even seen that side in Harmony. She loved being at the club. She loved drinking and partying and having sex with men that scared the shit out of your average normal person walking down the street. She didn’t want to tame them. But she also wasn’t in it for a short spurt of being a bad girl. She did it because she loved it.
I was glad she was happy within the club, but I wanted her to want more. I just didn’t know how to convince her that she did.
“How’s she coming?” Tie asked, throwing me a cold bottle of water. I held it up in thanks before taking large gulps. The weather was definitely getting colder with summer slowly worming its way out, but shit was still hot as hell if you asked me.
“She hasn’t tried to leap from the car while we’re doing ninety miles an hour. So I’d say we aren’t doing too badly.” The boys all chuckled. “She’s strong, I’ll give her that.”
“She’s gonna need to be to get through all this shit,” Mix muttered, drinking from his own bottle of water.
It was true. Optimus had informed us just before we’d left that they had identified the dude that had been in the café that day with the girls. Daniel Ashley. Well known associate of some very high profile slave traders and drug dealers. From the info that we’d gained he was their scout. These men gave him lists of specifics that their clientele wanted – blondes, blue eyes, tall, short, age, ethnicity – he went out and found the girls and then they disappeared into thin air.
I had no doubts that he had approached Chelsea in the café that day because she was a perfect match for someone on his list. What was still a mystery was why he’d sent his goons in to snatch Harmony. It was clear to them all that day that she was the target, not Chelsea. I needed to know why?
“This dude is ruthless, man,” Mix said, his eyes dark.
I raised an eyebrow. “You know about him?”
He nodded. “I got some friends down the line. You know he actually sold his own daughter, just to prove himself? That’s how he got into the business, offered his own little girl on a plate to one of his little buddies.”
My stomach churned at the news. Mix had gotten his road name through his ability to mix with all sorts of people. The guy had friends everywhere, from men in politics to meth heads in the gutter looking for their next fix. He’d done almost any job imaginable, gathering his long list of acquaintances along the way, and they would all help him out at the drop of a hat because Mix was one loyal mother-fucker.
“That’s sick,” Tie said with a frown on his face.
“Dude’s got serious mental issues, which makes him very unpredictable and very dangerous,” I said, checking the time on my phone and wondering where Harmony was.
How long does it take a woman to pee exactly?
“Um, excuse me?” an older lady interrupted our small group. I could tell she was nervous as she shuffled slowly toward us, eyeing each one of us cautiously. “Is one of you named Kit?”
I stepped forward. “That’s me. Why?” my voice was rough and sharp, causing the lady to jump slightly.
“There’s um…there’s a young woman in the bathroom…um…she seems quite distraught and asked me to find you.”
I muttered a quick thank you as I shot past her and into the small store. My eyes darting around for a sign that would point me toward the toilets. My Brothers were hot on my heels. Finding it, I thundered toward the door, instinctively pulling my piece from the back of my jeans before shouldering it open.
I spotted her immediately. She was sitting on the dirty floor next to the basin, head down and cradling her hurt shoulder in her hand. She’d opted to take the sling off in the car, much to my protests. I slid to my knees in front of her and gripped her chin in between my finger and thumb, lifting up it so I could see her eyes, but she averted them.
There was a small split in the center of her bottom lip which was now puffy and swollen. Anger bubbled in my veins and I must’ve squeezed her chin a little too tightly as she winced and her hand flung out, slapping against my chest. I didn’t move though. I was too busy taking inventory of her body. The front of her shirt was ripped and there was blood seeping through from the bullet wound in her shoulder, which could possibly mean she’s pulled the stitches out.
“Babe…Harmony…What happened?”
Her eyes finally found mine. There were tear streaks down her cheeks, but for now they had stopped. “I want to go now.”