Chapter Twenty-One

Cash

"RAZOR WANTS ME to come downstairs for a drink," I said, kissing Teagan's shoulder as I slid out of bed.

"Okay, honey." She yawned. "You kind of murdered my pussy, so I'm gonna stay here and sleep."

I chuckled. "Sorry, not sorry."

She smiled sleepily. "Love you."

"Love you too." I kissed her gently, then headed downstairs.

As I walked into the kitchen, my phone buzzed in my pocket, and I answered it without looking at the screen. "Hello?"

"Um, Cash?"

"Yeah?"

"Oh thank god I got you. It's Gloria."

Shit, fuck, shit.

"Look, Gloria, now's not—"

"Cash, I'm sorry. I know I fucked up big time. Honestly, it wasn't my finest hour, but I'm in a bind. My stupid car broke down about a mile from the club and I'm totally stranded. My brother's in jail and I don't have anyone else I can call. Will you please come and help me get it started? Or at least give me a quick ride back to my place?"

"Call an Uber."

"I can't afford an Uber," she bit out. "I, um, haven't been able to find another job yet. Look, I wouldn't be asking if I wasn't desperate."

I scrubbed the back of my neck with my hand and closed my eyes. She sounded freaked and I hated the idea of a woman being alone this late at night in this part of town, even Gloria. I sighed. "Text me your location and I'll see what I can do."

"Thank you. I really appreciate it."

We rang off just as Razor walked into the kitchen. "Are we havin' that beer or what?"

"Gloria's stranded somewhere. Car's crapped out on her. She's asked if I can come see what's wrong with it."

Razor frowned. "That bitch, man. She'll try anything to get in your pants."

"I really think she's in a tight spot, brother."

"Jesus," Razor hissed. "Come on, I'll go with you. We'll take one of the mobile trucks."

We headed out, arriving to the location Gloria had texted, and I saw her car with the hood up, parked on a narrow frontage road near an industrial complex.

"Why the fuck's her hood up?" Razor grumbled. "Did she think she was going to be able to fix it herself?"

I shrugged as I pulled up behind her car. "The day I know what the hell Gloria's thinkin' I want you to put a bullet in the back of my head. Come on, let's get this over with. I want to get home and back in bed before Teagan knows I was ever gone."

We hopped out and Gloria hugged me, giving me a relieved smile. "My hero. Thank you so much for coming to my rescue."

"Okay, okay," I said, pulling away. I didn't want her touching me. "Let's see what's wrong with your car."

No sooner had I gotten the words out of my mouth, than a black panel van came screeching to a halt beside us. I grabbed for my knife at my side but was bum-rushed by three Spiders before I even had a chance to pull it out.

"What the fuck?" I snarled as they zip-tied my arms behind my back and threw me in the van, a gun shoved into my side.

Outside the van, Razor did his best to stand his ground, but was eventually overtaken by the Spiders. The names on their cuts read ‘Slammer' and ‘Tiny.'

"What do we do with this guy, Trunk?" Slammer asked, pointing to Razor who was still struggling, despite bleeding from several places on his face. "Kill him?"

"Fuck him up but not so bad he can't crawl back home," Trunk said, pressing the gun deeper into my ribs. "Warlock wants to send a message. Vega, Gloria, you come with me and Loverboy here."

Unable to do anything but watch, the door whooshed shut and we drove off.

Gloria crawled over to me, kneeling between my legs, and cupping my face. "Oh my god, they didn't hurt you, did they? I told them not to hurt you."

"Get off me, you fuckin' whore." I sneered. "I knew you were bat shit crazy, but I never thought you'd be low enough to hook up with the Spiders."

"Oh, come on, don't say that," she crooned. "What was I supposed to do when the Dogs turned their back on me? The Spiders took me in because they know I have what it takes to be the Old Lady of a member and they promised me that if I help them, they'd arrange it so you and I could finally spend some quality time together."

"What the fuck are you talkin' about?"

"You and I are destined to be together, Cash. I can feel it in my bones. I have since the day we first met, and I know that once we remove all the obstacles between us, you'll see that, and we can finally be together." She cocked her head. "Who knows? You could even join the Spiders with me, or maybe we could even start our own club." She clapped her hands and let out a quiet squeal. "Oh my god, how amazing would that be, Cash?"

"Would somebody please shut this bitch up," the driver bellowed.

Without warning, Vega cold cocked Gloria in the jaw, sending her to the corrugated metal floor of the van, out cold.

"Tie her up and gag her," Trunk said to Vega.

"Should we dump her off somewhere?" Vega asked.

Trunk shook his head. "Nah, hold onto her. We'll take her back to the clubhouse and run a train on her later. This little whore's so anxious to make her bones with the club, we'll show her a good time."

"Aw, fuck, I wish you woulda told me that," Vega spit out. "I think I broke her jaw."

Trunk laughed. "Even better. She won't be able to bite."

I dropped my head and closed my eyes. I hated Gloria, but even I didn't want this for her.

"Be a good boy and play nice, and we'll let you have a crack at her," Trunk said to me.

"Yeah, she'd love that," Vega said. "Gloria's got one hell of a crush on Loverboy here."

Trunk leaned in nose-to-nose with me and said, "Let's not disappoint Gloria here, and make me have to mess up that pretty face of yours, eh, Loverboy?"

"What the fuck do you want?" I growled.

"You know what we want," Trunk said. "Warlock was very clear with Hatch. You had ten days to turn the keys to your grow op over to the Spiders. That was a week ago, and we see no evidence of that happening any time soon. So, you're gonna stay with us for a little while to ensure our contractual obligations to us are fully satisfied."

"This is not gonna end well for you," I bit out.

"Please do not try to intimidate me. While I hold a certain amount of respect for your club, we all know, the Dogs of Fire are all bark and no bite."

I raised an eyebrow. "You're gonna feel differently when your throat is between my teeth."

"Oooh, I can see why she likes you, Loverboy. You have what the kids call ‘rizz,'" Vega said with a chuckle.

"I don't make threats," I said. "I make appointments."

"Okay, tough guy. We can do this one of two ways. The easy way is we hold you for a few days and send timestamped photos every day to your president as proof of life. Go the hard way, and we mail fingers and toes instead. The choice is yours and I don't think I have to tell you that the Spiders don't make threats either," Trunk said, then he put a bag over my head.

* * *

Teagan

I awoke with a start and sat up. "Cash?"

After no answer, I reached for his side of the bed. Empty. Throwing the covers aside, I walked into the bathroom. Also empty. I sighed. Figuring he was probably still drinking with Razor, I threw on some clothes and grabbed my phone, heading downstairs.

I arrived to a near empty great room. Well, other than Grip crashed out on the sofa. I shook him awake.

"Hey, T. You okay?" he asked, sitting up.

"Have you been here all night?"

"Yeah." He glanced at my feet. "Cute slippers."

"Thanks." I rolled my eyes. My slippers were cute. Fluffy bunnies, but that wasn't the point. "Focus, Grip."

"Sorry."

"Where's Cash?"

"I don't know." He shrugged. "I figured he was with you?"

"He came down to have a beer with Razor," I said.

"I'll go check outside if you want."

"That'd be great, thanks. Who's here? Officers-wise?"

"Pretty sure Knight stayed."

I nodded. "Okay, great, thanks."

After calling Cash's cell multiple times (it went straight to voicemail), I checked every inch of the clubhouse.

Grip found me after about twenty minutes and shook his head. "Neither of them are here."

"Something's wrong." I bit my lip. "Call Razor and wake Knight, I'm calling my dad."

"They probably just made a beer run," Grip argued.

"Just do it, Grip," I snapped. "Cash always answers my call and if he can't, he texts back. Something. Is. Wrong."

Grip raised his hands in surrender and nodded. "Okay, Teagan. Not a problem."

He headed up the stairs and I took a deep breath and called my dad. It took him a minute to answer, and he sounded groggy when he did. "Hey, baby girl. What time is it, are you okay?"

"Almost four." I couldn't hold back my tears as I rasped, "I can't find Cash."

"What do you mean, you can't find him?"

"He was coming downstairs to have a beer with Razor," I said. "That was over three hours ago. He's not here. Neither of them are here. Not in the club, not in any of the auto bays, not in the shop. He and Razor are not here and neither of them are answering their phones."

"Okay, honey, stay put. I'm comin'. Wake Knight. I'll call Booker."

"Grip's getting Knight." I hiccupped out a sob. "Daddy, please hurry."

Less than fifteen minutes later, my parents walked in with Booker not far behind. Knight was already up and making calls, to whom I wasn't sure, but when Hatch walked in a few minutes after Booker, all hell broke loose.

"Why the fuck did no one stop them from leavin'?" Hatch bellowed. "We're in goddamned modified lockdown."

I buried my face into my father's chest as he held me. Mom was right next to us, holding my hand.

"Who was at the gate?" Hatch demanded.

"I was, boss," Buzz said. "I've been at the gate all night. The only time I stepped away was to take a piss and I didn't hear pipes. Fuck, brother, sorry."

"Check cameras. Track him," Hatch growled.

I gasped, my hand going to my necklace. "You can't track him."

"Why the fuck not?" Booker growled.

"Careful, brother," Dad warned.

"Because I have his tracker." I burst into fresh tears. "Mine broke, and he insisted I wear his until we could replace it." I grabbed my dad's cut. "Oh my god. He's out there alone and there's no way to find him. This is all my fault."

Dad held me close. "This is not your fault, baby girl. We're gonna find him. He probably just had engine trouble and he and Razor are on the side of the road dealin' with it."

I scoffed. "That doesn't explain why he isn't returning my calls. Something's wrong and I know it in my soul."

"Okay, honey." Dad gave me a squeeze. "I'm sorry."

I faced Cash's father. "And I'm sorry, Booker, I should have told you about the tracker. We were just so caught up—"

"No, sweetheart," he interrupted. "This isn't on you. I apologize. I shoulda gone gentler earlier. We're gonna find him."

"Buzz, get back out to the gate," Hatch ordered. "If you have to take a leak, use a bottle."

"Right," he said, and headed that way.

Ten minutes later, Dani walked in, and Booker was not happy in the least. "What the fuck, Pug, she was supposed to stay put."

Pug raised his hands in surrender. "I tried, man. Seriously. She waited until I was in the can and snuck out to the car."

"What the fuck is with all y'all and your tiny motherfuckin' bladders?" Hatch snapped.

Booker turned to Dani. "Baby, I told you I'd call—"

"Stop!" she hissed. "Just stop. I'm not sitting at home to wait for a call to find out if my baby is okay. I already went through that with Ducky, and it was torture. Just let me be here with you. I can't do it without you," she said on sob.

Booker pulled her into his arms. "Okay, baby, okay."

Knight walked in and said to no one in particular, "One of the mobile trucks is gone."

"Track it," Hatch said.

"Already did," Knight said. "It's movin'. On its way back here."

"See?" Dad said. "It's probably Cash and Razor."

I took a deep breath, hope blossoming as Dad gave me a squeeze and I rushed to the door to wait for them to arrive.

Only, Cash didn't come.

Razor did. He limped in, to be more accurate. He'd been beat to shit, barely able to stand, and the men rushed to help him as he fell against the wall.

"Jesus," Hatch hissed. "Someone get Katie. Now!"

"I think we might need Eldie," Booker suggested.

"We'll start with Katie," Hatch said. "If she thinks we need Gina, we'll call her."

Eldie's real name was Gina, and she was married to Clutch, the VP of the Burning Saints. She was a medical doctor and got her nickname from Cutter, their previous President. ‘Lady Doctor,' or L.D., that just became Eldie.

"Where's Cash?" I asked, quietly at first, and then when no one answered me, I screamed, "Where the hell is Cash?"

"They got the jump on us," Razor panted out, grimacing and doubling over. "They took him."

"Who took him?" Booker demanded.

"The Spiders."

"No, no, no, no," I chanted out, turning to my father. "Daddy, he has no tracker. I should have insisted he take his back. Oh my god, this is all my fault."

"None of that matters now, baby girl," Dad said. "Let's just focus on getting Cash back."

Dani made her way to me, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. "Come here, sweetheart, let's let the guys do their thing and you, me, and your mom'll sit on the sofa and worry together."

"Dani, I'm so sorry," I rasped.

"Oh, honey, this isn't your fault. I would have given Cash hell if he didn't give you his tracker, so he did the right thing." She gave me a squeeze, leading me to the giant sectional. "Booker's gonna get him back. He always does what he says he's gonna do. Promise, baby."

"I'm going to make some coffee," Mom said.

Dani smiled up at her. "Thanks, Dare."

I curled myself into the corner of the sofa, my fingers rubbing Cash's anchor like a talisman hoping my small act would bring him home, and trying my best not to completely lose my shit.