Page 25 of A Wrench in the Plan
“Let’s call everyone and see if anyone has seen them,” Sidekick said calmly enough.
I nodded, pulling out my phone, same as everyone else in the room.
“Get Mouse up here. And Sparrow. Gotta tell them what’s going on,” LT said.
“I got it,” Sidekick said quickly, already moving the phone up to his ear.
Though I felt the need to be the one to call Mouse, I stepped back and let Sidekick do it. He grew up with Chry. He was his best friend. I didn’t really have any right to insert myself into the family situation. I was… just a friend. A new one at that, only having known Cat and Chry for two years. I wasn’t Chry’s boyfriend. So yeah, while it hurt, reality slapped me in the face and I faded into the background, choosing to call brothers that might have seen him.
And the background was where I stayed, even as everyone came in and I was shoved into Church with the rest of the important brothers.
CHAPTER TEN
Wrench
I bolted upright the moment I came to. I was instantly on high alert, not having a clue as to why I felt the need to be. I couldn’t fucking remember the last thing that happened.
Oh. Shit.
I was in something that was moving. My eyes were blurry and I tried to blink my vision straight. Then I felt it, the way my hands were permanently locked behind my back.
Instantly, I thought of Cat. I couldn’t say why. I had this feeling like she was the last person I’d seen, and I wondered if she had been there when… whatever the fuck this was happened.
I needed to get my bearings. Figure out where the hell I was and what the fuck was going on. I was clearly in a vehicle of some sort. Glancing around, I was met with white surroundings and a metal floor. I saw a few folded up quilted blankets piled up on the overhang that must have covered the cab. I was in a fucking moving truck. I knew there was no way out and nothing around that would help me unbind my hands. Feeling that same sense of being trapped in a lower area, I looked down. And feet, as it seemed. Well… fuck. This wasn’t going to be easy to get out of at all.
Cat.
Her name popped up in my head again. I whipped my head to look behind me, praying that she wouldn’t be there. That, whatever this was, she’d been able to escape.
But that hope died the moment I saw her limp, bound body a few feet from me near the rolling door at the back of the truck. She was face down, making my gut fucking sink in a split second. Her long hair was a mess, covering everything it could within its path.
What if she was dead?
I couldn’t think that way. I couldn’t even let that thought into my head.
“Cat,” I whisper-hissed. There wasn’t anyone back here with us, but I still wanted to be quiet. We were moving, traveling somewhere at a pretty decent speed, I could tell. For now, we were safe, but the moment this damn thing stopped, I knew we were in for a load of trouble. Until then, I didn’t want to give them any clue that I was up and about to be looking for a way out.
Butt-hopping my way over to Cat, I had no choice but to bend over and try to move her hair out of the way with my face. I just kept thinking that if I saw her face, things would be okay. But I knew that was some bullshit.
“Cat,” I tried again, shaking her shoulder with my forehead.
My heart was racing because the thought that she might really be dead was gripping me tight. It couldn’t be, but she wasn’t fuckin’ moving.
I got down on the floor, shoulder screaming in pain as I lined my body up with hers.
“Cat. You gotta wake up. You can’t leave me. You can’t leave your mom and dad and sisters. You can’t leave Evan. You gotta be okay. Please. Open those eyes and show me those gorgeous baby blues.”
Oh, fuck, Evan. Saying his name just now caused a jolt of panic to shoot through me. He was going to be so worried once he figured out we were missing. Shit, and the last thing I’d done was brushed him off and ignored him. Wow, I was really a shitty friend.
Friend, though? Something kicked in my head, making that word feel all kinds of wrong.
Worst fucking moment to figure out that you might have some real feelings for someone. And that was what this was, me getting a light turned on in my head, thinking about how I might not ever see Ev again. Thinking about how I treated him as if he didn’t matter sometimes ’cause I got stuck in my head a lot and wasn’t great at expressing my feelings. Thinking how fuckin’ special he was and how I never really showed him that. Never took the time to care for him the way he deserved to be cared for.
But even without all of that, I realized that if Cat and I didn’t come home to him, he’d feel that loss deeply. Somehow, even amongst this huge family that Cat and I had, the three of us had created a little one of our own. We looked after each other. There was something there that I couldn’t really explain. But I knew that if Evan lost that, he’d feel like he was alone. He didn’t have anyone outside of us and the club, and he still thought he wasn’t a part of the club since he was just a prospect. Didn’t matter that a lot of us already saw him as part of the club, he drew that line hard and respected it. My chest ached at the thought of him feeling that way. So, whatever the hell this shit was we were into right now, I was determined to get us the fuck out and back home to Evan.
“Cat,” I said again.
Nudging her body with mine, I just kept praying.
