Page 95 of Hendrix

Within seconds, Hendrix was on his knees before me. “We’ll find her,” he murmured, clasping my face in his hands and staring into my eyes. “We’ve got the best of the best, Anna. It’s probably something and nothing, and she’ll turn up after playing with some mangy stray cat as if nothing’s happened.”

“Prez is right, Anna,” Picasso reiterated. “This is a safe town. Nobody’s gonna take her. We’re just talking worst-case scenarios. It’s what we do; hope for the best, plan for the worst.”

“She’ll be okay,” Hendrix whispered. “Hand to God, Anna, I’ll bring her back.”

I nodded blindly, my arm automatically reaching out to pull Gigi closer to me. “You okay, baby?” I asked her.

Gigi’s big, brown eyes stared up at me. “Blade won’t let anything happen to Addie. She’ll be okay.”

Despite myself, I couldn’t stop a smile from tugging at my lips.

Hendrix touched his mouth to my forehead, his soft lips remaining there as he murmured, “The girls have just pulled up with Gopher and Tweety. I need you to be strong, Anna. Need you to be the woman you are and make sure everyone’s okay. Me and Cass need to join in the search. The more boots we got on the ground, the quicker we’ll find Addie.”

“It’s my fault, Jamie,” I whispered. “I should never have let her out of my sight. It’s just such a nice town, and we’d been in the store for so long; I assumed they needed a break, plus I knew you were coming for us. I didn’t think it would hurt. If anything happens to Addie, it’s on me.”

“Stop,” he argued. “Don’t do that. It could happen to anyone.”

“I should’ve protected her better,” I said, my voice stricken.

“I’ll find her, baby,” he promised. “I won’t stop looking until she’s safe.”

I closed my eyes, trying to tamp down my rising panic.

Fender had already been through so much. If anything happened to Addie, it could tip him over the edge. She was such a sensitive girl, and I knew if somebody had hurt her, the family would never come back from it, especially after Ashley.

Why did I let Addie out of my sight?

What was I thinking?

How could this have happened?

CHAPTER NINETEEN

HENDRIX

The room at the back of the tattoo shop was usually reserved for piercings and provided somewhere discreet for when one of the boys had to ink someone on a more intimate part of their body.

Picasso also used it to tattoo nipples onto women who had lost their breasts through cancer and had undergone reconstructive surgery. He did this free of charge in memory of his mother, who had died from the disease when he was sixteen.

It wasn’t a big room, and right then, it was made even smaller by the sheer number of bikers using it as HQ while we searched for Addison.

My mind flashed back to twenty minutes before, when I broke the news to Fender.

His reaction shocked me. He was calm and cool, the complete opposite of what I expected. I thought he’d lose his mind, but instead, it was like he’d shut down, and there was nothing left for him to care about.

It was then I understood what Cash had been trying to tell me. Ashley’s death had wrecked him from the inside out, and now he had nothing left.

Not even for his kids.

And for a man who’d loved his kids above all else, that was worrying.

“He’ll be okay,” Blade assured me. “They’ve only been here a couple of months. His head’s into his work, which is probably a good thing ‘cause while it’s there, it’s not with his wife.”

“I dunno, Veep,” I muttered. “That reaction wasn’t normal.”

Blade shrugged. “So what the fuck’s normal? We’re all fucked up in one way or another. Fender’s been through more than most, so we need to give him time to heal.”

“It’s been four fuckin’ years,” I pointed out. “And Fender’s worse now than he was back when it happened. At least he had emotions back then, which was healthy. Now it’s like he’s dead inside.”

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