Manny motioned one of his guys over and he immediately glued himself to Ellie’s side, walking her out. When she was out of earshot, Manny hooked a thumb over his shoulder at the harpy sitting at his table. “That one attacked Ellie when she came in the door.”
“She did what?” Rex took a threatening step in Tara’s direction, Manny’s hand on his chest stopping him in his tracks. “What the hell happened?”
“Jealousy happened.” Manny smiled at his son, laughing inside at his predicament. “Tara there took offense to Ellie coming here looking for you. Claimed you as her man then laid into Ellie with that sharp tongue of hers. When Tara pushed her too far, Ellie grabbed her by those big ass ears of hers and smashed her face into her knee.”
Rex laughed, he couldn’t help it. He wished he’d seen it. Tara had been a thorn in his side for a long while, but he’d wrongly assumed she was past all her issues when she’d taken up with a younger member of the club. He was going to have to set her straight once and for all. “I’ll take care of her. Thanks for keeping her occupied while I talked with Ellie.”
Manny shrugged a shoulder. “I didn’t have to keep Tara company for long. She stormed out of here earlier and just got back a few minutes ago. She’s demanding I give her permission to get retribution.” He looked at his son closely. “I’m guessing, from the marks on your neck and arms that you two made up?”
“Yes, and this time I’m not leaving her until all this is over. No matter what she wants.” Rex looked over at the blonde watching them anxiously. “I gotta take care of this then get to Ellie’s.”
Manny watched his son stalking the suddenly contrite appearing Tara. That woman wouldn’t come out of this confrontation with any semblance of dignity intact. People were already talking about her since Rex had come in and gone straight to find Ellie. Her reputation would be nothing but dust after Rex was done with her. Still, Manny stayed close. Just in case.
***
Tara started crying the moment Rex started her way. He wasn’t buying it. She’d pulled this kind of crap too often in the year after he’d dated her. Five dates and one night together over a year ago and still, she acted as if she had some kind of hold over him. Her possessive ways were what turned him cold to her in the first place.
“Tara, you can knock the tears off. You’ve played that game way too often for it to work on me.” Rex didn’t sit. Staring down at her, he waited for her to switch personalities and come at him. He didn’t have to wait long.
“That fat bitch attacked me!” She pulled the ice pack away from her extremely swollen nose. “Look at what she did to my face!”
“From what I hear, you had it coming. We aren’t together, Tara. We never really were. We dated, it ended. Period. Stay out of my business or I’ll have you thrown out of this club.”
Her face twisted into something wrong and mean. “So it is true. You’re fucking Xander’s little tramp daughter.”
“Watch your mouth, Tara.” The words were quiet, but his tone was hard and frightening. There was a light in her eyes that worried him.
“People here have been talking, but I didn’t believe them. I defended you when they said Xander’s fat kid had you under her thumb. I told them they were wrong and that you’d never take up with a Karthadossian whore.” She snarled, her busted lip breaking open, a trickle of blood running down to her chin. “I demand retribution. She hit me first. She’s an outsider and a member of a rival club. It’s my right.”
Pure, white heat flooded his chest. “Ellie is not an official member of any club. You provoked her and I’m denying your claim. As Ellie’s lover, I’m telling you straight out—go anywhere near her and you’ll regret it. Keep pushing and I’ll call for a vote right now to have you removed from this club.”
“You don’t have the balls for it. You proved that by hooking up with that little whore.”
Why had he never seen just how ugly she was? There was something sick inside of her. “Manny!” He knew his dad was close by and turned when he reached his side. “I want to call a vote.”
Manny took in the crazed gleam of hate in Tara’s eyes and nodded. She wasn’t what he wanted in his club. “I’ll gather the board. You’ll have to abstain from a vote since you’ll be presenting the case for rejection.”
Rex nodded, understanding what this meant. He’d have to explain his relationship with Ellie to some that didn’t know yet what was going on. It wouldn’t be easy to do without revealing certain things he and Manny were trying to keep quiet. He’d find a way.
The board members, Rex, and Tara left the main room and secluded themselves in the back storeroom. Tara was allowed to plead her case first, screaming like an insane person and basically using the argument that Ellie wasn’t welcome at the club as if she were in a position to make that type of decision. Rex felt confident that he could plead his case and end this quickly.
Rex stood up and turned towards the people he’d worked hard to gain respect from over the past couple of years. “Tara wasn’t lying when she said that I am in a relationship with Ellie Thorn. Yes, Ellie is Xander’s daughter, but she is not a member of her Father’s club. Most of you know that Ellie and I were friends as kids. Manny allowed that because Ellie’s mom removed herself from Xander’s club and kept Ellie protected from her dad and his influence. Many of you also remember what Xander did to Ellie’s mom.”
He looked at a couple of members shake their heads as they remembered the night Ellie’s mom had been found beaten nearly to death. It had been the start of a more serious rivalry between the two clubs that had led to Manny’s incarceration and the loss of two smaller clubs to Xander, along with a good portion of those club members.
“Ellie has had very little contact with her father since her mom passed away. Frankly, she’s not unaware of what kind of man he is and she wants nothing to do with him. Our being together is much more dangerous for her than it is for any of us. Then, the first time she steps foot in this club since she was a kid, she gets attacked by a crazy woman.” Rex gestured to Tara as if she were an afterthought. “Her obsessive ways are well known to many members of this club which is why I called for a vote. She’s destructive, she causes problems in other people’s relationships with her delusions and now she’s attacked an innocent woman.”
Having had his say, Rex went and sat in one of the chairs while the three witnesses he and Tara had each lined up were questioned and made their statements. They were halfway through the process when Tara stood up and began to scream at one of Rex’s witnesses. She was completely rabid with hatred and two of the members were forced to jump up and restrain her when she made a threatening motion towards the man talking.
They held her by the arms as she thrashed around. Manny began to look at her closely. The overly bright look in her eye was something he’d seen recently in an inmate. A new kind of drug, a meth/ecstasy mix, had recently started making the rounds, but it was known to cause some people to have bad reactions. Uncontrollable anger and paranoia mostly. It was one of the drugs Xander was peddling out of his club. It all began to come together.
Manny stood and walked to where Tara was being held, grabbing her by the chin to force her to look at him. “You went to him didn’t you? What did you tell him?!”
Everyone stood at Manny’s words. Tension immediately filled the space and Rex moved quickly to stand behind his dad. Tara’s face split with a smile so evil that his heart lurched. When she spoke his blood went cold.
“I told him his precious baby slut had taken up with our club. That she was one of us now and that she belonged to our Second.” Her fevered gaze landed on Rex. “He rewarded me very well for the information.”
Rex was out of the room at a dead run, her nasty laugh following him out the door.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Ellie was humming a tune as she pulled into her drive. Her escort had gotten caught by a light awhile back and still hadn’t caught up. She didn’t see any reason she should wait to go inside.
> The porch light was off. She couldn’t remember if she’d turned it on or not. Even if she had, the light could have burned out. It did that fairly often. She got the key in the lock and opened the door, reaching in to turn on the light in the foyer.
She dumped her keys on the table and ran her thumb over the slider to unlock her phone. A little bit of guilt lingered over leaving Rex to deal with the mess she’d made by kneeing the blonde. Opening a new text she was just about to start typing when the front door began to close.
Fear made her heart thump painfully. She turned her head and saw him, leaning casually against the opposite wall, what he surely thought was a paternal look on his face. It wasn’t paternal. It was frightening.
“Ellie, my precious daughter. It’s been so long since you’ve come to see me. What a shame that I had to hunt you down just to see how you’re doing.”
His pose against the wall was deceptively calm, but she could see the muscle jumping in his jaw and the way his hands were fisted by his sides. He was having a hard time controlling his rage. “I’ve been busy.”
“I guess I should be relieved that you didn’t try lying to me. We both know why I’m here.” He moved away from the wall and Ellie took a step back, bumping into the table behind her. “Nowhere to run, Ellie girl.”
“Please, just leave.” The text box was open on her phone, but there was no way for her to type a message out without him seeing. She’d already clicked on Rex’s name. If she could just type in the code word, maybe she could stall her dad long enough for him to get here. She moved her thumb and his sharp eyes lit on the movement.
“Trying to text your new lover?” He shook his head, disappointed that she would be so stupid to think he wouldn’t see. “Put the phone down on the table behind you.”
Ellie moved to do what he said, afraid like never before. As she set it down she noticed the talk to text button. Sliding her thumb over it she activated the option, glad she had her phone’s volume turned off. It lit up and she hoped that it worked. “What do you want?”
“Well, what I’d like to do is throttle you for thinking you could embarrass me this way.” Xander rubbed his hands together, the thought of her neck in between them almost too irresistible. “You look so much like your slut of a mother. Too bad you picked up her whorish ways. Spreading your legs for that lowlife son of Manny’s.
“Your momma liked Manny too. Must be something in your genes that makes you weak for his type. She couldn’t wait to spread her legs for Manny. Too bad she passed away before I could make her pay for that little indiscretion again.” He looked at his knuckles, remembering what it had felt like to slam them into the face of the woman who’d made a complete fool out of him. He thought he had killed her that night, but she had managed to hang on until Manny found her and got her to a hospital. Another little check mark against the man he was determined to put in the ground.
“I don’t believe you. They were friends, nothing more.” Ellie tried to fight the tears that were burning her eyes. “What is wrong with you?”
Xander’s chuckle was dark. “There’s nothing wrong with me, Ellie girl. I’m just doing what I have to do. You see, I have a very lucrative deal with some south of the border friends and Manny is in my way. Again. Manny, and because of you, his son.”
“Don’t put Rex in this. He hasn’t done anything to you.” Ellie got a little of her fire back, reaching up to wipe the one tear that had managed to escape her eye.
Stepping forward, he got in his daughter’s face, his twisted in obvious disgust. “Hasn’t he? He’s been in you often enough to piss me off. That’s more than enough in my book.”
She didn’t move. Didn’t dare give him an inch. “So nice of you to finally show some fatherly concern. Too bad it’s a little late.”
He slapped her, hard. So hard her teeth rattled. “Watch your mouth or I’ll give you the same treatment I gave your whore of a mother when she defied me.”
Ellie’s hand came up to cup her cheek and she felt blood leaking from the corner of her mouth. He’d meant to scare her with the slap, but instead it had made her mad. He wanted control of her, to use her as a weapon. She couldn’t let that happen. “I won’t let you use me to get to Rex and Manny.”
“You have more loyalty to those two inbreed assholes than your own father?” Xander got in her face again, so angry that when he spoke, spittle flew from his mouth and hit her face.
Willing her hand not to shake, she reached up and wiped his filth from her face and wiped it on her pants. Her father stepped back, looking hard at her with an expression she couldn’t interpret. It wasn’t anger. It was more like—amusement.
“Oh, aren’t you the tough one? A little more like me there with that temper than your wimp momma. I’m going to enjoy breaking you.”
The gleam in his eyes turned Ellie’s stomach. This wasn’t a man. He was a monster. A real living, breathing monster. “You’ll never break me.”
He stepped closer again, staring into her eyes so she could see the crazy that lived inside him. “You’ll break—or I’ll break the man you love.”
She refused to look away. Holding on to what little strength she had was vitally important. “You won’t break me because I love him. Ever since we were kids. No matter what you do to me, that will never change.”
“I guess we’ll find out. You made your choice.” Xander grabbed her by the arms and pulled her out of the house where two of his guys were waiting. She fought, kicking and screaming until finally Xander knocked her out with a punch to the back of the head.
“Load her in the truck. If she wakes up and starts making noise, give her another love tap. Don't put a mark on her or I’ll mark you two up. She’s off limits to everyone but me. Understood?”
The two brawny men nodded, lifting her limp body into the truck. They drove off and Xander got on his bike, heading back to his club and the men waiting for him there. He had important business to discuss.
***
Once again, Rex was breaking every traffic law to get to Ellie. The knot in his gut was burning. He couldn’t erase the look on Tara’s face when she said she had gone to Xander. Of all the things that she could have done—
He knew it was over the minute he pulled into the driveway. The front door was open and the light was on. He jumped off his bike and let it land in the grass. He pushed open the door carefully, a pistol in his hand just in case, calling out her name. Nothing. She was gone.
Her keys and phone were on the table in the foyer. He picked up the phone and swiped this thumb across it the way he’d seen her do a hundred times. The open text was on the screen. His beautiful, smart Ellie. She’d found a way to make sure he knew what had happened. He scrolled up to the top and read everything that had been picked up by the mic.
His worst nightmare had come true. Xander knew everything and he’d taken Ellie.
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
Manny Pershing watched his son pick at yet another meal. In the past couple of weeks, the boy had lost a good thirty pounds. He was beginning to resemble one of those monsters from that popular television show.
They were all tired and stressed out. There had not been even one small sighting of Ellie and they didn’t even have a tiny clue as to where Xander might be holding her. Every moment he wasn’t searching, planning, or plotting, Rex sat and imagined the worst. It was taking a hard toll on him.
They explored every possible avenue. Through a little bit of dirty trickery, they found out that Ellie’s work was informed that there was a family emergency that required her to take an extended leave. Her house payment and other bills were paid out of her bank account electronically. As a result, they were left with absolutely nothing to work with.
The day after Ellie was taken, Rex used her keys to go in and take certain things from her house. Her laptop was the top priority. He also took her books and a tiny picture frame full of dried weeds. After that one visit, he hadn’t gone back.
The worst part of it, for
Rex especially, was watching Xander go about his normal activities. Xander knew they were watching him, of that there was no doubt. He stayed close to the club or his house and engaged in very little activity otherwise. All movement at the storage buildings had stopped and he’d even cut back on the amount of drugs that he dealt out of his place. Although his bank account should have taken a hit from the reduced income, he seemed to be in the black more than ever.
Manny set up a meeting with a couple of cops that he trusted. He wanted to have something more substantial to present to them, but considering that Xander was on the local radar for years, it was possible they would take Manny and Rex at their word and help them find Ellie. Everything else would have to wait until she was safe again.
The longer this went on, the more he worried that Ellie was already dead and that they’d never find her body.
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