by Ambere Sabo
This is why the girl’s downstairs wouldn’t talk to me either. I don’t like dealing with crying women, and don’t have the patience it takes to speak with them. That’s Havoc’s thing—he’s the charmer, and I’m the asshole. It works for us. I need her to talk to me though, so I try again with a little less irritation, “Lilly, I know this shit sucks, but if I’m going to try to get us out of here, I need to know if you have any idea where we are.”
Reine shakes her head at me with fury in her eyes, but hell it’s the best I can do right now. Lilly hiccups a response, but I can’t have heard her right. Even Reine looks at her and seems to be in disbelief.
“Where, Lilly?” I ask as gently as I can.
She takes a few steadying breaths before answering again. “We're under Blue Bells,” she says so quietly that I can just barely make out what she said.
I snap my attention to Reine. “She’s fucking serious?”
I’m back to whisper-yelling. Reine doesn’t react at first, and I know she’s trying to process what Lilly just said. If we truly are under Blue Bells, the girls were literally under our noses for Lord knows how long.
Reine’s shoulders sag in defeat, and her only answer is a shrug of her shoulders. How could we not have realized there was anything under the bar we were in damn near every fucking day? I wrack my brain trying to think of any place there could be an entrance to anything below us. How the fuck did we miss this?
Blue Bells has been around for years, probably longer than I’ve been on this earth. It sits on a large property on the outskirts of town. There aren’t too many businesses that want to be close to the town strip club, so it doesn’t have too many neighbors. Even with the seclusion, there’s no way none of the other Reapers didn’t know about this. Granted, with Wrecker as VP, Lord knows what he could’ve had accomplished without too many people knowing.
Voices carry through the door. I have no plan to get us out of here. FUCK. A few guards walk in. Caine, Wrecker and a man I don’t know follow behind them. The man is dressed in a suit that I’m sure costs more than my bike. On his own, he’s surrounded by three bodyguards.
Before the door can close Thrash, Butch and Rebel walk in. They’re part of The Reapers, though I think Rebel is the only acting member at this point. The other two are old timers. But now I know why the missing dancers were never found. Rebel was in on it with Loki or maybe Wrecker. Who the fuck knows at this point?
“You need a fucking audience?” I exclaim, looking right at Wrecker. He just smirks, but it's Martinez who answers me, “Ah, but we thought you’d like to see your girl one last time. It’s the least I could do when I didn’t give you the same courtesy with your mama.”
“Fuck you. I should’ve killed you then, you son of a bitch. Don’t fucking touch them,” I finish as my attention is drawn to the man in the suit. He touches Lilly’s long hair as she weeps.
Martinez is over to me in a heartbeat getting right in my face as he says, “Show some respect,” before punching the shit out of my jaw. “You’re mine to kill for all the trouble you caused me in the past. Don’t make the General take that from me,” he grinds out. He holds his hand out to one of his men, and then I am gagged right along with Reine.
“My apologies, Enterrador. He doesn’t know who you are,” Martinez explains trying to smooth over the situation. Whoever the hell this Enterrador is, he doesn’t even give Martinez a second look. He talks to his guards in rapid Spanish. They all look at the girls. I have no fucking clue what they’re saying, but Wrecker and Martinez are clearly tense.
Finally, he speaks with a thick Spanish accent, “You promised me two beauties. I cannot deny they are lovely, but this one,” he says gesturing to Reine, “has defiled her body, and I won’t pay the amount you asked. I will give you three hundred and fifty thousand for the both of them, and that’s not negotiable.” He hasn’t paid Reine much attention, and now I understand why. He doesn’t like her tattoos. Lilly, on the other hand, has had his undivided attention.
“And if she gives you a boy?” Wrecker asks.
What the actual fuck?
“You know our terms. For every son, you’ll get an additional fifty thousand dollars wired to your account.”
Lilly stops crying and appears to be a state of shock at her father’s words. Wrecker walks over to this Enterrador and shakes his hand sealing their royally fucked up deal.
“Follow us out, and I will get you your payment,” Enterrador says turning to leave the room.
A guard unhooks Reine’s bindings from the chair, but she is still bound at her feet and wrists. I watch as my girl thrashes around trying to get out of the guard’s hold to no avail. He throws her over his shoulder, and we lock eyes. I know there’s nothing but rage in mine, but I see the fight leaving hers.
She’s scared, and I understand. But fuck I’ll figure something out. I need her to keep fighting. The other guard grabs Lilly by the arm pulling her from her chair, and she walks out behind Reine.
Martinez comes into view, sporting a cat who ate the canary smile, he says to me, “You took my life from me all those years ago when you ran your mouth to the department about me. I can see we have just taken yours from you,” I want to kill this man. With every fiber of my being, I vow that I will have his head.
“Do you know what happens when an operation like the one we had back then is shut down because of someone’s incompetence?” he asks me. I can’t say a damn thing with this gag in, so I just shake my head, glaring at him the whole time.
He begins pacing the space explaining, “Usually, they would be killed. I should’ve killed you that night, but I didn’t think you’d be brave enough to run your mouth. That was my mistake, and I should’ve died for it. But in my case, Enterrador is my mother’s cousin. He looks at family differently than most, so I was allowed to keep my life.”
There’s a lot of fucked up family relationships in this whole situation. Trying to keep it all straight, makes my head reel. As I listen to him speak, I twist my wrists, trying to create enough slack in the bindings to free myself.
These sick fucks sure like to brag and tell stories to their captive audiences. Caine continues, “Not that I’d had much of a life when I had to run from this fucking town. I went to Mexico to prove my worth to the cartel. I had to start out back at the bottom. Being the bitch boy of a cartel isn’t the life I wanted. So, I spent the next eight years proving to them I was trustworthy and could handle my own crew.”
That explains where he’s been in the span of time where Snoop couldn’t find any info on him.
A look of pride crosses his face. “Now I run the biggest operation in Texas, and with Wrecker’s help, we make a pretty penny off the girls and the cocaine. The cartel, of course, gets their cut, but after tonight we’re going to leave this shithole town.”
Tonight? Everything is going down tonight?
Caine brushes his hands symbolically. “No more loose ends after you and Reine are gone. She’s a beauty, but she’ll spend her days being passed around by Enterrador’s men. If she can give them sons, more soldiers to add to our growing army, they’ll make her comfortable.” He shakes his head in mock remorse. “But if she can’t… Well, I can guarantee her life will be anything but comfortable for as long as they continue to let her have one.”
As he finishes, he comes back to stand directly in front of me. His right arm raises, pointing his gun at my head. His finger rests on the trigger. I want to close my eyes so I won’t see the moment coming. But I won’t give him the satisfaction. He’ll have to look me in my eyes when he kills me. Shots ring out in the distance.
Wrecker and other The Reapers involved are gone, having left with the girls and Enterrador. The three guards are still in here with Caine.
“God damn it. Go, see what the fuck is going on,” he hollers at them.
Chapter 26
Cessy
I will never forget the look on Venom’s face as I was carried out over this fucker’s shoulder. I ca
n only imagine what he saw in my own eyes—defeat, despair, resignation. Right now, I’m back to being a twelve-year-old, little girl with no control over what happens to me. Fuck this. I’m not that girl anymore!
I start thrashing around trying to get him to drop me, I won’t ever be that girl again. Wrecker and the fucker that “bought” us are up ahead and Lilly trails behind me walking with a guard. She looks up, and we lock eyes for just a moment, but in that moment, all the fear and sadness leaves her face, and pure rage replaces them.
She’s not bound like me, and that was one mistake of theirs that I’m grateful for. She’s been crying since I was brought back to her, so they probably didn’t think she was any kind of threat. Realizing not only is your father a sick bastard but that he intends to sell you for breeding purposes would be a shock for damn near anyone.
The dick carrying me has his gun tucked away in the waistband of his slacks because he needs both hands to keep me over his shoulder. Lilly lunges forward and grabs the gun before she quickly turns and shoots her guard in the head. In a split second, she does the same with mine.
It all happens so fast that I don’t have time to brace myself, and I drop with him like a sack of potatoes before scrambling out from underneath him. They may have had me bound, but Wrecker doesn’t know his little girl for shit if he thought she would just go along with all of this without a fight. Havoc taught his baby sister to shoot almost as good as me.
We hear Wrecker and the other men coming back down the hall, so we duck off into a side tunnel. Wrecker hollers about killing whoever is fucking up his merchandise. He doesn’t realize it isn’t one of us who was shot but two of Enterrador’s bodyguards.
At least I hope that’s all they are. I don’t think the cartel takes too kindly to the killing off of their men, but we'll deal with that if the issue arises. Before they have a chance to reach us, their attention is drawn to the sound bullets start popping off from somewhere above us.
“What the fuck is going on?” Wrecker roars. There’s also a lot of yelling in Spanish as the guys who stayed with Martinez, run past our hiding spot. Fuck if I know what the hell they’re saying.
Lil and I stay hidden. She’s trembling with the gun in her hand aimed in the direction her father is. I nudge her in the shoulder trying to get her attention. It takes a few tries to get it, as she’s waiting to shoot whoever comes down the hall.
“Damn, Cessy, what?” she says exasperatedly, before looking in my direction. I’m just standing here still bound with a gag in my mouth, that’s what.
“Oh shit. Sorry, Cess,” she says before pulling out the gag.
“Thanks,” I huff out, “Got anything to get these zip ties off? I doubt I’ll be much help hoping down the hall,” I say sarcastically.
“No, but hold on, I’ll give you my shoelace,” she tells me.
“What the fuck am I going to do with a shoelace, Lil?” I exclaim in a whisper.
“Just hold on, I’ll do it,” she says as she finishes pulling her shoelace free.
I don’t know what the hell she’s doing. I look at her like she has lost her damn mind, but as soon as my hands are free, she gives me the gun and starts working on my feet. When I can finally move on my own volition again, I can do nothing but gawk at her. She reaches for the gun and our eyes meet.
“What?” she asks, acting like she didn’t just do something crazy with a fucking shoelace like she’s fucking MacGyver or some shit.
“What? Are you serious? How did you know how to do that fucking shit?”
She waves her hand like it’s nothing, then exhales. “Remember the self-defense class Havoc made me take?”
I nod. He had insisted she take the class after she moved away to college. “They taught me how to do that and a whole bunch of other shit in case you get abducted. Just be lucky they let me keep my shoes, unlike you, or we’d be screwed.”
I swear I love that fucker and his overprotective ass.
“Come on. Let’s go find Venom, then get the fuck out of here.”
“Cess, we’ve got to go now. We can’t go back the way those guys ran. They’ll catch us again. We’ve got to go get help first.”
I sigh. “You’re right. Let’s figure out how to get upstairs and the fuck out of here.”
“Ain’t got to tell me twice. I’m not too fond of being sold off to make babies for the rest of my life,” she grits through her teeth.
We slowly creep down the small hallway before reaching the stairs. We quietly make our way up them, and I’m in a familiar setting—the basement of Blue Bells. Holy shit. All these years, what I’d been told was only a crawl space, actually, leads to two underground floors. What the actual fuck?
After we make our way into the actual basement, I see that all three of the traitors to my pops’ club are dead. Each shot with a bullet to the head. Damn, I wish I could’ve had that pleasure. Knowing they won’t live another day almost makes up for it. The only one missing is Wrecker, but no matter how much I’d like to put a bullet in that motherfucker's head, I think Lil deserves that honor.
I check all three bodies before moving on and am rewarded with two more fully-loaded guns. Now we have three between the two of us, and I like our odds a bit better. The firefight seems to be over or has made its way outside because it’s so quiet up here. As we make it up the last flight of stairs to the main floor of Blue Bells, we hear footsteps. Gunner and Gears round the corner, and before I can stop her Lilly fires.
“No,” I holler, and it takes her attention away from her target, but she still hits Gears in the shoulder.
“Fuck,” he roars as he falls to the floor.
Lil is looking at me in a rage as she yells, “What the fuck, Cess,” I reach over and grab the gun from her then rush towards Gears.
“Shit, Gears. She doesn’t know what’s going on. Are you okay?” I ask checking his shoulder.
“Do I look like I’m fucking okay to you? Where the fuck did you even come from?” he snaps.
Gunner pulls his shirt and belt off pressing the shirt to the wound and tying off the area with his belt. I look over at him in surprise. “What? Your boy’s not the only one with military training,” he says with a smirk.
Looking up at Lilly, she looks like she is about to bolt. I don’t think she trusts anyone with a cut on at this point.
“Lil, it’s okay,” I soothe as I stand up and embrace her. “That’s Gunner, your brother’s Road Captain. And the poor fucker you shot is Gears. You’ve met him before when you were younger, but he’s The Reapers’ Road Captain.” She flinches when I explain who Gears is. I can’t say that I blame her. “It’s okay, Lil. They aren’t all in on this shit with your dad.”
Gears looks up at my comment. “Wrecker?” he exclaims.
“Yeah, Wrecker was working with Martinez on all of this. He tried to sell us to some fucker in a suit, why?”
He and Gunner both holler out, “Fuck.” Then they’re up and running towards the entrance. Lil and I follow them blindly. I’m as confused as fuck as they clear the front door.
“Where is he?” Gunner exclaims. Everyone turns in our direction, and Lil sees Havoc before I do. She runs into his arms in tears.
“What the hell son? Where’s who? And what are you doing here? We’ve been looking everywhere for you,” Rodeo asks walking up to me before pulling me into an embrace.
I answer before Gunner has a chance, “Wrecker, it was Wrecker. He took Lil and me from Vic's when I went there for dinner. He planned on selling us. Hell, he kind of did sell us.”
Havoc looks at Lil in question with shock on his face and fire in his eyes. When she nods her head slowly yes, he takes off running to his bike and mounts it before tearing down the drive. I want to question where the hell he’s going, but my only thought is my man.
“We have to go get Venom,” I exclaim before running back inside. Rodeo follows and grabs me by the waist.
“Venom? Venom’s here?” he asks.
“Yes, Marti
nez has him downstairs. He’s going to kill him. Now let me go, damn it,” I holler as Gunner and Lynch take off past me.
“Please, Reine. Let them go,” he murmurs next to my ear as he continues to clutch me while I struggle against his hold. “I don’t want you to be the one to find him if something went wrong. Please,” he pleads.
It hits me then that Venom may already be dead, and I break down in tears and fall to the floor. I’ll never forgive myself if he’s dead because I didn’t go back for him first.
Chapter 27
Venom
Martinez is still pacing the room and has been since his men left. “Fuck this. I may not live another day, but I will meet you in hell motherfucker,” he says raising the gun to my head one more time. I cannot believe this is how it’s going to end. I close my eyes picturing Reine, the one person to bring me joy in my entirely too short life. The shot fires.
I feel nothing, but I listen to a body drop. In confusion, I snap my eyes open. Gunner runs over to me, having just shot Martinez in the head. He’s working on my bonds as I mumble-yell through my gag. As soon as my arms are free, he reaches down for my ankles, and I rip out the damn gag.
“I’m fine. Find Cessy,” I exclaim as he ignores me and continues to cut the zip ties. “Gunner, find her,” I bellow. He looks up with sadness in his eyes and my heart sinks.
He must realize my train of thought, when he quickly says, “No, Venom. She’s fine. She’s with Rodeo. But we fucked up man.”
“What do you mean, you fucked up?” I ask, confused as hell.
“Wrecker, Wrecker came out from the basement. And he was shot, said something about some fucker from the cartel being here trying to take his baby girl. We rushed past him and found some other members of The Reapers in a shoot-out with Martinez’s guys.”
Damn. I bet they couldn’t tell the good guys from the bad guys.
“Apparently, whoever came from the cartel had already gotten out, but we left Wrecker to handle the other shit. We didn’t even know this is where all of you were being held until the girls came up and Havoc's sister shot Gears.”