We hadn’t been on the road long when I noticed lights coming up fast behind Will. I watched in horror as what looked like a big SUV raced up beside him and tried to side swipe him. I screamed when Will swerved wildly then sped up to try and get away. Brutus started jerking at his restraints and growling as I punched the button on my phone that automatically called whomever was on duty at the club. Thank the pope Jagger had insisted on installing a hands free kit with speakers in my car.
I knew in my gut that they wouldn’t get to us in time. The big vehicle was damned fast and had caught up with Will very quickly. I watched in horror as it raced up next to Will again and swerved towards him. Will pulled away but not quick enough. The front of the vehicle clipped his back wheel and the bike bucked wildly. He stood on the pegs and tried to ride the heavy bike as if it was an off roader and succeeded to some extent. But then he hit the soft sand on the side of the road and the bike slid and almost went down but he managed to keep it upright as he desperately struggled for control but it was hopeless. There was a deep earthen drainage ditch at the side of the road and the bike was heading right into it. Slamming into the ditch at speed it sent Will sailing over the handlebars and he disappeared into the darkness.
I moaned softly, then realised I had slowed while watching in my rear view mirror. Wrong thing to do. Whoever was in the SUV had slowed to see if my protection had been eliminated and when Will crashed it came racing back to ride right on my bumper. The vehicle was high enough off the road that the glare of the high beams lit up the inside of my car and blinded me. Narrowing my eyes and blinking furiously I stomped my foot down on the pedal, trying to get away. But my little car had no chance against the big monster behind me. But I tried anyway.
I clung to the steering wheel and prayed. All I need to do was get to the turnoff to the clubhouse. There would be someone on duty there. Someone who could help.
I screamed with fright when my car was suddenly rammed from behind. The bastard fell back as my car started fishtailing all over the road. I was shaking in fear as I battled for control. I barely had the nose pointing the right way down the road when I heard the scream of a big engine and my car was once again rammed. My car partly left the road and the left hand wheels hit the soft sand at the side of the road. The steering wheel jerked wildly as my car left the road and I clung to it desperately as I tried to steer my wildly bucking car back onto the road. I started praying as I hunched over the wheel when I finally got two of my wheels back on the road. Brutus was still trying to get free and growling and snarling furiously.
“Lie down, Brutus! Please, sweetheart, lie down!” I begged as I battled the jerking steering wheel to get back onto the road. I thanked the angels I had clipped Brutus’s harness into the anchors on the backseat before leaving the pub.
While desperately trying to steer the car and calm my poor dog I heard a voice shouting at me and realised that I had someone on the other end of the phone. Halle-flippen-lujah!
“Help! Help us!” I screamed. “A big black SUV took Will out! It’s ramming my car, trying to push me off the road!”
My car jerked violently as it was hit once again and then there was the screaming sound of steel against steel and breaking glass as my back window shattered. The vehicle didn’t back off this time though, instead it started pushing my car and I lost all control over it.
“Oh Jesus! I’m going to crash!” Was all I could get out as the steering wheel twisted in my clenched hands.
My car veered to the left skidded through the thick loose sand on the side of the road, the next minute we were airborne and flew towards the damned drainage ditch. There was absolutely nothing I could do as the earthen wall came rushing towards me. The left front end of my car slammed into the earth first with an ominous and teeth jarring crunch sending the car spinning wildly. Glass and pieces of car flew around like tiny missiles as I was tossed around in the front of the car. My seatbelt held me in my seat but all I could think about was Brutus. I half turned and reached a hand towards him. My arm was between the seats when suddenly all motion came to a teeth jarring stop and my body was flung back against my door. I screamed in pain as my arm snapped and my head slammed into something. The pain was sudden and excruciating and then it was gone because the world disappeared.
I came to coughing painfully and trying to see through the dust hanging heavily in the air. The pain in my arm, head and body was almost unbearable but I struggled through it. As I struggled to free myself from the cloying blackness I could hear Brutus barking and jerking against his restraints. I knew I needed to get to him to calm him down in case he was injured. But I was hurt and disorientated and wasn’t exactly sure where he was. I got the impression that my car had been bent like a pretzel as I looked around in the hazy half-light. I couldn’t move my arm to push the seat belt release button and painfully tried to reach across my body to get to it. Brutus’s barking sounded loud and aggressive. It felt as if he was close but I couldn’t see him. Frowning I swiped at whatever was running into my eyes to try and find him. Then I heard someone outside the car.
I turned as whoever it was started tugging at my badly buckled door. There were voices but they sounded far off and slurred. Turning away from the door I tried to get to Brutus when it was ripped open with a loud squeal. I turned to tell Will to back off until I had Brutus calmed down, but the figure in the open door wasn’t Will.
“Who are you?” I mumbled at the dark figure.
“Doesn’t matter who I am, bitch.” A voice growled and I blinked and shook my head in confusion. I knew the voice but couldn’t place it.
“Shut that fucking dog up.” Another voice shouted.
“Forget about the fucking dog, help me get her out. We have to get her and get gone before they come looking for her.”
What the hell were they talking about? There was a loud bang and then shouting.
“What the fuck are you trying to do? You trying to get us caught? We’re close enough to the gates that they would’ve heard the shot you fucking moron.”
“Going to kill that fucking dog.”
“You shoot that gun one more time and I will personally fucking throw you in the back seat as a fucking snack! The fucking dog can’t get loose. Put away your fucking gun and help me get her the fuck out of the car.”
I didn’t hear more because there was a sharp pain in my neck and the dark figure bending over me slowly faded from view. I sank into the enveloping darkness with the sound of Brutus’s enraged barking and voices arguing.
Pain, horrible endless pain, dragged me out of the darkness. I groaned painfully as I forced my eyes to open.
Black. All I saw was black. Endless lightless black.
Panicking I reached up to touch my eyes. But my arm felt heavy as if I was lifting a weight and I dropped it back to my side. Drawing in a deep breath that hurt like hell I lifted it again. It felt as there was something tied around my wrist with a weight at the end. Was I in the hospital? Where was I? I tried once again and heard what sounded like chains rattling. Chains? Why would there be chains in a hospital? What kind of a hospital was this? Frowning I brought my heavy arm across my body and reached for my wrist with my free hand. Horrifying pain slammed into me and I couldn’t stop the scream of pain. I lay crying and panting through the horrible throbbing pain in my arm praying that it would fade.
What the hell was going on? Where was I? What had happened to me?
And then it suddenly all came back. The lights coming up behind Will’s bike. Him flying into the darkness. My car going into the ditch. The pain and voices arguing and then nothing.
I instantly knew what it meant. This wasn’t some weird kind of a hospital where they chained their patients down. I’ve been taken. Despair tried to take over but I shoved it down, deep, deep down and concentrated on trying to find out where the hell I was.
I needed to know.
Moving slowly I lifted my hand again and this time I was able to touch my
face. My fingers gingerly explored and I winced several times as I came across cuts on my chin and the side of my face. I froze when I reached my eyes. There were bandages around my head and over my eyes. Oh, sweet Jesus, what did it mean? Feeling for the edge of the bandages I very carefully started to lift the edges so I could see. It hurt like hell as it pulled away from what I suspected were cuts across my eyebrows and top of my nose. Gritting my teeth I panted through the pain and lifted it far enough to finally open my eyes completely. I blinked furiously as the sudden bright light made my eyes sting and water. It streamed dully from a dirty skylight in the roof far above me.
Turning my head slowly I looked around me.
And then I wished I had stayed in the dark a little bit longer.
I was in a cage. A big cage made out of steel struts and diamond link fencing. There was a gate but it was closed with a length of chain with a big padlock hanging from it. It was exactly like one of those cages you would find in a warehouse where they kept the more valuable stock.
Painfully lifting my head I realised I was indeed inside a huge empty warehouse. The place was eerily quiet and I suspected I was the only one here at the moment. I dropped my head back when the throb changed into a sharp pain. Only moving my eyes I inspected the area around me. My cage backed up against a bare cement brick wall. A heavy chain was bolted to an anchor in the wall and locked around a leather cuff on the wrist of my good arm.
The constant agonizing throb of pain in my bad arm had me worried and I clenched my teeth before I looked down.
It wasn’t good news. Not good at all. I’ve been around the Iron Dogz long enough to know what a broken arm looks like, and mine was broken somewhere between my shoulder and my elbow. Someone, most probably the fuckers who had kidnapped me, had wrapped a bandage around it but it wasn’t going to do much good. I needed a doctor and soon because there was blood on the bandage. I hoped like hell it was from my other injuries and not my arm. A broken bone coming through the skin and no medical attention was bad really, really bad.
With my teeth still clenched I gently ran my fingertips over the bandage. I didn’t feel bumps under the bandage but it didn’t mean anything. They could have realigned the bones before they wrapped them. If they had done that they had most probably caused even more damage. But I couldn’t worry about that now.
I was in a very bad place. Chained to a wall inside a cage and lying on a blanket on the cold cement floor. Taking stock of my immediate surroundings I shivered because this place had obviously been built to hold a person prisoner. There was a very basic toilet in the far corner and right next to it was a tap with a bucket underneath.
Quietly lying on the cold floor I lifted a hand and pulled the bandages back over my eyes. I groaned as the pain in my head and arm became more than I could bear and darkness started to creep back in around the edges of my vision. I struggled to stay awake but slipped back into darkness.
The pain, the constant hellish pain brought me back into the light. I instantly realised the bandages over my eyes had been changed because I could now see. Keeping my eyes half open I slowly turned my head to the side. The light from the skylight was fading and they had brought in lights. Standing lamps had been ranged around the cage and they lit it up like daylight while leaving the rest of the warehouse in pools of darkness. There were two men in the cage with me. They kept their voices low as if not to wake me as they argued.
I felt hot and feverish and the pain, flippen hell, the pain had tears burning in my eyes but I refused to let them fall.
Suddenly what they were saying and who they were punched through the haze and pain that seemed to control my brain.
Isaiah, it was Isaiah and Scar’s brother. He had a weird name but I just couldn’t remember it. What the hell was going on here? Biting the inside of my cheek to stop a pained groan from slipping out I turned my head slowly to hear them better.
“She needs a doctor. You need to send those monkeys of yours to get a doctor. I won’t allow her to die now that I finally have her.”
“Fuck off. My men aren’t monkeys and they aren’t doing anymore shit until you pay us. We did what you wanted. We got you the bitch.” Scar’s brother gave a nasty laugh. “You didn’t stipulate that she had to be in a good condition. We delivered. You pay.”
It was Isaiah’s turn to give a soft but oh so evil sounding laugh.
“We both know why you agreed to work for me. You want the filthy biker’s money and you thought you could blackmail him into paying for her release. Only problem is, she’s never leaving me. Not ever. I don’t care what you do with the biker or how you get him to pay you, that’s not my problem. ” I heard his footsteps coming closer and I closed my eyes as if I was still unconscious. “She is all that matters. Do you know what it’s like waiting for the person that was meant to be yours from the moment she was born? From the moment her father put her in my arms she has been mine. Mine. Always and forever mine.”
He was crazy, absolutely and utterly crazy.
I felt rather than saw him crouch next to me and when he touched my arm I couldn’t stop the groan of pain from escaping.
“She’s going to die if we don’t get a doctor in here. And if she does so will you and your little friends. You are going to get her a doctor. If you don’t bring me one in the next few hours, not only aren’t you getting paid, you’ll be very, very sorry you ever crossed me.”
“Where the hell are we supposed to find a fucking doctor? It’s not like they grow on trees!”
“At a fucking hospital! Grab one of the trauma doctors when they change shifts and bring him here. Do I have to think of everything around here?” Isaiah shouted. No longer caring if I heard him.
Their footsteps receded and the gate clanged as it was opened then clanged shut and the chains rattled as they were locked. It was so stupid, as if I could escape while chained to the damned wall. Assholes.
There were so many questions running through my head. One of which was, where did Isaiah and Scar’s brother meet? I had heard that he was in hiding. How then did Isaiah find him? From what I had overheard he was working for him. Was there something about Isaiah that none of us knew? I had always been under the impression that he was a conservative and very cautious man. Seems I was mistaken.
I didn’t want them to kidnap some innocent doctor only to kill him or her when they no longer needed them. I couldn’t live with that on my conscience, I just couldn’t.
I knew that Jagger would leave no stone unturned to find me and he and the club would make all of them pay. And Scar, what about Scar? What if I die in this place and never hear what he wanted to tell me?
I wish I could just fly out of here so no one else has to die because of me. Behind my closed eyelids I once again saw Will’s body flying through the air after his bike hit the side of the ditch. I prayed that he wasn’t hurt badly. Then I prayed that the bastards hadn’t found him in the dark and killed him while he lay helpless.
Like Army had been helpless.
Not again, please, not again.
The tears were now a constant stream and I let it happen. I cried for Will and Brutus and myself. I cried for myself because I knew it would be almost impossible to find me. I didn’t have a tracker on me like Leo did when she was taken.
There was a tracker on my car, in my phone and in Brutus’s harness, but not on me. If I got out of here I was going to get a tracker like Leo’s. I just had to survive first.
Fighting against my tears and despair I closed my eyes and then I put my faith in the Iron Dogz. In my new brothers, Jagger and Crash and a man who said I was his, Scar. They would leave no stone unturned in their efforts to find me.
My only job was to stay alive long enough for them to find me.
I could do it. I could do my part.
No way would I give up. Never.
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
Hawk
The irritating sound of his phone ringing woke Hawk. Op
ening his eyes to darkness he instantly knew it was going to be bad news. No one would call him in the middle of the night if it wasn’t an emergency. Carefully moving his sleeping woman off his chest he sat up, flipped on the bedside lamp, picked up his phone and answered.
“Hawk”
“Prez, Will was taken off his bike, he’s hurt but alive, and whoever it was took Chris.” Buzz’s voice was tight with strain.
Fuck.
“What do we know?” DC rolled towards him, wide awake and listening.
“She called it in while it was going down. Dark, possibly black, SUV took out Will then rammed her car until she lost control and went off the road. I immediately sent brothers out but we were too late. She was gone when they got there. Wrench and Devon were on guard duty at the pub and are searching for the cage, but nothing so far. Sludge and Bok (Goat) are on scene. Sludge says there’s a fuckload of blood all over the front of the car. Brutus is still in the car. His harness is clipped into the special anchors Crash installed on the back seat and no one can get fucking near him. Sludge says he’s full on crazy and busy ripping the back of the car apart.”
Hawk was out of bed and had his phone on speaker as he got dressed. “Wake Ziggy, tell him to send a Call Out to all the brothers to meet at the clubhouse.” Meeting DC’s worried eyes he kept talking to Buzz. “How badly is Will hurt?”
“He was fucking lucky, Prez. A lot of scrapes and cuts and he’s shaken up after coming down hard but that’s all. He’s pissed at himself for letting them get to Chris.”
“Get him back to the clubhouse and call our doc in. Don’t disturb the accident scene because we’re going to have to let the pigs do their thing. Put four brothers on guarding the scene until I can get there.”
“Okay, Prez, but what do we do about Brutus? He going fucking crazy in the back of the car trying to get loose. When the pigs get here you know they’re going to kill him and Chris would never forgive us for letting that happen.”
His old lady leant over in bed and spoke into the phone. “Call our vet, Buzz. She knows him and will know what to do. Do it quickly before the pigs get there and kill her big boy.”
Mark Of A Scarred Warrior (Iron Dogz MC Book 5) Page 25