by Unknown
“Simms and Sanchez,” she murmured and he nodded with a subtle sneer. “You had something to do with their murders?”
“You could say that. Not my best work but loose ends have to be snipped.”
“I don’t understand,” she said, stalling for time, trying to think of an exit plan. Her apartment was woefully small and she was regrettably short of defensible weapons. Pepper spray! That’s right, she had a canister of the stuff in her bedroom drawer. Great place for it, right? Zoe refocused on the man stalking her. “I already told Jax and Hunter I wasn’t doing the story.”
“Too late,” he said with finality. “You’ve already got Jax and Hunter thinking. Hell, somehow you managed to get Jax and Hunter to have a meet-and-greet with Bronx and I would’ve thought that’d never happen. You must have a powerful pussy to get them to override their burning hatred for the guy to ask questions.”
“I never told them to talk to Bronx,” she retorted, but a small part of her was proud of them for trying to hunt down answers for the greater good of their club, even if it meant talking to someone they couldn’t stand. “What they did, they did on their own. I had nothing to do with it. If you have a problem with them asking questions, why don’t you take it up with them?”
He laughed as if she were stupid. “If they even had a clue what I’ve been up to for the past six months, they’d dump my body in the desert and forget I was ever born. They don’t take kindly to traitors. And for that matter, neither do I, but I’ve earned this payday, far more than Jax and Hunter ever did. I secured the deal, I took the risks, and I’m the one who spent a year in prison for a stint that should’ve been Hunter’s. So yeah, I earned this.” By the way his eyes blazed at the mention of his prison time Zoe took a wild guess that it hadn’t been easy time. Was he raped in prison? Was it bad that she hoped so? “Enough talk, get dressed. You’re coming with me.”
“Oh, I don’t think so,” she disagreed vehemently. Statistically, if she walked out that front door with him, chances were she wasn’t coming back. “You’re going to have to drag me kicking and screaming if you want me to come with you. I should warn you, my neighbors are incredibly nosey. The minute I start screaming, they’ll come running.” That wasn’t entirely true but Zoe was completely fine with stretching the truth until it broke if it meant she’d live to the see the morning. She made a little scoot gesture with her fingers, telling him, “Why don’t you run along and threaten someone else? Maybe I won’t tell Jax and Hunter what you’ve been doing.”
His gaze narrowed as he growled, “Wrong answer,” and then sprang at her, scaring her into sudden motion. She bolted for the bedroom but it was a mad dash of futility because he tackled her way before she could reach her dresser drawer. They crashed to the floor and Zoe managed a pained scream before he clocked her right across the jaw, silencing her with a starburst of agony. MOTHERFUCKER! That hurt! Get up, Zoe! She tried to scramble to her feet but he was too fast and his grip was like iron when he wrenched her head back with a handful of her own hair. Lifting her from the floor by her head, she blinked back the tears and sucked in great lungfuls of air as the pain in her jaw nearly caused her to pass out.
“Tough girl, huh?” he crooned in her ear before roughly pushing her to the bed. Was he going to rape her? Noooooo! She kicked at him, not caring that her robe had opened and she was nearly naked underneath. She’d been preparing for a shower when she’d heard the knock and her silly heart had fluttered like a dumb girl at the hope that Jax had returned. Would Jax or Hunter even know what’d happened to her? He punched her hard in the thigh, giving her an immediate Charlie horse and she screamed, her leg useless. He took advantage and jerked her to her feet, griping her chin hard. “Now listen up, sweetheart, this is how this is going to play out. With you out of the picture, Jax and Hunter will be too preoccupied with your pretty ass to pay attention to what’s going on right in front of their faces.”
“You overestimate Jax and Hunter’s feelings for me,” Zoe said against the grinding pain in her jaw and leg. “I’m just a booty call to them.”
“For your sake, you better hope not.” He released her chin with a jerk. “Now get dressed.”
For a brief, fleeting moment, she considered trying to run again but her leg was almost useless and she could barely put any weight on it. If she tried to run, she’d end up face-planting on the floor with the creep’s laughter ringing in her ear. She sent him a dirty look before asking, “Care to give me some privacy?”
“I think I’ll stick around and make sure you don’t tuck a knife into those bloomers of yours — they’re damn big enough.”
“Oh, a fat joke, real original,” she hissed. “Top of the class weren’t you, huh?”
“Keep it up, honey. I’m in a real playful mood,” he said with a cruel smile. “But I don’t think you’ll enjoy my games. My games leave scars.”
Zoe shuddered in spite of her attempt to appear unaffected by his threat but he was scary in a psychotic way, which made her realize that neither Jax nor Hunter had ever truly scared her. There’d always been something about them that she’d been drawn to and it wasn’t the fact that they were supposedly bad men. This guy, with his permanent cold sneer and rough, callused hands, was scary and bad — terrible combo — and she was going to leave with him. Her hands shook as she quickly jerked on her clothing, trying to move at the speed of light so that the creep couldn’t get a nice eyeful of her private parts but his leering gaze caught plenty. She swallowed her mortification and prayed that somehow, someway Jax and Hunter figured things out before she ended up eating dirt in a shallow grave.
TEN
Hunter burst into Jax’s place, nearly taking the door off the hinges. Jax, quick with his gun, had Hunter in his sights within seconds but Hunter ignored the gun and went straight to Jax, ripping him from the old, ratty recliner to shout in his face, “Dimas has double-crossed us and he’s going after Zoe!”
Jax pushed Hunter away with a scowl. “What the fuck are you talking about? Are you drunk?”
“I wish I were,” he answered. “Come on, we gotta find her.”
“What makes you think it’s Dimas?”
“I can give you details on the ride. We’re taking your truck.”
Hunter wasn’t the kind of guy who cried wolf. If he thought Zoe was in danger, chances were, he was right. Jax grabbed his keys and they sprinted to his truck. “Dimas? Are you sure?” he asked as they climbed in and he throttled the engine. The lifted truck was a mean-ass piece of metal. There was no sneaking up on anyone in that rig but there was also no stopping it either. Jax could squash anything in his path if need be. “I don’t understand. I was just with Zoe three hours ago and she was fine. Have you tried her cell?”
“Yeah, no answer.”
Jax nodded and he pressed the gas pedal harder. Within fifteen minutes they were at Zoe’s apartment. Sprinting the stairs, they found Zoe’s apartment door unlocked, which didn’t give him a warm and fuzzy feeling. They walked in and knew within seconds that her tiny apartment was empty.
Hunter went to Zoe’s bedroom and came out with a tense expression. “There’s evidence of a struggle,” he said, showing Jax several broken cat figurines. “Something went down in this room and she’s not here. I’m willing to bet my left nut Dimas has her.”
“Why would Dimas take Zoe?” Jax asked, his gaze searching the living room before snagging on a small note taped to the television. He ripped the note from the screen, reading it to Hunter, “Meet me at the warehouse. Come alone or you’re going to end up with one dead reporter.”
“Fucking Dimas, you back-stabbing piece of shit,” Hunter swore under his breath. “This has to do with the shipment.”
Jax agreed, though he still didn’t have a clear picture of why Dimas would do something so fucked up. Why now? There were countless times that Dimas could’ve killed them and taken over the club before this moment. Apparently, the fucker had been biding his time, waiting for the most opportune moment to c
ompletely ream them in the ass. “Let’s go,” he said tersely. “There’s nothing left to see here.”
Hunter followed and they strode away from Zoe’s apartment, head and hearts in sync with one another. They climbed back into the truck and Jax told Hunter without an ounce of hesitation, “If he hurts her…I’m going to kill him.”
At that Hunter barked an ugly laugh filled with the promise of pain as he muttered a dark oath, saying, “I’m going to kill him regardless.”
Jax had no reason to disbelieve Hunter.
And he had no reason to stop him either.
***
A million different scenarios were ripping through Hunter’s mind as they approached the warehouse. What if Zoe were already dead? What if they were showing up too late to stop what was going to be inevitable from the start? The last words he spoke to Zoe were mean. A sick twist in his gut made him want to puke. Zoe, sweet, spunky, irritatingly sexy Zoe…how did someone get attached so quickly? He felt as if she were the missing puzzle that he’d forgotten he’d been searching for and now that someone else was holding that piece hostage, he wanted to do some major damage.
“She’s going to be fine,” Jax assured Hunter and all he could was grunt in response. Jax didn’t know that — he couldn’t make promises and Hunter wouldn’t be so stupid as to pin his hopes on something that couldn’t be secured. “Do you have any idea what Dimas is up to?”
“My guess is it has something to do with the shipment. He’s double-crossing us for the money. Simplest explanation don’t you think?”
They entered the warehouse, the empty space illuminated by one sickly fluorescent lamp overhead that threw menacing shadows on the walls and ratcheted the creep factor to ten. The warehouse, one of the few holdings along with the bar that actually belonged to the club, wasn’t much to look at but it was a convenient, out of sight place to conduct business in a private manner. Plus blood was easier to wash out of concrete than carpet. However, at the moment, the warehouse was stocked with boxes of artillery, waiting for the buyer — five million dollars worth to be exact.
“You come alone?”
At the sound of Dimas’ voice, they whipped around to see Dimas standing above them on the catwalk.
“That’s what you said, isn’t it,” Hunter barked in answer.
“You’re smarter than you look.”
“Why don’t come down here and I’ll show you just how dumb you are,” Hunter proposed.
“I think I’m good right where I’m at,” Dimas said, pulling Zoe from the shadows. “Looking for this?” Her hands were tied and her mouth gagged but even in the milky light of the dim fluorescents Hunter could see her fear. Dimas pretended to push Zoe over the edge and her terrified, muffled scream sent a shaft of pure terror through Hunter’s heart. “Ohhh, careful now…that’s a nasty drop,” he said, chuckling as he pulled her away from the edge. “I’d say a drop like that could kill a person.”
“What the fuck are you doing, Dimas?” Jax demanded. “Let Zoe go. This has nothing to do with her. Hell, I don’t even know what the fuck this is all about. Why don’t you let us in on your little drama and we can sort this out.”
Dimas laughed. “You’re such a dumbass, Hunter. Always have been and always will be. You’re the muscle but definitely no brain. No wonder you’ve always stuck around Jax…does he wipe your ass, too?”
Jax clenched his fists but kept his cool. “You gonna throw insults like a whiny bitch or start talking about the shit that matters? You want a bigger cut of the payday? Is that what this is about?”
“Hell yes, I want a bigger cut. I want it all, jackass,” Dimas shot back. “What do you think of those terms?”
“I think they fucking suck,” Hunter barked, beginning to prowl beneath the catwalk, violence rippling from every pore. “Get over yourself. What makes you think you deserve everything we’ve worked so hard to gain?”
“Because I fucking earned it! Remember that little stint in prison I did for your ass? Remember when I took the fall when it was your fault that we got caught? Yeah, well, I remember quite well my time in prison and I’m the one who made the contacts for this job. I paid for this job with my motherfucking ass. What did you do but sit around and look pretty while I did the hard work?”
“Are you saying you got ass-raped in prison so now you’re taking the money as your compensation?” Jax asked, disgusted by Dimas’ thought process. “Life is fucking hard, you pussy. If prison was the first time you got felt up or touched ‘in a bad way’ then you got off fucking easy. Give me a motherfucking break. Get some therapy if you’re gonna be a pussy about it but don’t throw everything away like this. We had something good and you ruined it.”
“You got it all wrong,” Dimas said, wrenching Zoe close to him so that he could nuzzle her neck. Zoe whimpered and tried to pull away but he wasn’t having none of that and just jerked her harder to actually bite her shoulder. “She’s nice and soft in all the right places,” he said as if complimenting their taste in women. “But a little too doughy in the middle if you ask me.”
“I wasn’t asking you,” Jax returned in a steely tone. “Leave Zoe out of this. What do you want?”
“I want you and Hunter to know pain,” Dimas answered simply. “It’s not enough to just take your money, which I admit, feels pretty damn good, but I realized, just recently actually, that in order to truly fuck you over, I gotta leave a mark. And that’s where this little pigeon comes in. You care about her. I can see it in your eyes. I could see it that first night when you wouldn’t tell me who she was or who’d been in the room with you. And that’s when I knew the final cog had slid into place.”
“You know we’re just going to kill you as soon as you come down from there,” Hunter promised. “So get on with it. I’m done listening to you flap your jaws.”
“But wait, you might want to know this…the shipment isn’t tomorrow as you thought. It’s tonight. I changed the drop and the location.” Dimas let that information sink in and when Hunter and Jax shared a subtle look of confusion Dimas let them in on the deal. “Those boxes you think are filled with guns? Yeah, they’re empty. Decoy boxes so if anyone came by the warehouse — mainly either of you — you wouldn’t suspect anything was different. Fact is…the guns are nowhere near here.”
“You sonofabitch,” Jax muttered under his breath, going to the closest box and prying open the top to peer inside. He swore and looked to Hunter, confirming Dimas’ story. “They’re fucking empty.”
“Don’t worry, I know where the real shipment is. You have bigger problems.”
“Such as?”
“Always in such a hurry…hold on, there’s more to this story.”
“This story bores me. Get to the fucking point.”
“My point is your little reporter played quite the important role without even knowing it. Simms was the only other person who knew about the drop change and of course, loose ends gotta go. Conveniently, Simms was banging that Dog woman, Sanchez and it was easy enough to knock them both off and make it look like a club hit. Everything was quiet until your little fuckbuddy started asking questions, which then made you go and talk to Bronx — I mean, I never saw that coming — and that’s when you figured out that someone on the inside was pulling strings behind your back. It was only a matter of time after that and I like to hedge my bets. But honestly, when it all came down to brass tacks, I just didn’t want to share. Simms got greedy and started pushing the boundaries, saying he was going to go to you and Jax with the details. Couldn’t have that, now could I? So, yeah, greed kills, man.” He checked his cell. “Oh, game time. As much as I’d love to stay and shoot the shit, it’s time to put the players into the game. Mainly…the pawn.” With a sudden, gut-wrenching movement, Dimas pushed Zoe from the catwalk and both watched in utter horror as Zoe plummeted to the ground like a bird with a broken wing.
***
Funny how time works when you’re about to die. Moments before Dimas shoved her off the catwalk, sh
e’d been thinking, how had her life taken such an abrupt change in direction? And then she answered her own question: Jax and Hunter. But even so, she couldn’t say she would change anything if she’d known ahead of time what her fate was going to be. Well, maybe that wasn’t entirely true but she knew that she didn’t regret anything. Certainly not the time spent learning what it was supposed to be like in a lover’s arms. Two lovers’ arms to be exact. Tears slid down her cheek as she listened to the men trade insults and Dimas ranted like a lunatic. He thought he was so smart, so smug. If she managed to survive this night…well, let’s be honest, she probably wouldn’t, but if she did, that asshole deserved a hot poker up the keister.
And then that awful push.
Followed with frightening speed by the terrifying plunge.
It was true what they say about your life flashing before your eyes because seconds before Zoe went boom, splat, dead, she saw her entire life zip like one of those 8mm movie reels from the ‘60s. Why not digital, she had no clue but there was something nostalgic and sweet about the old-time movie feel. Maybe that was why. She’d always been partial to real film anyway. Digital had no soul as her father used to say. But here was the thing, until those days with Jax and Hunter her life had been terribly dull. And so her last thought was of Jax and Hunter — naked, of course! Because if she were going to die, well, hell, she was going to go out with the dirtiest thought in her damn head to make up for lost time.
Hopefully, they had hot, hunky guys with a thing for chubby girls up in heaven, too.
That was the point of heaven right? Total bliss? A week ago her idea of bliss might’ve been a fresh chocolate éclair but now? It was Jax and Hunter — all day, everyday. Funny how things changed, huh?