Page 154 of Healed

We had this city on fucking lockdown. Every inch of our territory was covered in cameras. We even had cameras in neutral territory for fuck’s sake, as well as spies in areas that were not under our control.

The fact that Nico was able to effortlessly slip through our fingers like this was inconceivable.

The first time was annoying. The second time at Greasy was infuriating. The third time made me want to set the world alight. I definitely would have torched the shop had I not been so focused on Gabriella. But this? This was beyond the fucking pale.

Who did that guy have working for him that he could avoid not only us on foot—or on our bikes—but also Hacksaw behind the cameras?

It made no goddamn sense.

No one was able to evade Hacksaw’s cameras because the man was a fucking pro at what he does.

“How the fuck does he keep getting near her?” I practically roared, kicking the wall as I brought my bike to a stop.

“Feel better?” Dante asked.

“No. He left her a fucking note, Dante. He knew she was seeing Ashleigh, and he’s left shit for her.”

“It’s not hard to figure out,” he shrugged. “Our bikes are outside her office all the time. We’re hardly discreet. We should have anticipated this and planned ahead. Hacksaw is already on it—he’s installing new cameras around her office and home, and he’s already hacked her phones and blocked Nico out. He won’t get access to Gabby through Ashleigh again.”

“She needs to start coming to the fucking compound for our sessions instead.”

Dante laughed. “And you think that will make the situation better?”

I imagined the chaos of therapy taking place in the clubhouse and realised it would be an utter disaster but still…

“At least then we would have all her records with us, not locked away in her office.”

“That’s sort of the point, brother. We aren’t supposed to have her records. They’re supposed to be locked away.”

“Dante,” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Can you just let me be irrational in my anger and stop trying to combat me with logic?”

Dante held his hands up in surrender, a mocking smile on his face. “Far be it from me to add logic at a time like this.”

“Thank you. Jeez.”

I stayed quiet, my anger simmering beneath my skin. Dante must have sensed that no amount of joking and clowning around was enough to get me to calm.

“We’ll find him, brother. He can’t hide forever,” Dante said, slapping my shoulder as we climbed off our bikes outside the clubhouse.

“I know,” I sighed. “But how much damage is going to be done in the meantime?”

“The compound isn’t exactly a prison. There’s lots of free space for members to roam. No damage has to come to Gabriella if she stays within the walls. The damage elsewhere? That’s not our problem. We can’t save everyone. The minute we forget that, people in this compound start dying instead.”

“I know,” I repeated, still feeling more frustrated than ever. “And staying within the walls isn’t the problem. It’s getting her near the walls in the first place. She won’t leave that fucking room. The one day she leaves, and this fucking happens. It’s going to send her right back.”

Fuck!

I was going to skin that cunt alive. I was going to make him howl in pain and beg the devil himself to come and collect him just so he could get away from me.

He was going to fucking pay for all of it.

“Give her time,” Dante said as we walked into the clubhouse. “The girl has never had the opportunity to process. She’ll come back to you when she needs you.”

“Will she? Because she needed me ten years ago, Dante. She needed me when Nico took over before Axel was born. Did she come to me then?”

“She thought your life was in danger then.”

“That’s what scares me,” I admitted. “Because if she thinks my life is in danger now—which Nico blatantly told her it was—will she stay, or will she run when I’m not looking?”