Then the impossible happened. They were standing in the hallway of a swanky hotel, Loki was fighting a stranger, Anya was holding their daughter whom he had never seen, her best friend had fucking bright pink hair in a shit full of braids, and Torch was stunned. It was Ox who broke the tension as he laughed loud and hard. Something Torch or any of the Furies hadn’t witnessed in a fucking long ass time.
Loki stopped hitting the younger man in the face, and looked up with a glare and said, “You wanna stop laughing about this.”
“Brother,” Ox laughed. “There is no way I can stop. However, we need to get the fuck out of the hallway, because I am sure in about five seconds, the cops will be coming up here, someone had to have called the cops.”
Torch walked slowly toward Anya never taking his eyes off her, and said, “Loki, who the fuck is that?”
“Look!” Loki yelled, and Torch stopped staring at Anya long enough to look down, he froze and looked up.
“Okay, Ox and Loki, get him back to the car, meet us at the safe house,” Torch ordered and then turned back to Anya and his daughter and said, “Where are the keys to your car?”
Anya just stood there, staring at him but her friend didn’t, she snapped, “Okay, who the fuck are you?”
“Coco?” Anya whispered.
But Torch’s eyes got hard, and he said coldly, “I am the asshole who thought she loved me. Now give me the keys, I prefer to get my daughter out of danger ASAP. Now, you can stay here, but my daughter isn’t, so if that’s what you choose, go right ahead, but I already lost enough time with her, I am not losing anymore.”
Coco sucked in a breath and then held out her hand and dropped the keys in his before walking to Anya and putting an arm around her. “Just so you know, I have resources who will deal with you if need be.”
“Yeah?” Ox barked at the tall female. “What a coincidence, so do we.”
“What?” the Senator roared into the phone. “How in the hell did you lose them? Your man was in the same room with them, he is military trained, and you’re telling me somehow two women and a child overpowered him. His backup has disappeared, to God only knows where and the woman and her daughter have disappeared? Is that what you are telling me?”
The man on the other end of the phone glared into the receiver before answering. He didn’t know where Bjorn was, his soldier had disappeared, his other one was in the hospital with a severe head trauma, and finally the last one was trying to figure out where the women had gone. These men were handpicked by him, they were the best of the best so to speak, even if they didn’t realize what they were doing was not exactly legal. They were following orders, and as the First Shirt, that’s what was important to him.
“Listen, I am keeping you appraised of the situation in case we need someone with clout to keep this under wraps. We found them once, we will find them again. Just remember, Burns is going to raise his ugly head soon, I need to know where before anyone else so I can take care of him. Call your little Capital friends and find out what’s going on. You are the head of the Intelligence Committee, find out what they all know and fast. This shit could start unraveling.”
The Senator growled and said, “They are in Canada, not fucking Siberia, get more men up there to help, and find her before someone else does. This could screw up everything if someone else finds her. EVERYTHING! You do your job, and I will do mine.”
He slammed the phone down, and turned back to the window and not for the first time today tried to decide if it was time to disappear himself. When this shit came out, and right now, he really thought it was going to, he would be ruined, and probably sitting in jail. Although he wouldn’t be alone, the First Shirt would be sitting right alongside him.
When the First Shirt first called him about how bad his son fucked up, he wasn’t aware his son was following the First Shirt’s orders. It wasn’t until months later after his son had died the Senator discovered that, at which time it was too late, he was into this shit up to his neck. Everything was fine until that day when the First Shirt called him and explained what exactly he had become involved in. And that he needed to help cover up even more things because the deal with the terrorists was still on. Why he agreed he would never know, but at that point, the Senator had so much blood on his hands, there was nowhere to turn.
Unfortunately, the Senator was in the position to help, and he did what he had to do in order to make sure the death of his son and the other five men were covered up. No one would ever understand how hard that decision was, agreeing his son needed to be killed. It had devastated his wife. Their only child was gone, but he had used it, gotten re-elected again, and kept covering for the First Shirt. That was until the files had been stolen by that idiot Victor Burns. Victor had no idea the information he had because if he did, the Senator knew he would have already received a call.
No, Burns wasn’t that smart, he was a thief of opportunity, but if he found Anya Franklin’s name it meant he was close to uncovering the files about his son, and everything they had covered up. He was not going to let that happen.
The Senator picked up the phone and dialed the number and waited. “Hey, General, I need an update on the situation with the hacker, we need to get him into custody soon. The longer he sits out there, the more time there is for him to do more damage. That poor woman and her daughter are running for their lives right now; we need to help her be safe. It is our responsibility.”
Chapter Eight
Torch drove silently to the safe house. He was pissed, but not for the obvious reasons. Which was, Loki and Ox had blown their assignment, created a disturbance to rival all disturbances on the elevator. Then in the middle of that drama, Anya and Coco who were obviously freaked about something, when Torch announced they were moving to the safe house, Coco had decided to impart in her own special way that a man was unconscious in their room. He had come in, and Anya had hit him over the head with a lamp. Nope, that wasn’t the reason he was pissed.
Torch was pissed the fuck off because when Anya turned around and showed him his daughter, who was undeniably his, she had introduced him as an old friend. Not her long lost father, not a close and special person, nope an old friend. And that chaffed. Then it stung. And then brutally it tore him up.
Coco had wisely put her head down and wrapped an arm around Anya and led her and Maci, his daughter, onto the elevator and waited for him. On the elevator ride down Torch had stared at his daughter’s wide and curious eyes. He recognized them like he was looking in the mirror. She had his eyes, but she had her momma’s hair. He had no clue how to deal with the little girl, especially when she looked at him with wide eyes and asked, “Are we going to the zoo now?”
Anya kissed their daughter’s temple, and she whispered,. “No, baby, we are putting that on hold for now. We are going to go with Max and see his house.”
The little girl looked at Max and smiled and said,. “Do you gots toys?”
Max frowned and wanted to smack himself upside the head. He should’ve thought of that before coming here. He should’ve gone to the store. Five minutes in and he was already a failure. Shit.
“Uh no,” Torch said and then followed it up by,. “no, not right now, but I will.”
Maci’s eyes lit up, and she smiled and said. , “Yay!”
When they got to Coco’s car, Torch heard Maci say she was hungry, shit, he had a lot to learn about kids, like they ate. “Hey,” he said over the roof of the car, his daughter’s eyes swung to his, and he winked. “How about we stop and grab some McDonalds?”
Maci grinned and raised her hands. “Yes! Yes! Yes! Happy Meal!”
Fuck, Torch thought, they had toys in them right, cheap toys but still toys. He would buy them all Happy Meals so they could get them all.
“Come on, baby,” Anya said and opened the door. “Let’s get into your seat.”
“K,” the little girl said and crawled into the back seat. Torch’s mouth got hard when he saw Anya climb in the back with her, really? Sh
e couldn’t even stand to sit next to him on the ride to the safe house. Fucking great, not the way he planned on the reunion. Okay, to be honest, he hadn’t planned any reunion because he hadn’t figured there would be one, ever.
So they stopped at the same McDonalds, and he bought eight happy meals and told them to make sure they all had different toys. Coco was smirking at him, and he didn’t look at Anya, he only saw Maci grin and clap in the rearview mirror.
Now they were a block from the safe house, and he was looking at the place with fresh eyes, which meant he kinda grimaced when he saw the rundown houses. And when Coco whispered, “Yeah, no one would suspect I would be here.”
Torch looked at her with a glare which she ignored with a laugh, and she looked over her shoulder at Anya who was also staring out the window apparently. “Don’t make eye contact, Anya.”
Torch pulled into the driveway of the house they rented, drove it as far back as he could so it wouldn’t be spotted from the road. “Come on,” he said gruffly and got out of the car. He watched as Anya picked up Maci again and propped her on her hip and shut the door following Coco as they walked to the back door.
As they entered the back door, Torch heard, “Seriously? You don’t think it is odd that our dead President suddenly appears?”
“Dude, I am telling you, it’s not him, he’s too young,” Ox snapped.
“Plastic surgery!” Loki yelled, and Torch walked into the room with the women following. “Good, the voice of reason.”
“Not now, Loki, let me get them settled,” Torch said, and Loki nodded and backed off but smiled at the women.
Ox glared at Coco and just turned around to face the sink as they walked by. Torch stepped into the living room and thanked the stars that they didn’t put their prisoner in here tied to a chair or something. He walked to the TV and turned it on, sighing when he saw there was a free cartoon channel.
Torch turned and looked at Anya and said, “Hang on a few minutes, and I will come back and figure out rooms. We are safe here, I need to sort some sh…uh stuff out, and I will be back.”
Anya nodded and looked around and sat down on the fluffy couch. Coco held the bag from McDonald’s, and she sat on the floor and started pulling them out. Maci was looking around curiously, but she hadn’t said a word yet.
“So yeah, I will be back in a few,” Torch said again, and then he walked back into the kitchen.
“Cut the tension with a knife, brother,” Ox muttered, and Torch glared at him.
“Yeah well, I don’t know exactly what the fuck to say right now, without pissing everyone off,” Torch grumbled. “Now, where is this man?”
Loki pointed to the door in the corner and said, “In the basement, we tied him to the washing machine.”
Torch put his head down and shook it, then walked to the door with the men following. “What?” Loki said. “There is nothing else down there, we have to keep him still.”
When they got to the bottom of the stairs Torch groaned and looked back. Ox shrugged.
“We were limited in what we had, sorry we weren’t equipped to hold prisoners here, it’s a safe house. Not a torture house.”
Torch turned and took in the younger man who looked just like Titan, their President who was murdered. Loki had beaten the shit out of him, but even through the bruises, you could see Titan. They taped him with duct tape to the washing machine, sitting on the lid, with tape across his legs, around his arms, and to the back of the machine, so he was leaning awkwardly. It couldn’t be comfortable, but then, being a prisoner wasn’t supposed to be a picnic. They had also taped his mouth, and he was awake and pissed the fuck off.
Torch walked closer, and the man tried to struggle, but he couldn’t move much. They had done a good job at least. He leaned forward and stared, looking for surgical marks to see if there was any, because it was seriously uncanny how much he looked like Titan, and yet it was impossible. In addition, this guy was young, like way the fuck young.
“He is too young, but he looks just like Titan,” Torch said.
“Plastic…” Loki said, and Torch shook his head.
“No, too young, but damn, he is the spitting image of him, and Titan didn’t have kids.”
“Someone is fucking with us then, because this is fucked up,” Loki snapped.
“How we dealing with this?” Ox asked.
Torch picked up his phone and then held it firmly and took a picture and sent it to Fling. He waited only a few seconds, and his phone rang. Loki was standing there with his arms crossed glaring at the mini Titan.
“Hey,” Torch said, and Fling yelled over the earpiece.
“Wanna tell me what the fuck? I mean seriously, brother, what the fuck? Sunshine would have seen that she would be beside herself. Where the fuck did you get an old picture of Titan in fucking Canada? You are there to find the lady and your kid.”
Torch nodded and said, “Brother, that is not a picture I found, that is a picture I just took with my phone and sent to you. The man you see is currently sitting on the washing machine of the safe house after Loki saw him in the lobby of the Westwood Hotel where Anya and Coco were staying. He beat the shit out of him and knocked him out so we could bring him back here and secure him.”
He heard Fling suck in a breath and there was silence on the line. “What?” he finally whispered.
“Now, I am assuming someone is fucking with us, and as of yet, we haven’t questioned him but, brother, I gotta ask what you want me to do. This guy is younger, as in a lot younger,” Torch said, and Ox cleared his throat and then held out a wallet. “Hang on, Ox has his wallet.”
Torch pulled out the ID and stared at it for a minute and then said. “Name, Bjorn R. Falcon, says here he works for the Justice Department.”
Fling swore over the line and snapped, “Fuck.”
“You can say that again,” Torch said. “What do you want us to do?”
“Hang on,” Fling said, and he could hear the noise in the background get louder. “Tank, Boomer, Tally, Ridge, in my office now. Torch, for now, sit on him, let me talk to the guys and call you back. You got the women?”
“Yeah,” Torch said.
“Okay, focus on trying to figure out how to get them out of Canada. Obviously, something more is going on here, get them back here, and we will deal with it.”
“On it.”
Torch closed his eyes. Those were the men who were on the mission that got Titan killed, they had taken out a powerful drug dealer. The day they lost Titan, Birdie, and Devon, who was Fling’s son who was just spending the night with Titan to go fishing. It devastated them all, but Sunshine had lost a son, a brother, and a sister-in-law all on one night.
“You got it, Fling,” Torch said and hung up. He stared at the man who was glaring at him and said, “I am not gonna untie you or take off the tape because you aren’t gonna tell us shit anyway, am I right?” the man snorted and nodded. “Yeah, figured, well until we figure out what the fuck’s going on here, you’re staying put.”
Loki growled when the man struggled, and he stepped forward and said, “And if you don’t behave, I will give you a little more of what you had earlier.”
Ox shook his head. “Well, one drama on hold, and the other one upstairs. What are we going to do about the women? Obviously, someone has already sent people for her. We need to figure out how to get out of the country with them and back to the United States. If we can get them on the compound at least we will have more men helping us with them.”
“Okay, first things first. They came with no baggage, so they are gonna need clothes and shit. We can’t back to the hotel, so that will be out,” Torch said, and Loki laughed.
“Brother, would do a lot for you, but shopping for a woman, no fucking way.”
Ox shook his head. “Me either.”
Torch put a hand to his nose and said, “Fine, I will go, it will give me a chance to clear out my head. Loki, while I am gone, can you please look up ways to get back to California wi
thout leaving a trail. This asshole is from the Justice Department, so we don’t know what the fuck is up with that. Ox, make sure this guy doesn’t go anywhere, and get a list of food and send it to me, or order it online and have it delivered. We are at least going to be here for a day or two, I don’t want anyone going out of the house, drawing attention to how many people are here.”
Ox nodded, and the two men walked up the stairs to get busy. Torch looked back at the younger man and said, “I don’t know who you are and honestly I don’t give two shits. But whoever you are working for knew what they were doing when they sent you, and that is fucked up. So while you sit here and think, you might want to try to figure out what your purpose was coming here. ‘Cause it sure as shit wasn’t to protect those women upstairs, it was to fuck with us, so you are just a pawn here.”
Torch turned and walked up the stairs and the whole way he could feel the glare of the man on his back. It felt weird leaving the man who looked so like their President bound and taped to a fucking washing machine in the basement. Not like everything else hadn’t been fucked up for the last three days.
Chapter Nine
Anya sat in the strange living looking around as Maci happily chomped on her Happy Meal that Max had gotten her. All the toys from the meals were piled around her, but she had yet to open them, right now she was more than happy to watch Dora the Explorer.
Coco leaned back so her back was right next to Anya’s knee. “So, this was unexpected.”
Anya rolled her eyes and stared at her best friend like she was crazy. “Really, unexpected that is what you are going with?” she hissed.
“Uh, yep, that is what I am going with. But now that the cat is out of the bag, what are we gonna do? I mean, I can call Dad, see if he can get some men here. We can keep doing what we have been, which apparently wasn’t that good since everyone and their brother found us. Or, we can see what these boys have up their sleeve and why the hell they were at the hotel,” Coco said. “I mean, after the shock of everything, I am kinda curious how baby daddy showed up suddenly. We didn’t ask too many questions, you know?”
Scorched (Furies MC Book 3) Page 6