Consumed: A Devil Chaser's MC Romance (15 page)

“I don’t give a fuck,” Goliath said as he took the keys from Renegade. “We gotta try.”

We spent four hours searching for Sheppard but never found any trace of him.

We considered calling for help, but it was a double-edged sword. The police might have been able to find him, but there was no way that we could explain the mayhem that surrounded us. We had to give up the search. It was dark, and we knew there was little chance that we’d ever find him alive. We’d lost our brother. There was nothing more we could do for him.

Chapter 23

Courtney

“Why haven’t we heard from them yet?” I asked Tessa.

“I’m not sure. Bishop always calls me,” she said with concern. We were all expecting them to let us know something, and since they hadn’t tried calling, we knew that something must have been wrong.

“Maybe Bull has heard something,” Taylor said. “I’ll go see if he knows anything.”

“Doubt he will tell us anything, but it’s worth a try,” Tessa told her. We all followed her to the bar in search of Bull.

He was talking with Levi when we walked into the room.

“It can’t be good. They should’ve been back hours ago,” Bull mumbled to Levi.

“Should we go see if we can find them?” Levi asked.

“We can’t leave the clubhouse unprotected. It’s too big of a risk. We may need to go to the lakehouse at Big Sandy. If something went wrong, the Black Diamonds will come here looking for us,” Bull told him.

“We’re not leaving until we hear from Bishop,” Tessa said firmly. “He would find a way to let us know if we were in danger.”

Bull looked surprised to see us standing there, but he didn’t hesitate when he said, “You’ll go where you’re told, when you’re told. It’s my job to make sure you’re safe, and that’s exactly what I plan to do.”

“I’m not going anywhere, Bull. I will be standing right here when Bishop walks through that door,” she demanded.

“We’ll give it another hour, but if we don’t hear from them, we
will
make the move,” Bull told her. He looked over to Levi and said, “Tell Conner that we are on high alert. If he sees anything suspicious, I want to know about it. You monitor the surveillance feed.”

“You got it, brother,” Levi told him as he left the bar.

“I want everyone together. Get the kids and go to the family room. Wait there,” he ordered.

“Do you really think that’s necessary?” I asked. “The kids are watching a movie in my room.”

“Now,” he ordered. He stood up and walked out of the room without saying another word.

“This is making me crazy,” Lily said as tears streamed down her face. “I’m texting Goliath. I have to know if he’s okay.”

“Don’t. They told us not to contact them. We don’t want to draw any attention to them if they’re in a bad situation,” Tessa told her. “Let’s get the kids and do like Bull asked. Courtney, bring one of your games for the kids. We’ll need something to entertain them while we wait.”

Yep. Tessa made a great First Lady. She always knew the right thing to do, even when everything was going to hell in a handbasket.

The kids didn’t mind moving into the family room. I’d actually never been in that room before, and I was surprised by how much it looked like a regular living room. It had a large L-shaped leather sofa and several recliners, and widescreen TV’s mounted on the wall. There were several cool paintings of motorcycles spanning the back wall. The kids scrambled around to find their spots as Myles grabbed the remote, turning on their favorite cartoons.

“I’m hungry,” Drake whined. “Can we order a pizza or something?”

“Maybe in a little while. We just need to hang out in here for a little bit,” Tessa told him.

“Is something bad going on?” he asked. “We’ve never been allowed in here before.”

“Everything is fine, honey. Just wanted to have us all together when the guys got back,” she told him as she placed her hand on his shoulder.

“I know when you aren’t telling me the truth, Mom. You can tell me what’s really going on,” he told her. Izzie looked over to her with worry in her eyes. She hadn’t even thought about something being wrong until Drake brought it up.

“It’s
fine
, Drake,” she told him firmly.

“Whatever. Just give me a heads up if the bad guys are coming to get us. I want to be prepared,” he told her as he rolled his eyes.

“Drake!” Tessa fussed. “That’s enough.”

He gave her a frustrated look as he reached in his pocket for his iPod. He put on his headphones and stared at the wall, trying to tune us out.

“Momma, is Bishop okay?” Izzie asked.

A look of anguish washed over Tessa as she looked over to her daughter. She placed the palm of her hand on Izzie’s face and said, “Yes, baby. He’s fine. He’ll be home soon.”

“I hope so. I miss him,” Izzie told her.

I felt the tears well up in my eyes as I watched them together. I was overcome with emotion. I fought back the tears as I thought about one of us losing the men we loved so much. It was almost too much to bear.

Chapter 24

May the road rise up to meet you, may the wind be ever at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face and the rain fall softly on your fields. And until we meet again, may God hold you in the hollow of his hand.

~
Irish Blessing

Bobby

We all stood on the dock, staring at the water, watching as the current drifted by our feet like nothing had ever happened. It was hard to believe that something that looked so beautiful could be so deadly. I’d always loved the lake, but now it repulsed me just to look at it. I hated it for taking my brother away from us. I couldn’t stand the thought of leaving without Sheppard. It just didn’t seem right.

“There has to be something else we can do,” I told them.

“He’s gone, brother. There’s nothing left for us to do right now,” Bishop told me.

“I don’t think I can live with that,” I told him.

“We have to,” Bishop said. “We don’t have a choice.”

I nodded, but the tightness in my chest made it difficult to breathe. I walked over to Renegade and helped him finish loading the truck. The suffocating feeling of death surrounded us as Snake’s men dragged all of the dead bodies into one of the older warehouses. They planned to torch the building as soon as we had the lot cleared. Snake covered the bloodstained concrete with diesel fuel and set it on fire. We were immediately bombarded with the stench of blood and gasoline.

“It’s getting late,” Goliath told us. “We need to get back.”

“Have you called Bull?” I asked Bishop.

“Goddamn it! I should’ve called hours ago. I’m sure Tessa is freaking out,” he said as he reached for his phone. We all waited as he made the call. When he was finished, he walked over to Snake.

“I’m sorry about your loss, brother,” Snake told him.

“I appreciate that. Didn’t plan on things turning out like this, but I’m glad this shit is over. The Black Diamonds are done, and we can move on.”

“You know where to reach me,” Snake told him.

“I do,” Bishop replied as he extended his hand out to Snake. They shook hands, ending all ties we had to the Red Dragons.

Anger surged through Goliath as he got in the truck. He rubbed his hands down his face and said, “Why couldn’t that motherfucker just do what he was told to do? Why did he always have to be the goddamn hero?”

“He was there when we needed him, Goliath. There’s no other place he’d rather be,” Bishop told him.

“This is fucking insane,” Goliath shouted as he slammed his hands against the steering wheel. “We should’ve made him go to the roof. I should’ve been the one on that barge.”

“It played out the way it needed to play out, Goliath. You can’t second guess every move we made,” Renegade told him. “Sheppard knew what he was getting into. I wouldn’t have expected him to do anything different than what he did.”

“I’m not going to stop looking for him,” I told them. “I’ll find him. Dead or alive. I will find him.”

The truck fell silent. They knew I wouldn’t give up until I found something that led us to him. Someone would find him, and I’d be there waiting when they did.

Chapter 25

Courtney

It’d been almost two weeks since the night we’d lost Sheppard. No one had been able to get past it. It was the not knowing that made it so much more difficult. Bobby wanted to believe that he was still alive. He truly thought there was still a chance that he’d survived. He was consumed with the need to find him; it was the only thing that kept him from completely giving in to his grief. He refused to listen to Goliath and Bishop when they wanted to plan a memorial service for him. He wouldn’t accept that Sheppard was dead until they recovered his body. A part of me knew that it was just the guilt talking. They all felt relentless guilt for leaving their brother behind, but they didn’t have a choice. I knew they had done everything they could to save him. Realistically, I knew there was little chance that Sheppard had survived. Even without the bullet wounds, he wouldn’t have been able to live in that unforgiving river. Nothing could’ve survived in that current at that time of year.

Bobby and I were stuck in a cyclone of emotion. A brief moment of happiness would be followed by the crushing grief of losing Sheppard. The sadness around us just kept pulling us into a dark, gloomy place that I desperately needed out of. I had to think of something that would help ease the pain for Bobby, but I was at a loss. I had no idea what to do.

“I need an idea,” I told Tessa. We were both back at work and had decided to have lunch together.

“What kind of idea?” she asked.

“I don’t know. Some kind of distraction. I need to take Bobby’s mind off of things for a while. He’s having a hard time getting past losing Sheppard.”

“They all are. It’s just going to take time. Sheppard was special to them, and they feel like they failed him. We both know they did everything they could, but they will never think it was enough,” she explained.

“What can I do?” I asked.

“Just listen to him. Give him the time he needs to find his way through this,” Tessa told me.

“You’re right. I’ll stop trying to fix it. I just wanted to do something to help him,” I told her.

“You know, we have Spring Break coming up in a couple of weeks. Why don’t you take that trip he planned for you at Christmas? It might be good to get away from here for a while.”

“That’s an awesome idea! Do you think he’d go for it?” I asked.

“Never know unless you try. Besides, I think it would be good for both of you.”

I left there feeling better about things. I needed something to look forward to. It took a couple of days to get everything together, and I was nervous about bringing it up to Bobby. I wasn’t sure how he’d feel about leaving, so I waited until we were getting ready for bed and slipped on his favorite t-shirt and my black lace panties. His eyes roamed over my body appraisingly as he walked into the bedroom. He peeled off his t-shirt and tossed it to the floor, never taking his eyes off me.

“Umm… I … I have an idea that I want to run by you,” I stammered.

He looked over to me with a lopsided grin spread across his face. “Uh, okay. What kind of idea?” he asked as he slowly began to unbuckle his belt.

“Um, well… I thought we could take a little trip over Spring Break. Maybe we could....”

“You mean the trip you’ve been planning for the last few days?” he asked with a shit-eating grin as he stalked over to me.

“Bobby! Stop looking through the history on my computer! That is an
invasion
of my
privacy
!” I screeched, poking him in the shoulder.

“I didn’t have to search your history, babe. It was still up when I logged on. You never closed the page. Besides, I don’t have to use a computer to know when you’re up to something,” he said mischievously as he began to lower his jeans.

“Is that so?” I demanded, putting my hands on my hips.

He stepped closer to me, pressing his body against mine. “That’s right, baby. You can’t hide anything from me,” he said as he leaned down and slowly began nipping at my neck, sending chills down my body.

“And how is that, Bobby? How do you
know
when I’m trying to keep something from you?” I asked flippantly.

“It’s written all over your face. Your smile lights up a room when you’re happy,” he said as his hands traveled across my waist. “You’re oddly quiet when you’re upset about something, and you won’t look me in the eye when you’re trying to keep something from me.” He put his hands under my ass and lifted me, forcing my legs to wrap around his waist.

“Oh,
really
?” I whispered in his ear.

“You haven’t been able to look me in the eye for days, babe. I thought you’d never get around to telling me what you’d planned.”