Page 5 of Summer's Edge

“Open the back!” the guy yells.

Thankfully the back door of the van stays firmly shut.

“What the fuck?” he grumbles as he carries me there anyway.

And then he repeats the question, but in a completely different tone as my dad, and Tank, Hunter and Chance step from behind the van. A bunch of others are there too. I’ve never been happier to see them all in my whole life.

“I’m gonna need you to let her go now,” my dad says.

The guy releases me immediately and starts backing away, hands raised. “Now, Ice, I wasn’t gonna hurt her, I swear. I was just—”

Whoever this guy is, he knows my dad. But that’s not surprising. Most one-percenter bikers do.

The rest of his nonsense is cut off as my father punches him in the face so hard, he goes down like a sack of potatoes. My dad was the undefeated champion in the underground MMA fighting ring for years and it still shows. He hardly ever talks about those years, but I know all about it anyway. Everyone does. It’s the reason everyone knows who he is.

“I’m sorry,” I say to him. “But how was I supposed to know these creeps would follow me here?”

He shakes his head and turns to Tank. “We should take the creep too or what? Maybe he knows something.”

“Yeah, but it’s a hassle,” Tank says and instructs some of the guys to lift my unconscious kidnapper and put him in the van back of the van he tried to stuff me in.

I really wish he wasn’t dead to the world so I could tell him something like, “Who’s going into the back of the van now, asshole?”

“You get in the car too, Summer,” Ice says.

I glance back at the club where a lot more people are staring now, but Marcia and the guys aren’t among them.

“What about my friends?” I ask.

“You can just text them later,” Ice says snidely, probably referring to the texts we exchanged in which I told him I’m gonna spend the weekend partying in Tijuana.

Nothing’s gonna come of those plans now.

And nothing’s gonna come of me arguing with him about it, so I just slip in the back seat of one of the two cars they brought. My cousin Hunter and Chance are both giving me commiserating sort of looks, but what good are those? At least they get to fight in this stupid war that’s keeping us all so caged. Me, I’m just a dainty little bird in it.

My dad gets in the passenger seat and Ace takes the wheel.

“I want to stop in LA to get my stuff,” I tell him.

“We’ll see,” he says.

“So what, we’re driving all the way home?” I ask. “It’s the middle of the night.”

“Yeah, it is,” he says. “And this is a detour we didn’t need.”

Figures they’d be on some exciting mission down here, because how else would they reach me so fast. The Sanctuary, as the MC’s HQ is so aptly named lately, is over eight hours away from here.

“I already said I’m sorry.”

He finally turns to me, concern vying with annoyance on his face. “This was a close call tonight, Summer.”

I lean back and cross my arms over my chest. “I know.”

“We’re at war, and it’s time you start acting like it,” he adds. “But you’ll have a few days to think about that in the peace and quiet of the countryside now.”

“Where are you taking me?” I ask.

“Oh, a nice little cabin in the woods. You’ll love it.” He faces forward, chuckling. “It’s even quieter and more peaceful than back home.”

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