by L. J. Woods
My brows furrow. “What’re you talking about?”
“As if you two didn’t fuck it out."
Toothpaste falls off my lip when I stop my brush. “What? No. I haven’t seen her since the funeral.”
“But,” she hesitates. “Lexi said she left to see you.”
"What are you talking about?"
Allie’s shoulders drop. "After I apologized, I thought that she’d do it.” Turning around I face her but she looks deep in thought.
I snap my fingers. “Allie. The fuck are you talking about? The last time I saw Ray you were screaming at her. It’s the most Eden I’ve seen you.”
“Well, after mom died, I guess it put a lot of shit into perspective. You guys should sort this shit out, so that's what I told her. I went to apologize and we got to talking and, well, that girl’s got it bad for you.”
My stomach twists. “She was coming here? What did she say?” Not that I should care. I shouldn’t, but it’s so hard for me not to ask. Turning around I rinse the toothpaste out my mouth, the fresh taste of mint masking leftover booze.
“Lexi!” Allie calls, sticking her head out the door. It doesn’t take long for Lexi to appear, muttering something about Isaac. “You know more than I do about Ray. She was coming here, right?”
Lexi frowns. “She’s not here?”
Water falls from my face when I look at Lexi in the mirror. “What do you mean she’s not here?” Now that worries me. Knowing the guys Rayne likes to surround herself with, that doesn’t sit well with me.
“On Friday she texted and said she was coming here.” Walking over in Gucci slides, Lexi shows me her phone. “Something about a phone call?”
Rayne: A phone call might have just been the answer I was looking for. Im going to Christian’s. Thank u.
“I haven’t seen her.” My eyes narrow, gripping the counter as they both look at each other. “I haven’t seen her all weekend. Have either of you heard from her?” My heart booms in my chest and it feels like forever before either of them answer.
“I haven’t,” Lexi scratches her head, blonde hair to one side while Allie shrugs.
“I don’t have her number.” My sister shrugs, adding no help to this.
“I gotta go.” Rushing out of the bathroom, I push by the girls.
I’m already heading for the door when Allie calls after me. “What about the meeting with the lawyers?”
For once, she can handle this on her own. “Figure it out."
My hands are tight on the wheel all the way to The Grove.
When I pull in front of the beat-up garage, I’m happy I don’t see August and his posse hanging outside.
This is gonna sound weird, but I’ve been tracking Ray. I must be a fucking obsessive idiot because I put that shit on her phone when I bought it for her. It’s always been handy, except for now.
Checking Ray’s tracker tells me she’s still at Isaac’s but when I went there, she wasn’t. Lexi and the guys have no idea of her whereabouts.
Something’s up.
I’m out of my car, pulling the hoodie over my head and ringing the bell before I’ve even rehearsed what the fuck I’m gonna say.
Coach Rose answers the door, a beer in his hand. I swallow hard. “You have a nerve coming over here, boy.” His greeting is far from cordial, his beard thick on his face, a sway in his step. He looks as bad as I do.
“I know, I have a lot of explaining to do but is Rayne here?”
His brows furrow. “I thought she was with you.”
Another pound hits my chest.
Fuck.
I try to reassure him. Try to reassure myself. “Okay, so she's with a friend, right? Does she have friends?” Outside of Lexi and her gang of murderers, I haven’t seen her hang with anyone.
The confused look on his face doesn’t change. “Listen, Christian, if you can’t find her it’s likely for good reason. I don’t want you anywhere near my daughter, you hear me?” His finger almost hits my nose when it comes to my face and Coach Rose looks and smells hammered as fuck.
“I understand,” I nod. “But I can’t promise you that, Coach. I can promise that your daughter is safe with me. I’ll do anything in my power to make sure of that.”
“Ah-hem.” Someone dramatically clears their throat behind me. When I turn around, August greets me with folded tattooed arms. He’s in a white tank, displaying all his menacing muscles and I hope I’m not in for another ass-kicking. “Can I talk to you for a second, Pretty Boy?” Coach slams the door as August pulls me down the stairs and I'm already tensing, expecting a fist to meet my face. “She’s not with you?”
My brows knit when I glance at August’s scrunched face. “You haven’t seen her, either?”
“Not after ...” he stalls, hiding something. “Nah. But I know where she might be." I know exactly what he’s thinking.
“Ace,” we say in unison.
Fuuuck. My mind flashes back to my mom’s body on her kitchen floor. My shaky hands come to my head, through my hair.
They’re gonna fucking kill her.
My jaw clenches but when I look at August, he’s smiling. “You’re not such a stupid kid, after all.”
“We gotta find her." I shouldn’t care about where she is. She’s likely gotten herself into more trouble than she can chew. But knowing that her ex-boyfriend might have her makes my stomach into a rollercoaster.
“No shit, Nancy,” August lights up a joint, walking over to his buddies in the garage. “They have Ray.” He says this like there’s no doubt about it and that only makes my jaw work more.
“What if she’s somewhere else?” I ask, reassuring myself that shit isn’t about to get crazier.
His leather-clad tattooed buddies all start to chuckle before August says, “If you can think of another place she is, you let me know.”
I’m trying to weigh all the other options, even if my gut knows I’m full of shit. “What if she’s on campus? Or what if she went back to Shady Shores?”
“If you wanna go check around the world while her ex-boyfriend plays punching bags with her tits then be my guest, Perez. But we’re finding my sister and we're finding her alive. And we’re gonna need manpower. So you’re either with us or get the fuck out of my way and stop breathing my air.”
My heartbeat quickens as August walks over to a tool chest. Flipping it open, there’s an array of guns. Small ones, big ones, massive ones. He looks up at the closed front door before they start suiting up like a fucking swat team.
My eyes widen at the artillery—it's enough for a small war.
These guys are insane.
But insane is what I need. There’s no way I’m leaving Rayne alone in this.
“Fine. Let’s do this.” Reaching in my pocket for my phone, I send an SOS to the Kings’ group chat.
August cocks a brow, loading up a gun. “You sure, Pretty Boy? Things are gonna get ... intense.”
“Don’t worry,” I reassure him. “I got this. I’m bringing backup.”
“Backup, huh?” August scoffs. “They got a death wish too?”
I shrug. “Something like that.” After what we’ve been through, after what I’ve helped them with, these guys won’t let me down.
August narrows his eyes before he storms over. I square up with him. “I’m serious, Perez. People can die.” His gaze darkens. Stone grey. Is August a killer like Ace? “You’re fucking disposable after what you did to my sister but be sure of what you’re doing. You might not come out of this. Same with your boys. A black card won’t help you now.”
The text from the guys confirms they’re down. Well, Isaac is. King promises to book the next private jet out of Montreal but for now, it's me, Johnson, and these guys.
What else do I have to lose? I lost my career. Lost my mom. My dad doesn’t give a shit. If it helps Rayne come out of this, I’m willing to risk every damn thing.
August signals to one of his guys who tosses a big gun at him. It’s heavy. Threatening. From my tim
e playing Call of Glory this shit looks like an AK.
“Last chance to back out.”
Am I nervous? Of course, I’m fucking nervous. But imagining Ace pointing a gun at Ray’s head solidifies my decision. “If Ray’s life depends on this. I’m in.”
“Good.” He tosses me his smaller gun, the heavy metal clapping against my chest. “‘Cause you’re bait.”
Thirty
Rayne
“Kill her. That’ll send a real message.”
Joker’s voice echoes through the dingy, smokey warehouse, “Seven Nation Army” in the background. Tobacco and pot fill the air, a pain ringing through my head. In my arms. Down my legs.
Pain is all I’ve felt for the last three days.
“No.” Ace’s voice is louder.
“Ace likes to play with his food,” Diamond chuckles. “And Ray’s his favourite meal. Speaking of food … Ray!” He bellows my name, my shoulders rising to my ears. “We asked for that pizza twenty minutes ago, Peaches!”
“Well, it takes twenty-five to make the fucking thing,” I mutter, sliding the pizza from the rusty old oven to a large dirty plate.
The chain hanging from my neck connects to my wrists and feet. They shake when I move across the sticky concrete floor. Besides my boots, bralette and my shorts, it’s the only thing I’m wearing.
“Ay, is she giving mouth?” Joker asks, his thumb pointed my way.
Ace and his boys sit around an old card table and I take my time approaching, wanting to stay as far away from them for as long as I can.
I’m still alive. So there’s that. I don’t know if being their slave is any better.
“You fuck her yet?” Diamond chuckles again.
“No,” Ace responds. “She’s all used up. Smelly. Disgusting. Untouchable.”
Ace’s words sting but they don’t pack the punch they used to have.
I’ve heard it all before.
I’m about to plop the pizza on the wobbly table when Ace tugs on the chain around my neck. That’s enough for me to trip over my boots, pizza flying in front of me before my face scrapes against the dirty concrete floor. A burn erupts across my skin before a boot comes to my side, an ache in my gut.
This is punishment.
And not the kind I like with Christian. Ace has been punishing me since he picked me up and put a black bag over my head.
“Can’t even get our order right,” Ace says, disgust in his tone. “Clean this shit up.” When I look up, pain running down my side, he smirks before he spits at me. “If I see any mess when I get back, it’s your ass, Ray.”
“What’re you gonna do?” I mutter, pushing myself off the floor as he walks away. “Chain me and make me your slave?” Footsteps come quickly towards me before I’m yanked up by my chain.
The metal links tighten around my neck before I meet his face. Scarred, sharp and tattooed. The dark brown dreads hanging from his head are longer than I remember, a devilish beard below that angular jaw. He’s everything I remember. Handsome, hard and deadly.
Those dark, narrow eyes turn to slits. “That pretty mouth sounds like it wants another fat lip.” A fist comes to my face and everything blurs, blood flying from my mouth. “You want me to settle this now, Ray?”
I wince at his face, held up by my chain and I can hardly breathe when I answer. “If you wanted me dead, you would’ve killed me by now.”
I’ve been here for three fucking days. Three days and he’s done nothing but beat me, humiliate me, and make me feel like filth. So, nothing new, except this time, I know he has a plan more menacing than breaking my heart.
A grin spreads across his face. Like August’s. Menacing. Insane. “You go to that fancy university, right?” He reaches for my face and I wince again, a swinging light flickering above. Stroking a finger along my cheek, he moves closer. “So you know what happens when a crow starts ruining your crops. You take ‘em out. Consider yourself the scarecrow. Guess you’re not as useless as I thought.”
There’s a commotion outside, a bang on the big metal sliding door. It’s the entrance to the warehouse the Spades are using as their base. I'm not sure where we are, somewhere not too far outside The Grove. Ace looks over his shoulder as Joker and Diamond rush to the door.
“You’re gonna wanna see this,” Diamond calls. “Rich Boy’s outside.”
My eyes widen before I hear his voice.
“Ray!”
My heart thumps inside my chest and I’m not sure if I’m imagining things until I hear it again.
“Rayne! Are you in there?”
Christian.
What the fuck is he doing here?
Is he trying to get himself killed? Us killed?
Ace lets out a sound deep in his throat, like a rolling growl. The chain tightens around my neck and it gets harder to breathe, my legs dangling above the floor. He watches my panic, my hands coming to the chains, wiggling while I try to loosen the pressure. Then he smirks. “Looks like it’s playtime.” Letting go of the chain, my body slams into the floor, the world blurring around me as I gasp for air. “Call the Scorpions for backup. Diamond, keep an eye on our property.”
He means me.
“Leave him alone,” I try to yell but it comes out as pathetic as I feel. Hopeless.
Diamond laughs, his boots coming by my head before I’m lifted off the ground. He slams me against the wobbly table, my tits pressing into the plastic.
I fight through the pain. “You always take orders like a good girl?” I spit, my face pressing into the table. “Like a good little bitch? Guess we’re not so different.” As I laugh, he lifts my head off the table before he slams it down again, a pain pounding through my head.
His crotch presses against my ass, my body weak, battered and tired. “Just because you’re not good enough for Ace to fuck you doesn’t mean I won’t." His breath lands on my cheek, his tongue tickling my ear and it makes me wince. Makes my stomach roll. “Or is that what a little filthy girl from The Shores like you wants?”
I groan, “Not surprised you’d resort to rape to get your dick wet.”
He pushes harder into my ass and his cock hardens like he’s getting off on this. Then his hand comes between us. “I’m gonna like shutting you up with this cock, Peaches.” With a hand keeping my head down, I still fight against his hold. He chuckles in my ear, the sound of a zipper flashing me back to the night.
That's all I'll ever be. Someone else's fucking property.
“Don’t worry, I’ll make it quick,” Diamond groans, a wet, rough hand moving up my thigh. “Unless your new rich boyfriend wants a show.”
“Get your pale pathetic cock off my sister’s ass,” August’s voice comes from behind us. “Or she’ll be cleaning your guts off her back.”
The pressure on me lifts and I let out a breath against the table. Pushing myself up, everything hurts. “August?” Did he actually come through for me?
Then it hits me. This is Ace’s plan.
I led August right to him.
“Ray!” Christian’s voice rings through the room, vibrating through my body. When I push my hair out my face, Ace has a gun to his head.
Christian's neck sits in the pit of his elbow as he walks him closer and my stomach feels like it’s closing in on itself.
Fuck.
“Looks like we got ourselves a little hostage hustle." Ace smirks, looking behind me at August. Christian tries to wriggle out of his hold but it doesn’t faze Ace. Not much does. “‘Sup brother.”
“Get out of here, Ray,” August growls, Diamond in the crook of his elbow, gun to his head. They're a mirror of each other. A sadistic mirror. “Now!”
Looking back at Christian, I’m frozen in place before my jaw tenses. Not without Christian. “Let him go, Ace,” I say, my voice weak and quiet. “He has nothing to do with this.”
Ace chuckles, “Now we all know that’s a lie.”
“Ray,” August growls, warning me to listen to him.
“Let my man go, Cro
w!” Ace’s voice fills the room. “Or I’ll blow Pretty Boy’s head off. Been wanting to do that for a while.” Ace slides a tongue up Christian’s cheek. He tries to pull away but Ace pulls him back.
The sparkle in Christian’s eyes is gone when he stares at me. I’m the one who got him into this mess. I’m the reason he’s here.
Ace’s guys come behind him, Diamond and Joker, guns pointed at us.
August chuckles, “Oh, right. We got the big guns now.” Owl and Gull come out from behind my brother, someone in a full tuxedo following with a gun much smaller than theirs.
“Isaac?” My mouth hangs. What the fuck is he doing here?
Owl and Gull have guns that look like they’re meant for the military and it feels like I’m in the middle of a war. And things are about to get fucking loud.
“Ray,” August warns again, glancing at me with a Glock at Diamond, and ... is that a fucking AK? “I swear to God, if you don’t leave—”
“What the hell is going on here?”
Another voice booms through the warehouse, echoing around us. Strong. Firm. Demanding.
No.
August’s eyes widen with mine, that familiar voice coming from around the corner. By the metal sliding door.
When I see his face, my heart thuds.
“Dad?!” My voice rings around the room, Ace’s head turning to where my wide gaze points.
Shit. My dad can’t—
POW!
Everything slows when a bullet flies out of Ace’s gun towards August.
August ducks, pushing Diamond in front of him in time for the bullet to go right through his skull.
I fight my scream, my body frozen in terror as blood splatters on my brother's face.
“Dimes!” Joker yells. “Fuck!”
Before I can move, August retaliates, another bullet flying towards Ace before Ace ducks, Dad frozen in place behind him. “Stop!”
In that moment, Christian jumps for me, tackling me to the ground, his warm weight on my body. “Ray, are you okay?”
“Dad!” August’s voice is louder than I’ve ever heard it, Ace’s chuckle following. “Dad!”