Page 5 of Rough Road

“Oh, God, man. I’m so sorry. What happened?”

Grier gave him the bare facts - the compound, the stolen stuff, the rival gang. He left out the condition of Jez’s body, that she was more to him than just a Hell Kat at the club who’d saved his life.

“Oh man. Goddamn.”

Grier nodded. “Yeah.”

“I wondered why Fiona never showed.”

“Yeah.” He’d answered automatically and it took a second before the words registered. “What?” He shoved his barstool back and stood, bracing his free hand against the bar. Fiona was supposed to be with Kye, safe and sound on a secluded island. If she wasn’t… “Sage put her on a plane last night.”

“No planes in since yesterday afternoon. I’ve been at the airstrip all day.”

When the feelings came, they came as rage, a fury so powerful his grief evaporated, and Grier yelled and threw his glass of whiskey at the wall. “Fuck!” The glass exploded and the silence of a moment ago shattered with it. Chairs moved. Men stood. Glasses clanged against the table. And Grier tuned it all out to focus on the news he’d just received. “Fiona isn’t with you?”

“No. She never showed.”

Grier dropped the phone and grabbed Sage by the front of the shirt and slammed his back against the bar. “Where the hell is she? I trusted you with her!”

“I put her on the plane, Grier. Last night. I saw the flight plan myself. One stop in Florida then straight to Belize.” Grier jerked him forward then back again. “Fuck, Grier!”

A crowd gathered but no one moved. “I’ll fucking kill you!” He clenched one hand into Sage’s shirt and drew back the other. The punch landed between Sage’s jaw and cheekbone and spun his head sideways. As Grier was about to strike the second time, Hamilton grabbed his arm. He let go of Sage’s shirt. “Nobody knew but you and me. I sure as fuck didn’t tell.” He turned then whirled back. “You better pray to whatever fucking God you believe in that nothing happens to her or my baby. Or I’ll make your death so slow… so painful… you’ll wish you never met any of us, you son of a bitch.”

Sage slouched against the bar but looked over his shoulder at the bartender who had begun to move toward the side door. Grier had seen her once or twice, with Sage, that he remembered but didn’t know her name. He pointed at her. “Stop. You.” She folded her hands on the bar top then to her sides. It had to be fear that made her jittery and unable to look at him. And damned if he cared. If Sage had had any part in hurting Fiona, Grier would kill the girl, too. “Who are you?”

“Mia.” She hid behind the veil of her long hair. “Mia Giovanni.” She had long, black hair and brown eyes that couldn’t hide her fear.

Sage stood to his full height which put him almost nose to nose with Grier. “Leave her out of it, Grier.” A pretty ominous warning for a guy Grier had already decided a traitor who put his wife and baby into enemy hands.

Sage showed his hand too soon. He liked this girl and until Fiona reappeared safe and sound with their baby, Sage would suffer in any way Grier could make possible. Starting with his whore. He looked at Hamilton. “Hold him.” He walked behind the bar, pulled a knife from his boot, and grabbed the girl. Nothing was out of bounds until he had Fiona in his arms again. He dragged Mia to the front, where everyone would see, but more importantly where Sage could see. “Where’s Fiona, Sage?”

Sage stared at him. “Don’t do this, Grier. I don’t know. I put her on the plane.”

Grier moved the knife an inch and a trickle of blood ran down the girl’s throat. “Where is she?”

“I don’t know.” Sage struggled against Hamilton and threw his head back into Hamilton’s throat, but the big guy didn’t even flinch. Grier didn’t move the knife this time. Instead, he jerked the girl, and she cried out. He wouldn’t slit her throat until he had to. But if he had to, she wouldn’t go alone. “Stop. Grier, Fuck!” He jerked and struggled, but Hamilton held tight.

“Tell me where my family is.”

“Grier, it’s me. You know I wouldn’t do anything to hurt you or Fiona.”

Bull shit. It had to be Sage. “Then how the fuck did they know?”

He’d thought Sage was a friend. Another mistake in a long list of them. And this time, this betrayal cost too much, might have even cost Jez her life. But he couldn’t murder the girl. Sage, though, was a different matter.

But Grier needed to think before he did it. He’d had blood on his hands before, but never a brother’s. And damned if he’d ever killed a woman. He shoved her away. “Take them to the cells and stay with them.” He looked at Hamilton. If ever that man was an ally, it was right now. Fiona was his friend as much as his leader. And the cells below the club where Hamilton had thrown him not so long ago would do to keep Sage from spilling Demon secrets to whoever he’d been spying for, although Grier had a pretty good idea. “If he says anything other than where Fiona is, cut her tongue out.”

First Jez and now Fiona and London. The only thing Grier knew for certain was that this was personal, not an attack on the Demons but on him.

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Fiona sat across from Sedotal watching him. The man had no tells, nothing that gave away more of his plan than the few bits he’d told her, to take the money and the business her father had built. He didn’t mention Grier anymore than he had in those first few minutes.

He stretched his leg and winced. “Yeah, a leftover from our encounter in your apartment.”

“Sorry.” Not really. He’d come there hoping to rape her. That she’d shot his leg and not where she’d hoped meant she needed to work on her hand to hand aim. Not a mistake she would make a second time.

“A couple of inches to the left and we’d be having a very different conversation.”