Chapter 11

The ride to Rizona is smooth, even though the ring in my vest pocket presses against my heart.

Yeah, I went out yesterday and bought a ring, much to Triton and Chance’s surprise. This is so unlike me, they one hundred percent believe I’m in love and understand my over-the-top need to claim her in every way. Nothing else explains my damn near desperate desire to make her mine.

It helps that they both fell in love recently and found their perfect woman against all odds. We’ve been bachelors for so long, not looking for love of any kind, that to have it slap all three of us in the face in such a short time seems like a gift from the heavens. There’s definitely some divine intervention going on, and I don’t believe in that shit.

We’re running a little early thanks to a lack of traffic on the highway. When we enter Rizona, the streets just as empty as they were ten days ago, and I lead the guys with their women to the small diner in the middle of town. We stop at the four-way stop and I spy Missy’s Mustang in the parking lot. My heart swells knowing I’m going to have her in my arms in the next two minutes.

And then the world slows to a crawl.

Two guys that I recognize as the dickheads who propositioned her Sunday night run out of the back of the restaurant, the tires on their SUV squealing as a small explosion rocks the building and blows out the windows in front of the diner.

“Missy.” Her name comes out on an exhale as the world speeds back up. I twist the throttle, the back tire spinning before launching my bike forward with more torque than safe. Dumping my bike in the parking lot, I run and jump through the destroyed windows, calling for my woman. “Missy! Where are you?”

There’s a fire in the far corner of the dining room, the kitchen seemingly untouched for the moment as the flames catch and grow across the ground.

Where is she? I push my way through the kitchen and yank open the door to the freezer, the storage room, and a door that leads to a stairwell descending to the basement. I search everywhere, calling her name the entire time, but there is no answer.

Did they take her with them? Is she unable to speak?

The possibility twists my gut into a ball as I stumble back into the kitchen, the smoke from whatever accelerant they used causing black clouds of smoke to fill the room.

“Drak?” Triton yells from the shredded doorway.

“In here.” I shake my head. “I can’t find her.”

“Get the fuck out of there. The fire is spreading quickly.” Chance yells back.

“I have to find her.” I double over choking, a lungful of smoke causing my eyes to water and my airways to constrict.

Big hands grab my cut and haul me out of the diner, tossing me onto the cracked asphalt parking lot.

“Stubborn ass,” Triton growls and stands over me as I roll onto my back.

“You’re not thinking straight, man. Call her. Maybe she wasn’t in there.” Chance pulls my phone out of my pocket and shoves it in my face.

I call her, but there’s no answer. Then I send her a simple text.

Where are you?