“I don’t know anything. There’s no threat,” I say.
The Hydras are dealt with and I don’t have any other enemies. That I know of…
“I have to go find her.”
“Leave that to us, Gabriel,” Lopez warns.
I shake my head. “No offense, but I’ll find her a lot faster than the LAPD ever could.”
Then I rush back to the van, ignoring Lopez yelling at me to stop.
I won’t stop. Not until Melody is safe in my arms again. Not until everyone who hurt her is dead. I won’t bury another lover. That can’t happen. But if it does, then the world will burn.
The drive to the clubhouse is a blur. Some of the members are back from that damn mission I sent us on, while I should’ve been keeping an eye on Melody instead. Keeping her safe.
I ignore them all as I rush across the bar on my way to Skye, ignoring all the calls for me to stop. If anyone can find her, she can.
“Hold up, Rogue. We got a situation,” Rock says as he intercepts me just as I reach for the door that leads to the back. True to his name, he’s like a damn mountain in my path.
“I’ll deal with it later,” I snap at him. “Melody’s been taken. Skye needs to find her. Now.”
“I know where she is,” Unholy says from somewhere to my left. His voice is faint like he’s speaking from somewhere very far away.
But when I turn to him, he’s standing almost right next to me, shirtless, bent double, a bandage covering his side, blood oozing through.
“Talk,” I snap at him.
He folds down into a chair. “Tito and his brother took her. They are gonna sell her to Rabid Dogz MC, who wanna use her to lure Devil’s Nightmare MC into a trap. It was my idea to do it. I know her… from before… I knew the Devils would ride for her and I…”
He takes a long, shuddering breath that sounds like it’s painful. Good.
“You planned all this?” I ask. “Why?”
“I have to find friends where I can get them these days,” he says. “Lord knows, my old friends want nothing to do with me.”
The look he gives me is so sharp it cuts me right to the quick, despite all other things running through my mind.
“But then I saw you with her today,” he adds. “So I tried to stop them, I tried to get her away, bring her to you, tell you all about it. But that bastard Tito shot me before I could.”
I see the truth of all that in his eyes too. And the guilt at how I sent him away the other night is making bile rise in my throat.
“Thank you, brother,” I say because it needs saying. “But the job’s not done. We have to find her. Where is she?”
“We were gonna take her to this crappy trailer and make contact with Rabid Dogz MC from there,” he says.
“Where?” I ask.
He stands up again, groaning. “I’ll show you.”
“You can barely fucking stand,” I say.
He glances across the room. Less than half of the MC made it back.
“I’ll be fine. Just need to walk it off,” he says. “And it looks like you’re gonna need all the help you can get.”
“I’m not gonna have you on my conscience too,” I say.
He laughs, but it doesn’t sound dark. “I’m gonna help you make this right, Rogue. You don’t get a say in the matter. But we gotta call the Devils too. They’re near here on a job. We have to tell them about the trap.”