Fire in the Stars (Steel Souls MC Book 2)

by Nikki Groom

  “Vaughn,” Rev sneers, turning with his lip curled. “I was just speaking with your young lady here. She’s…” He rises to his full height, almost standing chest to chest with Vaughn. “Pretty.” His lips caress the word, and his eyes reflect the desire he’s exuding.

  “Yes.” Vaughn frowns. “She is. Go and load the others while I speak with Sadie.”

  “Excuse me?” he asks, leaning away from Vaughn and looking extremely put out.

  “You want me to repeat myself?” Vaughn questions and the tension bounces between them.

  “I heard you. I’m just not sure who you think you’re speaking to.” Rev steps into Vaughn so they’re bumping chests and almost head to head.

  “Don’t fuck with me, Rev,” Vaughn warns in a low, menacing tone. “You need me too much to piss me off. I’ve rescheduled the flight, we leave in two hours. Nate needs a hand loading up the girls, and I want to speak with Sadie. Go.”

  “Fine,” Rev spits. “But that’s the last time you give me an order, hear me?” He shoves Vaughn’s shoulder with his as he pushes past him, and Vaughn closes his eyes slowly, taking a deep breath before opening them again, and settling them on me. His gaze has me trembling. This isn’t the man I know. He’s a monster, and I’m at his mercy.

  “Oh, Sadie.” He sighs, stepping closer. I’m as fearful of him in this situation as I was Rev. “You had every privilege I could give you. I gave you a life.” He frowns, framing his chin with his thumb and forefinger.

  I need to appeal to his good side. The side that I know. The side that I once loved. The side that I thought loved me unconditionally as his daughter. “Vaughn, I—”

  “Shh, shh, shh.” He shakes his head, wagging his index finger at me. “Not your turn.” He drags a chair from the opposite side of the small room and places it quietly next to the bed. He pauses for a minute, creasing his forehead in thought, before taking a seat and sitting with his elbows resting on his knees and his fingers steepled under his chin. “Do you remember when we first met?” he asks, and I don’t dare answer. But then he widens his eyes and nudges his head lower to me. “Well?”

  “No,” I say on a whisper.

  “I’d watched you for days. Your mom used to take you and your little brother to the park around the corner from where you lived, do you remember that?”

  I nod.

  “I followed you all home, watched her from my car, then when the sitter came, I followed her to work at the late night diner, where I befriended her.”

  My blood runs ice cold through my veins as I start to piece together what’s happening here—what’s happened for the last fourteen years of my life. Only, it doesn’t make sense. None of this makes sense. Not only do I feel all hope slipping away, but fear and betrayal slip seamlessly in its place.

  “Why? What did she ever do to you?” I blurt the words out, speaking louder than intended as fear rushes the words past my lips. But if I’m helpless to this situation regardless of how I react, I’m going to fight until my last breath.

  “Do you realize that I put that fire in your belly, Sadie?” His voice is level, calm, and composed, and I want to slam my fists into his face, over and over for what he’s doing to me.

  “What did you want? What could you possibly get from my mom? She had nothing. NOTHING!” I yell.

  He laughs, stopping abruptly when he leans forward and whispers in my ear. “She had you.”

  His breath touches my skin, a scorching flame that burns and makes my stomach twist in impossible knots. I heave in my chest, sickness at his words pushing up through my throat. “What did you want with me?” I ask, needing to know if what I’m thinking is right.

  “You were so pretty. So petite and unassuming. Perfect innocence.” He sits back in the chair, crossing his legs and placing his hands on his knees. “You were supposed to be mine.” He holds my gaze, his eyes challenging mine, his body exuding power over me.

  “You…w-w-what?” I stutter in disbelief.

  “You made my dick hard, Sadie. Your little body. Your sweet, sweet, smile.” His gaze is wistful, his grin sinister, and the noise that escapes my lips sounds feral, even to my own ears.

  “You sick fucking ASSHOLE!” I scream, tears of rage filling my eyes as I lunge forward, anger propelling my upper body. But it does me no good. Bound by my hands and feet, I’m not going anywhere.

  I’m helpless.

  Hopeless and broken.

  Falling into a bottomless pit of body shattering despair.

  “I despise you,” I tell him, my lip curling at the sight of him. “I despise everything about you. You’re sick, do you know that? Sick in the fucking head. You need putting down, all of you,” I yell, and suddenly pieces of the puzzle start to slot into place. “You killed my mom and my brother so you could get to me?”

  “Yes.” He smiles calmly. “That was the plan. Well, I didn’t do a thing. I don’t like to get blood on my hands. I had some friends do the dirty work for me. Just like I did for old Mac.”

  The breaths stop dead in my chest, a lead weight pressing down on my stomach as I blink slowly, and recall the horror that awaited me when I pushed open that door to find Mac.

  Beaten and bloody. Cold and helpless.

  “Y-y-y-you killed Mac? Why?” I ask. “He did you no harm.”

  Rev being here means that Vaughn is involved with The Wolves somehow. And I know it was The Wolves that killed Mac.

  “Because you couldn’t stay away from him, Sadie. You went there almost every day. He had the pleasure of your company, your smile, your laughter, and I didn’t want him to. You messed with it all. Donny Carden, Old Mac, and the Steel Souls.” He pauses, waiting for my reaction and giving me another chance to shout and scream at him.

  How the hell does he know about Donny? I thought Ramsey had business with him, but Vaughn? I never had the tiniest inclination that he was involved with him in any way, and my heart sinks to think everything is so very tangled—so tragically fucked up.

  But I don’t say anything. I try and keep my expression as neutral as possible and let him continue. I want to hear what he has to say, despite the bile rising in my throat at his cold cruelness that I didn’t see all these years.

  “Donny was a breaker…” He looks intently at me, a smile creasing the corners of his eyes. “Do you know what that is?”

  I don’t know. I swallow down the lump in my throat and hold his gaze, holding my silence. I am not weak. I can take whatever he has to say and push it into a box, never to be thought of again—can’t I?

  “We employed him to break the strong-willed girls. To make them comply. After you’ve been taken by someone like Donny, whoever you’re sold to seems like a fucking prince.” He laughs, and I lose all my strength and composure. Strong burning bile powers its way out of my mouth and Vaughn jumps back to avoid being hit by the pungent fluid as it leaves my body at full force.

  He curls his lip, looking at me with disdain, but quickly slips the mask back on and continues talking. His voice is low, contemplative—as if I were his therapist. As if he needs someone to hear it all as he sees it in his head. He’s hoping for justification, which will never come from me.

  “But Donny couldn’t keep his needle dick in his pants. He had a thing for the younger ones. Ironic to think that you took out the man that had broken many girls for me, don’t you think?”

  I push it away. The words. The feelings. The thought of those poor girls being used by Donny so he could get his sick kicks, and so they could be sold. Used, bruised, and broken, by the man that called himself my father for the last fourteen years.

  “Why did you look after me all this time?” I snap, glaring at him with a hard frown. “You’ve always been like…” I stop, my shoulders dropping with grief and sorrow, in disbelief that I’m about to say the following words. “Like a father to me.”

  He’s always been so protective and loving. Was this twisted, sinister side of him always there in the background, and I just didn’t see it? Or d
id I see only what I wanted to see, what I needed to see at the time?

  A father figure. The devil dressed in an angel’s robe.

  “Because,” he growls. “They used you, didn’t they? They were never supposed to rape you. Just leave you, frightened, for me to find. But I knew from the blood and the hospital reports at the time what they did to you.” He frowns hard, bringing his thumb to his mouth and biting on the nail.

  There were no hospital reports. I upturned every stone I possibly could, and it was like it had never happened to me. But now I know. He made it all go away. “Who did it?” I demand, twisting my wrists in an effort to break the binds. I know it's futile, but I have to try. The longer I manage to stay here, coherent, alive, and fighting, the more chance I have of Ramsey and JJ coming for me.

  “He’s dead.” He shrugs. “I had him killed for taking your precious virginity. He ruined you.”

  “Then why keep me? Why not kill me, or sell me to someone else when I was young?”

  He frowns at me and tilts his head. “Because I love you, Sadie. I loved you from the second I saw you in the park. One way or another, you were always going to be mine.”

  “Vaughn.” I sigh, looking at him as softly as I can manage when all I want to do is drive a knife through his perverted, cruel heart. But I try and appeal to the man I used to know. The man I thought I knew, with the hope that he's still there, somewhere. “You don’t have to do this. I can still be yours. You’re my family. My only family. I need you, please, Vaughn, I'm begging you, don't do this.” I hold his gaze, not dropping away for a second, then I lower my voice. “I love you, Vaughn.” The words cut my tongue like shards of glass, but it’s a last-ditch attempt to get him to change his mind.

  He looks at me for long moments, then narrows his eyes in quiet contemplation. “I have a buyer for you,” he says with a flick of his wrist. His voice detached, bored even. “He’s a sadist, I believe. Which is perfect for you because I hear you like it rough.” He grins. “He’s wealthy, so as long as you scream loud enough when he demands it, you should be treated well. Think yourself lucky, some of the other girls aren’t facing such a nice life,” he muses, more to himself than me, like he has to tell me all of this, to show me this side of him, reasoning everything in his head before he discards me.

  He has a buyer for me?

  I’m… SOLD.

  My clouded, drugged mind can’t keep up with the pace that the facts are being hurled at me. I’m barely able to make sense of anything. There’s no logic. No justification. No reasoning for any of this.

  “Is this how you’ve earned all your money over the years?” I look up at him with more lead weight in my heart than ever before.

  He smirks. “Acquisitions, sweet Sadie. People are worth more than oil to me.”

  “Time to go, Boss,” Nate says from the doorway, halting the tirade I’m about to unleash.

  “We’ll be right there.” He nods, still looking down at me, and not even glancing over at Nate as he speaks.

  “Vaughn,” I implore desperately. “Give me a chance. We can be happy. If I had just known how you—”

  His laughter fills the room as though he were watching a hilarious comedy sketch. “You think I want you now?” A cold expression settles on his face. “You’re tainted, Sadie. That little pussy of yours is filthy. I don’t want a hole that Ramsey Dalton and, likely, his merry men have filled. You disgust me.” His face contorts—affirming his feelings and taking with it what very little hope I have left.

  I choke out a sob at his harsh, bitter words, and he stands, straightening out his shirt and tie. “Your mother was a whore, and the apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree, has it, Sadie?”

  “Vaughn,” I cry out desperately.

  “Too late.” He stands as Nate and Rev stride into the room. “Hold her,” he orders coldly, pulling something from his pocket. A syringe.

  “Nate,” I plead, a last ditch attempt as he grabs my ankles, pinning them to the bed. “Please, Nate. Don’t do this. Don’t do this to me, Nate!” He ignores my cries as though I weren’t even there. I twist my body, helplessly fighting these huge grown men, and Rev stands at the head of the bed, pushing all his weight onto my shoulders, pressing me into the mattress. Vaughn comes closer, and the silver tip of the needle glints in the light as he lowers it, injecting it smoothly into the pulsing vein in my arm. I fight until my sweat-soaked body starts to weaken, then I cry as a panic attack steals my breath and every last hope I ever had, dies.

  Chapter 25

  “Yes!” JJ snaps, answering a call on his cell. “Fuck,” he mutters. “Call me the second you know anything else.” He clicks off the call and slams the cell on the bar top, looking at me wearily. This is taking its toll on all of us, but visually, JJ is carrying the load.

  I pace back and forth, unable to sit still for even a second while I know she’s out there needing my help. I chew on my thumbnail while we anxiously await something, anything that could tell us where Sadie is. “What is it?”

  “Let’s go.” He grabs up his cell and his keys, striding out of the door and talking as he goes. “Local PD found Lia’s car outside a store on West 5th.”

  I catch up to his side as we get to our bikes. “Just the car? Fuck, JJ. Will you tell me what the fuck is going on? Where is she? Where the fuck was Razor?” I seethe, vowing to knock his fucking head off his shoulders for not doing his fucking job and looking after Sadie. Fuck it. I should have been looking after Sadie.

  “Vaughn has her,” JJ barks impatiently, every crease in his face deepening as he focuses on firing up his ride. “They scanned CCTV from the store. His fucking monkey and a bitch took her.”

  Nate.

  I knew I should have punched through his fucking skull. I knew I should have taken him out when I had the chance. “Fuck,” I hiss. “Where? Where the fuck did they take her?”

  He shakes his head. “I don’t fucking know, Ram. They also found Razor out cold by the dumpsters out back.”

  “What the fuck?”

  “Got a head wound, but he's alright, other than being really fucking pissed off. Cops have put an APB out on the car, but it could be long gone by now. FUCK!” He slams his palm into the center of the handlebars and bellows out his frustration.

  “We need to get out of here, JJ, but where?” I slip on my helmet. “Where do we even start?”

  “We’re going to Salinas. Remember that note? The dealer? I’m gonna put all my money on that. They’re not at the house, and we don’t have anything else to go on.”

  “Wait.” I frown. I’m trying to think logically although my brain is going crazy with worry. It feels like someone ripped out half of my heart. “There’s no use us both riding off on a wild goose chase, JJ,” I tell him, watching for his reaction carefully. He’s turned inside out as much as I am, but a couple of minutes planning could make all the difference in finding her.

  “I’m not fucking waiting, Ram.” His tone is set low in warning. Warning that he’s about to blow.

  “We need a plan. A loose one at least.” I think fast, the quicker we get moving on the road, the better. We have a good three-hour journey ahead, and that’s at speed. “I’ll get Tex to bring the dealer up in the truck. If it’s all going down there and then, we can use him.”

  “Fine.” JJ kicks his bike off the stand and pulls forward.

  “What’s going on?” Tex yells, jogging over from the doorway, his hair still dripping wet from being in the shower. “Has she been found?”

  “No.” I shake my head and force myself to stay focused. “I need you to go and get Vinny and the dealer. Bring them up to Salinas airport in your truck. Send Fuzz and Mickey to the apartment in San Fran, too. I want men on the ground, eyes everywhere, and every place connected to that fucker.”

  “On it.” He nods tightly, only just hiding the concern on his face. “Ram…” I drag my gaze up from the concrete to find his intense, narrowed stare. “We will find her. Just focus. Yeah?” He plants h
is huge hand on my shoulder, and it’s all I need to spring into action with a quick nod and the determination of a mother fucking lion.

  I pull away from HQ and out onto the road.

  This is big.

  The heavy ball of fury whirling in my stomach tells me that the next time I come back through those gates, everything will have changed. Because one way or another, I’m coming back with my girl and leaving no chance for Vaughn, Nate, or anyone in her past to be able to keep her from me again. I swear, if I don’t come back with her, I’m not coming back at all.

  The road seems to go on for miles. As the hours pass, it feels like we aren't getting anywhere even though JJ and I are pushing the bikes to their absolute limits. We’ve had a couple of near misses with some big fucking trucks on the winding corners, but neither of us cares. All that matters is getting to Sadie, finding Vaughn, and tearing that fucker limb from limb. I try to process everything and piece it all together in those few hours, but none of it fits. Why would Vaughn take her? What does he want with her? His protectiveness and the way he’s almost kept her reclusive is bordering on obsession. Maybe that’s it. Whatever it is. He’s marked his headstone this time.

  Up ahead, JJ signals and points for us to turn left in the direction of the airport and then pulls over to the side of the road just after we’ve turned off. I pull alongside him as he checks his cell for any new info. “Anything?” I ask.

  “Nah. You?”

  I look. A message from Tex to say they’re on their way, just ten minutes behind us, and nothing from Fuzz or Mickey. It shouldn’t be long before they arrive at the apartment in Salinas, and I’m anxious to hear what they find there. Vaughn is connected to the new dealers in town somehow, I know it, but it’s a tangled fucking web that’s almost impossible to get my head around. I’m not convinced that he’s gonna be here in person, or that this meeting is even gonna lead us to Sadie. The only thing I know for sure is that I’m not leaving without her. “Tex is on his way,” I tell JJ.