Page 29 of Bride for the Bikers

He throws his arm over his eyes and rolls over. “Just a little longer, Mom. I don't wanna go to school.”

I kick him harder this time. “Stop being a fucking idiot. We need to get the fuck outta here. How’s your side, Outlaw? Can you move or are we going to have to figure something out?”

Outlaw leans cautiously to the side with a pained wince. “I feel like someone punched me directly in the fucking guts, but I'm not dead.”

“You need to be straight with us,” snaps Shadow. “This isn’t the time to be a hero. I thought we'd fucking lose you last night.”

Outlaw looks like he’d rather swallow acid than admit to weakness, but he nods. “I got fucking shot. It burns like hell but I'm mobile. I can ride.”

“Good. We should get on the fucking road.”

“Where to?” I ask. “Carnell screwed us over. Or his boy Bruno did.”

“Don't talk about that asshole. I don’t know if he was following orders or went off on his own but he got what he fucking deserved,” Lightning spits out. “We get out of here before sunrise, get the bikes and get the fuck out of here.”

“What about me?” Harper asks.

“You come with us.” Shadow stretches. “There isn’t shit for you here. You’re better off sticking with us until we can get you back home. I don’t suppose it’s an easy drive?”

She shakes her head. “Rhode Island. We moved there so Mom could—oh, crap. Do we have time for me to call and check on her? There should be someone at the desk all day. Carnell took my phone in case my father called, and with everything that happened I never checked in.”

Shadow nods. “Make it quick.”

Lightning hands her his phone and she calls as we get our shit together to get out. I can hear it ringing, then a female voice answers.

“Hi, this is Harper Simmons, I’m calling to see how my mother’s doing. Eileen Simmons. Sure, I’ll wait.” She paces back and forth with the phone held close to her ear. “What? What do you mean she’s left? She wasn’t even awake last time I called. Who moved her? There has to be a record, right? Or a note about where she’s been transferred? It’s not like she stood up and walked out on her own!”

“Everything okay?” Shadow asks, but we all fucking know it’s not.

She shakes her head, listening to the person on the other end. “Right. I understand. How was she doing before that happened? Okay, okay. Thank you for checking. Bye.” She looks up, her expression stricken. “She was moved yesterday. My father had her discharged, and because the payments are in his name, nobody questioned it. I expected him to stop paying, but why would he do this? He always talked like he blamed her for keeping me away.”

Outlaw shakes his head. “Leverage. He’s still after something. He can’t control you physically anymore, so he pulled the one string he knows you can’t ignore.”

“But why would he do all this? Yesterday, he didn’t even seem to care if I lived or died, and I'm sure as hell sure it's not because he loves me.”

“I don’t know, but I don’t like this,” I say. “I’m all for getting the fuck out of town, but my vote is to see if we can get a little more info before we leave.”

Lightning nods. I knew I could trust him to back me up. “If Mesner's got her, he’ll probably move her here, right?”

Shadow doesn’t look happy, but he nods. “I’ll call and give Eagle-eye an update once we’re out of here. He can probably put some pressure on our connection inside Mesner’s place, but we’ll need more than that. I think we should arrange to talk to Carnell. On our terms this time.”

“We can’t trust him,” Outlaw snarls. “He wants Mesner and he doesn’t give a shit if we get thrown to the dogs in the process.”

I nod in agreement. “You’re right. But Harper? Mesner’s name was on the room, but I bet you’re the one with power of attorney. Unless he has the right to make medical decisions for her, he just kidnapped her and probably moved her out of state. That can’t be fucking legal.”

She’d been lost in her own world, probably worrying about her mother, but she perks up. “You’re right. We had to talk to an attorney before they started treatment because she was going to be out of it for weeks. I filled out a bunch of different forms at the hospital, too, but none of those listed my father anywhere. Her room was paid for through the end of the month, so there’sno way they should have been able to move her without checking with me.”

“If anything seems even a little bit off, we’re gone,” Lightning says, unusually serious for him. “I’d feel a hell of a lot better if we were doing all of this from the compound with the club behind us, and Outlaw needs time to recover. What do you think Harper?”

“I’ll do whatever it takes to get my mother back, but I’m not playing bait again.” Harper adds.

Shadow makes the call.

18

HARPER

I've never beenin a desert before, not for real. I saw it from the plane when I flew in, full of hope for Mom and excited to get to know my newly-found father, but needless to say, there hasn’t been a lot of time to explore. It's a whole different world from home. Harsh, wild and a little scary, but also beautiful. A lot like the guys, though I'm not sure they’d appreciate the comparison.

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