by Bella Jewel
“We’ll find her, Prez,” Koda tells me. “I will fuckin’ make sure of it. Someone has to know somethin’. We gotta stop hidin’ and go in full force, or we’ll never find her.”
“We might not have time,” I growl, rubbing my head.
Scarlett comes running over, finally finished with the police. She has two security guards right up her tail, but that doesn’t stop her. She skids to a stop in front of me. “Where is she, Malakai?”
“I don’t know, Scarlett. That fucker has her, and I don’t know where she is.”
Her face drops and fear flashes in her eyes. She knows, better than anyone, what Treyton is capable of. She knows what he’ll do to her, and seeing her fear makes me sick to my stomach.
“Let me help, I know him better than anyone, if anyone can help you find him, it’s me.”
“Over my dead fuckin’ body, nearly saw you get shot tonight,” Maverick says, hooking an arm around her waist and pulling her close.
“She’s my best friend, and she saved my life tonight. If she didn’t, I’d be dead. I’m helping her and if you even try to stop me, I will fly kick you in the face, Maverick. I love you, but I will hurt you.”
Koda snorts.
I find a whole new respect for Scarlett.
“Any idea where he might be? Know anyone he might know? Anythin’, because we have fuck-all,” I say to her, ignoring Maverick’s scowl.
“I know where his parents live, not that I think they’ll have anything to do with him, they haven’t for years. I also know where a few of his friends used to live. I don’t know if they live there now, but it’s worth a shot. Why didn’t you tell me you couldn’t find him? I could have given you all this information earlier.”
Because I’m a stupid, stubborn fuck. That’s why.
“Don’t matter now,” I tell her. “What matters is that we don’t have much time. Spread out. Scarlett, you go with Maverick and Koda, see if you can track down any information, anything at all. Mason and Boston, follow the leads and numbers we got off the phone. It’s not much, but it’s somethin’. Find those people, beat them until they have an answer, I don’t care what you have to do to make them speak. I’m going to go to Caiden’s house, see if he knows anythin’, unlikely, but Trey might have contacted him after the article came out, as a way of gettin’ close. Worth a shot. Any news, you report back to me immediately.”
“On it, boss,” Koda says, disappearing with Scarlett and Maverick.
“Got a few good leads from that phone,” Mason tells me. “Will hunt them mother fuckers down and torture them until they give us a name.”
“Mason?” I tell him, and his eyes meet mine.
“Yeah, boss?”
“Make it fuckin’ burn.”
He grins, Boston too, and then they’re gone.
I turn and pull my phone out, calling Amalie once more. I know she’s not going to answer, but it doesn’t stop me trying all the same. I move to my bike and throw my leg over, starting it up. I’m going to pay her ex-boyfriend a visit, in hopes he has some sort of information. Anything that might help me find where she is.
And in the mood I’m in, I might give him a fist to the fucking face for doing what he did to her.
He wouldn’t want to push me.
I will go to the ends of the Earth to find my girl, and I will bring down anyone that gets in my way.
Anyone.
~*~*~*~
AMALIE
Trey takes me to an old, abandoned warehouse about twenty kilometers out of town. It’s off a dirt track and is surrounded by old rusted out cars and overgrown trees. When we arrive, I’m dragged out of the car and immediately cuffed before being pulled into the warehouse. I can’t hear anything anyone is saying, and the frustration and anger that brings makes my chest clench. If I could hear, I’d know that they were saying and I might have some idea on how to get out of this.
They take me to a fully secured room down a flight of stairs in the basement. When we reach the door, the man holding me spins me around and I’m facing Treyton. Without knowing, you’d think he was an incredibly good looking man, dangerous as hell, but beautiful in a terrifying way. He’s more dangerous than any man I’ve ever laid eyes on, and the coldness coming from his gaze makes my skin crawl.
He’d stop at nothing to hurt another person.
Nothing.
“Did you miss me, Amalie?”
I don’t say anything, I just stare at him, my face hard, my eyes showing nothing. He nearly ruined my life once before, he’s not going to do it again.
“I see you’re getting harder; spending time with those scumbag bikers will do that to you. No skin off my nose, it makes it a lot more fun for me. I’ll be back for you soon, and we’re going to discuss my plan. I bet you’re excited, oh, and Amalie …”
He leans closer, so his blue eyes lock on mine.
“If you try to do anything to escape, I will gut you, slowly, and send your insides to your precious fuckin’ boyfriend.”
Then he drives a fist into my stomach so hard I stumble backward, the wind being knocked out of me. I gasp and pant, pain radiating through my body. The man holding me opens the door and throws me in as if I’m nothing more than a rag-doll. I hit the ground with a cry and roll to my side, fighting the agony pounding through my stomach and spine. I lay like that for a while, trying to catch my breath, trying to stop myself from completely breaking down.
I finally get the courage to push myself up, and I freeze.
I’m not alone in this room.
Sitting against the wall, knees to her chest, face bloodied, hair a ratty mess, is the redhead I saw at the club the other week. Her eyes meet mine, and my heart aches for her. I know exactly how brutal Treyton can be, and I only spent less than an hour in his monstrous hands.
How long as she been here?
“Amalie, right?” the girl croaks.
I nod, eyes wide, staring at her. “W-W-Who are you?”
“Charlie.”
Charlie.
She’s the girl that they’ve all been worried because she’s been missing.
Treyton has had her this whole time.
“Are you okay?” I ask her.
It seems like a stupid question, because clearly she’s not okay, but I don’t know what else to say.
“I’m alive,” she tells me, and her lips look dry like she hasn’t had water for a few days. “They got hold of you, too, huh? They said they were going to take Scarlett down, then kill me, to make a point. I guess they didn’t get that far.”
They very nearly did take Scarlett down; if it wasn’t for me, she wouldn’t be here. That thought has my chest clenching. I never want to imagine that situation, not even for a second.
“They tried shooting her at her concert,” I tell Charlie. “I saw the light and pushed her down. They took me instead. I’m guessing they’re not going to send me back alive.”
My whole body twists in fear at that thought, because Treyton has given his warning, by simply beating us, this time he’s serious. He’s had enough. And he wants to let the club know he means business, which means he’s going to do something that’ll stop them in their tracks, and what better than giving Malakai a broken heart he’ll not recover from?
Smart, terrifying man.
“I don’t think they plan on sending either of us back alive, from what I’ve heard. The original plan was to have Scarlett killed in front of everyone, to make such a scene that the club would know they are willing to do anything and everything to prove to them they won’t stop until they back down. Then they were going to send my dead body back, to prove they knew the club’s every step.”
“And instead I ruined their plans, and now they have me,” I finish for her.
“Two for one. They’ll send us both back, I’d guarantee it. Anything to put a spanner in the works, anything to shake the club up so much they feel fear, and pain, and rage. Treyton wants a war, and he’s willing to kill anyone that gets in his way, including u
s.”
Vomit rises in my throat, and my skin prickles with fear. How in the hell are we supposed to get out of this one? How will Charlie and I stop him from killing us? We won’t. Not unless Malakai finds us in time, but he’s been looking for months, without any luck. How is he supposed to find us before Treyton does whatever it is he’s planning to do?
“We’re not getting out of here, are we?” I whisper, crawling over in agony and sitting beside her, still facing her enough so I can see what she’s saying.
“I’m going to give it a damn good go.”
Her voice is stern, even though she looks like she’s about to pass out from a blend of exhaustion and pain. She’s a strong woman, she holds it like it’s a part of her, a part she isn’t afraid to show the world. I guess I can be grateful that I’m in here with someone like this, because if I were on my own, I don’t honestly know what I’d do.
“Is there any way to escape? Anything at all?” I ask her.
“Not unless we fight our way out. We’re fully secured in here, and they have at least two men with Treyton every time he comes in. Which means we’re going to be outnumbered. We might be able to give them enough hell to get out, but even then I don’t know how far we’d get. Still, if they’re going to take my life, you can guarantee they won’t take it without me fighting for it first.”
Fear pumps through my veins, and I wrap my arms around myself. “I don’t know how you’re so strong, I feel like I’m going to shrink inside myself from fear alone.”
She holds my eyes, her beautiful green ones filled with a determination I admire. “Think of everything you love, Amalie. Every single thing you have. Are you honestly going to sit back and just let them take all of that from you? Without even trying to fight for it? Fear is nothing more than an emotion. Put it away.”
I stare at her in awe. Then I think of Malakai and Scarlett, and the club, and my father, hell, even my mother. And I know what she’s saying. If I’m going to die, I’m going to do it fighting. At least then I’ll know I did everything I could to get back to them. Everything.
“No, I’m not going to let them just take that from me.”
She smiles, weakly. “Then we need to find a way to get the hell out of here.”
“Any idea how we might do that?”
She shakes her head but looks around the room. “He bashed me so badly I can barely lift my arms, but he made the mistake of not hurting you too badly, yet. Which means you still have strength. There are a few things in this room that could work, like that beam over there on the wall. It’s nailed on, but I think we can bust the nails off and pull it down. You could hit someone really hard with that.”
I glance around the mostly empty room. Outside of a worn-out old mattress on the floor and a few pans that I imagine are for going to the toilet, there is nothing that could be used as a weapon, but Charlie is right, there are some old beams hanging off the wall. They look like they might have been used as a flimsy repair to the broken wall, but with a good deal of force, hitting someone with one of them would knock them out.
I push to my feet and walk over to them, some are nailed securely to the wall, but there are two that the nails have gone slightly rusty and they’ve pulled away from the wall just a little. I tug at one. It’s hard, it’ll take a lot of effort to pull it off. I look around the room, trying to find anything that might help me loosen it. My eyes meet Charlie’s on my search, and she nods at me. “They’re going to be hard to get off. Have you got anything on you, anything at all, that might help?”
They took my phone, and anything else I had on me, they also ripped off all the wires, but what they didn’t consider, was my hair. I reach up and pull out the long, thick pins holding it together. They’re not much, but I might be able to chip away at the wood around the nails, and loosen them enough to get them free.
I walk over and start scraping at the old, splintery wood. It takes me over twenty minutes to loosen just one of the nails. Frustrated, I rattle and shake the wood. I look back at Charlie and she waves quickly, instructing me to sit down. She can hear someone coming. I rush over and sit down beside her, tucking the hair pin in a crack in the cement floor. Then I wait with a sick feeling for the door to open.
“Hello, ladies,” Treyton says the moment he steps in.
He’s holding a crowbar.
My stomach twists, and I feel sick.
What in the hell is he going to do with that?
I glance at Charlie, and her face is pale.
Has he already used that on her?
He steps in, two men following him, and then he closes the door.
And I brace myself for the hell he’s about to inflict on us.
-17-
MALAKAI
“Here to see Caiden,” I say to the sour-faced woman standing at the door of the massive fucking mansion.
She stares at me, mouth slightly agape, and then quickly shakes her head. “You need to leave. He’s retracted his statement. He doesn’t want any trouble. I’ll call the police.”
“First of all, lady, you can call the fuckin’ cops, see if I give a flyin’ fuck, and second of all, I couldn’t care less about his filthy fuckin’ lies. I’m here because Amalie is missin’. Now, you either let me in, or I’ll come back with thirty men, and we’ll find a way in. Cops, or not.”
Her mouth drops open, and she just stares at me for a few moments, and then she steps aside and lets me in. Smart woman; clearly her son didn’t get his stupid fucking brain from her. “Show me where he is,” I demand, and she murmurs a low, “Follow me.”
I follow her down the massive halls and to a whole other section of the house. She opens the door and we step inside. Her eyes dart to me a few times, and when we enter a massive fucking dining room, she points to a man sitting by the window, staring out. I nod at her and make my way over, not giving him any warning. He turns when he hears me approach and his mouth parts and he skitters backward in his chair.
“Calm down,” I mutter, crossing my arms. “Not here to hurt you, though I’d fuckin’ like to, so don’t push me. I’m here about Amalie.”
“I retracted my statement,” he stammers.
I take a good look at his face. The photo they printed was far worse. His face now is scarred, but it isn’t terrible. His features are still intact. He’s the opposite of anything I’d have ever pictured Amalie falling for, but then I’m sure her family wouldn’t have expected her to fall for a biker, so who am I to judge.
Still, the urge to knock this little fucker out of his chair is strong.
I refrain.
“I know you fuckin’ did, I’m not here for that. Fuck me you people are paranoid.”
His mouth opens, and then closes. “Why are you here then?”
“I’m here because Amalie is missin’, and I want to know if you have any idea where she might be?”
“Missing?” he says, eyes getting wide.
“Don’t act like you care about her, we both know you fuckin’ don’t. Never deserved a girl as pure as her, so wipe the shit and answer my question.”
“I do care about her …”
I lean forward, grabbing his jacket with both of my hands and raising him out of his chair. He makes a spluttering sound, but I talk over him. “Listen to me, you cock sucker. I don’t have time for your pathetic bullshit lies. You and I both know the truth of what happened, Amalie told me all of it. Now, as I said, I’m not here to discuss that. I’m here to discuss my girl, the one who is missin’. Trust me when I say I’d fuckin’ burn anythin’ that gets in my way when it comes to her, so you either tell me if you know anythin’ or I’ll make you tell me if you know anythin’. Choice is yours.”
I lower him back onto his chair and he stares up at me, horrified, but he doesn’t break. Strong. Good for him.
“I don’t know where she is, that’s the truth.”
“You haven’t had any visitors since that article, nothin’ out of the ordinary? Phone calls? Letters?”
; “Well, yeah, but none of them have been concerning Amalie. Most have been concerning sharing my story further.”
Weasel.
I’d like to punch him just for breathing right now, but I won’t, because fuck, my girl is out there somewhere, and I need to find her.
“I find out you’re lyin’ to me, I’ll be back, and you won’t like what I do to you then. We clear?”
“Clear.”
“You’re certain there is nothing else?”
“I’m certain.”
“Then I’ll leave you to it,” I mutter, turning and walking towards the door. When I reach it, I look back at him. “Oh, and Caiden? You ever fuckin’ hurt my girl like that again, I will personally make sure you regret the day you were born.”
He nods.
I walk out of the massive house and pull out my phone, calling Mason.
“Yo, Prez.”
“Nothin’ here, tell me you got fuckin’ somethin’ out of the leads from that phone?”
“No location, but did get the name of his second in charge. Huntin’ information on that fucker now.”
“Call me if you find out, I’ll get hold of Maverick.”
“On it.”
My chest tightens, and I try to push my thoughts away from what Amalie is probably going through right at this second. The fucking thought of what that low life piece of shit could be doin’ to her makes my stomach turn. But she needs me. I have to put that aside and find her. I call Maverick.
“Tell me you’ve got somethin’,” I say as soon as he answers.
“Actually, I do,” he tells me. “An old housemate of his gave us some information after we gave him incentive to talk.”
In other words, they flogged him until he opened his mouth. That’s exactly how I need it to be until we get the information we need to get my girl back.
“Got a location?”
“Got several that he has been, or might be, hangin’ out at. Two houses on the outskirts of town, and an old abandoned warehouse about half an hour away. Might not be at any of them, but it’s a start. We’re holdin’ his little friend until we get hold of him, make sure he doesn’t give him a heads up we’re comin’.”