Savoring Mila (Angels Halo MC Next Gen & Rockers' Legacy Book 3)(26)
“She’s having a miscarriage,” I raged at him, even as I mentally prayed I was wrong. “Stop the car. Find her a hospital.”
“No,” he said calmly. “No stopping.”
“She’s losing her baby!” I screamed at him and threw myself across my sister to get to him. I was tired of this shit. Tired of being scared and sitting there like a weak little victim.
My nails scored down his face, causing him to shout in pain. He was so surprised, his hold on his gun slackened as he tried to push me off him, and I grabbed it. Sitting back, I turned it on him, just as the driver slammed on the brakes.
I jerked forward, my shoulder connecting hard and painfully with the front passenger seat. The next thing I felt was a sharp pain in the side of my jaw.
Monroe screamed my name, but it sounded far away as the world went black…
Chapter 21
Lyric
Spending my life around hard-core rockers made me think I’d grown up with badass men. But my dad and uncles had nothing on the Angels.
Bash, Hawk, and Masterson showed up first, then Mila’s brother, Maverick, and a few of his cousins. Soon, an entire army of MC brothers was filling up the parking lot, quickly followed by the sheriff’s cruiser pulling in with his mother-in-law in the front seat. There was something about Raven Hannigan Reid that, from the first moment I met her, told me I needed to respect her.
She reminded me so much of Aunt Emmie despite the two women being polar opposites in looks. They both had this aura around them, demanding everyone bow down because they were the fucking queens of their world.
She was out of the cruiser and headed for the group surrounding me before the sheriff had even opened his own door. “What do you know?” she asked the group at large, but there were no new details to share. I had zero information to offer, and I felt useless just standing there watching them.
“Raven,” Ben called as he moved toward the front door of the café. “You with me?”
“Be right there,” she called back, her eyes searching and finding me. “Lyric, let’s go.”
Glad to have something to do besides standing around losing my mind worrying about Mila, I went with her as she followed her son-in-law inside.
Ben was already speaking to Tiff, who seemed to be realizing the importance of giving me what I wanted now. After a few more words were exchanged between the two, she led the way to the back office, where she pulled up the security footage on a dated computer. She messed with a few keys, but Ben moved her out of his way and sat in the rolling chair behind the desk. Muttering under her breath, Tiff left us, returning to the front of the café and leaving us alone in the office.
Moments later, the screen filled with the images of the parking lot. The camera didn’t reach all the way back to where Mila and Monroe were parked, but it showed a black sedan brake sharply near them not long after they had left the cafe. Several minutes later, Mila and Monroe appeared just long enough to be forced into the back of the car, and several seconds later, the sedan sped away.
“I saw the gun on Monroe,” Raven said. “If those two idiots put a gun on them, Mila wouldn’t have put up much of a fight.”
“Meaning she would have if they hadn’t?” I demanded. The thought of Mila being in the kind of situation where she would have to fight was making me sick to my stomach. It brought home just how much danger she and the babies were in, and I wasn’t fucking there to protect them.
“She and Monroe have both been taught how to defend themselves should something like this happen. The only reason they wouldn’t, especially Mila, is if there was a gun involved.” Raven bent to look at the screen better. “Can you enhance this and try to focus on the guy behind Monroe?”
“This piece of shit is ancient,” Ben told her. “We’re lucky to get what we did.” Grabbing the radio attached to his belt, he issued a BOLO for the sedan. “Alert the California and Oregon State Police to let them know to be on the lookout as well,” he told his dispatcher. “Tell them to use extreme caution if they engage the driver. Both women are pregnant.”
“Got it, Sheriff,” the woman confirmed.
“Could this be a ransom situation?” I asked Ben.
“If this is Fontana, or has anything to do with that motherfucker, then no. I doubt this is about money.”
Frustrated, I raked my fingers through my hair. “Who the fuck is Fontana?” I bellowed. Lexa had mentioned him earlier but hadn’t told me who the hell he was.
“Gian Fontana’s father gave Lexa her scar,” Raven told me, her voice ice-cold. “A few years back, Gian’s adoptive father tried to take Lexa and give her to him. Before his untimely and oh-so-tragic death that night, Santino was the top sex trafficker in the US.” She inhaled sharply, her olive-green eyes full of steel when they met mine. “We assume Gian inherited all of that as Santino’s adopted son, but he went silent. There has been very little noise from his compound, and he’s rarely even been seen.”
“Lexa said Monroe told her she’s in love with this guy,” I told her.
“She told me that too when she called me,” she confirmed. “Apparently, from what Monroe told Lexa, Gian has been protecting Mon for years.”
“Protecting her, how?” I demanded, not understanding what the hell she was talking about.
She sighed heavily and opened the door. “That doesn’t matter,” she said as she started walking down the hall toward the front of the café. I followed, and she kept talking. “I don’t think Fontana is behind taking them. If what Lexa said is true, he never would have held a gun to Monroe. And I doubt he would let anyone else do so either.”
Outside, Masterson and the other MC brothers quickly gathered around us. Dad stayed to the back of the group, but he met my gaze over the heads of some of the brothers, telling me with a look that he was there if I needed him.
“I think we’re dealing with one of Fontana’s enemies,” Raven told them, causing Masterson to curse viciously. “If that’s the case, they are going to go as far north as they can to stay out of his territory.”
“Yeah, but they could head east too,” Ben spoke up. “If we’re going to go after them, I suggest spitting up.”
“I’m going north,” Masterson said.
Bash split the MC brothers into two groups, but when Masterson got on his motorcycle and took off before anyone else had even moved, I jumped in the driver’s seat of Dad’s SUV. Dad barely got in before I was peeling out of the parking lot after him.
“Calm down,” Dad ordered. “You’re not going to be any use to that girl if you kill yourself on the drive to get to her.”
“Fuck, Dad!” I hit the steering wheel with the palm of my hand. “I think I’m going to lose my mind.”
His heavy hand fell on my shoulder. “It’s going to be okay, son. We’ll find her.”
“If anything happens to her or the babies…” I blinked back the sting of tears, refusing to let them slow me down.
“I know, Lyric. Believe me, I know. Just stay calm. We’ll get to them.”
We drove and drove for hours, but the guys in the sedan already had a good three hours on us. They could have been anywhere with that much time between us, and we didn’t even know where to look.
Two and a half hours into the drive, Dad’s phone rang. The SUV was a rental, and the phone wasn’t connected to the Bluetooth, so he hit the speaker option when he answered. “Yeah?”
“It’s Ben.” The sheriff’s voice filled the vehicle. “Oregon State Police found the car.”
“Where?” I demanded.
He gave the location, and I realized we were only about half an hour from where the sedan had been spotted. “The car was easy to find because the fucking thing was on fire,” Ben continued, and I swerved as images of Mila in a burning car stole the air from my chest. “No one was inside. My guess is they switched vehicles. OSP is calling in all their off-duty officers and starting a statewide manhunt. I am about an hour behind you right now.”
After we hung up, I quickly passed Masterson on the road and hauled ass to where Ben said the car had been left. Masterson must have realized I knew where I was going because he didn’t try to pass me, and instead followed me to where a fire truck was still parked.
The sedan was just a melted frame. Four state police cars were parked around the crime scene. Throwing the SUV into park, I jumped out and rushed toward the first police officer I spotted.
The man held up his hands as I approached. “This is a crime scene,” he barked.
“My fiancée is one of the two women missing,” I told him. “Tell me everything you know.”
“I can’t give you details of an open investigation,” he said coldly.
Dad was already behind me, his phone out. Seconds later, he thrust the phone into the officer’s hands, and I assumed it was Ben on the other end.
“We found tracks heading north,” the cop informed Ben just as Masterson turned off his motorcycle. “We have reason to believe…” He broke off when Masterson stomped toward him.
I caught Mila’s dad around the waist when he went to grab at the cop. “Take it easy. He was giving Ben details until you stormed over here.”