PROLOGUE
EVIE
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” I said and waved goodbye to my coworker. After picking up some extra shifts, I hadn’t had a day off in over two weeks, and I was exhausted.
As I walked to my car, I was going over my upcoming expenses and the money left in my account instead of paying attention to my surroundings like I should have been. The hospital wasn’t in a bad area of town, per se, but it was dark, and anyone could be lurking around.
When a dark figure appeared out of nowhere and a hand covered my mouth, I was completely disoriented. It took several seconds for me to realize I was being pulled in the opposite direction of my car.
“No!” I tried to scream when my brain finally caught up to what was going on.
“You better shut the fuck up if you know what’s good for you,” a gruff voice said.
I struggled to break free from his grip on me, but it was no use. He dragged me to another vehicle and tossed me inside with ease. As soon as he let go of me, I reached for the door handle,but another set of hands latched onto me before I could make contact.
Moments later, my hands were secured behind my back, and a piece of duct tape was placed over my mouth. Fear like I’ve never felt before hit me. Whatever was about to happen wouldn’t be good.
“Get her keys and follow me to her house,” the man with the gruff voice said. It had a hint of familiarity, but I couldn’t place it.
I felt someone tug at the purse still strapped across my body. “I can’t find them,” a new voice said.
“Where are your fucking keys?” Gruff asked.
I mumbled a series of unintelligible sounds from behind the duct tape that was silencing me. Seconds later, the tape was harshly ripped away. “Give me your keys,” the second guy demanded.
“I-I dropped them,” I stammered, “wh-when he grabbed me.”
“Fuck,” the guy spat, and slapped a new piece of tape over my mouth.
“Hurry up,” Gruff barked.
Second guy got out of the car, presumably to look for my keys and subsequently follow us to my house. I had no idea why they were forcefully taking me to my house, but I planned to use the fifteen-minute drive there to think of a way to get away from them.
“Don’t even think about trying anything,” Gruff said and turned in his seat to look at me.
My eyes widened in surprise and dread settled in my gut when I saw his face. The man sitting in the driver’s seat was none other than my father, which meant the other man was likely my half brother.
As the pieces started to come together, I had a pretty good idea of why they were essentially kidnapping me. If I was right, there wasn’t anything I could do besides cooperate with their demands, and I would. I refused to become collateral damage because of someone else’s mistakes.
When we arrived at my house, I was yanked from the car and frog-marched inside. “Where is he?” Muzzle asked. I refused to call him by his given name or refer to him as my father. On the rare occasions I had to use something to indicate him, I used his road name, just like I did when it came to my half brother, Snarl. They were both members of the Mad Dogs MC, and I wanted nothing to do with either of them.
They both stared at me, waiting for me to answer. I stared back at them, wondering how they could be so stupid. When it seemed like they weren’t going to realize their mistake, I once again tried to talk with the tape sealing my mouth shut. For the second time that night, tape was painfully ripped from my lips.
Grimacing, I glared at both of them.
“Where the fuck is he?” Snarl snapped.
“I don’t know,” I reluctantly admitted. I knew it wasn’t what they wanted to hear, but it was the truth. “He doesn’t tell me where he goes or when he’ll be back.”
“You better not be lying to us.”
“Why in the hell would I lie to you?”
“To protect your little boyfriend,” Muzzle said.
“He’s not my boyfriend, and I have no interest in protecting him. You want him, you can have him,” I said. There was a time when I would have tried to protect Randall, but that was long gone. He’d changed, and not for the better. If it came down to him or me, I was choosing me. The presence of Muzzle and Snarl in my house was proof enough for me that Randall had also chosen himself.
“We don’t have all night. You better figure out a way to get him here, or we’ll take you back to the clubhouse and let you work off his debt,” Muzzle said. His words confirmed my earlier assumption. Randall owed them money, likely for meth, and it was time for him to pay up.