Pursuit: Blood Bandits MC (22 page)

“No!” I screamed, squeezing Emma tight. She didn’t cry, the brave thing, but she trembled.

“Come on, Kara. It’s all up to you. Either you do what I want, or I’ll take what I want anyway. No matter what you decide, you’ll be mine.”

I thought fast. What would he do with me? Where would he take me? I looked at Dom, half conscious, bleeding from his nose, his mouth, a cut on the side of his face. He mumbled something I couldn’t understand, tried to open his eyes to look at me. I didn’t know what he wanted me to do.

And I realized it didn’t matter. I had to make the choice on my own. There was no choice, not when my daughter was involved.

“Fine.” I stood, still holding my baby. “I’ll go with you.”

“The kid, too.” He wouldn’t look at her.

My heart froze, but I had no choice. “Emma, too,” I replied. Did he even care for her? How could he, when he threatened to kill her if I didn’t give him his way?

“See? None of it had to be this difficult. All you had to do was give me what I wanted right away. That was one lesson I could never quite teach you.” He let go of Dom, who fell to the floor in a daze. I could have wept with relief. Dom would be safe. He would find me, no matter where I was.

Eric looked at his men. “Take care of him,” he said, his voice flat and serious. He grabbed me by the arm, pulling me to the door.

“No! No! You have to let him go!” I screamed, keeping a tight grip on Emma but unwilling to leave Dom.

“That wasn’t part of the deal. I only said I would kill him if you didn’t come. I didn’t say my guys wouldn’t take care of him for me if you did.” He chuckled nastily, giving me one more tug to get me out the door and down the front stairs. One of the neighbors stood on his front porch, watching. I noticed him from the corner of my eye.

“Where are you taking us?” I asked, my voice loud and strong. Let him hear me. Let him call the cops, please.

“You’ll find out when we get there.”

“No, I need to know now. Are we going to your house?” I pulled against Eric’s grip, making sure I went because he forced me to.

“No. We’ll go through the desert and drive to the Petrified Forest. Remember when we took that trip years ago?”

“The Petrified Forest?” It was the last thing I managed to say before Eric shoved me into the car. I refused to get in the front seat with him, preferring the back seat with Emma.

“Yes. Are you deaf now, too?” Eric sneered at me in the rearview mirror when he slid behind the wheel. He was too worked up to notice my neighbor looking right at us.
Thank God
, I breathed silently. He might be able to help us.

I cast one more look at my mother’s house. Dom was still in there. What would they do to him? All I could do was pray that he’d survive, and find some way to save us.

Dom

I heard the sound of cars passing by on the road, but I didn’t know where the road was. I didn’t know where I was. My eyes seemed glued shut. I couldn’t open them. What held them shut? I thought I might have been blindfolded at first, then realized it was dried blood. I had bled so much, my eyes were stuck.

My body started to come back to life slowly. Most of what I felt was pain—in my ribs, in my back, especially in my head. My face felt like a swollen mess. I sensed the ground beneath me, and when I curled my hands into fists, I felt dirt and grass.

I didn’t want to move anymore. I didn’t want to think. I wanted to go back to sleep, where it didn’t hurt. Where I wouldn’t feel anything anymore…

Wake up!
The thought raced through my brain like fire, reminding me what happened, what was at stake. I couldn’t just lie there. I had to find Kara and Emma. Every instinct I ever had screamed at me to get up and find them.

But how? And where? I could hardly move without pain searing through me. I couldn’t open my eyes. I didn’t know where I was.

Open your eyes. Open them
. I tried, but it didn’t work.
Try again
. It hurt too fucking much.
Try anyway.
Try. They need you, damn it. Be a man and do whatever you have to do. Get to them. Start here.

I ran the back of my arm over my eyes, trying to help my eyelids open by rubbing the blood off. It worked, and both eyes seemed to function fine. They weren’t swollen, so those assholes didn’t hit me in the eyes. They hit me in the head. Pistol whipped me until I blacked out. That was where the blood came from.

I tried to look around, turning my head slowly in case I had a neck injury. What the hell did that matter, though, since I had to get out of the fucking ditch they had left me in? I couldn’t stay there forever, hoping somebody drove to the edge of the road and saw me. It would never happen. I would starve to death.

There were trees around me, grass under me, garbage here and there from people tossing it out the windows of passing cars. It stank like somebody died there. Maybe they had. Maybe I had come close, too.

How the hell would I get out of there? How would I find Kara and Emma? I considered getting up, hitchhiking back to the clubhouse. Who the fuck would pick me up? I could only imagine how horrible I looked. And who would drop me off at the clubhouse even if they picked me up? They’d probably want to take me to the hospital instead.

My phone! I patted my pocket and felt the bulge. Thank you, God. They didn’t take my phone. I reached inside, pulled it out, and dialed Jax.

“Where are you, man? You ran outta here like you were on fire,” Jax said.

“I need you, buddy. I need you bad.”

“Dom. Where are you? What happened?”

I tried to look around to give him an idea of where to find me. I sat up, and immediately felt like I was gonna hurl. The whole world spun.
No! Do not pass out!
If I passed out, I would have to do it all over again, the waking up, the opening my eyes. I would lose even more time.

“Gimme a second, brother.” I closed my eyes again, clenching my jaw to hold back the flow of puke that threatened to pour out. I took one deep breath, then another.
Do not pass out. Do not pass out. Stay awake. She needs you. They both do.

“You still there?” I asked.

“Of course. Where are you? What do you need?”

“I need you to come get me, brother. Some guys beat the shit outta me, left me in a ditch on the side of the highway.”

“What? Who?”

“I’ll tell ya later. I need help, please.”

“Where are you exactly? Can you tell me anything?”

I looked around, my head pounding every time I moved. “Uh, there’s a billboard on the other side of the road for a dentist’s office.”

“I know where you mean,” he said. “It’s maybe five miles away. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

“And hey, bring backup,” I said. I had to lay down for a minute, to get myself together before he got there. “Bring maybe three guys. There were four guys total who beat me, and that Eric twat.”

“Fuck,” Jax muttered. I heard murder in his voice. I knew how he felt.

While I waited, I came up with a plan. I would go back to her mother’s—I might have lucked out, he might not have taken them anywhere. I didn’t remember anything after Kara told him she would go with him. I wished she hadn’t, but I could see how scared she would be. He threatened to kill his own daughter. How sick did a person have to be to do something like that? There was no way she could have said she wouldn’t go.

Then his guys beat me again, and I guessed they found a way to get me into the van. I was too out of it to remember anything they did. I hoped they left my bike alone. I would have killed them just for wrecking it, if nothing else.

And then it would be a matter of finding Kara. I had to find her. There was no other option. But how?

I must have gone in and out of consciousness for a minute or two, because before I knew it, I heard the sound of motorcycles coming closer.

“Shit!” Jax. Feet running to me. I opened my eyes, looked. There he was, and Spike, and Chase.

“Come on. We gotta get you outta here.” Chase and Jax helped me to my feet. I groaned, biting my tongue to stay quiet and conscious.

“You’ve gotta go to a hospital,” Spike said. He looked horrified.

“Do I look that bad?” I joked. I took a step, then another. My legs worked fine. It was the rest of me that hurt like a bitch.

“Not too bad,” Chase said, but his voice was tight.

“I can’t go to a hospital. He took them. Eric. He took them both.”

“No.” Spike looked devastated. For a big, crusty thing like him, I was pretty sure he might cry. “I was just with her! I was just at the diner a little while ago!”

“Yeah, well, while you were there, he was at her mom’s. Shit. We have to go there. Her mom was unconscious when I got there. She might still be out, or she might need help. Come on.” For once, I was willing to ride on the back of another man’s bike. I would only have done it for Kara and Emma.

We took off, with me giving Chase directions and the others following us. I could only imagine what people in passing cars and on the sidewalks thought about me. I would look at myself when I got to Kara’s mom’s, maybe clean up a little. The air on my face helped a lot. It cleared my head.

When we got there, the front door still stood open. I went up the stairs, while Chase pulled his gun. “I just wanna be ready,” he muttered, nodding for me to open the door.

Kara’s mom jumped. She was sitting on the couch, holding her head when I walked in. I held up my hands to show her I didn’t mean any harm. Her face went white when she saw me.

“Oh God! What happened?”

“Are you okay? I was here before. You were unconscious.”

“I have such a headache,” she moaned. “And Emma! Where is Emma? He took her. I tried to stop him…” She trailed off, sounding like she was ready to cry.

“We’ve gotta work together on this,” I said. “He came back with friends of his. They have Emma and Kara now. And they left me for dead on the side of the road.”

“Oh God. Dom. Please find them.”

“I plan on it.” The rest of my guys came in. She looked scared—I didn’t know if she was more scared of them or of the thought that her daughter and granddaughter were in danger.

“You should go to the hospital,” she said, reaching for me. “At least go to the powder room to wash up before you do anything else. Do you need painkillers? I have some from a surgery I had last year.”

“Yeah. Gimme some of those.”

“You’ve gotta ride,” Chase reminded me. “Your bike looks fine.”

“Yeah, but if I’m gonna ride, I need a mountain of painkillers. They never mess with my head. I’ll be fine.” I followed Kara’s mom to the powder room. She took a bottle out of the cabinet, leaving it on the counter, and handed me a washcloth.

I looked at myself in the mirror and recoiled. Dried blood all down the side of my face from a gash along my temple. A bloody mouth, a bloody nose. Not broken, though. I could breathe just fine through it. I washed my face, wincing whenever I touched the washcloth to the gash. Kara’s mom came back with antiseptic.

“Please, it’s the least I can do,” she said, wiping the wound with antiseptic-soaked cotton, then taping gauze to it. “There. You don’t want to get an infection.”

“What about you?” I asked.

“Moms don’t feel these things.” She looked me in the eye. “Find them. Please.”

“I’ll do everything I can.” I popped two pills, then Kara’s mom put the bottle in my pocket.

“Just in case you need them. I wouldn’t advocate riding while on these, but I know you need them right now. Can I give you anything else? You must be thirsty or something.”

I realized I was. “Yeah, some water, please. We’ll figure something out.” We went to the kitchen while I went back to the living room. The guys watched me, waiting for me to say something.

“I don’t know where to start,” I admitted. Kara’s mom came back, handing me a glass of water. “Is there anywhere special he would have taken them?”

She looked up at the ceiling like she was thinking about it. “They took a road trip on their honeymoon. Eric was always obsessed with the desert. Said he felt the call of it or something, I don’t know. They visited a few national parks, that sort of thing.”

“Okay. It’s a start, anyway.”

“Yeah, a start in a state filled with deserts,” Jax muttered. “It’s like a needle in a haystack.”

“But it’s something, anyway.” Chase stared at me. “What do you think?”

I was about to open my mouth and suggest calling the police again, the way I had before Eric came back, when there was a knock at the door. Kara’s mom let out a little yelp when Chase, Jax and Spike pulled their guns. I went to the door. It was an old man.

“You know him?” I asked, and Kara’s mom said it was her next door neighbor.

“I wanted to call the police,” he said, coming in, “but I didn’t know what to tell them.”

“What happened? What did you see?”

“I saw that man putting Kara in a car, with the little girl in her arms.” He looked like he could hardly see five feet in front of him, a thick pair of glasses on his face. I reminded myself not to get too excited based on what he said he saw.

“Did they say anything?” Chase asked.

“She kept asking where they were going. He said the Petrified Forest. She repeated it. I know she knew I was watching. She wanted me to know where they were going.”

“Thank you,” I said, shaking his hand.
And thank you, Kara. Smart girl.

“Okay. That’s where we go.” The others nodded.

Kara’s mom touched my arm. “Please be careful,” she whispered.

I gave her an impulsive hug. “I will,” I said. “I’ll bring them home. You, call the ambulance. You need to get to a hospital. You might have a concussion or something.”

“I’ll wait,” she said. “Have my daughter call me when you find her, and then I’ll go.”

I nodded, wondering if that moment would come. Would it already be too late by the time I found them? What the fuck did Eric have in mind?

I went outside, and Chase handed me a pistol. “Here. Brought you an extra one, just in case.”