He kneeled down in front of me, his hand cupping my chin and raising my face, before trailing his fingers down to my chest, and then wrapping his fingers around my neck.
“It just fucking kills me, Daisy,” he said, tightening his grip on my neck. “It kills me to know that he touched you.”
“When I saw him walking next to you, holding your hand, touching your back and your arm, wrapping his arm around you…and…and kissing you? Oh, Daisy. I’ve never felt such pain, baby. How could you let him touch my flesh like that?” His hand gripped my neck even tighter and I gasped for breath. He let go abruptly, walking away from me.
“It’s my flesh, Todd.”
“No, baby. It’s not. God told me you were mine.”
He turned back, and once again kneeled down to look directly into my eyes.
“God’s always right, Daisy, you know that. You can’t fight the word of God, sweetheart.”
He reached out, his fingers lightly touching my face as he spoke.
“These eyes,” he said, his thumb running over my eyelid.
“These adorable chubby cheeks,” he said, his hand cupping the side of my face.
“These lips. These beautiful lips…,” he said, shaking his head, his voice trailing off as he rubbed my lips roughly with his thumb. “They’re all mine. And now, because of that filthy biker, they’re all soiled.”
I turned my head away from his touch, but he gripped my chin roughly, forcing me to look at him.
“But it’s okay, baby. There’s still time. I’m your savior, Daisy. I’ll make everything right again.”
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
MIKE
The sound of knocking pulled me out of my nap. I jumped up and opened the door. Sam was standing there, a half smile on her lips.
“I think we’ve made a turn for the better, Mike,” she said. I smiled and hugged her.
“That’s wonderful news!” I said.
“His vital signs are steady, his breathing is good. We aren’t entirely out of the woods yet, but I’m much more hopeful than I was a few hours ago.”
“Fucking fantastic. Thank you so much again, Sam.”
“Of course, Mike. My pleasure. You know I love all you guys. Do you want me to go tell the others?”
“Yes, that’d be great, thank you! I have a phone call to make.”
I couldn’t wait to give the good news to Daisy. I knew she was worried sick about Reaper.
Her phone rang to voicemail and I dialed it two more times before I hung up and tried Sonny’s number.
When he didn’t answer either, I knew something was very wrong.
I flew out of my office, yelling at Sandman to come with me.
“I can’t reach Sonny or Daisy, Sandman. Something’s up. I’m going home. I need you to come with me, brother.”
“You got it, boss.” Within a minute, we were roaring down the road next to each other, my heart pounding once again with fear.
****
I saw Sonny as soon as I pulled up. Sandman rushed to his side and I jumped off my bike, flying into the house as fast as I could.
It was completely empty. No sign of Daisy or Rosie. Breakfast dishes were still on the table, and the two empty chairs were sitting in the middle of the living room floor. The note was taped to the seat of one of them.
Dear Sinner:
Atonement for our sins is essential in pleasing the Eternal Father.
Daisy is slathered in her sins, and she must attempt to purify her soul before God before she can
be accepted into his Heavenly Kingdom.
God has chosen me to save her.
His Heavenly Spirit will guide us home.
When the clock strikes midnight, Daisy and I will be reunited in his light and bathed in his glorious love.
You can have your daughter back, if you can locate us before then.
“What the fuck is this shit!?” I was dumbfounded. I had barreled in here ready for anything. Ready for a gun fight. A knife fight. A bare knuckles, knock-down drag-out. But this shit? What the fuck was I supposed to do with this ridiculous fucking note?
My stomach churned when I realized I had no idea what to do, or where to find the girls.
At first, I thought this was payback from the Cretins, but after seeing the note, I was going on the assumption it was from Todd, considering all the other religious bullshit he had been sending Daisy.
I stumbled through the house, looking for any signs as to where they might be and came up completely empty-handed. When I opened Rosie’s bedroom door, lil’ Mike came flying out of her room, growling and barking.
“So much for your guarding abilities,” I said to him as he sniffed around the apartment frantically.
Nothing was out of place, except for the chairs.
I looked at the clock over the mantle and saw that it was seven o’clock already. I had till midnight, apparently.
The sun was starting to go down outside, and I had only five hours to save the two most important people in my life.
There was only one problem.
I had no fucking clue where to begin.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
DAISY
“Drive,” Todd said, pushing us into the front seat of my pickup. He had retrieved a suitcase from his black sedan, the same black sedan I had seen earlier, but it was now parked on the street. He placed the suitcase in the bed of my pick-up before we got in.
I eyed my backpack on the floor under his legs, thankful I had decided to bring my gun with me. If only I had decided to bring the fucking thing in the house with me when I first got there, I might not be rolling away from Mike’s house with this fanatical freak at my side.
“Where are we going?”
“Don’t fucking worry about it,” he said. He had made Rosie promise not to run or cry when he untied us and I watched as he, surprisingly gently, pulled the duct tape from her mouth. She was being so brave, and I couldn’t believe it. She quietly obeyed his commands, her fear filled eyes constantly darting back and forth between Todd and me.
“It’s going to be okay, Rosie,” I said as we walked out of the house. “Just do what he says.”
Luckily, I was able to shield her so she didn’t have to see Sonny’s lifeless body on the ground in front of my truck. I didn’t give a shit what Todd did to me, but I had to make sure Rosie came out of this as unscathed as possible.
“Turn left,” Todd barked.
I took a deep breath, turning the truck as he told me to. I contemplated everything I could do to get out of this. Todd had his gun out and pointed directly at me, but out of sight of the other drivers around us. I could ram the car into a wall or another car, I could wave down someone, I could swerve and try to get the gun away from him — but all of these things would have put Rosie at the risk of getting hurt. It was too much.
I would just have to follow along with him, and hope that some opportunity would come up to take him down.
“Go south on the 101,” he said. I looked over at him, and saw small beads of sweat popping up on his forehead. His eyes looked wild and panicked. He looked nothing like the man I had given five years of my life to. Now, he was some gun-waving lunatic that had obviously gone off the deep end.
“What’s your plan here, Todd?” I asked, as I merged the truck onto the freeway. He had written a note before he left, but I didn’t get a chance to see what it said. I could only hope Mike would be there soon and that it held some clue of how he could find us. My phone had been ringing off the hook while we were tied to the chairs, and I knew it had to have been Mike calling.
“My plan is to cleanse your filthy soul, Daisy,” he replied.
“Where are we going?” I said, sighing. How was I ever going to get through to him?
“Drive towards Santa Monica, and take the Overland Avenue exit.”
“What’s in Santa Monica?” I asked. I wanted to try to get him to talk, to somehow find a kernel of an opening to penetrate his insanity. Surely, the man I us
ed to know was in there. Had he snapped completely?
“The Temple.”
Oh, shit. Of course! He was taking us to the Temple.
“What are we going to do there, Todd?” I asked, halfway knowing his answer.
“You’re must be saved in the Kingdom of our God and Father, Daisy,” he said, his eyes glassing over.
“Todd, listen. You hit me. I left. I have done nothing wrong here, please just let us go!” I pleaded.
“Sinner! You’ve defiled your flesh and you must confess your sins before we can be sealed in the name of the Lord. Then we can enter the eternal light of our Lord together,” his voice rose over the din of the traffic, high and frantic.
“Todd, okay, listen. Let’s just go into the Temple, and I’ll confess to the Bishop, and then you can let us go, okay?” He was out of his mind. I had no intention of being ‘sealed’ to him. And I certainly wasn’t dying with him.
“No. I have other plans. Just shut up for now,” he said. His leg was twitching, his hand resting on the trigger of his gun, and I felt my heart racing in my chest and my palms begin to sweat. He wasn’t kidding around, that was for sure. But if he was taking us to the Temple, then maybe I could get help there.
Traffic began slowing down around us, and the movement on the freeway slowed to a crawl. There were people so close to us, if I reached out I could probably touch them, and yet I could do nothing to alert them to the danger we were in. I sat quietly behind the wheel, and reached over and took Rosie’s hand.
She had been completely silent, and I looked down at her now and saw tears flowing down her cheeks.
“It’s okay, baby. We’re going to be okay,” I said to her, squeezing her hand.
For the next half hour, we sat on the 101, going no more than half a football field’s distance. The sun was setting in the distance and I would have enjoyed the view if I wasn’t being held at gunpoint by a madman.
I thought of Mike, and Reaper, and my heart sank with the realization that if I didn’t find a way out of this, we would never see them again. The darkness slowly descended on us as the truck creeped along.
“Dammit!” Todd said, hitting the dashboard with his right hand. “It’s getting too late. The temple is going to be closed by now.”
“Yes, it is,” I said.
“Take this next exit. I’m going to have to take matters into my own hands.” The graveness in his voice frightened me even more.
He had obviously gone so far off the deep end that there was no turning back for him. I could only hope he didn’t drag us down with him.
CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN
MIKE
I called Kelly’s cell phone and breathed a sigh of relief when she answered on the first ring.
“Why, hello there, Mr. Fuck Machine,” she said, her voice slightly thickened with intoxication. “To what do I owe this pleasure?”
“I need your help. I need your help now. Where are you?” I asked. I had no time for her flirting.
“I’m at Joe’s bar around the corner from the precinct. Wanna meet me?”
“I’ll be right there. Don’t move.”
“Not till you get here, darling.”
I groaned, and hung up the phone. I called Demon and told him to go into my office at the clubhouse and find the envelope of pictures and meet us at the bar.
“Let’s go.” I said to Sandman. We were there in five minutes, and I was happy to see Demon pulling up just as we arrived.
“Here you go, boss,” Demon said as we walked to the door of the pub.
“Thanks. You two stay here. This won’t take long,” I said.
Kelly was sitting at a booth in the back, with three empty shot glasses and a pint glass full of beer sitting in front of her.
“What a pleasant surprise!” She slurred as I sat down across from her.
“This isn’t a personal visit, Kelly. It’s business. I need your help, it’s about Rosie.” I said. My heart was pounding in my throat, and my voice cracked when I said her name. If anything happened to her, I wouldn’t survive. I had to find her.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“Rosie’s been kidnapped. All I have is this note. I have to find her, and I have to do it now. We only have a few hours,” I pulled the note out of my cut, and handed it to her. She read it silently, her brow wrinkling as she finished.
“What the fuck is this? Who is Daisy?”
“Daisy is my…um…Rosie’s teacher. She was babysitting her at my house, and I believe…no, I know…she was being stalked by her ex. He’s a small town cop from Texas. A religious freak, obviously, by the sound of that note.”
“So he took them both?”
“That’s the way it looks. And he took one of my men down in the process that was looking out for them.”
“Okay, so what do you know about this guy?” she asked, her curiosity piqued.
“All I have is his name. Todd Hamilton. He’s a cop in Mineola, Texas and he’s an insane Mormon fundamentalist.”
“How do you want me to help you? And why should I help you anyway?”
“I thought you might need some convincing.” I handed her the envelope Demon had brought me. It was full of pictures of her fucking the DA in a motel.
The color drained from her face as she flipped through them.
“I see,” she said. “Okay, I’ll help.”
“Thank you. Rosie is my life. We only have a few hours.”
“I know, Mike. Okay, listen. I’ll make some phone calls and see what I can find out about this guy. I’ll put an APB out on his car, track his bank cards, and put an Amber alert on Rosie.”
“I think they are in Daisy’s pick up truck. It’s not at my house. It’s a red 1976 Ford F-150. Pretty sure I found his black sedan at my house. There was nothing in it but a wooden cross hanging from the rearview mirror and a King James bible in the front seat.”
“Fuck. This is guy is serious, huh? Okay, what’s Daisy’s last name?”
“Sinclair.”
“Okay, I’ll head back to the office and I’ll call you as soon as I know something.”
“Thank you, Kelly,” I said, pulling the envelope of pictures out of her hand and standing up.
“If he’s a Mormon, why don’t you have some of your club guys drive around the Mormon churches and see if they can spot him? The more eyes the better at this point.”
“They’re already doing that,” I said. I had called the clubhouse first thing after finding that letter and told them to do just that. It was the only thing I could think of to do, outside of asking Kelly to dig for information about Todd for me.
We walked out and I watched her hurry down the block towards the precinct. I never thought I would be asking Detective Kelly Jones for help with anything, but I was beyond desperate.
****
I had lived through numerous shootings, fights, stabbings, and all kinds of dangerous situations in my life. I had seen things that you never spoke of afterward. I had smelled fear all my life - my own and other men’s. But I had never been so terrified as I was now. My life meant nothing without Rosie and Daisy, and if this asshole hurt them, I would tear him apart.
The worst thing of all was that I had no idea where to look or what else to do to find them. All I could do was drive around and hope to spot them somewhere.
I separated from Sandman and Demon and for the next few hours we scouted out different areas. I didn’t even know where the fucking LDS churches were, and I kept having to stop and look it up on my phone. There were at least fifteen of them spread out around LA County, and we split them up to save time. Each time I stopped, I kept checking in with all the other guys, but nobody had spotted Daisy’s truck yet.
I had never been so grateful to see that Kelly was calling me as I was stopped on the side of Santa Monica Boulevard.
“Hey,” I answered.
“I’ve got something. I called the precinct in Mineola, and found out Todd Hamilton has been AWOL from his job for t
he last several months. The whole town has been looking for him. Word on the street is that he had a fight with Daisy and she took off. I guess she called the school she worked at and told them she was fine, but that’s the last anyone heard from her. No sign of Todd since then.”
So the fucker had been stalking her all this time. I couldn’t wait to put my hands around his neck.
“So, I pulled a few strings and — ,”
“Hold on a second, Kelly, Sandman is calling me.” My phone signaled another incoming call and I interrupted her. I clicked over quickly.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“Found her truck boss! It’s parked outside the Azul Inn Motel on Santa Monica. I just spotted it as I was driving to another church.”
“Fuck yes! Good job, man! Meet me there, tell the whole club to get there ASAP!”
“You got it.”
I clicked back over to Kelly.
“My boys found the truck!” I said. My heart was racing with excitement. I had found my girls!
“Well, yeah, that’s what I was going to say. I ran Hamilton’s bank info and he checked into a motel in Santa Monica an hour ago. He’s not a very careful guy, is he? Either that means he’s stupid, or he just doesn’t give a shit. Either way, he’s very dangerous.”
“Yeah? I bet I’m a lot more dangerous than he is.” I said, hanging up the phone to the sound of Kelly still talking.
CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT
DAISY
When we got to the motel, Todd tied us up again. I couldn’t believe how brave Rosie was being. Her tears had dried up and she obediently went along with whatever Todd told her to do. So far, he had been gentle with her, in his actions and his voice. I was the one on the receiving end of his wrath. My plan was to use this to my advantage and get Rosie out of here alive.
Todd hadn’t put his gun down for a second, even keeping it within inches as he tied the ropes. But it wasn’t his gun that was making me nervous. It was what he took out of the briefcase, and strapped to my chest. A fucking ticking time bomb. I was dumbfounded.
RAW: THE ULTIMATE MC COLLECTION Page 52