Page 49 of Surrender
Cool leather met my cheek.
I was safe.
Rafe had me.
He’d take me to Nate.
“Here’s a new deal,” Rafe countered, his voice moving through his chest like a gentle hum. “I take Darcy. You disappear. And maybe Nate doesn’t kill you.”
The sun hit my face as Rafe turned to walk away, each step jostling me gently, but his grip was firm and protective, like I was something fragile he didn’t want to break.
Behind us, a door slammed and tires screeched as a car pulled away at high speed.
Rafe didn’t flinch.
“I lied,” he murmured, and I blinked up at him, my vision fading in and out. “Nate’s gonna destroy him.”
I couldn’t speak or nod.
But in my mind, one thought sounded louder than the others.
I hope he makes it hurt.
Chapter Seventeen
BLUE
The weight of the silence around the table was heavier than steel.
I stood at the head of it beside Bishop, my arms crossed and fists clenched. It’d been a tense few hours, waiting for Darcy to wake up to make sure whatever the fuck that bastard had given her hadn’t had any lasting effects, but thankfully, she seemedwith itagain, lucid and angry.
I wanted to stay with her.
To not move from her side.
But this couldn’t wait.
“She could’ve fucking died,” I bit out. I didn’t need to raise my voice or roar across the room for my brothers to understand the depth of those words. “He drugged her. He was going to throw her in his car and take her fucking who knows where, and we might have never found her. That’s not crossing a line. That’s a fucking declaration ofwar.”
“I should’ve gotten to her quicker,” Rafe hissed between clenched teeth. “I didn’t think he’d—”
“Neither did I, kid,” I told him, trying to shut those thoughts down.
Rafe had had eyes on her since she walked out of Backroads the day before. He was the only reason she was here at the clubhouse and alive.
“I mean, we knew he was fucking dirty,” Bishop said, shaking his head with a dark frown. “But I don’t think we really comprehended this shit. I was sure he was going to try to bust us up on some bullshit charges. Maybe plant some shit. Stick his nose in some judge’s ass. Not try to drug, kidnap, and possibly murder his girlfriend.”
“Ex-girlfriend,” I corrected, clenching my fists. “My future old lady.”
There was no gasp of surprise that moved through the room, even though most of the men in there had yet to meet Darcy. At this point, they’d been briefed on our history, and most of them already thought I was an idiot for letting her go the first time.
All I knew was that I wasn’t about to let it happen a second time.
“So what’s the play then?” Hawk questioned, tapping his knuckles on the table. “We go at him now, or wait until he comes at us again?”
“We watch,” I said. “We keep an eye on the bastard. We evaluate in a couple of days.”
Hunting him down right now and removing him from this earth would be my preference, but unfortunately, there were a few problems with that approach. The first was that he was a high-profile figure and part of one of the country’s wealthiest families. If he were to gomissing, there would be a lot of eyes on us.
