“What damn it?” I felt a knot in my chest, fear total fear. What the hell was wrong with me?
“Fuck man…there was blood everywhere.”
I think my heart stopped. Whatever I felt in that moment went beyond fear.
“What about the cameras at the house?” I said trying to think. Anything the club owned we had cameras on them, but motherfucker the cameras on that old house were ancient. Why the hell hadn’t I thought to change them sooner?”
“It looks like the girls got away into the hills. Some fucker came out behind them, got in a car and left.”
“So, he didn’t follow them?” I asked trying to catch my breath.
“No, but we haven’t heard from Nic. The boys have been combing the hills and the main road.”
“Crush and I are about an hour out. Call the Ohio Chapter, tell them we won’t be there today. Then you put every fucking man we have out searching and you find her. If she’s hurt I’m taking it out on your mother fucking ass for letting her leave during lock down!”
I look at Crusher while I start up my bike.
“Home now,” I order not explaining the rest, I figure he got enough of the conversation that I didn’t need to clue him in. My fucking palms are sweaty and my heart is beating out of my chest. I’m not a praying man. I figure God turned his back on me before I was born, it’s all I can explain for the way my life started. Right now though, I find myself praying and praying hard.
I need this woman. Last night cemented that to me, when she held me and told me she just wanted me? Fuck. No one had ever ripped me open like that before. They sure hadn’t claimed me and been proud of that shit. In my experience women wanted to fuck the Prez because I was the Prez but that was about it. Nicole could care less about the club or my position in it. I still didn’t understand what it was between us, but after last night I know that this girl is it for me. I have to have her. I have to keep her, fuck. She has to be safe. She has to be.
Hold on Mama, I’m coming.
I repeat that mantra in my head over and over, praying she can somehow hear me.
Chapter 23
Nicole
Okay it sucks but I’m ready to admit it. I have no fucking idea where we are. I thought we were heading towards the road, I really did, but we’ve been walking forever now and there’s no sign of a fucking road. In fact the hill seems to be going up instead of down. Shouldn’t it go down if I’m getting close to the road? I fall down against a tree and Dani does something similar across from me. We don’t talk. Neither one of us are happy with each other at this point. We’re cold, we’re tired, and we’re scared. I refuse to list scared first, though truly the fear I feel inside is like this giant knot threatening to choke me at this point. Worse I’m horribly numb. The radio had said the high today would be forty but it feels like fifteen. I’m so frozen I don’t think I’ll ever get warm again. I close my eyes and picture Dragon. He probably doesn’t even know I’m missing. He was going to be gone all day. Dani and I had both been trying to use our cell phones but no signal. That’s the thing about living in the Appalachian Mountains, cell service sucked donkey balls. I would almost suck donkey balls to get out of this mess. Shit no, I’d make Dani do it. Bitch owed me, even if she didn’t admit it and surely that couldn’t be as bad as sleeping with that creep I had stabbed.
Oh my God I stabbed someone. I should feel remorse I guess. The last hour or two or however long we’d been out here, I was mostly wishing I had been able to Lorena Bobbit his ass or dick as it were.
“We need to keep moving,” Dani said.
I wanted to ignore her because I figured she deserved that shit.
“Feel free, I need to take a minute to breathe,” I grumble instead. I sounded like a spoiled two year old but I didn’t care. I blame Dani, even if I understand her reasons behind it. I love my girl but she got us in this mess and I want to slap the shit out of her.
“I’m sorry Nic,” She sounded so miserable, I felt a little guilty.
“Forget it. I understand, but you’ve got to trust me when I tell you that Dragon is nothing like Michael.”
Dani didn’t say anything. I could tell from her face that she didn’t believe me, but she was wise enough to let it go, so I did too. She’d see in time, because despite what Dani said, despite the photos, despite everything, if I managed to survive this, I was totally going back to Dragon. I plan on holding him tight and never letting go.
“Should we try getting off the trail and sliding down the mountain to see if it might end up near the road?” Dani asked and I could hear the fear in her voice. This was because when she said slide, she meant it. I had looked over the edge a time or two and it was a cliff’s edge that falling off would most likely kill either of us. The mountains were gorgeous to look at, but clearly I should have listened closer to all those news reports about lost or injured hikers.