by Nikki Groom
“You’re talking shit, Ram,” JJ says, his tone a deep warning, telling me that I’ve hit a nerve.
“None of us know Sadie well enough to know for certain that she hasn’t got scared and ran for the hills.” I play devil’s advocate here, trying to think logically and covering every possibility, and as much as I fucking hate it, it is a possibility, and much better than the alternative.
“She’s my daughter,” he growls, narrowing his eyes at me.
“I know. And she’s my girl. I feel like I know her better than anyone I’ve ever met in my life, but…”
“The hills…” JJ frowns, making no sense to me whatsoever.
“What?”
“You said she might have run for the hills…”
“Figuratively, JJ,” I state, frowning hard.
“No.” He shakes his head and doesn’t talk fast enough for my impatience.
“JJ, what the fuck are you going on about?” I bark.
“Vaughn’s place. If she left of her own accord, she would have gone somewhere familiar, wouldn’t she? Maybe she just went back to collect some of her belongings. Maybe…” He growls under his breath. “Maybe he came for her.”
I shrug, opening my hands in question. “I don’t know, I—”
“Fuck, Dalton, it’s the only possibility we have.”
We waste no time in grabbing Tex and screaming out of the compound in his truck. We want to get there fast, and with Tex driving, we know we have speed and power at our disposal. I torture myself with thoughts the whole way there. Thoughts of Sadie leaving me, thoughts of her never coming back—anything and everything that tears at my heart, but avoids the worst case scenario, that she’s gone, but not of her own free will.
Tex and JJ are also silent on the drive, but the anxiety that pushes and pulls between us all is deafening. Tex is concentrating so hard on taking the corners at speed, that he has a crease right down the middle of his forehead. And JJ, well he looks like he’s aging before my very eyes. He blames himself for letting her go on her own, but how could he tell her no?
It feels empty here in the van. Usually, we would do runs like this together with Dev and Ruck. Our bikes are really fucking noisy and not great when you’re staking out a joint or trying to catch someone off guard, so we would all bundle into Tex’s truck. The five of us made up an awesome team, and if there was ever business that needed taking care of, we were always the men to do it. It doesn’t mean that we don’t trust the others. It’s just that we always worked well together, knew what each other was thinking, had each other’s backs without question, and with just the three of us here right now, their loss is hitting me hard.
Tex turns up the dirt track to the house and skids to a halt right outside the front door. JJ is out before the wheels have stopped spinning, sprinting the short distance to the door and hammering on it with both fists like a crazed lunatic.
“Open the fucking door, cocksucker, or I’m gonna come in there and rip your asshole to your ears.”
“The car’s gone,” Tex notes. “Had the door fixed, too, so he’s been back here.”
I nod, looking around for anything that’s out of place. There’s no sign of anything or anyone. We need inside this place, and we need in now. “You got Betty with you, Tex?”
“You know what I say about whores…” He whistles to himself and both JJ and I look at him as if he’s lost his mind.
“What?” I question.
“You know…does a whore suck dick? Of course I have Betty…” He frowns at both of us and pulls Betty the battering ram from the back of his truck. You can always rely on Tex to make light of any situation with his weird, unique humor.
“Just open the fucking door, Tex,” JJ mutters, shaking his head.
Tex chuckles to himself as he effortlessly batters the door, splitting the newly replaced wood and sending it flying open, hitting the plaster on the wall behind as it bounces on its hinges.
“Search every room, every fucking corner,” JJ booms as he storms in, eyes darting around everywhere. “I want this place turned upside down and inside out. This cunt will wish that he was never born if I find any hint that he’s taken my daughter.”
“And if he hasn’t?” I ask.
“Someone has her, Ramsey. She wouldn’t have left.”
“Okay.” I nod, relieved that he’s so sure. My insecurities make me fear that my life has driven her away. That life at the Souls has caused her to want to run. But they’re just my fears, my insecurities, and he’s right, she wouldn’t run. She’s a fighter. She’s JJ’s daughter for fuck’s sake. “Split up. Stay alert. Search every fucking crack in the wall, yes?” I bark as we move up the stairs, working our way through the bedrooms. I immediately go to Sadie’s room. It looks the same, but something’s off. I pull open drawers—they’re empty. The bathroom cabinets are empty too. There’s no sign that she ever even existed in this room. I pick up her pillow—it doesn’t even smell of that coconut shampoo she likes to use on her hair. Her bed linen has been freshly washed, wiping out any trace that she was ever here.
JJ appears in the doorway. “Anything?”
“No, man. But I don’t feel good about this. All her stuff is gone. It’s like she was never here…”
“Same in his room,” JJ mumbles, his brows pulling into a deep frown. “Everything is fucking empty.”
“I’m gonna check his office,” I tell him, pushing past him in the doorway.
The door is unlocked, and I pull out all of his desk drawers finding they are empty, not even a scrap of plain paper anywhere, and when Tex and JJ join me moments later, Tex starts to pull all the books off the shelves.
“There’s no fuckin’ secret passageway, Tex.” I snap, as the feeling of hopelessness really starts to sink into my skin.
“I’m lookin’ for anything that’s not what it should be.” He continues until every book lies open on the carpet.
“Are there any more rooms on this floor?” JJ asks.
“No.” I rub my forehead and sigh heavily.
“Check the main rooms downstairs.” He pauses, squeezing his eyes together then letting out a roar and punching the door with a crack. “Fuck!” he hisses.
“I know, man.” I pat his shoulder, feeling his frustration. “We’ll find her.”
“The world is a big fucking place, Ram. I should never have stopped looking for her the first time. What if he doesn’t have her? Do you know what the alternative is?”
“Yes,” I bark. “I’m aware of the alternative. But I can’t think about that right now. I will find her, okay? And I will skin whoever has taken her.”
Tex places his giant hand between my shoulder blades and guides me out of the door. “Come on. Let’s do a sweep of the ground floor. I’ll look outside.”
The kitchen cabinets are empty, as is everything else in the house.
He’s gone.
If he doesn’t have Sadie, I don’t know what the fuck I’m gonna do. Because I’m pretty sure he’s the better alternative, isn’t he? He wouldn’t have looked after her all these years if he meant her harm, and I’m hanging on to the moment when I can put him in the fucking ground when I do catch up with them.
When we all congregate back in the hallway, Tex taps on the door to the cupboard under the stairs with his knuckle. “What’s in here?” he asks.
“Closet, I think.”
He tries the handle, but it’s locked. It’s the only door in the house to still be locked. Even Vaughn’s office was wide open this time with nothing to hide. Tex steps back and slams his boot into the door. The wood splits, but it doesn’t immediately open. Several more kicks, and its hanging off its hinges.
“Can’t see shit in here,” Tex says, grabbing the door and twisting it so it comes clean off. He tosses it behind him, and it clatters on the wood floor of the hallway. He tries the light pull, but it looks like the electricity to the whole place is off. “Grab my torch. It’s in the back of the truck.”
JJ jogs ou
t and comes back with a great big fucking torch that might as well be a stadium spotlight. “Does everything have to be supersized with you, Tex?”
He glances back at JJ and raises his brows before taking the torch and lighting up the space.
But it’s not a closet.
It’s the door to a basement.
“Guns locked and loaded, boys?” Tex asks uneasily, and we both nod, following him down the rickety, wooden steps.
“Holy. Shit,” Tex mutters under his breath as he shines the torch around.
“What is it?” I ask as I drop down the last few steps into the basement. My nerve endings are hyper aware that something feels very wrong. The air has a heavy foreboding lingering in it, but I’m not prepared for what I see as he shines the torch around.
My jaw drops open. “Fuck.”
There are girls. Eight, maybe ten of them.
“Are they…dead?” I ask, rushing toward one of them.
“What the fuck…” JJ hisses behind me.
“Check ‘em,” I order, darting to the side of one of the girls. When I roll her onto her back, I gasp. “Fuck, it’s Jade.”
“Who?” JJ asks.
“The girl from the Liquor box that didn’t show for her shifts,” I tell him, noting shallow breaths in her chest. She’s painfully thin, dirty, and her eyes are black-rimmed and sunken. I work the binds loose around her wrists and check her arms. “They’re not dead. They’re drugged!” I yell.
“Tex,” JJ yells, coughing into the sleeve of his shirt. “Get the rest of the crew up here. We’re gonna need a bigger truck.”
“Wake up.” I tap her face as she starts to move. “Jade, wake up, can you hear me?” I shake her shoulders, and she opens her eyes. She panics, gasping loudly and looking around for an escape route. “It’s okay. I’m not gonna hurt you. You’re safe, okay? You’re safe.” I tell her, placing my hand on her forearm. Her skin is bruised all over, and the track marks through her veins are purple and evidence to the fact that she’s been drugged. Probably crank to keep her quiet and complicit.
“Who are you?” She struggles to speak, her tongue dry on the roof of her mouth. “Where am I?” Fuck knows how long she’s been there without food and water.
“You’re at our compound. You can leave at any time, but I need you to tell me everything you know. Everything, do you hear me? Here.” I offer her a glass of water, and she eyes me warily. “It’s just water. I told you, you’re safe.”
“Where am I?” she repeats, taking the glass from me, but not immediately drinking.
“You, saved me?” she asks, glancing nervously between JJ and me.
I nod slowly. “Do you remember what happened? How you got there? What the fuck is going on?”
“He seemed sweet. He came to the bar a few nights in a row, spoke to me nicely, asked if he could drive me home. So I let him, but…”
“Who? Who was it?” I press a little harder.
“I don’t remember. He had tattoos, no hair.”
“Nate,” I mumble under my breath, glancing back at JJ.
“Yes!” she says. “That was his name.”
“Okay, good. Do you know what you were all doing there? What…” I hesitate for a second unsure if I want to hear the answer. “What did he do to you?”
Tears fill her eyes, and her bottom lip starts to quiver. “He said we were s-s-sold.” She breaks down, the full weight of what’s happened to her hitting her full force.
“Oh, fuck,” JJ mutters under his breath, shaking his head and voicing exactly what I’m thinking. We’re not just dealing with Vaughn and Nate. It looks like they are part of something much bigger.
Trafficking.
Chapter 24
My head feels heavy, and it’s a struggle to open my eyes. I try to move, but my body doesn’t work properly, my limbs won’t cooperate, and everything feels disjointed. But as reality sets in and my mind clicks on, I realize my hands and feet are tied. I draw in a sharp breath, panicking at the restriction and helplessness that I’m feeling right now.
Recalling what happened with Nate and Carrie at the store, I tug at the binds, knowing that something is really fucking wrong and I have to get out of here, at any cost. I analyze my surroundings. I’m on a small bed, in a familiar room…This was my room, in the rental in San Fran.
“Vaughn?” I call out weakly, and even that small noise in the room makes my head spin. I don’t know if I should be calling and drawing attention to the fact that I’m conscious. I don’t know who’s on the other side of that door. But I do know that Vaughn wouldn’t hurt me. Nate must have been going behind his back. He must have gotten into something really bad for it to come to this. I don’t know what he wants with me. But after everything we’ve been through, the concern and protectiveness he’s shown to me over the years, surely he’s not going to hurt me, right?
The door swings open, and Nate’s wide shoulders fill the space. “Ah, you’re finally awake.” He sounds different: cold, detached, and it sends shivers through me. I’ve never seen him like this. He’s never been anything but warm and like…family. The thought makes my lip quiver. His betrayal hits me where it hurts as he comes into the room, lowering himself slowly beside me on the bed. I try to shuffle away from him, but it’s almost impossible as I’m propped on my side with my feet tied together, and my hands bound tightly behind my back.
“Nate,” I croak out. “What—”
“Ah, Sadie, Sadie, Sadie,” he sings mockingly, shaking his head. “You really had no idea, did you?”
“I don’t know what…what’s going on, Nate?” My consciousness increases with every second that passes, and although I can’t piece everything together properly, I know that I’m in real trouble this time.
Ramsey will be looking for me, but how will he even know where to find me? But then a worse thought tramples through my head like a herd of elephants trumpeting their arrival. What if they’ve got to him? What if whatever is going on here means that Vaughn took me out of the picture to go after Ramsey? I mean, Ramsey took everything Vaughn lived for. Everything being me. And I know he’s not only going to be hurt about that, he’s going to be seething.
“She’s awake?” A voice asks from the doorway, making all the hairs on my body stand on end. It’s not Vaughn, but the coolness of his words sends chills directly through me, and I know it’s going to be someone that isn’t coming to my rescue.
“Yes, she is.” Nate smiles that treacherous, cruel smile that I’ve only ever seen him use today, and a sob pushes up through my chest, catching in my throat.
“You carry on playing the sweet, innocent, broken little girl.” The man at the door comes closer, letting me see him. He’s dark-haired and dark-eyed—not a speck of light within him. He stands over me, his broad shoulders and towering form casting a shadow across my whole body, and making me shrink into myself. “Leave,” he orders Nate quietly, but there’s no mistaking the demand in his voice.
“That’s not gonna happen, Rev.” Nate stands, squaring up to him as I process his name.
Rev.
President of The White Wolves…
Oh. Fuck.
“Vaughn said…”
“I don’t give a fuck what Vaughn said,” Rev bellows, his face drawing tight and his fists balling up at his sides, causing me to shake uncontrollably. I’ve met some pretty awful human beings in my life, but never someone who makes me feel like the dread is climbing up each bone of my spine like I’m feeling now. “Crawl back out of his ass would ya? Now do as I say, and LEAVE!” Rev growls, virtually baring his teeth at Nate.
Nate curses under his breath. “If you touch her…,” he warns.
“You’ll what?” He cocks his head and raises his eyebrows in challenge. “You won’t do anything. Now, leave.” He waves his hand in dismissal, and I silently beg Nate not to leave me alone with this man.
I don’t trust Nate anymore. I don’t know who to trust, or what the fuck is going on. But if this is Rev, the Rev that
Ramsey and JJ have been looking for, I’d prefer to be alone with Nate than him.
“You turned out to be a pretty little thing, you know?” He talks quietly and strokes the hair from my face with his index finger, letting it linger on my skin and making my stomach churn loudly. I frown at his words, having no idea what the hell he’s talking about. “Pretty fierce, too. I mean—” He sighs, dropping down onto one knee beside the bed. “You really did a good job on my boy, Donny, didn’t you?” He smiles, showing all his pearly white teeth and my mind flashes back to that night. The night when I took out Donny Carden. The night when I met Ramsey. A tear rolls from the corner of my eye and down my cheek. Ramsey’s my only hope now. But he could be hours away from finding me, and I could be less than hours away from all the scenarios that I don’t want to let myself think about.
“Don’t get me wrong. I would have put a bullet in his filthy brain before long anyway, but he was a good talker. A go-between. You get me?”
I press my lips together, pushing back all the words I want to hurl at him but won’t for fear of what he will do to me if I have the bravado to speak out.
“I said, you hear me?” he repeats, and I nod. “How old are you now? Twenty-three? Twenty-four?”
“Just tell me what you want.” My voice quivers, but I force myself to continue and stay strong.
Strength is the only choice I have.
“I can get you money. Is it money you want?” I ask desperately, although I’m damn sure this isn’t about money.
The predatory look in his eyes sends tremors through my whole body. “Oh, sweetheart,” he grins, “I’ve already had what I wanted.” He leans in closer to me so his lips are touching the shell of my ear. “And, man, did it taste sweet.”
“Rev,” Vaughn booms, storming into the room, and I let out a cry of relief as tears coat my cheeks. But the relief doesn’t last long. Vaughn is cold, distant, and has no interest in my well-being.