by Blair Grey
I struggled with the binding for another moment, trying to cry out. But, there was a gag in my mouth, and though I tried to make as much noise as I could to hopefully attract the attention of anyone who could be near, all I got in reply was the woman behind me speaking roughly in my ear.
“Shut up!” she hissed. “Do you want them to hear you?”
I mumbled, trying to get her to pull the gag out of my mouth. I wasn’t able to tell if she was also bound in the darkness, but she was certainly able to talk. I had so many questions I wanted to ask her, one of them being why she didn’t scream or try to call for help or something.
“Hold still!” she hissed as I continued to fight with the binding around my wrists. “You’re going to get everyone in trouble!”
“Make her stop!” the girl lying in front of me now spoke over her shoulder. “She’s going to get us all caught, and then we’re really going to be in for it!”
I heard the fear in their voices, and I wanted nothing more than to know what was going on. I didn’t know where we were or what we were doing. It frightened me to think that these women clearly had more answers than I did, and though they knew what was going on, they were very much afraid.
Hell, we were all tied up, and we were lying in the back of something dark. I didn’t know if it was a closet, or if we were in some sort of box. I didn’t want to think about what that might mean, or how we were even going to get out of here.
There was no way I could call for help with the gag in my mouth, and I was sure I didn’t have clothes or my phone with me. The men who took me likely left everything back in the apartment. I was glad to know they didn’t touch me while I was undressed – save tying me up, that is – but there was a part of me that wished they had at least grabbed pants or a shirt to put on me.
Wherever we were going, there was no way they were going to be able to move me naked. But then, I wasn’t sure we were going anywhere, at all. I didn’t know who these men were, and I didn’t know what they wanted.
“Can you stop struggling?” the first woman spoke again as I jabbed into her.
“Sorry,” I tried to mumble through my gag. “Do you know where we are?”
“If you could just keep quiet, this will go a lot easier for all of us. Don’t you think we’ve all tried to get out of here? It’s not working, and we don’t want to piss them off,” she said.
I gave up. Clearly, she wasn’t going to tell me what we were doing here, or why we were here, either. I was smart, however, and I had a feeling I knew where it was headed. Especially, since I was still naked.
These women were clearly afraid of the men who had captured us, and I had a feeling these men were going to sell us – or worse. I had to find a way to get out of here. There wasn’t any way in Hell I was going to sit by and let them turn me into some sort of sex slave.
And, I didn’t care what I had to do to free myself. I thought about my father and my poor mother who was already deep in depression. I couldn’t let this happen.
I thought about Jett. I couldn’t blame him for this, but I thought about what he said about protecting me, and I hoped to God there was some way he would find out I had been taken. He knew more about this kind of life than I did, and if there was anyone out there who would be able to come for me, it would be him.
But if he finds your phone, he’s going to find out what you were trying to do to him. If that happens, there’s no way he’s going to come for you. Do you really think he would try to rescue someone he knows is going to turn him into the cops?
You’ve got to figure out how to get out of this yourself, or you’re going to be trapped here. Who knows what they’re going to do to you if you don’t get out of here soon.
You better figure this out – or this is the end of the road.
“I’m going to check on her. You hit her pretty hard,” a voice said right outside the door. I was jerked back to the moment as both women on either side of me stiffened, and the door was yanked open, flooding light into our small space.
I squinted, and immediately, the sound of laughter filled the air.
“I told you she was fine. And mighty fine, too, by the looks of her!” one voice said. I hated I was naked in front of them, and I struggled against my bindings even harder. If I could just get free, I would claw my way out of this situation. I didn’t care if I got hit or cut in the process, I was getting out of here.
The laughter cut through the air along with the jeers, but the men were too busy talking to each other than they were to me. Clearly, they didn’t think of me as anything more than a pawn in their game. I wasn’t sure what the other two women were there for, but I had a feeling they were meant to serve the same purpose I was.
I paid more attention to what the men were saying when I heard Jett’s name. Clearly, they thought he and I were officially together. Of course they would think that if they had been watching us, but I wished I could tell them I wasn’t really his.
Maybe that would get me out of this.
On the other hand, could I really say that to them? I wondered. Mad at him or not, I had feelings for that man, and I didn’t want anyone to know I wasn’t officially his. As much as it hurt me to admit it, and as much as I knew it was a bad idea, I wanted to be with him.
I was in love with Jett, and right now, I worried I wasn’t ever going to see him again. And that thought made me sicker than what was going on around me right now.
“When he hears we’ve passed his old lady around, not just to the members of the club, but to our friends, as well, he’s going to take us seriously. I mean, who does he think he is? Jimbo Corbin’s son’s gotta learn a bit of respect, if you ask me,” one voice said.
The other laughed. “Who do you think gets to go first? I’m telling you, I would love to be the one to break her into the club properly.”
I cringed. So, that’s what they were talking about. That’s what they wanted to do to me. It’s not like it was a surprise. I might have been able to guess with the way they had treated me already, and with what the other two women had said, but to think they’d violate me like this only to prove a point to Jett made me sick.
I hoped against hope Jett would come for me. He had to know something was wrong. With the connection we shared, I hoped he’d come by to check on me or something. It was a slim hope, I knew that, but I didn’t have anything else to cling to.
I had to be rescued. We were tied here in this closet, and there wasn’t any way we could get out. I would fight with all that I had in me, but I knew I was running out of time. All I could do was hope and pray Jett would try to track me down.
Pray that he would know what to do when I wasn’t answering his phone calls or texts. Pray that he was sending me texts that could go unanswered.
Please Jett, please. I’m sorry. Come for me, please. I need you. They’ve got me, and they’re going to do terrible things to me. I need you to come save me now.
Please hurry! Please.
Chapter 22
Jett
“Why don’t you sit down and relax? We’re going to figure this out, but with you walking back and forth like that, it’s hard to think straight,” Blade said over his shoulder.
“How the Hell am I supposed to calm down when we don’t have a clue where she is?” I snapped back at him.
“We’re trying to figure that out!” he remarked.
I continued to walk back and forth. We were at the bar, but I was only with Ryder and Blade. They were the two I wanted on board with this – they were the two who would be able to help me figure out what might have happened to Callie fastest.
I knew this had to be personal…but I wasn’t sure if it was something that was meant to be personal against me, or something that was meant to be personal against Callie. I didn’t know of any enemies she might have, but the fact that her father had been killed the year before led me to believe there could be someone out to get the family.
And, they clearly weren’t afraid to kill.
> Blade and Ryder were doing their best to piece together who might be after me – someone who had clearly been watching us, if that was the case.
“You and Callie haven’t been going out that long,” he said. “So, if someone came after her thinking they were coming after you, then they would’ve had to be seeing the two of you together a lot.”
“Which means it’s probably someone who hasn’t caused us a lot of trouble before just a couple months ago,” Ryder said. “It’s not like we’ve had a lot of new action going on around here.”
I walked back and forth. I knew they were right, but it was hard for me to pinpoint who it would be who would do such a thing. I wasn’t the kind of guy to have a lot of friends. But, my enemies were all on the other side of our territory.
We were very careful with our borders. It was important to all of us to have security for our families and our town. We didn’t want any intruders coming in, and it had been even tighter since we’d heard the rumors of a war starting over the drugs.
Of course, the thought crossed my mind that this could be something to do with the cocaine we were dealing, but that was crazy, wasn’t it? Wouldn’t those who were after us for the drugs want to take care of us directly? That would be the thing I would expect.
I would expect to have to deal with a gunfight rather than them coming in to take Callie. What did she have to do with any of this? She knew we were drug runners, but how much did she know? And what might make them think that she would be worth the trouble?
I sighed. Ryder and Blade were still arguing, but I decided to look through her phone. I didn’t want to go through it at first. I knew if were to call the police, that would be one of the first things they would ask to see, but I didn’t want to just hand it over to them yet.
If we were to report her missing, that would put us right in the line of fire as suspects. They already thought we were responsible for Doc’s death, and if they were to figure out this was his daughter, I knew without a doubt there would be arrests made, and it would start with my MC.
No, we weren’t going to call the cops until we knew what we were dealing with – and only then if it was something we couldn’t handle ourselves. I had a strong army around me, and I knew I would be able to take care of this, if we could just figure out who it was who had her.
And, what they wanted.
I wasn’t much for ransom. I was the kind of guy who liked to go in with guns blazing and take care of business, but if we had to deal with a ransom to get Callie out of danger, then I would be right there with the money as soon as I needed to be.
This was for Callie’s safety, and I was willing to do anything I had to in order to keep her safe. I had a promise to keep. I told her I would do anything for her, and I had my MC swear to do the same. I knew they would rally around me if we had the location.
It was just a matter of knowing where to go.
I reluctantly started flipping through her phone, trying to find anything that might give me a clue as to where she would go. It only made sense to me she would have friends she was talking to. Perhaps one of them would be able to give me something to go on.
But, the more I went through her phone, the more I realized she hadn’t really been talking to anyone. There were hardly any text messages on the phone, and most of the photos she had were of the MC. In fact, the closer I looked at the photos she had, the more I realized she had been profiling.
I had seen it done enough in my life to know she was putting together a puzzle.
With a sinking feeling in my stomach, I flipped over to the notes she’d saved on the device. I didn’t know what I would find, but if there was some reason she was profiling the members of the group, there had to be something that would help me put it all together.
And when I found out what it was, it made me feel sick to my stomach.
She was studying you. She wanted to find evidence against you and the gang and take you down. It’s all right here. She wasn’t just spending time with you because she wanted to get to know you more. She was trying to figure out what you were doing and where you were headed.
She wanted to get the evidence she needed to turn you over to the police. And, she did it all right under your nose.
How dare she do that to you? Doesn’t that mean she deserves this?
You might as well just walk away and let her face the music of whatever she’s gotten herself in to. If she was going to double cross you, then what sort of love is that? That’s not love, at all.
“Guys,” I said with a sigh. “I think I might have something here.”
“What do you mean?” Blade asked as he and Ryder looked up.
“She was worried about the drugs,” I said. I wasn’t sure how much I wanted to share with them. I didn’t want them to make any judgments on her, and I knew there had to be something behind this – something that was a lot deeper than just her not liking the fact we ran cocaine.
And, after the conversation I’d had with her that afternoon, I had a feeling I knew just what it was.
“The drugs?” Blade asked. “What makes you think so?”
“I think she got involved with someone she shouldn’t have,” I said, ignoring his question. “Think about it. If she was worried about the drugs, and she was attacked by those men in the bar the other day – think of how that fits in with what we heard from Ryu when he got out of prison.”
“So if those men were part of the Devil’s Sons like we think,” Ryder said thoughtfully, “They would fit the bill of the new trouble we were talking about earlier.”
“That’s what I was thinking, too,” I said. “They were the ones who have been making all this noise about the drugs and where they think they ought to be able to sell, and they were the ones I got in trouble with the cops at the bar when they put their hands on Callie.”
“And, if they thought that she was your old lady, then what other way to get even with you for what you did to them than to kidnap her?” Blade said.
“I’m going to kill them all,” I breathed. I was hurt. Hurt and disgusted with Callie for what she had been planning, but also trying to understand her for what she did. But, I knew she was also hurting. She was hurting a lot for her father, and she had to get the answers she was looking for.
Of course, she didn’t think she could come to me to find out the truth. She thought I was the one responsible for it. She wasn’t about to come to the one person she thought had murdered her father for the truth.
And, even more than that, I knew I had fallen in love with her. I might be hurt – pissed even – with what she had done, but I wasn’t going to let that change the way I felt about her. I sure as Hell was going to keep my promise to take care of her no matter what. I wasn’t going to let those men get away with this.
“We all will,” Blade said, bringing me back to the present. “Callie is one of ours. If she’s your girl, then she’s under the protection of the rest of the MC. And, there’s no way any of us are going to stand by and let them touch her.”
“I’ll get the boys together, and let’s go get her,” Ryder said. He was pulling out his phone as he spoke, and I knew it would be seconds before he had reached everyone in the club. We had a fast line of communication to each other, and everyone in the club knew to be ready in just a moment’s notice.
“Send out the call right now. I have a feeling I know where to find them,” I said over my shoulder as I headed for the door. I heard Ryder shout something to Blade, but I didn’t stop to talk about this any further. They were my right-hand men for a reason. If anyone could handle this, it was them.
I already had other things on my mind – and that was how I was going to track down these men and get my woman back without going totally wild on them. I had to be smart about this. I couldn’t put my men in unnecessary danger, and I had to make sure I got Callie out of there in one piece.
I loved that woman, and I wasn’t going to let anything bad happen to her.
My blood was boiling, a
nd though I was afraid for Callie, I was already forming a plan on how to save her. I wasn’t afraid to kill for her. Hell, I would do it in a heartbeat.
I had my men behind me, and I knew they would stand with me to the end. They loved Callie – and they loved her even more because they knew I loved her. They didn’t need to know the details of what she was doing.
All they needed to know was that she was in danger, and it was up to us to bring her home. Any one of us would lay down our lives for that girl, and I would be the first to go if it came down to it.
Callie just needed to hang on. I was on my way. In fact, we all were on our way. One thing was for damn sure.
Those men had messed with the wrong woman.
Chapter 23
Callie
“Well I don’t blame him for falling for you; just look at you,” one of the men – I’d learned his name was Spritz – said with a laugh.
“Jett might be an asshole, but at least he’s got good taste in women,” the other man, Tony, agreed. Although there were other men in the building, these two were evidently the two who had been put in charge of the captives.
I still wasn’t sure what the other two women were doing in the closet. I wasn’t sure where they had come from or if anyone knew they were missing, but I didn’t have time to talk to them. I had no sooner gotten my gag out of my mouth than the door had opened once more, and the men brought me out to the chair I now sat in.
My hands were tied behind my back, and I was still naked. But, I was determined to keep my wits about me. I wasn’t going to go into hysterics. If I was going to get out of here in one piece, I knew I had to be smart. There was no way I would let these men intimidate me – though they already scared me.
“You’re not going to get away with this,” I snapped. “Jett’s going to come for me.”
Of course, I had no way he would, but I didn’t want to let that fear show. Both men laughed at me again.
“You have almost as much fight as your daddy,” Spritz laughed. “You remind me of him the night he died.”