"No, dear. It's a promise. You might have the protection of the MC, but for how long? I can't imagine them being okay with you bringing trouble to one of their own. Say the lovely blonde you've been holed up with in that G.o.dforsaken shelter this week."

My back straightens at his words and a disturbing unease washes over me.

Kelly.

"What have you done?" His hold on me starts to burn, but I can't react. My head is lost in the frenzy of hearing his threat.

"Kelly is it? What a shame you left before my present arrived." Fear drives me forward. Ripping my hand back, I fall out of the booth, and race toward the door. I can hear his soft chuckle from the front of the diner, and it only fuels me faster. Running back the way I came, the trip takes less time, yet feels a h.e.l.l of a lot longer.

When I make it back to Missy's the front door is open and my heart sinks. I'm too late.

"Kelly?" I shout, racing through the front door. She doesn't answer so I keep moving from room to room. My anxiety spikes as each second pa.s.ses by and there is no sign of her. I make my way to the back room, and every part of me locks instantly when I find Kelly lying face down on the floor.

"Kelly?" I force my body to react and race toward her, almost tripping over my own feet in the rush. She's out cold, non-responsive, but I can see her back rise up and down with each shallow breath she intakes. "s.h.i.t, s.h.i.t, s.h.i.t." Afraid to move her, I reach for my phone with shaky hands and dial 911.

Through my tears, I give our location and a brief rundown of how I found Kelly to the emergency operator. They keep me on the line, telling me to stay calm and keep talking to her.

Seconds pa.s.s, followed by minutes and I realize this is bigger than we thought it was.

Mayor Morre is worse than his son. And now he had a score to settle.

"Please be okay, Kelly." I reach for her hand and try to fight the tears, but there's no stopping them. I caused this. My past is never going to leave me.

Once again a Morre is set on destroying my life.

I check the clock again for the fiftieth time and bounce my knee in front of me. It's been over thirty minutes since they took Kelly, and now I'm getting concerned.

I called Beau from the ambulance, but he hasn't showed up yet and I'm about to lose my mind.

Scenario after scenario plays over in my head as the hands on the old worn clock start to taunt me. Each second drags me deeper into a sad darkness threatening to destroy me completely. Each minute reminds me of how fast everything can change.

After enduring another fifteen minutes, my nerves settle when Brooks, Beau, and Nix burst into the waiting room.

"Have you heard anything?" Brooks asks first, coming straight to me.

I shake my head just as Beau pulls me up into his arms. I watch Brooks head to reception over Beau's shoulder as he holds me tightly.

"You doing, okay?" He pulls back and cups my face. Panic rages through his eyes and I force myself out of my head just enough to comfort him.

"Better now you're here." I return his embrace, hoping to calm him. Brooks is already losing his s.h.i.t trying to find out answers on Kelly's condition. We don't need Beau doing the same.

"Tell me everything that happened." Beau forces me to sit back down in the uncomfortable chair. I do as he says, because the need to be closer to the ground is growing.

"II don't know. I didn't see. But I know it was Mayor Morre."

"How do you know?" His grip on my arm tightens at his name but releases when he notices my grimace.

"'Cause he was at the diner when I was there to buy lunch. He said I didn't know who I was dealing with and then he mentioned Missy's Place and that Kelly was alone there. He knew everything, her name... Oh, G.o.d, this is all my fault, Beau." I fall into his chest as the need to breakdown pulls me closer into its clutches.

"Don't even go there, Mackenzie. It's not your fault. This family has been f.u.c.king around with your life for too long."

"But if I didn't come back, if I didn't use you..." I stop my words before I speak them out loud.

"Don't, darlin'. I'm gonna make it better. Gonna f.u.c.king fix this. Fix everything."

"So more people can be hurt? No, Beau. Maybe I should just come clean. He already knows something is up." I work my bottom lip between my teeth, weighing up my options. These people don't deserve this, to be dragged into what I have started. Not when they have done so much for me.

"No, this ends. You've come too far for this a.s.shole to f.u.c.k with you. He knows nothing, darlin'. He's bluffing." Beau stands and brings me up with him. Just then Holly and Kadence rush in, holding X, and Low, followed by Z, Sy, Jesse, and Hunter.

"What are you going to do, Beau?" I hold on to his cut, keeping him in front of me. I can't focus on filling anyone in on what happened right now. I need Beau to see reason.

"What I should have done before this got out of hand." He presses his lips to mine, and then pulls back.

"Please, Beau. Don't leave," I beg, but we both know there's no point. I can see the determination in his eyes. He's done. "Beau, talk to me."

"What's going on?" Kadence comes into my line of sight.

"Is she okay?" Holly asks from the other side of me.

"Kadence, you need to sit with Kenzie. Nix you with me?" Beau ignores my pleas and shares one of his looks with Nix. One that's code for I need back up. Nix nods then pulls Kadence in a quick hug, kisses Low, then tells Z to look after his girls.

"Beau, don't do this."

"Trust me, Kenzie. I've got you," is all he says before releasing my hand and walking back out the doors of the emergency room.

I know he wants me to trust him, but my head is screaming at me to follow him and stop him from making any rash decisions.

"Kenzie, let him go." Kadence takes my hand, stopping any chance of me running after him. I twist back and hold her eyes, silently pleading with her to let me go.

"Girl, I know that look. We've all had that look," she states looking at Holly, who nods in agreement.

"Kadence. Please, don't stop me. I need-" I start to pull out of her grasp, needing to chase after Beau to make him stop.

"No. You need to sit down and tell us everything." She moves me back to the waiting chair. I watch as she hands Z some dollar bills for the vending machine and then points her don't-leave-anything-out stare at me as soon as he is out of hearing distance.

"You have ten minutes before he'll want something else, so start." My eyes land on Jesse, Sy, and Hunter as they follow Beau and Nix out.

"What about Brooks?" I point over to Bell and Brooks. Brooks is still pacing, but Bell is trying to calm him enough to speak to a fellow nurse.

"Bell knows everyone here. If she can get any information, she will," Kadence a.s.sures me. "Who did this, Kenzie?" I sit back, no longer sure I can fight it anymore. These people are my friends, even if I don't deserve the t.i.tle anymore. They have to know why Kelly is here.

Knowing there is nothing left to say, I start from the beginning, not leaving one thing out. I am done lying to my friends. They have to know. If Beau is about to do something we can't come back from, it's the least I can do.

Even if it means losing them all.

Twenty-Eight.

Beau "What's the plan?" Nix falls into step with me as we make our way out of the hospital.

"We're going after Mayor Morre." I reach my bike and place my helmet on. "Call in T. We're gonna need him in on this."

"For f.u.c.k's sake, Beau. The Warriors? We can't handle this on our own?" He resists like I expected he would, but I know he'll come around. Jesse, Hunter and Sy come up behind us.

"No, I want everything we can get on him. I don't give a f.u.c.k who we call in on it."

"Do you hear yourself right now, Beau? Just take a breath, think this through." Jesse starts his reasoning with me, but it's the last thing I want to do right now.

"This a.s.shole has hurt one of ours. He has nothing on Kenz, and I'm done spending my time on this f.u.c.ker. He wants to f.u.c.k with us, so we hit him back hard. Find something on him so we can end this s.h.i.t." Nix holds my stare for a minute before nodding.

"You know for sure it's a hunch? He's got nothing?" he questions, reminding me I still haven't filled them in on what happened when I met with Fred in Ohio. I barely made it back to the clubhouse when the call came through to meet Mackenzie and Kelly at the hospital.

"Yeah, Ohio turned up clean. This Fred f.u.c.ker was special ops. Crazy, I tell you. He and some buddies sorted everything out. You think I'm messed up? f.u.c.k, this guy is a piece of work. Good guy, but f.u.c.k me, I wouldn't get on his bad side."

"Jesus." Nix shakes his head, giving the same reaction I had. At first I was apprehensive. I mean, who the f.u.c.k just covers up a murder for one of his employees? But after finding out his past, where he came from, what his own upbringing was like, I soon understood him.

f.u.c.ker hates abusive men just as much as I do.

"Yeah, Kenzie was right. He's got her back. Even left there with a new connection. So we're sorted on that front." All the guys relax a little, but I know they'll want all the details when this is over.

"I'll fill you in on the rest later. Now we need to find out what we can on Morre." I kick up the stand on my bike and start the engine.

"Jesse, get back to the shelter, check the cameras. Let's see if we can get this f.u.c.ker on tape." Jesse moves right away.

"Sy, you're with me. Hunter ride with Beau." Nix takes over ordering the guys and moves toward his own bike, ready to do what needs to be done.

"Later." I give them one last nod before taking off in the opposite direction. Nix and Sy to the Warriors Prez, and me and Hunter to Tiny.

I don't know what we will find out, if we can find anything out, but I'm not returning until we have Morre where we want him. Even if we have to make our own s.h.i.t up.

The f.u.c.ker is going down today.

We pull up out the back of Pink House three hours later, an illegal wh.o.r.ehouse just outside of town in Redwick.

"You sure you want to do this, Beau?" Nix asks one more time, climbing off his bike and coming to stand next to me.

"Yes," I answer, done with the questions. We are doing this and f.u.c.king doing it tonight.

"So how are we playing this? We just gonna walk in there and f.u.c.k him up?" Jesse asks, coming to stand with Nix and me. Hunter pulls up in the van, followed by Sy on his bike.

When I left Nix in the hospital parking lot, I paid Tiny a visit. After filling him in on everything, he pulled his connections to see what we could find. It was unreliable to start with, but after a few calls, things become clear. Not only does Mayor Morre have connections inside of the law, the f.u.c.ker also had more than his toe dipped into far worse s.h.i.t.

s.h.i.t that could be traced back to the men who took Paige.

"We go in, rough the f.u.c.ker up, then take him with us," I tell them the plan again. We were back at the shelter checking over the CCTV tapes hoping to get a face on who got to Kelly when we received a tip-off from one of Tiny's men. The tip put Mayor Morre here, getting his weekly fill with a wh.o.r.e named Angel.

"Are we going Red on this?" Sy asks, using our code name for taking it to the next level. When Red, Nix's dad, ran the Rebels, jobs like these would be frequent. Something we all hated and were glad when we eventually stopped.

"We're not f.u.c.king going Red on this." Nix turns and points his stare at everyone, reminding them we're not crossing any lines here.

Too late.

"If it were Kadence, would you be saying the same thing?" He doesn't answer right away, but I watch his lips tighten. He knows we have to do this. It's our only option. We couldn't get a good look at the f.u.c.ker on the camera, and if we have any hope of finding out who he is, it's from Morre.

Knowing I won't receive a straight answer from Nix, I start walking to the back door. "Are we gonna stand around playing with our d.i.c.ks or we getting this s.h.i.t done?" Before I reach the door and knock, it swings open, and out steps one of Tiny's men.

"You have ten minutes. Cameras are off. But they go back on regardless if you're out or not," he warns looking us over.

I'm not sure who runs this place, but whatever markers they had with Tiny, he just called them in.

"What room?" I ask, not giving a f.u.c.k about the cameras. We'll be in and out.

"One level up, three doors down on the right." He steps back and lets us pa.s.s.

"You sure he's there?" Hunter questions as we take the steps two at a time.

"Yeah, apparently it's a regular booking." Mayor Morre likes to stick his d.i.c.k in barely legal p.u.s.s.y.

"Witnesses?" Jesse asks, wondering if interrupting them will come back to bite us.

"Tiny's set this up. He's not gonna f.u.c.k us over on this one." Jesse eyes me, still not looking convinced, which only serves to p.i.s.s me off. "You want out, leave now." I give him a chance to go.

Jesse wasn't around when Red ran the Rebels. Not to say he hasn't crossed any lines since joining, but this s.h.i.t could get messy.