Page 10

CHAPTER NINE

CY

I’ll kill the motherfucker.

I knew something was wrong the minute I got back on the road. I just needed to get closer to the clubhouse. I already sent a warning signal to Hammer and Malice. All of our cars hold a panic/distress button on the steering wheel. It’s one of the designs I sat down with Gunner, Rogue, and Hammer to plan. It was supposed to be for the women but thank fuck I put on in my fucking truck.

Pain lashes through my body as I look to the passenger side to see my woman’s head fallen to the side, unconscious.

“Fuck.”

To make things worse, the airbags didn’t deploy. They should have. Someone had to have fucked with my truck, goddamn it. The only time they would have had to sabotage the bags was while we’d been in the damn grocery store.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

“You idiots.” I hear someone shout. “Grab the girl. We need to go.”

“It was your bright idea to snag her in the middle of a snowstorm,” another man snaps, his voice closer.

“Well, if you’d taken her the other day like I told you to, we wouldn’t be freezing our asses off right now. And we’d have both her and the brat.”

Tuning them out, I grab the pocketknife I keep in the center console and cut through the seatbelt. I keep my movements steady. No reason to let them on to the fact I was coherent, let alone alive.

I take a split second to assess my own injuries. Other than feeling banged up, I’m good. I know banged up doesn’t actually describe the pain, but I don’t have anything broken. That’s all that matters. There’s nothing holding me back.

From what I can tell, there are just the two of them. Easy enough. If there’s more, though, that might be a problem. On a good day, it wouldn’t phase me. Considering everything right now, it would be more of a challenge.

Footsteps crunch in the snow let me know they’re getting closer. I grimace, moving slowly, reaching for the gun I placed in the holster I keep just to the side and under my steering column. Normally, I have it on me, but I didn’t want to be wearing it while at the skating rink earlier in the day with Charlotte.

I wrap my fingers around the handle and jerk it free just in time. The passenger door is jerked open, it creaks loudly, and a man moves in. I don’t waste a second in pulling the trigger, hitting the fucker in the shoulder.

Shouting, he falls back, hand going to where I shot him.

“What the fuck?” the other guy yells. “Get the girl so we can get the fuck out of here. We don’t have all day.” His voice is closer now.

“That bastard shot me.”

“Then take his ass out.”

That wasn’t about to happen. Aiming at the open door, I’m ready for if they do anything.

Alanna moans, her head shifting.

“Keep your head still, baby,” I tell her, keeping my voice calm and quiet. I don’t need her to freak out on me. The last thing I need is for her to open her eyes and freak the fuck out, especially considering I have my gun trained her way.

She moans again, but thankfully, other than shifting her head side to side, she doesn’t move.

“Come on, get your ass up. Let’s get the girl and get the fuck out of here.”

“You get her,” the guy I shot snaps.

“Fine, I will.”

He starts moving for Alanna’s door, only to stop when the sound of two loud ass trucks approach the scene.

“Fuck. We’ve got company. We better get the hell out of here.”

“Get to the car, I’ll grab her.”

“Forget the bitch for now. We’ll catch her another time,” the bastard I shot says, sounding a little more than a bit panicked.

“Fine,” the other one snaps. “We’ll get her and the kid later. Daddy Dearest wants his property back.”

“That asshole doesn’t want shit back, he wants money.”

“Yeah, for the girl. You heard what he said about this one. She’s the best fuck he’s got, and wants her back. Sick fucker.”

“You act like she’s his real daughter.”

I keep silent as they move quickly away, straining to hear the last bit of their conversation. That last bit wasn’t something I expected. They didn’t seem phased or worried about keeping their voices down.

Good thing. Meant I got some information.

With them moving away, I lower my gun and reholster it under my cut rather than the steering column. I don’t breathe easy, though. I focus my attention on Alanna.

“Baby, you awake?” I ask, my voice raspy to my own ears.

“Hmm, my head hurts,” she whimpers.

“Yeah, I’m sure it does.” I stretch my arm out and brush a loose strand away from her forehead. “Sit tight. I’m gonna get out then get you, okay?”

“Okay, Cy.” Her voice shaky and no more than a breath. Still, she hasn’t opened her eyes.

Dropping my hand away, I get my door open, and it creaks loudly.

“Cy!” Hammer calls just as I get out. I glance up the small hill we’d gone down.

“Down here, Prez,” I shout and move around the back of my truck. There’s no moving around the front. Not with it crushed up against a small damn tree. Good thing it was small. Anything bigger could’ve killed us both. Instead, it just totaled my damn truck.

“Fuck, brother, you good?” Malice asks, rushing toward me.

“No.” I don’t bother looking at him. My focus is getting to my woman.Stepping into the open space, I reach over and to my console, snag my knife, and cut her seatbelt away. “Come on, Short Stuff, let’s get you out of here.”

“Okay,” she murmurs on a shuddered breath.

I help her out of the truck and set her on her feet. It’s a good thing she picked the boots she did today. The same goes for her putting the thick coat on.

Once I have her out of the truck, I finally look to my Prez, VP, and brothers, who came with them.

“What the fuck happened here?” Hammer says, taking both of us in.

“Someone thought they’d get a chance to take Alanna,” I inform them and tuck my woman into my side. “Fuckers messed with the airbags on the truck, and I’m thinking they messed with my brake lines.”

“We’ll take a look at it after we have the truck towed. For now, let’s get the two of you back to the clubhouse,” Malice states.

“Charlotte,” Alanna murmurs. “I don’t want her to see me like this.”

“Don’t worry about that, Short Stuff,” I tell her, dropping my arm from around her shoulders to scoop her in my arms. I hide my grimace from her. She doesn’t need to walk in this shit. It’s not like she weighs a shit ton anyway.

“I can walk, Cy,” she protests.

“I don’t fuckin’ care.” I didn’t. I needed to hold her close right now.

For fuck’s sake, I could’ve lost her tonight. I haven’t even slid my cock inside her, and I nearly lost her. That can’t happen. Not because I want to fuck her, but because in the past two years of watching her, I’ve allowed myself to love her. And she doesn’t even know it, which pisses me right the hell off. I’ve been doing everything I could to give her time to feel secure, to be comfortable because I was trying to do the right thing by her, let her get used to me. I’ve wasted time I could’ve had.

I’m not about to let that continue. Whether Alanna likes it or not, she’s my damn woman and is going to be in my bed, in my arms. If she wants to fight me on it, I’ll show her the error of her ways.

She and Charlotte are both mine.

The conversation I overheard between those two men comes back to me. Alanna’s father isn’t her father. Looks like I’m going to definitely have to go digging. None of this is making any sense to me.

But one thing is perfectly clear, those men were after both my woman and kid. I won’t let them be taken from me. I refuse to lose them.

Once we get up to the trucks, I help Alanna in first, then hop in next to her.

Rogue gets in the driver’s seat, and Hammer slides up in the passenger one. The rest of my brothers who showed up tonight were in the other truck.

“We get to the clubhouse, Dagger will check you both out,” Hammer says, glancing back.

“Honor at the clubhouse?” I ask. Not to be a dick to Dagger, I respect him, he’s my brother, but I don’t want any other man touching my woman right now. I’ll lose my damn head if they do.

“Yeah, Savage had gone and gotten her from work just after you left Charlotte at the clubhouse. She’ll be waiting with Dagger.” Hammer gives me a knowing look.

“Good.” I nod and wrap an arm around Alanna, tucking her into my side.

“What happened tonight?” Rogue asks.

“Tell you about when we get to the clubhouse, but whoever it was, they’d been following all damn day. Been watching Alanna for a few more. One of them mentioned that they should’ve snatched her and Charlotte the other day when they had the chance.”

Alanna tenses in my arms but doesn’t pull away or say a word.

Not that I’d let her out of my hold on her.

Hammer catches my eye briefly and turns fully back in his seat. “We’ll talk about everything after you get checked out.”

Again, I nod, but I don’t say anything.He’ll call church, and they’ll all want to know what’s going on. I’ll tell them what I can. Until I do a deep dive, that won’t be much, however, it was more than we ever had where Alanna’s concerned.