Mia: A Standalone Romantic Suspense: A Luke Fletcher and V Mafia Crossover Novel (Luke Fletcher Series Book 4)

by Karice Bolton

  “The guy’s name is Clayton Phillips,” I informed Luke as he darted toward a laptop. “He’s not a good guy.”

  Luke’s gaze flashed to mine. “The same could be said about you.”

  “Luke,” Hannah shushed him.

  “I’m here to get Mia back and make that wiry bastard pay. As a team, we have far more resources.” I wasn’t going to stoop to Luke’s level. We didn’t have time for it. Every minute that ticked by brought Mia closer to her death.

  An image of Clayton showed up on the screen, and my blood boiled. I couldn’t wait to get my hands dirty.

  “Oh, no,” Luke whispered.

  “What? You know him?” I shot a look at my brother, who shrugged.

  “He was one of the informants for—”

  “So while you were busy having Mia spy on me, they were spying on her?”

  “Or you. I don’t know.” Luke typed something into his laptop.

  “Do you have an extra laptop I can borrow?” I glanced at Alex and he nodded, taking off toward the front of the house.

  “What do you think you can do that I can’t?” Luke snapped.

  But I understood. His sister was missing, possibly in the hands of a deranged killer, and I was nothing but a criminal in his eyes.

  Before I had a chance to answer, Alex returned with a laptop already powered on. I sat it on the coffee table and began downloading my way into the darknet.

  Eighty percent of online traffic happened in this realm. It was where most of my dealings took place. Any hacker worth his wages would only start peeling back the layers once they logged onto this underground.

  “Whoa,” Alex said, leaning over my shoulder. “I’ve worked with Tor and a few others, but what the—”

  “Welcome to my world,” I muttered, typing in a few key phrases. It didn’t matter how idyllic or charming a town people thought they lived in. There was always a seedy underbelly waiting to be navigated.

  “Just because I left business at the door doesn’t mean I won’t use the resources I have at my fingertips.” I glanced behind me and saw video footage on Luke’s laptop.

  “Do whatever you have to do to find my sister,” Luke said. “I’ve tapped into the Unitarian webcam on Orange Street. I’m not seeing anything yet. I’ll try the Port footage and lighthouse footage next.” His wife was massaging his shoulders as he spoke, trying to comfort him any way she could.

  A lumbering man walked into the room, and my brother stiffened.

  “That’s Mitch,” Alex informed us.

  Mitch’s eyes settled on mine. The man didn’t even blink.

  “We only have two inns and three bed & breakfasts left to call. No Clayton Phillips at any of them. Kimberly’s headed down to the port.” Mitch walked behind me and stared at my screen as I scanned for any odd requests, purchases, or transactions that alarmed the residents around here. One thing criminals didn’t take kindly to was their turf being overrun by cocky and arrogant assholes like Clayton. They wouldn’t welcome him with open arms, no matter the circumstances.

  “I think I’ve got something,” I muttered, seeing two messages between silvrsp00n and Hardb0d. “Do you know where Baxter Road is?”

  “Yeah. It’s not far from here.” Luke was already standing next to me, skimming the screen over my shoulder.

  I forced down the horror as I read the messages.

  silvrsp00n: Looking for a special spot for a special someone.

  Hardb0d: Mess or no mess?

  silvrsp00n: Mess. Always mess. No nosy neighbors.

  Hardb0d: I’ve got the spot. 2 bitcoins. Waived if I can watch

  Pure hatred for Clayton ran down my spine, but it provided the last boost I needed. There would be no remorse, but unlike Anton, he wouldn’t be left for someone else.

  “Alex and Mitch, I want you to cover me when—” Luke’s eyes had darkened several shades.

  “No, Luke. I can’t let you go in there.”

  “She’s my sister. You’re nothing more than a thug who—”

  “Who has less to lose than you do,” I finished for him. “Mia thinks the world of you, and what you’re feeling right now will only put you in prison for a very long time. I know from experience. She needs you. Let me go.”

  Devin nodded as I stood up and shut the laptop.

  Luke glanced at Alex before bringing his gaze back to mine.

  “He needs to pay.” Luke’s gaze was locked on mine.

  “He will,” Devin assured him. “But we need to go.”

  “We’ll be two blocks down from the Baxter house. If you need anything, I’ll gladly spend the rest of my years in prison.” Luke handed me his phone, and I quickly dialed in my cell number.

  “I’ll get Mia back.” Saying the words made my throat tighten as I turned toward the front door with Devin on my heels.

  “We’ll be right behind you.” Luke shouted as I heard his men gathering their weapons.

  Despair bubbled up until my throat was as tight as my chest. The only thing I could do was pray that we would find her before it was too late.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Mia

  I took in a deep breath, the stuffy air almost gagging me as I held in the tears. I didn’t know where I was, but I prayed I was alone.

  That the worst was over.

  The flash of hope quickly extinguished when I heard shuffling in the distance.

  “I know you’re awake.” His voice crawled over my bare skin.

  I shoved my tongue against the rag in my mouth, trying to alternate between swallowing and breathing steadily without choking. My wrists and ankles were bound to a workbench. No matter what I tried, I couldn’t free myself. When I’d thought I was alone, I attempted to work my way out of the rope, but I’d only made the knots tighter and my skin raw.

  “You should’ve just let me have you that night.” He flipped on the overhead lights, but I kept my eyes closed. “Then we wouldn’t be in this predicament.”

  His footsteps neared, and my insides recoiled as I felt his hot breath skitter across my forehead around the strap keeping my head anchored.

  “To commemorate the night we first met, I brought some items you might enjoy.”

  I heard a rustle of a bag, and my body shuddered as terror spread through me.

  “This might be fun later.” He ran a feather across my arm. “Do you know what this is?”

  I didn’t respond.

  “Answer me. Do you recognize this feeling?”

  My lids flashed open, and I glared at the man standing over me.

  I nodded and mumbled my response.

  He slid his cold finger along my cheek, and I closed my eyes just as he ripped off the tape and pulled out the rag.

  I gasped for air. The pain was unbearable from where the tape ripped off, but I refused to cry in front of this man.

  “Come again?”

  “Go screw yourself,” I spit on his face, and his eyes narrowed. He didn’t bother to wipe it off.

  “You don’t mean that.” His voice lowered to an almost-whisper.

  “Oh, but I do.” If I were meant to leave this world at the hands of this predator, it would be with the fight of my lifetime.

  He bent down and slowly licked my cheek. My stomach roiled, and I squeezed my eyes closed.

  “Look at me,” he demanded.

  I kept my eyes shut.

  “So, you like monsters.” He dragged something sharp along my bare stomach, and the nausea returned with a vengeance.

  “They’ll come for you,” I hissed.

  “You’ll be long gone. They’ll never find you. They won’t even find pieces of you. I’ve learned the living make far more problems than the dead.”

  “Doesn’t matter. I’ll leave this world knowing they’ll find you someday and make you wish you’d never met me.”

  “Do you think that will stop me?” he asked. “Do you think your words scare me?”

  My eyes flashed open.

  “Yours don’t scare
me,” I told him, seething.

  “I see the bruises from our last encounter finally healed.” He traced the tip of his finger against my throat. “You had to work hard to hide those at your art show. What a pity. Your big day, and yet you had reminders of me stamped all over your body.” He let out a ragged breath. “Now that you know who Drake is, don’t you wonder why he didn’t just do me in that night?”

  “You weren’t worth his time.” I glared at him.

  His fingers wrapped around my throat.

  “This is all it would take.” His mouth was inches from my ear. “One little squeeze, a twitch of my fingers, really.”

  “You won’t do it until you’ve gotten what you want from me.”

  I heard him rustle in the bag again, and my eyes filled with dampness I’d tried so hard to hide.

  “You’d sleep with that monster, yet you’d turn me down?” A maniacal laugh filled the small space. I tried not to choke on the thickness collecting in the back of my throat. “I can do one better. I can be the monster you crave, the monster you desire.”

  He slid a shiny blade along his tongue, and a jolt of fear rolled up my spine when I saw the first drop of his blood.

  “Why?” I whispered.

  “Because I can.” A sardonic smile spread across his lips. “But enough about me. I saw your latest painting. The one that must have made you feel so liberated. Tell me about it. What did you feel when you came up with the idea to commemorate that night?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Every minute I could buy was a minute closer to someone finding me. Someone would find me.

  Luke would find me.

  Or Drake.

  Someone would find me.

  I just prayed I’d be here to see it.

  “Sure you do.” He began again. “I recognized the gold. Those sequins had to have been from the dress you wore.” He sat the plastic bag on my stomach and placed the knife next to my hand, taunting me since I couldn’t use it on him. He pulled a container of gold glitter out of the bag and opened the lid, scattering it over my legs and chest. “We can recreate that feeling here.” He slid the gold across my body with his rough fingers.

  “Over. My. Dead. Body.”

  “That very well may be the case.” He nodded, flashing a sympathetic grin.

  Fear screeched its way into my world.

  “What I’m asking is simple. Tell me what you felt that night in the alley,” he repeated slowly.

  “Disappointment.”

  “Interesting. Continue.” He studied me, but as I stared into his eyes, I realized I was seeing insanity eat the soul of a living being. My only option was to give him what he wanted, and that would only satisfy him for so long.

  “Disappointment in myself for not fighting harder,” I continued.

  “Then this situation must be killing you inside.”

  “Disgust.” I ignored him.

  His lip furled and he stopped rubbing.

  “What disgusted you?” His eyes snapped back to mine.

  “I think you’re smart enough of a guy to figure that out.” I caught my voice trembling on the last word and cleared my throat to clear the mistake away.

  “You think you’re better than me?” he yelled at me and threw the bag on the ground.

  “I know I am.”

  “You’re more trouble than you’re worth.”

  “Probably.”

  My response only infuriated him even more, and my stomach tensed, unsure of what my future held. It was like I was hovering at the top of a rollercoaster. Part of me wanted to just get over that hump and hit the free fall. Waiting was the worst, hoping for the best.

  I’d left so much undone. I wasn’t finished with Drake. I wanted him to know I never meant to hurt him. I wanted to tell my brother how proud of him I was. There was so much I needed to tell everyone—Alex, Hannah, Mitch. They all meant so much to me.

  The man walked away, and I heard the sound of running water.

  I wanted so badly to slip into the luxury of madness, but I couldn’t give up. Not yet.

  He began humming, and my world twisted into that of a madman’s. The water and song echoed into the air, and terror swept over my body as his voice got louder.

  I was at his mercy, borrowing time to escape his insanity, but eventually, my time would run out. I could feel the current of death running through the room. I knew there was very little I could do to change the outcome, but I was determined to push the fear away until the end.

  No matter how crippling the fear was, I couldn’t afford to succumb. Barely breathing, I stared at the ceiling until I heard him turn off the water.

  Then I closed my eyes.

  And waited.

  And waited.

  Feeling the emptiness was enough to make me crumble into a million little pieces. Even if I survived, I wasn’t sure I’d ever be the person I was back in California, and that saddened me.

  I didn’t know how long I’d been here, but it felt like an eternity, and every hour that passed by made me doubt anyone would be able to find me. They might not even know I was missing until morning.

  “I need you hydrated.”

  I didn’t want to know why.

  “You need to drink.” He sounded more in control, as if the short time away was all it took for him to center himself.

  He unbuckled the strap on my forehead and lifted my head up barely enough to let the water trickle into my mouth. I didn’t realize how thirsty I was until the first drop touched my tongue.

  “There you go, my lovely. Soon, it will all be over.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Drake

  Even in the dark, the tidy yards of Nantucket soon gave way to an overgrown thicket with a dilapidated stick-style cottage. With only the light of the moon, the place looked haunted and in complete disrepair. I parked the car across the street and looked at my brother. He’d filled Jax in on the way over.

  This is where our family’s loyalty could never be undone. In times of crisis, we would always come through for one another.

  “Doctor Morris should be to Luke’s in an hour,” Devin whispered. “He’s already at the airport.”

  “Let’s hope we don’t need him.”

  I didn’t know what we were going to find or how we’d be leaving Baxter Road, but Dr. Morris was our personal physician who valued silence as much as we did.

  He nodded. “Always be prepared.”

  “I don’t think any Boy Scout has ever had to deal with shit like this. Ready?”

  Devin nodded, and we climbed out of the car.

  The place looked vacant, but I wanted to believe she was close. I listened carefully as we made our way through the tall grass. There was a small trail leading to the front of the house, but I wasn’t sure how recently it had been used.

  As we got closer to the home, the vague appearance of disrepair became more distinct with missing panes of glass, rotting shingles, and peeling paint. I looked inside what was probably the sitting room, spotting only an old velvet couch. My brother went around the side, and I quickly followed behind.

  A side door had been left ajar, and my pulse spiked. With his pistol drawn, Devin slowly opened the door. I stepped inside, and the smell of decay and rodent piss permeated the air. We stepped into the kitchen, and I nodded toward the hallway to our left, where a closed door beckoned me. The only windows leading down the hall had been boarded up, making the space even darker and far more treacherous.

  With every step forward, I listened for any sound of Mia, but we were only met with silence. When I reached the door, I glanced at my brother, who snaked to the far wall, pistol raised and waiting for the crack of the door. I reached for the handle, but it was locked. My heart rate climbed at the thought of Mia being on the other side of the door.

  I’d always been calm and cool during shit like this, but not now. All I could think of was getting to Mia before it was too late.

  I took a step back and kicked the door
in. The wood splintered into the air, dust flying everywhere, but there was no sign of life. The stale air taunted me, and my chest tightened with defeat.

  “Do you hear that?” Devin whispered.

  I closed my eyes and tried to calm down long enough to hear what Devin was talking about.

  “Like a compressor just turned on?” I asked, keeping my voice low.

  He nodded and pointed to the back yard. We made our way back through the kitchen and out the door we’d entered from. We snaked along the side of the house until we reached the back yard, spotting several sheds and outbuildings.

  The hum of the compressor hissed off, and a smile touched my lips.

  We were close.

  With my brother right behind, we wove through the overgrown rose bushes and downed picket fence until we reached what looked like a detached garage. We snaked quietly along the side until we hit a window, a glow burning from within.

  I looked at my brother, and a cutting smile spread across his lips.

  “You piece of shit,” Mia’s voice froze me in place, her words coming through the thin wood.

  My brother’s brow rose in surprise. I knew what he was thinking. She’d fit right in with the Volkovs, especially with our matriarch.

  “You spit on me one more time, and I swear I’ll cut your tongue out first.”

  I’d never felt fury like this before. I felt the pounding anger begin its assault. It started slowly but crept along at a pace that fed my desire to kill Clayton Phillips.

  My hands were shaking as I ducked below the window and strode toward the front of the garage. I didn’t want to risk being seen, but I put myself at a distinct disadvantage by not seeing the layout. Next to the closed garage door, there was a regular door with a tiny window.

  “You can’t predict crazy.” Mia laughed.

  “You bitch. I’m not crazy.”

  “Whatever you say.”

  “I’m sure you’re wondering where your heroes are.” He was standing shirtless at the side of the table, his saggy skin barely clinging to his bones. “They’re not coming.”

  “Maybe not now, but they will. When you least expect it, they’ll come for you.” Mia’s voice was steady, but I heard the exhaustion running through it.