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CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

DAKOTA

Slowly, my eyes open, and I look around, but I don’t move any part of my body other than my eyes. I’m lying on a mattress, but other than that, I have no clue where I am, why I’m here, or who brought me here. I’m not about to let them know I’m awake yet. Not until I can gather my wits about me. Not until I at least figure out if I'm alone or not.

I hold my breath as my gaze flicks around, but the room is dark. Even as my eyes adjust, I can’t make anything out. There are no windows, no light spilling in from beneath a door. There is nothingness, almost as if I’m in a void.

“You’re awake,” a deep, gruff voice grunts.

I hold my breath for a moment, trying to gauge where in this space the voice came from, but I have no idea. I’m also completely panicked because not only is my sense of sight gone, but the rest of me also feels very lethargic. I don’t know where I am, who has me, or what’s happening. I’ve never been so confused in my whole life.

My brain is racing, my thoughts moving so quickly that I can’t even really comprehend what I’m thinking. I feel out of control, and as I attempt to catch my breath, I feel the tears well in my eyes, threatening to spill down my cheeks.

“Name’s Grudge.”

I’m not sure what the hell that means. I don’t ask him, either, mainly because I don’t give a shit. Instead, I wait for him to continue, hoping he’ll give me some kind of reasoning as to why he drugged and kidnapped me.

Thankfully, he continues to speak, and I don’t have to wonder any longer. It doesn’t mean that he’s not a complete psycho, but at least I don’t have to guess as to what his plans are. Why he took me and what he is going to do with me, or rather what he hopes to accomplish.

“Your father is dead, and his club is unstable,” he begins.

I want to scream at him that I have no idea about any of this. I didn’t even know my father, so what the hell kind of part do I personally play in all of this? But I don’t say a word because my brain is moving so fast that I don’t think any intelligible words would actually come out. I’m grateful he doesn’t expect me to say anything because right now, I have absolutely nothing.

“I could play with their supply chain for a little longer, but I’m already bored with doing that. I don’t want just their supplies. I don’t want just their buyers. I want the whole club on a national level.”

Still, none of this means anything to me. Not a damn thing. Instead of telling him that, I continue to stay quiet. He clears his throat. Then I feel his hand on my ankle. His fingers curl around me there, and as much as I want to jerk away from his touch, I don’t.

I stay perfectly frozen on the mattress, which I have a sneaky suspicion is likely dirty and gross. I have no idea because it’s so dark in the room, but I’m envisioning the grossest thing ever. In fact, my skin now feels itchy as my mind begins to wonder about the condition of this windowless room.

“The fastest way to get them to do what I want, the way I want it, is through you,” he murmurs. “The princess. You’re the most valuable thing they have right now, other than money.”

“I’m not valuable,” I whisper, finally able to string a few words together.

Those words don’t help my situation at all. In fact, I think it makes it worse because he lets out a loud guffaw, almost as if he finds this hilarious in some way.

Nothing about this feels funny to me.

Like, not even a little freaking bit.

“That’s the complete irony, Dakota. You’re not supposed to be valuable. You can do absolutely nothing that would benefit me except for spreading your legs, but to them, to the Vicious Reapers, you stand for goddamn everything. Shade wasn’t just a man. He wasn’t just a president. He was everything the club stood for, and with that, you are, too.”

I want to scream that I freaking get it. My father was this amazing man. My mother took me from him, and I’ll never know just how great he was. But even by Shocker’s own words, he wasn’t perfect, especially thirty years ago. However, no matter how perfect he wasn’t, it seems like everyone has forgotten that part.

Also, I don’t want this creature to go anywhere near between my legs , so I need to do whatever I can to avoid that altogether. I want to ask him what his plans are with me, but I don’t get the chance.

Because as soon as my brain starts functioning at a normal speed, I hear a door open, I’m blinded by light, and then the door closes, and I’m shrouded in darkness again. Well. That was useless and pointless.

BULLET

The house is full of brothers, all of them on their phones trying to figure out where the fuck my woman is. We all know who she’s with. We just don’t know where. Ralph is on his way over with a fucking escort because I’m not letting that asshole out of my sight.

I cannot believe he made a deal with the Bloodhound MC without telling me. I should have his goddamn balls in a jar over that shit. And now my woman has been taken away from me, and it’s his fault.

If anything happens to her, I’m going to make sure that Ralph’s head is on the chopping block next to every member of the Bloodhounds. I’m sure it would be looked down upon by other men, but this isn’t a world where that kind of shit matters, at least not to me.

In fact, I don’t give a fuck less if any single man looks down on me. They won’t, but I wouldn’t give a single fuck if they did.

“Their known safe houses are clear,” Piggy announces.

Turning my head, I look over to him, jerking my chin in his direction. He called over to his buddies in Richmond, Virginia. Granted, he doesn’t know them well. He’s done some training with them, but he was able to worm his way into a conversation and get some help with the Bloodhound MC and their whereabouts.

“The only place they can’t physically check on without a warrant is their clubhouse.”

“Then that’s where she is. They’ll know that,” I grunt.

“Yeah,” Piggy mutters. “They sure as fuck know that shit.”

Before I can say anything else, the door opens, and I watch as Ralph, Maverick, and Goose walk through the front door of Shade’s home. Ralph glances around, his eyes wide as he takes in all the men who have their focus on him and only him.

“We got a problem, Ralph,” I state, taking half a step forward.

He clears his throat, rocking back on his heels and appearing really fucking nervous. He shouldn’t be, that is, if he didn’t do anything wrong. But he knows as well as I do that he fucked all the way up.

“We do?” he asks, attempting to sound confused and maybe a little anxious.

I hum, not making my way toward him but instead keeping my gaze connected to his, unmoving, unwavering. His body language is jumpy and nervous. I can almost see his heart beating in his chest.

“Nervous?” I ask.

“N-N-No,” he lies.

My lips twitch into a smirk. “Want to tell me just where in the fuck you were sending all of those supplies?”

“They came to me,” he murmurs.

I don’t believe him. I mean, maybe they did come to him. Richmond is only about three hours away from here, but still, I think he knows more than he’s letting on. He’s scared absolutely shitless to tell me when it should be the opposite. He should be scared shitless not to tell me.

“You know, Bloodhound MC is scary,” I begin, ignoring the way the guys behind me snort.

Ralph nods his head, his eyes never leaving mine, and then he whispers his next words, and I can hear the fear trembling in his voice with each word he says.

He is terrified of Grudge.

And he should be, but Grudge isn’t the one who holds his life in his hands this very second. That man is me, and I’m starting to get good and pissed off about this whole situation.

“He told me that he would go after my sister. She’s in college. She isn’t part of any of this shit.”

My lips curve up into a grin as I think about the fact that while the Bloodhounds thought they had leverage, they do not. We will have more.

“What?” Ralph asks.

“You want protection for your sister?”

His gaze flicks around between the men at my back. Maverick and Goose are standing behind him. He’s completely surrounded by all of us, and he knows there will only be one answer, the right answer, to every question I ask him.

“From you?” he asks.

“Do you want protection for your sister?” I ask again.

He jerks his chin, and no doubt his heart is beating inside of his throat now as he attempts to formulate words. He doesn’t know what the fuck is going on, and that’s a good thing because I’m about to blow his goddamn mind.

“Give us what we want, and we’ll protect your sister.”

His eyes widen, and his mouth opens, but no sound comes out. My lips twitch into a smirk. I have him right where I want him. This motherfucker is mine. Tilting my head to the side, I watch him for a silent moment. Then he nods once. That’s all I need.

“You can have whatever you need as long as she’s safe.”

That is what I wanted to hear. Gathering information on his sister, I send it all to Piggy and ask him to coordinate surveillance and whatever else is needed to give her full protection, or at least as much protection as she can have without being on lockdown.

We, as a club, don’t typically set up and use our own equipment. It costs us too much money to do that. We’re not in the business of security, but in this case, it will cost us a hell of a lot less in time and money to watch this one college girl than it will to lose Ralph as a supplier and then whatever the goddamn Bloodhounds cost us—like my woman.

“All of this over supplies?” Ralph asks after he’s finished telling me everything I need to know, including the address to the Bloodhounds’ clubhouse, something that they have been able to keep a secret for far longer than I imagined possible.

I’ve known who they are my entire life, yet I’ve never known where their main clubhouse is located. It’s not shocking that they’ve been able to keep that a secret all these years. In general, MCs are known for living off the grid as much as possible.

Their mailing address is a PO Box, much like ours. They don’t have a phone line to the clubhouse, and we’ve had no reason before now to know where they’re located. Vicious Reapers have never wanted anything to do with those fucks—we still don’t, but right now, we’re fucked.

“Those bastards want to take over our club. They tried to fuck us over financially, and when that wasn’t working fast enough, they kidnapped my woman,” I growl.

Ralph’s eyes widen and his brows lift straight into his fucking hairline. I feel the same way. Shocked and goddamn bewildered that these fuckers would attempt such a thing. But they did, and they are, and I’m going to make them suffer for every goddamn second they’ve kept Dakota from me.

Piggy texts me back, confirming that he is working on protection for Ralph’s sister. As our sergeant at arms, it’s his duty to handle security, and there is nobody else I trust more in this world to get that done.

Ralph’s sister will have our protection, even if it means having a man on her at all times to ensure that she’s breathing. We have a couple of nomads who could use the busy work and change of scenery, and it won’t take a hit to our manpower.

Although, this isn’t a bad gig. Protection for supplies and information—I wonder if this could be a new venture for us. Shade was always looking for ways to diversify, and we have nomads all over the country. This could possibly work for us. It’s something I’ll have to revisit once we’ve settled from this horseshit.

But I’m going to revisit it.