by Addison Jane
“You wanna test that theory, officer?”
She stared me down. It was almost impressive until I saw her top lip twitch.
This wasn’t the Holly I knew.
There was a hardness to her features, different to the playful, flirty Holly I’d known for so fucking long. But I guess now I knew that was all an act. “You want to hear what I have to say? Or shall I just go home and hope you pull your head out of your ass in time to save her?”
“Well, look who grew a fucking backbone.”
Her lip curled, and she took a step forward. “The backbone has always been there, you’re just lucky my self-control is apparently a lot stronger than yours, and I’m not standing around, yeehawing and shooting off shots like a dumbass.”
I let out a loud roar of laughter, clutching my gun a little tighter in my hand as I tried to convince myself not to murder the woman who, cop or not, my old lady still loved and felt very protective of.
I had to admire the sudden set of balls on her, considering she’d spent a long time trying to stay on my good side and seeming to shrink away at just the mention of upsetting a club member. “You’re lucky,” I answered, waving for her to follow me inside.
It took a second or two, but she soon hurried to catch up with my angry footsteps.
“Lucky I know where Avery is, so you won’t shoot me.”
“No,” I answered, slipping into one of the clubhouse booths. I may want information, but there was no way I was letting her into church. “Lucky my old lady likes you. I’d find her without you, but if Avery found out I fucking did something to you, she’d make me pay.”
Shake and Repo stepped up while Holly slipped into the booth opposite me.
“Tell me everything I need to know, but make it fucking quick.”
She swallowed, pushing her shoulders back and meeting my dark gaze across the table. “Two years ago, the hospital started to notice an increase in college students. They always had influxes over the weekend, but it was more alcohol abuse and the odd drug. Well, soon, these kids were showing up really sick. Sicker than just alcohol poisoning.” She pulled some papers from her back pocket and placed them on the table, unfolding them to reveal some kind of medical reports. “The doctors started doing toxicology scans, and the results were ridiculous.”
I pulled the papers toward me, and each one had a different name at the top. The bars at the bottom though, seemed to all be different.
“You need to explain this shit. I’m not a scientist.”
“They swore they were given one pill. All of them. So, if it was the same pill, you’d expect the toxicology results to be somewhat similar where you could determine what it could be, what’s in it, what levels of each substance.” She grabbed the papers from my hands and spread them across the table. “Each of these is completely different, but they swear it’s the same dealer, the same pill.”
This was the kind of shit we didn’t deal in. The club did questionable shit, shit that was in no way aboveboard, but we stepped away from hard, hard drugs a long time ago. There was plenty of other bastards out there willing to make a quick buck out of someone’s addiction.
I was not one of those fucking bastards.
“So, someone was changing the formula,” Auron announced, appearing beside the table suddenly, his eyes wide and full of curiosity. Thankfully, because I was still confused. “Someone is trying to create something new and using these college kids as guinea pigs.”
“We have a winner,” Holly announced.
“And you joined the college to see if you could find out who it was?” Repo added, narrowing his eyes and folding his arms across his chest. A second later, though, the corner of his mouth turned up into a smirk. “And like a true cop, you started your search with the MC who’d just moved into fucking town.”
Her face didn’t change, but we all knew Repo had nailed it.
Holly started hanging out with Meyah and Dakota around the time the club moved into Phoenix and went into business with The Exiled Eight MC.
“It was obvious it wasn’t you,” she explained with a shrug. “Other than Meyah and Dakota and a few of the girls going to college, none of you went near the place. You didn’t have parties where college kids were invited.”
I could see where this was going, and it was moving fucking quickly.
“Beta Beta,” I stated, my fingers curling into fists at the thought of those rich little entitled bastards. “That’s why you ended up so focused on them recently. You figured out who it was selling them.”
“We had our suspicions last year, but then things cooled off. The drugs slowly going away. Then a month or so ago they were back in high gear. Beta Beta was rolling them out like candy, and I had the proof,” she ground out through her teeth. “That little packet I had with me that night I was here… I’d finally convinced one of the boys to sell me some. I was taking it to the station for evidence, so they could get a damn warrant to search the place.”
But she ended up stepping up for Avery instead and helping her and Gage get away from fucking Garrett. Then Slate took the drugs and told her to get the fuck out.
I could have said sorry, the words on the tip of my tongue, but I wasn’t.
“You made choices.” I wanted to feel for Holly. But I fucking felt nothing except anger for the situations she put Avery in, all because she was working a damn case. “You could have asked for help fucking months ago. Could have at least given Avery a heads-up that things weren’t what they seemed so she would stop worrying about you. Instead, you let her believe you were being hurt, drugged, possibly fucking raped, and like the dumb bitch we all assumed you were, you just kept walking straight back into the depths of fucking hell.”
“I had no choice! I’ve been walking this line for two years,” she argued, but I could tell she was tired, broken down, and finding it hard.
“You were in too deep,” I deadpanned, shaking my head. “Your handlers should have pulled you out the second Beta Beta got you drunk. Then drugged you. Then fucked you, right?”
Holly was strong.
Stronger than I ever gave her credit for.
Though, now I knew why.
She had to be because they left her high and fucking dry.
She might have gone into that operation thinking she was going to find some drug dealer, some small crime syndicate, and walk out. Instead, she got sucked in, and the people who were meant to protect her, the people who should have had her back, didn’t.
They let her drown.
They let her get beaten down.
Again and fucking again by these frat boys. Forcing her to do shit she never should have done, so they could come out the other side and say they solved the case.
The tears sparkling in her eyes, they were fucking real, and she was trying so hard to fight them because she knew I was right. She knew she was going to have to live with what those bastards put her through.
“We couldn’t risk more people dying,” she whispered, trying to keep her chin up.
“They couldn’t risk any more people dying.” I laughed, shaking my head. “But you know what they could risk? You. Now tell me what the fuck the point of this little story is? Tell me why the fuck I’m still here listening to you and not looking for my fucking old lady?”
She swiped at the tears on her rosy cheeks.
I had to give her fucking credit, she sat here and took my brazen bullshit better than some men I fucking know.
“You haven’t figured that bit out yet?”
I leaned in, looming across the table. “I swear to fucking God, Holly…”
“Beta Beta is dealing the drugs. Someone has to be making them. Someone with a fascination with playing god. Someone who has access to bodies after death and test results and can adjust the drugs to try to counter what went wrong with the last batch.”
Auron didn’t miss a fucking thing.
And suddenly, I was acutely aware of just how fucked-up this was.
“Someone who has now had those
things taken away from him and needs live subjects to test his death pills on,” Shake added, his nostrils flaring. “That’s if the first one he acquired is still alive.”
Thayleah.
That’s why he kept her.
It’s also why the pills stopped showing up last year because he was in prison after Emma’s assault.
Music suddenly filled the air, and Holly whipped her phone from her pocket and pressed it to her ear. “Yeah? Shit. Okay. We’re coming.” She hung up and looked me dead in the eyes, a darkness there that hadn’t been before, but that I found I kind of fucking liked. “So far, I haven’t told my team what’s going on. They know nothing. So, you can give me hell all you like about my choices, but this one is one I made for Avery. The person I had watching Garrett said it looks like he’s heading back to where the girls are located. So, if you want to get to her and get rid of him, this is your window.”
“I’m not sure we understand the term, get rid of, officer,” Repo taunted. “Could I hear an example?”
“Take it or leave it.”
“Where is she?” I questioned, able to feel the dread like two hands wrapped around my heart, and slowly, so fucking slowly, squeezing it until it burst.
“The Beta Beta frat house.”
AVERY
“There’s a door, then a really steep staircase, then another door at the bottom,” Thayleah explained quietly as we crept through the darkness, one of her arms wrapped around me, the other tracing the wall. “They have to take me down to go to the bathroom.”
“Do the doors need keys?” I asked through clenched teeth, the pain shooting through my ankle and my side as we hobbled toward the strip of light we could see on the floor across the room.
Sweat was already forming across my skin. Almost everywhere. And my breathing was getting heavier and heavier, attempting to race at the speed of my heart—the pain trying to take over and shut me down.
“I’m not sure,” she admitted softly. “Sometimes I heard them lock it, then a little bit later the music would start playing. But they came up pretty often, and I don’t remember hearing it lock and unlock.”
My foot connected first with a soft thud, the both of us holding our breath for God only knows how long before we figured no one had heard. I looked down, seeing the small crack of light under the door before reaching out and patting softly, searching for “The handle,” I whispered, gripping the old knob in my hand.
“It creeks,” Thayleah rasped.
The soft squeak as I pulled it open, sending a shudder straight through me, a wave of goosebumps chasing after it.
The light that came with it was like a slap across the face, the both of us turning inward and shielding our eyes. The small staircase had a tiny circular window to the side, letting in a stream of sunlight, orangey in color telling me it was either a setting sun or a rising one—my brain still too foggy to try and figure out which way would be north and which would be east.
We both blinked through the light, looking at each other for the first time.
And we smiled.
At least I tried.
The split in my lip and the stitches were still making it hard to even speak. “Sorry about the look, and I’m sure you didn’t order a crippled hero. Garrett forced me to crash my ca—”
“You’re exactly the hero I ordered,” she cut in, her sweet face frowning.
I quickly gave her a once-over, checking for anything major. Her hair was matted and knotted and would need a lot of work, but it was the least of my worries when my eyes reached her wrists. There was a bloody cut the entire way around the both of them where the cable ties had rubbed through the skin. Deep enough to bleed, the dried blood mixing with new blood as the cut was irritated. I looked back up at her face, and she was simply staring at me, tears falling one after another.
“He said it was my fault. That I should stop struggling,” she croaked, slamming her hand over her mouth to try and catch the uncontrollable sob. “It hurts.”
I wasn’t surprised.
She’s lucky they weren’t infected or deeper, but as they were, I knew they were going to leave scars. She was going to have to live with that reminder every single day, right where she could see it. I sure hoped this girl was strong. The suffering she’d endured was something a lot wouldn’t survive. But I knew a little something about pain, and I knew if there was a place she was going to get through it, it was going to be with a club full of protective men and women. Men and women who weren’t afraid to fight to keep her safe, to make sure she gets what she needs, and to help her find what she deserves.
Now I just had to get her home.
“Let’s go,” I announced softly, shuffling toward the stairs. They were steep as hell, and it took a few minutes for us to reach the bottom, especially with my body still fighting against me. Inhaling deeply through my nose, I reached out for the handle of the door at the bottom, slowly blowing the breath of air out again as I eased it open an inch and peeked outside.
Given we were holed up in the attic space, I figured this was Beta Beta’s third floor. I hadn’t been this many floors up before, but it looked much like the floor below.
The staircase going down was right at the other end of the hall, and the house was surprisingly quiet, so we took a deep breath and slipped out, hurrying down the hallway, pausing once to check a bedroom with the door open but finding it empty. With the both of us now in socks, we slipped and slid across the hardwood floors because my sprained ankle wanted to scream at me every time I put any kind of pressure on it, and Thayleah had to try and take part of my weight.
I felt weak.
“Has anyone checked on them?”
Thayleah’s back went straight like a steel rod at the sound of his voice, her eyes growing wide as the footsteps slowly made it up the staircase.
Pain forgotten, I grabbed her arm and dragged her back into the open bedroom behind us, easing the door shut. Not enough to close it completely in case he heard, but enough to give us time.
“I’ll check! I haven’t seen Avery in a while. Maybe her and I can catch up.”
I knew the voice was Cooper. That slimy, sleazy little punk was like a fly. Constantly buzzing around, taunting you, driving you fucking crazy. Until you either sprayed or swatted him.
“The door is open,” Thayleah hissed, and I cursed under my breath for being stupid enough to not shut it behind us.
The second he saw that he was going to ring the fucking alarm.
The footsteps grew closer, and I spun, searching the room for anything I could use as a weapon, my eyes falling instantly on a white and red baseball bat that took pride of place on the wall with black scribbles that looked like signatures decorating it from top to bottom.
Probably important ones.
That I was about to ruin.
I guess today, we are going with swat.
“Stay here, don’t move until I tell you to come out,” I ordered, holding Thayleah’s gaze as I shuffled toward the door with the bat now tossed over my shoulder. “If I yell, run. You take the bat. You run. And you swing it at anyone who gets in your way.”
She shook her head, but I nodded. “You can do it.”
Her bottom lip trembled, but I didn’t have the time to walk her through this. The footsteps had reached the top of the stairs, and they were about to pass by the door we were behind. Holding my breath, I slipped out—the adrenaline finally kicking in and rushing through my body as I slipped in behind Cooper just as he looked up from his phone and saw the attic door open.
I planted my feet and drew back, my rib pain currently numbed by my fight reflex and the way my body was determined to stay alive.
He spun from the left, and I swung from the right, meeting him in the middle just as his big fucking fat mouth began to open, no doubt to let out some fucking scream about us escaping. The connection with his skull sent vibrations straight up the bat, shockwaves moving up my arms and through my body.
It was the dead weight I
didn’t consider.
The heavy thump as his body hit the floor, loud and hard.
“Let’s go,” I hissed under my breath.
Thayleah scurried out and grabbed my arm as we moved past the body. He was still breathing, which almost made me want to take a second swing, but when I thought about it for that second, I remembered that when all this is done, and they realize Cooper’s part in this, he was the kind of guy that was going to make someone incredibly happy in prison.
When he becomes their bitch.
And that thought made me smile.
Thayleah and I hit the stairs, both pausing for a second and catching the look on the other’s face.
We ditched the socks. This time we moved faster, the voices we could hear sounding further away. We hit the second story, and for a second, I could see down the large staircase to the foyer where the front doors were located. Where Shotgun had busted through not that long ago to save the day once again and rescue Holly and me from this hell hole.
I hooked my arm through Thayleah’s, preparing to run straight down and out the front doors.
We just had to make it to the street.
To a place where there were people.
Witnesses.
Help.
But the doors flew open before we could even take that first step, and I knew it was him instantly. The way Thayleah stumbled back told me the kind of energy he had. That meeting at the grocery store I had felt it.
The arrogance.
Misogyny.
Laughing at someone else’s pain.
It was psychotic.
And it was about to come for us.
We backed away, my eyes searching the hallway, every single door shut.
His first step.
Second step.
I had to choose one, so I reached out, forcing the nearest one open and ducking inside.
Empty!
“The bed,” I whispered, quickly noting the way piles of junk seemed to be packed under it—the perfect hiding spot. “Go,” I whispered, getting on my knees and trying to silently clear a path through some guy’s empty suitcases and stacks of pornography, so Thayleah could wiggle inside, doing the same with my body beside her and the bat still clenched in my hand.
