Finding Needles (Charon MC Book 10)

by Khloe Wren

  I didn’t need to see through the walls to know she was in that room. Deep down, I knew. I fucking knew that those men had my Josefina in there. Sabella had kept her all to himself for seventeen fucking years, apparently not allowing anyone else to abuse her. By doing that, he’d made her into an unattainable object. So today, when, before he’d come to meet with me, he’d told his men they could take her and have their fun with her, they would have jumped at the chance. They’d have been worked up and been doing the vilest of things to their boss’ favorite toy.

  I’d first met Josefina when I was twenty-one. She’d been a kid, just sixteen years old. Unfortunately for her, she’d already had an adult’s body. Lush breasts to go with her curvy hips and ass. She was a young man’s wet dream, but I hadn’t gotten aroused when I’d first seen her.

  Antonio had sent me and another of his men, Gino, out to collect protection money from a few places when we’d found her. Her clothes had been torn up and she’d clearly been recently drugged. Gino, the fucker, had made a comment about easy pussy and had moved to grab her. Before I knew what I was doing, I’d growled out a claim on her, making threats to kill Gino if he dared to touch her.

  At six feet, I was only slightly taller than Gino, but I easily outweighed him in muscle. Since being forced into the mob, I’d focused on keeping myself not only strong, but skilled in how to fight. There weren’t many men around who would even try to take me on, which was why Gino had not even attempted to argue with me. With a laugh, he’d backed off and told me to have fun, that he could wait till I was done to have his shot at such a pretty puta. I’d grabbed the clearly frightened girl and dragged her off with me, leaving Gino to do the rest of the collections for the day on his own.

  I knew he’d assumed I was taking her some place to fuck her, but that had never been my intention. Never once did I touch her in a sexual manner. From the first moment, I saw her as a little sister. A scared, lost, little girl who needed protecting. I’d taken her back to my small apartment and told her she was safe. That I wouldn’t hurt her. I’d grabbed one of my clean shirts, a pair of boxers and guided her to my bathroom.

  It had taken her a few days before she stopped jumping every time she saw me. Before she believed that I wasn’t going to hurt her. She only knew a few English words so I’d been grateful that I’d paid attention during Spanish classes at school. Still, it had taken over a month before she’d trusted me enough to answer my questions about how she’d come to be on that street where we’d met.

  She’d finally confessed to me that she’d been snatched from her parents’ farm in northern Mexico by a local gang and sold to a white man. By the time she’d finished her story I knew we were both fucked. Sabella had been testing me, seeing if I’d fuck her then bring her in like he thought I should have. But I hadn’t.

  Three months later, I’d come home to find my place had been trashed and Josefina gone. I’d known who’d done it and I’d gone directly to Sabella to call him on it. Fucker had simply shrugged his shoulders and told me he’d paid good money for the girl and had simply taken back what was his before he moved his merchandise. He’d also informed me she hadn’t survived the trip to her new owner and was now dead.

  I’d never wanted to kill the man more than I had in that moment, but I couldn’t fucking touch him. If I did, my old man would take it out on my mother and my little brother. I couldn’t risk their lives like that. Especially since I’d believed Josefina was already dead. But it hadn’t stopped me from setting up a long-range plan for revenge.

  “Everyone loaded and ready?”

  I was pulled from the past by Mac’s deep and steady voice. We’d all stopped in front of the door where the noise was coming from. Like the other men, I pulled my gun. Checked the safety was off then put my hand, not holding my weapon, to the handle and waited for Mac to give me the word.

  “Do it, Blade.”

  I’d shoved the door wide open and lifted my gun, took aim at Gino, who had been enjoying finally getting a chance with Josefina, and shot my former colleague through the middle of his fucking forehead. The others all took their shots too, and a thunder of sound filled the small room, making my ears ring.

  Men dropped like flies until only one stood. I didn’t recognize the fucker. He had Josefina’s naked body pulled up in front of him, a knife to her throat. I’d purposefully not looked at her first, because I knew I’d lose my mind at the sight. And I’d been right. She’d matured over the years, grown more beautiful. Even through the blood and bruises covering her naked body I could see what she should look like. Her head and torso were off the table, blocking the fucker holding her while her legs lay listless on the surface she’d been violated on. She blinked as she looked straight through me. Her eyes were lifeless and saw nothing.

  My heart shattered into a thousand pieces, my soul cried out in agony. She’d never done anything wrong in her life. Why did she have to suffer so damn much? Without thought, I released a scream as I lunged toward her. She was still alive, though. So long as she breathed I could fix her. Find help to get her put back together again. She could still live her life, if I could just get to her...

  Mac’s thick arm curled around my shoulders, pulling me back against his solid frame.

  “Stop and think. He’ll kill her.”

  A noise left my throat that I didn’t recognize as I watched helplessly as her skin grew paler, the bruises grew darker and the blood trailing down her thighs now dripped to the floor.

  I jerked against Mac’s hold when Eagle came out of nowhere and slammed a blade into the back of the fucker’s neck, killing him instantly. It was too good for the bastard, he deserved to suffer, but not at the risk of making Josefina suffer more than she already had. At the same time that Eagle caught Josefina as she fell, Mac released me. I bolted across the small room, taking her from Eagle before dropping to the floor with her cradled against me.

  I gently stroked her face and rested my forehead against hers before I whispered to her in Spanish.

  “I’m sorry, Josefina. So fucking sorry. I didn’t know. He told me you were dead. I would have come for you sooner. Fuck, I shouldn’t have left you at my place unprotected like that.”

  “Not your fault. You helped me. Did all you could. Not your fault.” She paused to take a breath that rattled in her chest. “He was right. I died years ago. Nothing left now.”

  Her words were a quiet rasp, barely discernable. With a sigh, her body went still, no longer breathing, but I couldn’t move. I’d been too late to save her. She was dead, killed in a brutal way after years of torture and it was all my fucking fault.

  I didn’t flinch when Mac crouched beside me. Mac and I had been colleagues for a time. Antonio had blackmailed both of us into this mess. Mac had been smarter than me, though. He’d enlisted in the USMC to get out of Sabella’s hands. Pity that hadn’t been an option for me. My old man made sure I’d known it, too. Mac reached over her body, pressing his fingers to her neck in search of a pulse. I knew what he’d find, or rather, not find.

  “Don’t say it.”

  “I’m sorry, brother. But we gotta keep moving. We need to find the other women and any other men who are here. We can lock you in here and come back for you—”

  I shook my head, cutting him off. I wasn’t going to be like those kids. Locked away, waiting for someone to return to tell me it was all done. “I want blood for this. No way am I going to sit this one out.”

  Rising to my feet, I laid her out on the table as though she were still breathing, kissed her temple and ignored the tears that ran down my face as I whispered my final words to her.

  “Rest easy, baby. It’s over now.”

  Guilt and rage fogged my mind and fueled my actions as we’d cleared out the rest of the warehouse. I was on edge, looking for an outlet, but we found no more guards. Which, considering how many had been in with Josefina, I guess made sense. There had been a few johns in with the women, making the most of being unsupervised. But those fucke
rs barely put up a fight. I needed something more than taking down a couple cowards to burn off my rage. I managed to bank my fury as we uncuffed the women and helped them out of the warehouse. They’d all been through enough, last thing they needed was to fear their rescuers.

  When we had almost all the women and kids free of the building, Mac had me call in the authorities. I’d already made contact with a cop I knew was clean in anticipation of what we were going to find here. So I walked away from the others and dialed her number.

  “Lopez.”

  “It’s bigger than we thought. Haven’t done a solid head count, but you’ve got at least twenty women and nearly that many kids. They’re all in a bad way. Gonna need a few buses.”

  “Any life threatening injuries?”

  My fucking eyes stung as I wished I could answer her yes. That Josefina was alive. I cleared my throat. “No. Nothing life threatening. There’s one woman who didn’t make it. We weren’t fast enough to save her.” My fucking voice cracked and I cleared my throat again. “There’s several of Sabella’s men too. We’ve left ‘em where they fell. We’ve got all the women and kids out in the parking lot.”

  “Why’d you put them outside?”

  Lopez’s voice was firm but I knew the shit I was telling her was affecting her. No matter how weathered a cop was, this shit was going to leave a mark.

  “Gonna light the fucking office up. Can’t risk someone finding enough information to start this shit back up again.”

  “That paperwork might be the evidence we need to put Sabella away, along with the rest of his crew. Might be the only way to identify the victims.”

  Yeah, I wasn’t going to tell her that she didn’t need to worry about Sabella ever again.

  “The only one that can’t talk is Josefina Chavez. She was snatched from her parents’ farm in Mexico when she was sixteen, back in 2001. All the others will be able to tell you who they are. I’m not risking that information getting into the wrong hands and this pipeline starting up again.”

  She was quiet for a moment. I knew she wasn’t happy, but I also knew she got what I was saying. The world would be a nicer place without this shit in it. “You’ve got about twenty minutes, then I’ll be rolling in with a team. I’m not going to actively come looking for you, and I’ll put through this tip as one given anonymously, but if evidence is found to implicate you and you’re found, you’ll go down for this. Nothing I can do about that. Just like there’ll be others who will be gunning for you. I’d suggest you leave town for a while. In your shoes, I’d be leaving California for good.”

  She hung up before I could say another word and I headed back toward Mac to tell him our time limit. Then I headed over to the Charon’s van to get the can of gas. I didn’t waste time getting back inside to that fucking office filled with documentation of all the evil deeds Sabella had processed through the place. With my nose pressed against my shoulder to curb the smell, I poured gas around the office. There was a shit ton of paperwork in here and I didn’t want to risk the wrong people getting any of it and working out how to import more women and kids from across the border. Not that everyone we’d found here was Mexican. Plenty of locals had been caught up in this mess too.

  Josefina’s face filled my vision as I poured and my hand slipped, splashing the flammable liquid over it and up my wrist, along with down my side.

  “Fuck.”

  Tossing the can aside, I shook the liquid off my hand before wiping it on my jeans. Then I pulled an old-school book of matches from my pocket and struck one. Watching the flame burn, I let it mesmerize me for a few moments before I flicked it toward the desk. All the gas I’d poured around the room couldn’t wait to light up and I quickly realized I’d used way too much. The overkill had been intentional, I hadn’t wanted anything in here to be left unburned. I just hadn’t fully thought the plan through.

  A spark came my way and out of reflex, I attempted to bat it away, forgetting about my fuel-soaked skin and clothing.

  “Motherfucker!”

  I back peddled from the room, turning my head away from my side that now had flames licking up it. Pain lit me up faster than the fire.

  “Fuck.”

  I’d barely heard Mac’s curse before he’d thrown a blanket over me and knocked me to the ground, rolling me until the flames were out.

  Agony stole my vision, my ability to think. I was vaguely aware of Mac tossing me over his shoulder before he took off. Each step jolted my burns and more pain shot through me. By the time he laid me out on the seats in the rear of the van, I was clenching my jaw so I didn’t throw up from the intensity of my agony.

  “We’ll get you taken care of, brother.”

  I gave him a jerky nod, hoping he didn’t ask me anything else. I didn’t want to fucking talk. My mind was still shorting out due to the fucking pain. I’d never felt anything like it.

  Bright lights streamed in the windows and the door slid open to reveal they’d brought me to a hospital. At least with all the wildfires currently burning throughout southern California, we shouldn’t get too many questions about how I’d gotten injured.

  “No way to do this without it hurting, Blade.”

  I unlocked my jaw. “Just do it already.”

  With any luck, I’d black the fuck out and wouldn’t feel any more pain.

  It was all a blur as I was taken into the ER and hooked up to a drip. I let Mac do the talking as I stared up at ceiling. But it wasn’t aging sheetrock that I saw. It was Josefina. Her battered face and body, her hollow eyes.

  “He was right. I died years ago. Nothing left now.”

  For seventeen years, Sabella had been using and abusing her. I doubted I could imagine the torture he’d inflicted upon her. That poor girl. She’d never done a thing to deserve it. Her parents had been poor farmers who’d been unfortunate enough to have been blessed with a beautiful daughter.

  That had me thinking of my own parents. My mother had been wonderful, but she’d been limited by the ruthless bastard she’d married. I’d gotten her free of him, though. It had taken time, but I’d managed to get my mother and brother away from my brute of a father. Then I’d taken care of my old man once and for all. Just like Sabella, I’d done it on the sly, so no one had known it was me. And also like Sabella, that bastard had died hard, but not hard enough for what he’d done to those he was meant to have loved and cherished.

  I’d never understood how my old man could have done it. Sold his child, his first born son, to the mob. He’d run a small jewelry store and hadn’t wanted to pay the protection fee, so instead, he’d bartered for it by giving me to Sabella. Even at sixteen I’d been a big kid, strong and stubborn. So Sabella had been more than happy to take me, especially when he’d overheard my father’s threat against my mother and brother should I not follow orders. He’d known he could do what he pleased with me then, mold me into who he needed me to be. Pity for him that his plan backfired on him.

  I hissed in pain as the doctor examined a particularly sore burn.

  “Hmm, yes, definitely an area of third degree but mostly first and second degree. I’ll get the nurse in here to tend to them. She’ll tell you what you need to know about taking care of them.”

  The look on this guy’s face and the way he curled his lip as he pulled his gloves off and tossed them in the bin basically told me he considered me no better than dirt beneath his shoe and clearly not worth his time. That shit pissed me right off. Considering the edge I was still on after what went down, it was probably a good thing Mac had stripped my gun off me before he’d brought me in. And was sitting beside me to run interference.

  Despite wanting to teach this guy a fucking lesson, I managed to force myself to stay quiet. It helped that I wanted him to fuck off away from me more than I wanted to pound him into the ground.

  He stepped away from my bed and shoving the curtain open, flagged down a nurse like she was a cab. What the fuck was this guy’s issue? The nurse had a neutral, professional expression th
at said she didn’t like the prick any more than I did. Their conversation was quick and I was certain I caught her sighing with relief when he stepped away from her and she came into my little slice of the ER.

  “He an asshole to everyone or are we just special?”

  She snorted a laugh. “Dr. Maestro? He treats everyone equally, that one. Unless you have money pouring off you.”

  Mac shook his head, pulling my attention to where he sat beside my bed. He’d been so quiet, I’d nearly forgotten he was there. He was still giving me a strange look, as though he was waiting for me to do something stupid.

  “So, ma’am, what’s the damage and what do we need to do to keep him healthy?”

  She gave Mac a smile. “Please, call me Lilly.” She turned to face me, rolling a cart with bandages and shit with her.

  “You were quite lucky, Mr. Walker. Your thick jeans saved your legs from receiving more serious burns, and your friend’s quick thinking with the blanket quite possibly saved your arm, if not your life.”

  Mac cleared his throat as he shuffled around in the hard seat, like he was uncomfortable with the praise. I switched my attention back to the nurse, Lilly, but struggled to track what she was saying. I was still in enough pain that it was hard to focus for long, and after her earlier words, I found myself staring at the blistered skin of my arm, thinking about what would have happened if Mac hadn’t come to my rescue when he had. Could I really have lost my arm in that fire? Or even my life?