And he wasn’t fucking there when she’d needed her big fucking brother.
The cop was.
Not a cop now, he guessed. But he’d always be a cop.
Cade would never like him. Too much shit went down for that to happen. But he fucking respected the shit out of the man. For what he did for Rosie. For standing by her. And he hadn’t blanched at the various laws they’d broken in the process of trying to get Fernandez.
Cade was still uneasy about it, about showing Luke that shit. He may have been off the force, but he was still an outsider. But he made Rosie smile. Really fucking smile. And Cade would put all his shit aside for someone who made his little sister smile like that.
Who’d protect her.
He was sitting at church with him there, and it pissed Cade off that it didn’t feel as wrong as it should’ve to have him sitting at that table with his brothers.
“I want something concrete,” Cade growled. “I want something we can do to take this fucker down.”
“Well, I’ve got a friend who knows a guy who can get his hands on some rogue nukes,” Gage said, dead fucking serious.
Cade stared at him. “I can’t believe I have to say this, but no fucking nukes, Gage.”
Gage shrugged, carving at the table with his knife. “Offer’s there. They’re just going to waste.”
“No nukes,” Cade repeated.
He was about to continue when Gwen burst in the door, holding both of their children in her arms.
It was late, and she was meant to be at their place with Rosie. He immediately checked his babies for injuries. Nothing. But they weren’t crying, and they should’ve been, being woken up and dragged to the club when they should’ve been sleeping. They should’ve been crying.
But they weren’t.
They sensed something in their mother. Something that terrified them enough to keep them silent.
Cade was out of his chair before anyone could speak, Kingston in one arm and the other one around Gwen and Belle. He sucked in a breath, inhaling the smell of his family, just to tell his thundering heart that they were there, alive.
“Baby,” he whispered. And fuck, he couldn’t do anything but whisper, he was that terrified. It was like those shadows he’d been staring at every night had come to life and he couldn’t breathe around them.
“They took Rosie,” she sobbed. “They came into the house, they pointed a gun at Belle, and Rosie went with them. She knew they were going to kill her, but she went with them because they pointed a gun at our daughter.”
Cade’s blood went cold. Ice cold. Every part of him froze. He stared at his daughter. Took in her wide green eyes. Her little nose. Her red lips. The locks of her hair.
She’s okay. She’s okay and she’s here and your world isn’t falling apart. Keep your fucking shit together. For them.
Gwen stopped sobbing and her eyes went blank. “They pointed a gun at our baby, and now we have to kill them all.”
Luke
“They took Rosie…. She knew they were going to kill her but she went with them.”
Luke heard nothing but that on a replay reel.
Twenty-three hours and thirty-six minutes. That’s all he heard. He couldn’t hear Rosie. He tried. Every moment that he sucked in ash instead of air and his heart shredded in his chest instead of beating, he tried to conjure up her throaty voice telling him she loved him.
Tried to remember the way her mouth tasted, the way her pussy tasted. The way she screwed up her nose when she was frustrated. How her smile lit up a fucking room whenever she was happy, which was a lot these days. How perfectly she fit in his arms.
He fucking couldn’t.
It was as if someone had come and stolen away all of his memories of Rosie, just like they’d stolen her.
He barely kept it together. Fucking barely.
Cade was eerily calm. He’d been making orders, calling in markers to get in touch with someone who could tap into the fuck’s location. Police came and went because they wanted every set of eyes out there looking for Rosie.
Luke barely noticed their glances at him, staring at the side he was standing on, the outlaw side.
He didn’t see any of that. He just saw the last time he’d kissed Rosie.
“I don’t like it.” She pouted.
“What, me going to the clubhouse and trying to figure out how to kill the man stalking you while you drink wine?” His hands found her waist, then traveled lower to her perfect fucking ass. His cock hardened.
She smiled.
His cock hardened even more.
“No. Well yes, I like that because the menfolk are doing all the work.” She winked. “But I had plans for us tonight.”
Luke pulled her into him, smelling her perfume. Smelling her. “What was that?”
She bit her lip and his cock twitched. Her lipstick was bright pink today. Her hair was piled atop her head and she was wearing a bright pink dress. Tight as shit and too short, but he loved it. Her heeled boots were pink too. She was in a ‘pink mood,’ she’d said that morning after he’d told her he liked her outfit. He’d actually showed her. By bending her over the sofa the second she’d emerged from the bedroom.