“It’s bad. I took the money and the gun like C.C. said, but I couldn’t just leave and disappear. C.C. is being forced to pay back some bill from my medical expenses. Cobus threatened to kill us, and you guys, too. He had pictures of you in town, Birdie and Freddie. He forced himself on her last night, and those pictures he sent you guys aren’t accurate. He forced himself between her legs and made it look like they were having sex. He set that up so you wouldn’t help her or go after them. She believes that he will hurt all of us.” She rambled on, and Cherise was so worried now.
“Landon,” Cherise said to him.
“Okay, we need you to calm down and explain everything to us so we can help.”
Elsie nodded, and they all went into the house. By the time they got everything out of Elsie, Cherise knew that C.C. was in way over her head and that this guy Cobus was going to rape her.
“We need to go after them now.” Freddie raised his voice.
“Freddie, we need to plan this accordingly. If this asshole has men watching you, then anyone could get hurt. We have to figure out where he took C.C. and what shit he’s involved in. If he planned that attack on Elsie and Aiden, and to kill them off, then we need to get our friends involved,” Axel said to him.
“Get them on the line and let’s start pulling in our resources. Cherise, call your brother Johnny now,” Landon said, and she pulled out her cell phone and called.
It took a few hours, but with their friends and their resources they were able to locate where Cobus took C.C. Now Johnny, Seager, Law, and Caldron were pulling their resources together and figuring out what illegal things Cobus was involved in, which led to getting information from Collin Fanning. The man was legitimately pissed off about what Axel told him, and he was more than willing to help. So was Morgan Chase who said that C.C. was supposed to work an event Wednesday night and that a guy Clyde who works for Cobus had called to ask not only about her abut also about Freddie, Birdie, Seager, Law, Caldron, and Zinc. It seemed to Axel that Cobus was covering all his bases so he could threaten C.C. into compliance and then force her into his bed. However, the man’s dirty business went beyond threatening young women like C.C. who were in financial debt, and dabbed into illegal drugs, prostitution, and extortion. A few more connections and phone calls, and now a federal investigation was on its way, and Axel and his friends had legal backup as they headed to the hotel in Austin.
C.C. stared out the window. Night had fallen over the city in Austin, and she was stuck in a hotel room, forced to put on a sexy outfit as Cobus took her to dinner with plans of taking her for the first time tonight in bed. She felt sick, and slid to the rug despite the expensive dress she wore. She had stared out the window, considering jumping to her death instead of having to be raped by a man like Cobus. She just couldn’t do it. Instead she leaned again the wall and cried about never getting to see Birdie, Freddie, Conan, and Axel again, and maybe not Aiden or Elsie either. There would always be the threat of death or injury to those she loved. As long as Cobus held that power over her.
The door opened and Clyde was there.
“Cobus expects you ready when he gets upstairs. He sounds pissed off,” he said, and she didn’t move. She didn’t care. He closed the door. She didn’t move to stand, but when the door swung open, Cobus looked enraged. He reached for her and yanked her up so hard her arm felt as if it moved out of the socket. She cried out.
“That stupid fucking cousin of yours must have went to ask someone for help. That bitch and kid are dead, C.C. I gave the order and they will die.”
“No. No, Cobus, please,” she begged and placed her hands on his chest, and he backhanded her across the mouth.
She fell to the rug, and he stepped over her, his shoes on her dress. He yanked her up, and the dress ripped. Her whole thigh to her hip bone was revealed, and he gripped her by her throat. “I’m going to have you. If it’s the last fucking thing I get in this life, it will be fucking you.” She shoved at his hands and screamed at him. He grabbed a fistful of her dress over her belly and shoved her up hard against the wall. He grabbed her head and banged it several times against the wall, stunning her. She was crying, screaming. “Clyde, the needle,” he yelled, and she knew he would drug her to get her to cooperate.
“I hate you! I hate you so much. You need drugs to get a woman to have sex with you, that’s how pathetic you are,” she screamed at him. He struck her again and again then punched her in the stomach, but she wasn’t going down like this. She thrust her fist upward and somehow made contact with his chin. His head went back, she scrambled for the bedroom door, and Clyde grabbed her hair as Cobus tackled her to the ground. He tore her dress, spread her legs as Clyde injected the needle into her neck. She screamed at the top of her lungs. She was going to get raped when suddenly there was chaos in the penthouse. Her vision blurred, her body ached as Cobus pressed his forearm over the back of her neck when she heard the deep, guttural growls, and a moment later Cobus was off of her. Clyde cried out in pain, and the room spun and spun. She was moaning, and felt something go over her nakedness. Her face lay flush against the rug, and then she heard Freddie’s voice, felt hands on her, and she cried out and screamed for them to stop touching her. She didn’t know what was going on and who was there. She started to hallucinate, and then darkness overtook her vision.
“Holy God, they drugged her, too. Look at this,” Landon said.
“That’s why she doesn’t know what’s going on, who was touching her,” Seager stated.
“Her head is bleeding. She has multiple injuries. We need paramedics in here now,” Conan yelled. He, Axel, Freddie, and Birdie were on the floor trying to assess her injuries. Her guttural cries before they broke into the penthouse, never mind the ones as they tried to touch her and tell her she was safe, would never be forgotten. They were almost too late.
The sight of Cobus holding her down with his pants undone, her naked body lifted as he was about to rape her, would haunt them forever. The paramedics arrived and the feds were there too now. It was over. They’d gotten to her in time, despite believing those pictures. Conan was disgusted with himself and his team. His brothers in arms felt the same way. If Elsie didn’t force herself into that car and drive to them, they never would have known the truth, and C.C. would have succumbed to Cobus’s control.
He felt the hand on his shoulder as C.C. was strapped onto the gurney by paramedics.
“You got to her in time. Just focus on that. Cobus is going to jail, for a very long time,” Caldron said to him, and Conan nodded. They all headed out to follow the ambulance. They would never fail C.C. again.
Epilogue
C.C. awoke to the cool breeze, and the sound of Aiden’s laughter. She cuddled up under the blanket, the cool fall temperatures and fresh air a nice contrast to that stuffy hospital bed and the smell of antiseptic. She blinked her eyes open, one still swollen, her body and especially her head in a lot of pain, but she was alive, and hadn’t been raped. The drugs were out of her system, and she was safe and at Birdie, Freddie, Conan, and Axel’s home. She looked toward the yard and saw Aiden throwing around a football with Birdie, as Elsie sat at a table talking to Seager, Law, Caldron, and Zinc. The sight brought tears to her eyes.
“Hey, beautiful,” Conan said, and she hadn’t even realized he was right there a few feet behind her as if sitting watch over her. The storm door to the porch opened, and Axel walked out with Freddie, holding a few beers.
Freddie smiled at her then leaned down to kiss her forehead. “Have a nice nap?” he asked, and she nodded but leaned back against the pillow. They’d set up a comfortable area back here to relax by.
Axel took the seat next to her as Birdie hurried to the porch to see her, too. Axel bent down to kiss her lips.
“I love you,” he said to her.
“I love you, too,” she said, just as they had all been saying to one another since she woke up in the hospital. Although, Elsie told her that when she was under the influence of drugs, she’d t
old them numerous times that she loved them, and would never stop loving them no matter what. She smiled, and absorbed it all, even Birdie kissing her hello. Then Aiden climbed up next to her to hug her, kiss her, and snuggle up close. A glance toward Elsie and the guys as they smiled and watched made her heart feel full and content. She rubbed Aiden’s head, and then glanced at her men, smiling before she leaned back, absorbing it all. She knew in that moment that she had finally gotten her some kind of wonderful, and every day would be a blessing, and all her burdens would be gone. She was in love, and had a family. Happiness finally filled her soul.
THE END
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Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Epilogue
Some Kind of Wonderful Page 15