Page 1 of Savior

Prologue

Celia: December 31, 2016

The Fleetwood Mac song came to an end just as the glass doors of the event center closed behind Jamie and Rick. Another song immediately began, but I stayed where I was, standing on the edge of the large dance floor, panic tightening the noose around my neck.

After ensuring that Dakota was with Zane, I searched for Kate. She sat at a table with Wolverine and Lucy, absently picking at a piece of wedding cake with her fork while laughing at something one of them had said. The hospital had paged Nate over an hour ago, and with it being New Year’s Eve, the chances of him making it back before the reception ended were slim.

If we were really going to run, we’d probably have to pick him up at the hospital on our way out of town. Knowing Jamie, though, he was going to insist we leave the doctor behind.

“Grey took off in a hurry. Did they find something?” Molly asked as she sidled up next to me. Her eyes were filled with concern, but she continued swaying her hips to the beat of the music as if to hide the fact that anything was amiss.

“I don’t know,” I mumbled, straining to see where they were going. “Rick got up, and he just left. Something bad is coming. I feel it in my gut.”

In the entire time I’d known him, Jamie had never once backed down from a fight, but the cocky biker who’d ruled as if his club was untouchable was gone. In his place was a man who’d been shaken up enough to put on body armor.

It seemed since Carnage was shot that he wasn’t willing to take any chances.

And if he was willing to run, it meant he no longer felt that he could keep us safe.

“They’re going to find the rat that rolled over on the club,” she said confidently. “Bear said Jarvis was keeping them up to date. I guess he hacked the mole’s computer. Prick’s a cop. He could even be somewhere in this room, and we wouldn’t know it.”

A chill ran the length of my spine, and I surveyed the room before asking, “How’d you find out?”

Molly’s mouth moved into a flat line as she raised her eyebrows.

“Seriously?” I hissed with a grimace. “Please tell me you’re joking. Tell me you didn’t hook up with Bear at my daughter’s wedding.”

“Of course not,” she quickly said. “What do you think I am, a heathen?”

Dakota waved to me from across the dance floor, a wide grin stretched across her face. I’d just raised my hand to return it when Molly leaned in to whisper, “We waited ‘til the reception… like normal people. Did you know there are couches in the bathroom? Not only that, but the door has a lock on it. It’s like they’re practically encouraging people to fuck.”

“Jesus Christ, Molly—”

“Hello, ladies,” a voice purred from behind us. We turned in unison to see the same cop who’d spent the majority of the reception, hitting on any woman who’d come within ten feet of the open bar. Judging by the way he was swaying, he’d saved his best pick-up lines for the alcohol. His beady eyes moved over us, lingering on the bodice of our dresses as if hypnotized.

He winked at me. “I can see where your daughter gets her good looks.”

Molly looked down at him in disgust. “She has two daughters, which tells me that you must be a friend of the groom’s. So, does that mean you’re a cop as well?”

I knew for a fact that she didn’t care one thing about what the lecherous hobbit in front of us did for a living. She was hunting for a mole.

He smirked and extended a hand. “Detective, actually. Kyle Barton.”

The desperation seemed to roll off of him in waves.

Instead of taking his hand, she stared down at it as if it was diseased. Given the way he’d behaved most of the night, it very well might’ve been.

“Detective, huh? Not a very good one, though, to have missed the fact that the bride has a sister—”

“Oh, I was talking about the bride’s sister. Dakota and I—we don’t really get along.”

“And why is that?” I asked, searching for a motive that would connect him to my family. Something that would’ve given him a reason to want to hurt us.

He chuckled. “Well, it’s a funny story, really. Zane and I were working undercover at the gym, and I got assigned to be her trainer. She wasn’t happy with the way I did things, but in a way, I’m pretty much responsible for all of this. Introduced the two of them and the rest, as they say, is history.”

As if sensing there was a problem, Dakota’s eyes met mine from across the dance floor, and she pantomimed sticking her finger down her throat after pointing to Kyle.

“It sounds like the two of you have a really unique bond,” I deadpanned. “It’s a shame you’re not closer.”

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