Page 52 of Summer's Edge

We’re not going alone. Hunter, Chance and Jax all come too. And Ruin. Even Cross and Tank.

With all these men behind me, there’s no way I can fail in finding her. In saving her.

But I’d do it alone too. There’s no doubt in my mind about that.

I’m not losing another person I love.

That won’t happen. It can’t.

TWENTY-FIVE

Summer

My phone’s buzzing because the creeps who took me didn’t find it on me. They took my purse, but not my phone which I stuck in the pocket of my sweatpants after texting Edge back.

I try to reach for it, thinking it must be him, thinking I’m as good as saved. But it’s not the chloroform or whatever they drugged me with that’s making me unable to move my arms. They tied my hands with fucking zip ties. But like the idiots they clearly are, they did it in the front and not the back.

I manage to reach into my pocket and take out my phone, even though the zip ties are cutting off my circulation so bad my fingers feel like sausages. I can just about see the screen through the black bag over my head.

The van is going over rough terrain. Maybe the forest floor? The roots and rocks we’re hitting are making the whole van wobble. Going over a particularly big one nearly knocks the phone right out of my hand.

I type fast, replying to Edge’s last text. I’d call my dad, but I know Edge is probably staring at his phone, right now, waiting to hear from me, wondering why I’m not at my apartment like I said I’d be. Ice is most likely asleep since it’s the middle of the night.

The van stopped and I only realize it as the back door opens. I got maybe two words in, I hope. I can’t see the tiny letters as well as I’d need to through the bag.

“Give me the phone, bitch,” the guy who took me snarls.

I scramble away from him as he jumps into the van and press send. At least I hope that’s what I did. Because in the next moment the phone is yanked from my hands and a fist connects with the side of my head.

The sound of the door slamming again is the first thing that makes sense again as I try desperately not to lose consciousness. The fact that we’re moving again is the next. We’re going faster this time, so now when we hit the tree roots, the whole van lurches into the air. I smell redwoods all around, thick and lush. It’s the smell of my childhood, of playing with my sister, and cousin, and friends in the forest that surrounds Sanctuary, the MC’s HQ. We were always perfectly safe there, we could go anywhere we liked, there was no danger lurking anywhere.

That’s not the case now.

After what feels like hours the van stops again.

This time the guy drags me out of the back and tosses me to the ground. It doesn’t hurt, because the soft pine needles cover the ground feet deep. Just like in the forest around Sanctuary. Just like in the forest where Edge and I made love. There will be none of that anymore.

This isn’t really a kidnapping. This isn’t something anyone can save me from. I feel the knowledge of that deep in my chest. I don’t feel drunk anymore, or drugged, or in pain, the adrenaline pumping through my veins seems to have taken care of all that.

“What do you want with me?” I ask, trying to sit up, but I can’t get my feet under me.

“Revenge,” the guy says. “A life for a life.”

“I’m more valuable to you alive,” I say, my voice shaking as I realize I actually have nothing to offer him and I’m a really bad talker besides. “I’m young, I can do stuff…”

He and the other guy laugh harshly.

“Hear that? She can do stuff,” one of them says.

“Wanna see if it’s true?” the other one asks, dark sarcasm thick in his voice.

“Nah, no time. We got dozens of girls prettier than her back at the compound. She just needs to die.”

My breath lodges in my throat, expanding painfully. I was right. This is no kidnapping. There will be no rescue mission. Only revenge. And that’s the one thing I can promise him.

“You kill me, and my father and his brothers will hunt you down. They’ll kill you and everyone you love—”

“They already killed everyone I love,” the guy snaps. “My brother was my only family.”

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