I shook my head and she started slamming her hands onto mychest.
“No! He can’t be,” shesobbed.
“Honey, I need you to sit in the front seat for me, please,” I begged, carrying her through the back of the van up to the passenger’s seat. She frantically tried to get out of my arms to see what was going on. Pulling my wife onto my lap, I held her against me as tightly as I could, coveringhereyes.
“Ryder, please stop.” She tried to get me to movemyhand.
“Jaxon, will you please help HoltandBear.”
He hopped out and I could hear the guys struggling to get Abel’s body into the back of thevehicle.
“Babe, trust me, you have to keep your eyes closed. You do not want toseethis.”
She didn’t listen, and how could I blame her? Her father was her world. The shrill that broke from Raine’s lungs was one I would never be able to forget. It was the sound of a heart completelyshattering.
“Daddy! No! Wake up! Please!” She thrashed in my arms, trying to get backtohim.
“Raine, I am so sorry.” I sobbed as I forced her to staywithme.
I had thought I was heartbroken when Raine went missing, but that anguish paled in comparison to watching the woman I loved with my entire self completely break down in my arms and not being able to do anythingaboutit.
We got back to where our bikes were within minutes, and Raine was still wailing. Bear looked at me. “I’ll make a call and get all your bikes back up to Vilas by theevening.”
I nodded. “Thanks.”
He ran his hand over his face, his eyes glassed over. Looking back, he sat there for a few seconds. “Abel is the best man I have ever known and his love for his family is unparalleled.” He hopped out of the driver’s seat with the van still running. “Y’all take her back up with you. Holt, are you good todrive?”
My old man made his way up front, blood covering most of his body. “Yeah. Good to go.” He hopped out to give Bear a hug before climbing behind thewheel.
I tried to ignore the fact that we were heading back home with two dead bodies in the back of an unmarked utility van that probably had fake or stolen plates on it. All I could do was focus on trying to calm Raine down. I completely failed. She cried so hard that she ended up passing out in my arms after about an hour, simply overcome byexhaustion.
“Do not go to the bar,” I told myfather.
He shot me a blank stare. “We need to get Crickett andCollin.”
“Go to Abel’s house. I’ll take his truck and take Raine to thehospital.”
My dad glanced at me again. “And what, just ignore that otherissue?”
I shook my head. “We have to get her to a doctor right away. Once I am out of there with Raine, call Crickett, do whatever the fuck you have to do, but right now, just get me to that damn truck as fast asyoucan.”
Chapter8
Raine
The beepingof a monitor was the first thing I heard when I groggily tried to open my eyes. Suddenly, it all started to come back to me. The sight of my father motionless, covered in blood in the back of the van slapped me across my face as my chesttightened.
“Oh my God! Dad!” I screamed as sobbing took over myentirebody.
Ryder’s soft voice came from my bedside. “Heybaby.”
He grabbed my hand and I gripped back with as much force as I could. “Tell me it was all a nightmare. Please, Ryder. This cannot be real life.” He stayed quiet, and I forced my stinging eyes to open. “Ryder, please don’t go silent onmenow.”
“I am so sorry, Raine. It was a trap.” His head fell onto our clutched hands. “Your father was the target allalong.”
His words weren’t registering. “What do you mean? How was itatrap?”
He scooted his chair a little closer. “You were bait to lure us to that warehouse. Abel was the target all along and we walked right into it like fucking idiots. But we didn’t know. There was no way to know. We assumed that they kidnapped you as revenge for a deal that went wrong. We had no way of knowing that killing Abel was their ultimate goal theentiretime.”