He nods his head and sitting back down in his chair, he studies the map while I head to my room to gather my fire power.
***
Chapter Twenty
Piper
I lost all the sensation in my face when I took that blow from the guy who raped me. I know the feeling will come back and that it will take time, but it is scary. I think we have been here for three days, four tops, because my body is crying out for food. The pain in my ribs has not lessoned any. Nothing can be done for broken ribs but to wrap them, so my concern is my face, and if my jaw needs to be wired shut or not, and if I will require corrective surgery. This is what worries me the most.
“Piper, I’m worried about my kidneys,” Jinx whispers.
Whispering has been our only form of communication. When and if we get out of this, it will be a long time before we both stop with the whispers. Feeling threatened does that to you. Afraid if you speak too loud, it will result in another beating or rape. We’ve been lucky. We haven’t been touched sexually for a few days. I assume they are too busy trying to get whatever they want from Breakneck. I have been strong up until this point, but my mental stability is threatened more with each passing moment.
“Faith, Jinx.”
I have little left to give her and telling her to have a little faith makes me feel like a dirty liar. And I hate lying, and false hope is just that, lying.
“I ran out of faith the second day.”
I turn over on the cold concrete and sob my fears out in silence so she doesn’t stress out even more. I thought I would be able to come out of this, but this time is different. The first time I was drugged so much that I could barely remember anything, but this time, I am completely sober, and every second that goes by that we are down in this basement is burned into my memory.
Everyone thinks I am this easy going person and I was. I can no longer say I still am. This time I will be forever changed. It does not make me weak. It makes me human. I was easy going and lived life to the fullest because of the years I lost. Not being able to remember is the one thing that made it easy to move on with my life.
I pray Sniper loves me enough and isn’t so angry he is not out there looking for us. I regret our last conversation and the things we did not resolve. I guess, deep down, a part of me knows he is doing everything he can to bring me home, but when you have been through all the things I have, you learn to doubt everything and everyone.
It is all about self-preservation.
If he happens to save my miserable sorry ass once again, I am going to kiss him on the lips, say thank you, and then I will sleep forever.
“Piper?”
“Yeah, Jinxie,” I mumble.
I hear her stir about. “If we get out of this, I want the biggest, fattest steak ever, and I’m a vegetarian.”
I giggle for the first time in days. “You aren’t anymore, huh?”
“Hell no,” she whispers. “I understand the food chain now.”
I don’t laugh because being in a position such as ours, you learn to appreciate the stupidest things.
“I’ll buy an entire cow for you,” I say.
Jinx says nothing back and I assume she is falling asleep. Rest is key to our survival now.
I close my eyes and picture my badass biker best friend who, now that I am fucking dying of thirst and starvation, I realize I may be in love with. Our photo booth fun flashes in my mind and tears form in my eyes. That was one of the best days of my life. I had that giant biker laughing, smiling, and enjoying life that day. His beautiful sun bleached hair spiked up, his gray eyes twinkling, and his straight white teeth smiling into the camera as I made faces. The screen on the photo booth reflected our images back at us and counted down the seconds each time it went to snap the picture, and I would do something crazy stupid like always.
“Piper, you’re a fuckin’ nut job,” he teases.
I fake hurt until he falls for it, and when he goes to embrace me in a hug, I reach up and run my tongue along his cheek.
“Darlin’, if you’re gonna run that tongue on somethin’, it needs to be below the belt line,” he growls playfully.
“Shut up and take pictures with me, Snipe.”
He wraps his large, muscular arms around me and laughs into the camera. “Better?”
I squeeze him back. “Yes, thank you.”
He leans down and kisses the top of my head. “Anythin’ for you, darlin’,” he whispers into my hair.
With that memory, I sit up and reach for Jinx’s chain to wiggle it. “Jinx, wake up,” I whisper.
She startles, sits up, and whispers, “What?”
I gulp and shake as I form a plan and voice it to her. “I can’t stay here. I have a man to get back to. We have gotta get out of here.”
The sound of her sitting up echoes. “Tell me,” she whispers back with excitement.
“We’re in a basement. Start feeling around the ground and walls for something sharp and small enough for me to pick these locks.”
She gasps. “You know how to do that?”
No, but I remember Winter telling me if it is quiet enough, you can hear the mechanism click. “Yes,” I lie. I want her motivated.
I listen to the sounds upstairs as we search as far as our chains will allow. I have only noticed two sets of footsteps over the past day. If I am hearing correctly, I can take them both out or sneak me and Jinx out while they aren’t paying attention.
“How will we get out of the basement?”
I will myself not to get aggravated with her because she has been too frightened to pay attention to anything.
“They haven’t been locking the door. We’re chained up. They think we’re stuck down here.”
If you could hear smiles, I am sure I would be hearing one from her right now.
***
Hours fly by and we take turns holding up the chains so they don’t rattle and make noise. When I think all hope is lost, Jinx saves the day with an item angels had to bestow upon us.
“A wrench. Can you believe it,” she whispers with a hiss.
We have been stuck down here for days, raped, starved, and thirsty, and there was a damn wrench down here the entire time. I will not be upset, I repeat over and over in my head. She found it, and now I can get us the hell out of here.
“How will we use a wrench?”
This is where surfing the web with Tatiana for information on dungeons, chains, and other BDSM shit comes in handy for us.
“Stand up, but be quiet. Hold your chain up and walk to where the chain meets the wall,” I say quietly while I do the same. “Now, feel the metal bracket that is bolted to the wall. You feel the nuts?”
My fingers graze four nuts, one on each corner of the metal piece. They stick out enough for me to be able to work them. “Jinx, listen to me with care. I am going to concentrate on loosening my bolts, and you have got to listen to the footsteps upstairs. If you hear someone nearing the basement door, stop me, and we have to act as we have been, okay?”
The wrench slides across the floor, and I reach down and feel for it.
“You best believe I’ll be paying attention. Get us the hell out of here,” she says with glee.
I take quiet steps back to the wall and work to loosen the first bolt. These chains are new, and I believe whoever installed them left tools lying around on accident, and their stupidity might have saved me and Jinx. There is no rust or decay around the nuts so they ease out without a fight. I bend down and set the bracket and bolt on the floor and wrap the chain around one arm as if it is a hose I am winding up.
Once I reach Jinx, she hugs me and I squeeze her back.
“Now get me loose, please. I’m unnerved.”
I smile. “Keep listening, Jinxie.”
I believe in guardian angels after this experience. The bolts on Jinx’s plate come out even easier than my own did. After I help her roll her chain around her arm, I remove the cardboard covering the basement window. Light pours in, and when Jinx l
ooks at me, tears stream down her face. I bring my free hand to my face. “That bad, huh?”
She brings her hand up to cover mine and says something that breaks my heart. “It’s just a face, Piper,” she whispers and moves her hand to my heart. “It’s what’s in here that matters.”
“Thank you.” It takes everything in me not to start sobbing. “When I open that basement door, Jinx, you take off running and find an exit. Don’t wait for me. If I don’t make it out, you keep going, and you get help, all right?”
She shakes her head in disbelief. “I am not fucking leaving you. Are you nuts!”
I put my hand over her mouth. “Shh… my poor language is rubbing off on you, Jinxie,” I try to joke. “Do you think I have a best friend who is a trained sniper and he hasn’t taught me how to defend myself? I will be fine. I promise.”
“I’ll run until my body won’t allow it.”
I take a deep breath. “Let’s do this. I’m ready to go home.”
Our footsteps are quiet as we near the stairs. This is where we have to be careful. The steps are creaky. We know this from the visits from the guy who raped and beat us. “When I open that door, I want them to think I am the only one loose. I am going to distract whoever is up there, and you find an exit and get the hell out.”
She sucks in air. “I promise.”
“This is it. Stay behind me and don’t drop your chain. I know it’s heavy, but our lives depend on it. Stay on the edge of the steps. Don’t step in the middle of them.”
I don’t wait for her to say anything else. It’s time to do this thing. When I reach the top and I am sure Jinx is right behind me, I take a deep breath and fling the door open.
Curses erupt and footsteps pound through the house.
“Run Jinxie,” I yell.
She runs past me down a hallway while a Hispanic man tries to wrap his hands around my throat. I kick his knee cap as hard as I can. I wish I knew Spanish because another one is screaming at me as he comes into the room. When the one drops to his knees, I turn and run into the one cursing in Spanish. I use the arm loaded down with the chain and swing with all my might towards his head. When the metal meets his face, blood flies out of his nose and mouth, and he falls to the floor, unconscious. I don’t wait. I turn to run away, but the first guy is getting back up, and I know if I don’t hurt him, he’ll be right back on my tail. I kick him in the balls to make sure he stays down. I stoop down behind him, wrap the chain around his neck, and tighten it with all my might. His fingers claw at the metal links, attempting to ease between it and his neck. When his smell hits my nostrils, I realize this is the same one that raped me and Jinx. I use that anger as my strength.
“You sick fuck,” I scream and twist the chain so much, the cuff at my ankle jerks and pulls as he struggles. “I told you I would kill you!”
In that moment, I have an outer body experience. I float, and it is like I am staring down at myself as I kill this man. I keep going even when his face and body go slack and he falls to the ground, taking me with him. Something inside of me won’t let me stop. Anger. Red blooded anger.
It isn’t until arms wrap around me that I am jerked back to reality. I start screaming and struggling. No! I was almost away. I kick and scream at the top of my lungs at the person who has me in a tight bear grip.
“Piper,” the voice says. I don’t recognize it, but his voice saying my name settles me. Something about it makes me feel safe.
“Who are you?” I sob as I stop fighting the stranger.
His arms loosen and he turns me around, and I am greeted by the most beautiful older man I have ever seen. “I’m Juan.”
The cries grow stronger and pour from my body. Breakneck’s informant. “I’m safe, I’m safe,” I cry. Oh my god. “Jinx!”
Juan picks me up as I cry out and carries me outside to a black SUV. “There she is,” he says as he places me inside the backseat.
“Piper! You made it!” she screams and wraps me into her arms, and we cry together as Juan gets into the front seat.
“We gotta go ladies. Others will be here any minute. I’ve been scoping this place out for days. The guys should be making their rounds anytime now.”
“Thank you!” Jinx cries into my shoulder, and I know it is directed at me and Juan.
“Piper… I imagine you want to call, Sniper, yeah?”
Oh god, do I!
“Please!”
Jinx loosens her grip and allows me to take the phone from Juan. I dial the last known prepay number of his and pray he hasn’t disposed of it yet.
***
Chapter Twenty One
Sniper
I am loading my guns into my saddlebag along with boxes of ammo when my phone rings. I dig it out of my pocket but don’t recognize the number.
“Breaker,” I grumble into the phone.
A sweet sounding gasp comes through the line.
“Darlin’?”
It can’t be. It fucking can’t be her. Is it her? Please say something!
“Snipe… oh god. Say it again,” she pleads.
“Braxxon,” I scream at the top of my lungs to signal my brother. “God, darlin’, where are you? Tell me,” I plead.
She exhales. “Jinx and I are in Juan’s SUV. He’s taking us somewhere safe.”
I have never been gladder to know that motherfucking ghost.
“Thank fuck, baby. Are you in one piece?”
Please say yes, say yes!
A sob escapes her, and my grip tightens around my phone.
“You should talk to Juan now,” she says when she gets control of her emotions.
I don’t want to talk to Juan. Fuck!
“Sniper, man,” Juan says into the phone, but it isn’t Juan’s voice. What the fuck is going on?
“This ain’t fucking Juan. Juan has a goddamn accent. Who the fuck has my girl?” I seethe into the phone.
“Sniper, chill,” he says in the accent I am familiar with. “Better. It’s fake man. I am going to text you an address. Meet us there and bring the Doc and his son.”
When my brother comes running up to me, my face explains it all, and he snaps his fingers to our brothers standing around the compound parking lot.
“Juan… how bad? One to ten for wounds,” I question.
“Nine,” he says without hesitation.
I close my eyes and scream curses. When I am in control again, I ask my next question. “And my Piper’s mental state, same scale?”
Juan is smart, and I trust his answers.
“Twenty, man,” he sighs without his fake accent.
I bring my free hand up to the bridge of my nose and squeeze. “She’s being tough and trying to mask it, isn’t she?”
He doesn’t know her, but Juan hasn’t stayed a ghost all of these years without some smarts about him.
“For a matter of time. Don’t know for how long,” he says vaguely.
“Text me the address, and Juan, I can’t thank you enough, man.”
He doesn’t respond. He does what Juan always does. He hangs up, and I follow, staring at my screen, waiting for the address to come so I can get to my girl.
“Call the Doc and his son. Juan said it's bad. I don’t know about Jinx. Fuck. I forgot.”
My brother starts ordering people around, and Pyro calls up the Doc. ZZ orders Storm to let Berry know and to keep the commotion quiet for fear of Winter finding out.
When my address is the one that comes through, I tilt my phone up so my brother can see.
“If he wasn’t so fucking useful, I’d say this shit is a problem.” He chuckles.
I honestly don’t care. He has my woman, and I am going to her.
“Pyro, load up Ripley and Akela and follow behind us. Plans are still the same. They can’t heal with one another. They will feed off of each other’s emotions, and I want them to deal with this shit in their own ways,” my brother orders.
“Go get my best friend, Sniper,” Storm says while handing me Piper’s phone
. “When the time is right, I want a call from her, please.”
I agree, take the phone, and tuck it in my back pocket.
***
When everyone pulls into my drive way, I am the first one up my sidewalk and through the door. The sight of the person standing in front of me halts me right in the doorway which causes Braxxon to slam into my back. He lets out a curse.
“Pop,” we both say in unison with a strong tone of total disbelief.
This can’t be. We watched him die from an infection. We fucking have his ashes.
“I went ghost, I guess you could say. The originals know who I am.”
You mean to tell me that our older members fucking watched us grieve over our father and knew all along the fucker was alive?
“What in the fuck,” ZZ shouts. “Uncle Breaker?”
Our father shrugs. “Get over the shock. I’ve dosed the girls with hot tea and a little sleepy time drug. They’re asleep on your bed, son. Now if you motherfucking slackers could help me get these chains off their ankles, that’d be great.”
Chains?
I take off running to my room and growl as I see my best friend's face when I reach the bed.
“Oh my gosh,” Akela says and pushes me out of the way. “Ripley, babe, get over here,” Akela calls and then looks at me. “She’s a nurse. Now get out of the way!”
I turn around to punch my wall, but my fist is caught midair in my pop’s hand. “Uh, no. You’ll wake them.” He hands me a lock pick set and my mind is set on freeing my darling.
I scurry over to the bed, and with gentle ease, lean at the foot while my father sits on the other side to work on Jinx’s ankle. Blood is caked all over the metal that graces her beautiful, slender ankle, and when I hear the mechanism click and the shackle falls away, I can’t stop the tear that slides down my face. Biker or not, my heart is breaking.
“Thank you, Pop,” I say, chocked up.
Discovering Me (Breakneck #4) Page 11