HIS VIRGIN VESSEL: A Dark Bad Boy Baby Romance (War Cry MC)

by Nicole Fox

  “You wanted me here to explain, so explain. This is taking too long,” Jeremy said.

  “I know, but I’ve never done a hit where there’s a child involved.”

  “I never asked you to kill the child. Just don’t shoot her when you shoot her mother. It’s not that difficult, but clearly you can’t handle it.”

  “I’m not going to shoot Vanessa with Opal in the room.” Picturing that made his chest tight with agony. “I think that would do a lot of psychological harm to her.”

  “Psychological harm? What do I care about that? You know what? Forget it. The deal is off. I know where Opal is, and I already have someone on their way to get her. I’ll have Vanessa taken care of in the meantime, and it’ll all be done by the end of the day. You took too long, and you pissed me off. I’ll be expecting back the money I gave you as a down payment.” Jeremy crossed his arms and glared at him.

  Hunter swallowed and tried to keep his feet from dashing out the door. “I said I’ll do it. It just needs to be done right.”

  “Too late. She’ll probably already be dead by the time you make it back to the apartment,” Jeremy said smugly. “Oh, but that’s right. You won’t be making it back to the apartment.”

  Hunter watched in disbelief as Jeremy opened his coat and pulled a gun from his inside pocket. Hunter’s hand twitched. This was the perfect set up. It would be self-defense, no question. He never expected Jeremy to do something like this.

  He reached his hand to his back, but Jeremy pulled the slide on his gun. His years of training kicked in, and he saw Opal’s face flash through his mind before he acted. There wasn’t enough time to pull out his gun.

  Hunter lunged for Jeremy and collided with him hard, sending him to the ground in a crash. Jeremy still had hold of his gun, and turned it so that it pointed at Hunter’s shoulder. Hunter spun out of his aim.

  He threw his body over Jeremy and slammed his fist down on the arm holding the gun. Jeremy moaned in pain, but didn’t let go. Hunter considered reaching again for his own gun, but it would take too long, and the risk was too high.

  Jeremy tried to throw Hunter off him by twisting under him, but Hunter was too heavy for him. As Jeremy turned, Hunter grabbed the hand holding the gun. They struggled for several minutes—Hunter trying to get the gun, Jeremy desperately holding on.

  Hunter got his hand on the gun, and Jeremy lost his grip. He quickly got to his feet. Jeremy rolled out of the aim of Hunter’s gun, and scrambled to his feet.

  He ran at Hunter, jamming his head into Hunter’s chest and causing him to drop the gun. It hit the ground, and the men dove for it. Jeremy reached it first and closed his fingers over it.

  He pointed the gun again at Hunter. Before he could pull the trigger, Hunter slammed his hand down. The gun fired.

  For a moment, Hunter wasn’t sure what happened. Who had been shot. Was someone dead? This was such a messy way to do this, and all of his hits had been clean and simple. None of this fighting with the mark stuff.

  He didn’t feel any pain, and Jeremy wasn’t moving. Hunter carefully stood up. A hole was at the front of Jeremy’s chest and blood trickled out.

  Hunter ran out the door without another glance back, only one thing on his mind—get to Vanessa. Now.

  # # #

  She almost texted him or called him a few times, but she knew that would only make things worse. He was playing a role, pretending, and he couldn’t seem like he cared about her at all. But the wait was killing her. She needed to hear Hunter’s voice, know he was okay. She had a bad feeling about all of this and was terrified something would go wrong and someone would get hurt.

  She looked at her phone again. He was going to call as soon as he could. As soon as he was alone. Still nothing.

  As she put her phone back in her pocket, she turned to face the door, still pacing. The door flew open with a loud bang. She screamed as three men in black ski masks burst into the room.

  Her mind spun. What should she do? Could she fight back? Would they hurt her or take her or both? They had to be hired by Jeremy, but was he one of them?

  She looked at Nicholas. He was in the corner of the room, huddled into a ball, looking terrified. What a pansy. She wished Hunter was there. He would have pulled out a gun or his fist, and he would have defended her. Nicholas was useless. A whining little boy in the corner. It was up to her to defend herself. At least Opal wasn’t there to witness this. It would be hard enough trying to get away from them, if she had to get both herself and Opal out, it would be much harder.

  As she got into a fighting stance, she recalled her gun. She’d stashed it in the top drawer of the little table near the door. The one right by her side.

  Vanessa tore open the drawer and grabbed her gun. She pulled back the slide and pointed, then squeezed the trigger.

  Actually firing the gun was terrifying and exhilarating. As many times as she’d gone to the range to practice, this was very different. There was a person, a real live living person at the other end of her aim this time. But, this was a person who was coming to hurt her or abduct her. She had no choice.

  Her first shot went too far to the right and hit the wall. Drywall and plaster trickled to the floor in pieces.

  She aimed again, but in her panic and heightened emotional state, she was shaking. One of the men was close and swung at her. She stepped out of the way, fired again, and missed again.

  Another man grabbed her arm and had the gun out of her grip in seconds. She felt instantly defeated. She had failed miserably.

  She was lifted off her feet and thrashed around, trying to break free. “Nicholas, help!”

  But she didn’t expect him to do anything. She couldn’t see him, but she suspected by now that he was in tears, hiding under a bed.

  Her thrashing only made them hold her tighter. She screamed as loudly as she could. Maybe one of her neighbors would see or hear. Surely if someone saw three men in masks carrying her out as she kicked and screamed, they’d call someone, wouldn’t they?

  She kept screaming, hoping to alert someone, until one of the men shoved something into her mouth. She choked, and her eyes teared up. She fought harder, pulling at her arms and legs to do anything. To hit one, to break free, to gain any sort of upper hand. But with three of them and one of her, she was no match.

  If Nicholas had managed to get up and attack one of them, or use her gun to shoot one, maybe things would be different. The rage burned inside her chest every time she pictured him curled in the corner. She was trusting this man to have Jeremy locked up and keep Hunter out of jail, all while keeping Opal safe?

  She felt like everything was falling apart. Where was Hunter? Was Opal safe? What would happen to her now?

  One of the men put a cloth over her face. At first she thought, well that’s stupid, I’m already gagged. But then the room started to spin, and she realized it was something else. She felt herself being carried out of the apartment, and she heard sirens in the distance.

  The hallway twisted around her, and her arms and legs no longer responded to her brain telling them to move. She was limp weight.

  None of her neighbors’ doors opened. Apparently, someone cared enough to call the police or an ambulance or something, but no one stepped out to help her.

  She felt the morning sun on her face and knew then that the sirens were too far away. Help would not reach her in time. Blackness closed over her as she heard a van’s door slide open. She vaguely felt herself being thrown in before her remaining senses failed her.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Vanessa

  Vanessa’s head felt like it would explode as things started to form in front of her. She recalled being taken and being knocked out. That meant she was somewhere now that she didn’t know. She peeled her eyes fully open to get a view of her surroundings.

  The light was dim and shining in through cracks in wood planks. The floor was covered in bits of hay and dirt. It smelled of hay, too, and the lingering scent of some sort of animal
. Were there still animals here?

  She didn’t hear any voices. Maybe the wind was blowing outside, but she wasn’t sure if she was hearing that outside or in her head. She was tied to a chair. Ropes dug into her skin at her wrists, which were secured behind her. Her ankles were each bound to a leg of the chair.

  She had to get free or she was dead. She pulled at the ropes, seeing if any were loose. Not one so much as budged. She thought about trying to crash to the ground and break the chair, but it was metal. It couldn’t break apart like wood.

  She tried to see the walls and space around her. It was definitely a barn of some sort, with stalls lining either side and an open section in the middle, where she sat. Was there anything sharp that she could rub against to break the ropes? She tried to hop closer to one wall to get a better view. Even a loose nail could help, if she had some time to work at her ropes.

  She scooted once, twice. The metal scraped on the wood floor. But then another sound stopped her cold.

  She held very still to be sure, but she’d know that sound anywhere. Opal. Crying.

  If she was here, they’d taken her, too, from the safe house. They’d found her and found out all of their plans to keep things secret and safe. Was Hunter being harmed, too? Had Jeremy figured out that he wasn’t planning to kill her?

  Things were much worse than she’d even thought. Obviously, they could find Vanessa. She’d been sitting at home, looking like she was waiting for Hunter to come. And she knew that Jeremy knew where she lived. It wasn’t a real shock. But she’d thought the farm house with Mari’s parents was safe. If they’d found Opal, no one was safe.

  The door banged open loudly. The same three men that had come after her stormed into the room carrying Opal.

  “Mommy!” she screamed and continued thrashing in their arms.

  They tossed her down and she landed on the hard ground with a thump. She rubbed at her arm, still crying, and scampered over to Vanessa.

  “Oh, look who’s awake,” one of the men said.

  Vanessa didn’t recognize the voice. She didn’t have time to try to figure out an escape plan or a way to keep Opal safe. The man jabbed her arm with something sharp. A needle. As he pushed down the plunger, everything started to fade to black again.

  Her blood pounded loud in her ears. They would hurt Opal, and she would be unconscious. She tried to fight it, tried to keep her eyes open and will herself to stay awake, but the drugs were too strong. She was helpless. There was nothing she could do for her daughter.

  Opal’s voice, calling her name in a terrified whisper, was the last thing she heard.

  # # #

  Hunter pulled up to the apartment complex and saw swarms of cops pouring in and out of the building. He jumped out, not even bothering to lock the door behind him or make sure it was closed fully. The yellow line of caution tape meant nothing to him. He jumped over it, and took the stairs two at a time.

  Her door was wide open. It wasn’t just open because cops were all over, either. It was hanging on its hinges by a few shards of wood. Someone had kicked it in. His gut clenched. So many horrors might lay beyond that door.

  He pushed past the cops, ignored their protests, and barged into the apartment. There were clear signs of a struggle. A lamp knocked over, a bullet hole in the wall. Who’d done that? He saw no bodies.

  He went room by room, frantically searching. Nothing in her bedroom, nothing in Opal’s room, nothing in the kitchen or bathroom.

  “Hey, you can’t be in here!” a cop yelled at him.

  “Where are they?” Hunter asked, finally coming to a standstill in front of the cop.

  “Who?”

  “Vanessa, the woman who lives here. There was a man here, too, Nicholas. Where are they? Did you find them?”

  “What’s your name?”

  “Hunter. I’m Vanessa’s boyfriend.” He wasn’t sure if that was really true. They hadn’t discussed it or made anything official, but if they were in love with each other, they were something, weren’t they?

  The cop nodded. “We didn’t find her, but Nicholas was here when we arrived. He’s pretty shaken up, but from what we could gather when we interviewed him, she was taken.”

  “By who? Where? How?” His heart was still racing. He couldn’t decide if this was good because she was alive or terrible because now she was under their control, being held hostage.

  “I don’t have that information. Nicholas didn’t know the men who took her. Said they were wearing masks.”

  “She wasn’t hurt in any way? What about the bullet hole?” He pointed to the damaged wall.

  “According to Nicholas, there was a struggle, and she tried to shoot her attackers, but missed. From what he could tell, she was drugged, but not otherwise harmed.”

  “Thank you.” Hunter spun and dashed back out of the apartment as fast as he’d run in. He had to find her, but he had nothing to go on.

  Outside on the lawn of the apartment building, in the midst of police and waiting press and watching neighbors, he spotted Nicholas sitting on the edge of an ambulance, sipping water. He looked white and had a blanket wrapped around him. He must be in bad shape. The pussy had probably never been in a fight in his life.

  Hunter walked over to him. “You okay?”

  Nicholas shook his head and gave him a wide-eyed stare. “It was horrible.”

  “What happened exactly? The cops didn’t tell me much, and I need all the details I can get if I’m going to save her.”

  “She’s gone. Three men kicked down the door. She tried to shoot them. They put something over her face, and then she was gone.”

  “And where were you in all this?” Nicholas could have tried to help her, if he’d been willing to carry a gun, he could have shot one of them. He could have at least called 911.

  “I… I…”

  “Where you in the room when the door was kicked down?”

  He nodded.

  “What did you do?”

  “I… I was just so scared.”

  “Did you hide?” The rage started to boil in his veins. This pansy man had done nothing at all to save the love of his life.

  “No. I… I was in the corner.”

  “What, cowering like a baby?”

  Nicholas’s lip quivered and he had to look away. “This isn’t part of my job description. I don’t deal with violence. I don’t like it. I’m a pacifist. I don’t believe in war, either.”

  Hunter rolled his eyes and clenched his jaw. “So, you didn’t try to help her? You sat there and watched her fight three men and did nothing?”

  “There was a pizza guy.”

  “Huh?”

  “Before the men came, a pizza guy came. We didn’t let him in, and we told him we didn’t order a pizza and he left.”

  “Okay. And?”

  “Thought you should know.”

  “I couldn’t care less. They were checking to see if she was home. Obviously. What did you do while my girlfriend was fighting off three attackers, fighting for her life?”

  “I just… couldn’t. I was like a deer in headlights. I didn’t know what to do. I thought if I did anything, it would make it worse.”

  “So you sat there and watched an innocent woman be attacked and did nothing? Did you at least call 911?”

  He shook his head slowly. “A neighbor must have. I heard the sirens coming. My phone was in my pocket, and I didn’t want to move to get it. I didn’t want them to see me or know I called the cops.”

  “Right, of course not. Save yourself. Gotcha. Did you at the very least happen to look out the window after they drugged her to see which way they drove off?”

  Nicholas’s eyes were wide again. It seemed clear from his expression that he hadn’t even thought to do something like that. His mouth popped open, but he said nothing.

  “And our government trusts you to protect children in dangerous situations, to make sure they’re safe? If a child had been taken, would you have cowered in fear and just watched that, too
?”

  Nicholas was close to tears. Hunter could see his eyes getting glassy. He was so pissed, he could rip his head off. But he didn’t want to push the man. He might still have some say where Opal was concerned. He seemed to be dealing with enough, and not handling anything well.

  “You know what?” Hunter clapped a hand on his shoulder. “I’m sure you did all you could. Thanks for your help. Let me know if you think of anything else or find something out. I have to go find Vanessa and Opal. I hope they’re both still alive.”