Plain Jane and the Bad Boy (Plain Jane Series)

by Tmonique Stephens

  Liam had the fucker on the ground before anyone thought about blinking. “Where. Is. She?” His fist punctuated each word. Hands grabbed him but he pushed them off and kept swinging, each punch landing on flesh. An arm wrapped around his throat, another twisted his arms behind his back, and hauled him off the bastard.

  “Easy, Liam. We can’t kill him, yet,” Mack whispered in his ear.

  The rational part of Liam’s brain knew that. The rest of him wanted blood. He surged forward again.

  Mack tightened his hold. “You itching to do a bid?”

  For this, fuck yeah. He’d do the time, gladly. But Mack was right, he couldn’t kill anyone. He’d have to wait ’til after Vivi and Sabrina were safe, then he’d hunt every one of them down. No one fucked with what was his, what belonged to him. And he’d make sure they all understood that, in blood.

  As Mack held him back, another Dragon carefully climbed out of the driver’s seat with his hands raised. Smart choice with at least ten guns aimed at his head.

  Leaning on a cane, Finlay hobbled through the crowd. “Why are yae here?” said in an oddly reasonable voice given all teetered on the brink of violence.

  The driver stopped in front of his fellow Dragon bleeding on Mayhem asphalt. With the tip of his boot, he nudged the guy into a seated position and waited until he climbed onto his feet. “We ain’t here for any trouble.”

  Finlay laughed, not an ounce of humor in his voice. “That’s not how yae start this convo.”

  “We came for the mother.”

  Liam bucked against the men holding him back. They had Vivi. He’d be damned if they took Sabrina too.

  “What do you want with them?” Finlay demanded.

  The patch shrugged. “Not our story to tell.”

  Finlay tipped his head to the Mayhem closest to the Dragon piece of shit. The patch pressed the barrel of a 9mm to the Dragon’s temple. “Is it your story now?”

  “Let go of me and let me through!” Sabrina barreled her way out of the club with Willa barely hanging on. She spotted the Dragon member and screamed, “Do you have my baby?”

  “Yes, ma’am. Come with me and I’ll take you to her.” He held out his hand.

  Without a second goddamned thought, she went to him. Half the Mayhem held her back. The rest rushed to fill the gap between her and the Black Dragon. Liam broke away from Mack, shoved everyone out of his way to throw her over his shoulder and carry her back into the club.

  She punched, kicked, screamed, almost slipped out of his arms, forcing him to tighten his hold until he dumped her onto the same couch he’d left her on. “Have you lost your damn mind?” he shouted.

  She leaped to her feet. “Get out of my way. I’m getting my daughter back!”

  “You go with him, then what? He lets you and Vivi go?” He latched onto her shoulders and shook her. “We don’t even know what he wants.”

  “I don’t care what he wants,” she sobbed, her eyes red, her face swollen and tearstained.

  “I do care.” He pulled her close, but she’d have none of it. She yanked away. Liam held fast. “You go. Then what? We have no idea where Vivi is. Where are they taking you? What if it’s not the same area?” The list of questions was endless.

  Sabrina didn’t want to hear them. “What happens if I don’t go? What happens if I don’t go and I never see her again? She vanishes. Someone else raises my daughter. Or worse. They k-kill her.” Her voice broke. She didn’t. Ramrod straight, she faced him down and he had no answer for her because she was right.

  And he was terrified.

  “What would you do, Liam, if that was your child out there with a k-killer? Huh? Tell me, what you would do?”

  A stab in the heart would’ve been gentler. He’d never thought of Vivi as anything other than his. It never occurred to him that she wasn’t until he knew the name of her sperm donor. What he would do was the same as what he was going to do, because Vivi was the child of his heart, even if she they didn’t share DNA.

  “I’d do whatever it took to get her back.”

  “Like I’m doing right now. I don’t have a choice, Liam.” She bit out.

  The harsh ring of truth in her words was another stab and he had no comeback.

  Finlay touched his shoulder. “She’s right, and I have a plan.”

  Liam turned to Finlay, who stood off to the side with Mack, Snoop, and the rest of the Mayhem leadership. In his hand, a small black disc. “They’re here for a reason. Only one way to find out, and only one way this is gonna go down. We can track yae. Without this, if we lose yae…”

  Liam took it from Finlay’s palm, and flipped it back and forth. “It’s a locator.”

  “We gotta protect our interest.” His gaze possessive.

  Drugs, guns, etc. Thoughtfully, he stroked the smooth surface. This could work…except, “What if they scan her?”

  “We turn it on in bursts,” Mack said. “Every fifteen minutes.”

  Sabrina plucked it from Liam’s hand. “You’d follow me.” It wasn’t a question.

  “Anywhere.”

  She held it up, studied it, then grasped it like it was a lifeline. “Can I turn it off and on?” Finlay nodded. “The Black Dragons aren’t stupid. They’re going to search me with one of those wand thingies. I’ve seen them do that. If they find it, and then hurt Vivi…” Her voice ended on a whimper.

  Liam pulled her into his arms, helpless to ease her pain. Telling her it was going to be all right was pointless and a lie. He had no idea of the outcome and that terrified him.

  Finlay spoke up. “Put it someplace they won’t search.”

  She grimaced and shook her head.

  “They’re gonna do that anyway. This device gives both of you a chance,” Finlay insisted, and he wasn’t wrong. Liam hated it, but Finlay was dead on. This was their only chance and that’s exactly what he told her. The time to mince words was over. If this was there only option, then they all had to commit to it.

  Clutching the disk, she went into the bathroom and returned thirty seconds later, her blouse untucked. He wanted to ask, but didn’t. She passed him and stormed through the clubhouse. No one said a word. They got out of her way. She halted at the front door. Liam pulled up short, right behind her. Her entire body visibly trembled. He reached out to her, to tell her she wasn’t alone. He was here, with her in body and in spirit, wherever she went. The hell she was in, she wasn’t alone. He was right beside her.

  Sabrina spun and launched herself into his arms. “I love you.” Lips meshed, tongues tangled. The end. It was over, and she was through the door, leaving his arms empty. Liam rushed out the door in time to watch her climb into the Civic and drive away.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  “Where is my daughter?” Sabrina demanded the second her butt hit the seat. The Dragon ignored her and shifted into drive. He could’ve been driving one hundred miles per hour or ten. The world blurred, all except him. “I said, where is my daughter?”

  “Shut up, bitch.” His gaze darted between the side mirror and the rearview mirror. His hands gripped the wheel like a lifeline.

  To hell with that. “You’re taking me to Vivi.”

  “I said I was, didn’t I. Now shut the fuck up and let me concentrate.” His gaze remained on the rearview mirror.

  She spun in the seat. Liam’s Hemi followed three cars back. The distinctive grill was unmistakable. Seeing it, knowing he was there, calmed her. She wasn’t alone.

  “Your boyfriend’s gonna get your kid killed.”

  Her heart fisted along with her hands. “You need me. That’s the only reason you’re here and your member is bloody in the backseat. You hurt my kid, there’s no place you can hide.”

  “You think he’s gonna save you. Think we didn’t think of someone following.” He snorted as he rolled up to a red light—and blew right through it. “Well, we did.” Driving like a maniac, he covered five blocks in record time and turned into a packed parking garage. Every single light was out. The tires
crunched over broken glass. His headlights on high.

  Head on a swivel, she studied every car and every shadow. Nothing moved as they climbed higher, level after level, dark car after dark car, not even a glow from an emergency light broke the gloom, until a car door opened at the end of the last lane and an interior light flicked on. Vivi!

  Not waiting for the car to stop, she grabbed the handle. The door wouldn’t budge until she remembered to press the lock. The driver snagged her shirt as she rushed out of the vehicle. She threw an elbow back at him and connected with his nose. “Bitch!” he groaned.

  A hard yank and her shirt ripped. None of that stopped her from striding across the concrete. “Give me my daughter!”

  Razor stepped out into her path and pointed at the car he exited. “Your daughter’s waiting for you.”

  Heart in her throat, she couldn’t get to the rear door fast enough. From the window she could see a car seat and a blue and white blanket covering a little body. “Mommy’s here, baby.” Desperate, Sabrina ripped open the door and reached for Vivi… Except, it was a doll. A plastic doll in the car seat. Not her Vivi.

  She whipped around—and a fist met her temple.

  ∞∞∞

  Liam didn’t wait for the green light either. He went up on the sidewalk, clipped a metal garbage can, bounced over the curb and cut through traffic. By the grace of the Almighty or plain dumb lucky, he barreled through the intersection.

  “Where did they go?” he demanded from Mack, who rode shotgun, and Jay in the rear.

  “I got two eyes just like you,” Mack shouted over screeching tires and blaring horns. “I have no idea where they vanished.” Strapped into the passenger seat, he was Liam’s ride or die, and tonight, he may just prove it. “And nothing from the locator,” he answered before Liam asked the question.

  “Educated guess, dammit!” Liam swerved around cars moving too slow.

  “They don’t own any property close to here, so your guess is as good as mine.” On the next block, five identical black Honda Civics drove out of a parking garage. Each headed in a different direction. “What the fuck,” Mack muttered, which summed up the situation better than anything Liam would’ve said.

  Liam picked the nearest one to follow.

  “How do you know she’s in there? And if she is, that defeats the purpose to getting the kid back.” No seatbelt on, Jay leaned between the driver’s and passenger’s seat.

  “I don’t know and you’re right, but this is all I got right now.” On the half empty streets, Liam barely kept pace with the tricked-out Civic. Once it hit the highway, there was no way his Hemi would keep up.

  “You don’t have shit.” Mack tightened his seatbelt.

  “Exactly, which is why we need a backup plan, and the piece of shit driving that Civic is it.” All he needed was to get close enough to sideswipe the car and drag the bastard out. Then, he’d beat Vivi’s location out of him.

  A minivan pulled out of a strip mall and in front of Liam at the wrong fucking moment. Either he brake or T-bone the car. A kid was behind the wheel, seventeen at most. Not a whisker on his pale chin. Eyes wide in his chubby face as he stared at the grill barreling toward him.

  Liam slammed on his brakes. His tires smoked and his back end skidded as he yanked the wheel to the left, praying he had enough motion to take him past the van. The kid helped out and put his mom’s van in reverse, and it was just enough for the two vehicles to pass like ex-lovers abruptly avoiding each other.

  By the time he corrected, the taillights of the Civic were fading in the night.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Pain spiked her temple sharp and insistent. She flinched, curled into herself and reached for the tender area on the side of her head. “Ooh,” she groaned. What happened?

  Her stomach lurched, then heaved and she had to force the vomit back down, gritting against the waves of spasms. Movement caught her attention. Was she on a boat? In a car? Slowly she peeled open her eyes to blackness. Tires on blacktop, the scent of exhaust tickling her nose, rough carpet on her cheek.

  She wasn’t in a car. She was in a trunk. They put her in a trunk. “Oh, God.” Don’t panic! Think! She wanted to bang on the trunk and barely managed not to. Better for them to think she was still unconscious and pliable rather than prepared to kill them all. For that she needed a weapon. She felt around, searching for anything, a crowbar, anything she could use to defend herself. She came up with nothing.

  The trunk release! The car had to have one. She patted around, searching for it. Again, nothing. The car had to be old if it didn’t. “I’m trapped.” The scent of exhaust grew. She coughed, hacked up a lung. Did the driver hear her? The car slowed.

  Vivi! What about my baby?

  She reached into her underwear and found the disk. Should she press it now? Later? What if they weren’t taking her to her daughter? What if… What if… She pressed the button.

  The car bounced over some railroad tracks and picked up speed again. Where was he taking her? She patted her pockets for her phone and came up with nothing. She had no idea how long she been in the car unconscious, yet suspected it hadn’t been that long. Or maybe that was wishful thinking. She held the tracker in the palm of her hand fervently praying Liam caught the signal and was on his way, otherwise—

  The car stopped. The car door creaked open and multiple footsteps echoed around the car. She shoved the tracker back in her underwear seconds before the trunk popped open. Blinded by the sudden light, she blocked the glare with her hand.

  “Get that bitch outta there.”

  Caleb, she recognized the voice. Someone grabbed her hair and dragged her out of the trunk. Her body scraped over the edge and landed hard on a concrete surface. Elbows, knees, her shoulder and hip were bruised, thankfully, not broken. Instinct had her curling in to protect her vital organs because they were going to hurt her.

  Vivi’s weak cry snapped her head up. Sabrina scrambled to her feet. A boot to her shoulder knocked her back down. Her hip landed hard. She gritted her teeth against the pain, not giving them the satisfaction of crying, or begging. She blinked until her eyes adjusted to the glare of the overhead lighting. There were five of them—Caleb, Razor, Dean, and the two patch members.

  Vivi’s cry reached her again. She looked directly at Caleb because he was the only one who mattered. “Give me my daughter.” Slowly, she rose.

  Razor lifted his foot to presumably kick her again. Caleb shoved Razor’s skinny ass to the side and stood over her. “You get your daughter when we get what we want.”

  With a determination teetering on the brink of desperation, Sabrina climbed to her feet. Her entire left side hurt. She shook off the pain and faced the men. It wasn’t hard to guess what they wanted. “All right,” she said, pouring as much sincerity into the lie.

  “Good girl.” Caleb nodded. “You pat her down?” he asked the driver.

  “Yeah. She just had her phone.” The driver tossed it to Caleb, who caught it one-handed on the fly. Then, he headed toward the rear of the structure and for the first time she got a look at the place. They were in a body shop in some type if wooden structure. With the exposed wooden trusses and scattered straw she figured she was in a modified barn. Instead of retractable doors, it had a retractable wall allowing vehicles to drive inside. A number of vehicles judging by the number of car parts and bikes littering the room.

  Razor grabbed her by the back of her neck and shoved her behind Caleb. He paused at a locked door to leer at her over his shoulder. A broken whine came from the other side. Her heart seized.

  “Please,” she sobbed on the verge of collapsing.

  Caleb took his sweet time, no rush at all, to pull a key from his pocket and slip it into the lock. The lock clicked. Another whine, another whimper. It took everything in her not to shove Caleb out of the way and tear the door off its hinges.

  Finally, the door swung open and what she saw ripped at her heart. Anna was tied to a chair on one side of the room while
Vivi crawled on the bare floor next to her. The only light in the room came from outside. Caleb had locked them in a closet—like they were animals! Vivi’s heart-shaped, tearstained face looked up at Sabrina and let out a wail that sounded like “Ma-ma.”

  Sabrina tried to claw through, go around, climb over Caleb and anyone, everyone who stopped her from getting to her child. An arm wrapped around her waist and hauled her away from her baby and Anna, who struggled against the binds holding her.

  Caleb slammed the door closed and clicked the padlock back in place. Sabrina lost her mind screaming at him to let her daughter go, pleading with him that she was just a baby and he was a monster as someone dragged her to the other side of the building.

  “Please, Caleb. Please, tell me what you want. Why did you steal my baby? I have nothing. Vincent is the one who stole your money. I had nothing to do with it!” A backhanded slap whipped her head to the side. She spit blood onto the filthy floor.

  “Boss, not the face. We need her looking pretty in the morning,” Razor said behind her.

  “Nothing some makeup won’t hide.” Caleb’s fingers dug into her jaw and brought her face to him. Lips peeled back, eyes bugging out of their sockets, spittle gathered at the corners of his mouth, she’d never seen someone so enraged. “I know Vincent stole my money. You and him are gonna get it back or I start carving pieces off your brat.”

  That made no sense. Vincent was in prison, solitary confinement was the last she’d heard. How in the hell was he supposed—her thoughts dried up when Caleb opened the door behind him.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  “They got a ping on the locator,” Mack said with the phone still pressed to his ear.