Page 111 of Pay the Price

I went to my phone’s browser and typedBlackwell Falls fire motorcycle clubinto the search bar.

A breaking news story was right at the top, posted by theBlackwell Bulletinless than ten minutes before.

A five-alarm fire has been reported at the private compound of a local motorcycle club on the outskirts of Blackwell Falls. A fire crew and paramedics have been dispatched to the scene.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated as more details become available.

I picked up my phone and grabbed my bag, then raced for the hall.

“Hey… everything okay?” Natalie asked when I practically ran into her.

“I have an… There’s an emergency,” I said, barreling past her toward the stairwell.

Then I was pushing through the door leading to the stairs, taking them two at a time, my heart in my throat.

The compound was on fire and the Beasts were there.

My Beasts.

Chapter 68

Daisy

Asingle word beat through my head as I sped to the compound.

No.

No, no, no.

And then, smaller, a plea:please.

I left Main Street behind and took the windy mountain roads too fast, skidding around curves in the Mustang, pushing it to go faster on the straightaways. On the passenger seat, my phone blew up with texts, but they were all from Ruth, Sarai, Cassie.

Where are you?

Are you okay?

What’s going on at the compound?

I’d sent a harried, panicked text to the Beasts before I’d put the car in gear, but none of them replied, and I felt the pit in my stomach grow bigger and blacker.

I was almost to the dirt road leading to the compound when I heard sirens behind me, and I was forced to pull to the side of the road as two fire trucks from neighboring towns sped past me, their sirens screaming.

I felt sick. The Blackwell fire department was calling in reinforcements from other fire companies, something they only did when a fire was too big for the local fire company to handle alone.

I made a hard right onto the dirt road and tried to reason with myself as I sped down the long drive to the compound, nestled in the trees.

The Beasts had been going to search some kind of storage area. The fire was probably in the rec building where Pinky did all the cooking. That made the most sense.

I felt like an absolute shit for feeling momentarily relieved — I liked the Blades and didn’t want to see any of them hurt — but I didn’t have time to have any angst over it because a second later the main buildings came into view.

And they weren’t on fire.

It was total chaos, members of the MC rushing back and forth in their cuts, yelling at the fire crew and at each other, pushing back a couple of people who looked like reporters trying to set up cameras and microphones.

And the fire trucks, the two that had passed me on the road, starting carefully down a path in the woods that looked too narrow to accommodate them.

My heart dropped into my stomach and I gunned the Mustang’s engine and followed the trucks. I caught sight of Pinky as I passed the rec building. She stared after my car, her face pale and drawn.

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