“What is it?”
“Cara and Natty have gone along with their plan. I was trailing them, and parked down the road from the house, but they were taken out of the house right under my nose. I don’t have much time, but Marko has them and—”
I’m sorry, what?
Is he telling me that while I’ve been out here trying to help him figure out who is betraying him, they have all been betraying me?
“Who okayed this plan because I’m going tofucking kill them,” I snap, losing my cool. “Where is she? I’m halfway home—I’ll be there in an hour.”
I start typing out a text to my brother to ask him for help.
And then I remember, he’s gone.
These moments are the worst, the ones where I do something by habit, and then realize that I can’t do that anymore. The moments where I forget my reality.
I don’t have that person I can text and instantly rely on. I don’t have my best friend.
I only have the love of my life, who has now put herself in danger, and I need to save her.
Alone.
I’m not two halves to a whole anymore.
I’m me.
And that’s all that Natalie has right now.
I speed back home and call Rhett when I’m close by, and he tells me where to find them. I get out of the car and approach him and Dice, who are both standing by their motorcycles.
I grab Rhett by the T-shirt and push him back against his car. “You need to fucking explain yourself.”
Dice quickly moves to defend his president, but Rhett calls him off with a lift of his hand.
Because he fucking knows that he is in the wrong right now.
“They wanted to go ahead with their plan, and we let them. They were both wearing trackers,” he starts, closing his eyes. “I followed them and parked around the corner. When they didn’t reply, I ran inside but they must have been taken out the back way. Marko must have seen the trackers, or maybe he just removed all of their belongings, I don’t know. But the necklaces were thrown out on the road.”
“How long have they been gone for?”
“Just over an hour,” he says. “I’m sorry, Atlas. But we’re going to get them. Decker and Felix are working on it from their end. The trackers were found south of here, so we know what direction he was headed in. And we know what car he was in. Felix has someone checking through all the camera footage.”
“I was out there helping you, and this is what you were doing?” I say quietly, letting go of his T-shirt. “I don’t know how you were okay with this. That was your childhood sweetheart and a girl you claim is like your sister you sent out there.”
He ducks his head. “I know, I fucked up. I shouldn’t have listened to them. I just wanted all of this to be over, and their way seemed like a good idea at the time. I was fucking desperate, okay?”
“One of your men knows where they are. How are you going to extract that information from them?” I ask, gritting my teeth. “You better send in the OGs to fix your mess.”
A muscle ticks in his jaw, but he knows I’m right. He’s here, the other men are back at the Wind Dragons clubhouse.
“Why don’t you call Rake and tell them how all of this went down, and how his two daughters are now in the hands of a psychotic killer because you allowed them to take the heat for you? Better yet,Iwill call him.”
I have never been so angry, upset and scared in my entire life. Good-natured, calm Atlas is out the fucking window.
I take a few deep breaths, and I can almost feel Aries rest his hand on my shoulder.
We’ll get them back. I need you to keep it together right now, though, I hear him say in my head.
And he’s right, I know.