Shadow’s Heart (Devil’s Inferno MC #3)

Chapter Thirteen

Wrath

H ow the hell can we have nothing? It’s been three days with countless members doing everything they can, and we have fuck all to show for it. I’m ready to tear my hair out at this point; I honestly don’t know what else we can do to find Wreck. I hate feeling this helpless. Fucking hell, I even called in favors I’ve had in my back pocket for a very long time, and none of them have amounted to anything. It’s like Wreck, and those who took him fucking vanished into thin air.

Watching my brother slowly fall more and more apart the longer Wreck is missing isn’t helping either. I’ve never seen him like this before. He’s a shell of himself; his normal happy-go-lucky self is nowhere to be seen. If he’s not angry, to the point he’s ready to destroy Devil’s Point in his search for Wreck, he’s utterly heartbroken. He might not see it as such, but the rest of us do.

Shadow honestly has no idea how deep his feelings for Wreck actually run. It’s like he has blinders on when it comes to his true feelings for Wreck. Part of me understands why, though; he’s always been the straight twin. He’s only ever been attracted to women. He’s only ever been with women. He’s never thought to look deeper at what he feels when it comes to Wreck. I honestly hoped he’d have realized how he truly feels by now, but clearly that was wishful thinking on my part. Nothing has changed in their relationship. They’re still best friends, and that’s all, and Shadow is unfortunately in a relationship with the most self-absorbed woman I may have ever met, and that’s saying something.

The sound of my cell phone ringing brings me out of my thoughts about Shadow and Wreck, which is probably a good thing. I’ll end up driving myself mad thinking about it all for too long. Looking down, I see the caller ID flashing Jake. I can’t help but wonder why he’s calling and hoping it’s not another crisis. We’ve got enough going on right now in the search for Wreck. I don’t think we’d cope if some other issue decided to pop its head up right now.

“Hey Prospect, I wasn’t expecting to hear from you. Everything okay?” I say in greeting as I answer the call.

“Fuck Prez. Nothing is okay. I need you to meet me at the hospital. I found Wreck.” Jake replies, his voice tinged with anger and pain.

Wow, what the actual fuck. He’s found Wreck. How? Where? I have so many fucking questions right now. I know I need to fucking say something and get as much information as I can from him. Answers. I need some goddamn answers.

“What do you mean you found Wreck? How? You’re meant to be at your brother’s recovering.”

He lets out a humorless laugh at my questions, and that worries me deeply because I have a feeling whatever he’s about to say, I’m not going to fucking like at all. I have a feeling it’s about to change everything.

“Didn’t need to leave the fucking property, Prez.” He tells me, and I can hear the guilt creeping into his words as he speaks.

My stomach plummets at his words; I know what he’s telling me without actually saying the words. Wreck was being held by The Khaos Group. Nobody else within the club knows about Jake’s connection to them; he didn’t want his family legacy to affect anyone’s opinion of him or earn him special treatment. I agreed with his request because I fucking understood his reasoning. Right now, I’m just grateful for his connection to The Khaos Group because I know without a shadow of a doubt we’d never have found Wreck otherwise. No fucking wonder we’ve had no luck trying to find Wreck; we’ve been up against a force we had no chance against.

“What the fuck, Jake.” I grit out, keeping my anger in check. I know I can’t take this out on him; it’s not his fault. Even if his family is involved. He’s innocent, and I need to keep that in mind.

“I don’t know anything yet; my main priority was getting Wreck to the hospital. He’s in rough shape.”

“Fucking hell. This is going to blow up; you do realize that, right?” I ask because I don’t know if he’s realized what impact all this is going to have on his life. His secrets aren’t going to be secret for much longer, and there is nothing I can do about it. There’s going to be no hiding his connection to The Khaos Group and the role he played in rescuing Wreck.

“Don’t care, Prez. Getting Wreck help is what matters, not keeping my secrets.” He tells me, sounding very fucking confident.

God, what the hell did we do to deserve a Prospect like Jake? He’s something fucking else. I honestly believe anyone else would be trying to do everything to protect their secret and their family, but not him. His focus is only on Wreck and his needs. We’re so fucking lucky to have him. I just hope everyone else sees it the same way as me. We’re going to have enough going on without members being fools and causing issues with Jake.

“I’m on my way.” I tell him. There’s no point in getting into what’s going on in my head right now. That can all wait. Right now the focus has got to be on Wreck.

“Bring Shadow. Before Wreck passed out, he started asking for him.”

“I wouldn’t dream of not bringing him. We’ll see you soon.”

Hanging up, I stand so fast that I hear my chair tipping over as I rush from my office, not even bothering to go back and sort out my chair or to lock the door behind me. I’ve got more important shit to worry about right now. Like finding Shadow and getting to Wreck as fast as possible. As fucked up as all this is, at least Wreck’s been found alive and is safe at the hospital. I suppose I couldn’t really ask for more than that in this situation. With The Khaos Group involved, he’s very fucking lucky to still be breathing.

Slamming through the door of The Common Room, I immediately gain everyone’s attention. It’s not normal for me to make such an entrance, and with everything going on, everyone is on high alert. Scanning the room so fast my head almost spins, I spot the person I need. Shadow.

Immediately he locks eyes with me from where he’s standing next to Eagle, who is currently the person on Shadow duty, to make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid. Yeah, it seriously got to the point we were that worried about what he’d do that we assigned him a goddamn keeper. I never thought we’d have to do something like that with him, but this isn’t exactly a normal situation either. People don’t act rationally when those they care about are in danger, and that’s exactly the case with Shadow.

I can see the hope in my brother’s eyes that my over the top entrance means something. That I have some news for him. I’m so relieved that I get to tell him what I’m about to. I hated telling him about what happened at Devil’s Ink, but at least now I get to be the bearer of the good news instead of the bad. I walk straight towards him, ignoring the rest of the members currently in the room who are all looking at me in various degrees of intrigue. Not all that surprising; they can all tell I have something to tell Shadow. They know this has got to be about Wreck.

As I get closer to Shadow, I watch as Eagle moves from standing next to him to standing behind him like a silent sentinel. It’s smart on his part because I have no idea just how Shadow is going to react when he learns Wreck has been found alive and is currently at the hospital; everyone has different reactions to news like I’m about to give. Some people are just happy and carry on fine, while others go into shock, cry, or totally lose their ability to function. I might not know which way Shadow is going to go, but I do have a strong suspicion after the way he reacted when I gave him the news of Wreck’s abduction. So yeah, having Eagle there ready is a fucking good thing.

“Tell me.” Shadow says as soon as I’m in front of him. It’s clear he’s impatient, and I don’t blame him. I remember what I was feeling when Flame was missing in the hands of someone I knew for a fact wanted him dead. Yeah, that’s not something I’d wish even on my worst enemy. It’s one of the worst feelings in the world. I despise more than anything that my brother now has first-hand knowledge of what it feels like.

“Wreck’s been found; he’s at the hospital.” I tell him, sounding and feeling just as relieved to share the news with the person who needs it most.

It’s not really that surprising when Shadow’s legs give out for the second time in only a few days, and just like a few days ago, he doesn’t hit the floor. This time he’s stopped by Eagle latching onto his waist and keeping him standing instead of our Dad. Talk about a quick fucking reaction from Eagle. Blink, and you’d have missed just how fast he moved to stop Shadow crumbling to the floor.

“He’s alive.” Shadow says through tears that are endlessly falling down his face.

Seeing his reaction to finding out Wreck’s been found is hitting me straight in the heartstrings, and if I don’t get us moving, he’s going to have me crying right next to him. He’s one of the only people on this planet who can get me this emotional. It doesn’t help that I have first-hand knowledge of everything he’s been feeling. I think that’s making my feelings surrounding everything just that much stronger.

“Yes, he is, but he needs you now more than ever. Come on, we’ll take one of the SUVs; there’s no way you can ride.” I tell him, knowing I really do need to get this party moving and heading for the hospital.

Eagle helps to guide Shadow from the room, as he’s clearly not in the frame of mind to do it himself; if anything, he’s in shock. It’s a valid reaction when you consider we’ve had zero luck in our search for Wreck and that Shadow doesn’t know any of the details behind his rescue yet. Fucking hell, he’s not going to take it well when he does find out. That information is going to go down like a lead-fucking balloon. I walk next to them as we leave, grabbing the keys Joker holds out to me as I pass while passing him the keys to my office with the instructions to lock it up for me.

Within five minutes of giving Shadow the good news, I’m in the driver’s seat of the SUV with Eagle and Shadow in the back seat. I don’t blame Eagle for sticking to my brother right now; he needs all the support he can get. God only knows how he’s going to react once we get to the hospital and actually see Wreck. From what Jake said, Wreck isn’t exactly in peak health right now. Shadow isn’t going to like seeing Wreck that way at all. I just hope he can keep it together; we don’t need Shadow losing his mind in the hospital.

As I drive towards the hospital, I ask Eagle to let Flame and my Dad know what’s going on. They were part of the group doing the rounds around town this morning, hoping to find some information on Wreck, so they have no clue about the recent developments, and until this moment I hadn’t really thought of letting anyone else know what was going on. My entire focus was on Shadow, like it should have been. Now though, I know we need to start letting everyone else know, starting with our immediate family. I see Eagle pull his phone out through my rear view mirror and start sending texts. If I were a betting man, I’d say he’s doing more than contacting Flame and my Dad like I asked; more than likely he’s letting everyone know Wreck’s been found and calling off the search. He’s good at keeping his head straight in situations like this; it probably comes from his time in the military. If anything is going to make you learn to keep calm under pressure, it’s being in the military. You can’t exactly be running around half-cocked without your head on straight when other people’s lives depend on your action. I’m relieved he’s handling all this right now, and I can leave my full focus on Shadow and Wreck. Within the next few hours, once everyone has received the news of Wreck’s rescue, I’m pretty sure that the hospital is going to be full of Devil’s Inferno members wanting to know how he is and what happened. Yeah, they aren’t the only ones; I’d really like to know the reasons behind all this myself.

Driving on autopilot, I can’t help but wonder why the fuck Wreck was being held by The Khaos Group. It doesn’t make sense; they have absolutely zero reason to come for him. Wreck is not a person who should have ever been the target of The Khaos Group; I’d bet my fucking life on it. As much as I want to demand answers to the millions of questions flying around my head, I know I’m going to have to be patient and wait for Jake to investigate what the fuck happened, because if anyone can find out what the fuck is going on, it’s a member of The Khaos Group’s founding families. If I started demanding answers myself, I can imagine it wouldn’t go over very well at all, but Jake doing it is a totally different story. Sometimes the best course of action is to take a step back and use the resources at your disposal, and that’s what I plan on doing because it’s the best chance at getting the answers I want and need.

Finally pulling up to the hospital after what feels like one of the longest drives of my life, but in reality lasted less than ten minutes. I’m not even surprised to see Flame and my Dad are already here and waiting for us at the entrance. They’re easy as hell to spot with their massive builds and kuttes. I know there’s nowhere else either of them would rather be right now; they both know Shadow needs his family’s support now more than ever. I can’t help but wonder how many rules of the road they broke to make it here so fast, though. Actually, I’m pretty sure I don’t want to know. Ignorance is bliss and all that.