To hunt Carlo down.
Like I’d said, all I needed was a name. And now that I had one? I wouldn’t stop until it was finished.
Wondered if it was fate that name was already written in vengeance.
Retribution itched at my fingers, the thirst to go on a rampage so strong I could taste it on my tongue.
Need to give this girl the life she deserved.
One without me in it.
Right after I wiped the stain from her life.
The monster from this earth.
The demon inside raged. Jerked and thrashed against its bindings. Chains that pulled taut, links stretching to the brink of breaking.
In turmoil, I stormed back toward the building on my bare feet, wearing nothing but my underwear, my ears ringing with the promise of blood.
Probably looked like a psychopath. Wasn’t far from the truth.
I ran back around the side of Iron Ride to the set of stairs that led to my loft. I jerked open the heavy door and pounded upstairs, flinging open the upper door and going straight for my room where I’d left my phone on the nightstand.
I ripped it free of the cord, frantically jabbing at the contact.
It rang three times before Trent’s recorded voice came on the line.
“Fuck,” I spat, then started to rattle off the message when it beeped. “There’s trouble, Trent. Carlo is here and the bastard is after Salem. Think Darius is somehow involved. I don’t know…fuck…I just…”
Could barely get it out, words breaking as I tried to explain. “There’s a bunch of shit I don’t have time to explain, but I think she’s in danger. She left here panicked. Need you to keep a lookout for her at her place. I know she’s set on leaving town, but I’m not sure if she will go there first. I’m gonna…”
My eyes pinched closed.
Because I didn’t fuckin’ know…didn’t know what I was going to do. I just knew I couldn’t sit there idle. Couldn’t wait. “Just keep an eye out.”
Ending the call, I grabbed my jeans from the ground and yanked them on, pulled my tee over my head before I was shoving my feet into my boots. I tucked my phone into my back pocket, then I made a beeline to my closet where I kept my safe. I punched in the code and cranked it open.
I tossed on my holster, loaded it up, and I was blazing out the main door and running downstairs.
Ready to go on a hunt.
Hitting the ground floor, I jogged for my bike.
I stalled out when I saw the dark figure curled up on the floor near the middle bay. My eyes narrowed, and my heart hammered.
Shock slammed me when I realized there was a person bound on the floor.
I streaked that direction, pulling my handgun from the holster as I went.
Dread nearly dropped me to my knees when I saw it was Logan. Tied up and beat to hell. A thick piece of tape covered his mouth.
Blood pooled around his sagging, limp form. Felt bad that I took comfort in the moan that vibrated from him where he lay on his side.
“Fuck, Logan, I’ve got you, man. Hold on.”
I tried to get the tape off without ripping it, without hurting him more, but he was shouting something behind it.
“I’m sorry, man.” I issued it before I gave up and tore it free because I didn’t see any other way around it.
Except, in an instant, he was screaming, “Go, Jud, go. It’s a distraction. I’m a fucking distraction. Go!”
“What—”
He cut me off. “I’m just a warning, Jud. A distraction. Pulled me from my bed in the middle of the night and planted me here. It’s clear it’s not me he wants. It’s you and Salem. They would have put a bullet in me rather than kicking the shit out of me otherwise, and you know it. Go. Find her.”
I warred for the barest fraction of a second before I pulled my switchblade from my pocket, flicked it open, dragged it through the thin rope to free him.
Second he was, he shouted, “Go, man. Go!”
I was on my feet, racing for my bike, pushing the button to the garage door as I passed. It opened, and I dialed 9-1-1, shouting the address to the shop, saying I needed a paramedic at Iron Ride, then shouting I needed an officer at Salem’s house, that a mother and child were in danger.
The operator tried to ask for more details, but I ended it and hopped on my bike, and I was on the road, flying through town. Traveling so fast that the streets blurred beneath me. Lines becoming one. The sky a quickened haze above.
I only had one thing I could see.
One destination.
One purpose.
I would set this one thing right.
Give a new life to this girl who’d become everything. One who I wanted to live. To find joy. For her sweet Juni Bee to fly free.
In a daze of fury, I made the last turn into their neighborhood. I pinned the throttle, flying up the short hill where the houses rested back in the cover of trees.
Then the air heaved from my lungs, and I thought my ribs were gonna cave. A gush of horror shocking free as I squinted into the distance.
Juni.
Juni was running up the sidewalk.
Alone.
A cyclone of terror rippled around her.
I skidded to a stop beside her and was off faster than I could make sense of it.
She ran for me, her precious little face soaked with fear. I had her in my arms in a flash of desperation.
Relief slammed me. A punch to the gut. A riot in my soul.
“Motorcycle Man. You cames to save us. The bad man is here.” She cried it where she’d burrowed her face in the side of my neck, words distorted in my beard.
But I felt them ricochet through my spirit.
And every promise I’d made to myself fell away.
The commitment to be better.
To live clean.
That I’d never again have a man’s blood on my hands.
The devil screamed, and I heard the strain of the chains when they finally snapped.
There was a car parked on the curb, and I ran for it, took a fist and put it through the glass on the side that was hidden from the street. Pain barely even registered as the shards fell free.
I swiped them away, pulled open the lock and opened the door, and placed this little girl who owned me heart and soul into the backseat. I took her by the face. “Lay on the floor. Do not get up or show your face until either me or Trent come to get you. Do you understand? I need you to be the best hider in the world right now.”
Furiously, she nodded. “Okay.”
“Good girl.”
Then I shut the door, gave a furtive glance around to make sure no one saw where she was before I was back on my bike and speeding over the hump in the road that gave way to the plateau where Salem’s house sat on top of the hill.
Ahead, I saw it, the blacked-out BMW sitting in the same spot where it’d been the day Trent and I had been teaching the kids to ride their bikes.
Then my mind spun with dread when I saw the carnage spread out up ahead.
Bodies were strewn all over the front lawn.
Trent was across the road in front of Eden’s house with his gun drawn.
And Salem…Salem was angled to face him, Carlo behind her with a gun to her head, the piece of shit using her as a shield.
And me?
I pulled the gun from where it was strapped to my back, and I let the demon go.
THIRTY-SIX
SALEM
The air wheezed down my constricted throat.
Pain fractured through my being.
Mental.
Emotional.