Page 8 of Tanner (Dirty Misfits MC 5)
And every time, I was her rock while we worked her out of the tight corners her parents pushed her into.
This won’t be any different, either.
I slammed my way through the clubhouse and geared up. I slipped a bulletproof vest underneath my clothes and refreshed my ammunition in our stockpile closet we kept at the back of our place. I holstered guns beneath both of my arms and slid a small gun against my ankle. Each of my pockets were adorned with a switchblade, and I harnessed my age-old throwing stars on the right side of my leather belt.
Then, Brooks’ voice sounded behind me. “All right, you guys. Suit up and follow Tanner’s lead.”
I slowly turned around, staring at our president as the guys walked down the hallway. They moved me out of the way so they could get to their tactical gear, but the sounds were muffled as I nodded my head down the hallway toward Brooks.
And when he nodded back, I knew we were on the same page.
“Any idea how we’re going to track down her address?” Cole asked.
Archer yelled above the chaos. “I got it! Josie finally got back to me! I have Summer’s address.”
I whipped around. “Let me see. Let me see it, Archer.”
He rushed his phone over to me and I quickly punched the address into my own phone. I saved it to my contacts, then copied it into my GPS and blazed a trail out toward my bike. I nestled my phone into its little protective holster so it could guide me all the way to her place, then a chorus of bikes struck up all around me.
Reminding me of the family she’d have once more if we made it out of this alive.
And if she ever forgave me for what happened all those years ago.
Four
Summer
Cheyenne: Love you and miss you!
As I brushed my teeth at the kitchen sink, I smiled at the picture of Cheyenne with all of her friends. I saved the picture to my photo reel, hoping one day to print it out and put it up in the home we’d own together one of these days. I sighed as I spit my toothpaste out and washed out my mouth. I rinsed off my toothbrush and walked it back into my bathroom, where I stared longingly at my own bathroom sink.
“Why won’t you just work?” I groaned.
Every apartment always had that one issue. That one thing that never could quite get resolved. And my bathroom sink was that one thing. If it wasn’t clogged, then the pipes leaked. And if the pipes didn’t leak and it wasn’t clogged, then it was a hardware issue. Every other week, there was something wrong with this damned thing.
It alone made me want to move the first chance I got.
But this place had been home for the longest time. I was going on my fifth year in this apartment, and it was sentimental to me in a lot of ways. It was the first apartment I ever rented that didn’t require a co-signer with me. It was the first apartment I ever paid for out of pocket without any help. It was even the first apartment where Cheyenne and I had our own space. It was ours, and no one else’s.
It would be hard to part with this place when the time came.
“What in the world?” I murmured.
Off in the distance I heard a dull roar, but it quickly grew closer. I furrowed my brow as I quickly changed into my nightgown and pulled my silken robe across my body. I tied it off into a bow before I stepped out onto the smallest little balcony I’d ever seen in my life. But it was my balcony, and as I sat in my red plastic Adirondack chair, I listened to the rumbling noises of motorcycles creeping toward me.
Until they rounded the corner into the complex.
“What the fuck?” I asked.
I stood to my feet and leaned over the balcony, trying to crane my neck around the building. I didn’t have to crane too far, though. A couple of the guys parked in parking spaces and got off their bikes, but the rest sat there. Looking around, like they were looking for something specific.
Or someone.
“Summer!”
I almost had to do a double-take, because I know damned good and well I didn’t hear Tanner’s voice.
“Summer! I’m coming up!”
Even though I saw him waving at me before he rushed toward the wrought iron railing, it still didn’t register. It didn’t hit me that Tanner was actually here—actually standing in front of me and yelling my name—until he sprinted up to my balcony and reached his arms over.
And when I snapped out of it, I backed away. “What the fuck are you doing?”
His eyes whipped up to mine. “We have to go. Now.”
