He let go of my arm. “Lie down,” he told me. “Wouldn’t want you hurting yourself when you fall asleep.” He jerked his head at the others. “Get everyone together. I want to brief people on what’ll be happening while I’m away.”
They sauntered off. I jerked my arm back through the bars and rubbed at the sore spot. Shit! What had he given me? Some sort of sedative? Once it took effect, I’d be helpless.
I looked at the lock. It had taken me an hour last time. How long until they came back for me? How long did a briefing take? Ten minutes, twenty?
I dug the piece of wire out of my jeans, slid it into the padlock and frantically went to work.
56
Annabelle
I could feel the drug coming on. It was subtle but it was there, a sort of thickening of my thoughts. As if ideas had to swim through oatmeal instead of water. My hands started to slow, my head lolling.
Then a hand gripped my arm. I looked up to see Cassie reaching through from the next cell. She squeezed my arm in encouragement and nodded.
I forced myself to keep going. Focus. Just...feel for the last...pin and then...twist….
The lock sprung open. I blinked and stared at it for a few seconds before it really sank in. Then I very gently lifted the padlock from the loops of chain, trying not to make a noise. Getting the chain off the bars was even worse: the heavy links made clangs that that seemed to echo around the entire building. I lifted it free as gently as I could, wincing with each sound. When I looked up, all the other women were staring at me with huge eyes.
I inched open the gate and peeked out. For once, the entire massive floor was empty. The guards must all be having their briefing with Volos.
I glanced around for the nearest door: way over the other side of the room. But at least for once, I could duck under the barriers and go straight across instead of threading my way back and forth. I ducked under the first one—
Everything went simultaneously black and red. I stumbled backwards, dizzy, and very nearly brained myself on the metal barrier behind me. Whoah.
What’s the opposite of a head rush? That’s what had happened to me. Just ducking down had almost put me on the floor. The drug was starting to really hit me.
Moving more carefully, I ducked my way under the barriers until I reached the exit. I wrapped my hand around the heavy steel handle: locked. And it looked like it’d be much harder to pick than the padlock.
I looked desperately around. I didn’t want to head towards the front of the building, because that’s where Volos was having his meeting. There was another door at the back, behind a stack of boxes. I headed for that...but before I’d even gotten halfway, I heard a door open and voices coming my way. The meeting was over.
I searched around for a hiding place but there was nowhere. And I was in the worst possible place, the killing floor. It was just a big, white-tiled expanse with the meat hooks above and slightly sloping floors below to drain the blood….
I looked down and followed the slope of the floor. It led down to a big metal drain cover.
Oh Jesus, no. I can’t.
The voices were getting closer.
I knelt down, which made me woozy again, and levered up the drain cover. The pipe below was big enough to crawl in: just. I lowered myself into it, slid the cover back into place and held my breath.
Footsteps filled the room as the guards returned to their positions. No shout went up, so no one had seen me. I took a second to look up and down the pipe. Thankfully, no blood had drained down there for years but it still stank and the walls were covered in slime. There were smaller grates every ten feet or so which let in enough light to see by. I could see side tunnels branching off. The pipes must run under the whole building.
At that second, I heard a yell from over by the stalls. As everyone ran over there, I followed them through the pipe, using their pounding footsteps as cover. By the time I got there, Volos was staring into my empty stall, a murderous look on his face. He reached through the bars of the stall next to mine and grabbed Cassie by the throat. “Where did she go?” he yelled in her face.
I held my breath. She’d probably watched me get into the pipe. Would she grass me up to save herself?
Cassie opened and closed her mouth a few times. Then, “I didn’t see,” she whispered.
Volos cursed and flung her aside. “Find her,” he muttered. “Find her quick.”
Very quietly, I crawled away. The drug was really starting to hit, now: thinking was like trying to walk through thick, glutinous mud. I had to find another drain cover. Somewhere near the edge of the building, or even outside. Through the grate above me, I could see guards running back and forth. If one of them so much as glanced down as I passed under a grate, if I made even the slightest sound….
I crawled until my jeans were soaked with slime and my knees were bruised. And just as I was about to give up hope, I found the only other drain cover big enough to climb through.
I crawled right under it and looked up. And saw a pair of legs in tailored suit pants.
Volos was standing directly above me, so close that I could have reached up and touched his shoes. He was shouting orders to the guards: that was the only reason he hadn’t heard me approach. But just at that second, he went quiet.
I froze. I was in an awkward crouch, head craned back to look up through the grate, but I didn’t dare move a muscle.
If I moved, he’d hear me. If I stayed there, sooner or later he’d glance down and see me.
I still had the necklace clutched in one fist. I silently slung it around my neck and fingered the shamrock.
I needed a miracle.
57
Carrick
“This is it,” I said. “This is the place.” I could see Volos’s red SUV parked at the bottom of the hill. Up at the top, the hulking shape of the slaughterhouse was silhouetted against the moon. I cocked Caorthannach and stormed up the track that led to the main door.
Mac caught me when I was halfway there and slammed me up against a cattle shed. “Wait!”
I snarled and lunged at him, getting right up in his face. After a whole night and day without her, I was going crazy. She was in there: I was sure of it. I had to get her back. That was all I knew.
But Mac didn’t flinch. He just stared at me with those sad, understanding eyes and I eased back a little. There’s a reason he’s our president. “Do you even have a plan?” he asked gently.
“I’m going to boot in the fuckin’ door and start hitting people,” I muttered.
The others caught up to us. Mac squeezed my shoulder. “Let Hunter go take a look.” And he nodded at Hunter, who disappeared into the darkness like a wraith.
Minutes passed. I kept glancing between Mac and the slaughterhouse. It killed me to wait but he was right: the way to do this was as a club.
“We’ll get her back, brother,” Mac said quietly.
I looked at him, then at the rest of the club. Even if we rescued Annabelle, we were all still wanted by the cops. Most likely, we’d be in jail by the morning. But instead of skipping town, they were helping me. I couldn’t find any words so I just nodded.
“Four—” said a voice an inch from my left ear.
I jumped about a foot in the air. “Jesus!” I hissed. Hunter had reappeared out of the darkness right next to me. The guy was uncanny.
“Sorry,” he said, sounding not sorry at all. “Four guards plus four of that psycho’s guys in suits, plus Volos himself. So nine. Volos and his guys look like they’re carrying. The guards….” He glanced at me and then looked away.
“What?” I asked.
This time, he did sound apologetic. “They have cattle prods.”
My hands balled into fists. Oh, you son of a bitch, Volos….
“Can we get in the back?” asked Mac. He was talking quickly because he could see I wouldn’t hold back much longer.
Hunter shook his head. “Fire doors are all heavy steel. Only way in is the front.”
“How many women are in there?” asked Mac.
“Seven that I could see,” said Hunter. He looked at me. “I couldn’t see Annabelle. Sorry.”
My chest tightened. What if we’d missed her? What if she was already on a plane? “Let’s go,” I said. And we started up the hill.
58
Annabelle
I crouched there silently in the pipe, the slime seeping through the knees of my jeans to chill my skin. Volos was still standing directly above me and it was too quiet to risk moving. But my legs were cramping up and I could feel the drug draining the strength from me. Soon, I’d just slump to the floor of the pipe and he’d sure as hell hear that.
But then fate or chance or whoever was looking down on me granted me one tiny, golden shred of luck. A shrill bleating came from Volos’s pants pocket. He sighed and pulled out a cell phone.
I crawled backward, away from the grate, lifting each knee with painstaking care.
“Everything’s fine,” said Volos into the phone. “We might be a little delayed getting to Vienna.”
I took another careful step backward.
Volos started to pace, stepping off the grate and taking a few steps away. He ran a hand through his hair: it was the first time I’d seen him looking anything but confident and assured. The idea of someone who could make Volos nervous sent a chill down my spine.
I drew back a little more. I was nearly out of sight. Another step would do it.
“You’ll love her,” said Volos. “Red hair, pale skin. She’s—”
He turned a little and his eyes fell on me. Both of us froze.
“She’s perfect,” he said into the cell phone. “I have to go.”
He ran for the grate. I flung myself backward just as he heaved the cover away and lunged for me. His straining fingers brushed my tank top but closed just too late. “Here!” he bellowed. “She’s in the drains!”
I turned around and crawled for my life but I knew it was useless. There was only one other grate and by now the guards would be running to block that one. They had me trapped like a rabbit in its burrow.
Volos was chasing me as I fled through the pipe, glaring down at me through every vent I passed. “I told you what would happen if you disobeyed me,” he spat. “I can hurt you in ways that don’t leave marks.”
I was hysterical, now, almost in tears. Then I pulled up short: I’d hit a dead end. I was up against one of the walls, I could even see an exit through the tiny vent above me...but I had no way to get to it. I was trapped. I stared up at Volos, panting in fear.
“You!” he snapped, pointing to someone I couldn’t see. “Stay here and keep an eye on her.”
A guard ran over and stood directly above me, glaring down at me through the vent.
“Someone go in and drag her out,” said Volos as he led the others away. “You. Use a cattle prod on her if you have to—”
There was a crash of metal that reverberated through the whole building. Everyone looked towards the entrance. An instant later, there was a boom that could only be a shotgun.
But not any shotgun.
“Fuck!” yelled one of the guards. “It’s O’Harra!”
59
Carrick
I was beyond rage.
Before I’d even made it fully through the door, the anger had taken hold. As soon as I smelled the stink of human fear, as soon as I glimpsed the place where they’d been holding my Annabelle, I forgot any notion of plan or strategy. The place had been chosen by that psycho to make women afraid. He deserved to die and so did anyone who’d helped him.
Two men in coveralls ran toward me. I raised Caorthannach and pulled one of the triggers. When the cloud of gun smoke rolled away, they just weren’t there anymore. A third guard rounded the corner, gun raised, then staggered to a stop as he saw the blood on the floor. He hesitated long enough for me to reach him, lift him by his collar and hurl him into a wall.
Behind me, the rest of the MC were flooding through the door. Some with guns, some with brass knuckles, a few with baseball bats. They were finally face-to-face with the people who’d devastated their club and they were pissed. Outside, Tailor was calling the cops. If it didn’t go our way, we wanted to make sure someone was there to get the women to safety.
We slowly fought our way through to the main slaughterhouse floor. I used Caorthannach’s other barrel to take out another guard and then switched to my fists, yelling in fury as I punched guards to the floor. I couldn’t see Volos anywhere. But I saw the women locked naked in stalls and my stomach knotted. Where’s Annabelle?
That’s when I saw a guard standing off on his own, near one of the exits. He had his gun out and was glancing between the battle and a vent in the floor. He was guarding something.
Something valuable.
I put my head down and charged at the guy. He swung around and saw me but it was already too late. My head hit the middle of his soft stomach and he folded around me as we went down to the floor. One hard punch to his face and he was out cold.
I leaned over the vent, hardly daring to breathe. Please let it be her!
Big green eyes looked up at me. Copper hair gleamed in the darkness. She was in some sort of pipe, her clothes stained with black slime. But she was alive. All the emotion welled up inside me. I’d thought I was never going to see her again. And from tearful expression, she’d thought the same.
She put her fingers between the bars of the vent. I snatched them and entwined mine with hers. “Are you okay?”
She nodded but her head lolled a little. The bastards had drugged her. I wrenched on the vent but it was built into the floor and far too small for her to get through. “How do I get you out?”
She sniffed back her tears. “There’s a grate.” She pointed. “Over there. The exits are locked. We need the keys.”
I looked at the guard I’d knocked down. There was a whole bunch of keys on his belt. I grabbed it. And I could see the grate Annabelle had pointed at and there was no one near it: all the guards were fighting.
But the battle was starting to turn. We’d taken them by surprise but now they were regrouping. I winced as I saw a bullet graze Mac’s shoulder. Then Hunter went down, clubbed over the head with a cattle prod.
“Go help them,” Annabelle said.
My eyes snapped to her. No! I’d finally gotten her back. I wasn’t going to leave her again.
“Go! Just give me the keys. I can make it.”
I glared at her, torn. She needed me. They needed me.
Annabelle looked up at me and gave me a brave nod.
I passed the keys through the bars. “I’ll meet you outside,” I told her. “By the cattle shed. Thirty fuckin’ seconds.”
She nodded. “Thirty fucking seconds.” She squeezed my fingers and then she was off, crawling down the pipe.
I turned towards the battle just as Viking staggered and fell. My friends. My club.
I put my head down and ran to help them.
60
Annabelle
Cautious elation had pushed back the worst effects of the drug. He’s alive! And all I had to do was get out and we’d be together again.
I crawled like all the hounds of hell were after me. When I reached the grate, I peeked up through it cautiously but it was still clear. I slid the cover off, climbed out and, for the first time in what felt like hours, I could stand up straight.
The exit was just a few feet away, behind a stack of boxes. I ran over to it, legs aching and cramping from all the crawling. I started trying each key on the key ring. It can’t be this easy, I thought. But the third key turned and the door swung open, cool night air sweeping in.
I staggered back a little, almost hitting the boxes. It was night? I’d lost all sense of time. I’d been in the slaughterhouse more than twenty-four hours.
Taking a deep breath, I stepped out and pushed the door mostly closed behind me. It was like slipping into a cool, calming bath. After the endless brightness of the slaughterhouse, the
moonlit night was a blessed relief. I hadn’t realized how much my eyes had been aching...or how much they wanted to close. Now that I was safe, the adrenaline was fading and the drug was winning. All I wanted to do was lie down and go to sleep.
And soon I would. I was home free. I could see the cattle shed Carrick had mentioned: all I had to do was stumble down the hill and hide behind it. I could see the MC’s bikes parked by the side of the road: the whole club must be here! And I could hear the distant wail of sirens. They were still a long way away, but they were coming. Volos and his men were going to jail.
I was about to step away when I heard Volos’s voice from inside. I froze instantly. The door was still open a crack and I could see him talking to one of his guys in suits.
“It’s going south,” Volos told the guy. “The cops are coming. We can make this look like it was all the MC but not if those women are around to give statements. Get rid of them, fast.”
They both marched off in opposite directions. I stood there with my heart thumping in my chest. My head was swimmy and I knew I was minutes from passing out. I was in no shape to help anyone. But that guy was going to murder Cassie and the other six. And there was no way to warn Carrick.
I looked down the hill towards the safety of the cattle shed.
Then I inched open the door and crept back inside.
61
Annabelle
I skulked along the very back of the slaughterhouse, staying as low as I could. My legs kept wobbling and I had to clutch at the wall to stay upright: I was only staying conscious by sheer force of will, now. The fight was raging at the other end of the massive room: I could see Carrick whirling and punching, plowing through guards like they were toy soldiers. As I watched, he pulled Viking back to his feet. Mac had his teeth gritted in pain, clutching at his wounded shoulder, and Hunter was bleeding from the scalp. But now that Carrick was back, things seemed to be turning in their favor.
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