“Logan,” he heard Vin say and he snapped out of the dark haze he’d been in. “He’ll be okay. He knows how to take care of himself and he’s got someone worth coming home to. He’s not going to take any risks.”
Logan forced himself to nod, then tried to push away that cold feeling that had settled in the pit of his stomach. They’d told Vin about Sam the night Logan and Vin had met. Dom’s brother had been on instant alert when he learned of Savannah’s assault and then raging when he was told about the fire and shooting. He asked them a barrage of questions about the investigation and the security measures Dom had taken. Between Dom, Vin and the men on their team, Logan knew he couldn’t have asked for a better group of people to keep him and his family safe.
Dom came out of the gas station. “He says Reynolds has been in here almost every week for the past couple of years, but stopped suddenly a few months ago.”
“After he was injured in the fire,” Logan said.
“The fucker was here this morning,” Dom said with a smile.
“We’re close,” Logan said, relief mixed with anticipation.
Dom closed his arm around Logan’s shoulder to give him a comforting squeeze. “I’ll check with Desi to see if she’s made any progress.” Dom reached for his phone, but before he could dial, it rang in his hand. Logan glanced at it and then froze when he saw Shane’s name come up. Dom looked up at Logan, then answered the phone, putting it on speaker.
“Shane?”
“Dom?” Logan felt his heart drop when he heard Savannah crying in the background. Shane’s voice was filled with fear.
“What’s going on Shane?” Dom asked, his voice calm and firm. All three of them huddled around the phone so they could hear.
“He’s got Riley, Dom. Sam’s got Riley!”
Chapter 15
Dom heard a choking sound escape Logan at Shane’s words, but he forced himself to ignore him and said, “Talk to me, Shane. Tell me what happened.”
“Jesus,” he heard Shane say as he tried to collect himself. His breathing was harsh. “Um, he sent Savannah a picture. I don’t know how he got her fucking number!” Shane nearly shouted.
“Tell me about the picture,” Dom commanded.
“It’s a picture of Riley and some kid.”
Dom’s heart sank and he saw Logan bend over like he might be sick.
“They’re both tied up or handcuffed or something.”
“Send me the picture now.”
“Yeah, okay,” Shane said as he fumbled with what Dom assumed was Savannah’s phone.
Dom looked up at Vin. “Call Desi and see if she can trace the number that sent the picture. And find out what the hell happened to Raul – he was covering Riley and Eli this morning! Logan,” he said. He watched as Logan pushed back his fear and emotion and swiftly stood. “Give Vin Savannah’s number.”
Dom turned his attention back to the phone and saw the message come in from Shane.
“I sent it,” Shane stammered.
Dom pulled up the picture and forced down the fury that went through him at the sight of Riley and Eli bound to some kind of pole. They were sitting on what looked like a cement floor, their arms secured behind them. Their terror was clear, but they appeared to be uninjured otherwise.
“Jesus,” he heard Logan say as he looked at the picture.
“We got it, Shane. Where’s Gabe?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” Shane said. “We got the picture and called you.” They could hear Savannah’s sobs grow closer and Dom assumed Shane was moving back towards her.
“Savannah!” Logan yelled as he took the phone from Dom.
“Logan?” she cried.
“We’ll find them!” he said. “I swear to God, we’ll find them.”
“This is my fault,” he heard her cry.
Dom took the phone back from him. “Savannah, you listen to me! This is not your fault. Do you hear me?” He heard Savannah sniff, but she didn’t respond. “Honey, I need you to calm down, okay?”
“Okay,” she managed to force out.
Vin returned, his dark eyes grim.
“Shane, hold on a second, okay?”
“Yeah,” Shane said.
Dom muted the phone.
“Desi’s seeing if she can trace the phone. I talked to Cade. He said that Raul was escorting Riley and Eli back to the car near the shopping center. He must have seen the bomb strapped to the exhaust before they got in and managed to cover Riley and Eli with his body when it was detonated.”
“Fuck!” Dom yelled, his control snapping. Logan closed his hand around Dom’s arm.
“Is he okay?” Logan asked.
“He’s in surgery – he got hit with a lot of shrapnel. After the bomb went off it was complete chaos. A witness said Riley and Eli were both dazed by the blast and he saw what he thought was a Good Samaritan helping them. This shit happened almost two hours ago, Dom. Cade just got the news when the cops discovered the car was registered to us.”
“Oh God,” Logan said. “He’s had them for two hours?”
Dom felt the panic gnawing at him and he struggled to think. He took the phone off mute. “Shane, you still there?” he said.
“We’re here,” he said quietly. Soft cries came from nearby then suddenly there was a loud ringtone coming through the phone.
“Oh my God,” Dom heard Savannah cry.
“Fuck. Oh God, Fuck,” Shane said. “It’s him. Dom, it’s him. He’s calling Savannah’s phone. He’s trying to video chat with her!”
“Get Desi on it,” Dom snapped at Vin, but he was already dialing and stepping back.
“Shane, Savannah, listen to me. You have to answer it. Savannah has to answer it and keep him on the line so we can track him!”
“No!” Shane yelled.
An instant later he heard Savannah say, “I’ll do it!” and he heard them scuffle.
“No fucking way!” Shane said again.
“Shane, listen to me. I know you want to protect her, but we need her to do this!” A few long seconds passed.
“Tell her what she needs to do, Dom,” Shane said quietly.
“Savannah, draw him out. Keep him talking. Make sure it’s only you in the frame. Answer now before he hangs up.”
“Hello?” he heard Savannah say.
Vin reappeared and Dom muted the phone once more. Vin held up his phone and Dom sucked in a breath at the sight of Riley and Eli crying as they sat huddled together. They could hear Sam’s voice as he screamed at Savannah. He felt Logan’s hand grab his arm for support.
“Desi was able to tap into Savannah’s phone. We can see everything, but they can’t hear or see us. She started the track on his phone.”
“You fucking bitch!” they heard Sam yell.
“Sam,” Savannah tried to say, her voice shaking.
“Look what you made me do!” Sam shouted as a beefy finger came into the shot and pointed at Riley and Eli.
“Please Sam, don’t hurt them!”
Logan’s nails were biting into Dom’s arm where he still held onto him and all the blood had drained from his face.
“Dom, we got it!” Vin said as a message popped up on his phone with coordinates.
Sam was still railing at Savannah as the three of them climbed into Vin’s SUV and tore out of the parking lot. Dom pulled up the location on his phone. “Three miles,” he said to Vin. “Turn right up here.”
“You fucking bitch! Do you know what I did for you? How I looked out for your brother for you?” he screamed. “That piece of shit bar was nothing until I showed him how to run it! I did that for you!”
Dom looked at Logan who was sitting in the back seat. His elbows were on his knees and he was cradling his head in hands as if he was in physical pain.
“And then you let that pretty boy fuck you!”
The video stayed on Riley and Eli, but the image started to jump more and more as Sam’s agitation grew.
“Do you like having him fuck that tight little
cunt of yours, Savannah? Does it feel as good as when I was inside of you?”
“Fuck,” he heard Vin mutter.
“Next left, Vin,” Dom said. “Hang in there, Savannah,” he whispered, though he knew she couldn’t hear him.
“I’ll come home, Sam. I swear. I’ll get on a plane right now and I’ll meet you anywhere you want.”
“Liar,” Sam said, his voice dangerously calm now.
Suddenly the phone shifted and they heard Eli shout “Don’t you fucking touch us!” A second later Riley cried out in pain. The image went back to her and Eli, but Riley was laying on the floor, her eyes closed, blood dripping from a gash over her eye. Eli was cursing Sam as he struggled to get free.
“Lie to me again Savannah and I’ll kill them before the words even finish leaving those pretty lips of yours.”
Dom heard Savannah start sobbing again. “I’m sorry, Sam,” she said. “Tell me what you want.”
“I want you to answer my question,” he snarled.
“No, Sam. It doesn’t feel as good as it did when it was you,” Savannah said shakily. She added. “You were my first, Sam. You remember that, right?”
Dom cast a glance at Logan who was rocking back and forth now and he could see the tears on his face. He was going to rip Sam limb from fucking limb when he found him.
“This is it, Vin,” he said, pointing at the gravel driveway.
“I remember,” Sam whispered, his voice softening as if he were talking to lover. Dom knew at that point the man had snapped and his unpredictability made him more dangerous than ever. Suddenly the image changed and they saw Sam’s face as he swapped the screen so Savannah would be able to see him instead of Riley and Eli. “I miss you, baby,” he said.
Vin slowed the SUV as the house came into view. It sat near the base of a slight hill and just as Sam had told Elena, there was a lake behind the house. The white farmhouse was completely dilapidated, its paint faded in some spots, completely stripped in others. There was a wraparound porch that was probably a pretty place to sit at some point in the past, but now it was covered in thick vines and the stairs leading up to it were torn or missing. Nearly all of the windows were boarded up and the only one that wasn’t had what looked like a sheet covering it.
Next to the house was a big shed, the bright red vinyl siding a stark contrast to the house. It looked nearly new and in front of the sliding door was a broken down van. The side door was open.
“There,” Dom said.
Sam was still talking to Savannah, but his tone changed suddenly and he said, “He’s there with you, isn’t he, Savannah?”
Dom grabbed his gun from the waistband of his pants, then the second one he had strapped to his ankle.
“Logan!” he shouted and the other man instantly snapped his eyes up. He shoved the second gun into Logan’s hand. “We need to go now!”
All three of them climbed out of the SUV. Dom pointed at the gun. “Safety’s off. That fucker comes towards you, you point this at his chest and pull the trigger until the gun is empty.” He didn’t give Logan a chance to respond before he was running up the driveway, Vin several yards ahead of him.
“I told you not to lie to me,” he heard Sam yell and then everything went silent as the call disconnected. Adrenaline flooded his system as he heard what sounded like Eli screaming, then silence. He managed to catch up to Vin as they reached the shed door. They cleared the first section where another car sat, then moved to a smaller room in the back. Logan was right behind him as they pulled the door open. They could hear what sounded like metal striking stone.
The first thing Dom saw when they breached the door was the blood splattered on the walls. His heart dropped at the sight, then relief went through him at the sight of Eli still struggling against his bonds. Riley remained on the floor, but he didn’t see any additional injuries.
“Jesus,” he heard Vin mutter and then the man was moving.
Sam’s body lay lifeless on the floor, blood pooling beneath him from what used to be his face. A young woman stood above him in a yellow dress, her long red-brown hair shifting up and down her back as she brought a metal pipe down over and over on Sam’s crushed head. She was covered in blood spatter and gore, but she kept striking Sam even though he was long gone.
“Stop,” he heard Vin say as he grabbed the young woman’s arm and pulled the pipe from her hands. She struggled against him as he gripped her arms, then suddenly passed out.
Dom ran to Riley’s side and dropped down to check her injuries while Logan checked on Eli.
“Vin, cuffs!” Dom said to Vin when he saw the handcuffs on Riley’s wrists.
Vin shifted the girl in his arms and searched Sam’s pockets, then tossed him the key. He released Riley from the cuffs, then threw the key to Logan. He checked Riley’s pulse and sighed in relief at the flutter beneath his fingers. The injury over her eye looked nasty, but it wasn’t life threatening.
“She hit her head,” Eli said as Logan worked to get him free of the cuffs. “He was trying to hit me! She was protecting me and she got hit instead and she fell,” Eli cried as tears streamed down his face. “Is she okay?”
Logan got the cuffs off and Eli scrambled to Riley’s side.
“Logan, call 911. The address is 510 Sycamore.”
Logan was dialing before he even finished saying the address. Dom pulled out his own phone and hit the speed dial. As the phone rang, he carefully moved Riley’s head to check the other injury. There was a wound just above her temple and blood dripped slowly out of it.
“Cade,” he said when the other man answered.
“Yeah.”
“We found them. Get Gabe down here as soon as you can. Tell him she’s okay,” he said.
“Is she?” Cade asked quietly.
“Not sure. She’s unconscious. But don’t tell him that,” he said.
“Got it.”
“Have Trevor find Mariana – Eli’s okay, but he’ll need to get checked out at the hospital. I’ll call you once I know where we’re headed.”
“On it.” The line disconnected.
Dom looked at Logan who was finishing up with 911. “Call Savannah and Shane. Tell them they’re okay, but nothing more,” he said and Logan nodded stiffly, his eyes flashing with pain as he looked down at Riley. “Make the call Logan,” Dom said softly.
“Vin, how is she?” Dom asked his brother.
“She’s still out, but her breathing’s good. Marks on her wrists and ankles – he may have had her tied up too.”
“He called her Mia,” Eli said. Dom and Vin both looked at him.
“Sam did?” Dom asked.
Eli nodded as he dashed at the tears that were finally starting to slow. “He was pointing his gun at us. None of us saw her come in, but when he pointed the gun at us she hit him with the pipe. He seemed surprised and called her Mia and then she hit him again. And then she just kept hitting him,” he finished, his voice wavering when his eyes fell on Sam’s gruesome remains.
“Mia,” he heard Vin say as he tried to rouse her. A second later he heard Vin curse. “She’s got some type of collar on her.”
Logan ended his call and reached down to touch Riley’s face. “I’ll stay with her,” he said as he motioned to Vin. Dom was insanely proud of the strength in Logan’s voice and wished he could just put everything on pause so he could take him in his arms. Logan seemed to sense his thoughts because he sent him a small smile.
Dom sidled up to Vin. “He rigged it somehow,” Vin said as he fingered the collar. The buckle had been soldered so that it couldn’t be easily removed. “Hold her,” Vin said as he pulled out a knife and carefully worked it through the plastic. The collar broke and Vin gently pulled it off to reveal a long, infected lesion that went around her whole neck where the plastic had dug in. Two small, circular wounds that almost looked like burns were on one side of her throat.
“What the hell?” Vin said and then he froze and suddenly turned the collar over. Two small metal prong
s stuck out from a square shaped box. “Fucking son of a bitch! It’s a shock collar,” he snarled. “The kind they use on dogs to keep them from crossing an invisible fence or barking too much!”
Dom closed his eyes and wished to God the woman had left Sam alive so that he could wrap his hands around the man’s throat and watch the life seep out of him. He felt Vin take the woman back in his arms and then he pulled her against his chest as he stood. His brother eyed Sam’s body for a moment before he left, taking the girl outside.
He heard sirens and within minutes paramedics were there and strapping Riley to a backboard. She still hadn’t woken up and he and Logan shared a silent look as she was rushed from the room.
Chapter 16
“Logan?”
Logan snapped his head up at the sound of Riley’s voice. He jumped out of the chair he’d been sitting in and rushed to the side of the hospital bed and took her hand. She looked at him in confusion, then around the small room.
“Where…where are we?” she asked, her voice scratchy. “Where’s Gabe?”
“He’s on his way, Riley. He’ll be here really soon, okay? You’re in the hospital.”
“Hospital?” she asked as she tried to sit up, then winced.
Logan put a hand on her shoulder to keep her from trying to move again. “Stay still, honey. You hit your head pretty hard. You’ve been out for a while,” he said.
Dom came in, two cups of coffee in his hand. Logan looked up and said, “Dom, she’s awake. Get the nurse.”
Dom nodded as he rushed back out of the room.
“What happened?” Riley asked.
“It’s not important right now. Just rest,” Logan said.
Her eyes narrowed in confusion and she put a hand to her head. “There was an explosion,” she said. Her brow furrowed as she was trying to remember. Then her eyes flew open wide. “Eli! Raul!”
“They’re fine, Riley,” Dom said as he came back into the room, the coffee gone now.
“That man! He took us!” Riley shouted as she tried to sit up again. Dom and Logan both held her down carefully and Dom grabbed her face.
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