Page 19

Dozer

Five hours and thirty-three minutes. My mind sank into the darkest, coldest recesses of my soul. I didn’t need to be with her to feel her pain.

I dropped my head between my shoulders and talked to her in my mind. She could be strong, she could fight, and she could survive.

No one asked me how I was doing. It was a stupid fucking question. None of us were good. Romeo paced. Vance sat with Hana and Blade at a table, no one really speaking, just waiting.

Gabi entered the chapel with Jazzy. I lunged to my feet, but the thin pull on her mouth spoke more than the words she wasn’t speaking. She crossed the room to Vance. As good as it was to see him back in the chapel, I couldn’t swallow the reason he was here or shake the suffocating fear and the weight of their judgment.

I didn’t belong at their table. This was my fault. Anatomy had escalated because I’d taunted him, claimed Pippa as mine.

“Dozer.” Romeo said my name, drawing my attention.

He joined the others at the table, but I took position a few feet away and slid down the wall until I sat on the floor with my knees bent. I closed my eyes and listened to them speak.

“Claudia had her baby,” Gabi said. “My mom wants to know when Pippa and I will be there, and I don’t know what to say to her.”

“Are you sure we shouldn’t call the police?” Jazzy asked, which surprised the fuck out of me because Jazzy was the last person to turn to cops for help. She was her old man’s princess, but she reigned like a brutal queen.

“Fuck.” Vance ran his fingers through his hair. He scooted back from the table. “Call Alex again,” he said to Gabi.

Levi came into the chapel.

Elvis sat by the door with Sully. Both stood as the football player followed her in.

“He’s with me,” she said to Sully as she rose onto her tiptoes and kissed the burley biker on the cheek.

He gave her a hug. “Glad you’re here. He needs you.”

Both she and Sully turned to me. I was glad she was here, but she wasn’t the one I needed.

Elvis curled his meaty hands into fists. “This place used to have rules. We got unwelcome hang-arounds, a president sharing a table with a traitor, and no one seems to give a shit about disgruntled brothers wondering what the fuck is happening to our club.”

“Calm your shit down,” Sully said. “You want to worry about something, you worry about the girl. These other changes are good for the club.”

Levi crossed the room. Then she was on the floor next to me with her arms wrapped around me. I curled one arm around her neck and hugged her close. The familiar scents of honeysuckle and mandarin surrounded me. She was warm and strong. She didn’t bend as I gripped her tighter. Long moments passed before I let her go. She stared into my eyes.

“Go find her, Dozer. All of us sitting here isn’t helping Pippa.”

I ran my fingers over her hair. “He’s going to hurt her.”

Tears glistened in her eyes. “I know. You need to find him.” Her mouth formed a hard line. “Listen to me, Dozer. You unleash all this dark rage building up in you on him. You destroy him, or it’s going to destroy you.” Her small hand clung to mine. “You do it for her because she’s going to need you.”

Levi was right. I couldn’t wait around here, hoping for a sliver of hope from Gabi’s connection.

My gaze raked up the thick thighs standing behind her. “You brought Rook?”

“His name is Coop, and you can get territorial later.”

I kissed her forehead. “A boyfriend looks good on you.”

She held my hand as I stood.

“We have two places we know to look,” Levi said.

I’d been to his house with Blade and Rogue, but another search would give me something to do besides sit and fucking dwell on the shit I shouldn’t be thinking about, imagining what he was doing to her.

My gut clenched with a painful twist.

“It’s getting late,” Coop said. “But if Professor Graves is still in her office, I’m sure I can get a favor from her.” He lifted a brow at Levi. “You’ll need to hang back until she lets me into Chamber’s office. It’s going to take a bit of flirting.”

“You can screw her if it’ll help find Pippa.”

Coop wrapped his massive arm around her. “Hopefully, I’m persuasive enough it won’t need to go that far.”

It was unlikely they’d find anything at the university. I’d drive by his house again. After we filled in the others, I went to my room, and changed into black jeans and a black T-shirt and grabbed a black beanie to cover my head.

With my 9mm tucked in my jeans behind my cut, a handful of bullets stuffed into my pockets, and a knife strapped to my belt, I slipped out the side door of the MC.

The powerful vibration of my bike rocketed through my bloodstream. I slipped on my riding glasses, gloves, and skull tube mask. The engine roared as I raced down the street toward the Hills neighborhood.

Once there, I circled the block twice. Most people were getting home from work, unaware of the evil that had been living among them. They could thank me later, but their good neighbor, the academic, wouldn’t be returning to the neighborhood.

The two-story house was quiet. I throttled back, but the bike still rumbled. The thing I loved most about my bike was also going to get me caught casing the house.

A single car drive led to a small garage. I rested my bike, stored my helmet on the clutch, and slipped on the beanie. Breaking in during the day was risky, but every minute that fucker had her was another minute of terror for Pippa.

Sidling around the house, I went through the lower floor window we’d kicked in. I crawled through and dropped to the floor. I shoved a cigarette between my lips and lit it. I listened, with my pulse kicking like a fucking machine gun, for any sounds.

The house was eerily silent as I made my way from room to room. The professor had a fuck ton more money that I did to afford the pimped-out crib.

Besides a typical living room, the lower level was a weekend wet dream with a bar, pool table, and theater style seating in from of a wall-sized movie screen. I could imagine her here, drinking wine spritzers and watching foreign films in Italian. All I’d be able to offer was a rented room in a smoke-filled MC.

None of this shit mattered to her. My girl wasn’t going to be impressed with a state-of-the-art kitchen. She cooked like shit. Pippa wanted to laugh, catch a ride off my high and fuck.

With a renewed wave of fear and rage, I kicked over his end table, shattering the glass. He took her, and she was fucking mine.

I climbed the stairs to the upper level. I strode down the hall to the room that faced the street, the one where he sat behind the glow of the laptop computer. Remembering sent a fresh wave of rage through me.

I slowly entered the room. Nausea roiled in my gut. He’d violated her privacy, her life for months. The obsession Anatomy had with Pippa was graphically revealed in the photos and writings .

There were pictures of her throughout the room. I stood at the window and glanced down to the street. A lady walked her dog on a leash. The neighborhood was quiet. I released a breath. If I’d been seen entering the house, cops would be at the door.

Anatomy had a decorative glass bowl on the shelf. I used it as an ashtray and stubbed out my cigarette, then put the filter into my pocket. I still wore my gloves. No fingerprints, no DNA. I was in the fucking system. I wasn’t going to go down for breaking and entering, but I’d have no problem leaving my fingerprints around the fucker’s neck.

A large L-shaped desk sat in the corner with stacks of printed photos. In most of the shots, Pippa seemed to be unaware she was being photographed. Fuck this. I grabbed the garbage can and dumped the contents on the floor. Then, pulling a chair near the table, I went through each picture and tossed it into the garbage.

There were printed pictures of her in the Union Center with her arms around Rook and a big fucking happy smile on her face. I could look at the picture and hear her giggle.

I crushed the paper in my hand. There were pictures of her sitting in her car at red lights. Pictures of her with Romeo. I froze, my hand trembled, and a dark swirling vortex of pissed burned through every muscle tensing in my body.

Pippa, on my lap while on the porch, my hands on her ass with a blanket crumpled around us. I tore the picture in half then tore it again. I shredded it because that moment was mine. Fuck him .

I dumped all the printed photos into the garbage. I didn’t need any fucking evidence. When I found him, he was dead. Ripping open the bottom drawer, I fished through documents, home warrantees, and shit for his teaching credentials.

Nothing I found gave a hint on where he could have Pippa. We needed Gabi’s connection to come through. I couldn’t think about any other outcome than getting her back. One fucking beautiful thing happened in my life, and now, she had been taken from me, too.

I dropped to my knees and roared into the silence. “Fuck!”

Fuck every bad thing that had ever happened to me, every bad thing I’d ever done. Nothing hurt like this. Nothing else mattered.

After I’d gone through the office, I went through his whole fucking house. Anything I found connected to Pippa, I carried to the living room and set next to the fireplace. I wasn’t sure if the panties I found in his bedroom were hers, but those were going into the fire, too.

Once I had a fire blazing, I sparked a joint and watched his collection of my girl burn.

***

My phone vibrated. For a disorienting moment, I’d forgotten where I was. A burned-out fire, the darkness out the window, with only the glow of a distant street light and the glaring screen of my phone to blink the room into focus.

“Hey,” I said, knowing I sounded groggy and wondering how the fuck I could have fallen asleep.

“Where are you?” Vance asked .

“Anatomy’s house.” I leaned forward and pinched the bridge of my nose to fight the tears from filling my eyes. “I burned everything…anything connected to her.”

“Gabi’s on the phone with Alex. His guys have the computer. They found something.”

I couldn’t swallow past the lump in my throat. “Where is she?”

“Nah, not until I get your word that you’ll wait for us before storming in. Listen, if you charge in there on your bike, you’ll get her killed. Are you fucking hearing me?”

“Are we sure she’s there?” I couldn’t suck a breath into my lungs. He’d had her fourteen hours. Fourteen fucking hours of terror. “I won’t risk her life.”

I still wore my gloves as I launched off the chair and headed out the door. I slammed it closed behind me.

“Dozer—”

“I know, Vance,” I said. “I just want her back, and I want him dead. We can figure out the rest later.”

My phone pinged with the address.

“It’s isolated. It’s not going to pull up on Google.” Vance gave me basic directions gleaned from an aerial map.

After disconnecting, I rumbled down the drive, and as soon as I cleared the block, I twisted the throttle and blasted down the street. I leaned into the tight corners, riding fast, tearing out of town. Wind whipped around me, the ground a blur beneath my boots. As I leaned forward, the butt of my gun pressed against my gut .

Thirty miles and twenty minutes later, I slowed and turned onto a dirt road. I hit the button on my blackout kit. The road was shit. Without my headlight or corner lights, I couldn’t see shit either. Light flickered about a half mile in the distance.

Fuck, he could have already heard my approach. I killed the engine, slipped off my helmet and goggles and put my beanie back on. I held my gun in my hand.

She was in there. I had one bar on my phone. I hoped the text I sent Vance went through. If it didn’t, I didn’t fucking care. I needed to get to Pippa.

Dozer: I’m here. Sorry. Not waiting.

My phone pinged.

Vance: Fuck! We’re five minutes out.

I checked the message and shut off the ringer. Five minutes too late.

I hunched over and jogged along the trees to the flickering light in the shadows. Branches crunched beneath my boots. My grip tightened on my gun. The darkness and the uneven ground kept me from running. As I stalked closer, the shape of a small cabin silhouetted against the forest.

My chest quivered with shallow breaths. I stepped onto the first worn, wooden step. The plank groaned under my weight. I carefully placed my next step. I held the gun at my side, exhaled a slow breath, trying to tamp down my adrenaline.

The screen door squeaked on rusty hinges as I pulled it open. With my ear close to the door, I listened. Hearing nothing, I place my hand on the knob and twisted. The loose handle clanked…and turned. The door popped open inward .

A rage unlike anything I’d ever felt before burned in my guts. Fuck. No. Fuck .

He was on the floor, sleeping with his arm over Pippa’s bare, beaten body. Her wide, eyes stared unblinking at the ceiling. She wasn’t moving. Black, purple, and red welts and bruises covered her face. A lifeless woman, ravaged and broken. A filthy cloth gagged her mouth, stretching her bruised and swollen lips. The belt wrapping her wrists cut into her flesh.

A whir of deafening noise inside my head blocked out all sound. I stuffed my gun in the back of my jeans. I roared and launched across the room.

“Get the fuck away from her.”

His eyes snapped open, and his arms flailed. He might as well have been swinging for a fly. There was no escape for him. With a single thrust, I had him slammed against the wall, pinning him, with my hand gripping tight around his throat. I squeezed, and his eyes widened. Redness rushed up his neck. He tried to inhale, but I crushed his windpipe.

“Fuck you,” I snarled. “You took something that belongs to me.”

The stench of piss and rot burned my nose. Scratches gouged his face and neck. Blood coated the man’s mouth. He tried to speak, but something was wrong with his tongue. And there was a huge chunk of flesh missing from his face.

“You’re fucking dead.” I became an animal, a raw predator reduced to a single purpose. Killing. With the first punch, blood exploded from his nose.

Anatomy screamed. Before he could cover his face, I curled my fingers into a fist and cracked my knuckles against his jaw. His head snapped back .

Tears streamed from his eyes and bloody drool dripped from his mouth. The line of his dislocated jaw protruded in an unnatural angle. He reached out with his left hand in defense.

“Don’t pussy out now,” I seethed. “We’re just getting started.” I grabbed his palm. With a slow sadistic pressure, I twisted until the bones, ligaments and tendons snapped, cracked, and popped like cereal.

Crumbling under the pain, his knees buckled.

“Not yet, you sick fucker.” I drove my knee into his throat.

Anatomy wheezed for breath. He toppled onto his side, and I kicked his ribs.

Motorcycles rumbled into the yard, and headlights cut through the darkness outside. But I couldn’t stop. Anatomy gurgled on blood, spit, and mucus. Bloody spit splattered his face as he coughed and gagged.

Footfalls raced up the stairs.

“Dozer!”

Strong arms ripped me away from Anatomy.

“Enough!” Rogue’s harsh voice cut through the delirium of my rage.

“Nowhere near enough. Not until I break every fucking bone in his body.”

Rogue crushed me in his arms. Anatomy whimpered and curled into a ball on the floor.

“Don’t kill him…not yet. We’re not done with him.” Rogue rolled him over with his boot and bent over. His menacing voice sent a shiver down my spine. “We’re going to need you to write one more note first,” he said to Anatomy .

More heavy feet hit the porch. The screen swung open. Vance and Gabi rushed into the cabin with Blade and Hana.

Gabi’s gasp echoed in the room. She carefully slipped the gag from Pippa’s mouth. Then she loosened the belt. The leather strap slipped free.

She sucked in a breath.

“Dozer,” my name was a whisper on Pippa’s breath. Fear morphed her face as she backed away from Gabi, shielding her naked body with her bound arms blocking her chest, and her knees tucked close. Her eyes focused on me.

I rushed toward her.

Hana sat on the edge of the mattress. Tears drenched her cheeks as she whispered to Pippa. “Can we help?”

Blood seeped around her mouth from the abrasive rubbing of the gag. Pippa groaned. Hana tried to cover her with a blanket. She lurched away from the blanket as if were a shroud of death. It had been. For the last fourteen hours of torture.

“We’re here.” Gabi reached out, but Pippa flinched. “Let us help you.”

Pippa didn’t speak. I knelt in front of her. I shrugged off my cut, handed Hana my gun, and ripped off my T-shirt. Her gaze devoured me as I slipped my shirt over her head. She gingerly slipped her arms through the sleeves.

Gabi touched Hana’s arm. “Come on.” They scooted from the mattress. Once they’d given Pippa a little distance, tears filled her eyes.

She crawled into my lap and curled into my bare chest. Her body trembled as I pulled her close .

I sat on the floor with her in my arms. I’d failed her. I tucked her close, and a savage cry of anguish rushed from my lungs. I roared to the rafters. Violent trembles overtook me.

I fisted my hands in her hair. “I’m here.”

She clung to me, her body bruised and violated. Blood crusted on her face, and tears slipped from her swollen eyes.

“I’m sorry,” I said, clutching her tighter. “So fucking sorry. I should have been there, should have protected you.”

“Not your fault,” she whispered, her voice a raspy, hollow murmur.

I kissed her temple, tenderly cradling her close. “Fuck, I thought I lost you.”

“I screamed.” She spoke so quietly I strained to hear her over the commotion with Rogue, Blade, and the man moaning in pain.

Her gaze lifted to mine. “I didn’t freeze this time. I fought.” A river of tears continued to wet her face. “I tried to get away.”

A low wail vibrated from her into me. Her broken and bloody nails gripped me.

“You’re a fighter, baby.”

“But I lost. He…he…”

“Shh. You survived.”

Romeo burst into the cabin. His gaze darted around the room, landing on Pippa violently quivering in my arms.

His lips trembled, and his jaw clenched. He fell to his knees beside us. Pippa curled her fingers in his hair as Romeo dropped his head into her lap .

Pippa

Warm cotton surrounded me. Dozer. I could smell him, the scent of cigarettes and spice. At first, I thought my mind had conjured what I most desperately needed. No one knew where to find me. Quinn promised I’d live or die in this cabin.

I decided to die. I chose. Only he was determined to see me suffer first.

I tunneled my fingers through Romeo’s silken hair as his body shook. Dozer kissed my closed eyes, holding me in his protective arms.

They’d found me. They’d saved me.

A guttural moan rent the air. Rogue stood over Quinn as he crumpled into a chair. Blood smeared across his battered face.

Rogue shoved a pen into his hand, but Quinn dropped it. Rogue spoke low in Quinn’s ear. Whatever he said, Quinn disagreed with. He shook his head, refusing to take the pen.

Gripping Quinn’s forearm, Blade slammed Quinn’s palm to the table. “Pick up the fucking pen.”

Quinn shook his head again. With a quick movement, Vance swung a hammer and crushed Quinn’s pinky. A blood curdling scream rent the air.

Romeo lifted his head.

“He can’t suffer enough.” The vehemence in his voice made my tummy quiver.

My gaze locked on Romeo’s green eyes. He was hurting—for me.

Every muscle in my body ached. My bones throbbed. I’d cried, screamed, and begged only to be bound, gagged, and hurt. I didn’t want to think past the bruises and cuts.

“I hear nothing,” I said.

“There are two hundred and six bones in the human body,” Vance said to Quinn. “Twenty-seven in the hand. That was one.”

Color drained from Gabi’s face. She turned away from Vance and squeezed Hana’s hand. My gaze softened on them.

“Gabi,” I croaked. My throat was fire, gritty and hoarse because Quinn had choked me too many times. I’d dived deep into the blackness of unconsciousness. I still remembered too much. My stomach rolled, bile churning in my empty belly.

Gabi rushed to my side. Hana wiped tears from her eyes and sat next to us.

“Can I get you a drink?” Hana asked.

“I’m fine.” I kept one hand on Dozer, to feel the heat of his flesh, to know he really was here with me. The other on Romeo in an attempt to comfort him.

One of Dozer’s large hands held my hip, keeping me tucked close, the other roamed over me, chasing the memory of the monster’s touch with his. I desperately needed this man, the man who haunted me, the touch I craved in the dark.

Romeo shifted to my side. I needed him too, his smile, his laugh, but like me, he was drowning in the ugly reminders on my body. I’d seen what I looked like in the mirror—when Quinn had allowed me to use the bathroom. He’d watched. He’d admired the damage he’d inflicted on my body. The strangulation marks on my neck, the perfect ovals from where he had choked me with the dog collar .

Dozer had covered my torso, but the crusted blood on my legs and between my thighs said more than I wanted them to know.

Gabi took my hand in hers and gently rubbed her thumb over the angry red welts and cuts from the belt.

“I’m sorry,” I said to her. Sorry that Vance was here, slipping back into the Heller brand of justice.

“You have nothing to be sorry for.”

My gaze shifted to Vance. “You didn’t want him involved.”

“Pippa, my way would have you at the hospital, police questioning that sick fucker, only for you to be back with mom and Leo and that piece of shit using his position to avoid punishment.”

She touched my face, wiping a bit of blood from my cheek.

“And I’d wish to come back to this moment so that I could hold your hand while that fucker gets everything he deserves. The man I love is defending my baby sister.” Tears slipped down her cheeks. “I love you, and I’m so fucking sorry. I should have come into the house with you. I should have made sure you were safe.”

“You couldn’t have stopped him. No one could. He threatened to hurt you, too.”

Vance pivoted. “What?”

I bowed my head. “I couldn’t let him hurt Gabi. He was my mistake.”

Vance turned, exploding with rage. He slammed Quinn’s face into the table. Except for when Dozer entered the cabin, I’d never seen a man more possessed. Hana had once told me a dragon lived within her brother, a fiercely protective beast that fed off the fight.

Quinn had unleashed fury.

Blade grasped Vance’s shoulder. “You and Dozer. Fucking animals, like sharks feeding. We’re a long way from done. Bullet will be here soon.” He leaned into Quinn. “That’s when the real party starts.”

Rogue slapped a notepad to the table. “We get him to write the fucking note first. Don’t let him bleed on the paper.”

“Pippa, can we take you home?” Gabi asked.

My heartbeat instantly spiked. “No, I’m not ready to go back.”

“Let’s take her to the MC,” Romeo said.

Fear flared through me, a wildfire of panic. I tried to catch my breath. “No.”

“Baby,” Dozer cooed. “You tell us where, but you don’t need to stay here and watch this.”

“Don’t leave me.” I needed to be touching him, but he needed to be a part of destroying Quinn. “I want to stay with you.”

His fingers ghosted along my neck, barely touching the bruises yet shivers broke over my flesh. “If I touch him, I’ll kill him. I only need to be with you, and you need to not be here.”

I could feel the fear slip from my limbs. “I don’t want anyone else to know what happened.”

“The only people who know are in this room.” Romeo held my hand in his. “No one will say shit. We take care of our own.”

“I don’t want anyone to see me.” One look at me and they’ll know what happened.

Dozer kissed my forehead. “Trust me? ”

With every breath, with every stuttering beat of my heart because even when I was sure I’d never see him again, I was his.

“I’m taking her to Willow.”

Romeo agreed.

I clung to Dozer as he stood with me in his arms. Hana grabbed his cut.

“Vance and I came in the truck,” Gabi said.

Vance crossed to Gabi. He touched her cheek. “Ask me to walk away if you can’t live with what I’m about to do.”

Her mouth twisted into a sneer, and her eyes narrowed. “Don’t come home unless he’s dead.”

“Keys to my bike are in my pocket,” Dozer said to Romeo.

He fished them out and tossed them to Vance.

“I’m staying,” Romeo said. “I need to be here, and I need to be here for you,” he said to me and rested his forehead against mine. His breath warmed my lips, and he tangled his fingers in my hair. “And for Dozer.”

“Romeo.” I softly spoke his name against his lips.

“Don’t,” he whispered. “Don’t worry about me. You and Dozer. The way it should be.”