by Ami Van
“Karma,” Maddox says to Tucker. “You’re not the only one with a sister to fuck with. Diaz does too though she’s only half. Consider her collateral.”
“Fuck! Minx is NOT gonna be cool with this,” Kyle says.
“That’s why she’s not going to know,” Maddox answers. “Tricia gonna be okay?” he asks.
Tricia was out cold in Tucker’s arm.
“She took it bad,” Tucker answers, placing a gentle kiss on her head.
If Tricia took it this bad for one night. How much did Minx endure during her two-year stint? The thought alone pissed him off. To see first-hand what she most likely went through at only 16 had him lusting to be the one to squeeze the life out of Diaz’s body.
The loud explosion and the flickering of the ball of flames jostle his thoughts and brings his attention back to the moment. The place was burning. If only the visions and images that he’d seen could be burned from his mind and sight too.
“Hear back from the other spots yet?” Tucker asks Atticus.
“Pool hall’s smoked. Jenks and Fat Bo's crews took down the two meth labs. Jenks has confirmed. He didn’t have much in his warehouse. Just a couple crates. But it’s torched too,” Atticus answers. “No sight of him anywhere though.”
“His supplies are probably running dry and he’s got none of ours selling to him anymore,” Tucker says.
“Bee,” Tricia’s weak voice was heard. “You should have left me, Tucker. She doesn’t have anyone to protect her. I-I don’t know what he’ll do.”
“Do you know where they might be keeping her?” Tucker asks.
“It’s not any of his businesses. It’s a house. Her school has the address but I-I'm not sure which school she’s in,” she squeaks. “I was never allowed to go with her.”
“Kyle, get Snails to start hacking into the school district’s database,” Tucker orders.
“Bianca Joy Morrison,” Tricia says.
“Got it,” Kyle answers.
“Atticus, make the call to the judge. Let him know it’s done and tell him we need that order ASAP,” Tucker says. Atticus was already dialing.
CHAPTER 24
Minx
She wasn’t sure what woke her up. She was normally a heavy sleeper thanks to Maddox and Austin, who’d always made her feel secure for years during her mental recovery. But whatever woke her up, woke her up groggy with cotton mouth to add.
A giggle.
Nevermind. She knew exactly what woke her up. The sounds of giggling. Female giggles. More than one.
She turns over onto her back. Dakota was gone. No lights coming from the bathroom. So, Dakota’s not in bed and there are women giggling downstairs. She was off of that bed and stumbling off balance to the door. Her headache was gone but she was woozy and felt like she was swaying down the stairs.
“Minx, what are you doing up?” Tristan says from the couch, pushing Nikki’s head away from between his legs then quickly covering and zipping himself up.
“What’s going on? Why are they here? No offense girls.”
“None taken,” Penny says with a smile.
“You feeling okay?” Tristan asks her, ignoring her questions. “You don’t look so good. Maybe you should go back to bed.”
“I’m thirsty,” she says, heading to the kitchen. “Did Dakota go to the clubhouse?”
“Yeah,” Tristan answers when she returns to the living room with a bottle of water.
Penny and Nikki were both looking at each other uncomfortably.
She takes a glance at the security monitor sitting on the table against the wall. There were a handful of men approaching the clubhouse. Hellhounds. They were all wearing their cuts. She sees one signaling to the others behind him and sees them spreading the width of the clubhouse. What the hell were they holding?
“Tristan!” she yells out, pointing at the monitor. “The clubhouse!” she yells.
Tristan was at her side in a heartbeat. Just in time to see to the flashes spraying the front of the clubhouse. She can hear the sound of bullets spraying from where she stood.
“Shit!” Tristan says. “Is there a way out of the house?” he grabs her. The two girls were standing right behind them now.
“We can go out the back and into the woods. Dakota! He’s there!,” she says. She was running for the coat closet and digging inside. “Where the fuck are our guns?” she says. Opening empty box after empty box.
“Maddox had us remove them,” he answers. He had his gun out and loaded. He was pushing Penny and Nikki towards the back of the house before he reaches down and grabs her.
Before he pushes her forward, she runs to the ottoman and flips it over. YES! Austin’s Beretta PX4 Storm Compact was strapped to the bottom and she immediately grabs it and runs back to Tristan who was leading them to the back.
The sound of the front door being kicked in startles her. Any second now and whoever it is would see them in the hallway. Before they take another step. Tristan stops and pushes them into one of the guestrooms. She sees the shadows moving in front of the back door and understands. They’re being boxed in.
“We can’t let them in,” she whispers to Tristan. “Penny, get out through the window. Now!”
Penny and Nikki were already at the window and opening it. Thank God it wasn’t a squeaky window.
“Stay low,” Tristan whispers to her. She nods at him and crouches down, her back against the door frame. He does the same, facing the opposite direction.
“They’re wearing Hellhounds' colors,” she tells Tristan.
“That’s not good, kid. That’s not fucking good.”
The back door swings open at the same time Tristan fires twice into the hallway to the living room. She fires twice as well at the tall figure walking in like he owned the place. Penny had made it through and Nikki was swinging her leg over.
“Into the woods,” she whisper-yells at her and Nikki nods before disappearing through the window.
The sound of an automatic weapon sprays into the hallway. Tristan pulls her inside the room, shutting the door before he shoves her to the window, pushing her right out. She sees the holes appearing through the wall of the house and shattering the window just as Tristan lands on his feet, pulling her up onto her own feet.
He was shoving her and pushing her into the woods. The sound of men screaming behind them mixed in with the sounds of gunfire. Her head was so heavy and hazy. The adrenaline should have cleared it all up by now.
Her feet were dragging. She was running but she wasn’t sure how fast. Tristan had his arm around her waist and was practically carrying her. She couldn’t even make out which way Penny and Nikki ran off to, it was too dark out.
“I-I can’t outrun them Tris,” she whispers. “I feel sick.”
“We plant ourselves out of sight then and try to take them down one at a time until help gets here,” Tristan tells her.
He rushes her over to a huge oak tree. It was wide enough to cover both of their bodies. She can hear their footsteps getting closer.
“Dakota and Tucker...were they all at the clubhouse?” she asks. “Are they going to be okay?”
“Don’t worry about them,” Tristan says. “Just pay attention. Stay focused, kid.”
Flashlights and beams of green light can be seen lining the trees nearby. Here’s their advantage, she thought. They can see where the guys were coming from. Tristan nods at her as if he's thinking the same thing.
She can hear vehicles not too far in the distance. No sirens though so she couldn’t even be sure if they were here to help. Someone had to have called for help by now.
The first spray of fire echoes through the night, chipping away at trees all around them. Tristan returns fire and she sees the beam of light from what must be a flashlight hit the ground. The sound of a guy moaning was heard for a brief second.
She follows the line of the green beam and aims as close to it as possible, pulling the trigger three times. That beam too, hits the ground.
&nbs
p; A second spray of gunfire erupts and a second later, she feels something brushing her back. She turns around and sees Tristan hunched over behind her. She wraps her arm around him to try and pull him back against the tree and feels something wet on his shoulder.
Blood.
“Tris, you’re hit.”
“Tell me something I don’t know. It didn’t go through,” he says through clenched teeth.
“What do I do?” she asks.
“Stand our ground,” he says, leaning back against the tree. Pulling her back with him.
Shit...her head was so woozy and it felt too heavy to even hold up. She shakes it a couple of times to try and clear her vision. Meanwhile, the firing was coming in spurts and coming closer.
She tries to focus and follow the ray of light but everything was so blurry. Like she was falling asleep.
They were pinned.
“Minx!” a voice yells out. Diaz’s voice, east from where they were sitting. “Bianca’s in the car, waiting for you. It’s now or never!”
She tries to stand up but Tristan pulls her right back down.
“NO!” he hisses at her. “We can’t trust him.”
“Minx! We're here to pick you up!” The sound of Bianca’s sweet voice calling out to her echoes through the night.
She looks at Tristan and he’s shaking his head at her. “No!”
“I have to.” She tells him.
“I’m coming out!” she yells into the night. She wrenches free of Tristan’s grip and staggers to her feet. “Which way!” she yells. A flashlight immediately appears and she follows it.
After what seems like forever, she sees the familiar Cadillac SUV. Diaz and Travis were both standing, guns in hand and waiting for her.
“Where is she?”
Diaz opens the door and she sees Bianca in the backseat, holding her favorite teddy bear. She was wearing pajamas and a pair of light up shoes.
“Bee,” she says, hurrying over. Diaz shoves her all the way inside, taking the gun she tucked in the back of her waistband before he closes the door behind her. She immediately tries the handle. Fucking childproof locks.
“Are you okay? Where’s your mom?” she asks Bianca.
“I’m scared,” she replies. “I-I don’t know where mama went. It’s bedtime and I’m supposed to sleep in my own bed now.”
“Where are you taking us?” she asks.
“For a photoshoot,” Diaz answers.
Her woozy head swings over to the front seat where she barely makes out the chuckling silhouettes. Travis driving and Diaz in the front passenger. She pulls Bianca closer to her, holding her tight. These motherfuckers will have to kill her first.
CHAPTER 25
Dakota
“What the fuck happened?” Tucker asks Sheriff Warren and his deputy.
They’d rolled up to a clubhouse and house surrounded by flashing lights. Ambulance and sheriff’s cars on scene like the whole department had been called out.
“We don’t know for sure yet. But now that you’re here, Maddox, can you pull your security feed?” Sheriff Warren asks.
“Yeah,” Maddox says and he was running into the house. Maddox runs over to the kitchen and grabs the large tablet that was sitting on the counter. He finds the footage and was scanning back.
“Shit!” Maddox says.
“Hellhounds?” Sheriff Warren asks.
“No. Definitely not Hounds. It’s Reapers wearing someone else’s colors again. We need to get ahold of Lawrence to see what happened,” Atticus says. He was already walking away on the phone.
“How bad is it?” Tucker asks the sheriff.
Thank god he had the sense to leave Tricia in the van along with Maddox’s hostage and Preston on guard duty.
“No deaths on your side...as of now. We found a body in the woods and one in the house. But your men have got some serious injuries. Four were taken down to county. Your road captain is one of the four. He took a slug to the shoulder. DeMarcus,” the sheriff speaks to Tucker. “One of your girls says that...that...”
“What?” Tucker growls.
“One of the girls that was inside the house says that they tried to escape through the woods. That’s when your road captain was hit. And that’s where they used your daughter to lure your sister out. Diaz and his men have Minx,” the sheriff says. The man swipes his hand through his hair. “We have an APB out for the Cadillac but so far, no hits. It’s been close to an hour.”
They have Minx.
“They have my girl!” he roars to the group. “They have my girl!”
It was the only thing that kept cycling in his head. It was the only thing he was comprehending. After what he’d seen tonight. The women in the cages. Tricia. And now? They have her. Again.
“We have a judge who’s ready to sign a removal order for my daughter. Her mother’s already with me. We just don’t know where to have it served,” Tucker tells the sheriff. “But she goes to school. Can you get into the school district’s database and get an address?”
“That shouldn’t be a problem?” the deputy says.
“Her name is Bianca Morrison,” Tucker tells the man who immediately runs to his car.
“Give me your word that you wait for the order, DeMarcus. I don’t know what you did tonight and I don’t wanna know. But I know the sheriff’s department in Rouche County have their hands full,” the sheriff warns.
The sheriff waits for Tucker to agree, which he doesn’t
“I can’t have you going outlaw and tearing the counties apart, dammit! There are innocent people here too,” the sheriff barks.
“Fine!” Tucker yells back. “But if the law can’t help my kid and my sister then we do this our way.”
Maddox starts to walk out of the house.
“Maddox! Where are you going?” the sheriff yells after him.
Maddox stops at the doorway. “My home has just been shot to pieces. I buried one-third of my family less than 24 hours ago and now another third is missing!” Maddox yells at the sheriff. “I need to get some answers!”
Maddox was going to grill the girl. He can tell. It was the only thing the man can do at the moment. Which is more than what his ass can do. He was fucking useless. They have Minx and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do to help.
“You should get that looked at,” the sheriff points to his bleeding arm before he walks away too.
“Lawrence said Reapers jumped one of his crews at the border and stripped them of their cuts. No one’s dead but two are pretty close,” Atticus tells them. “I’ve already called the other crews and told them to hang back from here. Told them to keep an eye out for the Cadi too. But Diaz might have switched cars by now.
“FUCK!” he yells out of frustration.
“Tristan’s gonna be okay. They removed the slug from his shoulder. He’ll be laid out for a bit though,” Atticus informs him.
He nods in gratitude for the news about his cousin before running his hand through his hair in frustration. He looks up and sees Snails running towards their group.
“Tucker,” Snails says, sounding out of breath. “I tapped into Diaz’s security systems. I can see what he sees. There’s activity on one of the cameras. But I can’t tell where it’s coming from.”
Tucker was shoving Snails and they were all running towards Snails’ setup. His laptop was sitting on top of the back of one of the sheriff’s cruisers. The sheriff must have seen their group. He was running over too.
“Look,” Snails says pointing on the screen.
“What’s this? Is this live? How are you seeing this?” the sheriff hisses.
“Does it matter right now?” Tucker says to the sheriff.
They watch the screen. Diaz and a few men were moving around a warehouse. Bianca was walking hand in hand, closely to Minx’s side. Minx was stumbling every few steps. Shit. He wonders if it was because of the sleeping pill he’d slipped her. She shouldn’t even be up.
“It looks like a warehouse. Any idea where?
” Tucker asks.
They were sure they’d taken down all the warehouses tonight.
“The van,” Kyle says, pointing on the screen to the black van that was parked inside the warehouse. “That’s the one used in the drive-by that killed Austin. I recognize the rusted dent on the side.”
“We can get a warrant but we need to find out where this is,” the sheriff says. “Get the judge on the phone,” he tells his deputy. Sheriff Warren looks up at Tucker. “Look, if you do this by the book, you have a better chance of keeping your daughter with you. Make sure she has a safe place to come back to. It can’t be here. Look at this place. CPS isn’t going to release her here.”
“We have a small house in town,” Maddox says joining them again. “My tenants just moved out a few weeks ago. It might need cleaning but she can stay there with Tricia until things clear up.”
“Thank you,” Tucker says. “Thank you, Maddox.”
“As for this warehouse. It’s two counties over. Balton County. It was bought under Dom Diaz’s step-mother's brother’s name. Ben Georgeson,” Maddox tells the sheriff.
“Russ!” the sheriff yells for his deputy. “Find this warehouse!”
“Tucker, Tricia needs to get cleaned up and get herself together,” Maddox says. “She needs to look stable for the agents to hand Bianca over tonight without putting her in the system. We’re getting them back. Both of them.”
Tucker nods and he was running off towards the van.
“Sheriff, we have the home address,” Deputy Russ says.
“Have your judge serve at that address as well,” the sheriff tells Atticus. “Just as a precaution.”
Atticus was immediately taking the slip of paper with the address and dialing on his prepaid.
“What can I do?” he asks for the first time.
“Get ready to ride,” Maddox says. The man was already stomping towards the clubhouse. He follows Maddox all the way to the garage.
“How long is the ride?” he asks Maddox.
“A little over an hour. Normally.”
“Shit,” he whispers. “The things they could do to her in that time.”