Page 61 of Where We Ended

So tired.

Releasing a pent-up breath, I brought my knees under my chin and sat alone in my room, staring at the floor that held pieces of a life I no longer recognized. Clarity finally came in the form of a plan. A decision.

It was time I took my life back into my own hands.

FIFTEEN

SILAS

PRESENT

I hadn’t had a chance to change out of my sullied jeans or dirt caked t-shirt before getting an urgent text from my vice president regarding Natty. So I drove into the city, meeting Lance a block away from Natty’s little coffee shop job. I was told she’d returned to it as if she’d never been taken in the first place. Garrison was keeping me updated on her as much as he could, but apparently there was an issue that they had decided to take up with my vice president instead of me. Which was why he’d called this meeting.

My best friend sat on his bike, his feet planted in the gravel, while staring at his cell. I wouldn’t allow anyone else in the club to be so relaxed when I pulled up, but Lance got a pass because he could still kill me with alarming accuracy while watching cooking videos on his phone.

“What the fuck was so important that they could only tell you instead of me?” I snapped, letting my bike roll to a stop before lowering the kickstand.

Lance kept his face down, but lazily drawled, “Try again, and check that frosty as fuck tone, please.”

I’d smirk if I wasn’t so upset over having to walk away from Natty again. Leaving her wasn’t something I enjoyed doing, at any fucking point in my life, but my whole life revolved around keeping her safe. This was the right thing to do, and even if it meant she hated me for it, I’d still leave if it meant the threat against her life was being hunted.

“Can you please tell me what the team is concerned about regarding my wife?” I gave him a fake smile, all teeth, then flipped him off once his face lifted.

Concern was there now, and it gutted me.

“Natty keeps leaving. Also why do you smell like lemons, and why the fuck do you have dirt all over your clothes?”

I already knew Natty had started leaving, so I lifted my arms to indicate where we were…and that I was more than aware that she’d gotten back to her routine. As far as the lemons and the dirt…not a chance in hell was I touching that.

Lance shook his head. “She leaves on a bike, Silas…and she’s been visiting rival clubs.”

What.

No…that wasn’t right. She rode around on a little yellow moped.

Lance glared at me as if he was reading the thoughts in my head. “It’s a Yamaha Xabre…fast as fuck too. She lost her detail twice while entering Chaos King territory up in Richland.”

What the actual fuck was she doing going up to Richland?

“It gets worse.”

My eyes narrowed on my friend, all while my breathing became more difficult.

“She slipped her detail during her shift at The Drip…we didn’t notice until that night, we thought we could find her, but she didn’t come back last night. The reason the guys were too afraid to tell you is because they’re fairly positive you’re going to kill them.”

My head was pounding as time seemed to stop, and the air felt like it had thinned so much that I couldn’t breathe in anymore of it.

“You mean to tell me that my wife has been driving into Chaos Kings territory and as of this last little trip, hasn’t returned, and is in fact there, right fucking now?”

Lance dipped his chin.

“It’s not Garrison’s fault…none of us knew she’d have that bike ready to go, or that she seemed to have an agenda, or a person in The Drip that was blonde and would have traded aprons with her. Sometimes they keep their faces down while they work, so it’s hard to tell the difference. We’ve helped watch over her for two years. We knew her routine, her habits…we knew what to look for. She took us by surprise, Silas.”

I noticed he was saying “we,” which would take the heat off Garrison and his men.

My legs were already moving toward my bike, my hands shaking. I heard Lance trying to warn me, but I didn’t fucking care. Natty wasn’t doing this. She was not going to get taken again by my father simply because she was pissed at me.

Lance hopped off his bike and advanced toward me until he was standing in front of me.

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