Page 49 of Edge

“Okay,” she said, but she didn’t sound like herself.

“Help will be there soon,” I repeated.

“Okay.”

I tilted the phone away from my mouth and looked at Phoenix. “I think she’s in shock.”

“She probably is,” he said. “There’s nothing we can do about it from here. Let’s get on the road.”

I put the phone on speaker and ran back to my room to get dressed and grab my keys. Then I hurried to the forecourt while reassuring Evie that help would be there soon. I’d just reached my bike when I heard a blood-curdling scream, followed by what sounded like the phone falling to the floor.

“Evie!” I yelled. “Evie! Answer me!”

I could hear voices, but I couldn’t tell who they belonged to or what was being said. After what felt like an eternity, I heard movement near the phone, followed by the sound of someone breathing.

“Evie! Can you hear me? Is Luca there?”

“I’m here,” she said, and I sagged with relief at the sound of her voice. “Are you Luca?”

“Yes,” I heard Luca say. “Luca Peccati.”

I’d never been so happy to hear another man’s voice. “Let him help you. Do what he says, okay? I’ll be there soon.”

“Irene,” she whispered. She sounded distracted, or maybe confused.

“Evie,” I said firmly, hoping to snap her out of her haze. “Listen to Luca.”

“Okay,” she promised, but I truly didn’t know if she was processing what I was saying or if she was responding by rote.

“I’m on my way,” I promised and fired up my bike. The call transferred to my helmet, and I stayed on the line even though I couldn’t hear anything over the sound of my bike. When we got disconnected, panic briefly surged through me. I reminded myself that Luca was there and was just as capable of handling the situation as we were.

My mental pep talk did little to nothing to calm my nerves. The only thing that would ease the fear and turmoil churning inside me was getting to the diner and seeing for myself that Evie was okay. The need to reach her was overpowering. I broke formation and sped ahead, leaving my brothers in the dust. I knew they’d understand. Any one of them would have done the same if it was their woman in need.

When I pulled into the diner’s parking lot, it looked like every cop in Cedar Valley was there. Maneuvering around the chaos, I parked my bike on the sidewalk right outside the front door.

“Whoa! This is a crime scene. You can’t go in there,” an officer said and moved to block me from entering the front door.

“The hell I can’t! My girlfriend’s in there,” I told him and continued forward.

His hand moved to his belt, and then he was pointing a taser at me. “Don’t move!” he shouted. “Put your hands above your head.”

Any other time, I would have pointed out that I had to move to put my hands above my head, but I had one singular goal, and that was getting to Evie.

I held my hands up in front of me. “Look, man, my girlfriend is the one who called you. I know she’s in there, and I need to make sure she’s okay.”

“You need to do what I told you and put your hands on your damn head.”

“And you need to let me see my girlfriend!” I yelled and quickly moved past him.

Scanning the area, I completely lost my shit when my eyes landed on Evie. She was on the floor with her hands zip tied behind her back and tears pouring from her eyes. But the thing that had me seeing red was the motherfucker holding her down with his foot on her shoulder.

“Get your fucking foot off her!” I bellowed and started for the shithead who was virtually standing on my woman.

Suddenly, a force hit me from behind and tried to take me to the ground. Logically, I knew I was supposed to cooperate with the police, but logic went out the window when I saw what they were doing to Evie. My fury was no match for the officer who tackled me. I shook him off and continued moving toward Evie. Three officers rushed over to help like they’d been waiting their whole lives to pounce on a biker. I finally went down when the fourth cop jumped in.

They were trying to get my hands behind my back when I heard Phoenix’s angry voice. “Who the fuck is in charge here?” he roared.

The room fell silent and a man with a very punchable face stepped forward. “I am,” he sneered. “And you’ve got two seconds to get the hell out of my crime scene.”

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