This time she was quick, probably able to pull a lot harder now she could use her hands. They snapped, and I held my breath, knowing I was about to feel like I was fucking dying. “Don’t scream, don’t scream, don’t scream,” I whispered repeatedly, tears already settling on my lashes as I quickly swung my legs over the side of the bed, letting out a low groan in the bottom of my throat. I wanted to sob, my ribs from the car accident still very bruised and feeling as though someone was stabbing a knife through them and twisting it as I forced my body to sit upright.
Those few seconds were some of the longest in my life.
The pain trying to get the better of me.
My head spinning, the room spinning, the world spinning—I wasn’t sure.
It was going to be a problem.
My ankle too.
Sucking in a painful gasp when Thayleah slipped the shoelace between the zip tie around my feet.
Was I even going to be able to walk? Or even stand?
“We’re free!” Her sweet voice sounded elated, her hand finding mine in the darkness.
I placed mine over hers and gave it a squeeze. “Let’s get out of here. Whatever I say, you need to listen. If I tell you to run, you run, and don’t stop until you find someone safe.”
“How will I know if they’re safe?”
“Anyone in a leather vest, with patches that say Brothers by Blood MC is safe. You tell them who you are, and you let them help you. If you find the police, ask for Austin.” I was preparing, knowing I may have had to make choices. My ankle was sprained, I wasn’t going to be moving very fast, but I knew for sure if it came to it, I was going to get this girl out of here alive.
“Come on, let’s go home.”
SHOTGUN
“Get the fuck out of my compound.”
Hell fucking no.
No.
“You’re really that fucking stubborn you are going to let that get in the way of you finding her alive?”
I spun on my heel and stomped over to my ride, popping open the tiny compartment under my seat and pulling out my handgun. She didn’t fucking twitch when I turned and pointed it straight at her. Or when I jerked it to the right and pulled the fucking trigger, the bullet flying past her by a mere foot or two and lodging straight into one of the trees lining the fence. “And you’re really that fucking dumb for thinking after admitting to being an undercover cop, knowing you’ve been coming to my fucking home for years, that I won’t shoot you right here.”
She didn’t quiver or back away, continuing to hold my glare, her chin tipped up like she didn’t give a fuck if that bullet hit her or not. “You won’t shoot me.”
I knew better.
“You wanna test that theory, officer?”
She stared me down. It was almost impressive until I saw her top lip twitch.
This wasn’t the Holly I knew.
There was a hardness to her features, different to the playful, flirty Holly I’d known for so fucking long. But I guess now I knew that was all an act. “You want to hear what I have to say? Or shall I just go home and hope you pull your head out of your ass in time to save her?”
“Well, look who grew a fucking backbone.”
Her lip curled, and she took a step forward. “The backbone has always been there, you’re just lucky my self-control is apparently a lot stronger than yours, and I’m not standing around, yeehawing and shooting off shots like a dumbass.”
I let out a loud roar of laughter, clutching my gun a little tighter in my hand as I tried to convince myself not to murder the woman who, cop or not, my old lady still loved and felt very protective of.
I had to admire the sudden set of balls on her, considering she’d spent a long time trying to stay on my good side and seeming to shrink away at just the mention of upsetting a club member. “You’re lucky,” I answered, waving for her to follow me inside.
It took a second or two, but she soon hurried to catch up with my angry footsteps.
“Lucky I know where Avery is, so you won’t shoot me.”
“No,” I answered, slipping into one of the clubhouse booths. I may want information, but there was no way I was letting her into church. “Lucky my old lady likes you. I’d find her without you, but if Avery found out I fucking did something to you, she’d make me pay.”
Shake and Repo stepped up while Holly slipped into the booth opposite me.
“Tell me everything I need to know, but make it fucking quick.”
She swallowed, pushing her shoulders back and meeting my dark gaze across the table. “Two years ago, the hospital started to notice an increase in college students. They always had influxes over the weekend, but it was more alcohol abuse and the odd drug. Well, soon, these kids were showing up really sick. Sicker than just alcohol poisoning.” She pulled some papers from her back pocket and placed them on the table, unfolding them to reveal some kind of medical reports. “The doctors started doing toxicology scans, and the results were ridiculous.”
I pulled the papers toward me, and each one had a different name at the top. The bars at the bottom though, seemed to all be different.
“You need to explain this shit. I’m not a scientist.”
“They swore they were given one pill. All of them. So, if it was the same pill, you’d expect the toxicology results to be somewhat similar where you could determine what it could be, what’s in it, what levels of each substance.” She grabbed the papers from my hands and spread them across the table. “Each of these is completely different, but they swear it’s the same dealer, the same pill.”
This was the kind of shit we didn’t deal in. The club did questionable shit, shit that was in no way aboveboard, but we stepped away from hard, hard drugs a long time ago. There was plenty of other bastards out there willing to make a quick buck out of someone’s addiction.
I was not one of those fucking bastards.
“So, someone was changing the formula,” Auron announced, appearing beside the table suddenly, his eyes wide and full of curiosity. Thankfully, because I was still confused. “Someone is trying to create something new and using these college kids as guinea pigs.”
“We have a winner,” Holly announced.
“And you joined the college to see if you could find out who it was?” Repo added, narrowing his eyes and folding his arms across his chest. A second later, though, the corner of his mouth turned up into a smirk. “And like a true cop, you started your search with the MC who’d just moved into fucking town.”
Her face didn’t change, but we all knew Repo had nailed it.
Holly started hanging out with Meyah and Dakota around the time the club moved into Phoenix and went into business with The Exiled Eight MC.
“It was obvious it wasn’t you,” she explained with a shrug. “Other than Meyah and Dakota and a few of the girls going to college, none of you went near the place. You didn’t have parties where college kids were invited.”
I could see where this was going, and it was moving fucking quickly.
“Beta Beta,” I stated, my fingers curling into fists at the thought of those rich little entitled bastards. “That’s why you ended up so focused on them recently. You figured out who it was selling them.”