“Are you kidding? You’re staying with me, but the men tied to each of my friends are all leaving? Jed—I can’t do that to them! What if—”
“It’s done, gorgeous. And they went ‘cause they wanted to. Nobody ordered it. Not Bull, not me, certainly not you. Those bullets may have been pointed at you, and you sure as hell are mine, but each one of them took it personally. Trust me when I say, this is bigger than it seems. We need answers, and there’s only one way we’re gonna get ‘em. That’s if we get to Hoffman first.
“As for my brothers on the road, their ol’ ladies know the deal. When a Stallion’s gotta ride, she lets him go. You’ll experience that truth one day—just not today.”
I closed my eyes, freeing a couple of tears as I furrowed my brow.
What a nightmare, I thought.
Jed told me it wasn’t my fault, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was partly to blame. If I’d stayed at the firm, if I’d walked away from the Stallions offer, Hoffman would have been a problem, but maybe a problem that could have been solved differently.
I had no idea what it took to hunt down a man in the wind, but I knew if the cops couldn’t find him with all their resources, it wasn’t going to be an easy task for Roy, Kade, and Mustang. And while I had a pretty good sense that none of them were afraid of a fight, going up against a man with nothing to lose was a risk beyond measure.
“Lex, darlin’, look at me,” Jed insisted, taking my head in both of his hands as he swept my tears away with his thumbs.
I blinked open my eyes in search of his and pulled in a shuddered breath.
“If anyone should be afraid, it’s Hoffman. Hear me? He’s a coward in a suit. He started a fight he can’t win, and he knows it. The only one better than me at a trackin’ a man who doesn’t want to be found is Maverick. With Mustang and Bull at his back, they’ll be gone three maybe four days at most. This isn’t our first rodeo, gorgeous. Just yours.”
I coughed out a humorless laugh, realizing how right he was.
When I stopped to think of all the awful and terrible things I’d endured over the past month, as I looked beyond my own fear and considered the men who had my back, I had to admit none of them even flinched. Not once. This was the world in which they lived.
“I just want it to be over,” I whispered.
“It will be. Soon.”
Soon.
As my mother had said not long ago—the most ambiguous measure of time one could think of.
“Come on. Let’s get out of here. We don’t want to be late for dinner.”
I nodded, and he let me go to finish gathering my things. When I stood, he took me by the hand and led me to the parking lot. After he stowed my purse in his saddlebag, we mounted his Harley and took off toward my childhood home.
The evening was warm, and the wind in my hair felt nice. I didn’t know I needed the ride, but after being cooped up all day, the fresh air was invigorating. Getting to cruise the streets wrapped around my man was like balm to an aching wound. It was impossible to forget that I was at his back because he wasn’t going to let me go anywhere on my own until he was sure it was safe for me to do so—but regardless of the reason, Jed on his hog was my version of a prince on his steed.
As we turned into the neighborhood, he slowed down and I pointed out which house was our destination. I sucked in a deep breath when I saw not just two but three vehicles parked out front. I’d successfully avoided Alejandro for weeks, and it seemed my streak was over.
Jed parked along the curb, behind Alejo’s car, cutting off the engine before he lowered his kickstand. As I began to pull away from him, he stopped me, gently taking hold of one of my wrists as he twisted to look back at me from over his shoulder.
“Anything I oughta know before we go in there?”
I glanced toward the house and sighed. “Yeah. It looks like the gang’s all here. I haven’t seen or spoken to Alejo since that night at the storage unit. And mami and Bella don’t know he got me kidnapped or why we haven’t spoken in a month. As for my present troubles, they’re completely in the dark about that, too.”
“Darlin’, I thought you were close,” he muttered in confusion.
“We are. I just—I don’t like to burden them. They have enough to worry about without my problems. And, to be honest, I still haven’t figured out what I plan on telling them tonight. But I know mami will demand answers, and I don’t want to lie.”
With his free hand, he took hold of my left thigh and gave me a squeeze. “So how do we play this? You want me to keep my mouth shut or what?”
A small smile played at my lips as I leaned into him, pressing my chest against his back once more. For a second, I felt a little lighter, remembering who Jed was. He was more than a handsome face or a wall of muscle—he was in this with me.
My chin resting on his shoulder, I murmured, “If I start to drown, I’d love a life vest.”
“You got it, gorgeous.”
“You actuallyrideon the back of that thing? Who are you, and what have you done with my sister?”
