I pick up my phone as I come out of Church and click the side to light up the screen. As my lock screen image, there's a picture of a beautiful natural redhead with striking baby blue eyes. I stop by the table and stare at my phone until the screen times out, then I hit the button again to bring it back up. After fifteen years, I should've let Faylinn Aileen O'Shea go by now. She was the club princess all her life— and one of my best friends. Until the day she turned eighteen, then I realized I wanted more— way more.

In a matter of twenty-four hours, she and my baby sister Carrigan graduated high school, I kissed her, got permission from her father, who was the Vice President of the club at the time, to date her and one day make her my ol' lady, and then lost her. She was kidnapped by a rival club called Devils Den. We went postal and killed half of their club. That's how I ended up taking over the Emerald Isle MC Presidency at the ripe age of twenty-two. The President, my father, and his VP were killed in the war that ensued for months after Faylinn's kidnapping.

Fifteen years have passed. I'm now the President and Faylinn's eldest brother, Dire, is my VP. The other biological brothers from our two families also hold officer positions. The only difference is Dire and I haven't stopped looking for Faylinn. Five years after her kidnapping, the others accepted that she was probably dead. Dire and I can't accept that. I told her I'd come for her, and hell or high water, I won't stop until I bring her home alive or bring her bones home for a proper burial.

"You going out tonight?" Dire asks as he comes up next to me, holding a beer out.

I take it and chug half. "Yep. You've got tomorrow night?"

"Yep. You know the brothers think we're crazy for going out every night still, right?" He and I walk over to the bar and sit down.

Crazy or not, we've done it every night, alternating, for fifteen years. We don't take the bikes but ride in our trucks instead— just in case we find her and she can't ride on the back of a bike. Grey, Timber, and Claddagh used to go out, but they said they couldn't do it anymore after a few years. They had to accept her being gone and move on.

Sadly, I haven't been able to do that. Hell, I haven't even been with any clubwhores in fifteen years. Not that I haven't fucked anyone. I just travel to other towns and fuck random women when I need a piece of ass. I promised Faylinn when I claimed her that I'd never fuck an Emerald Isle clubwhore, and I don't give a fuck what time passes— until I bury her, I won't break that. And even then, I might not.

After finishing my beer, I glance at my phone. It's almost midnight. I say goodbye to Dire and head to my room to grab my truck keys. Usually, I drive around for three or four hours before coming back to the clubhouse or going to my house for a few hours of sleep before coming down to run Lucky 8s, the club's automotive shop I own, for the day. All our businesses are on the property, so I don't have to travel far to get to work. Some of the guys do, but only because, over the years, we've bought up a lot of the land surrounding the original clubhouse.

When I step into the parking lot, I notice Throttle leaning against the driver's side of my truck. He's a pretty big dude and joined the club about ten years ago. We met him when he was street racing one night, and he'd never been on a bike. Somehow, he ended up hanging with the club and learning to ride. Next thing we knew, he was a prospect and getting patched in a year later.

"You going out again," he asks as I come up on him. He's wearing a t-shirt and sweats with a beanie covering his head. If it wasn't for the beard, he'd look like some pussy ass playboy. Well, until he takes his shirt off. Dude is covered in almost as much ink as I am, and I've got full sleeves and a full chest done.

"Don't I go out every other night?" I walk past him and hit the button on my key fob to unlock the truck.

"Mind if I come with you?"

I stop moving and turn toward him. "Why? Since when does finding Faylinn interest you?" My tone is harsher than I mean, but the brothers haven't worried about her in a long time.

He sighs and pushes off the side of the truck, coming to stand in front of me. "Listen, man. I've watched you search for this girl for a decade. As crazy as I think it is, if you're not going to give up, then the club shouldn't either."

I stare at him for a few minutes before nodding toward the truck. "Get in."

Logically, I know I'm probably not going to just happen upon Faylinn on the side of the road. My heart thinks otherwise, though, and that's why we're pulling out of the parking lot and heading to the north side of Cascade Falls. Faylinn was kidnapped on this side of town, where the Devils Den clubhouse was before we went after them. I'm still not sure how many of their members made it out of town.

I know Inferno is out there somewhere. We killed his father a week after he took Faylinn. Well, tortured and then killed. I spent two days removing his tattoos with my knife as payback. When they took Faylinn and disappeared, that's what they left me— the flesh from her back that had her only tattoo on it. As sick as it is, Dire and I still have the flesh. We had it dried and preserved. It's literally the only piece of her we have. So, I did the same to Hellfire. And he had a lot of tattoos. Once I'd removed most of them, Dire took over. Once he was dead, we cut his body up and set it on fire.

Throttle and I drive around in silence, scanning the roads and woods for three hours before we head back to the clubhouse. By the time I fall into bed, the familiar ache of grief washes over me and makes my chest hurt. I roll over and stare at the empty side of my bed, picturing the last time Faylinn was in it. She's the last woman to sleep in here, and I know I'll never let anyone else sleep in her place.

I just can't.