Plain Jane and the Bad Boy (Plain Jane Series)

by Tmonique Stephens

  “Where?” Liam and Jay said at the same time. Tight grip on the wheel, foot light on the gas, all Liam needed was a direction.

  “On State Road Twenty,” Mack replied.

  Liam had heard that number before yet couldn’t pinpoint why the number was so familiar. Just as his Bluetooth connected Finlay’s call, it hit him. The property that Finlay purchased from the Dragons. Liam hit the icon on his dashboard screen.

  “I know where they are!” Finlay shouted.

  “So do I.”

  “Snoop and his boys are closest. I’m sending them over.”

  Liam didn’t give a shit about Snoop and had no idea who he or his boys were. “Send me the address.” He disconnected the call and made a U-turn. SR twenty was ten miles away in the opposite direction. A text came through with the address and Mack plugged it into the GPS. It was fifty miles away. Fifty goddamned miles.

  “We’re gonna beat Snoop there,” Mack said and looked at Liam. “There’s only three of us against maybe all of the Black Dragons. I know you. You’re not gonna wait for back up. Are you?”

  “Would you wait if Willa was in danger, or your daughters?”

  Mack pulled out his gun and checked the magazine, and then calmly screwed on a suppressor. “You know how to use that, now?” Serious, because lives were on the line, Liam asked. Mack had never been a sharpshooter.

  “Spent two hours at the range a few weeks ago. Dragged Billy and Jay with me. When was the last time you spent time firing a weapon?” Mack grunted.

  Not recent enough, truth be told. But it’s something you don’t forget, not when your life depended on it.

  Jay reached over and squeezed Liam’s shoulder. No other words were necessary as Mack and Jay proceeded to check all the guns they had the presence of mind to bring along. Liam would thank them later. Right now, he remained focused on the road and the task in front of them.

  “Don’t worry. I got a plan.” A plan to get his woman and his kid back. Yeah, he was claiming both. They were his and no one took what belonged to him. Hold on, babe. I’m coming for you.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Vincent!

  Sabrina’s mind tumbled and all of the fight went out of her. She slumped in Razor’s arms and stared at the man she never thought she’d see again. In a distant part of her brain she registered his surprise and fury at her presence. She also registered that he was thinner, and pale. Solitary confinement did that to a person. And gray, at his temples and threaded through his dull brown hair.

  Then the familiar hard curl to his upper lip caught her eye. That curl always preceded a cutting remark or a brutal hand to her body. Not this time. This time he was in a four-point restraint and strapped to a chair.

  “You dumb bit—”

  He never got the chance to finish.

  Whether she broke free or Razor let her go, Sabrina laid into Vincent with a right cross that had blood flowing out of his nose. Pain shot up her arm, but she shook it off and followed up with an elbow to his cheek. She’d promised herself if she ever lay eyes on him again she’d beat the crap out of him, give him a taste of what he gave her. These punches weren’t about her, though. They were about Vivi, his child, her precious baby, locked in a fucking closet, and him being the cause of it all.

  “What did you do?” she screamed as someone hauled her away. “What the hell did you do?”

  “Look at this shit,” Caleb snarled. “The same rules that apply to her apply to him. Not the face!”

  “Sorry, Prez,” Razor said. “She got away from me.” He snagged her around the waist, hauled her to the other side of the room and dumped her in a chair and dragged it next to Vincent.

  Caleb sighed. “Get one of the ladies to bring some makeup for her.” He pointed at Sabrina then looked at Vincent. “And we need more for him too.”

  Makeup? “What the hell is going on? Why did you take my daughter? Why are we here?” She tried to keep calm, but her voice rose with the last word ending on a scream.

  Caleb leaned close enough for her to see the whiteheads hiding in his scruff. “You’re here because as soon as 9:00 a.m. on Monday rolls around, you and that asshole will walk into the bank on Fifth and Main with the fake driver’s licenses he purchased for both of you and get my fucking money out of the safety deposit box you two thieves locked it in. Otherwise, I will gut your kid in front of you and feed the bits to my dogs. You two thought you were smart having two signatures so one couldn’t steal from the other. Thought you’d wait it out, hide in plain sight with the help of Mayhem. No one steals from the Black Dragons. No. One.” The door slammed behind him after he and everyone else left without tying her up, after all, she wasn’t going anywhere without her child.

  Shocked and horror clashed inside her. For a second, she couldn’t breathe, then survival instinct forced air into her lungs. Slowly, her head cranked to her left and her gaze locked onto Vincent. The coward refused to meet her gaze. So, she waited, and waited some more, until he finally mustered the courage to look her way.

  “You have as much sense as a box of rocks,” he muttered.

  It was nothing he hadn’t said before. This time, she leaned forward, and got right in his bloody face. “What did you say?” she whispered, on the verge of wrapping her hands around his throat. Maybe they’d left her free for that purpose.

  The arrogant ass was too ignorant to take the hint. He threw a disgusted glance at her, then hung his head. “I left you fake passports for you and the kid, and cash to get out of town,” he hissed. “You should be in another country right now, hiding under a damn rock. Not in the same damn town I left you in.”

  Confused, she shook her head. “What passports? What cash?”

  His bloody lips curled off his teeth, and he gritted, “I left everything on the dresser for you to find after the verdict.”

  The dresser? “The moment they slapped handcuffs on you, I returned for the bag I hid in the garage. I never went back in that house. I didn’t know about any passports or money.” She snorted. “And even if I did know about it, I wanted nothing from you. I still don’t want anything from you.”

  “I was trying to help you.” His eyes teared up.

  Sabrina reeled back and couldn’t help laughing. “Help me? Suddenly you have a conscience? A heart? No. You are the reason Vivi and I are in this predicament, so you can take your help and shove it up your ass.”

  That lip of his remained curled. “You grew a pair of balls since I’ve been away.”

  Damn straight.

  He struggled against his binds. “You wouldn’t be so brave if I wasn’t tied up.”

  “We can test that theory once me and my child are free.” She turned away from him and refocused on the clear and present danger, which wasn’t Vincent. She had to calm down and think, find a way out of this mess. Again, she returned to the source of all her problems, AKA the turd next to her.

  Reality was a dip in a frozen pond. “There is no safety deposit box with my name on it, is there Vincent? Because I never went to a bank, sat in front of an associate, and opened an account. I never signed anything with you.”

  “I know,” he mumbled.

  Furious, she whispered, “You know… You know!” Her heart squeezed in her chest. Unfuckingbelievable! Stay calm. Stay calm. In the most reasonable voice she could muster, she asked, “If there’s no deposit box, then where is the money, Vincent?”

  His voice so low she strained to hear his words, though inches separated them. “There is no money. I burned it all at the craps table in Vegas.”

  Her eyes nearly fell out of her head. “Craps? Seventy-five thousand on craps?” she choked out.

  “Two hundred thousand.”

  A sob she couldn’t contain burst out, followed by tears flowing down her cheeks. “We’re dead. We are all dead.”

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Sabrina scrubbed her arm across her damp face and buried her anger, because anger would get her nowhere. “Are you even going to ask abou
t her?” she mumbled.

  Baleful eyes shifted her way and his brow furrowed. “Ask about who?”

  Blink. Blink. “You had better pray nothing happens to her. Pray hard, Vincent, because there isn’t a thimble you can hide under that I won’t find you and kill you.” She crossed the room to get as far away as possible before she went back on her word and killed him now. She adjusted the metal disk in her underwear.

  Liam is on his way. Liam is on his way. The mantra repeated in her brain as she rocked in a semi-catatonic state. Then what? He and Mayhem burst into the building and they all die in a blaze of glory. Maybe Vivi would survive and be left an orphan, never knowing how much she was loved. Or her baby dies too.

  Sabrina’s stomach heaved. The police, she should’ve called the police the second it happened, but would the results be the same? Would the eventual outcome be different? A silent scream exploded in her head.

  She got up and started pacing. How long had she been trapped here? With no way to tell time, she guessed an hour, maybe more. She needed Vivi and Vivi needed her. Her baby was not going to spend the night crying in the dark with no one to hold her. And if things went south, Vivi would have a body between her and the bullets.

  Sabrina went to the door and turned the knob. No surprise it was locked. She banged on the metal surface until her hand was numb. Whoever was on the other side took their sweet time answering by the slow footsteps approaching on the other side of the door. Someone fiddled with the lock and she prayed it wasn’t Razor on the other side.

  Caleb opened the door.

  “I need to see my baby. Please. I need to hold her. Please. She’s just a baby. Just a terrified baby. I won’t try anything. I swear on her life. I just want to hold her. She has to be hysterical by now, traumatized. Please, please, please. I’m begging you.”

  Something flickered in the depths of his eyes and he moved aside to let her out of the room. She scooted past him without a backward glance at Vincent. Caleb slapped his hand to the back of her neck and forced her in front of him. This was how he directed her through the building to the locked door on the other side of the room.

  She took note of the same four men who watched her passively as they played dice. Caleb stopped at the door. He unlocked the padlock and again, she braced for what they would find on the other side.

  Her heart broke. Anna was still tide to the chair while Vivi lay on the filthy ground next to her, her little arm circling Anna’s ankle. Anna squinted at the sudden light flooding the room, but Vivi didn’t move.

  Sabrina rushed forward and scooped Vivi off the floor. She clutched her tight to her chest, hysteria one sob away. Vivi stirred and opened her eyes. She saw her mother and gave a hoarse cry.

  “It’s okay. I’ve got you now. Mama’s here.” She spotted the baby bag tossed in a corner of the room. Sabrina scooted over to it and, thankfully, found a bottle of milk. Vivi quieted and Sabrina turned her attention to Anna. Other than tied to a chair, Anna seemed okay. No visible bruises, no blood, though she was a sweat, filthy mess.

  Caleb had left them and left the door open. He knew she wasn’t going anywhere with a baby. That didn’t stop her from removing Anna’s gag. “I’m sorry,” Anna croaked.

  Sabrina shook her head. “This is my fault, completely. I—my past got you in this fucked-up situation.”

  Anna licked her lips and sighed. “I’ve been in worse.”

  Sabrina reared back. “What?”

  “I was born in El Salvador. The civil war there killed entire villages, including mine. I hid in the jungle listening to the screams, until the killing finally stopped, then I walked for days to the nearest town. The Red Cross got me out of the country to family in America. These men don’t scare me.” A wan smile flitted across her lips.

  Anna was braver than Sabrina, because she was terrified. Once they discovered Vincent’s ultimate deception, their lives were forfeit. Nothing would save any of them. “I-I’m gonna go to the bathroom, see if I can get a sense of the place, see if we can come up with a plan.” Which was better than them sitting here waiting to die.

  She scooted around behind Anna. “Let me get you untied so you can hold Vivi while I—”

  “Don’t bother. They zip tied me. Unless you have a knife, I’m not going anywhere.”

  Not only was she zip tied, but the plastic had dug into her skin, leaving a bloody line that had to hurt. Anna hadn’t given up. Sabrina squeezed Anna’s swollen fingers. “I’ll get you out of here. I promise,” she said in a broken whisper.

  “Save Vivi. That’s who you worry about,” she growled, fierce determination on her face. “I’ve lived a good life. If it’s my time, then I go with God. You save yourself and your baby. You understand?”

  Through the tears blurring her eyes, Sabrina nodded once.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Liam pulled off the road a mile away from the GPS destination. He climbed out of the truck and followed Mack and Jay to the duffle bag in the flat bed.

  “I got more goodies for us.” Mack unzipped the bag and showed off five Colt LE6920s, which was impressive enough. Liam liked the weapon, it wasn’t military issue, but he’d fired the weapon at a gun show a few times. What really impressed him was the Remington 700 sniper rifle in a separate case. He wasn’t a sniper, but he didn’t plan on taking a shot a thousand yards away. He freed the Remington from its case and started checking it.

  “That’s mine, buddy.” Jay took the Remington from his hands.

  Huh? His gaze swung to Mack, who stood there with no comment. “Since when?”

  “About a year,” Jay answered. “I stumbled upon it at a range. Gunsmith let me have a go at one. Turns out”—he cocked his head and stuck his hand out—“I got a knack for it.”

  Mack snorted and grabbed a weapon. “’Bout time you’re good at something because you suck at everything else, especially carpentry.” He nudged Liam. “Keep digging, there’s more at the bottom.”

  Night goggles, ammo, wickedly sharp knives, and two bulletproof vests. Liam took one for himself and handed the other to Mack. Time to rock and roll. They armored up, extra ammo in pockets, a couple of knives strapped to his body, and the Colt. Liam slipped the goggles on, then moved quickly through the surrounding woods. Rain started, first a sprinkle then quickly increased to a steady drizzle. Liam counted it a blessing. The rain would help camouflage their approach.

  Halfway there, his phone buzzed.

  FIVE MINUTES OUT. FINLAY.

  Liam fired off a response telling Finlay where he parked and to signal when they came up on their six.

  The three of them kept moving through the silent woods with Liam in the lead and Jay beside him. Unlike Mack and Liam, Jay had been here before. He’d scouted the area with another member before Finlay purchased it.

  “The property should be over the next ridge,” Jay murmured and moved in front of Liam.

  Liam blocked him and pointed to the ground. He dropped to his haunches and carefully reached out. “Trip wire.”

  “Those motherfuckers,” Mack growled.

  A foot away he found the explosives. The amount wouldn’t blow up the woods.

  “We can use it as a diversion.” Liam stepped over the wire and watched the other two do the same.

  Slipping and sliding on the wet leaves and grass, they peered over the ridge. There lay a single building in a clearing and the gravel road leading up to it. A Civic, a Silverado, and three bikes were parked inside.

  At least five Black Dragons were there, probably more. Whatever the total, they were all inside. But for how long? As they studied the building, the retractable front wall lowered.

  “I can set up here. Good line of sight. Pick them off as the come out.” Jay stretched out and set up the Remington.

  Liam watched him and couldn’t find fault with his process. Shit, even if he did wasn’t like he could trade him in for a replacement. Plus, it was a good plan. They needed a better one.

  “Get your phones out. Make
sure you have a signal.” Everyone cupped there phones, shielding the light they emitted. All had a couple of bars. “I’m gonna circle the building to see if there’s another entry point. Wait for my text to trip the wire. When they come running, you two take them out.” Liam handed Mack a stick. “Toss it at the wire and be ready. Jay, stay here where it’s safe. We have the vests, you don’t.” He waited for Jay to nod and then headed down.

  Mack grabbed his arm before Liam got far and squeezed. Liam looked at Mack and no other words were necessary.

  Liam made his way around the ridge and took the long way around the property. He found other wires and took the time to cut them. The last thing he wanted was Mayhem injured out here. Sparse lighting around the property helped his stealth approach until a flash of lightning illuminated the entire landscape. He hit the ground next to the truck and didn’t move as the door to the structure opened. Voices were close by, yet their words were lost in the patter of rain hitting the ground.

  The building had no awning to hide under and chitchat. It only took a few seconds for the voices to retreat and the metal door to slam shut. On the other side someone engaged the lock. Going through the front door was now impossible without alerting everyone to their presence.

  Liam eased around the car, his gaze on the structure, not the dark woods at his back. He trusted Mack and Jay. A quick glance confirmed no one lingered outside. He made a dash for the side of the building and made it, skidding to a stop next to the side.

  No windows or doors on this side, he continued to the rear, his Glock with the silencer leading the way. If he did encounter someone, they needed to die without alerting anyone inside. A quick peek around corner showed no one there, plus a back door and a small window. A window too small for an adult to fit through, even though it was open a crack. Damn.

  He ducked below the window and made his way to the door. He took out his phone before he touched the handle and typed READY.

  “Don’t get fucking ideas. You ain’t skinny enough to fit through that window, and if I catch you trying, I will make it painful for you. I can do a lot of damage to you without touching your face.” Flesh hitting metal echoed.