She holds my gaze for a couple of heavy beats before she answers. Just as I knew she would. Izzi Slayer might be the woman she is now because she had no other choice, but beneath all of that she’s also a mom. And she loves her kids.
“You know what happened to my own father. Don’t you?”
Her dark eyes are cold and hard as she stares me down.
“Yes, Izzi, we know what happened to your own father. But Sam, he stepped right on in there, didn’t he? Taking that paternal place in your heart.”
She laughs, but it’s humorless. I guess she just doesn’t appreciate my style of questioning.
“We’re close, yes, is that what you want to hear?”
“When was the last time you spoke to him?”
She stays silent for a minute or two, her eyes never leaving mine. “A couple of days ago.”
“Did you see him in person, or was it over the phone?”
“In person.”
“And what was that conversation about?”
She sighs, and then briefly looks down at her fingers as they drum quietly on the table top. “We talked about the kids, about a vacation we were planning to California…”
“About the job Mack and Cole were working on with Theo Blane?”
“I didn’t know what that job was. OK? He said him and Mack were working with Cole Rockwell, on something, but that I didn’t need to know the details. And that’s all he said. I didn’t think anything of it. They’re always working on something, and on more than one occasion it’s involved Cole and his club.”
“You see, the thing is, we have you on tape, talking to Skye, around the time they were planning this job, telling her you thought something was going down. You were worried, that it was something dangerous. So, I think you’re lying to me, when you say you had no idea what they were working on.”
“I didn’t have any idea what they were working on. I didn’t know any fucking details. I just had a feeling it wasn’t the usual everyday shit. That’s all.”
“OK. You had no idea. But Sam – he left town, right? Around that time. And you didn’t think that was strange?”
“Sam’s often out of town. There’s nothing strange about that.”
“But his disappearing act this time meant he left your husband – his own son – to take the rap.”
“He didn’t plan on this happening. None of us did. And you know all of this, so why the hell are you wasting your time, and mine, going over it all?”
“Because I think you know where he is. And I know Sam Wheeler’s a very secretive man, I know he doesn’t like his whereabouts being made public to all and sundry, not even his own son, I gather. But you… you’re like the daughter he never had which, to be honest, all feels a little incestuous to me, given that you’re married to his boy.”
She keeps her expression hard and her eyes cold. Yeah, she knows how to play this game.
“So, I think you are the only one who knows where Sam is, Izzi. Or where he might be, at least.”
“You think I’m gonna give him up, just like that?”
“Yes, I do, if you want your kids to grow up with at least one parent. And if I were you, sweetheart, I’d take the opportunity to escape this life and take those kids some place where shit like this won’t get to them. Save them from all this crap.”
“You don’t get to tell me what to do.”
The corner of my mouth twists up into a smirk, which she doesn’t appreciate, but tough. I’m winning this one. “I think I do. Don’t you?”
She glares at me, but I can already see it in her face. She knows she’s gone as far as she can. She’s in no position to argue or strike deals or compromise in any way. She’s done.
“I don’t know if he’s still there, but he told me he was going to a motel – he didn’t tell me the name, he never does – about thirty miles outside of town. He was gonna stay there for a few days while he met with some guys from a couple of other MCs in the area, and that’s all I know. OK? That’s as much as he told me.”
I sit back and look at her, this beautiful woman with the hard edge. And I don’t know what’s gonna happen to her, once her husband goes down, because he will, go down. I just hope she’s sensible enough to move forward and build a new life for herself and those kids. Or maybe she’ll just wait for Slayer to come home, and if that’s the case, I hope she’s got patience.
“All right. Thank you, Izzi.” I beckon Lydia over and whisper some instructions, I want people out there right now looking for Sam Wheeler. And then I turn back to face Izzi, and her expression’s changed now, she seems genuinely concerned.
“Skye, she… will she be OK?”
“We hope so. But you know how men like Cole Rockwell operate, Izzi. Don’t you?”
She holds my gaze, because she knows what I’m talking about. She killed a man just like Cole Rockwell. She knows exactly what they’re capable of.
“Can I go now?”
I nod, and I get up and open the door for her, and she leaves without looking back.
Skye
“What’re these?”
“Clothes. Should fit you, but it’s all we could lay our hands on. Get dressed. We’re moving on soon.”
“Moving on?” I’m slightly disorientated due to lack of food, sleep and Cole’s nigh-on hourly visits to play with and humiliate me.
“You think we’re gonna keep you here?” Cole crouches down in front of me, and once again all I can smell is smoke and beer and a strong, pungent aroma of cheap cologne. “No, darlin’, we can’t stay in one place for too long. That would give your FBI friends way too much of a chance of finding you. And we don’t want them to find you. Do we?” He reaches out and runs his fingers down over my cheek, something he does on a regular basis, and it still makes me heave every time. “No. We want to keep you all to ourselves. We got plans for you, baby girl.”
He gets up and leaves the room, closing the door quietly behind him.
I look down at the jeans, sneakers and T-shirt he handed me. I don’t know where they got them from, and I don’t think I want to know. But the change of clothes is welcome. Not that I’ll ever really feel clean again, in fact, I don’t think I’ll ever feel anything again. I don’t think I want to. I don’t think I care…
Gabriel
“So. Sam Wheeler. Finally, we get you to come visit us.”
“It was an offer I couldn’t refuse, Special Agent Franks.”
His icy sarcasm doesn’t go unnoticed, but I’m not here to play mind games with this man. I need information from him, before I hand him over for questioning on all that other shit we got ready to throw at him.
“I need anything you can tell me on places, property… anything owned by Cole Rockwell and the Black Dogs because, right now, he has one of our informants, and we want her back. Alive.”
He raises his eyebrows. “And you want me to help you, find an informant? A woman who helped put me, my son, our club in this position?”
“No, you put yourself, your son, your fucking club in this position.” I stand up and lean right into him, my hands palm down on the table. “Just talk, Sam, or know that your grandkids aren’t gonna have either parent present in their lives for a long, long time. Whatever you know about Cole Rockwell, we want to know it, too. Because if we don’t find that woman alive I am gonna rain seven kinds of shit down on you and anyone connected to you, and believe me, that unhappy ending we got planned for you and your son? You won’t know what the fuck just hit you.”
“You threatening me, Agent Franks?”
“I’m asking you nicely for information that, one way or another, you’re gonna give us.”
I look over at the agent in the room with me, give him a nod, and I leave them to it. And once outside in the corridor I take a second to catch my breath before I make my way to the kitchen to grab a much-needed coffee. I need as much caffeine as I can get. I can’t remember the last time I slept, I don’t even know what time it is, what fucking day it is. All I’m
focused on is finding Skye.
“He talking?”
Phil joins me in the kitchen, although I can’t help but notice his body language is a little, I dunno – he seems slightly edgy around me.
I shrug and lean back against the countertop, taking a sip of coffee. “Hopefully he’ll give us something we can go on. I know we’ve got people out there looking, but so far we’ve got shit.”
“Listen, Gabriel…”
I look at him, and I know what he’s going to say but I’m really not in the mood. “Not now, Phil, OK? Let’s just concentrate on finding her.”
We both look up as Lydia comes into the kitchen and hands me a sheet of paper.
“Places Sam Wheeler thinks Cole may be hiding out in. But he says Rockwell doesn’t like to stay in one place for too long, and he also doesn’t like to keep hold of property for too long either, so some of these may well not even belong to the Black Dogs anymore.”
I raise an eyebrow. “He gave us this without even asking if he could cut some kind of deal?”
“Oh, he asked. But we told him he ain’t getting shit.”
I look down at the paper in my hand, quickly scanning the information.
“OK. We need to check this out, see how many of these places actually still belong to that club. The ones they’ve acquired legally, that is. Phil, can you get onto that? Lydia, you’re coming with me. If we do find her, I think it might be best if there’s another female there.”
“You’re going out there?” Phil asks, and I throw him a look, I don’t appreciate his tone.
“Yeah. I’m going out there. And anything you can find on any of those properties, let me know. We don’t want to be heading anywhere we don’t need to. We don’t have a lot of time to waste.”
“What was all that about?” Lydia asks as we head out to the parking lot.
“Nothing. Everyone’s just a bit stressed, that’s all. Let’s just focus on finding Skye, OK? Before that bastard does something to her we can’t do anything about.”
Do I think we are going to find her alive?
Maybe.
Maybe not.
All we can do is just to God that we get to her in time…
Chapter Eighteen
Skye
I want to tie my hair back, but I can’t. I don’t have anything to tie it back with, so I just have to let it fall down around my shoulders. And the clothes Cole gave me are a little loose, but anything’s better than that old T-shirt one of his brothers donated to me after witnessing Cole rape me for the first time. I’ve lost count now, of the amount of times I’ve closed my eyes and let him use me for his own sick pleasure. And I don’t even know if he’s actually getting any pleasure out of it because he very rarely comes, or I very rarely feel him come. It’s more like a power game for him, something he needs to do so he can prove to himself and all of those around him that he really is top dog. So I don’t even know if he’s doing it for pleasure, or for power. I don’t care. I just want him to stop, but I know that isn’t my choice anymore.
The door opens and Cole walks in, all gangly swag and misplaced arrogance, that overpowering smell of his sandalwood cologne filling my nostrils, causing nausea to rise once more. But even if I could be sick, there’s nothing there in my stomach to come back up. I’m empty inside, in every way possible.
“Not long now, darlin’, then we’re gonna go some place new, and this time…” He walks right up to me, and he tugs at my T-shirt, lifting up the bottom of it and sliding a hand onto my stomach, “there’s gonna be a yard, and if you keep on being a good girl, we might even let you out there. For a few minutes. Just to show you I ain’t a complete monster.”
He grins that wide-toothed grin that turns my stomach and he presses his hand harder against me, digging his fingers into my skin, all the time his eyes burning into mine as his breathing starts to grow that little bit heavier.
“Now, what you doing all dressed, darlin’?”
“You told me to get dressed.”
“Did I? Well, I guess I gave you a false order there, ‘cause we got something to take care of first, before we go anywhere. So, you take ‘em all off again, sugar. I ain’t done with you just yet.”
I pull the T-shirt off over my head.
I loosen my jeans and tug them down.
I know what’s coming.
It’s time to shut down once more…
Gabriel
We’ve been trawling sites, buildings, warehouses all allegedly owned by the Black Dogs, and striking off ones that are no longer under their ownership. And so far we’ve found nothing. And neither have any of the other teams out there looking for her. And as each hour passes I fear we may never find her, or never find her in one piece; alive.
“You OK?” Lydia asks as we pull off onto a deserted dirt track that seems to lead nowhere.
“I’m fine. Just not had a lot of sleep over the past couple of days. Jesus…” The wind’s blowing sand and dirt up all around us, so bad I can barely see through the windshield. I switch on the wipers to help, but in all honesty I’m starting to give up hope that this place is gonna be of any use. It’s not that far out of town, and I can’t see any buildings anywhere around, there’s no sign of anything. But, y’know, maybe I’m just getting more and more disillusioned as this search goes on.
“Hold on, Gabe. There. Look.”
I squint through the dust on the windshield and there in the distance is a small, red brick building, no bigger than a large garden shed, with a corrugated roof and a row of bikes parked outside.
“Get back-up here, Lydia. We might need it.”
I leave the car a little way from the building, I don’t want to draw any unnecessary attention, I don’t want them to know we’re here until we have to. And we wait, just a couple of minutes until back-up arrives, and making sure I have my gun tucked away in the back of my jeans we head toward the building as quietly as we can. If she’s in there I want her brought out alive. As far as anyone else is concerned, I couldn’t give a rat’s ass whether they make it out still breathing or not.
We surround the house, and on my call and with every possible entry and exit covered, we storm the place, kicking in doors and windows, making our presence known, these bastards aren’t going anywhere.
“Gabriel! In here…” Lydia calls me over to a room at the back of the house, and as I walk inside I see her, I see Skye, backed up against a wall, and she’s naked, with Cole Rockwell bearing down on her… Jesus fucking Christ!
“Anyone tell you it ain’t polite to turn up unannounced, Agent?”
The cocky, arrogant bastard heard us and he didn’t even stop what he was doing. And then I look at Skye, she’s shut down completely, I can tell, and it’s terrifying to see. Her face is expressionless, blank; her eyes dead. She’s found a way to cope with whatever the hell he’s been doing to her, and it’s heartbreaking. And now – he isn’t even gonna stop despite the fact he knows he’s got no place left to run.
“Step away from her, Rockwell. Now.”
My voice is steady even though, deep down, I want to rip his piece of shit head off and stamp on it ‘til it’s nothing but blood and bones.
“I ain’t finished yet, Agent. You’re gonna have to wait ‘til me and my girl here are done.”
This twisted freak is pushing me now, pushing all of us, but I gesture at everyone to lower their guns. If anyone’s gonna fire at this prick it’s gonna be me.
“I said, step away from her, Cole.”
“And I said I ain’t done yet.”
I rest my finger on the trigger, slowly pulling it back, and I don’t give him any warning, he doesn’t deserve that, and as the bullet hits him in the back of the knee he crumbles to the floor, and my guys are on him in a heartbeat. And even as he falls onto the filthy ground Skye doesn’t react. She just stands there, and I go over to her, and I pull her into my arms and I hold her, taking the blanket Lydia hands me, wrapping it around her.
“It’s OK,” I wh
isper into her hair. “I’ve got you, baby. I’ve got you.”
And then I feel her fingers cling onto my shirt, feel her press herself against me and it’s a small response, but at least she knows that whoever has her now isn’t the enemy. I’m just not sure if she actually realizes it’s me.
I look at Lydia, and I gesture to her to take over.
“Get her to the doctor. Now. I want her thoroughly checked over.”
I carefully hand Skye over to Lydia before I walk across to where Cole Rockwell lies in a heap on the floor, alive but unable to walk thanks to that bullet in the back of his knee.
And as everyone else steps back from his crumpled body, I crouch down and look him right in the eye, but even here, even in this vulnerable position where he can’t do shit to anyone, his arrogance is breathtaking.
“You really do need to learn some manners, Special Agent Franks.”
I don’t say anything, now isn’t the time to get into his crap, that’s something that can wait. And as I stand up I laugh quietly, spit on the ground next to him, and give him one swift kick that renders him unconscious.
We got Skye back.
But did we get here too late…?
Skye
I couldn’t shower straightaway, they wouldn’t let me. They needed to take samples, or something, I don’t know, I wasn’t really listening. I’m safe, and that’s all that matters. I’m safe. They came to get me. But I don’t remember all that much about what happened. I’d sent myself to that place I went to every time Cole Rockwell came to take me, use me; play with me. I was there, in that place, and I didn’t want to leave. Even when I heard a gunshot; was aware of Cole falling to the floor – even then I stayed there, in that place. But I remember arms around me, I remember holding onto someone. And then I was brought here, where I’ve been swabbed and looked at and checked over; had cuts cleaned up I didn’t even realize I had.
“Hey, Skye.”
Bound (Soldiers of Darkness MC Book 3) Page 19
