by Hart, Eve R.
A couple of keystrokes later, I had a satellite image of the house and its surroundings.
“Older neighborhood. This house is for sale. Should I find out who owns it?” I wasn’t really sure what he wanted to do at this point.
“No,” he said, standing tall and pulling out his phone to take a picture of the house on my screen. “We ride. Now.”
Well, I sure as fuck wasn’t about to argue with that.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Claire
I woke to the sound of aggravated and angry male voices. There were two of them coming from another room in the house.
I was so tired and just wanted to go back to sleep but there was no way to ignore all the noise.
“You can’t use the same warehouse. Now what?”
That voice sounded familiar but I couldn’t swim out of the fogginess of my brain to place it. He must have been one of the top buyers. Yes, that was where I must have recognized it from.
“You don’t think I know that,” he snapped back at the man. “They don’t know where I held them but I wouldn’t take that chance now.”
“Good. I just wanted to make sure. After all, you still owe me money.”
What?
My mind started spinning with a million reasons why he would owe someone money. He seemed like the top-dog type, never wanted to be indebted to someone. No, he wanted people indebted to him. He wanted people to bend to his will and bow down at his feet. So it made me wonder why the hell he would let himself get into such a sticky position.
I shook my head and shifted as much as my restraints would allow me. The pounding in between my ears was killing me. And the noise from the other side of the door was only making it worse.
The voices got quiet for a moment and I breathed out a tiny sigh of relief.
It didn’t last long, because a moment later there were feet heading down the hall in the direction of this room. I should have braced myself in some way but I was too damn weak.
“Here,” he said as he pushed the door open.
I refused to open my eyes because I didn’t want to be blinded by the light pouring in from the hall. I’d grown used to the darkness already and every time someone entered the room, it was like a thousand little pins being shoved into my eyes at once.
“What is this?” the man said. I could tell that he hadn’t yet stepped into the room. “What have you done to her?”
“She’s just another junkie now,” he said like it was nothing. “It shouldn’t matter to you anyhow.”
“Fine,” the man snarled. “Give her a little. I don’t want her puking on me.”
I opened my eyes then. I knew that man. Yes, I’d seen him a few times at the ‘parties’ and I always thought he had this air about him like he owned the place. But he didn’t. He was there just like everyone else, or so I had assumed.
I knew the men that he kept at his side and this man wasn’t one of them.
What the hell was going on?
I tried my hardest to get my limbs to work as his men stretched my still chained body out on the floor. The carpet wasn’t even a little bit soft as it cradled my back while they held me down.
I closed my eyes again as someone picked up my arm and proceeded to find a vein that would work. When they couldn’t get any to cooperate, they went for my feet. I jerked, feeling the needle go in between my toes.
Holy fuck!
I would have taken anything at this point to end the pain but I hadn’t expected it to hurt that much.
“Here?” the man asked. “With all of them?”
“Yes. They will have to learn sometime. This could be their future, after all.”
“True,” the man said and then there was a pause. “Maybe they’ll get lucky and get to go home with someone much nicer than me.”
He let out a sadistic chuckle.
One that caused a shiver to skate down my already shaking spine.
“This will make up for the warehouse, then?” he asked the man as he moved to the dark corner and took a seat in the chair that had just been placed there.
“I suppose. As long as you don’t get in my way or try to stop me.”
“She is useless to me now.” He sounded bored but I knew he was actually excited to see what would happen to me.
“Gag her,” the man said and his eyes were cold. Terrifying.
I was held down, my limbs stretched to the point of pain. Something was shoved in my mouth, then there was duct tape there to hold it in.
I thought for just a second of how I could choke on the balled up piece of cloth filling the empty space in my mouth.
I thought how I could get out of what was to come.
I thought how the end was probably better than what this man wanted to do to me.
He pulled something out of his bag. I couldn’t really see right away with the dull overhead light. But when he let it hang down by his side, I knew I had been right.
His hand twitched slightly, making the tails of the flogger sway. The light clank of the pointy, metal tips rang out way too loudly in the room.
A muffled scream filled my ears and I realized it was mine.
I’d never felt fear like this.
And as his arm sliced down through the air in the direction of my body, I had never felt pain like this.
It felt like razor blades cutting open my flesh.
It burned.
It stung.
And it didn’t stop.
My body jerked and twitched with each hit. I felt like I was being flayed open with every crack. The high couldn’t even take me away this time. For some strange reason, it only seemed to magnify the fear in my head.
I didn’t have to look at my body to know how bad it was. I could feel the little trickles of blood running down all over and pooling in places that felt so strange. My belly button. The dip just below my throat. The hollowed out part of my hips.
I felt it run off my sides and begin to soak the carpet around me.
Words were spoken. Or maybe it was orders barked out. I couldn’t tell because I was currently floating somewhere between hell on earth and the hell down below.
A foot weighed heavy on the inside of my thigh, pushing it down so I was partially spread open.
Another crack, tearing open the soft flesh on my upper leg.
Another useless cry of pain tried its hardest to escape around the gag.
Another piece of my soul ripped away like it was nothing.
Whimpers and whines filled the air but not all of them came from me. And I wondered what was worse, to be the one receiving the pain or fear that you might receive the same.
I didn’t open my eyes but I felt the man closer now, kneeling next to me. His fingers glided along my skin and every time he grazed over my raw, open flesh, fresh tears leaked out of my eyes.
“You are so beautiful right now. A masterpiece, really. Shame I don’t get to keep you.” His face was right next to mine. His breath on my cheek. His scent in my nose, so strong it almost covered up the smell of the blood and urine and darkness.
His hand briefly wrapped around my throat. He didn’t squeeze, simply held it there like a sick sense of ownership. Of power.
Then his fingers were drifting down. Over my breast. Over my stomach. Over my pelvis. They glided like a skate on ice through the slick blood.
“So beautiful,” the man whispered sounding like he was in a half daze and the bile rose up my throat.
I feared I’d choke because it had nowhere to go but I also prayed that I’d die right then. How sad is that? I’d rather choke to death on my own vomit than take another second of this.
He touched me in places he had no right to. His finger slowly toyed with me so sadistically, slipping inside me with ease only because of the sticky, slick fluid that coated them from my opened wounds.
I kicked. I bucked. I twitched around even though I knew it was useless.
My eyes shot open to see that my fight only seemed to make him happier. A light flashed through h
is eyes as if my fight thrilled him in some sick way. Even though I saw it, I couldn’t seem to stop my body from moving uncontrollably wild trying to get free.
Somewhere beyond the clanging sound of my rattling chains, there was a noise.
Beyond all the muffled pleas and screams and whimpers, there was something that wasn’t planned for this room.
Beyond the hell that I wish I could escape, there was a crash. Almost like a rock flying through a window.
Then a flash so bright it blinded me and pop so loud it made me feel even more disoriented than I already was.
I couldn’t even wonder what the fuck because the room was suddenly tossed into chaos. I couldn’t see. I couldn’t hear over the ringing in my ears. I couldn’t do anything but roll over and try to move out of the way.
For a moment, I let myself drift off to another time and place.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Cable
I was riding in the first SUV with Iron, Knight, Ky, and Fitz.
Brand and B-ry were right behind us. Lake and Mason in the SUV taking up the rear.
There were five vehicles in total and a wave of brothers on bikes behind that. Since we had to go in on stealth mode, we parked two streets away to regroup. As we all gathered around Iron and Axe, I sure as hell hoped no one saw us and decided it would be a good idea to call the cops. It wasn’t like we didn’t stick out. But maybe that was something to worry with later because nothing was stopping us from getting to Keften right the fuck now.
I hoped to fuck Iron came up with a more nailed-down plan on the way over here.
“Masks on,” he said, having told us to grab our cold weather face covers before we loaded up. He rounded the back of the SUV and pulled out a huge duffel bag. “Faces covered. This isn’t going to be fun.”
He unzipped the bag and hot damn…
When the hell had he loaded up on this shit? And how?
Okay, really the how wasn’t that big of a deal. Arms dealer was only an arm’s length away from grenades and flashbangs and whatever else he might have hidden in that bag. It really wouldn’t have surprised me if he’d picked up a few contacts over the years. And maybe that stuff wasn’t all that hard to get your hands on but something told me those flashbangs weren’t civilian grade.
“Surround the house,” he said and then started listing where he wanted each of us to be.
We didn’t do this thing on the regular. We didn’t have a bunch of tactical gear. We didn’t have helmets or body protective vests. We didn’t even have ear comms. Not that we would have sounded remotely cool trying to use them.
“First, we find out what room the majority of them are in. We start there. Seven, Lake, Brand, Mouse— you’ll be going in through the windows. Don’t get cut the fuck up.”
Ky, Bocca, and Axe had the front door with the brothers from South Carolina. B-ry and I had the back door with two of the brothers from West Tenn, Brass from Gray Fort, and half of ours. Which left Knight and Mason to take the garage with the other half of our chapter along with the rest of Moon Hill. Sketch was with me and I wasn’t so sure how I felt about that. I probably should have picked a better time than now to tell him about Claire but the talk Iron and I were going to have with him sort of kept getting put on the back burner. Or, you know, forgotten about in all the chaos.
Just as I opened my mouth, Iron spoke again.
“Sketch,” he said low and calm causing the skinny, tattooed kid to stand up straight and give the Prez his full attention. “Claire might be in there. Need you to keep a level head. Don’t know if she’s working for him or just caught up in somethin’.”
For a moment, Sketch looked as if he wanted to be sick. I knew the thoughts that were going through his head because they had once gone through mine.
I laid a comforting hand on his shoulder and when I didn’t think that was enough, I spoke low in his direction.
“You need to focus, brother. We gotta end this Keften shit. We need to get her out. You know Claire in your heart, don’t let your head play tricks on you and believe something you know would never be true.”
I wasn’t sure if it made any sense. And I could have almost punched my Prez for saying that Claire could have been working for Keften.
But then again…
Claire knew the streets.
Claire seemed desperate for a way out given her past patterns.
But somehow, I just knew she wasn’t that type of person. That she’d never wish harm on another soul.
“Get Keften,” Iron said. “That is our number one priority. Kill anyone that stands in your way.”
“Then we save the girls?” Mouse asked like he felt the need for it to be said.
“Jesus, fuck,” Iron said under his breath. “Yes, then we save the girls.”
His eyes danced over each of us as we stood around him waiting for him to indicate that he was done. He gave a slow nod like he was acknowledging the fact that we were all ready to go.
“Head in the game. Everyone.” He looked right at Sketch as he spoke those words. With a nod, we all suited up as best as we could. “It’s gonna be cramped for a minute.”
We all piled into the SUVs like a bunch of damn sardines.
The house was dark, all the windows covered up like the one before.
“This thing you got can see through walls?” Iron asked.
“Sort of,” I said. “It has to be right on the wall and it can tell if there is movement on the other side. It can also tell different types of movement. However, it doesn’t have a very long range.”
I did a lot of research before buying this thing. I’d been joking with Bridget thinking about one of those thermal radar guns. But those can’t see through walls. However, I was able to find something that could. Sort of. The technology on it wasn’t that great, but I figured something might be better than nothing. If I could get close enough to the house, I could do a walk around and get an idea of where the most movement was coming from. I figured that was about all we needed before we went in.
“Okay. You better know what the fuck you’re doing.”
“I do,” I said though I wasn’t so confident. “Cameras?” I asked Bocca who was scanning the area with a night vision scope.
“None on the front. No movement outside either,” he answered.
“Maybe he hasn’t been here long enough to set anything up,” I said but didn’t want to let myself believe it. Didn’t want to be caught off guard, that was for sure. “I’ll let you know.”
I hopped out of the SUV. I wasn’t the smoothest of guys but I knew how to use this thing better than anyone else here. Which wasn’t really saying much.
Like using a stud finder, I silently dragged the device from one corner of the house to the other, taking note of what I saw on the screen.
Bingo!
The back right corner of the house had the most movement.
I only hoped that one of them was Keften. But it did tell me that we needed the majority of our focus there. It could have been a room full of his men and we needed to be prepared for that.
I continued around the house, finding some movement in other spots, but it wasn’t much. I had no clue about rooms that were further in or any of the halls. And as for the upstairs, well, I couldn’t scale buildings.
I made my way back to where everyone else was waiting. A few quick sentences and everyone was filled in on what I’d found.
It wasn’t perfect or one hundred percent, but something was better than nothing.
Or so I hoped to fuck it was.
No turning back now.
In…
Three.
Two.
One.
Several windows broke at the same time we breached the door. I tossed in a ready flashbang, turned my back, and waited.
Pops went off all around. Light flashed blinking like quick Christmas lights from every direction.
Yep. Someone was going to be hitting up 9-1-1 about now.
Then we were
in, our masks keeping the dust and shit from the flashbangs from clogging our throats and lungs.
“Clear,” I called out as I scanned every inch of the kitchen with my gun raised and ready.
Pop. Pop.
I fired before I even blinked as I entered the next room to find a man stumbling around.
He dropped right where he stood and I didn’t have a second to check who he was. I doubted Keften would be alone in a room. And I felt it in my gut that he was in that room in the back. The one I was slowly making my way to.
“Clear,” Knight called out as we met in the main room. “Stairs.” He nodded to me indicating I should go the opposite way because he and his group had the upstairs covered.
A quick pat on B-ry’s back and we were moving.
“Mother fuck!” I roared as someone came busting out of a closet in the hall right as I was about to open the door.
My back hit the opposite wall no doubt leaving a nice size dent in the drywall.
Before I could get my bearings straight, I had a knife in my gut.
“Hello?!” I called out not believing this skinny fuck as he tried to stab me again. I was like twice his size. And why the hell did Keften keep someone like him around anyway? I almost felt bad about…
Pop.
Right between the eyes.
So close that I now had blood and brain matter splattered all over me. Thank fuck for the face mask, at least I didn’t get that shit in my mouth.
“You alright, brother?” B-ry asked and I wondered where the fuck Sketch was. The one that was supposed to be watching my back.
I didn’t have time to be pissed about it.
I was still standing, it was all good.
“Yeah,” I grunted as I reached down to check my wound.
It wasn’t too deep. I’d live. If I made it out of here, that was.
“One more room.” I nodded at B-ry and we were moving again.
“Clear,” he called out after he’d checked the closet in the corner just to be on the safe side.
“Claire!” I heard Sketch call out and I knew where the fuck he’d gone to.
With the crushing desperation and heartbreak in his voice, I knew I just had to let it go.