She read between the lines of his statement. Rock probably wouldn’t be leaving their custody alive and the Raptors would eventually figure it out. She would be the first suspect if she acted shifty.
She shook her head. “I don’t give a shit about that right now. I want to know where my sister is, so let’s just go.” She tried to walk around him to the truck, but he grabbed her arm.
“You need to cool off. You are running on pure rage right now.”
She glared up at him. “Wouldn’t you be?”
He jerked a thumb at the bed. “Yeah, I get it, but he’s unconscious. He isn’t saying shit to nobody for a couple of hours. You won’t be missing a damn thing.” He handed her his keys. “Can you drive my bike?”
She took the keys, reluctantly, and nodded. “I think so.” Damn. He has a point. Cowboy had hit him pretty hard. All she could do was sit and stare at Rock’s unconscious body until he surfaced again.
“Good. I texted the club after you ran outside. Shep and Pretty Boy are headed over in a cage.” She remembered the term cage from her research. All bikers called other modes of transportation cages. “Pretty Boy will discreetly drive Rock’s bike out of here and we’ll put it someplace for safe keeping. Then, when your shift is over, you are going to haul ass out of this place and never come back here.”
“Okay.”
“We’re over the hump, Daisy, we already did the heavy lifting. Rock will tell us where your sister is, as well as the whorehouse. All we gotta do is make him talk. ”
“You don’t know that for sure,” she said.
“Yes, I do. And Daisy, even if the worst thing possible happens? It will be okay. You might think it will break you, but you’ll get through it.” The way he said that, made her think he’d been tested before. “I’ll see you back at the hotel.” With a quick kiss, Cowboy jumped in the truck and sped off.
She trudged back inside, wondering how she’d get through the last hour. As she walked by the office, she ran in to Junior.
And he looked pissed…
“What the hell were you doing with Rock?” he growled.
Oh shit.
Chapter Nineteen
Junior ushered her into his office and locked the door behind him. “So?” he prompted.
Daisy willed herself to appear unconcerned and composed, though her heart hammered in her chest “I took the trash out,” she muttered. “Then, I had to get something out of my truck, but I didn’t see Rock,” she lied.
He crossed his arms over his chest. “It took you twenty minutes to take out the trash? You missed your set on stage and I had to send another dancer in your place.”
“I—”
“Save it, I don’t believe you.”
Shit! She gulped. “You don’t?”
“One of the waitresses said you hauled ass after Rock and the sweet young thing he’s screwing. I know exactly what you did.”
Oh God. “You do?” she asked.
He licked his lips. “You fucked him, didn’t you?” His eyes roamed down her body in a sleazy way that made her skin crawl. “Or maybe you fucked both of them?”
She sagged in relief. Thank God he hadn’t seen her help Cowboy load Rock into her truck.
“No, I didn’t even see Rock or his girl,” she said quickly, trying to end this conversation. Wherever it was headed, it couldn’t be good. “And I’m sorry I missed my stage call, it won’t happen again.”
“I know it won’t,” Junior grunted. “If it does, I’ll fire your ass.”
“I’ll make sure it doesn’t.”
She was about to walk around him, but he grabbed her arm. “Where the fuck do you think you’re going? I didn’t say you could leave.”
“But I should be waiting tables.”
“That can wait, this can’t.” He pressed the palm of her hand against the erection poking through the denim and she wrenched her arm away. “Don’t be like that. I may not be as young as Rock, but I can fuck you better, longer.”
Yuck. “For the last time, I didn’t screw him.”
“Good, I hate sloppy seconds.” He advanced on her again and she backed up towards his desk.
Wait a minute…
She thought about Rock waiting to be interrogated. Was there any reason to go through this shit anymore? Odds are, he knew the location of the brothel, and he definitely knew what happened to her sister. So she didn’t need to keep up the pretense any longer, right?
Junior can take this job and shove it…
“Guess what? I quit!” she said, marching around him.
He gripped her arm. “Fine by me, but I’m still gonna fuck you, you little cocktease.”
“Step. Away. From. Me,” she bit out through clenched teeth.
He hauled her closer and she kicked him in the shin.
“You’re going to pay for that, bitch,” he promised.
Shit! She wanted to just walk out the door, but what choice did she have? Daisy thought about pulling the knife on him, but if he bellowed for help, dozens of bikers would come busting in. No way could she fight her way out against those odds.
She spoke in a quiet, soothing voice. “Look, this is getting out of hand. Let me leave and we’ll call the whole thing off.”
He hesitated a minute and then blew out a breath. “Fine. Get your ass out of my office.”
When she reached for the door handle, he gripped her around the waist from behind, lifting her into the air.
“Let me go!” she cried.
“I swear to God, if you scream, bitch, I will fuck all your holes bloody. Then, I’ll let every biker in this place take a turn with you. Got me?”
The bastard would do it, too. “Yes,” she muttered.
He carried her towards his desk. “Now quit being such a bitch. I know you want this. You came on to me earlier.” He flopped her down on top of the wood leaving her ass in the air. Then tossed up the dress and shoved a hand between her thighs, prodding her sex through the fabric of her panties.
She was startled out of her bravado by the intimate touch. “No!” she moaned.
Junior didn’t listen. He yanked her panties down and the knife clattered to the ground at her feet.
Daisy froze. She had to play this very carefully.
“You brought a switch blade to work? What kind of a crazy slut are you?” Glancing over her shoulder, she watched as he bent to reach for it, and then Daisy donkey kicked him in the balls.
With a curse, he bent over to clutch them, and she snagged the knife and quickly stuck it deep in his thick thigh. Blood gushed from the wound, spattering them both. “What the fuck?!” he growled, reaching for her, but she seized the heavy old-fashioned phone from his desk and clunked him over the head.
Junior fell to the floor, unconscious.
Daisy shakily pulled her clothing back into place. She blew out a calming stream of air, trying to get her shit together. She couldn’t afford to freak out right now. She had to make her way out of here without anyone knowing what she’d just done. When she felt sufficiently calm, She coolly walked out the door, leaving Junior bleeding on the carpet.
Thankfully, no one stood between her and the back exit.
***
A half an hour later, she pulled up at the hotel. Daisy found Shepherd and Cowboy standing outside of a room on the backside of the property. The Four Horsemen looked as grim as their namesakes.
She jumped off Cowboy’s Harley and hit the stand into place. It had been a bitch to drive, even though he’d make it look easy. She headed for the room the Horsemen guarded, but Cowboy stepped into her path and pulled her off to the side.
“Daisy, you’re bloody, what the fuck happened?” He pulled at her clothing, checking the skin beneath for wounds, but she knocked his hands away. “Tell me!” he growled.
“Junior, the club manager,” she said quietly. “That’s what happened. He came on to me and he had trouble taking no for an answer. We’ll talk about it later.”
“We’ll talk about it no
w! Did he—”
“No, he didn’t rape me,” she whispered, meeting his eyes to reassure him. “I’m absolutely fine.”
He touched a bloody streak on her dress. “And Junior?”
“He’ll be fine if he doesn’t bleed out. But it’s safe to say I can’t go back there.” She sucked in a breath. “The Raptors will be looking for me.”
“I don’t give a shit about that. We can keep you safe.”
She nodded. “I need to talk to Rock.”
Cowboy shook his head. “No use going in there. Dickhead isn’t talking.”
She glanced at the closed door, locking down her jaw. “Don’t worry. I got this.”
“No. You don’t, Wildcat.” He tried to pull her into his arms, but she shoved him away. “We gotta make this fucker talk and it’s going to get real ugly. Real fast. I don’t want you in there when it does. You’ve had enough shit for one day.”
“This is my op,” she gritted out. “Rose is my sister and I’m going to find out what happened to her. For myself!”
“No, you aren’t,” Shepherd said, lighting a menthol, and sidling up to them.
“Eavesdropper,” she muttered.
The VP shrugged. “Do the Raptors know we were involved in your op?” he drawled.
“No, I kept you out of it. But they’ll be looking for me.”
He nodded. “They probably will but we got your back.”
“So let me go in there, get some information out of him. Military police, remember?”
Shepherd shook his head. “Yeah, but this is about more than just your vendetta. You are going to wait out here until we interrogate Rock, then after we’ve softened him up, it’s your turn with him.”
To hell with that! She’d waited long enough for answers. She tried to reach the door again, but Cowboy snatched her up in his arms.
He placed his hands on either side of her face, forced her to look him in the eye. “We called in a specialist.”
“I can make him talk!”
“No, you can’t. Hero types like you don’t get involved with this kind of shit.”
She certainly didn’t feel like a hero at this moment. Her thoughts were perilously bloody. “I have to do this. It’s my fault she is gone. I have to make it right.”
Cowboy kissed her forehead. “You can’t make it right by doing something wrong. Let us do the dirty work.”
She broke away from him and leaned back against the wall, crossed her arms over his chest. “Fine.”
A few minutes later, Duke pulled up on his Harley, and grabbed a black leather case from his saddlebags. He joined the group and nodded to Shepherd. “I got what we need.”
“What’s he going to do?” Daisy asked Cowboy.
“What he has to,” Cowboy said simply.
“I’ll go in with him,” she offered.
“The hell you are!” he growled.
“Fine with me,” Duke said, seemingly unconcerned by having an audience. “This guy took your sister, right?”
She nodded.
“And tried to force himself on both you and the girl at the club?”
“Yes,” she confirmed.
He smiled at her then, a creepy little grin that made her shudder. “I’m going to extract information from him, the most painful way possible. If you want to come in with me, you have to promise me something.”
“What?”
“No matter what happens, you won’t try to interfere, you won’t throw up, and you won’t leave. Can you promise me all of those things?”
Daisy hesitated. Sure, she’d intended to knock Rock around a bit, threaten him, and maybe give him a few swift kicks to his tiny little junk. But Duke clearly intended to torture him.
Could she do that? No. She realized she couldn’t. Shepherd had been right all along. There were things that had to be done on this op she wasn’t prepared to handle.
Daisy shook her head.
Duke went in by himself and fifteen minutes later, Rock’s muffled cries could be heard outside the door.
She felt like pressing her palms to her ears, but forced herself to listen. Even if she hadn’t actually done the torturing, she’d allowed it to happen. Her conscience wasn’t clear.
Not that she really gave a damn about Rock. He was a piece of shit who deserved to rot in jail, or hell or rot in the ground for all she cared. But torture? She’d seen terrible things in Afghanistan. Roadside bombs, terrorists with explosives strapped to their chests, but this crap? In her book, there was a big difference between cleanly killing an enemy and yanking off someone’s fingernails or whatever the hell was going on in there.
But if it bothered Cowboy and Shepherd, it didn’t show. They stood against the wall, stone-faced.
After what felt like hours later, Duke emerged from the room, and wiped his hands on a handkerchief he pulled from his back pocket, the cloth came away red and wet. And no it wasn’t paint.
“The bastard wouldn’t fucking talk,” he pronounced.
“Dammit,” Shepherd said succinctly.
Duke slung the bag over his shoulder. “He’s loyal to his club, I’ll give him that much.” He raised a brow at the VP. “If you want my opinion, this is a dead end. I think we need to clean this up and put it to bed.”
To Daisy, that sounded like Horsemen-speak for killing Rock. “Wait! Let me have a go.”
“If he wouldn’t talk for me, he sure as shit ain’t gonna for you,” Duke said.
“Shut up, Hannibal, ever stop to think I might be a better interrogator than you?”
“No.” Duke smirked at her. “Believe me when I tell you no one is better at getting information from a subject.” He cocked a silky black brow. “Besides, I’m more of a Dexter, I only go after people who deserve it.”
“And who determines if they deserve it?” she asked, intrigued despite herself.
Not even a hint of humor in his coal black eyes. “Why, me, of course.”
She couldn’t suppress a shudder.
“We should let her try,” Cowboy said, bringing the conversation back into safer territory.
Shepherd nodded, but fixed her with a stern look. “You’ve got five minutes.”
“Can I have your gun?” she asked Cowboy
He hesitated but then handed over his Colt. “Threaten him with it, but don’t use it. It’ll take the prospects weeks to scrub biker off the walls.”
With a nod, Daisy cocked it and stepped inside.
***
She found Rock slumped in a chair, arms and legs bound. He had a gag in his mouth and his eyes were nearly swollen shut. Blood dripped from his nose and his lip had been busted in two.
Rock’s chest was bare and the sides of his shirt had jagged edges, like someone had cut it with a pair of scissors. Burn marks surrounded his nipples and the piercings had been ripped out, leaving two bloody trails down his chest.
His genitals had been pulled free of his jeans, and she noted what looked like electrical burns on them, creating a mass of red, bloodied skin. Daisy took a brutal sort of pleasure in his pain. She’d intended to cut his balls off, but this was so much more excruciating in the long run. It made her a hypocrite of sorts.
He squinted at the gun and then glanced away again, evidently unconcerned. Maybe after surviving Duke’s grilling methods, a little handgun didn’t scare him much.
“Where is she?” Daisy asked again.
“Where’s who?”
“No games, asshole. I’m exhausted from weeks of playing grab ass with your club brothers and I’ve had a really long fucking day. I’m looking for my sister. You used to date her.”
“You’re gonna have to be a bit more specific.” He laughed then, which turned into a cough. Blood appeared on his lips, a sign of internal bleeding. “I get a lot of pussy and it’s hard to keep track.”
She bit the inside of her cheek and then tried again, not taking the bait. “Rose Weston. She looks a lot like me.”
He studied her a moment. “I can’t say I reca
ll a slut named Rose.”
She grabbed her cell phone, flicked to the gallery and Rose’s image appeared. Daisy shoved the phone in his face.
“Oh her? I haven’t seen that skank in a while.”
Daisy punched him in the jaw, causing more blood to drip from the corner of his big fat mouth. “Watch your tone with me.”
He spat out blood. “Yeah, come to think of it, she did look a bit like you, all rough around the edges, like she’d been used hard.”
“And when did you see her last?” she asked tightly.
“Fuck if I remember.”
Daisy tried another tactic. She got behind him, pressed the gun barrel against the back of his head. “Maybe this will jog your memory. Tell me what I want to know or I’ll blow your head off.”
“Hmm. I do recall something.” He chuckled. “Did you know she was a virgin? She bled all over my cock the first time I fucked her.”
Her sister’s first time had been with this asshole? They’d talked about guys all the time, and she knew Rose had come close to losing her virginity twice to boys she had dated but had always “saved” herself. While Daisy didn’t give sex the significance Rose did, she believed it should be pleasurable and with someone who treated you well. Like Cowboy. Someone who was honorable, and kind.
Tears pricked her eyes and she quickly blinked them away. Men like Rock thrived on causing pain and she be damned if she gave him the satisfaction.
“I don’t give a fuck about your sex life,” she growled. “I want to know what you did with her.”
“I’m sick of this shit. We both know you won’t pull the trigger. Not without permission from your little boyfriends outside. So why don’t you haul your tight ass out of here and let them do the heavy lifting for you?”
She circled him slowly, like a predator, willing him to speak. “Tell me where she is!” Daisy demanded again.
“Go fuck yourself, bitch.”
In Afghanistan, daily exposure to the horrors of war, created a curious sort of detachment to the carnage around her. The numb feeling inside gave her a fuzzy sort of amorphous place she could curl up in when things became too difficult to think about. It allowed her to do things like hose gray matter out of the Humvee after an IED went off. Or approach someone who might or might not have a bomb strapped to her chest without any qualms.
Hot as Hades (Four Horsemen MC Book 2) Page 19