The Rules We Break (The Alphaletes Book 4), page 24
“Stay on the phone, baby. I’m coming, I’m coming,” he says as we reach his car in record time.
It’s a little hard to get in with all of our gear on but we manage, and Sebastian is peeling out of the parking lot in the next second.
“Erica? Erica!” Sebastian barks into the phone.
“What the fuck is going on?” I ask.
Sebastian’s hand is shaking as he puts his phone on speaker as he runs a red light, maneuvering around honking cars as he continues.
I don’t hear anything at first, then the faint sound of Erica’s voice in the background comes through.
“Let her go!”
Panic races through me at her words.
“Her?!” I shout. “Her who?!”
I’m pissed I didn’t have the foresight to grab my own phone because I need to hear Sage’s voice. Need to know she’s okay. In the next second, a gunshot rings out that has both Sebastian and I holding our breath. The air inside the car is so dangerous, so silent, it feels as if time has frozen despite the speed with which we are racing down the busy streets of Seattle.
“Erica?” Sebastian rasps roughly, but no one responds.
Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god.
Sebastian is practically drifting his Suburban in the parking garage before racing up floor after floor.
“Are you guys okay?” a man’s muffled voice sounds through the phone just as we come around a corner to see two men standing over our girls.
Sebastian doesn’t bother finding a spot. He slams the car into park in the middle of the road and races out of the car, but I’m faster. Sage and Erica are both sitting on the ground while the men are standing over them. My eyes instantly go to Sage, scanning over her for injuries and coming up empty, thank God. I set my sights on the man closest to her before full-on tackling him to the ground.
We tussle a bit before I hear Erica’s voice.
“Trev! Seb! Stop! They helped us!”
I pause, looking down at the man beneath me, noticing the security-labeled clothing he’s wearing before I look up at her.
“You sure?”
She nods quickly, causing me to release him and scramble toward a silent Sage. I grab her face and force her to look at me.
“Baby,” I breathe out, my heart beating like a jackhammer. “What the fuck happened? What’s going on?”
Her beautiful purple hues are cloudy with pain and fear, a watery layer of tears dimming their shine as she looks at me.
“T-trev?”
“I’m here,” I say as Sebastian speaks.
“How did they save you?” he demands, looking like a crazed man, still not releasing the man beneath him.
“They scared the guys off, thankfully,” Erica says, her voice breaking off on a sob that has Sebastian abandoning his target and gathering his wife into his arms. She falls apart, sobbing and clinging to him like she might drift away otherwise. My heart hurts for her, but I’m far too concerned with what happened and why my girl has hardly said a word yet.
“Sweetheart,” I say gently, brushing away the silent tears that are currently streaming down her cheeks. “Talk to me,” I beg.
I watch as her lower lip begins to tremble before she blows out a rough breath and speaks.
“He’s coming for me.”
“Who?” I push again, but she stays quiet.
“A couple of guys pulled up in a van, they tried to take Sage,” Erica says.
“Both of you, you mean,” Seb says as he holds her tighter.
Erica shakes her head, though, as she shares a heavy look with me.
“No, just Sage.”
The panic I felt in the car is nothing compared to what I feel now. I gather Sage’s body into my arms, holding her as tightly as I possibly can as I blow out a staggered breath.
“We got the license plate,” the guy who took the punch from Seb says. “Police are on their way.”
We both nod as Sebastian holds out his hand.
“Thanks, sorry I punched you.”
He shrugs. “Would have done the same thing, and if I had to be punched by anyone, it’s cool that it was Sebastian Caldwell.”
He tries to laugh, but it doesn’t land. The four of us just stare at him, causing him to share an awkward look with his buddy. A police car pulls up at the next moment and begins questioning everyone. Sage doesn’t say much, she just tells the exact same story as Erica without sharing any extra details.
“He said, ‘Leave her, he only wants this one’ when he was holding Sage.”
“Who is he?” the cop asks Erica.
She shrugs before looking toward a practically catatonic Sage.
“Ma’am, can you tell us anything? Give us a name? Something?”
“No point, you’ll never get him,” she says numbly.
“We have a lot of resources at our disposal, and you’re clearly in danger. Let us help,” the cop tries to reason.
Sage’s eyes harden as she looks up at him, a hard clamp to her jaw as she speaks.
“Alec Hale. The Snakebacks president of the Sante Fe chapter.”
I watch as the cop visibly swallows, and his eyes widen.
“What the fuck does that mean? Who is that?” I ask the cop before facing Sage.
She looks at me but doesn’t speak as she shakes her head. My eyes come to Erica who seems to know exactly what I’m thinking. She comes beside Sage, taking my place as I walk over to the cop and take him to the side.
“What’s going on? Do you know this guy?”
“Not personally,” he says as he jots something down on his notepad.
“What is he? A gangster or something?” I ask.
“The Snakebacks are a national Motorcycle Club, one percenters. No one you want to mess with.”
Motorcycle club? What the fuck? Like Sons of Anarchy shit?
“What about Sage? What does it mean he’s coming after her like this? What can we do until you catch him?”
The cop huffs out a laugh as he shakes his head.
“I’m afraid it’s a hell of a lot trickier than that. We have the license plate the guys gave us, and we will do our best with that lead, but these guys have a reputation, and it isn’t for being good citizens with their properties in their name or paying their taxes. We’ve been trying to nail the Seattle chapter for years with no luck. In my experience, they only come out of the shadows when they are ready to.”
“Okay, well why the fuck is this prick biker targeting my girl?” I say, doing my best to keep my fear for Sage under wraps as I get some answers.
“You tell me, she clearly isn’t talking to us.”
I shake my head as I look over my shoulder to see her staring off into the space in front of her, Erica holding her comfortingly.
“My guess,” the cop continues, “is that you’re shacking up with a Snakeback president’s old lady. Between you and me, if I were you, I’d be getting the hell away from her as fast as possible before you get a target painted on your back.”
I turn to face him, disgust filling my face as I sneer at him.
“Not a chance in fucking hell.”
The cop shrugs. “Then I’d suggest some private security until we have an update.”
“Done,” I say before turning on my heel and getting back to my girl.
I’ll call a company in a bit, for now, I need to get my girl home and have a serious fucking talk with her.
It’s time.
Sage
Once the police were through with us, Trevor took Erica’s car and drove us home since she was definitely not okay to drive. I feel bad. I feel like I should have protected her more, at least comforted her more. I was in fight or flight mode at the time, and then when that passed, a familiar numbness sank into my bones, and it has yet to fade.
When we get home and settled inside, I expect Trevor to start drilling me with questions. Instead, he sits down on the couch beside me, not too close to where I feel crowded but close enough that I know he’s beside me. We sit there in silence for I don’t know how long, and honestly, it’s exactly what I need. He always seems to know exactly what I need exactly when I need it.
Which is why when I turn to face him, he’s sitting there quietly, waiting for me once I’m ready to speak.
“So, I have a pretty psycho ex-boyfriend,” I say dryly.
I think I was attempting to be funny, but honestly, I don’t even laugh. Trevor just stares at me which tells me I need to just get this shit out of me.
“What do you want to know?” I ask.
“Everything. Anything.” He pauses before shaking his head. “Where did you even meet a guy like him?”
“Seattle. I was sixteen the first time I met him. He was thirty-two.”
“Jesus,” Trevor exhales with a shake of his head.
I nod. “It was at a party in a sketchy part of town. I told Dad I was staying the night with a friend, and we snuck out to go. Some college guy my friend was hooking up with was holding the party. Some bikers were there, one was giving me a hard time before one of the guys jumped in, beat his ass, and watched over me for the rest of the night.”
Trevor lets me continue, only reaching out and resting his hand on my leg in support.
“Then the next day he showed up outside my school, took me on a ride on his bike. We hooked up that night and became pretty much inseparable.”
“At sixteen?” he cuts in with a disgusted shake of his head. “That guy is a fucking predator. Where the fuck was your dad?”
“Busy. Trying to coach up some of the best players in the NFL and no time for a troublemaker daughter.”
Trevor shakes his head but doesn’t say more.
“Anyway, when I turned eighteen, he got the opportunity to join the Santa Fe chapter. He was just an enforcer up here, but his best friend ran the chapter down south and wanted him to be his VP. So, he packed a bag for me that night, and I left a note for my dad telling him I’d see him around. Dad didn’t try to call, and I didn’t look back. I know it sounds dumb, but I was happy. He gave a shit about me, took care of me.”
“Until?”
“Until we got down there.” I look down at my hands, rubbing my fingertips together, mesmerized by the movement. Or maybe it’s just better than looking at the disappointment on Trevor’s face.
“Everything was fine for a bit. Everyone welcomed us like an arriving king and queen. I even made some friends. My best friend Calista is still down there. She’s married to Hammer, their enforcer. I haven’t heard from her in a while which should have tipped me off that something wasn’t right,” I say, finishing my sentence in a whisper.
“What happened when you were down there?” Trevor says, redirecting my train of thought.
“Nothing until some shit went down. The president ended up dying, and Alec lost it. Started dipping his fingers into the product they were pushing, something he never did before. He got mean, violent. Hammer and Calista got really good about hiding me from him when he was at his worst, but one night they couldn’t and…”
Trevor’s grip on me tightens as I breathe through the painful memories. I look over at him, doing my best to smile as a tear drops down my face.
“Suffice it to say, I got a little messed up. Couldn’t walk for almost a week because of my broken ribs. Took me longer to go out in public because of the black eyes I was sporting. I was scared, and I didn’t think I had any options until Calista bought me a bus ticket and put me on it, in the middle of the night, when they were off doing a pickup.”
“That was back in April. I’ve been trying to lay low here ever since. When I was here for several months and didn’t hear from him, I thought he moved on. Even heard he was spending time with one girl in particular. I thought I was off the hook. Now I realize I was just being naïve.”
“Hey, look at me,” Trev says, and I blink a few times before realizing I’m staring at a blank wall as I meet his deep blue eyes.
“I’ll never let him touch a hair on your head again, you have my word.”
I give him a sad smile as I shake my head.
“You can’t keep that promise, Trev. I know you want to, and I know you believe it, but you have no idea the reach these guys have.”
“Don’t give a fuck. I’ll send you away if I have to. To the East Coast, Europe. I’ll take you as far away as it takes until you’re out of his grasp, you hear me?”
“He always gets what he wants,” I say almost to myself as I lick away the fallen tear that’s smeared across my lips. “And according to his henchmen, what he wants is me.”
Trevor’s hand leaves my thigh before cupping my jaw.
“Well, he can’t have you. You hear me? You’re mine, and I’ll kill anyone who touches what’s mine. We are going to keep you safe. I’m going to keep you safe.”
The ferocity he says those words with have me almost believing him.
Almost.
“I’m gonna call a private security company. From now on, your ass is locked down. You won’t be out of my sight any more than physically required, and when you are, you’ll have two men on you. We’re gonna get another gate, more cameras, more—”
“You don’t have to do all that,” I say with a shake of my head.
He looks as if I’ve slapped him as he reaches over and pulls me into his lap, clasping his hand behind my neck as he speaks.
“Of course I do. You are the most precious thing in the world to me. And I’m going to do anything and everything to not only keep you safe, but make you feel safe. Money doesn’t matter, resources don’t matter, you are all that matters to me, Sage.”
As if he could ease my anxiety with just his words, my breathing comes and goes a little easier as I nod my head softly.
“Okay.”
“I love you, babygirl, so fucking much.”
I close my eyes, allowing his words to coat me like a balm, to my previously bruised and cracked heart, before I open them to look at him.
“I love you too, Trevor.”
The smile that spreads across his face is like nothing I’ve ever seen as he brings his lips to my own. I lose track of how long we stay like that, wrapped up in each other, whispering promises and declarations of love and what will come after all of this ends.
I don’t have the heart to tell him that the ending will no doubt be much more sorrow filled than he’s envisioning.
Trevor
I’m barely even here. I mean, I’m here physically, but mentally? Not a fucking chance. We are playing the Salt Lake City Tigers today, winner moves on to the NFC championships, and I could honestly give fuck all.
“Hey,” Slater says, jarring me out of my head as we line up for the next down. “You good?”
I turn my head to the sidelines, making sure for the twentieth time this quarter that she’s still there.
“She’s good, man. She’s safe. You’ve got a whole team of brothers looking out for her and your two goons are right there in the tunnel. No one is getting to her.”
I blow out a breath as I nod my head. I called Precision Security, one of the most extensive security companies in the country, and had two guys on my property within eight hours. They have practically glued themselves to Sage’s side since then, which makes the 2k a day more than worth it.
It’s been a little over a week since Sage and Erica were attacked. The police couldn’t turn up shit with the license plate. Guess it was a stolen van that was wiped clean of prints and found in a ditch a few days after. They know where the Seattle chapter’s clubhouse is, but without more solid evidence, they can’t do shit.
Delcan and Slater both tried to come by the house to check on us once they heard but Sage needed the time away from people to just be, so I told them to hold off. She’s too strong for their pity. She doesn’t need or want it. I can see how on edge she is, though. The way she jumps when I shut the fridge too hard or how she has to turn every light on in the house when she needs a drink of water. She’s terrified, and I fucking hate that I can’t ease that fear for her. The only thing that will is getting this Alec guy behind bars, and I’m working on that too, but this stuff takes time, unfortunately.
When I asked Sage if she thought Alec was responsible for her break-in months ago, she cringed and shrugged. She said the idea had crossed her mind, but she wanted to believe it wasn’t. I still don’t have all the facts, so I’m not sure what to connect yet, but it’s obvious to me this guy never forgot about Sage. He was just biding his time.
Her dad heard about the altercation somehow, and the bastard actually seemed concerned, asking if there was anything he could do to help. I took way too much joy in telling him I was more than capable of protecting her unlike some. I ran a fuck ton of lines that day, but it was worth it. Fucking prick.
The ball is tossed into my hands, and I have to blink out of the heavy thoughts plaguing my mind as I scan the field. I find Seb trying to break free of his man before I look to the other side and see Slater spin around the guy covering him. I toss the ball to Slater just before I’m taken down.
When I pop back up, I watch as Slater crosses over into the end zone. Fuck yes. I look up at the scoreboard to see that the game only has five seconds left and the clock runs out. The final score is 27-13. Looks like we are going to the NFC championship.
I run over to the sidelines, wrapping Sage into my arms before she presses her lips against mine.
“Nice toss, QB.” She smiles.
“Thanks, Raven.” I smirk before setting her down.
Everyone around us is going wild, bouncing around excitedly as family and friends filter onto the field. I’ve got my family right here and my friends I can celebrate with later, so when I set Sage down, I wrap her hand in mine and start walking toward the exit. I’m not even going to attempt to get changed and leave Sage outside all by herself, apart from her two bodyguards I guess, so I figured that can be taken care of when we get back to the house.
“Isn’t Dad gonna be pissed if you don’t stay for the after-game huddle?”
I roll my eyes at her.
“Your dad can choke on a fucking dick.”
