“Who the fuck is Ortiz?” I snap, I’m off the cryptic shit.
“He is our in-club IT guy, he’s loyal and legit as fuck. I’ll need him. Hey, sit down” I glare at him too impatient to sit, needing to know what the fuck he was on about.
“I don’t wanna fucken sit Bray, I want to get rolling on these punk bitch asses.” Slamming my hands down flat on the table, a crack echoes out around us sending the other boy’s bodies jumping.
“Yeah that’s right, on edge ain’t fucken fun now boys, is it?” Seething I look them all square in the face, wanting nothing more than to feel bones cracking under my fists.
“I hear you brother, but, if this switchblade is the same one, it’s the one my mom gave her and Lilly, it also has a tracking device in it. When they were younger Mom always worried so Ortiz’s dad put them in the handles so we could always see where they were at all times and keep a guy on them for their safety.” Bray says, his voice is cool and clam while I’m amped up and sparking like live wire
Turning to Bray, shock quivering out over me, I absorb what he’s just spilled looking him in the eyes. “So, if it’s the one you guys gave her and she has it with her then, we will find her right? Cos ‘im losing my shit Bray, like for real. I can’t handle this pain and torment much longer. I don’t think you understand what it’s like to be this helpless yet again!” My eyes meet his and an eerie feeling of ‘yes he does know the pain I’m feeling’ zaps from him to me like an invisible string pulling my thoughts to his. His eyes flash through a movie like clip of a hunted pain like mine and a sense of failure fills him, just as it fills me. I can’t let that dispel from the fact that elation is in my bones, we may just be getting somewhere. Braking our trance like stare by slapping my hands down hard on the table I let the feeling of relief wash over me. “Fuck yes! Finally, we are getting somewhere! Let’s load up!” Grabbing the phone, I start heading for the door only stopping when I feel no one behind me. I turn, feeling confused and frustrated.
“Hold on brother, we need to see if, after all these years, it’s going to work. Ortiz will sort it, then we will make a plan and set it.” Bray says to me as he puts his hand on my shoulder.
“Fuucckkkk, more fucken waiting.” I lash out as I forcefully push his hand from my shoulder. Stalking from the room, I need air. Walking to the bar grabbing a bottle of beer, I head out back, settling down on the bench lining the river. Something to the right of me catches my eye, and, turning slightly, I see two of the new guys who just rode in. One is on his hands and knees, the other on the first’s back with his little punk face up against the window of church. Mother fucken little narks.
Stalking up to them quietly, I say calmly. “Boys, boys, boys, what do we have here?”
Their heads snap around so fast the top one falls, both trying as fast as their bodies will allow them to scramble back up against the wall. Full burning anger, I hit the first one over the head with my full beer bottle, shattering it into pieces, while bringing my boot all the way back and slamming it hard into the other punk’s ribs. The tell-tale pop hits the top of my foot as a rush of adrenaline pumps through my veins, hitting all the right places. Jumping down on top of this punk, I shatter his nose in one punch; the blood spilling out all over his face, my fist and splattering up over my cut. Looking down at his helpless body, I turn round to the other punk, setting his crawling body in my sights. I stand on top of his fingers, crunching them under my boot.
“You trying to escape boy? Don’t you wanna stay and listen a little while longer to the sound of me feeding your brother’s soul to my demon, then setting my brother onto you for being a nosy prick?”
Twisting my boots over his fingers, he lets out a pitiful gargled sound of pain. The sun is glinting over the blood trickling down his face from the damage left by the beer bottle. This fuels my need for more blood. Bending down on one knee in front of him, I grab him around his throat, bringing him up and over my knee and arching his back. I hold my forearm over his throat as I slam my fist into his ribcage again and again all the pent up rage spewing out of me and into him The invigorating sound of snap crackle and pop dimly reminds me of the ad for Rice bubblesand a sick smile crosses my face as I rearrange a few of his features, including his nose. Satisfied that my job is done when he is unconscious, I slump his limp body to the ground before storming over andn grabbing his friend by his boot. I drag him to where his friend lays before picking up his own boot. I continue on my way, dragging them both back into the club. They have a story I would love to fucken hear once they wake up from their pain-filled coma.
“Bray!” I holler out as I notice two other members, “81, Cage. “Looky what I have here.”I walk in with my cargo and Bray’s eyes go wide.
“What the fuck have you done, Knox?” He spits at me. Ghost is his on his feet stalking over to me, he looks down, whistling. “Shit brother, they alive?” he questions me with a sick smile on his lips.
“Shit yes, they just sleeping for a bit. Caught them listening in on church from the outside window.” I proclaim as I drop their limp bodies to the floor on either side of me.
“Cage, 81, West and Tigg, pick them up and take them to the shed. Secure them. Ghos, grab your shit! You're up brother, Knox come with me, Jamie too.” Bray orders snapping his fingers. “Cleo, grab the Jack and Jim. Take them to the shed with the black box from my office.” He snaps out at the club girl. Shit, this is the most action I’ve seen since this shit storm started. Ghost is rubbing his hands together. Happily, everyone jumps to attention heading off to do the jobs Bray ordered done. I see Slash watching from upstairs with Lilly slumped in his arms and Kash behind them. She is still up to her eye balls in the sedative the Doctor gave her. John must be taking her to the big house. Fuck this is a mess.
Heading into the back I’m walking down through a long dark hallway where brothers from other chapters are holed up with club girls all over their cocks. Bray stops at the end door and enters a pin, letting us into a room lit up by computer screens. Monitors are flickering away, humming like a well-built machine. I see it all. The club, the houses, the roads and something inside me flinches as I notice my Nan and Pa’s hardware store. What the fuck? Flicking from one to the other is a bloke watching, peering, trawling. Another guy is in the corner of the room, leaning over a locked suitcase looking at what looks like a virtual map.
“This, here, is our control room and this is V. He’s our surveillance guy and lives off V the energy drink hence the name... and the shake.” I note the green can sitting on his desk, and nod, overwhelmed into silence at the set up. “This man over here...” Bray went over and placed a hand on the guy’s shoulder,”... is Ortiz. He’s the man, his father was best friends with my father, and they, together, were unstoppable in the IT world. They could hack into anything and everything, you want it found, they will find it. He’s going to find our Blue baby, and we will bring her home.”
“Hey,” I say distractedly, still looking around at all the shit that has my mind spinning.
“Sup,” They both say in unison, wired.
Bray cuts through my thoughts with “have you found anything yet?”
Ortiz speaks first, “I have brother, I have a signal on her, a nice strong one too. I have followed it and mapped it out, then it goes weak and fades out but then it's strong again I’m not sure what to make of it but it’s there, we have her. I just have to figure out where in this web she is. Dad did well installing what he had at the time, but tech has changed so much since then it’s a bit harder to piece together.”
“I don’t care how hard it is you fucken find my girl and fast you hear” I say barking at him, it echoes out around us louder than it had in my head. Bray pushes me back.
“Oi keep your shit together.”
Ortiz stands up. I have to say, I’m impressed by his size. “Don’t sweat it brother, we’re sweet, I’m doing what I can given what I know. I do wanna look over that phone you got though, they might be tracking you, also.” He says
to me and a sick feeling pools in my stomach as my mind races to all kinds of thoughts that this fucker is watching my every movement. He has his eyes on me and his dirty ass hands all over my women!
Grabbing it in my pocket I pull it out I hesatite holding the only link that I have with my baby in my plam. Bray’s voice slices though my thoughts as I contemplate all the shit that can go wrong. I don’t know this punk what if he fucks it up or they know that we have tampered with the phone. “ Konx.” Bray’s voice rings out in my ears again. Looking from the phone, the only lifeline to Blue, then up to him, “ Knox Ortiz is the best you can trust him.” He says his tone full of truth. “ I wouldn’t have him if he wasn’t, I want her back as much as you do.” Noding at him I hand the phone over to Ortiz cranking out my neck before I drop it into his open plam. “ You fuck this up and I’ll kill you.” I say to him, vemon falling into the small dark room. The only light is coming from the computer screens and the desk lamps, Otriz just nods as I watch his adams apple bobble in his throat standing at the back of his chair I watch him like a hawk Bray leans in, asking him in a hushed voice if he has any info on Mission Raven. Who and what the fuck is Mission Raven? I pulled up a chair. I try to hear what is being said but can’t make out much. I notice that he looks pained, tired. Ortiz shakes his head, clearing his throat looking over at me he states,“You're being tracked too, brother see? He’s holding up a small black chip with a pair of tweezers. I scoot closer, heart hammering with rage.
“Right now, what?” I ask at their blank stares. I’m an MMA fighter this technology shit’s so not up my alley.
“Now we let the games begin,” he says.
Raising one eyebrow at him, I lay back in the chair placing my hands behind my head. “Now you’re talking.” My eyes are laced in an evil smirk. Playing games is what I do best.
Chapter Thirteen
Blue
Drip, drip, drip, drip. It’s the only constant noise, I hear apart from the sobs that come from God knows where. I have lost all sense of time and day, it hurts my heart listening to the sobbing of these people, women, or girls, I’m unsure. I do know that this drip is doing my fucken head in.
How many of us are down here? I can hear the click-clack of locks and keys, footsteps sounding, loud voices, more screaming and crying. What are they doing to these girls? Being chained to the wall doesn’t help the situation either. I want to walk, move, think. I want a chance to use my blade, but this will be why they have chained me, so I can’t cut them again. Given the chance this time, I’ll do more than cut them, I’ll kill the bastards.
The day turns into dark, the walls flicker with the white of the moon coming in through the barred window. I watch it dance over the walls, listening to the sobs of the souls here. I close my eyes wishing that I could slip away, crumble to the nothingness that I now feel sitting down here with the crying and dripping. It is kissing the edge of my sanity.Calling out, I ask for her, his angel, to come and stand by me. To give me some hope that I am still alive and not insane. I’m not too sure anymore.
Slipping into a cold, dark sleep, I’m awoken by the sound of my door being unlocked and footsteps entering my room. A small lantern lights up his features and my skin crawls at the sight of him. The knots in the bottom of my empty stomach tighten.
“Junkie love, I have a treat for you.” The words fall from his mouth covered in the stench of lies. Looking away from him I try to pull myself deeper into the ratty jacket that barely covers me as he grips me by my hair, pulling a handful of it back so tight that the pain burns through my soul, causing my eyes to water. Taking a deep breath and letting it out painfully slow, I make eye contact with this viper.
“Let go of me, I’m not yours to touch” I spit.
An evil smile spreads across his face,“ah you see, baby, you are mine. Look around, junkie love, you see anyone here to save you?”
“I don’t need saving. I’m quite capable of doing it myself. You and your monkeys have had first-hand experience baby,” I let the baby roll off my tongue a little longer, with a slight drawl to mark my pure hate for him. Ripping my head back, he grabs me around my throat in a vice-like grip crushing my windpipe. I feel the air slip out, willing the sweet abyss of an unconscious state as my body is slipping away, my legs thrash out in instinct as my body fights for air. My mind doesn’t want, it wants to leave, to float away from here and the horror that is to come.
Just before the sweet black spots hit the edges of my eyes, I see him lift up the syringe and push the gold liquid out through the top. My mouth watered as my eyes bulged. NO, NO, NO, NO I’m screaming in my head as he comes towards me, then nothing but darkness.
Once upon a time, the sky knew the weight of angel armies on the move,
And the wind blew infernal with fire on their wings.
We are coming, Blue. zwe are going to stand with you to fight, push Blue and pull yourself back. I hear her chanting over and over in the darkness, the sting of the needle piercing my skin than the whoosh of liquid as it gets slammed into my veins. I feel it swimming through my blood, the free feeling of floating on a cloud washes over me. I’m spiraling in the dark, back into a drug-filled state of lost hope and broken dreams. He’s winning this war by playing dirty, by filling me with the one thing I can’t stop or say no to. Just one taste of her sweet kiss and I’m undone, falling back down into her grasp and bending over his demands for one more night with junkie love. The torment of pleasing his men and dancing will be next. Beating upon beatings, men upon dirty men. I will fight, I will, after I claw back out from this sweet spot he has placed me in, punishing my body and senses. I can’t go back to this, to what he makes me, this dirty junkie selling her soul for one more sweet kiss of a needle filled with the liquid gold of her soul, of broken promises and false retreats. An abyss of fake love and washed up dreams.
The ghosts of this past torment have always been there, and it took just one hit for him to bring them back, bring me to my knees begging, gagging, for more. I hear him, them, this dirty air over my face. Wake up, junkie love, you can’t run from the shadows, but you can invite them to dance. I’ll kill a thousand men before I let this one make me his slave again. I will not flinch or waver. I shall stay silent until he leaves then I shall pull the light into this darkness and fight until I have to ride out on the wings of fake love.
I think of a lady as I hear a voice at the back of my mind, it’s my mother. “A woman's mind is her greatest weapon,” she would tell me throughout my life. “Think like a lady it will be the last thing they expect from you given where you’re from.” Well Momma, fuck that, I don’t want to think like a lady. I want to lure men to their death, these men. Viper will pay for what they have done and are about to do to my broken soul. I will release the demon, it’s so hard to hold back. I’ll lose control, nothing but the kiss of a needle will stop me and now that I’ve had her back into my veins, I shall kill before he brings her back in again.
“No one expects an Angel to set the world on fire, Blue, you need to be their Angel, so they will untie you. Then you rain fire upon them.” I hear her all night or day, I’m confused as to what’s what. I’ve been under this blanket of confusion and dark kisses in the night for too long. I no longer register with the reality of this world. But she’s there, I hear her, feel her, she’s a soft touch that comes after the coarse burn of their hands.
Pulling myself up from the painful position they had left me in and leaning my back against the cold wet walls of this hell hole, I look around and see I’m alone, unchained now from the ones around my wrists. Just the one on my ankle remain. Rubbing my hands over the itch, mixed with the burn left from the needles, I see the tell-tale sign of many injection holes. Disbelief mixed with anger, sadness, and disgust wash over me. I let my body down. I let him take me to the one place I vowed I couldn’t, wouldn’t, go back to. I’m fighting a war with him, the needle and my own fucked up senses. The tug of war against ‘you want it, you don’t want it.’
K
nox, where are you? I need you more than I thought I would,I said it over and over that I had this shit covered that I could handle Viper.. I thought I could do this alone, bring him down, but in reality, I was downplaying it, playing cool because I knew once he had me I was done. The walls I had built are not bulletproof, not when it comes to Viper and the kiss of junkie love.
Standing unsteadily, I walk to the barred window. I look out, standing on tiptoes as far as this chain will allow. I see that it's daybreak, the sun kisses hello to the moon rising out to graze the world with her heat for a new day.I see dirt, dust and bikes, a lot of bikes. My heart stops beating for a few ticks then it jumps back to its normal fucked up hum, I knew it! I knew he hadn’t taken me back to Dublin! I hadn’t felt the flight just the floating on the kiss of the needle.
Where does he have me? I vow to know. Then my heart sinks, maybe Knox won’t come if he’s gone to Dublin? Then I’m alone. On my own to fuck this punk up and remove him and his bitches from this Earth. Losing myself in my thoughts for revenge, I pull my hair backup tight in an attempt to tidy my drugged and dirty body up, securing the blade nicely, I shall need that bad boy soon.
Pacing back and forth from the small window as far as the chains take me, I try to walk out the need for junkie love, the itch for her is strong. The taste sits at the back of my throat. I’m in need, all it took was one hit, I think there was more but I’ve been out, and the marks say he’s visited me more than once. Could I have been that drugged that I didn’t even realize he was filling me up? I have to admit that I do no longer feel me. I no longer feel pain or sadness. I’m lost, dark empty. I’m the way he wants me, this much I know.
Falling down to my knees, I pick at the sores on my arms, trying as hard as I can to pick the itch out of me to no avail. It’s a battle closing my eyes. I try to listen hard to what’s going on around me outside these walls. If there’s that many bikes, we have to be somewhere popular, an MC maybe? but whose? Where? That is the question. Could this be another MC pad here in New York? I know we didn’t travel to far from the Reapers. Has he roped in another chapter here to help him? If so that means that he has been watching me and the Reapers for a while now. Reality hits me like a bucket of ice cold water waking me up as the bile rises in my stomach I’m fucked! Sickness laced with anger washes over me at the weight of this realization this here could be the home of the nomad Lone Wolfs and we all know how much they hate the Reapers! Shit they will have eyes all over the Reaper’s compound and ears inside they are great at dressing up as wolfs in sheep’s clothing!
Fractured Promises (Reapers Reign, #2) Page 19