Page 42 of All's Fair in Love & Chaos
The wait for him to do his magic is agonizing, my thoughts bouncing between wanting to rattle her fucking skull, pride, and the worst emotion of all: fear. Wrath comes through for me and gets me the address to her family home in under five minutes, even though it felt like hours. I just hope like fucking hell she’s still living in it.
I’m out the door and looking for her bike before I realize it, my eyes narrowing in on the sleek, all-black Harley at the back. It’s foreign, riding a bike that’s not my own, but since she made that decision for us by stealing mine, this is what I’m working with.
The ride to Spruce Harbor is wracked with fear of the unknown. Pestilence is a dangerous, notoriously sick fuck, so for her to go out of her way to eliminate him? Saige has more balls than most club members. The thought makes me simultaneously fume with anger and bask in pride. My fucking queen.I should kick her ass for being so reckless, then bow at her goddamn feet in worship.
The wind howls past me, the world blurring into streaks of asphalt and dust, as I push the engine of her bike beneath me to the extreme. I saw firsthand how hard she can ride it, so I’m trusting it’ll do the same for me. My heart pounds loudly in my ears as I push the bike faster, letting it eat up the distance between us.
Time seems to drag as I picture her beautiful face, the sparkling brown eyes that hold so much depth, the swirl of color when the sun hits them just right, and then I see Lucas,the last, brutal, final image I have of my brother, and panic digs its evil claws into me and holds me hostage.
I realize I’ve never heard her laugh.
I still don’t know how she takes her coffee.
What her favorite color is and what side of the bed she prefers when she’s not being cuffed to it.
Fear coils tight in my gut, whispering all the worst-case scenarios that could be happening while I’m still too far away. Rogue’s words echo in my ears. I should have listened; I should have gone after her the moment she had left. But responsibility and loyalty to my club came above all else, and I felt like the decision was made for me.
Every second that passes feeds the panic gnawing at me. I grip the throttle harder, my knuckles white as I push her to the limit. The only thing I care about right now is getting my eyes on her. I need to know she’s alive and unharmed. I have no doubts that Saige can handle herself, but I don’t want her to have to anymore. I have no idea what I’ll find when I get there, but all I know right now is that nothing had better get in my way because I’m not stopping until Saige is in front of me.
As I finally hit the tiny town of Spruce Harbor, hope fills my chest. I still have no idea what I’m going to say when I see her, but once I know she’s safe, I’ll think of something.
Saige’s family home comes into view, a modest cape with an acre of land. I really hope Saige was able to inherit it because having a home to stay in that’s yours after your parents are gone is life-changing. I would know.
The tires screech and whine as I kill the engine, flipping the kickstand down and taking off up the stairs to the largewraparound porch. I don’t bother knocking, turning the handle and finding it already unlocked. Disappointment washes over me. She should fucking know better than to leave a house unlocked.
Saige’s dark, floral scent engulfs me as I cross the threshold. I quickly scan my surroundings, my hand firmly on the gun secured in my holster. Everything looks undisturbed. Not a coffee cup in the sink, not a throw blanket on the couch, there’s no sign of life, and it looks like it’s been that way for a while.
I tear through the house, my heart pounding out of my chest as I go from room to room, coming up empty. “Saige!”
I come to a stop in the center of a bedroom that has to be hers, the walls painted a muted grey, black, long-stemmed roses with silver accents painted onto them. I can picture her lying on the bed, the dark comforterpulled up to her waist as she sleeps.
My fists clench and unclench as I work on steadying my heavy breathing. When fear comes, it’s irrational and manipulative, but when you know firsthand that people can die, you tend to understand where it comes from.
A frame sits on her dresser, a younger-looking Saige with a familiar woman with hair that matches hers; her dad and sister look so similar, with such drastically different features from Saige and her mom. Saige and her sister are both wearing crowns, Saige’s black with skulls at the top, her sister’s pink with hearts. They must have been polar opposites. They’re wrapped in each other’s arms, a parent on either side of them, hugging them. They look like the picture-perfect family.
And I destroyed it.
Guilt eats me alive as I stare at the photo. I pull out my phone, dialing Malice. He picks up on the first ring.
“She’s not fucking here!”
“Shit.” Silence stretches between us as I look around her room, looking for any clues as to where the fuck she could be. “Oh! The tracker! I forgot to check the tracker!”
“Malice,” I seethe. “What fucking tracker?”
“The one I put in your gremlin bell after shit went south last year and Kinsey was kidnapped. I put it in there for emergencies in case we ever got separated. My bad! Should have thought of it sooner! We haven’t needed it.”
The fucking gremlin bell. When I became president of Hell’s Heathens, Lucas got me a custom gremlin bell to watch over me. The bell has our insignia engraved in it, a skull with a king’s crown sliding off its head, the dagger slicing right through the center. Saige has my bike, which means we can fucking track her.
“Well, we fucking need it now, Mal!”
“I know. I know. I’ve got it. It’s searching . . . bam! Got her! Well, I got your bike, or the gremlin bell, let’s hope the bell is with the bike and Saige is with both of them . . .”
“Malice! Focus!”
“It pinged, north edge of Spruce Harbor. Just sent you the location.” My phone dings not a second later, and then I’m hanging up with Malice, looking at her. She’s only ten minutes from here, in the middle of fucking nowhere. The red dot pulses on the screen like a heartbeat, and I hope like hell that’s a good sign.
“Hold on, baby,” I say to myself. “I’m coming.”
