Page 173 of Caution to the Wind

“Her bracelet,” I ground out as Curtains, ignorin’ my quiverin’ rage, jumped up onto the stool beside me and flipped open his laptop. “She left the house wearin’ it.”

“I can get a lock on it,” he promised, fingers already flyin’ over the keys.

“King, Nova, Priest, take some brothers and get the fuck over to the ranch. Make sure Boner and Ransom are gonna be okay and soothe the women.”

“I’m sorry, man,” I told Lion, realizin’ through the fog that it was his fuckin’ wedding day. “I gotta find her.”

He stepped forward and grabbed my shoulder, jerkin’ it a little. “Harleigh Rose and I can get married any day. We’ll get you Mei back, Axe-Man. That’s a fuckin’ promise.”

“I got it,” Curtains howled, shovin’ the screen to show me a movin’ dot on the Sea to Sky Highway headin’ down to Vancouver. “I can track it on my phone. Let’s move out, see if we can catch them before they stop.”

’Cause the moment they stopped, they’d end her.

End the life of a girl who’d do any-fuckin’-thing for the people she loved. A girl whose love language was throwin’ herself on a sword meant for someone else’s side.

Fuck, but why had I fucked around in claimin’ her? Why the fuck had I let her outta my goddamn sight for one second?

“Let’s move out,” I demanded, movin’ in the crowd of my brothers toward the door to grab our buckets, our boots, and the extra weapons we’d planned to leave at the clubhouse for the duration of the weddin’.

“We’ll get her, brother,” Bat swore to me. “I refuse to watch you live out another fuckin’ tragedy.”

“Pigeon told Cress,” King said, stalkin’ out the door beside me. “That she told him to tell you she was sorry to leave ya, but that she was happy to do it. It was her turn to pay any price for you.”

Fury and terror blinded me for a full second, robbin’ me of everythin’ but the colour red.

“We’ll find her,” I agreed, swearin’ it to myself and to Mei, where ever she was.

This was not how our love story was endin’.

We wereon the Sea to Sky Highway, a column of riders two by two, twelve men in total with the rest of the brothers at Danner’s ranch to deal with things there when Curtains held up a hand to signal for us to pull over.

We moved in practiced tandem, pullin’ off to one shoulder, so close to Vancouver, where I knew without a doubt they were takin’ Rocky.

The second Curtains took off his sunglasses to look me in the eye, I knew what he’d say.

“Sorry, man,” he whispered brokenly. “They must’ve stripped her or done a pass with a wand. We lost the signal.”

The roar that tore outta me left the taste of blood on the back of my tongue. Despair throttled me, but I tried to breathe through the panic and fuckin’think.

What recourse did we have?

“Where was the last place you had her?”

“South Vancouver.”

As if summoned by my furious roar, the full-bellied skies opened up and unleashed a torrent of rain. It was dangerous to drive the windin’ highway on a bike in this kinda weather, but not a single brother made a move to leave.

“We head there,” I decided. “I’ll make a call on the way and see if I can’t get more information.”

Curtains nodded, and we moved as a unit back onto the rain-slick street.

The phone rang six times before the motherfucker picked up.

“How did you get this number?” Jiang demanded.

“Your brother’s got Mei,” I said and felt the frisson of shock over the phone line. “Where would he take her?”

Jiang swore vividly in Cantonese. “How long has he had her?”