by Nikki Groom
Fuck. Please don’t let him be dead. We led him into this. We promised to have his back. I can’t have more blood on my hands from this war with The Wolves.
“We’ll just put one more bullet in him, just for good measure,” he says as he points his gun down at Vinny’s head.
“Fine!” JJ yells, stepping out from the shadows and into Rev’s line of sight, forcing his hand and risking his life. I hold my breath as they finally come face to face.
Presidents. Rivals. Killers.
“Well, well.” Rev grins, raising his chin and turning his body toward JJ. “If it isn’t my old friend, Jed James.”
“Where is she, Rev?” JJ asks, his hands clenched and hovering at his side, ready to draw his guns.
Rev frowns, but a smirk pulls on the corners of his lips. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t FUCK WITH ME!” JJ yells, his face drawn tight and a rumble pushing through his voice. He draws his gun, and as he raises it, Rev matches his stance. Their arms are locked. Their guns loaded, ready, and one short, sharp squeeze away from being fired. I contemplate filling Rev with lead from here, but I don’t know how many men he has in that van, other than the driver who hasn’t gotten out yet.
I want to end his existence. I want to force that last breath from his chest so badly it actually hurts. But we need to know what he knows. I have to get my woman back. And that means sitting on my fucking hands and waiting patiently until the right time. Because there will be a right time, and when it comes, I'm gonna take immense delight in watching him fall.
“Tell me where Sadie is,” JJ reiterates.
They move carefully in a circle, neither of them standing still at any point, but their guns aimed, and their focus sharper than ever as they stare each other down.
“Oh.” Rev laughs. “Sadie. As in, your daughter Sadie?” he asks, goading JJ with a knowing look.
JJ jerks his head back in disbelief at what he’s hearing. How the fuck does Rev know about Sadie? My blood turns cold—my fingers twitch so badly to pull the trigger on this motherfucker, and it’s taking everything in me to rein it in.
“You didn’t know that I knew?” Rev cocks his head and stands still, narrowing his eyes on JJ. “She was such a sweet little girl. You know, I used to take her to the park when Annie would come to meet me. She was a whore, that woman. You were better off without her.” He pushes. But it’s a push too far. JJ lets out a roar. His arms locked and his trigger finger squeezing. “Oh, I wouldn’t do that, Prez.” Rev laughs, lowering his gun and leaving himself wide open to an assault. I’m about to leap forward, instinct driving me, propelling me into plain sight, but a click sounds behind me, and a gun is pressed into my back before I can turn.
“Well, well,” comes a low, familiar voice, and I curl my lip.
“Nate,” I growl low in the back of my throat.
“Drop your gun, asshole,” he orders. “Step forward, and raise your hands.” He jabs the gun into my lower back, forcing me to step into the light of the hangar. “Look what I found,” Nate calls out as we emerge from the shadows.
“Ah, two for the price of one.”
“You tell me where my daughter is right now, Rev…” JJ demands.
“Or what?” He cocks his head, frowning curiously.
“Or so help me God, I will fill you the fuck with lead and laugh while I’m doing it.”
“Like I said before,” Rev says casually, lowering his weapon and standing with his hip cocked. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. You wanna know why?” he asks, but continues without waiting for an answer. “Because none of you will leave here alive. I will put you to the ground before you can blink. My man, Nate will have pleasure in finishing your VP here, and that’s not all…” He stops, narrowing his eyes as a savage grin shapes his lips. “Vaughn!” he yells, making us all snap our head around to the truck. “Show him the leverage.”
While Vaughn opens the doors to the van, I take a deep breath, readying myself, focusing on how the fuck we are gonna come out of this. I eye Tex’s truck, knowing that he’s our secret weapon, but now isn’t the right time and he isn’t showing himself just yet.
“I swear to God,” I mumble under my breath. “I’m gonna rip your fucking throat out if it’s the last thing I do.”
“You can try, big man. You can try.” He pushes the gun harder into my back as Vaughn hauls a small body from the back of the van. It’s hard to see who it is in the dim light outside, but as he drags the person closer, I see her long, shiny raven-colored hair, and the bottom falls out of my world.
“NO!” I yell, rushing forward without a thought. Nate’s gun comes down on the back of my head with a crack, and the pain feels like it’s splitting my body into pieces as I fight to stay conscious and upright.
“Get on your knees, motherfucker,” Nate orders, standing over me as I lower myself slowly to the ground. My spinning head and the weakness through my body from the blow to my skull leave me no choice but to comply. I watch helplessly as Vaughn drags Sadie into the hangar, letting her drop to the ground in a heap next to Rev’s feet.
“Sadie,” JJ cries out, his whole body sagging with helplessness.
“You see why you have to cooperate now?” Rev asks, thrusting his fist into Sadie’s hair and yanking her head up.
She groans. A pained noise that has my heart shattering and my body calling for her.
“What do you want, Rev?” JJ asks, his gun lowered but not holstered as he hangs his arms down by his side. And as they stand off, JJ looking on helplessly, and Rev with my woman’s life in his hands, I can’t do anything but watch. I would like to peel back his fingernails and strip the skin from his body for just laying his filthy, motherfucking hands on my girl. I would make that son of a bitch beg for me to stop, and laugh while I continued, inch by inch, making him suffer for as long as possible.
But I can’t. I can’t do anything. And that’s the worst feeling in the world.
Chapter 26
Whatever they injected into me back at the apartment was just enough to take the edge off my awareness, but not enough to knock me out cold. My mind is slow, but not numb. My body feels like a lead weight, but I’m still aware of every bump in the road as I’m jostled against one of the other girls in the back of the van with me.
Time is like quicksand, slipping away but all the while not getting anywhere at all. I’m in a half-consciousness that makes my situation more torturous than anything before.
Everything I ever knew to be true up until now, is gone. It’s all been ripped away from me in a cruel twist of fate, and now, there’s nothing.
No hope.
No life.
No love.
Vaughn has betrayed me in the worst way possible. I thought he wanted to protect me all these years. But he was feeding a sick, perverted obsession, and killed everyone that was ever important to me along the way. He killed my mom and brother to get to me, making me vulnerable and in need of his comfort. He killed Mac because I was getting too close to him, and that fucking destroys me. He didn't deserve that. No one deserves what Vaughn Campbell curses them with. Jealousy has fractured his composure and blackened his soul even further. He cultured a twisted madness that I lived in for years, for all of my adult life and some of my youth. I encouraged it without even being aware I was doing it.
I don’t know where I'll end up. I can't get my head around someone wanting to buy me. I've heard about human trafficking, but I didn't think it would happen to me. One thing I do know is that unless I can find a way back into Ramsey’s arms, with my new family, the only family that’s ever truly felt like home, I might as well be going to hell.
I’m giving up. The fire in my belly is fizzling out, and I don’t know how to get it started again. It's being suffocated by evil.
The darkness doesn’t even bring the stars this time. It brings nothing but pain and despair.
I push a scream from my chest, putting everything behind it and hoping that so
meone will hear me. But it’s hopeless. Nothing but a weak cry slips from my lips. A cry that turns into a sob, that in turn racks my whole body with the most painful realization of all.
I’m sold.
I drift in and out of consciousness until an excruciating pain pulses through my skull, and my hair feels like it’s being yanked from my head. The rope around my ankles is released, and I try to kick out as I'm dragged against the cold, hard ground, battling with the darkness in my head, fighting one last time for my freedom.
But a voice grabs ahold of my awareness, hauling it past the heavy, detached feeling and bringing it to the surface.
“Sadie!” he calls.
A voice I recognize. A sound that I hold on to, a life buoy in the tempestuous sea that’s trying to pull me under. I open my eyes and focus on the source.
JJ.
My dad. My hero.
I twist my head around to see the bearer of my pain. The cause of all of our pain. Expecting to see Vaughn, but instead finding Rev towering above me.
“What do you want, Rev?” JJ asks, the calm in his voice betrayed by the heavy breaths he’s taking, and I silently start to pray. I pray that we all get out of this alive. There’s been too much death. Too much sadness.
“That’s a good question,” Rev muses above me, his grip tightening in my hair as he ponders the question. Everything is still so cloudy in my head. Voices echo in my ears, figures move around us, but I can only make out JJ for sure. “I wanted everything you had. Reno. Annie. Little Sadie.”
My stomach churns. The sound of his voice stings my skin. His presence makes me fearful like never before and the more he talks, the more the adrenaline rushes through my body, pushing my consciousness to the surface. Making me want to fight, and stoking that fire in my belly because there's something to live for. A life—Ramsey, JJ, and Lia, and with him here for me, I battle with lucidity, pushing the fog in my head away as best I can.
Rev throws me into the concrete ground with force, and I barely have time to twist my body so I don't land flat on my face.
“Untie her,” Rev orders, flicking his wrist in my direction.
“What?” Vaughn snaps in disbelief.
“She's not gonna run, is she? She can barely stand up. Look at her. She's fucking pathetic. Besides,” he chuckles low in his belly, “it's much more fun trying to fuck her up when she's actually a bit of a challenge.”
Rev strides forward, squaring up to JJ, and I smile inwardly. He doesn't think I'm a threat. He doesn't know that with every passing second, my consciousness is screaming to wrap its fingers around his throat. So I play along. And as I flick the hair from my face, and my gaze starts to focus on my surroundings, there’s a vision I had only imagined would be there.
My knight. Not in shining armor, but black leather.
Ramsey Dalton.
He pleads for me to stay strong with the look in his eyes. He begs for me to hold out and keep fighting. But he’s flanked by Nate. And Nate’s face is set hard when he realizes we’re exchanging glances.
“I will take everything from you,” Rev tells JJ, his voice booming between us all as he gets up in JJ’s face. Vaughn moves in beside me, a warning that he’s still there, and a thud sounds in the air as Rev head-butts JJ, dropping him to the ground.
“No!” I cry out, as JJ staggers to his feet, stunned by the sudden blow.
“You’ll never take my daughter as long as I have breath in my body,” JJ warns, touching his hand to his face, and talking through bloodied teeth. I cry out for him, snapping my head back and forth between JJ and Ram.
There has to be something I can do. Anything. There has to be a way out of this.
As each moment passes, and I'm able to assess the situation, I lose a little more hope. I know what Vaughn and Rev are capable of, and against JJ, Ramsey, and I—unarmed, drugged, and outmanned, it doesn't look good.
“Whatever you want, I’ll get it for you,” JJ says, holding out a hand between him and Rev as an offering.
“I don’t need anything from you anymore.” Rev shakes his head, sucking in a breath through his teeth. “I had your lover. I had your daughter, and now, when I end your sad existence and send your heart to your wife, Lia, in a box, I’ll swoop in and take her and Reno, too.”
His words attack my mind, and it spins in all directions to try and process what he just said. He alluded to it back at the house—that I tasted sweet—and the pieces of the puzzle all start to fall into place, and my stomach lurches as I glance up at him.
It was Rev that raped me that night.
I had blocked it out as much as I could. But his voice. His words. They wound me like shards of glass being dragged slowly across my skin.
“You?” Vaughn asks beside me, his voice quivering in disbelief as he slowly moves away from me and closer to Rev. “You took her body? You said it was—”
“I lied,” Rev barks, snapping his head around and raising his chin as his lips pull into a sour grin. “And she was sweet as candy, my friend.”
Both JJ and Ramsey make a move toward Rev, propelled by rage. But Vaughn lunges for him too—a roar bursting from his chest and echoing around the space as he makes contact with Rev first.
Nate makes sure Ramsey doesn't move by jabbing the gun into his back. JJ stands back to let Vaughn and Rev fight it out. “I’ll kill you!” Vaughn screams. “She was supposed to be mine.”
“Not if I kill you first,” Rev replies, grappling with Vaughn as they wrestle on the ground. I look at JJ, not knowing what the hell to do but realizing that this is our only chance. JJ nods at the van, and I glance over in time to see Tex emerge from the flatbed at the back of the truck, and fire several bullets at the men as they fight.
There are screams and commotion as JJ runs to my side, grabbing my face in his hands and looking at me with desperate concern blazing in his wide eyes. “You okay?”
“I don’t know. I—”
He lowers his head and whispers. “The second you have a chance, get out of here. You hear me?” I nod, but it’s only a split second before there’s more yelling.
“I’ll kill him!” Nate shouts with his arms wrapped around Ramsey’s throat and his gun to his head, and everything falls silent. The seconds that follow, play in slow motion and give me time to take stock of exactly what’s happening here.
Tex now stands, with his gun trained over Rev and Vaughn who have both been shot, but only Vaughn seems to be moving—moaning in pain and clutching his chest.
“Let him go,” JJ booms, standing tall and widening his shoulders.
“No,” Nate answers.
“Nate,” I plead, getting to my feet. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Tex toss a pistol to JJ. “You don’t want this. This isn’t you. This isn’t the Nate I know.” His gaze softens for a minute—that bond I thought we had for all these years showing itself. I slowly step toward him, my nerves hidden well, but with every footstep I take, it feels like my body is going to give out.
There are bodies everywhere. But I don’t care about that. The look in Nate’s eyes is crazed. He’s losing control of the situation, and himself, and all it would take is one bullet to end Ramsey’s life, and ultimately mine too.
“Please, Nate. Let him go. We can all walk away from this.”
“Sadie,” JJ warns behind me, but I continue and close my eyes for a second, saying a little prayer as I move closer to them. I’m close enough that I can smell Ramsey’s cologne, and I can see the pulse in his neck trying to burst from his skin. His eyes blaze. Fear and love flashing fiercely between us.
“Just let him go. I’ll sort it. I’ll sort it all,” I tell Nate, and for a moment, he drops his guard. And in that second, Tex fires. A risky shot that blows a hole right through Nate’s brain. As he drops to the ground with a thud, the risk pays off, and Ramsey rushes forward, slamming into me so hard he almost knocks me off my feet. He pulls me roughly, almost violently, to him, wrapping his arms around my body so tight I think he’s trying t
o press all of my broken pieces back together.
“Sadie,” he pants, letting me go and thrusting his hands into my hair. “Did they hurt you?”
I shake my head. “I thought I’d never see you again.”
“I’m here. It’s okay. I’m gonna make it all okay.” He nods with a taut jerk of his head. “Prez?” He calls over to JJ who’s now on the ground with Vinny, pressing on his stomach to stem the bleeding.
“He’s not dead. Yet.”
“Get him in the fucking truck. Tex, get him to the nearest hospital, now!” Ramsey orders and Tex nods solemnly. “What about them?” Ramsey grabs Nate’s gun that’s skittered across the ground and swings his gaze to Rev and Vaughn, who groans, trying to roll onto his side. “Just one of them alive?” Ram asks, shoving Rev with his foot.
“Yes, sir,” Tex calls over his shoulder, hauling what looks like more dead bodies out of the back of his truck. If he’s taking Vinny to the hospital, he can’t turn up with them on board. I guess there’s more to tonight than I know about—the lengths they’ve gone to get here, to rescue me. It’s all more than I can take, and more than I want to know. I feel broken just thinking about it, but then I hear Ramsey’s voice, and I know it’s worth it.
“You’ve taken their weapons?” Ramsey calls out, and Tex just raises his brow at him. Ram shouldn’t have to ask this. It’s a given. “Was there anyone in the van with you? Do you remember?” He dips his head, speaking intently to me.
“There are others. Other girls,” I say, my lips quivering as I try and control the fear I felt in my bones when Vaughn told me I was sold. I hate feeling so weak. The drugs in my system are temporarily suppressed by the adrenaline racing around my body but the fear, it’s real, and I fucking hate every second of it.
“But no more men?” he asks, and I shake my head.
“No. I only saw Vaughn, Nate, and Rev at the apartment.” I glance over to Vaughn, contempt playing a death march in my head. “Give me a gun,” I demand, pulling my shoulders back.