Chapter 14: Edge

14

EDGE

I reached for my ringing phone and sleepily answered without looking at the screen. At the sound of Evie's panicked voice, I was instantly awake.

"Is your father dead?"

"No, he's not. I hit him twice, and he's on the ground, but he's very much alive."

"Keep your gun aimed at him and shoot him again if he moves," I said. "Stay on the phone with me. I'll have someone there to help you soon."

As I ran down the hall banging on closed doors, I'd never been so glad I slept at the clubhouse. "Get up! I've got an emergency!"

Byte opened his door and stepped into the hallway. "What happened?"

"Muzzle is at the diner. Evie shot him, but Irene's hurt. We need to get someone there right the fuck now. And somebody needs to call Phoenix."

"I'm here," Phoenix said. I whirled around and opened my mouth to fill him in, but he held up one finger to stop me. With his phone already pressed to his ear, he spoke quickly and efficiently before ending the call. "Is Evie still on the line?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Tell her Luca and some of his men are on their way."

I moved my phone back to my mouth so she could hear me clearly. "Did you hear Phoenix? Help is on the way."

"Okay," she said, but she didn't sound like herself.

"Help will be there soon," I repeated.

"Okay."

I tilted the phone away from my mouth and looked at Phoenix. "I think she's in shock."

"She probably is," he said. "There's nothing we can do about it from here. Let's get on the road."

I put the phone on speaker and ran back to my room to get dressed and grab my keys. Then I hurried to the forecourt while reassuring Evie that help would be there soon. I'd just reached my bike when I heard a blood-curdling scream, followed by what sounded like the phone falling to the floor.

"Evie!" I yelled. "Evie! Answer me!"

I could hear voices, but I couldn't tell who they belonged to or what was being said. After what felt like an eternity, I heard movement near the phone, followed by the sound of someone breathing.

"Evie! Can you hear me? Is Luca there?"

"I'm here," she said, and I sagged with relief at the sound of her voice. "Are you Luca?"

"Yes," I heard Luca say. "Luca Peccati."

I'd never been so happy to hear another man's voice. "Let him help you. Do what he says, okay? I'll be there soon."

"Irene," she whispered. She sounded distracted, or maybe confused.

"Evie," I said firmly, hoping to snap her out of her haze. "Listen to Luca."

"Okay," she promised, but I truly didn't know if she was processing what I was saying or if she was responding by rote.

"I'm on my way," I promised and fired up my bike. The call transferred to my helmet, and I stayed on the line even though I couldn't hear anything over the sound of my bike. When we got disconnected, panic briefly surged through me. I reminded myself that Luca was there and was just as capable of handling the situation as we were.

My mental pep talk did little to nothing to calm my nerves. The only thing that would ease the fear and turmoil churning inside me was getting to the diner and seeing for myself that Evie was okay. The need to reach her was overpowering. I broke formation and sped ahead, leaving my brothers in the dust. I knew they'd understand. Any one of them would have done the same if it was their woman in need.

When I pulled into the diner's parking lot, it looked like every cop in Cedar Valley was there. Maneuvering around the chaos, I parked my bike on the sidewalk right outside the front door.

"Whoa! This is a crime scene. You can't go in there," an officer said and moved to block me from entering the front door.

"The hell I can't! My girlfriend's in there," I told him and continued forward.

His hand moved to his belt, and then he was pointing a taser at me. "Don't move!" he shouted. "Put your hands above your head."

Any other time, I would have pointed out that I had to move to put my hands above my head, but I had one singular goal, and that was getting to Evie.

I held my hands up in front of me. "Look, man, my girlfriend is the one who called you. I know she's in there, and I need to make sure she's okay."

"You need to do what I told you and put your hands on your damn head."

"And you need to let me see my girlfriend!" I yelled and quickly moved past him.

Scanning the area, I completely lost my shit when my eyes landed on Evie. She was on the floor with her hands zip tied behind her back and tears pouring from her eyes. But the thing that had me seeing red was the motherfucker holding her down with his foot on her shoulder.

"Get your fucking foot off her!" I bellowed and started for the shithead who was virtually standing on my woman.

Suddenly, a force hit me from behind and tried to take me to the ground. Logically, I knew I was supposed to cooperate with the police, but logic went out the window when I saw what they were doing to Evie. My fury was no match for the officer who tackled me. I shook him off and continued moving toward Evie. Three officers rushed over to help like they'd been waiting their whole lives to pounce on a biker. I finally went down when the fourth cop jumped in.

They were trying to get my hands behind my back when I heard Phoenix's angry voice. "Who the fuck is in charge here?" he roared.

The room fell silent and a man with a very punchable face stepped forward. "I am," he sneered. "And you've got two seconds to get the hell out of my crime scene."

"Wrong," Phoenix said and pointed to one of the cameras mounted in the corner of the room. "You've got two seconds to get your boss on the phone for me before I send the videos of this shitshow to every media outlet in existence." Phoenix crossed his arms over his chest and stared at the little weasel. "The cameras record in high definition and include audio."

He brought his phone to his ear and glared at Phoenix. "And who, shall I say, is calling?"

"It doesn't matter since you haven't actually called anyone," Phoenix said and tapped at the screen on his own phone. "You might be new, but I'm not."

He stared at the guy while he waited for his call to be answered. Then he smiled, but it wasn't friendly. "Hey, Charlie. I'm down here at Irene's Diner. There was a break-in this morning, and the guy running the show has got innocent people and victims restrained on the floor. And by people, I mean my people . Pretty sure he's delayed care for victims with critical injuries."

Even I could hear the man on the other end of Phoenix's phone yelling and cursing. Phoenix covered the mouthpiece with his hand and leaned toward the shitshow runner. "What's your name?"

Shitshow grimaced. "Roger Pond."

Phoenix relayed the man's name, followed by, "Thanks, Charlie. See you in a few."

As soon as Phoenix's call ended, Shitshow's phone rang. Once again, I could hear Charlie yelling through the phone. Shitshow said, "Yes, sir," and "Sorry, sir," about fifteen times before the call was over. Then he said the words I'd been waiting for. "Let them go."

"And be quick about it," Phoenix added.

I was on my feet and pulling Evie into my arms seconds after they released me. She melted into me and buried her face against my chest. "Are you okay?"

"I'm not hurt, but I'm not okay," she said.

I tightened my hold on her. "I won't let anything else happen to you."

"Is Irene alive?" she asked, and the despair in her voice broke my heart.

"Can you find out about Irene?" I asked Phoenix.

Byte appeared next to Phoenix. "She was taken to the hospital, but I don't know anything other than that," he said.

"Who'd you talk to?" Phoenix asked.

"No one," Byte said with disgust. "After the third fucker refused to tell me anything, I looked at the surveillance footage and saw the paramedics leave with her. Tony and Bart were also taken to the hospital."

Phoenix gently placed his hand on the back of Evie's head and leaned down to speak softly to her. "Do you want to go to the hospital to be with Irene?"

"Am I allowed to?" she asked.

"Oh, yeah. This bozo has screwed up so badly that you can do whatever you want. They will be kissing your ass for the remainder of this investigation."

"Yes, I want to go. I don't know what's wrong with her or how badly she's hurt. They wouldn't tell me anything," she cried.

"And they're going to pay for that," Phoenix said and stepped back. "Go ahead and take her to the hospital. Byte and Dice will go with you. I'll handle everything here. We'll discuss dinner plans later. I was thinking Italian."

"Sounds good," I said and directed my attention to Evie. "You ready to go?"

She nodded and wiped the tears from her eyes.

I tossed my keys to Phoenix. "My bike's out front."

Phoenix chuckled. "I saw it."

With Evie's hand in mine, I led her to the SUV one of the brothers had driven to the diner. Once we were inside, she asked, "Why was Phoenix talking about dinner?"

I smiled at her question and almost laughed. It was so unexpected. "He was referring to Luca," I explained. "He was covertly telling me we'd meet up with Luca later today."

"Why?"

"To deal with Muzzle."

"Oh," she said and remained quiet for several moments. "How are you going to deal with him?"

"At this point, I don't know," I said honestly. "But I probably won't be able to tell you once I know. What I can do is promise you he will no longer be a problem for you."

"The only way that'll happen is if he's dead."

I gave her a pointed look. "He won't be a problem for you," I repeated.

She nodded once. "Good. He's nothing but pure evil, and so is his son."

I hadn't thought much about Muzzle's son or their club, but we'd have to handle both before it was over.

"I don't want you going anywhere without one of us with you until we get a handle on this situation," I said.

"What do you mean? You have Muzzle."

"I was referring to your brother and the Mad Dogs," I clarified.

"Please don't call him my brother," she said, though it wasn't a request.

"It won't happen again," I said apologetically.

She pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap at you. I just?—"

"You don't need to explain," I interrupted. "I get it."

She was quiet for a few moments before she asked, "Do you think Snarl will be an issue?"

"Oh yeah," I said, not bothering to soften my response. "I'm not sure how long it will take for him to realize something happened, but he'll start looking for Muzzle once he does."

"I truly hate them."

"I know you do, but let's focus on Irene right now," I said and pointed to the hospital as Dice pulled into the parking lot.

"I hope she's okay," Evie said nervously. "I don't even know what was wrong with her."

"She's a tough lady. If anybody has a chance, it's her." I didn't know what kind of injuries Irene suffered or what her chances of survival were, but I couldn't think of anything else to say to comfort her.

As soon as we walked through the sliding glass doors, Evie bolted for the registration window to ask about Irene. "Are you a family member?" the woman asked.

"No. I'm her friend and employee," Evie said before I could intervene.

"I'm sorry. We can only give information to the patient's family."

"You don't understand. I'm the one?—"

Byte cleared his throat and stepped up to the counter. "I'm her son," he said and told the woman his name. "I'm listed as her emergency contact."

"What's her security code?"

Byte rattled off four numbers and crossed his arms impatiently.

"I'll buzz you in," she said and pointed to the door beside her window. "She's in room three. Only you and one other person can go back to see her."

"It'll be me and her," Byte said and placed his hand on Evie's shoulder.

Evie glanced back at me with a look of uncertainty on her face. "Go with Byte. The rest of us will wait out here."