The brothers around me rocked from side to side, muttering their agreement, clenching their fists—they were pissed and they were with me.

I glanced over my shoulder at Styx. “Prez? You in?”

Styx’s eyes burned with fire, and he nodded. I went around each of my brothers, who all nodded their heads in agreement. Flame was at the back, the brother having just walked out into the yard from guarding Maddie. He was already pacing, thirsting for revenge, every stacked muscle in his body tight with fury. The blood-curdling smile—his gums reading PAIN—that spread on his face when I looked to him for an answer told me what I needed to know. But then I caught someone behind Flame, someone with black hair and a pair of wolf eyes… a tiny bitch whose heart was fuckin’ breaking.

“Mae,” I said in exasperation. “Can’t be out here. You know this. Club business.”

Styx, having heard me say Mae’s name, plowed through the brothers to take his bitch in his arms. Her huge, tearful eyes looked up at him. “Someone has taken Lilah?” she asked, devastation in her voice.

I felt my heart crack right along with hers, right down the middle. Shit. This was why old ladies were kept away. They didn’t need to know shit until there was shit for them to know.

Styx nodded his head at his old lady apprehensively, and I watched him sign, “We’re gonna get her back, and we’ll kill the cunts responsible. Babe, I swear, we’re gonna get your sister back.”

Mae swallowed fearfully at seeing her man so pissed. She glanced away. Then her gaze met mine. More tears fell down her cheeks, and she held out her hand, gesturing for me to go to her.

Styx watched on with a scowl and sharply jerked his chin for me to move closer. Clearing my throat from a huge fuckin’ lump clogging up my windpipe, I slowly edged forward and took Mae’s shaking hand, licking my lips as I worked up the nerve to meet her eyes. All the brothers fell silent… even Flame.

Ky, keep it the fuck together, I told myself. Keep it the fuck together for your woman. You’re gonna get her back. Nothing bad has happened to her.

“Ky?” Mae said quietly as I waited for her to rip me a new one. “Bring her back to us. To me, Maddie… to you…” She trailed off, and I thought hell must have frozen over or some shit. Mae had warned me off Lilah more times than I could count, but here she was giving me her blessing?

What the—

A fuckin’ crushingly sad smile played on Mae’s trembling lips. “You love her.”

It wasn’t a question, and we all knew it was the fuckin’ truth. Yeah, I’d given club slut pussy for that woman. Hell, she just fuckin’ got me, got under my skin… a woman pinning me down and really getting me for more than just my cock.

“Yeah, I fuckin’ do,” I rasped. “More than my goddamned life. That bitch is everything. Every-fuckin’-thing.”

Mae’s hand squeezed mine and she breathed a shaky sigh of relief. “She loves you too.”

My chest wound so tight I couldn’t fuckin’ breathe. She loved me. She loved me. She loved me.

“You were saving her, Ky. Day by day, you were saving her. I saw it. I did not like it at first, thought you would eventually hurt her, but you didn’t. In fact, you were accomplishing the impossible.” She suddenly hitched a breath, and sucking up some strength from somewhere down deep, she added, “Lilah needs you to save her again now, Kyler. She needs you to save her life… We all do.” Mae’s eyes dropped and she whispered, “I beg you to save her.”

Reaching down, I pressed a kiss to the back of Mae’s hand and said, “I promise you, sugar. I’m gonna save my woman… or I’m gonna fuckin’ die trying.”

Chapter Sixteen

Lilah

“Wakey, wakey, Blondie!”

I awoke with a jolt. A strong scent of ammonia filled my nostrils, forcing me to sit up to avoid the putrid odor.

Every part of me ached. My head hurt, I struggled to open my eyes, but I was unable to move my arms and legs, for they were tied together with rope.

Fluttering my eyes open, my heart began to race as the strange men from the river sat before me, smiling salaciously, as I sat together with them in a darkened box.

The one with greasy brown, stringy hair reached forward and ran his dry rough hands up my leg. Tears filled my eyes.

Suddenly, a loud knock sounded at the rear of the tinny box, and I realized I was in a van. “Get ready. Buyers will be here in two.”

Buyers?

Frowning, I returned my attention to the men sitting before me. The man who was fondling my leg sighed heavily and ripped away his touch. I exhaled slowly, relieved as he signaled to his men to move out of the van.

The doors opened and immediately slammed shut, trapping me in the darkened vehicle. I frantically tried to think of what to do. Who were the men? What did they want with me? What was to be my fate?

Squeezing my eyes shut, I tried to suppress the sob traveling up my throat but failed as a cry slipped past my lips and water began spilling like a waterfall from my eyes. Were they going to kill me? Or… take me against my will?

Ky’s face flashed before my eyes, and another sob ripped free. Would he be looking for me? And Mae and Maddie, would they be frightened? Would any of the Hangmen know where to look? Would they know the identity of my captors?

They would not, would they? I was lost to them. They had not known I’d gone to the river to pray. Ky… Ky would have thought I ran away…