“We’re getting married this weekend. We’re not waiting another minute. We can have a big celebration later, but right now, I want to make you my wife.”
“I want that too.” She gave me a radiant smile. “We’re having a baby!”
I had to get her back. The thought of losing her was too much to bear, but knowing that she was pregnant was even worse. And Becky said it looked like they had shot her. I closed my eyes and fought off the nausea that was building. Dark thoughts crept into my head, reminding me of the last time I thought I had lost her. I wouldn’t go down that road again. I made a promise to her and there was no way I would let her down.
Maggie
I was just putting Caitlin down for the night when I heard what sounded like a window breaking. Stepping into the hallway, I peered around the corner and saw a shadow moving downstairs. I quickly shut Caitlin’s door and crept across the hall to my bedroom, quickly grabbing Sebastian’s gun that he kept in the nightstand. It was heavier than the one that I used at the range, but I didn’t have time to get to the safe and get it out.
I crept down the hallway, my gun firmly gripped in my hand. I took a deep breath as I started down the stairs.
“Let’s get the bitch and get out of here.”
“What about the kid?”
“We only have a few minutes. We need to get out of here fast.”
My pulse thundered against the skin of my neck. I looked back up in the direction of Caitlin’s room. I didn’t want to leave her here alone, but I definitely didn’t want whoever this was to have her. If I could distract them long enough, maybe they would just take me. I wished that Sebastian was here with me right now. As much as I prided myself on being able to hold my own, this was totally different. My daughter was involved and I couldn’t let them get their hands on her.
Taking a deep breath, I spun around the corner and fired at the first man, hitting him in the shoulder as the other man raised his gun. I barely had time to duck back behind the wall before the bullet flew past me. I took a few deep breaths and spun back around, firing as I went. The guys were hiding behind some furniture, but if I could keep them pinned down for just a few minutes, someone might get here in time to help. I was careful with my shots, not wanting to waste any bullets, but I was running out of time.
“Come on, Sebastian,” I whispered to myself as I prepared to fire my last shot. I had to make it count. “I’m out. Don’t shoot,” I shouted.
“Come out with your hands up,” one of them yelled.
I stepped out from behind the wall and prayed that they wouldn’t shoot me. I bent down like I was going to put my gun down and watched as the men stepped closer to me. I took a deep breath and whipped the gun upright, firing my last shot into the man’s chest. His gun went off, hitting far right in the wall and the other man stepped out, blood dripping from his arm. His gun was trained on me.
“Drop the gun right now or I’ll shoot you.”
I dropped the gun immediately and yelped when he yanked my arm behind my back. I wanted to fight back. Everything inside me screamed to fight, but if I didn’t kill him, he might go after Caitlin and I couldn’t let that happen. I stumbled along as he dragged me out of the house and flung me in the back seat. I went for his gun at the last second, but he was faster and pulled his arm back, hitting me hard in the head with the gun. I fell back against the seat and tried to keep my eyes open, but I couldn’t fight the overwhelming desire to drift off.
Cap
Sinner and I crept through the darkness of my yard to the front door that was standing open. Sinner looked over at me, nodding that he was ready to enter and I nodded, ready to find out what happened to my family. Sinner entered first, gun drawn and ready to fire. I entered second, my back to his as we started to clear the first floor. I stepped on some broken glass the was scattered on the floor, the sound echoing throughout the house.
“Don’t shoot, Cap.” Sinner and I both spun toward the sound, but lowered our weapons when we saw Chance at the foot of the stairs. Just feet in front of him was a man lying on the ground giving the thousand yard stare. The blood pooling under him stained the floor red, but I didn’t give a shit. I was just thankful it wasn’t Maggie.
“Where are my girls?” I croaked out.
Jackson came walking down the stairs carrying Caitlin. Her head was resting on his shoulder and her thumb was popped in her mouth. Her unicorn doll was tucked tightly in the crook of her elbow. I walked over quickly, holstering my firearm before taking her gently from Jackson. I breathed in her scent and kissed the beautiful curls on the top of her head. She appeared completely fine, just a little grumpy from being woken up in the middle of the night.
“Maggie?” I asked hopefully.
Chance shook his head. “No sign of her Cap. I called Becky and had her pull up the footage. It looks like she was trying to get taken so they wouldn’t go after Caitlin.”
My eyes slid closed as I held my daughter tighter. For all that Maggie and I went through over our little peanut, I had no doubt that she loved her daughter unconditionally and would do anything for her. Even get taken on purpose.
I nodded and looked around the house. As I held my daughter in my arms, I suddenly found myself unable to make a decision to save my life. To save Maggie’s life. I was at a complete loss right now, torn between needing to find Maggie and wanting to hold onto my child and make sure nothing ever happened to her.
“We should head back to Reed Security, Cap. We’re all meeting back there to find out anything we can,” Chance said persistently. I nodded, knowing that was the right thing to do.
“I’ll grab a bag for Caitlin,” Sinner mumbled as he ran upstairs. Chance, Jackson, and Gabe stood watching me, probably waiting for me to say something, anything. I was in some kind of haze though. When Sinner came back down, he pulled at my arm and motioned for the other guys to follow.
“Come on,” Sinner said. “Let’s get over to Reed Security. I’m sure Cara would be willing to watch Caitlin. Sean was taking her over there with Lillian. He’s trying to track a plate that Hunter got.”
I quickly strapped Caitlin in the back and got in the passenger seat, not even arguing when Sinner took over. I glanced back at the house and cursed myself for having left my family when they needed me most.
We were pulling into the garage of Reed Security in a flash and Sinner was out, unbuckling Caitlin before I even had a chance to unbuckle my own seat belt. He walked over to me and I reached for Caitlin, but he shook his head.
“You need to get your shit together. I’ll take care of Caitlin.”
“Sinner, hand over my child before I fire your ass.”
He snorted and shook his head. “Yeah, like I haven’t heard that one before.”
“I’m serious. Give me Caitlin.”
“I’m serious too, Cap. Freckles is waiting for you to get her away from those assholes. You’re the fucking boss. Get your ass in gear.”
“Hey, language,” I snapped, glancing at Caitlin.
“Sorry. Get your derrière in gear.”
I glowered at him as he strolled off with my daughter like he owned the fucking place. He was right though. I needed to pull my head out of my ass and figure out how to get Maggie back. Not to mention, I had no idea what was going on with everyone else’s family. I took a long, deep breath and blew it out, then headed for the elevator where Sinner was waiting. I punched in the code and rode the elevator up to the main floor of the building. When we stepped off, I took an inventory of who was here.
Cara rushed over to Sinner and gave him a big hug, then held out her arms for Caitlin. Sinner mumbled something to her about watching over her and told her where I kept all of Caitlin’s things for when she was here. I watched as Caitlin was carried off to the other room, with Lucy, Claire, Lillian, and Alex following, and then turned back to my men.
“Status report,” I barked.
Cazzo cleared his throat and stepped forward. “Vanessa, Kate, and Maggie were taken. E
veryone else is safe, but they hit everyone at Reed Security. So far, we have one license plate, but no hits on it yet. Sean’s been coordinating with the police department to try and locate the vehicle. We’ve also reached out to several contacts in Pittsburgh, looking for information on where the gangs would take hostages. We haven’t heard back yet, but it’s still a little early.”
“Cazzo, I assume your house is no longer safe?” He shook his head. “We can’t stay here. Our location is too public. We need to head for the safe house and work out a plan.”
“We need to find them,” Knight growled.
“We’re not going to do ourselves any favors by running out of here half cocked.”
“I do things my own way,” Knight said as he stepped toward me. This was the Knight that I knew from before. He was no longer the man that worked with us day in and day out, but the ruthless killer that would go to any lengths to achieve his goals.
“I’ll gladly do things your way, but we need information. There are three lives at stake here and a helluva lot more if things don’t go our way. Besides, the Night Kings would have gone someplace familiar, which is Pittsburgh. Our safe house will put us right outside the city. That’s a much easier distance to deal with this situation.”
Knight stared me down, but I refused to give in. This was my goddamned company and I had just as much at stake as him. If he went off on his own, this would end very badly for the rest of us. He finally nodded and stood down.
“Now, we need to load up as many vehicles as possible. There’s no way this ends in any way other than a hail of bullets. We have the safe house fully stocked, but I want to be damn sure that we’re fully prepared. Let’s get loaded up and then we’ll get out of here.”
“Are we taking different routes?” Derek asked.
“It’s a toss up. We’re safer together, but if we all drive together, we’re flashing a fucking signal in their faces if they’re watching for us. They planned this attack early on. The two men we took earlier today were decoys. They wanted us to take them so that we would be split up. They know that we’ll retaliate and hit them hard, so they’ll be watching for us.”
“They probably have lookouts on all roads leading into Pittsburgh,” Cazzo said. “I say we stick together. With how many women we’re guarding, we can’t protect all of them and ourselves if we’re split up. There’s just not enough of us.”
“I agree,” I said with a nod. “Cole, can you stay at the safe house with the women?”
“Fuck no,” he said fiercely. “They took my cousin. You can fucking bet that I’m going to get her back. I’m still in top shape. You don’t have to worry about me.”
“Never did,” I grinned. I still wished that I could have talked him into working for me, but I knew that wouldn’t happen.
“This is gonna be like driving in a fucking convoy in the desert,” Burg grumbled.
“Did I miss the party?” I turned around to see Lola quirking an eyebrow at me. “I’m gone on vacation for a few months and you’re already needing me to come back and clean up your mess.”
“We have a situation that we need to take care of.”
“I’ve heard. What did Maggie do this time?” she asked.
“Why does everyone always assume it’s Maggie?” I asked Sinner.
“Well, come on, Cap. If she’s not the cause, she’s involved still.”
“It’s not Maggie. This time. Now that everyone’s here, let’s get on the road and get our women back.”
✯✯✯✯✯
We pulled out of Reed Security and headed for the safe house. I saw the motorcycles as soon as we reached the gates. They were waiting for us, hoping to tail us wherever we were going. I had Sinner in the SUV with me and his wife, Cara in the back with Lillian. Sean stayed back in town so he could coordinate with the police department and feed us any information he could. He had contacts in Pittsburgh that could get us information faster than our contacts could.
“Did you see them?”
“Yeah, I saw them,” Sinner grinned. “They’re really fucking stupid if they thought we wouldn’t.”
“Message the other guys. Let them know we’re going to split up and try to lose them heading out of town. We’ll meet up at Old Woody Bridge.”
“Gotcha, Cap.”
I split off from the other guys, weaving my way in and out of traffic. Only one motorcycle followed me and I planned to ditch his ass long before we reached the outskirts of town. I got in the left turn lane and waited for the light to turn red before gunning it through the intersection. The cross traffic had already picked up and the motorcycle didn’t have time to cut across.
“That was too fucking easy,” Sinner said.
“Well, we’re not clear yet,” I said as I turned back down another road, heading in the opposite direction. I had to weave my way through the city to make sure no one could tell where we were headed. Although, there was really only one direction we would go and that was towards Pittsburgh. We just had to keep all of the Night Kings from knowing which route we would be taking so that we could make it to the safe house unseen.
Sinner’s phone rang and he answered it cheerily. “Sinner from Reed Security. How may I help you?…Sounds good, man. Thanks for the help.” He hung up and grinned at me. “Sean spotted the motorcycles and called in a suspicious activity report. The cops are pulling the rest of them over now. We should be able to sneak out.”
“They’re still going to have scouts on all the roads leading out of town.”
“Yeah, but at least we won’t have their whole crew breathing down our necks.” He tsked as he shook his head. “It’s a shame. Freckles is gonna be pissed that she missed all the action.”
“What action? We haven’t done anything but slip a motorcycle.”
“Aw, come on, Cap. Don’t you want to try out our new toy?”
“You’re not getting your hands on that gun.”
“Don’t be like that.”
“We haven’t been able to fully test it yet. You’ll end up making a bigger mess than we’re in now.”
“You’re no fun,” he grumbled as he sank back in his seat.
We headed out of town toward Old Woody Bridge and saw the other SUVs headed toward us.
“Looks like everyone’s arrived.” Sinner was counting vehicles and then sighed as he sat back. “That wasn’t nearly as thrilling as I thought it would be.”
I rolled my eyes at him. These guys had gotten way too used to the extra action we had seen over the past few years and they were chomping at the bit for some more. I had a feeling they would be seeing plenty.
“You seem to have snapped out of your earlier haze,” he commented as we drove down the country road.
I was still scared as hell, but he had been right earlier. Maggie was counting on me to get her out and I couldn’t do that if I was letting the fear take over. “Come on. It’s Freckles. She’s probably giving them so much hell that they’ll hand her back just so they don’t have to put up with her.” Or kill her.
“Well, let’s just hope her mouth doesn’t get the better of her.”
I was looking out in the distance off to the left, but my left eye just wasn’t as sharp. I was practically blind in one eye. “Am I imagining things or do we have company headed our way.”
Sinner pulled out some binoculars and checked it out. “Looks like someone saw what direction we were headed. I count two pickup trucks and a few motorcycles.”
“That’s what they’re going to try and take us out with?”
He scanned the horizon in the other direction. “Make that another four trucks and a few more motorcycles.” He dropped his binoculars and grinned at me. “Come on, Cap. You know you want to let me.”
“No, I really don’t.”
“Aww, don’t be like that. You know you want it as bad as I do.”
“Actually, I’d prefer a nice, quiet drive out to the safe house.”
“What are you guys talking about up there?” Cara as
ked from the third row.
“We’ve got company,” Sinner said excitedly.
“Are we in danger?” Lillian asked.
“Yep,” Sinner said a little too cheerily.
“What should we do?” I could hear the fear in Cara’s voice and so could Sinner because his face instantly softened.
“You don’t have anything to worry about. All of these vehicles are bullet resistant and we have a new secret weapon.”
“No, we don’t,” I said testily.
“Yes, we do.” He was trying to reassure them and I knew that, but I didn’t want him pulling that thing out now of all times. It would be different if Knight was in the vehicle with us.
Sinner’s phone rang again and he picked up on the first ring. “Yeah, we see them, also…I know. Perfect timing, right?…Well, I told Cap it was the perfect time to break it out, but he doesn’t seem to think it is…Yeah, well you try telling him that.”
“Put it on speaker,” I demanded. Sinner did as I said.
“Cap, now is not the time to fuck around,” Cazzo said. “We need to take these guys out fast so we can get to the safe house.”
“Yeah, but…” I glanced over at Sinner. “It’s Sinner. He’s the one that’ll be using it.”
“It’ll be fine, Cap. Let’s get this shit done.”
“Fine, but I don’t want to hear any bitching when it goes sideways.”
Cazzo hung up and I sighed. Sinner was practically bouncing in the seat next to me.
“So? Can I? Can I? Can I?” he asked excitedly.
“Yes, but try not to kill any of us. I would hate for us to die on the way to the safe house.”
“Cap, you totally underestimate me.”
“That’s because I’ve seen you with your new toys. This is such a bad idea,” I muttered to myself. Sinner climbed into the back and started pressing buttons. I felt the whoosh of air as the roof opened and the machine gun raised up to the top of the roof.
Whiskey: A Reed Security Romance (Reed Security Series Book 7) Page 8