Blake, Abby - Maya's Masters [Viper's Dungeon 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)

by Abby Blake

  He saw Maya step into the kitchen just as his cell phone rang. He glanced at the caller ID, and smiled when he saw his swim buddy’s name. “Hey, Logan. What’s up?”

  “Keep smiling as if we’re just catching up. You’re being watched.”

  “You don’t say?” he said with what he hoped was a genuine-looking smile on his face.

  “Maya just texted Bianca. Her message reads, ‘Elise taken, gang watching, wants me alone, back alley five minutes.’” Cam’s heart leapt into his throat, and he nearly went with his first instinct to run into the kitchen and grab Maya, but he swallowed the panic, smiled, and pretended everything was fine. “Bianca is fairly certain Maya will go along with their demands. She’s very protective of that kid. She’ll try to help her, but Maya won’t make contact with you directly. My guess is that she’ll step out the back door very soon.”

  Cam saw the back door open just as Logan said the words.

  “That sounds correct.”

  “She just left?”

  “Yep.” And didn’t he want to beat her ass for that? Even though he knew she was handling things probably the way he would have if the situation were reversed, it didn’t mean he wanted the woman he loved in danger. There were a few moments of silence on the line, and again Cam had to fight his instinct to go after the woman.

  “Okay. We have a visual. A blue old-model Pontiac just pulled up. Viper and I are going to follow at a discreet distance.”

  “Thanks,” Cam managed to force out of lips that felt numbed with fear.

  “Viper is on the phone to Derek. He’s calling in some favors from a few friends. We have no idea who is part of this gang or how far their influence goes, so until we know for certain, we’re keeping the mission quiet.”

  “Okay,” Cam said out loud, hoping that the grinding of his teeth wasn’t noticeable to whoever was watching.

  “In about five minutes, pretend to go looking for Maya. Act as if you don’t know she’s left the building, and then make some serious noise. Maybe you’ll be able to identify the watcher by his or her reaction to your supposed panic.”

  Supposed panic? Now that was one acting part that wasn’t going to be hard to fill. Cam glanced at his watch, forcing himself to calm down, reminding himself over and over that in this situation he was part of a team. Each team member had a function. It didn’t matter how much he needed to storm into an enemy stronghold and rescue Maya. He had a job to do, and any deviation would risk blowing whatever advantage they had right now.

  “No worries. Thanks for calling,” he said, feigning the casualness he sure as hell didn’t feel. “Stay in touch, buddy.”

  “I’ll call you when it’s done.”

  * * * *

  Derek’s blood was running hot and cold. Heated panic fought with the icy chill of fear as adrenaline pumped into his system and his body prepared to fight. The trouble was that until Viper could tell them an address, they were effectively sitting on their hands waiting.

  He cursed the fact that he was driving a marked police car. He would have been able to team up with Viper and Logan in any other car, but the distinctive coloring and flashing lights would only put Maya in more danger. He had no idea what those bastards were doing to her in the car, but he vowed swift retribution against anyone who hurt the woman he loved.

  “We’ll get her back,” his partner said grimly. They’d only been assigned to work together recently, but Derek had known Brick Darnell for many years. He was a good cop and, unless Derek had misread the man completely, was glad to have an opportunity to disrupt the activities of this particular gang. Like Cam, he’d interviewed too many victims recently who’d refused to name their attackers for fear of reprisal.

  “Arrogant sons of bitches,” Viper said over the phone. “They’ve driven into an industrial workshop on Vine Street. It looks quiet from where we’re sitting.”

  “Can you see Maya?” Derek asked worriedly, his heartbeat pounding in his throat as he moved the squad car into traffic and headed toward their location.

  “Not at the moment.” Viper was quiet for a while, and Derek knew him well enough to know that meant he was choosing his words carefully.

  “Spit it out, Viper,” he said irritably. He didn’t want sugarcoating. He wanted information, and he wanted to get Maya and Elise the hell out of there.

  “You need to hang back for a while. Stay out of sight. Logan and I are both trained to infiltrate an enemy base and extract hostages, so give us ten minutes to get into position and then call in as many squad cars as you can. Make sure they come in with sirens blazing. We might need the diversion.”

  “Okay,” Derek said, glancing at Brick briefly before turning his attention back to Viper. “Are you armed?” There was a part of him that really didn’t want to know the answer to that—this gang had caused more grief to more people than any other he’d known—but the responsible police officer in him knew that it would only make the overall situation worse if Logan and Viper’s actions were seen as those of vigilantes.

  “Relax, Officer Chambers. Logan and I will only be there to protect Maya and Elise. We don’t plan on killing anyone. Too much paperwork.”

  Derek smiled at Viper’s answer even as he silently acknowledged that neither Viper nor Logan would need a weapon to actually kill anyone. He also knew that both men would do what they had to do to keep Maya and Elise safe despite the consequences they may face later on.

  He just hoped that it didn’t become necessary.

  * * * *

  Cam counted off the seconds in his mind. With thirty seconds to go he levered out of the chair and headed into the kitchen. “Where’s Maya?” he asked the occupants of the room. The waitress and busboy both shook their heads, but looked concerned. The head chef shrugged and suggested, “Did you check upstairs?”

  It would have been a perfectly reasonable question if Cam hadn’t known for a fact that the man had seen Maya leave via the back door. The worst part was that the man seemed perfectly calm. He didn’t seem nervous in any way, which suggested to Cam that the chef wasn’t being threatened or coerced by anyone. It left Cam with only one thought—that the man was working with the gang who’d taken Maya.

  Cam turned to the two other occupants in the room intending to get them to leave so that he could interrogate the man quietly, but the chef must have sensed what Cam was thinking.

  The knife would have hit Cam in the chest if he hadn’t seen it coming. He turned pushing both of Maya’s employees out of the way as the knife sailed past them. It hit the wall and dropped to the floor with a soft clang. Despite being a fairly accurate throw, judging by the end over end tumble of the blade, it would most likely have hit him hilt first. Cam was across the kitchen almost before the man could grab a second weapon. The man smiled maliciously as he held the chef’s knife in front of him in a threatening manner.

  But it was obvious to Cam that the chef was more used to using knives for chopping than as weapons. He easily disarmed the man and then glanced over to find the waitress already on her cell phone to police. She smiled, gave Cam a thumbs-up signal, and continued to answer the emergency operator’s questions. Both she and the busboy followed Cam into the main area of the restaurant as he frog-marched the chef over to a chair in the corner. He pushed him into the seat, growled a warning for him not to move, and then took the phone the waitress handed to him and spoke to the emergency operator.

  * * * *

  Maya tried to breathe calmly, refusing to let the panic in. She’d dealt with bullies before and, as much as she wanted to react otherwise, knew at the moment it was best if she stayed quiet and compliant. She prayed that help was coming. She knew Cam would have seen the back door open, and the fact that he hadn’t immediately come after her gave her some hope that Bianca had gotten the text, understood what it meant, and had sent out the alarm. Help should be here any moment.

  Any moment.

  But right now she just needed to get to Elise. At least if she were in the same room
, Maya had a chance of protecting the girl. The greasy-haired, pimple-faced teenager who’d sat in the backseat of the car with her tilted his head in a “follow me” type of order and then turned his back on her. She followed meekly even though they seemed to be giving her ample time to run. If they were waiting for her to show fear and give them an excuse to chase her down, they were going to be waiting a long time.

  She glanced around the area, surprised to realize they’d driven inside an actual working factory. This area was probably bustling with people during the day but, like most of the factories and storage facilities in this area, was locked up tight by dinnertime. It was probably a good place to headquarter a gang’s illegal activities, especially if they had the co-operation of the owners and the area’s security service.

  Several men stood over in one corner packaging something. She tried to keep her eyes on the man she was supposed to follow—pretending to be catatonic with fear wasn’t exactly hard at the moment—and hoped like hell that the little pills they were packing into tiny ziplock baggies weren’t what they seemed.

  But the realization that she was inside what appeared to be a drug distribution headquarters brought home one very solid fact. Whatever they had planned, she and Elise weren’t getting out of here alive.

  Chapter Eight

  Cam ducked out the back door as soon as the police arrived. He’d make a statement later, but right now his priority was getting to Maya. He dug his cell out of his pocket and dialed Derek’s phone.

  “The chef was involved,” Cam said the moment Derek answered his phone. “Where are you?”

  “We’re parked in the street on the east side of Viper’s.” Cam started running. Viper’s Dungeon wasn’t far from the restaurant, so that meant that wherever the gang had taken Maya wasn’t very far away. Cam held the phone close to his ear as Derek filled him in on the plan. “Unofficially, we’re giving Logan and Viper ten minutes to get in and find Maya and Elise before mobilizing.”

  “How many is ‘we?’” Cam asked as he ran faster and ignored the pain in his knee.

  “Seven squad cars and a special response team. Turns out this address has been under surveillance for some time now. The commander wouldn’t go into details, but they suspect that half the drugs on the local streets are processed through here.”

  Cam turned the corner and reached the side of Derek’s squad car as the information sunk in. How the fuck did this become about drugs?

  “I thought you said she broke the leader’s nose during a break-in. Why would drug dealers stoop to petty theft? It doesn’t make any sense.”

  * * * *

  Derek shook his head as Cam climbed into the backseat of the squad car. He really didn’t want to explain what he’d learned in the past five minutes. But Cam loved Maya—even if he hadn’t said it yet, it was obvious in everything he said and everything he did—and deserved to know what was happening.

  “The drug squad thinks the street gang is just an offshoot of the real crime gang in this town. From the names they gave me, the kid we thought was the leader is probably the son or maybe kid brother of the top man.”

  For a moment Cam looked angry enough to demolish an entire building with his bare hands, but somehow he pulled the emotion under control and asked for more details.

  “When did Logan and Viper go in?”

  “Two and a half minutes ago.”

  “Has there been any noise or commotion? Shouting? People moving or loading vehicles quickly?”

  “Not yet,” Derek answered, hoping the two police officers watching the building were doing their jobs. They couldn’t see anything from here, and moving the vehicle closer risked tipping off the men inside the building.

  “Okay, I’m going to circle around the back of the building,” Cam said as he quietly left the vehicle.

  “Don’t be in there when the police arrive.”

  Cam nodded, and despite his huge size and injured knee, somehow managed to disappear into the night.

  * * * *

  Maya couldn’t quite believe what she was seeing. Elise, eyes red from crying but seemingly unhurt, sat in a large chair in an overly decorated, ostentatious office, surrounded by a half-dozen boys pretending to be men.

  She didn’t recognize the young man whose nose she’d broken—it had been too dark to see properly that night, and it was why he’d never been charged with breaking and entering—but figured he was the one with the fading bruises from two black eyes. He stepped over to her and tried to intimidate her with his height. Since he was barely two inches taller than her, and nowhere near the imposing height and muscular physique as either of her men, Maya actually found it hard not to laugh.

  A hysterical reaction perhaps, but one that earned her a solid slap across the face.

  “On your knees, bitch.”

  “As soon as you let Elise go, I’ll do whatever you want.”

  The kid started laughing, the sound mocking and cruel. “Nah, we decided the sweet thing can stay. Wouldn’t want her to miss the party.”

  He turned to his friends, smiling and encouraging them to laugh with him. Maya took the opportunity to place herself between them and Elise.

  “Oh, look at that. She’s gone all momma bear on us. You think you can take us all on, whore? Think you gonna win?”

  The door opened behind the youth taunting her, but the man who stepped through scared the hell out of her. This wasn’t some kid. He looked hard and dangerous and completely pissed off.

  “Junior, what the fuck is all this?”

  “Just…ah…teaching a couple of bitches their place, Dad.”

  The older man cuffed his son hard across the back of his head. “Stupid fucking kid!” He walked over to stare at Maya a moment and then turned back to his son. “This the one from the restaurant?” When his son nodded, the guy belted the kid across the head again. “I told you to leave that alone. Fuck. You’re as stupid as your whore of a mother.” Maya felt a twinge of sympathy for the kid—despite the threat he’d posed moments ago. He seemed barely seventeen and, if his father’s behavior tonight was anything to go by, couldn’t have had a very happy life.

  “Get out. Take your loser friends with you.” The group of young men who’d posed such a dangerous threat a few moments ago now seemed no more than chastised children. The man’s son left the room last, slamming the door angrily.

  But then the older man turned back to Maya, finally seemed to notice Elise curled in a ball in the chair behind her, and then gave them both a friendly smile. “I apologize for my son’s reckless actions. He had no cause to bring you here. I’m very sorry.”

  Surprised by his words, Maya felt a very small amount of relief drip through her.

  But it evaporated instantly when the man lifted a handgun off the table and aimed it at her head.

  * * * *

  Cam crept around the outside of the building. So far he’d located at least four “security” guards. They wore standard-looking uniforms, but the fact that they carried automatic weapons and stayed in the shadows suggested they weren’t at all what they seemed.

  Fortunately, they weren’t very well trained either. Or at least Cam assumed that was the case since they were all currently sleeping and their weapons emptied of ammunition. Cam smiled. He’d recognize Logan’s handiwork anywhere.

  He caught up to Viper and Logan a few moments later. Despite the fact that Cam hadn’t been on active duty in over six months and Viper had been a civilian for many years, the three of them quickly fell into a workable team.

  They managed to enter the back door using a set of keys they’d lifted from one of the security guards and quietly crept into the building. Drawn by the sound of an angry male voice, Cam, Viper, and Logan headed in that direction.

  * * * *

  Maya held the young woman as she screamed. It had all happened so fast, she wasn’t even sure exactly what had happened. One moment the guy was pointing a gun at her head. The next, her ears were ringing from the loud sound of th
e gun being shot, but unless she was mistaken the bullet had somehow missed her. The guy had crumpled to the floor unconscious a moment later, and then Cam was standing in front of her.

  She blinked, wondering if maybe she was hallucinating and seeing what she wanted to see rather than what was right in front of her, but no matter how many times she closed and opened her eyes, Cam still stood there with that cocky grin.

  Viper nodded, winked, and disappeared out the door.

  Elise’s screams finally stopped, but the absence of sound just magnified the ringing in Maya’s ears. Never again did she want to be that close to a discharging weapon.

  “Maya,” Cam whispered quickly, “the drug squad is about to raid the building. Derek will be with them. Stay in here. Stay calm, and keep your head down. We were never here.” He turned to leave, but then turned back, grabbed her quickly and pressed a kiss to her lips. “I’m glad you’re safe.”

  “Thanks to you,” Maya said as the realization of how close she’d actually come to dying zipped through her.

  “Actually,” Cam said with that oh-so-familiar, cocky grin that made her ache to hold him, “it’s thanks to you. If you hadn’t gotten that text to Bianca, we might never have found you.”

  “That was pretty clever,” Viper said as he ducked his head back into the room and signaled for Cam to hurry up. But of course, Viper being Viper, he added in his big-brother-style teasing tone, “Bianca always said you two would be able to text blindfolded. I’m glad to find out she was right.”

  Cam grabbed his cell phone, dialed Derek, and explained where they were inside the building, and then he and Viper left as quietly as they’d arrived. They were gone for less than ten seconds when Derek came into the room. He spared a smile for Maya and then stood protecting her and Elise as the drug squad officers raided the building and did their job.