by Brook Wilder
So that meant this had to be personal. The sickening in the pit of my stomach told me this was personal, as in family personal. I hoped like hell Michael wasn’t part of this, because if he was, then I would not hesitate to kill him if the chance arose.
And if Rox was hurt in any way… I blew out a breath and turned from the mess on the table, stalking toward the front door. I couldn’t think like that. Hell, I didn’t even know if that was where the girls were.
But one thing was for sure, I was going to find them.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Rox
I flexed my fingers, feeling the rope cut painfully into my wrists. My shoulders were starting to ache as well, the pull on my arms not the most pleasant of feelings.
“Oh my God,” Amy announced, jiggling her hands in frustration. “When are they going to put us out of our misery?”
“You want them to kill us?” Sydney asked, testing her ropes.
“No, of course not,” Amy sighed, leaning her head back. “I just have to pee so badly that it’s starting to hurt.”
“I told you not to bring that flask,” Sydney grumbled.
I laughed, unable to help myself. If we hadn’t been in, like, serious danger, I would have thought that the exchange was comical.
Actually, I really didn’t know why we were here. After being shoved in the truck, sandwiched by the Brotherhood, there wasn’t much else that had happened. The occupants of the truck hadn’t talked, and I had scowled at them the entire ride, daring them to say something. The convoy had driven out to the desert, and before I knew it we had been entering an underground bunker, surprisingly stocked with guns and ammo all the way to the ceiling.
It had been like the Brotherhood was expecting a war.
The bunker was damp and dark, with one single light swinging from a long cord strung along the ceiling. The floor was concrete, with a series of doors leading to God knows where. We seemed to have been placed in the ammo room, the smell of gun powder and polish filling the air. The three chairs we were tied to were metal, so there was no chance of breaking them to get free, and we were lined up along the wall, unable to move them into a position where we could help untie each other.
Surprisingly, they had left our feet unbound.
Not that it helped whatsoever.
“We have to come up with a plan,” Sydney announced, looking at me. “We have to get out of here.”
“If we knew where ‘here’ was,” Amy sighed, yanking on her ropes again. “Did you not see the massive desert that we are in? Where in the hell would we hide if and when we got out of here?”
“God, what has crawled up your ass?” Sydney bit out. “You have been in a foul mood since they put us down here.”
“Hmm, let’s see,” Amy started with a little laugh. “I have to piss, I am tied to a chair, and my life is over with. What’s good to be happy about?”
“Ladies,” I finally cut in as Sydney’s gaze narrowed toward Amy. “We all want to get out of here, right? We are going to have to work together to do so.”
Sydney blew out a breath.
“You’re right, of course. I’m sorry, Amy. I’m just… I’m worried.”
“Me too,” Amy admitted, giving her a small smile. “And I am sorry. I am just tired of being let down, that’s all.”
I could second that. First Neil and now this. My life was turning out to be pretty horrible, and I didn’t know how much I could take.
Or how much time I had left in which to worry about what was going to happen.
Before we could make any plans, however, the door opened, and Neil’s cousin walked in, a grin on his face.
“Well, well, well, ladies, how are we doing?”
“Let’s just cut to the chase,” Sydney fired back, lifting her chin. “What do you want?”
I admired her bravery, wondering if anything bothered Sydney at all.
Michael chuckled, shaking his head.
“You are one tough bitch, Sydney. I swear, if you were a man, I would want you to be my second-in-command.”
She laughed.
“You aren’t even in command, Michael. Aren’t you like just a lackey in the Brotherhood? I don’t even see the tattoo on your arm yet.”
He scowled, and I bit back a laugh. If we were going to die today, at least she had gotten under his skin.
“You aren’t in a good position to be making jokes, Warren.”
She gave a little shrug.
“What’s the worst you can do? Kill me?”
Michael stared at her before his evil grin re-appeared.
“You’re right, you know. I can kill you. I won’t kill you outright, though. I would want all of you to suffer.” He then turned my way. “Just like your traitorous brother had suffered before I put a bullet in his brain.”
My blood ran cold as I realized what he was saying. He had killed Leo?
“I see you are shocked,” he said with a shrug. “Well many people are gonna be surprised with what we are going to do. Your brother tried to bring all of this down, but he didn’t succeed. No one can come between the Brotherhood.”
“That’s right,” another man joined in, slapping Michael on the back.
While Michael hadn’t shaved his head yet, this older man had, with a shocking Nazi swastika in the middle of his forehead. Behind him was a younger guy, whose appearance was vastly different from the other two men. While both Michael and the older man were dressed in their customary dark blue, the younger guy was still dressed in regular clothes. His eyes were wary as they moved over us.
“Ms. Travis, welcome to our warzone.”
Amy spat onto the floor, giving him a narrowed gaze.
“You know you have just declared war on the Horsemen. When my father finds out what you have done, all hell will come down on you.”
He chuckled.
“I’m ready for it. Your father needs to be taught who is superior in this county. The Horsemen are on their way to becoming extinct, and I am more than happy to be part of that posse that will hunt them down and eliminate them.”
“You will be asking for your death, then,” Amy answered darkly. “Let us go, and I won’t tell daddy about your little hideout here.”
He grinned.
“I like you Ms. Travis. Maybe I can talk you into joining my little outfit I have here.”
I swallowed, still trying to process the information that Michael had dropped on me about Leo’s death. Neil hadn’t killed Leo, his cousin had. Oh my God, did Neil know? Why had he taken the responsibility, allowing me to blast him for something that he had not done?
Oh, how I wished he was here now! I wanted to kill his cousin, make him feel the pain I was feeling all over again. He had taken away something precious to me, and in return I had lost the love of my life.
“Why?” I asked suddenly, my eyes on Michael. “Why did you kill Leo?”
Michael’s grin faded.
“I killed him because he betrayed the Brotherhood. We took him in, made him part of our own, and he was playing us the whole time. I did what had to be done.”
“I will kill you,” I seethed, struggling against the rope. “I will kill you!”
He tsked, shaking his head.
“I would just enjoy the rest of your time on this Earth, all of you. I’m afraid we can’t have any witnesses, and while it has been fun torturing you, Roxanne, I can’t let you have any chance of ruining our plans.”
The trio turned to go, and I felt the first spark of hopelessness as they left the room. They weren’t going to let us go. No one would know what had happened to us, and I wouldn’t have the chance to tell Neil I was sorry. Sure, he had lied to me about the key, but he hadn’t killed Leo. I could forgive him for everything else.
I loved him.
“Well,” Amy said once we were alone again. “That went well.”
“We have got to get out of here,” I said, working feverishly on the ropes.
I wasn’t going to die in this bunker,
leaving this hole in my heart over what I had done to Neil, what I had believed. I needed to clear the air with the man I loved, and unless we got out of here, I wasn’t going to get that opportunity.
“Got it,” Sydney said, bringing her hands to the front, the ropes still attached to her wrists.
“How did you do that?” Amy asked as Sydney worked on removing the ropes.
Sydney smirked, standing.
“Turns out the best thing they could have done was put us up against this wall.”
I looked over to see a metal rod sticking out of the wall behind Sydney’s now vacated chair, the jagged edge sharp enough to cut through her rope.
“You’re brilliant.”
She laughed softly as she moved to Amy, working on getting her ropes removed.
“Well I like to think so. Actually, Zack tells me quite regularly and I plan to hear him do it again.”
Her voice trembled at the last words, and I knew she had a reason to fight this. I had a reason to fight this. There were people’s lives at stake.
Sydney freed Amy and then moved to me, making quick work of my bonds as well. Once freed, I sighed in relief as I rubbed my raw wrists, flexing my shoulders to rid them of the ache.
“What’s the plan?” I asked her as she stood back, the grin on her face telling me she was quite proud of herself in this moment.
“Well,” Sydney announced, her hands on her hips as she looked around the room. “Of all the places they could have put us in, the armory was probably not the best choice.”
I followed her gaze, a smile coming to my lips as well. She was right. We had everything we needed to give us a good fighting chance to get out of here.
“Shit, you are right,” Amy breathed, walking over to a stockpile of weapons. “You think they have a rocket launcher in here? We could blow out that wall.”
Leave it up to Amy to want to do it big.
“Don’t you think that will cause a scene?”
Amy smirked, picking up an automatic rifle.
“Isn’t that the point?”
I couldn’t help but agree. They, specifically Michael, had kidnapped us thinking that he could use us in some sort of pawn game between the Brotherhood and the Horsemen.
But what he didn’t realize was who he was actually messing with. He had underestimated us, and we were going to show him why he should have just left us alone.
“Here’s the plan,” Sydney said, examining the door that led to the outside. “We will make some sort of ruckus that will have them wanting to come investigate. When they do, we will shoot our way out of here and toward whatever vehicle we can find so we can get the hell out of here.”
I picked up a gun with a double barrel, testing the feel of it in my hands. I wanted nothing more than to get out of here as quickly as I could.
The door opened behind us and we froze as the younger guy from earlier creeped through, holding his hands up as he realized we were pointing our guns toward him.
“You got free.”
“You act like that is a surprise,” Sydney retorted.
I noticed that Amy lowered her gun immediately, biting on her lower lip. There was a strange look on her face, and I gasped as I put two and two together. No wonder she was so worried about her relationship.
Oh, dear Jesus, she had picked the completely wrong guy. I thought my choices were bad, but Amy was involved with a member of the Brotherhood? That was not something I would have anticipated.
The guy ignored Sydney, his eyes on Amy.
“You alright?”
She sniffed, though it wasn’t difficult to see the spark in her eyes.
“No thanks to you.”
“You know I didn’t have anything to do with this,” he said softly, while Sydney watched the exchange with shock on her face.
I was sure it was reflecting on my face as well. This was a whole new turn of events we hadn’t expected.
“Come on. We have a very, very small window to get y’all out of here before anyone notices.”
“You are helping us,” Sydney said flatly.
“If you will listen to me, I can help,” he answered, tearing his gaze from Amy. “They are all in a meeting, and I have like seconds before I have to be back in that room before someone notices how long I have been gone. No one pisses this long.”
“Well then,” I said, checking the gun for bullets. “What are we waiting for?”
He nodded, his jaw clenched as he turned away from us, apparently not worried about the guns we still held in our hands. I slid a glance to Amy, but she shook her head and followed him out of the room. If we got out of here alive, she was going to have to break down this relationship. Inquiring minds wanted to know, and know badly, how this one had happened.
Sydney motioned for me to follow Amy, and I did, drawing in a deep breath as I walked out into the empty hallway.
Here went nothing.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Neil
I adjusted the binoculars to clear the image, a grim smile spreading over my face. I had been right.
“So, they are here?” Zack asked beside me, the anxiety evident in his voice. The man hadn’t stayed still since I had told him the potential bad news of where his fiancée was, and there was a piece of me that wished I had not told him.
Of course, that would have been wrong, as I would have wanted someone to bring me along too for Rox.
“Yeah. They are here.”
“Damn fine work,” Grant said from the other side, pulling out his cell and holding it up to his ear. “They are here. Get the guys mobilized.”
I blew out a breath, the nerves starting to get the best of me. While we couldn’t prove it, my instincts were that all three of the women were inside that bunker. I, along with Zack and Grant, had quickly checked all of their haunts, and after finding Sydney’s jeep in the abandoned strip mall, the keys still in the ignition, I was more than certain that someone had taken them.
It was a hunch that it had been the Brotherhood. If I was right, then we would be rescuing the women. If I was wrong… well, then we would be starting a war against the Teutonic Brotherhood. Though some might not agree, that war had been brewing for quite some time.
“Get ready to move,” Grant said, moving from the rocky outcrop we had been using for cover. I eased up from the sand and walked back to my truck, pulling out my sniper rifle from behind the seat. I was to provide cover for the guys going in, including Zack and Grant himself. As much as I would have loved to rip out the throats of the Teutonic, of my cousin, for taking Rox, I had a job to do, and that was protecting my brothers at all cost.
Actually, it had been my cousin himself that had given away their secret hideout. Months ago, I had put a tracker on Michael’s bike when I thought he might be after Harley Travis, forgetting about it until today. The tracker app on my cell had alerted me to where Michael was at, something I hadn’t thought I would have used, since we had found Harley and pegged Grayson for her disappearance.
But, hell, it had come in handy. Not only had it given me his location, it had put him in the parking lot where we had found Sydney’s jeep. If that wasn’t a smoking gun, I didn’t know what was. I fucking hated the thought of my own cousin kidnapping not only Horsemen women, but my woman as well.
Resuming my position, I peered at the bunker through my scope, adjusting it as the club started to approach from all angles. All I wanted to see was Rox walking out without a scratch on her, so I could pull her into my arms and never let her go. We could work through this shit between us, and if she refused to, I would bother the hell out of her until she allowed us to. I never wanted to feel the panic in my chest again at not being able to find her, the same panic I had experienced today, running around Cibolo looking for her. There had been a moment when I had found it hard to breathe, thinking the worst, thinking that I wouldn’t have the chance to apologize to her and beg her forgiveness.
I just needed that one shot.
Clearing my thoug
hts, I watched as the club neared the bunker entrance, wondering why in the hell they had this bunker out here to begin with. The Teutonic were planning something, and for their sakes I hoped it had nothing to do with the Horsemen. We knew they were in cahoots with Grayson Barnes, how deep I didn’t know, nor did we know what future plans they had for the town or beyond.
It would be best to shut this operation down and now.