“StepInside,theViolence”—Red
In the short distance to the clubhouse, I must’ve checked my rearview mirrors a hundred times. What was taking Jasmine so long?
I flipped my kickstand down with my foot and pulled out my phone. Her phone rang until it went to voicemail. Frowning, I called again. And again.
Ghost and Phoenix pulled in next to me as I was shoving my phone back in my pocket and kicking the kickstand back up. Angel walked out of the clubhouse.
“Where you going? You just got here,” he asked.
“Jasmine!” was all I shouted before I tore out of the compound like the road was on fire behind me. It was mere seconds before the roar of bikes caught up to me, and Angel pulled up to ride next to me as Phoenix and Ghost fell in behind.
We entered the neighborhood, and for once I cursed the security that slowed me down. By the time we reached the house, my heart was in my throat. The SUV sat in the driveway with the driver door open.
I’d never un-assed my bike faster in my life. Seeing her purse in the passenger seat with the diaper bag had me damn near hyperventilating. My hands brushed over everything, but I got nothing. For the first time, I cursed the fact that I couldn’t read my woman or my child.
“Jasmine!” I shouted as I raced to the house and barreled inside. “Jasmine!”
Silence.
“No. This cannot be happening again. No way.”
“She’s not answering her phone. I checked her stuff, and it wasn’t in the vehicle, which means she has it with her. You have her location on your phone, right?” Angel calmly asked, pulling me out of my panic.
“Yeah. Yeah, I do.” Fumbling, I pulled out my phone again and flipped through the screens until I found the app I needed. My stomach churned and my heart was about to blast through my chest wall. Her phone was north of here, and I busted out of the house with Angel on my heels.
Before I could get on my bike, I saw Ghost holding an apple core by the stem. “What the fuck are you doing?” I demanded. “We need to go!”
“This was on the edge of the driveway by the road. It seems weird that someone in this neighborhood would toss an apple core out on someone’s lawn.” He cocked a brow.
I approached him and snatched the apple core. What I saw had me dropping it like it was red-hot.
“No way,” I said, stunned, as my head pounded.
“What was it?” Angel asked me.
Disbelief had me reeling.
“It was my mother,” I whispered, aghast.
“I sent a message to Venom. He said to proceed with caution, and he would send back-up to catch up to us. Let’s go,” said Angel.
Once I mounted my phone and left the location screen open, I started my bike. I was already on my bike and pulling out of the driveway and I heard Ghost cussing. “Goddamn it!”
They quickly caught up to me. We hauled ass up the road, but none of us had prepared for a high-speed chase, and we had to stop for gas before we could catch up.
As quickly as we could, we fueled up. As I was on one side of the pump, Angel was on the other. “Bro, we don’t know who has her or if they’re armed. We can’t go racing up on them because we could put them in danger. I say we follow at a safe distance until they stop.”
“That’s my ol’ lady and my baby!”
“I get it, Chains. And it’smysister andmyniece—I don’t want anything to happen to either of them either.”
“Fine. But when they stop, we move in,” I argued.
“If it’s safe to do so, yes.” Angel was much calmer than I was, and I had no idea how he was managing it. We took off our cuts and locked them in our saddlebags. No need to advertise who we were as we followed whoever had taken my family.
Fuck. My family.
The thought of losing them nearly brought me to my knees.