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Cyrus and Jaron followed Cheesy and Locke to the garage, takingall the air in my lungs with them. I didn’t like the way Sammy was looking atme. It went past just being intense. It was like his eyes were searing into mysoul, marking their territory, and reminding me where I belonged. He didn’tneed to remind me. I knew. He was my home. He had always been.

“Sam, you know I have to do this,” I told him, but my voicedidn’t come out as sure as I would have liked.

Sammy stomped toward me. His hand reached the back of my headfirst. He fisted my hair, holding me in place and forcing me to look up at him.“I’ll go with you.” His hand dropped to my stomach. “And I don’t give a shitabout Will’s threats. I will skin him alive if something happens to you.”

“I won’t be able to handle it if something happens toyou.”I gripped his hoodie, pulling him closer.

“We’ll take care of this together,” he said, his voice firm. Itleft no room for argument but I knew that Will wouldn’t like it if Sammy showedup with me. Add to the fact that he had my mom, it wouldn’t end well for her.

“You need to give me a head start.” I pulled away from him andlifted my hand before he could stop me. “You know I have to do this. I have tosave my mom.”

“And sacrifice yourself in the fucking process?” Sammy yelled.“Your mom wouldn’t want you to do that. I don’t want you to do that. Will isn’tstupid. He knows for a fact that you won’t show up alone.”

“It doesn’t matter what she wants. What any of you want. If youcould go back in time and do what you could to save your parents, I know youwould.” I ran a hand over my belly. “I need to do this. I need to get her backand to safety. I need her to be able to watch her grandchildren grow up. Ineed…” My chin wobbled, tears falling down my cheeks.

A heavy body wrapped around me, pulling me into a warmth Ithought I would never feel.

Sammy gripped the sides of my head, leaning his forehead againstmine. “I’ll go with you and have a fucking army with us too. I’m not having yougo in there alone.”

“Sam.”

“I can’t let you go there by yourself. I can’t. I refuse tooffer you up to him.” He reached behind him, pulling a small pistol from theback of his jeans. “Here. Take this.”

“I can’t. I don’t know how…” The lie was on the tip of my tonguebut we both knew that being married to a biker for as long as I had been, ofcourse I knew how to shoot. Aaron made sure of it.

“Take it.” Sammy grabbed my hand and placed the small pistol inmy open palm. “If someone comes to you that isn’t me, shoot them.” He kissed myforehead, breathing me in.

My eyes welled, a single tear falling down my cheek. “Mymom…she’s…” The words wouldn’t leave my lips but they forced bile to my throatanyway. A shuddered breath left me.

“I’m sorry, baby.” Sammy took the pistol from me and spun mearound. He lifted the hem of my baggy shirt and slipped the small gun into thewaist of my leggings. “There’s something you need to do though.”

I thought a moment. “I need to call him and make sure my mom isactually alive.”

Sammy turned me back around, keeping his hands at my waist. “Howdid you know?”

“Because I know how he works. He probably recorded her voicesaying my name. I guess I didn’t want to think about that and got too wrappedup in the fact that he took her in the first place when Tiny and his crewshould have fucking protected her like they said they were going to.” It wasn’tfair of me to think it but I couldn’t help it. Tiny promised me that he wouldlook after her.

Before Sammy could comment, Cyrus came back outside, followed byJaron.

“Sorry to interrupt,” Jaron said, looking between us both. “Itappears that the clubhouse in your hometown was blown up. It has Will’s MO allover it. That’s how they were able to get your mom. She was there.”

My knees shook. “She…She was probably bringing them food. Shedid that often. I…My mom isn’t going to make it out of this alive, is she?”

Jaron and Cyrus looked at each other while Sammy kept his gazeon me.

“You want to know my honest opinion?” Sammy asked me.

I nodded. “Yes, please.”

“I think if she’s still alive, she’s very fucking lucky.” Samgrabbed my hand, bringing it up to his mouth and kissing my knuckles. “I don’tknow what all Will wants but I will stand at your side and wait until you tellme that you need me.”

My eyes welled. “I need to call him.” I drew in a deep breath,pulled away from Sam and dialed up the man who was doing everything in hispower to destroy everything I had worked hard for.

“Change your mind?” came Will’s deep voice from the other end ofthe phone.

“Let me talk to my mom,” I demanded, ignoring his comment. “Notjust a hi. An actual conversation. I need to know that you didn’t just recordher saying my name.”

“Smart fucking girl.” He chuckled, the sound sending an ice-coldshiver of fear racing down my spine. “She’s a little indisposed.”