Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 56628 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 283(@200wpm)___ 227(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56628 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 283(@200wpm)___ 227(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
I had been attracted to Adelaide ever since she popped back up at the clubhouse after three damn years. The woman was full of fire, full of life, and she didn’t take a bit of shit from anyone. She had an air around her that instantly drew everyone’s attention to her when she stepped into a room.
She would make a hell of a good old lady one day. I was just biding my time until I could make my move. No matter how long it took. Because I could be a patient man for the right things.
And Adelaide? She was someone a man remained patient for, something Tristan didn’t understand, though I could tell that Joey kind of understood her. He was trying, but he couldn’t seem to get it right yet.
A man learned a lot by standing on the outside looking in.
“Adelaide?” I asked, swiping to answer her cal. “Darlin’, what’s wrong?”
“Help,” she whispered, her voice too weak and shaky for my liking. This woman was always strong and loud. “River,” she whimpered, “everything hurts.”
I stood up from my couch, moving toward my apartment door without a beat of hesitation. I wasn’t much of a partier. I never had been. So, when the club started getting rowdy earlier, I came home to drink a beer in the silence of my apartment.
“Darlin’, where are you?” I asked her. “Can you tell me where you are?”
Her breathing was shallow. Too fucking shallow. Fear for her safety pulsed through my veins, but I locked it away, focusing on finding her. “I don’t know,” she whimpered, sounding truly afraid. I heard something hitting her phone. “My location is on,” she told me, her voice fading in and out. “I sent you coordinates.” Another breath rattled from her lungs. “River, find me,” she begged.
The line went dead. Rage soared through my veins, and I vowed to get justice for her. I would slaughter whoever the fuck put their hands on her.
Darlin’, I’m coming. Just hold on for me.
Chapter Twenty-One
Tristan
Ilooked down at the bar when my phone vibrated beside my elbow, showing a call from the hospital. A bad feeling spread through my gut, and I answered the call quickly, praying it had nothing to do with Adelaide, though my gut was telling me otherwise.
“Tristan Groves.”
“Um, Grim, Adelaide was just rushed into surgery,” River informed me, his voice cold. River was a damn good club member, but sometimes, I worried where River’s loyalties actually lied. But I knew if I needed him to do something, he would, no questions asked. He was a cold-blooded kind of man. I wasn’t even sure if he really had human emotions.
And as stupid as it was of me, it didn’t even occur to me to ask him why and how he knew Adelaide was being rushed into surgery. Or why he was calling me from the hospital phone instead of his. All I could focus on was that my woman was in the hospital.
“Fuck!” I roared, hanging up the phone, panic gripping my heart so tightly that for a moment, I couldn’t fucking breath. I pointed a shaky finger at Joey. “Had you just fucking let me handle her, she’d fucking be here safe and sound,” I snarled, pulling my bike keys out of my pocket.
“What the fuck happened?” Joey demanded to know as he got up off of the couch with a pain-filled grunt.
“Adelaide is in the hospital,” I told him as I rushed out the door, not giving a fuck if he decided to follow me or not.
Addy, baby, I’m so sorry that I keep fucking up with you.
I stared at the doctor, barely hearing him through the blood pounding in my ears. River was gone by the time I got to the hospital, but he’d been proactive enough to inform the front desk that Joey and I would be coming to the hospital, and we were in charge of her care.
Adelaide had been beaten to within an inch of her life. She had multiple stab wounds in her lower abdomen. There were signs of being strangled. She lost the baby. And she was raped, more than likely numerous times.
The doctor’s words: “She’s extremely lucky to still be alive.”
“Grim,” Dameon called, coming over to me with his laptop. “I found this.” Turning the screen to me, he showed me a video. “Got this from one of the traffic cameras.”
The video showed Adelaide being thrown out by a dumpster, her phone tossed out beside her. She hit the ground unconscious. There were no markings or plates on the van. It was just a plain white industrial van. Nothing special about it.
“Fuck,” I snarled, running my hands through my hair. We had no way of knowing who the fuck did this to her, but something in my gut told me it might be Vin.