Shane

Anger and frustration work their way equally through my body as I try and comprehend someone speaking in front of me.

"Shane, we need you to concentrate brother." Austin says but my eyes keep wondering over to the destruction of the house the woman I loved called home. "C'mon brother, snap out of it. We need to work together on this."

My gaze follows to the small little mermaid blanket crumbled to the floor, a small rabbit doll next to it. There are red marks on it from the time Adrianna thought she would try to put her mother's nail polish on her furry best friend.

"Tell me we got somethin'." I whisper starring at the chaos near the door where it's clear there was a struggle.

She fought for her daughter.

She fought them.

"Torque might have something, he said he was able to tap into the street lights and is looking for any suspicious vehicles, including the one that followed her the other day. In the meantime, we need to get out of here brother. We don't know if the neighbors heard anything. If any of them called the police, Alberts will most likely show up. We can't have that right now."

I nod my head and turn with Austin to head back our bikes. After Max had told us about Miles' phone call, we immediately rode over to Lyla's house. The moment we pulled up, I knew, I could tell, her and Adrianna, were no longer here. Max stayed at the clubhouse while Austin and I rode over. It was the scariest twenty minutes of my life.

"Hold on." Austin says causing me to stop mid step. My foot crunches on some glass near the dining room table. I look down and notice the picture frame Lisa had bought her with a photo of me and Lyla holding Adrianna's hands while she swings in the middle of us. We had just come home from the park with Adrianna, and Lisa was waiting on us, so she could babysit while we went out. It was the same day that Rory would ruin everything.

"Shane." I look up at Austin as he stares at me intently. Please no. Please don't tell me they found a body. "That was Max. Snake wants us at his compound. Says it's an emergency. Doesn't sound good brother."

I walk right past him, out of the house and head straight for my bike. I'm firing it up before Austin gets to his and head directly for the Road Kings clubhouse.

It takes us half an hour to reach the compound. When we pull up, Max is standing there with Snake and Drift. Mounting the bike, I hop off and march right over to Snake, intent on getting to the bottom of whatever the hell is going on.

"Austin, Shane." Snake nods his head at each of us and I catch Max's movement behind me. He looks stricken, something I haven't on his face in a long time.

"What's going on Max?" I hear Austin ask but my gaze stays focused on Snake's sobered expression.

"It's Miles, Austin. Those bastards dropped the body off. He's gone Aus. They killed him."

Snake walks over and addresses the situation, my mind is blank, flowing in thousands of different directions. Anger, grief, relief, guilt. Too many emotions for me to decipher. All I can think of at this moment, all I should think of, is Miles giving his life to protect my girls.

"Fuck." Austin shouts dragging me from my grueling thoughts. "He was fuckin' twenty-three. He was a goddamn kid."

The area remains quiet as well all think of the brother that truly celebrated the patch. Miles was loyal, intelligent and a fuckin' hard worker, and knowing he died defending the patch, defending the honor that we have each and every day, is enough to make me want to hunt down these fuckers and slaughter them all.

"Where is he?" Austin walks past me and gets into Snake's face. Max walks right behind him and grabs his shoulder, stopping his president for going too far. "Where the fuck is he and why do you have his body?"

"Relax boy. Know you're hurtin' but we didn't fuckin' do this. Drift and another brother were keeping tabs on someone we know as Griz. We think he's one of the wannabe Rejects. Was able to tie him in with Alberts. Ex con, did twenty years for murder, transferred over from Missouri when Alberts came to New York. Looks like Alberts was hiring dipshits from prison to pose as these Rejects. My guess is they are tryin' to take us out. Somethin' tells me our new chief of police wants control of the drug and gun trade. Drift lost his tail, but only after the SUV dropped off a large sack with a note on it. Once we brought him here, we called you. He's in the garage. He died defending the patch, we'll respect him but keep him hidden for now."

"What did the note say?" I don't recognize my own voice but somewhere deep inside, I am still comprehending enough to know the note just may be about Lyla and Adrianna's whereabouts.

Snake nods his head at Drift, who then moves forward and pulls a piece of paper out of his cut. He hands it to Austin who reads it, then hands it right over to me. Grasping it with shaky hands I read the note from the Rejects, then crumble it and throw it on the ground.

We Warned You

"Alright, listen up. Looks like Alberts wants to take us out. I say we get our clubs together and finally end this shit. Know you need to take your boy home, get everyone together, so I say we meet up tonight and get started."

"Deal." Austin says then quickly walks back to his bike, phone in hand. I am just turning around when Snake calls out my name.

"Got a minute?" He nods his head over to a faded blue bench. I turn and face Austin, but he and Max are on their phones, no doubt gathering the troops and telling them the horrible news. They will also have to send the van down to come collect the body. I follow Snake over to the bench and take a seat opposite him.

"What do you want?" I scoff.

"Wanted to let you know, just in case I don't get a chance to say anything tonight. Your pops loved you. You were the one he wanted to make proud. He didn't make good decisions and, in the end, was a piece of shit, but he was human boy. He cared for two things in the world, his cut, and his boy."

"And how the fuck would you know that? He tell you something before you fuckin' shot him in the head? Huh? He have this goddamn epiphany?" My anger rises thinking of Bone's confession. Knowing Lyla and Adrianna are out there somewhere alone, and scared, has me feeling like my skin is slowly crawling from my body.

"I know because of how you turned out. Crusher was devastated with Gunner's betrayal, but he knew you would turn out fine. Your daddy may have had a bad fuckin' ending, but something tells me he did right by you." With his parting words, Snake heads back into the compound with Drift trailing behind him.

"Drift thinks he might have found an old abandoned building abut fifteen miles north of here. It was under the name Riley Emerson, I had Torque pull up his photo. Alberts had this fucker recently transferred out here from Missouri, sound familiar?" Austin claims walking up behind me. I turn and see Max still on the phone. As VP he oversees gathering all the brothers when there is an emergency meeting.

"We checkin' it out?"

"Fuck yeah."

"Good. I need to fuckin' end this."