Kylie is out there somewhere. And she’s in danger. If she’s even fucking alive right now.
She is alive. She’s fucking got to be alive. I have to get to her in time.
“Get me in contact with the Black Seven’s prez,” I bark. “And have Axel call me, right goddamn now. We’re gonna go in and get her. Your chapter and ours.”
“Will do, cousin.” Mal sounds preoccupied. “And I’m sorry I had to tell you this. I know… well, I knew it was gonna upset you.”
“I’m fuckin’ upset that your prez has his head up his goddamn ass,” I snarl, and hang up before any emotion other than rage creeps into my voice.
I peel out of the garage’s parking lot fast enough to leave marks, and in five minutes I’m crashing open the door of our clubhouse. Thank fuck Angel and Beast are already there, and when I fill them in on what’s happened Angel puts out the word to the brothers that church is moved up to twenty minutes from now, and that nobody better be late.
Axel calls me back in the meantime, and I’m about to rip his goddamn head off through the phone until I hear engine noise in the background and realize he’s calling me from the road.
“We’re on our way to Cincy,” he yells above the wind. “I got hold of the leader of the Black Seven. They agree that the OTR Kings probably got Kylie. They got some ideas of where they might be hiding her. The Seven’s coming with us to get her. All my Ironwood men are on the way. I’m calling Angel next with coordinates, as soon as you can get here. It’s gonna be bloody, brother, but we’ll get her out.”
“You better fuckin’ pray that we do,” I bite out. “Or Ironwood’s gonna have to choose a new prez once this is over.”
There’s silence on the other end of the line. Then, stone cold: “What’s that you say, son?”
“I’m not your fuckin’ son,” I tell him. “And you heard what I said.”
“You best believe we’re gonna have words about this.”
Then the phone goes dead. I stare at it for a second, then put it away, my jaw working in fury. My threat wasn’t idle. If we don’t get Kylie out alive, I’ll beat Axel to death with my own hands.
In the chapel fifteen minutes later, I fill my brothers in on the situation and Angel calls for men to ride down to Cincy. Almost every one immediately raises his hand. Angel names off ten of us, himself included.
As we file out of the chapel, Tank comes up and claps me on the back.
“Fuck, I’m sorry, brother.” He looks down at the floor, then back up at me, shaking his head. “Kylie’s a good woman. We’re gonna get her back.”
I lock eyes with him, my hands clenching into fists. “Yes we fuckin’ are.”
I say the words like they’re true. Like there’s no other possible outcome. Because there can’t be. There’s no other option.
We’re gonna find her. And she’s gonna be okay. We aren’t gonna be too late.
Jesus fucking Christ. Don’t let us be too late.
22
Kylie
“Whose bitch are you?”
The laugh in his voice is undercut by a steel rod of fury. He takes a step toward me and I flinch, unable to control my body’s reaction after being tied, beaten and tortured for long enough that I’m starting to lose track of all sense of time.
“I…” My throat is parched, and the words come with difficulty. “I told you, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m not with anyone. I don’t know what you want with me.”
My head snaps back as a flash of blinding pain hits my temple. Dizzily, I wonder if I have a concussion. I’d be worried about that if I really believed at this point that I was going to get out of here alive. “You dumb cunt,” he rasps, lunging forward toward me again and raising his hand like he’s going to backhand me again. I flinch again, but weakly, my reactions starting to dull. “Who you workin’ for? Ya boys are sellin’ to the Black Seven. This is our turf, not theirs. You understand me?”
“I don’t…” I begin, but another blow to my head stops me. The ringing in my ears is getting louder. I don’t know how much more I can take.
“Like hell you don’t,” he sneers. He leans down, his face almost level with mine. His skin is dark, his forehead and cheekbones lined with scars and tattoos. “Bitch, you don’t tell us who you workin’ for, we got no use for you. You tell us, and maybe they want you back, and we can negotiate.” He raises one brow and lifts a hand, his ring and pinky fingers curling in, imitating a pistol. “Or if they don’t want you? Then we have a good time with you, and then when we’re done, you dead. As a warning for them not to fuck with us. But if you don’t tell us? Then we move straight to option two. You get me?”
“I… I don’t know who they are,” I try, even though I’m not sure why I’m not saying anything I can to get out of here. Then through the haze, I have an idea. “I had a burner phone on me. In my purse. Can… you can try to call them…”
The one who’s interrogating me, looks over at another, larger man wearing gold chains and holding a pistol to one side. He nods. “Yeah. We found two phones on her. Smashed them both and left them by the truck where we got her.” His lip curls. “Found a gun on her, too. And some ID. Her address is this podunk-ass town. Ironwood or some shit.”
The first man curses. “Fuck. Ain’t there an MC down there?”
“Yeah.” A low, deep voice comes from a dark corner in the far side of the room. “That who sent you, bitch? The MC?”
I close my eyes, refusing to answer, but I know that’s answer enough.
A rough, dry finger comes up under my chin, forcing my face upwards. I open my eyes to see the first man staring at me. “You a long way from home, little girl. I’m gonna enjoy fuckin’ your country ass and learnin’ your MC a lesson.” He smiles broadly, showing white, even teeth on top and a silver grill on the bottom. “They shouldn’t be sendin’ their whores up to the Nati to do their dirty work for them.” He turns to the one in the back corner. “Get Li’l Cris, have him get a number for their prez.” He turns to me and runs a dry finger down my cheek. “We gonna let them listen to her first. Let them know we have her. I’mma make you scream, girl. Make them know they don’t fuck with the OTR Kings.”
When the men who’ve captured me left, they turned off the lights, so I’m all alone. The room I’m in is pitch black, and damp. My head is still pounding, the ringing in my ears still there and so loud that if there are any soft sounds in the room, I can’t hear them. I can tell I’m crying, though, because I can feel the sounds I’m making in my throat. I can’t stop it, though. It’s like I’m no longer in control of my body.
My hands are tied tightly together behind the back of the chair I’m sitting in. My legs are bound together too, and below my ankles I can’t feel much anymore. Half an hour ago, the lack of circulation was painful, aching. Now my feet are just numb. I know that even if I could get myself untied, I wouldn’t be able to walk like this. And I can’t see a window or a door anywhere. I’m basically in a hole, by myself. At the mercy of these men, who call themselves the OTR Kings and who want to use me to teach the MC a lesson.
I don’t know if it’s fear, or pain, the throbbing in my skull, but my body is starting to feel like it’s detached from me — like I’m floating above it, almost. I can feel the pounding of my heart in my chest, and I think I must be afraid, but mostly I just want it to be over. The leader of the gang said he’s going to make me scream. He wants me in pain, to show Axel he can’t do anything to stop him from doing whatever he wants to me. They’re going to hurt me. They’re going to rape me.
They’re going to kill me.
I hear a strangled sob in the darkness, and it must be me. For some reason, I think of Cam. His angry, sexy face appearing before me like a beacon. I miss him. I wish he could help me. I wish I knew where he was. He was right, I never should have come here by myself. If he was here I’d tell him that. I wish he was here. He’ll be mad at me. I wish he wasn’t going to be mad at me. I want him to love me. To want me.
To feel the same way about me that I do about him.
Shouts, angry shouts upstairs, bring me out of the haze of my thoughts. My lungs start to heave as fear spikes through my veins. This is it. They’re coming for me. This is where they hurt me. This is where it all begins. My breath catches in my throat and then I start to scream, but the sound barely registers in my ears.
A loud crash behind me sends a pool of light into the room. I’m grabbed from behind, with such force that I’m pulled off balance and the chair I’m in goes smashing to the floor. My head connects with cold pavement, but this time I barely feel it. A flash goes off to one side, the bang that accompanies it incredibly loud. I think I hear someone shout my name, but I’m not sure. It’s chaos all around me, but I can’t raise my head or move my body. More shouts and loud bangs come toward me, but they seem to be slipping further away, just like the light that’s pooling all around me. Closing my eyes, I let the darkness take me, welcoming it, praying for it — my last hope as I fall into the inky blackness that maybe, just maybe, this the end.
23
Hale
The Black Seven lead the way through the streets of Cincinnati, through a neighborhood where the residents know enough to run inside their houses and lock their doors instead of stand outside and fucking gawk.
We pull the bikes up a block away from the condemned house where we think the OTR Kings have Kylie, and run the rest of the way. I feel fuckin’ sick to think we might be too late to save her, but for the hundredth damn time I make myself shove that thought away.
I’m the first one up the stairs to the front porch. I know I could be shot just barreling up like this but I don’t fuckin’ care. I lift my foot and kick in the door, gun out and ready to shoot anything and anyone that gets in my way. Mal, Tank, and the others fly inside behind me. The Seven are outside, waiting for any Kings to come out so they can mow them down. They agreed right away to help us, seeing an opportunity to take out the gang they’ve been at war with for months.
Three OTR Kings come out as soon as we’re in the door. Two of them are armed, but I lift my pistol and crack one of them across the jaw so hard he drops to the ground, and I grab his piece and kick him hard in the gut and then the skull. He lies still, and I turn just in time to see Tank take out the other guy with a weapon, kicking him in the balls and then finishing him off with an uppercut that knocks him out cold. More Lords are streaming in now, and from further inside the house people start yelling and we get ready to do battle.
One short skinny motherfucker rounds a corner into the room and Mal clotheslines him hard, sending him reeling back against the wall. He ricochets off of it, flying back at Mal, but Mal’s ready for him and shoots the fucker right between the eyes at close range. I hear other shots outside, which must mean some of the Kings have tried to escape.
To my left, Beast is fighting a huge fucker who’s giving him a good run for his money. But Beast is one of the best fighters I know so I leave him to it, bursting into the hallway in search of Kylie. As I start to check the rooms, gun drawn, a movement to my right catches my eye and I turn in time to block the arm of a motherfucker who’s just about to aim his gun at my head. I grab his wrist and twist, then with my other hand draw my pistol and aim it at his temple. I see the fear in his eyes just before I pull the trigger. The explosion deafens me for a second, blood and brains spattering the wall behind me. “Fuck you, motherfucker,” I growl as I drop what’s left of him onto the floor and step over the body.
By now some of the Seven are inside the house, and it’s a goddamn bloodbath as they pull out guns and blades and start to slaughter every last one of the rival gang who kidnapped my girl. I don’t give a flying fuck, this is their war not mine, so I yell to my brothers to find Kylie. I race through the hall looking into rooms but I don’t see anything but drug paraphernalia and crap strewn all over the place. There’s a kitchen at the end of the hall, filled with garbage and dirty dishes and shit, and there’s an open door leading to a basement so I take that, crashing down the stairs with my gun still drawn but not bothering to give a shit if anyone knows I’m coming. At the bottom of the stairway there’s one large room, with a cracked dirt and concrete floor. It smells like shit down here, urine and mold and decay. Off to one side, I see a small mass crumpled on the floor, and it takes me a second to see it’s a body because it’s so dark in here. I cover the distance in two steps, looking down in horror at what’s in front of me.
“Jesus,” I breathe when I see her, my stomach falling to the floor. When I get closer, I see she’s unconscious but breathing. Thank fuck. She’s lying on her side, eyes closed, tied to a toppled rickety wooden chair. Her face is swollen and bloody, her arms bent back behind her at an unnatural angle and tied at the wrists. Getting into a crouch, I grab the knife I keep in my boot and cut her arms and legs loose from the chair. I scoop her limp, battered body into my arms and charge back up the stairs. “Get the van!” I roar to Gunner. “She’s hurt bad!”
“He’s got her!” Beast calls. The Seven are still stabbing and killing the OTR crew, but this ain’t our fight anymore. We leave them to finish their job as I run out of the house just in time to see the ugly ass van we drove up here pull up to the front. The side panel door opens and Brick gets out. Hawk’s in the driver’s seat. Smiley, our doc, is ready and waiting with his bag.
“I don’t know how bad she’s hurt,” I say urgently. “But she’s still breathing. Take her to our clubhouse. Try to avoid the hospital if you can.”
Smiley nods. “I can do that.”
“I’m right behind you on my bike.”
Brick lifts his chin at me and gives me a grim smile. “Try to keep up,” he jokes. The door slams, and the van peels out. I break into a run for my bike. Off in the distance, sirens signal their approach. “Gunner! Cops!” I yell.
“Go! We’re good!”
So I do.
“She’s gonna have a bad headache for a while. But otherwise she’s okay.”
Smiley shuts the door behind us to the clubhouse apartment we’ve put Kylie in. “I put some stuff on the rope burns on her ankles and wrists, and I gave her a shot for the pain. When she wakes up she can switch to pills, but for now we’re just gonna let her sleep.”
“Are you sure she’s gonna be okay? She…” The memory of how I found her comes flooding back, choking off my words for a second. I clear my throat. “She took a pounding, from the looks of it.”
“She’ll be fine, Hale,” Lucy soothes, giving me one of her unflappable smiles. Lucy is Gunner’s ma and Smiley’s old lady. She’s also a nurse. She came right to the clubhouse when Smiley called and told her about the situation. “She’s young and healthy. She’ll bounce back.”
“What about her head?” I ask. I’m tryin’ to keep it together, but my voice goes hoarse at the end.
“Not gonna lie, she’s most likely got a concussion,” Smiley says. “But we’ll see how she feels when she wakes up. She’ll need rest and monitoring.”
“I ain’t leaving her,” I bark. “I’ll be here with her the whole time. Tell me what to look for.”
“Vision problems, hearing problems. Any balance or coordination issues. Reflexes. Strength. Memory. Concentration.”
Lucy gives me a long look, then puts a hand on my forearm. “She’s gonna be okay, Hale,” she says softly.
“Yeah.” I don’t know if she’s right, but it’s what I gotta believe right now.
Angel walks down the hall towards us. “She good?” He nods toward the closed door.
“As good as she can be right now,” Smiley tells him. “We’ll know more when she wakes up.”
Lucy and Smiley head downstairs, leaving me with my prez.
“She the reason you were gonna stay down in Ironwood for a while?” he asks.
“Yeah.”
He nods soberly. “I’m gathering that plan is off for now.”
“I’m hoping I can convince her not to go back to Ironwood until she’s feeling better,” I tell hi
m. “For now, I’m gonna keep an eye on her here, if that works.”
“It works.” Angel’s lip twitches. “The club girls are gonna be in mourning, though.”
“Whaddya mean?”
“They ain’t gonna like that you’re off the market.”
“That I’m…” Goddamnit, I am not in the mood to discuss this shit right now, even with my prez. But I can see from his smirk he’s not gonna let me get away with changing the subject. “Fuck, man, fine. Yeah. I’m off the market. If she’ll have me.”
“Who is this chick, anyway?” He raises a brow.
“Long story.” I shake my head with a rueful laugh. “Long as hell, actually. But hopefully it’s over now.”
I shoot the shit with Angel for a few more minutes, but he can tell I want to get back to Kylie, so eventually he just claps me on the back and goes back down the hall. I watch him leave, then open the door to the apartment and go inside.
Kylie’s lying in my bed. She looks like hell, but at least her breathing is steady and she doesn’t seem like she’s in pain right now. I know I can’t do anything for her now but just wait.
Tiredly, I go over to the couch. Sitting down, I pull out my phone, find the number Mal called me from earlier, and hit the call button.
“Hey,” he answers on the first ring.
“Hey. Everyone get out okay in Cincy?”
“Yeah.” There’s a rustle on his end, and then his voice comes in clearer. “By the time the cops got there, all they found was a bunch of dead OTRs,” he chuckles. “Everyone else got out in time. How’s Kylie?”
“She’s gonna be okay, I think. Got her up here at the clubhouse. Our doc took a look at her. She’s probably got a concussion, but cross your fingers it ain’t anything serious. She’s sleeping now.”
“Good deal,” Mal murmurs.
“Hey, Mal,” I continue, “her dad’s still in the hospital, I think. He’s probably gonna be wondering where the hell she is. Can you go check in on him? Let him know she’s okay, make up some story to ease his mind. Maybe find out when they’re gonna let him go home.”
HALE: Lords of Carnage MC Page 14