Page 46 of Freeing Souls

“Wait–you’re coming?” I stutter, my eyes widening.

She smirks at us. “Of course. I’ll be out far with Stone with the other rifle.” Raven takes in our shocked faces before she laughs. “Stone taught me a few years ago. I’m better with a bow and arrow, but I promise to do my best not to shoot you.” She winks.

Stone slaps her ass,hard. “Knock it off,” he grumbles. “This is serious. I should’ve said fucking no.”

“You can’t say no to me when I have your cock out,” she responds sassily.

“Alright, that’s our cue. See you upstairs,” I say as Cade chuckles under his breath and Grayson’s face turns beat red.

Once we are back upstairs, Sugar takes over, making sure everyone is rounded up and reminding them of their positions. The ball is happening at an old factory out of town, but we still have to move carefully and stay back until our inside guys are actually in and can tell us the next moves.

As Grayson, Noah, Cade, and I head out to the truck, someone grabs my wrist, and I spin around to find Carly, her eyes red and puffy. “Bring them home,” she whispers.

“We will do everything in our power. We got this.” I say.

Grayson

My leg bounces as I stare at the GPS from the passenger seat of the truck, watching as we get closer and closer to our destination. I have my laptop out and ready, already communicating with Nerds. Everyone else has ear pieces in, and once I send out a text to make sure they have them in I do an audio check to make sure everyone can hear and be heard.

No one speaks as we all get lost in our heads and prepare for the worst. Or at least, I prepare for the worst. We park in our position and wait as the others get into their spots and those going in first head up to the factory with Oakley.

Everything is silent until someone finally speaks into our ears. “Are you sure this was the location?”

“Yes,” I respond, even as I bring up the site and check again. It is the correct place.

“What’s goin’ on?” Sugar asks through the ear pieces.

“There’s nothing here,” Oakley says.

Ryker sucks in a breath from the back seat, and then we are all flying out of the truck, running straight to the factory. After about five minutes, we make it to where Oakley and the other guys stand.

Rock, one of the enforcers from the other North Carolina club, pinches his lips together. “There’s nothing here.”

Ryker runs up to the building, and as he goes to break the door down, he pauses, his entire body going rigid. “Ryker?” I call as we all move closer.

He spins around and hands me a piece of paper previously taped to the door.

You were warned.

Ryker lets out a roaring scream that I have never heard from him before as he slams his fist into the wall of the building over and over again. When Cade finally pulls him back, his eyes are impossibly dark as they lock on me.

Storming up to me, he grips my face between his hands. “This isn’t the end. We will find the fuckers and destroy them. We are not giving up.”

I can hear voices behind me as people talk, discussing what we do next, but I keep my eyes focused on Ryker’s impossibly dark irises. They are terrifying and intimidating, but I feel safe in them. And right now, I feel so…helpless. Lost. Confused. Broken. I need him to ground me, just like I think he needs me to ground his demons.

Because now, we are starting at square one all over again.

This will either bring us even closer together or break us until there is nothing left.

Chapter Fifteen

Ryker

One Month Later

The days bleed together. Nothing feels real anymore, and we all become numb to the reality of things as more time passes. Sugar has tried his best to hold us all together, but there is only so much that can be done. We’ve searched high and low.We have ripped apart Jacksonville trying to find some sort of answers, but we always come up empty.

“Did you sleep at all?” Grayson asks as he props himself up next to me in Harley’s bed, where we have taken to sleeping.

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