4. Yellow
1132 Words
Chapter 4
Jace Callahan forgot how to breathe for exactly three seconds.
Sage stood frozen in the middle of Pine Creek Veterinary Clinic, staring at him like she’d just seen a ghost drag itself out of hell.
Jesus Christ.
It was really her.
Not another blurry camera image or another false lead from one of Ethan’s biker contacts.
Not another woman from behind with the same hair.
It's her.
Sage Bennett.
She's alive and standing five feet away from him in Blackwater Ridge, Colorado.
Her honey-blonde hair was longer now, falling messily around her shoulders. She looked softer than he remembered but somehow sharper too, like life had carved edges into her where there used to be sunlight.
And those eyes—
Still the same.
Big, golden-brown and she's terrified.
Terrified of him. The realization hit harder than expected.
Jace blinked once, forcing every ounce of shock off his face before she could see it.
Having control, Years inside the Iron Reapers taught him that much.
So instead of reacting, he simply reached down and adjusted the leash in his hand while his German Shepherd sat calmly beside him.
And acted normal.
Harper, apparently unaware that several lives had just imploded in front of her, grinned brightly from beside Sage.
“Oh, he’s hot,” she announced immediately and walked towards them.
Jace stared blankly at her.
Harper pointed toward Sage dramatically.
“Don’t mind my friend. She’s not used to seeing hot s**t like you this early in the morning.”
Normally Jace would’ve laughed or he would’ve flirted back automatically.
But Sage was still staring at him like prey cornered by a wolf. Her fingers trembled violently around the clinic keys.
Then suddenly—She ran.
Actually ran like a maniac, straight past Harper, out the clinic door and down the Main street like the devil himself was chasing her.
Harper blinked. “What the hell?” The clinic door slammed shut behind Sage.
Jace swallowed hard, so she stayed here In Blackwater Ridge.
All this time and years and she was still running from them.
Rage curled slowly beneath his ribs.
Sage still looked at him like he was something dangerous.
Something disgusting.
Jace’s jaw tightened because they had searched for her for years.
Even after she vanished without a trace, even after she screamed that she hated bikers and hated Devil’s Hollow.
She called them monsters for taking her back, we just wanted her safe but she ran all the time.
None of them stopped looking for her after her disappearance.
Not Rhett, Mason and Cole.
Especially not Cole.
The i***t practically lost his mind for six months after she disappeared the third time.
But Sage never knew that. She never stayed long enough to know anything.
Jace looked down briefly at his dog.
“Great,” he muttered darkly.
The German Shepherd sneezed and he even felt disgusted.
“Yeah, helpful.”
Truthfully, Jace hadn’t even planned to be in Colorado this week.
The Iron Reapers were handling a weapons deal with another biker chapter outside Denver, and Jace had only come along because Titan—his annoyingly dramatic dog—had refused to eat for three days straight.
Barked nonstop, destroyed two motel pillows and growled at literally everybody.
Rhett claimed the dog was possessed.
Cole claimed the dog inherited Jace’s personality disorder.
Then Cole searched online for nearby vets while they stayed in Blackwater Ridge and found Pine Creek Veterinary Clinic.
It's the best vet in town with five-star reviews.
Jace almost laughed now thinking about it.
Of course it was her, Sage used to rescue injured birds as a kid. Stray cats, broken rabbits. Three raccoons at one point.
Jace and the others had bought her cats for birthdays over the years because she cried every single time she saw shelter animals.
God.
He remembered everything. The yellow rain boots she wore constantly at sixteen.
The sunflower fields near Devil’s Hollow where she forced them to take pictures every summer.
The way she filled her bedroom with yellow flowers because she claimed the color felt “happy.”
Sunflowers, Black-eyed Susans, Yellow tulips and Daffodils.
Cole used to call her Yellow because of it.
Said she looked like sunlight wrapped in bad decisions.
Jace pulled his phone from his pocket immediately and dialed Cole before he could think too hard about what just happened.
The line connected after two rings.
“What?” Cole answered groggily.
“I found Sage.”
There's a heavy Silence.
“You mean Yellow?”
Jace stared out the clinic windows toward the street Sage disappeared down.
“Yeah.”
Cole laughed once in disbelief.
“You’re shitting me.”
“I’m at her clinic right now.”
“That’s impossible.”
“That’s what I thought too.”
Jace heard movement on the other end immediately.
Cole was probably already getting dressed.
“Where?”
“Blackwater Ridge.”
There's another pause before he continued. “No way she stayed somewhere this obvious.”
“She did.”
“She saw you?”
Jace exhaled slowly.
“She ran.”
Cole went quiet after that and I didn't need any explanation to feel that he's disappointed.
Because all of them knew exactly what that meant. Sage was still scared of them.
The realization sat ugly inside his chest.
Before Cole could say anything else, movement near the reception desk caught Jace’s attention.
It's Harper.
The blonde friend.
Only now she wasn’t smiling anymore.
She was glaring at him with enough suspicion to start a war.
And— was that a metal rod?
Jace blinked.
The woman marched toward him gripping a long steel pole from the clinic storage area like she’d personally trained for this moment.
Titan perked up immediately beside him. Harper stopped several feet away and pointed the rod directly at his chest.
“Who are you?”
Jace opened his mouth calmly.
“My name is—”
“What did you do to my friend?”
Titan barked loudly.
Harper whipped toward the dog instantly.
“You stay out of this too!”
Titan barked again and to Jace’s utter disbelief—
Harper barked back, pointing aggressively at the German Shepherd like they were in the middle of negotiations.
“He came in here and made my friend run crying into traffic, so you better shut up before I cut your tail off too!”
Jace stared at her, Titan stared at her.
Then, somehow betraying years of professional protection training…his dog slowly sat down quietly and Peacefully.
Like Harper had just won custody in the divorce.
Jace looked horrified.
“You coward.” but Titan ignored him completely.
Harper narrowed her eyes harder. “Answer the question, who the hell are you?”
- Writer
