Taking Beauty (Taking Beauty Trilogy Book 1)

by Wild, Nikki

  A lead-lined box, in the hands of an arms dealer…

  “I think you fucking know what’s in the box, Hunter,” he continued gravely. “But all you need to worry about right now is your woman. Stop Soroka, and we’ll all put that goddamned box somewhere that it’ll never be found…

  “And maybe live to see another fucking day.”

  “She threatened you,” I realized.

  “Better than that,” Talon shook his head with a dark, defeated scoff. “She threatened the lives of my entire organization… And if she gets her hands on that cargo container, that’ll be the fucking least of our problems.”

  Jesus Christ, I thought to myself.

  Talon composed himself. “I’m dying, Hunter. I’m fucking dying, and I’ve done my share of bad fucking things. I can’t make all of that better, but I can stop whatever twisted bullshit Soroka Sarkonov is planning. I can try to make something right. This might be the only fucking good thing I ever do.”

  “You want redemption?”

  Talon chuckled. “Redemption? I don’t want fucking redemption. I want security for my men. I want a safe place for their children and their fucking grandchildren. This club is my family, and Soroka Sarkonov will wipe every last one of us off the earth if we don’t stop her now…”

  “I want more than just her location,” I pressed.

  Talon narrowed his eyes. “You want more? Besides your woman back, safe and sound? What, that ain’t good enough for you?”

  “This little spat between Sarkonov and you doesn’t have anything to do with us,” I replied as calmly as I could manage. “We were dragged into this just as much as you were… if I’m going to do this, then I need something more from you.”

  He growled angrily. “Name the price.”

  “You came to me out of desperation with an offer that benefits us both,” I reasoned out. “Someday, I’m going to need a favor when I’m in trouble… I want your word that I can count on you for help.”

  “You want to be allies,” the biker president muttered aloud, stroking his graying beard.

  “For now, we have a common threat,” I clarified. “When this is done, instead of turning our backs… we will be in debt to one another. You and I might have had our differences in the past, but there’s no reason to hold onto old grudges. Let’s clear the fucking blood out of water.”

  I held out my hand.

  Talon regarded the gesture carefully, his eyes glued to the extended limb. I could see the cogs in his head turning, running through the possibilities, on the lookout for any hitches…

  “I will offer your charter formal recognition from the Los Angeles Devil’s Dragons, and all the benefits as such. No longer will you scramble through the desert on your own… Hunter, you realize that this is a two-way street.”

  “You want access to the Outlaws,” I replied. “You want to use us as a gateway to them.”

  “Perceptive,” he chuckled.

  “I can’t guarantee that,” I replied calmly. “They might answer to me, but I can only bend them so far. If they want to speak to you, the decision will be theirs to make, not mine.”

  “I’m am an old man on death’s door. I can’t protect my family alone… I need strength in numbers, Hunter,” he replied. “I seek sanctuary for my men, in these dark times, particularly with those as high and dangerous as Sarkonov gazing down upon us…

  “I recognize what you have accomplished with your united band of renegades. If I can ally with them, then I won’t be alone when my next enemy appears…

  “Do we have an understanding?”

  I straightened my hand. “I believe so.”

  Talon’s rough, ancient hand grasped mine with a firm, resolute shake. “Welcome back, Hunter Hargreaves… against our enemy, my resources are yours for the taking.”

  If the stakes weren’t so high, and if my woman and unborn child didn’t hang in the balance… I would have been happier to make my old nemesis my reluctant, powerful ally. But there was no time for that.

  “How long do we have?” I asked, withdrawing my hand from his grip.

  “There’s a GPS tracker on the truck. The proxy is apparently sticking to the back roads. A direct cut down I-10 will take you where you need to go. If you leave now, you’ll have time to position your people and wait for her approach.”

  “And Sarkonov?”

  Talon chuckled. “She keeps her appearances very, very brief. She’ll show up, but you’re going to have to let her proxy think everything went smoothly. Let her get to the drop-off point. Wait till the bitch finally shows her face before you do anything.”

  “You said you have resources…” I recalled, glancing over his shoulder at the truck. The driver gruffly acknowledged me with a curt nod. “What do you have?”

  Talon smiled evilly.

  “Guns, Hunter… lots and lots of guns.”

  At my calling, half my men assembled behind me. I directed them to the van, and they unloaded several wooden crates and dragged them inside.

  While they were clearly confused that Talon was coming in behind me, they crowbarred open the containers to reveal a bevy of assault weaponry and handguns in an array of options. Half of the crates contained brand new bulletproof vests – a fortunate choice, as we were running low on ours.

  “Listen up, everyone,” I spoke over the clatter of the guns. The room went silent as all eyes trained onto me.

  “It should be no surprise that Talon and I don’t exactly see eye to eye,” I paused, glancing his way, “but we have come to set our differences aside for the sake of a greater threat.”

  “Soroka Sarkonov,” Grizz responded. “You’re going to challenge Soroka Sarkonov.”

  “Sarkonov sends someone to act as her representative, someone we call her proxy,” I reminded them, reaching into my pocket. “This person is dangerous enough to enjoy full cooperation of the criminal underworld wherever he or she goes.”

  Within seconds, I was holding out the smartphone that he had given me. “This phone belongs to Sarah. Talon has brought it here as proof that she’s been taken. In a few hours, Soroka is meeting up with her proxy. When that happens, if we aren’t there first, Sarah is going to die.”

  “You will not ride alone,” Grizz stepped forward. “If Sarah is in danger, then you shall have my gun at your side.”

  The Dragons glanced amongst one another, unsure on how to proceed. Despite my conviction, I sensed their clear and apparent apprehension. I was asking them to fight the goddamned boogeyman. Nobody had ever gone after Soroka and came out alive on the other side.

  “I won’t pretend that I’m not asking the world of you,” I addressed them. “This is the woman who bears my child… I’m going. I will ride alone or I will ride with my brothers. I certainly will not begrudge–”

  “Aye,” spoke Ricochet. Cutting me off.

  “Aye,” spoke Skid.

  “Aye,” spoke Victor.

  Soon, the room filled with the confirmations that I feared might never come. My men had my back. My Devil’s Dragons would fearlessly follow their leader into battle against even Soroka Sarkonov.

  My gaze shifted to Talon. A confident smirk begrudgingly crossed his lips, and he gave me a slight nod to offer a token of respect.

  “Suit up, boys,” I addressed my motorcycle club. “After that, we ride due east. Our objectives are to rescue Sarah Buchanan, defeat Sarkonov’s proxy, and take down the bitch herself! Let’s get some!”

  The men roared with war lust as they scrambled to throw on bulletproof vests, load the weapons, and prepare for a fight.

  “I need to know where I’m going, Talon,” I turned to my surprise ally, who followed me past the swarm of men. “The moment the men are ready, I want to be hitting the road.”

  “Of course,” he replied, withdrawing a map from the inside pocket of his jacket. “I’ve taken the liberty of marking out what I think her rendezvous coordinates are going to be… And here’s a phone tracking her in real time…”

&
nbsp; Unfolding the map, I held it up and scrutinized the markings, comparing it to the map on the phone. The small dot moved slowly along a winding road, taking Sarah further and further from me with every passing second. Talon indicated a pullout point just past Temecula.

  “Here?” I pointed to a red dot.

  “That’s the place,” Talon nodded, stroking his beard. “If you leave now, you won’t even need luck on your side…”

  He was right. The rendezvous point looked fairly accessible from the main interstate, and I suspected that we could beat our enemies there with time to set up an ambush.

  Talon stepped back to talk with his single accompanying biker, and I found myself face to face with my second-in-command, Grizz.

  “Permission to speak freely, sir.”

  “You know you don’t need my fucking permission Grizz,” I replied. “You always have clearance to speak your mind with me.”

  “Talon is not telling you everything that he knows,” Grizz spoke ominously.

  “I think I’d be more surprised if he was telling me the whole fucking truth. Friend or foe, the old bastard’s all that we have right now,” I said, casting a sideways glance back at the president of the Los Angeles Devil’s Dragons. “Thy have Sarah, Grizz. I have to get her back.”

  “I’m with you,” Grizz said, grabbing my shoulder.

  “Good… let’s ride.”

  Hang on, baby, I mentally called to Sarah as I made my way to my bike, as I heard the sound of my men clamoring behind me to their own motorcycles. The ominous air was filled with gun-stained vengeance.

  We’re coming for you.

  Sarah

  When I awoke, the first thing that I was aware of was the throbbing pain in my head – a swirling spiral of aching that eclipsed all of my thoughts. The second thing was that I was bound awkwardly and hastily, with my wrists tied behind my back.

  The third was that I’d become blind.

  After a bout of horrendous panic, I realized that it wasn’t that I was actually blind. I felt the constant movement of my prison, and the bumping of the road beneath me.

  That meant that not only was I locked in the missing storage container, but Hannah had successfully removed it from the Port of Los Angeles.

  It was on the truck, heading God knows where… rigged to possibly explode, with me trapped inside.

  And it was lead-lined…

  Panic gripped at me. I didn’t feel unwell, but there was no way to tell if the bomb in this container was leaking radiation. The lining could have just been a contingency, or maybe this thing had been slowly making me sick as I laid here for who the fuck knows how long…

  After all, I was a goddamn private eye, not a fucking expert in nuclear physics.

  I wondered if she was driving it now, or relying on someone else to do so while she rode shotgun. Maybe she wasn’t even in the same vehicle, choosing to run in an escort vehicle.

  Either way, I was pretty much fucked.

  I tried to wiggle around and see if I could dislodge my phone from my jeans. If that were so, at least I could use it for a light source. I’d get a grasp of my surroundings so that I didn’t accidentally bump into something prone to bursting into flames, especially given who really owned the container that served as my jail cell.

  It was then that I remembered the traitorous little phone had gotten me into this entire mess to begin with… and it was probably still in Talon’s office.

  Well, fuck me sideways.

  I was in an impenetrable storage container, rigged to explode, hurtling probably towards the middle of nowhere, with nobody aware that I was in any trouble. Meanwhile, Hunter’s sister had successfully passed herself off as a friend, when she was here specifically to swoop in and bring the goddamned box to her goddamned boss.

  No wonder the bitch had been so adamant that I keep digging into this case. Be independent, my ass!

  It was too late to worry about spilled milk. I was part of the package deal, having successfully painted a massive target on myself the moment that I dropped my phone.

  For bonus points, it had happened in front of both the traitor and the guy who could halt my cavalry’s progress at every turn.

  In that second, feeling the weight of total defeat threaten to crush me, I vowed to absolutely give Hunter the benefit of the doubt and work through all of our worries if I ever saw him again.

  If…

  How long had I been in here? I was totally unable to gauge the passage of time. One hour or twelve, it all seemed a blur to me. The big knot throbbing on my skull wasn’t helping matters either.

  All I knew was that I was moving somewhere, and Hannah wasn’t exactly going easy on the truck. I was being bounced around and thrown from side to side with every twist and turn.

  Not only is my captor dragging me along towards my inevitable demise… she’s also a shitty fucking driver.

  Worse than that, the bumpiness was really starting to fuck with my pregnancy symptoms.

  I was getting more and more nauseous by the second, and the thought of vomiting in this enclosed area without ventilation wasn’t exactly making me happy.

  As if I’d ever be happy again…

  Hell, the thought of that almost made me chuck up my guts in the moment.

  Pull it together, Sarah, I tried to pep talk myself. Come on. You were a great goddamn cop. So, the detective thing didn’t exactly work out, and you got yourself kidnapped in your first private investigation case…

  Doesn’t matter.

  You’re gonna figure a way out of here. There’s gotta be something, ANYTHING you haven’t considered…

  It was hard to do without the luxury of light, the acknowledgement of passing time, any concept of where we were going, nobody aware I was kidnapped or coming to save me, or even any understanding of where I was.

  Minor details, I told myself.

  Oh, who the fuck am I kidding?

  I’m gonna fucking kick the bucket today.

  In my frustration, I tried to stand. Maybe if I could get my bearings on where I was, or what exactly was even in the stupid container with me.

  What are we talking here, something the size of a beach ball? Or is half this goddamn box a nuclear bomb?

  I managed to get to my feet just as the vehicle hit a small bump, but I realized very quickly that I had very little space to move about. Whatever was in this container was taking up almost the entire square footage. Before I could investigate further, the truck hit a harder bump and forced me to topple to the ground. I hit the floor of the container hard and yelped in pain, but I luckily didn’t break anything.

  Great…

  Just fucking great.

  As I lay there for a few moments, my face started to get warm, and I became gradually aware that my head was getting fuzzier. Something was up in here, and I couldn’t exactly put my finger on it…

  Was it radiation?

  Ten minutes later, it finally hit me: the air was thinning out. I hadn’t been conserving it or trying to breath lighter, and within minutes of trying to restrain my mounting panic, I found myself frenziedly gasping for air.

  This thing is waterproof, I realized.

  Stands to reason that it’s airtight as well…

  Black fuzziness began to overcome my already blind eyes. I tried to breathe as shallowly as possible, but I knew that it was a futile effort.

  I am going to suffocate and die here.

  My thoughts desperately went to Hunter, my beloved. I had been so completely fucking stupid in resisting his good-natured attempts to save and shelter me…

  All he’d wanted to do was keep me safe.

  That’s the only thing that he’d asked for – to put me in a goddamn safehouse and keep me protected while he faced our enemy alone.

  And I fucking blew it by spiraling straight into danger. I’d gotten lucky the first time, but by testing my luck and throwing caution to the wind, I’d signed my own execution papers.

  Well… maybe Daddy and Hunter will
live, I hoped.

  Things started growing fuzzy.

  The world was slipping away…

  This was the moment. I was going to choke to death in desperate need of delicious, life-giving oxygen.

  This is it…

  Goodbye, my beloved…

  I’m so sorry.

  I was so far gone that I was starting to hear noises now, distant clicking and clanking sounds that were ushering me towards my death.

  That’s… not what angels are supposed to sound like, I babbled in my head. Maybe those are demons… great, big, mechanical demons…

  Oh god, I’m going to Hell instead…?

  What the fuck, man?!

  A white light flooded me, and I knew that my time had finally come. A great lifting of pressure bathed me in relief, and I gasped in happiness and satisfaction that I was finally home…

  Well, if home looked like a roadside pullout, with cars roaring past in the distance.

  Wait.

  I’m alive?!?

  Hannah Hargreaves looked at me with something that was almost disappointment after opening the back of the storage container.

  “What the hell was that noise back here?”

  She glanced down at my gasping form.

  Gasping hungrily and desperately for air, I gazed up at her from the floor. Hunter’s older sister looked at me with pity as she held the door propped open, turning and lighting up a cigarette.

  “You’ll have to forgive me,” she mentioned offhandedly, turning back to watch me suck down the precious, beautiful air. “Kind of slipped my mind that this thing was airtight. Whoops.”

  “You…” I gasped. “Why are you…?”

  “Nuh-uh,” Hannah warned. “Sorry, kiddo, but you don’t get to hear the story. All you’ve gotta know is that I’ll figure out what to do with you in a little while… I’m still thinking things over, yeah?”

  My breathing was slightly easier now, and I fought down my nauseous stomach. It wanted to rebel against me and vomit up the last meal I’d had – maybe the last meal I’d ever have.

  “H-h-how long…?”

  “How long have you been in here?” Hannah finished for me. She turned her head again, thinking for a moment. “Long enough. A few hours… I’m glad I thought to check on you when I did, you were almost a goner there…”