Page 88 of Stag

“Dunno. Pres, what do we know other than you all dropped the fucking ball?”

“Easy, brother. We can deal with blame later. Grease has checked her phone, and it was moving down the road from here at speed, but they’ve found it smashed about a mile and a half away from here, heading away from town, so we’re despatching guys right now to start looking.”

“Fuck!”

“Hang on. Grease is updating me. I’ll call back.” The phone fell silent, and dropped into my lap as I gripped my thighs and took a deep breath. Breathe, just breathe. We’ll find her. We have to. Danno’s voice pulled me from my panic.

“Boss? We’ve got a problem. Stag’s lady is missing. We’re gonna head straight there, so you’ll need cover at this location.”

Then a Bennett voice, clearly on speaker. “Gotcha, bruv. Go sort it out. I’ll get Nige to watch the cameras ‘til cover arrives. We’ll send help to the compound too. Go find her, yeah? Kill whoever you need to.”

“The fuck?”

I was staring at Danno in shock and he grinned, passing me the phone as he started the engine and put it into drive, heading down the road at a rapid pace.

“Bruv, you’re one of us. We look after our family. Do what you gotta do, shout if you need more bodies.”

The call ended, and I stared at the road ahead as we were moving.

“Might want your seatbelt on, brother. I’m not gonna go slow.”

Fuck. I locked it in place, and stared at the unfamiliar phone in my hand. My world was falling apart, and these crime lords, these guys that I’d wanted to hate, had just stepped up and given me what I needed. Hope.

“Breathe, Stag. We’ll find her, and everything will be fine.” His face was grim, but his words landed, despite my panic, despite the turmoil filling my heart, and my head. Despite the white noise filling my ears. He said we’ll find her. I have to believe him. He exuded a calmness under pressure that I really fucking needed right now to stop me freaking out. She needed me to be my best for her right now.

“They just release you like this to help me? I don’t get it.”

Danno tutted at me, taking a left turn as my phone buzzed in my hand, and I opened it to a message from the Pres with a road to head for.

“Apparently her car was spotted on Angler Road, it’s-”

“I know where it is. I’ll make good time there, it’s only a few minutes away, heading out of town. Is it stationary?”

“Dunno. I-”

“Don’t panic, brother. This is what we do.”

I reached over and slid his phone into the cradle on his dashboard, leaning back to crack my knuckles, spoiling for a fight, for someone to hit and gift with the pain I was feeling. Trouble is, when it’s a woman, what the fuck do you do?

“I thought you guys did crime.”

Danno snorted, taking a corner at about fifty, which his fancy cage handled nicely.

“Sure, but we’re a close knit group, like your club. We’re a family. We back each other, we support each other. You’re one of our people now, so you get that support too.”

I couldn’t absorb his words, or their meaning, because my mind was already cycling through every horrific possibility that might face us when we arrived there, and I was starting to fear that us having missed her at that location might be the least terrifying of them all. What if, oh god, what if…

“Breathe, brother. We’ll find her. You need to be capable of helping her when we get there, so put your focus on that.”

I pressed the button to lower the window, needing air hitting me in the face to wake up my brain, and lift me out of panic mode. Danno was right. She’d need me at my best for her, that’s what she deserved every minute of every fucking day.

I leaned my head out a little, letting the wind smack me in the face, and that’s when a tight grip on my seatbelt tugged me back into the seat.

“Are you trying to get yourself hurt, fucker? I just said you need to put her first.”

“I ALWAYS put her first, you sanctimonious-”

The phone rang in the cradle, and Danno jabbed a finger at it.