Page 251 of At the Edge of Surrender

He might not ever have love, but he would fight for what was right.

It would be his life’s mission to hunt these bastards. End them one by one. And he wouldn’t stop until he took his last breath.

FIFTY-FOUR

KANE

My throat closedoff as I stared at the broken bracelet. The realization pummeled me like a thousand fists.

“What the fuck is that?” Otto growled through the disorder from where he stood panting in the doorway to Emery’s room.

“My sins catching up to me.”

A scowl marred his brow. “What does that mean?”

I shot to my feet. “It means Maci’s mom wasn’t some chance encounter in my bar. She knew who I was. Back from the MC. And I think Emery took Maci with her and is running scared.”

She thought I was responsible. That I was the one who hurt her.

Horror slashed through my spirit, and I ran from the bedroom.

Otto was right on my heels. “What the hell are you talking about?”

I threw out as much of an explanation as I could as I bound downstairs, spilling the secret I’d kept for the last ten years. What had become my burden. One I had the honor of shouldering.

For them.

For all of them.

Emery.

My guts knotted when I thought of what she’d been through. The pain she’d suffered. The fear she’d carried.

And the trust—the trust she’d given to me.

“Oh fuck, man,” Otto wheezed as we ran into the kitchen. It was the only way they would have been able to get out without Otto noticing.

Thoughts battered through my brain. What didn’t make sense was Emmalee. She’d sought me out. But why? It was like…memories spun…like she’d wanted something from me.

Then I found her snooping around my office, and I kicked her out.

I told her it was time to leave and not to come back.

Fear pillaged the hope in my spirit. So many questions wheeling I couldn’t make sense of them.

“We have to find them,” I gritted.

I ran for the back door, threw it open, and bolted out onto the back porch.

The sound of motorcycles rumbled in the distance, the roar of my crew as they growled up the road to come to stand at my side.

Thinking that Emery had been taken by whoever the monster was who’d tried to get to her at the store.

Turbulence blustered through my senses, and I scanned the thicket of trees that hedged my property, terrified by the thought of Emery and Maci running scared through them.

It wasn’t that far into town, but there were plenty of dangers they could come upon on their way. Wild animals and rugged terrain and the cliffs that lined the lake on this side, especially if Emery was terrified and trying to get away.

You took far more risks when you were in that type of position.

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