Page 72 of Lockout

I didn’t get the chance to grill him for more information because Seek, Dani, Billie, Auron, and Jecht burst out of the clubhouse door like a group of superheroes.

Seek was carrying a familiar plastic bag with a zip top and there was cloth in there.

“It’s like four-thirty in the morning,” I said, staring at the bag. “You didn’t get a call, did you?” I asked. Winter was Seek’s slow time. People hiked here in the winter, but without the scorching summer heat there just weren’t as many emergencies.

“Keels,” Dani said, her eyes welling up with tears. “Hush called.”

“What’d he say?” Demo asked. The other Berserker’s Rage guys were starting to gather around too.

“There was…some kind of accident,” Billie said.

“They can’t find Lockout,” Seek added. “And the cops just showed up on scene, so they can’t keep searching.”

I frowned. “Why wouldn’t they be able to find him?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Seek said. “Hush didn’t give many details, just told me to get over to Keno Parkway and to bring both Auron and Jecht.”

“I’m driving,” Demo said. He pointed a finger at Dani and Billie. “You two are staying here. Don’t need a flock of women out there when I don’t know what the fuck is going on.”

Billie bit the insides of her lips, but nodded and kept quiet.

Demo looked over at me. “I’m guessing I can’t convince you to stay here?”

“Not a chance.”

We piled into one of the cage rides. Seek’s truck didn’t have space for all of us since the backseat had been removed to make room for the dogs’ crates. I was in the back between Auron and Jecht. How I’d managed to still get the middle seat when it was two dogs back here with me wasn’t something I could speculate on at the moment.

“By the way,” Demo said, pointing a thumb over at Seek. “Is that Lock’s drawers you have in that bag?”

“I grabbed the first thing I found in the hamper, Demo,” Seek replied.

“Seems fucked up to search for a missing man by using his skivies. Just sayin’,” he muttered when Seek scowled at him. “Use a shirt or something.”

Seek and Demo continued talking, but they were muted after that. My brain couldn’t focus on them. I couldn’t stop worryingenough to pay attention. My hands clenched in my lap as I tried to hold it together. Missing didn’t mean dead. God. If he was dead, I didn’t know what I was going to do. I swallowed hard as tears clogged my throat.

We might have just gotten together, but I’d basically been in love with Lockout from the first time I saw him. It’d just built slowly as I lived at the clubhouse and saw him daily. And now that things had screeched off the tracks, I could admit my feelings. I never even told him that I loved him.

A whine sounded next to my ear and then Auron shifted on the seat until he was laying with his head in my lap. He licked my chilled hands until I buried them in his fur.

I couldn’t lose it now. Lock needed me. Well, he needed Seek and her dogs, but damn it, he was going to get me, too.

The drive passed in a flash, and before I knew it we were pulling up in a lot that was filled with flashing lights. There were cop cars everywhere.

My gasp was ragged when I got out of the back of the SUV and saw the building in front of us. It was like a tornado had ripped through the area. Or…well, like a bomb had gone off. Parts of the building were on fire, other parts were decimated, and still more had sheet metal barely clinging to the frame. I watched a piece swing back and forth in the slight wind before it detached and crashed to the ground.

The guys met us before the cops even noticed us. “I told you to leave her at home,” Hush said to Seek.

Seek glared at him. “Sure.Youtell her to stay home. Tellmeto stay home if you’re missing.” Hush just shook his head. “What happened?” Seek asked, looking over at the building.

“Fucking bomb,” Priest said. “Lock was still inside…”

That was when I lost it. Dropping to my knees, I started sobbing. Arms that were identical to Lockout’s picked me up and brought me over to the bed of a truck, sitting me on the tailgate.

Idaho just held me while I cried. I was doing my best to keep it together but this place looked like hell reincarnated. Who could have survived being inside that building?

“That’s why I wanted you to leave her at home,” Hush muttered. “She doesn’t need to see this.”

I buried my face in Idaho’s chest, pretending for just a minute that he was his twin. Then I pulled on all the strength I had and shoved everything I was feeling deep down. “I’m sorry,” I said, a small sob escaping on the end of the last word. “I’m okay.”

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