by Jani Kay
My child’s life was in the balance. It would be up to me to get him back alive.
Chapter 37 — Cobra
Let them all think I’d stay home while they were out there looking for Jamie. More than ever, I had something to prove. And Daemon was mine. I wanted to see the light fade from his eyes as I took his fucking life with my bare hands. The rage that had been building inside me for days was reaching breaking point.
After Summers left, I went to my room in the compound. I hadn’t been in there since Mia told me what had happened. I didn’t want to be in the space where Daemon had forced himself on her, tricking her into thinking it was me, and then fucking her like a whore once she realized it wasn’t.
Since I’d decided to follow Ryder that night when Savage picked him up, a deadly calm had come over me. Suddenly, all the weariness of the weeks of worry crept into my bones and my whole body ached. I needed sleep. And to let my mind feast on the images of revenge as I dreamt of retribution for everything my twin had done to me and to others I cared about over the years.
Fucker wouldn’t know what had hit him. And once it was done and I brought Jamie back to Mia, I’d beg her forgiveness and ask her to take me back and love me again.
I unlocked the door to the room I’d feared to enter for weeks. I’d slept on the sofa or in an unoccupied room. Anywhere but here.
Pushing the door open, my gaze roamed around the deserted space. It didn’t have the heavy impact I’d thought it would. It was just an empty room with a large bed in it. I sank onto the mattress and closed my eyes.
Yeah. I hadn’t slept more than an hour at a time for weeks. It was time I caught up so that I’d be ready for action that night.
Grabbing Mia’s pillow so I could inhale her singular scent, I was surprised how strong it was after all this time. Sadness pierced my heart at everything we’d lost. I’d never take anything for granted again. I missed holding my wife and cuddling my baby daughter.
Drifting away into a deep sleep, I clung to images flitting through my mind of happier days. Jamie’s birth, the happiest day of my life after marrying my beautiful Mexican girl, and Isabella joining her brother a few years later and completing our happy family.
Like a fool, I’d believed our love was indestructible. That I was fucking invincible. Bullets through my lungs and shattered beliefs about my family changed all of that.
Tonight I’d take it back. My family and my woman’s love. And Daemon would pay the price for the injustice. This time he’d be dead for real, unable to come back into my life ever again.
*****
I woke with a jerk to loud knocking on my door.
“Who the fuck is it?” I groaned, unwilling to leave the peaceful state between sleep and consciousness before the troubles of reality hit me squarely in the balls again.
“It’s me,” Ryder said, pushing the door open. He stood before me dressed all in black from head to toe, his hair tied back in a ponytail, and a big knuckled ring on each finger, including his thumbs which were hooked into the loops of his pants as he leaned against the doorjamb. I’d forgotten how fucking intimidating he could be when he was dressed in all leathers and chains. This was what Ryder wore when he went to war. He was ready to go fight my battle for me.
I swallowed hard, my heart swelling that a man who wasn’t of my own flesh would be prepared to risk his life for my family and me. He had so much to lose now he’d found his own woman, yet it was never a question with Ryder. His loyalty belonged to the club and me, even though he’d more than repaid the debt he believed he owed me for saving his life in juvie. If only my blood brother had shown the same qualities, none of this would be happening.
I rolled off the bed and came to stand in front of him. Blinking, I gripped his upper arms and looked him squarely in the eye. “You have no fucking idea how much this means to me, Ryder. You are my true brother.”
He nodded, a small smile twisting his lips. “I know. Brothers always, man.” He swallowed before gripping me into a man hug. “I love Jamie too,” he said simply. It wasn’t a matter of whose sperm the boy came from for either of us.
“Now get the fuck outta here before this turns into a goddamn soap opera,” I said, trying my best to hide how affected I was by all of this.
“Yeah, yeah. We can’t keep the master planner waiting, can we?” he joked to lighten the mood. “Savage is on his way to pick me up—he called me as he left the office. Fuck knows how I’m going to stay in the vehicle while they play cops and robbers.”
Ryder’s eye had started twitching again. Alarm struck me in the chest. It meant things were going to get fucked up. I’d come to believe in Ryder’s sixth sense; a twitching eye never bode well for us in the past.
Christ. Please let this work out. I hadn’t been a praying man, but lately I’d caught up at a rapid speed.
Ryder slapped me on the back and turned away. I watched his back for a few moments before I followed him. My bike was ready. I was ready. I just had to make sure neither him nor the cop noticed that I was following them.
Boots crunched on the path outside as Ryder made his way to the gate. I scrambled to my Harley like a stealth warrior. It was the first time ever I wished the beast didn’t roar like she did when I started her engine. Fuck.
Ryder froze in his tracks for a split second. My heart beat wildly in my chest and I waited for him to turn around. He didn’t. He kept walking to the waiting vehicle and jumped right in without a backward glance, leaving the gate open against the rules. He knows.
Of course Ryder knew I’d follow them. It was a fucking no-brainer.
Chapter 38 — Cobra
I kept my eyes on the black SUV as it traveled through the traffic, making sure I stayed a few cars behind and sometimes as much as a block away when I had a good idea of where they were headed. Savage was a sharp fucker, and he’d be on the lookout for someone on his tail.
A few times my heart nearly arrested as I thought I’d lost them, but luckily the heavy flow of traffic always allowed me to catch up when they were caught at a red light or busy interchange. One benefit of living in an overpopulated city with nightmare traffic conditions.
Thirty minutes later, the SUV came to a stop outside a ramshackle building. I pulled up behind a huge refuse bin while I waited for them to move again. It made my skin crawl thinking that Jamie could be held hostage somewhere in this filthy rundown neighborhood. Most buildings we’d driven past in the last five minutes looked the same—some had cracked windows while others were completely windowless.
The neighborhood was notorious for gang fights and the kind of place nobody who wanted to stay alive went by themselves. Not even bikers. A person’s life wasn’t worth a dime. I shuddered as cold fingers gripped my beating heart and squeezed. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t fucking shitting myself.
I recalled that Summers told Ryder they’d stop up the road half a mile from the actual place they were targeting and that was the closest he’d get to the action.
Keep driving, keep going. This can’t be where we’re going . . .
If it looked like this on the outside, I had no fucking hope that the insides of any place on this street was any better. Litter lay scattered in the road and the sidewalk, and plastic bags had blown up against the wire fence, dancing in the gusts of wind that warned of rain.
It was dark and eerie, lightning struck in the distance, and the smell of rain on concrete filled my nostrils. Just what we needed—a fucking thunderstorm. Jamie hated those, and it would drive his fear to another level.
The day he was taken we’d had thunderstorms too. Was it an omen? I wasn’t superstitious, yet the hair on my neck stood upright, making my skin crawl. I’d never forgive myself if Jamie didn’t get out of this alive. He’d been under my roof, under my fucking protection, and I’d let him down.
I stopped the motorcycle and let it idle in case they started moving again, hoping that this wasn’t the actual neighborhood where Jamie was. We didn’t live in luxu
ry, but neither did we live in squalor.
A rat the size of a cat scurried against a graffiti wall and disappeared into the gutter. A shiver ran down my spine.
What if the boy was sick? Or worse?
Daemon hadn’t made any demands. It wasn’t normal to not ask for something when holding a captive. What kind of game was he playing? My stomach churned. Fuck Summers and his commands. As soon as I knew where to go, I was going in to find out for myself.
For the moment I’d stay hidden and watch while I worked on a strategy to get past the SUV undetected and to find the right building.
Chapter 39 — Mia
If I weren’t so fucking afraid, I’d high five myself that I’d managed to follow both the SUV and Cobra without being spotted. Sitting in Tanya’s car diagonally across the road from where the SUV had parked, I’d reversed into the driveway of what appeared to be an abandoned property. If my calculations were right, I was less than six hundred yards from the target. And my son.
My head was pounding with a headache from hell. I slowly let the air I’d been holding out of my lungs. I’d known that following Savage undetected was going to be tricky, so I’d borrowed a friend’s old car for the night. Didn’t help that it was red, even if the paint was faded from the Californian sun, but neither of them would have suspected it was me in an unfamiliar car.
I hadn’t bargained on Cobra having the same idea as me. My heart nearly jumped out of my chest when I saw him pull out of the lot and follow Ryder and the cop. Shocked to see him but not surprised that he’d disobeyed Summers, I knew Cobra’s presence would add complications to my plan. He was a hot head, like all the Malone men, and wouldn’t be able to stay calm under duress.
It meant I had to change my plans and move in quicker. I had to find Jamie and Daemon before Ryder or Cobra did. More bloodshed wasn’t going to bring Ratbag back, and frankly I’d had enough.
I hated Daemon for everything he’d done to me and my family.
We were family, for God’s sake. Jamie was our son—mine and Cobra’s and nothing would change that. I just had to get Cobra to see past the ugliness that came in our path and get things back the way they were before. My heart ached so much and I longed for my husband’s closeness and his love. It was up to me to resolve this without another Scorpio Stinger or Jamie’s blood being shed.
The black SUV stood outside a dilapidated building. Jamie would be held in a building five hundred yards up the road from what Harrison had told Ryder. And Daemon would be there too. What would it be like to come face to face with him again after all these years?
Gripping the gold cross in my hand, I closed my eyes and shot up yet another prayer. I took a few deep breaths to slow my racing heartbeat, willing myself to be calm and rational. To go slow and easy. I had the element of surprise on my side. Nobody—not even my husband, who usually knew my every move—had any idea that I was there, too.
The darkness of the night with the ominous clouds overhead would make my job easier. I sucked in a breath and opened the car door with trembling hands. I had to get inside first so I could talk with Daemon if I could find him.
I’ll bargain with the devil if I can save the lives of all the men and my child.
On wobbly knees, I slid along the wall and stood with my back against the cold bricks in the gusty wind for a few minutes while familiarizing myself with my surroundings and watching the parked SUV. If it moved again, I was screwed.
How would I know which one was the place where Jamie was held? I’d have to trust my instincts more than ever.
Five minutes later Savage was still parked there; I sprinted across the road with my heart pumping in my throat until I reached a building with a side gate. I’d have to jump fences between properties for the next six hundred yards to get to the target building without being detected.
It wasn’t just Cobra and Savage I had to avoid—a whole police squad was about to raid the place when Summers turned up. Not to mention Daemon and his men inside. There was no way in hell that with all those eyes trained on the property, I wouldn’t get seen.
The gate hung on one hinge, and in spite of my best intentions, I accidentally touched the rusting metal frame, causing the gate to squeak back and forth a few times. I held my breath, waiting for someone to discover me and blow my little mission before it even started. A strong gust of wind swept through and banged the gate against the wall.
No reaction.
Somewhere in the distance a dog barked, but out there nobody moved.
Suppressing a nervous giggle, I realized that these sounds were normal in a place like this. Everything was in a state of disrepair, and a swinging gate was expected to squeak in the wind. It reminded me of one of those damn horror movies Cobra loved watching. I hated horror stories but he loved when I always watched with him because they made me curl up under his arm and bury my face in his chest for most of the night.
What I wouldn’t give to be there now—safe in his arms, him rubbing my back as I protested about his bad taste in movies. How trivial it seemed now. I’d never complain again about his movie choices if I could have that all back again—both kids sleeping soundly in their beds as Cobra’s hand drifted under my clothes and removed them slowly as he kissed me all over and then fucked me on the couch.
I blinked a few times, forcing myself to forget the past and focus on what I was doing.
Be brave, Mia. You have to do this.
Hatred had fueled me into action. It was stronger than my fear. Yet it was love that kept me going when I wanted to give up.
I snuck to the back of the abandoned building and then jumped a few fences. Thank God I was fit and agile, because some fences where higher than others and I’d ripped my shirt twice in the process of climbing over. I landed on my feet as I jumped the last fence.
This has to be it.
Raucous laughter came from inside—as well as the sounds of men yelling and women screaming. I trembled as I crept along the side of the building to get to the house’s back yard, needing to find the back entrance.
Leaning against the wall to steady my shaking legs, I listened for Daemon’s voice. Too scared to take a peek, I stood still for about five minutes just listening and catching my breath, until my foot became numb from standing in the same position for too long. Fuck it—I needed to steal a glimpse so I knew what I was dealing with.
Slowly I raised my head, just enough to see inside. My gaze fell on naked bodies, men and women intertwined, writhing and sweating as they fucked every conceivable hole in a person’s body.
And then I saw him. Daemon.
I’m at the right place.
Sandwiched between him and another man was a brunette with huge breasts, who had a third man’s cock in her mouth. I watched in awe as Daemon rode her from behind, slapping her ass and grunting as he pulled back her hair, his naked body toned and slick. He leaned over a glass table with rows of white powder and snorted up one line and then another, then, with a grin, commenced pounding into the woman’s ass.
Pulling away from the window, I rested on my haunches for a moment. This was my chance to find my boy. Hopefully everyone in that room would stay in their sex-and-drugs haze and give me a chance to get inside unnoticed.
Staying close to the wall, I crept slowly the rest of the way to the back entrance. Just as I’d hoped, the door stood wide open, insects buzzing around the light. So far, so good. I was only a few yards from it.
Lightning struck somewhere close and nearly made me jump out of my skin. The next minute the sky opened and poured rain down before I could reach for cover. Fuck. Now I was soaked through. I shivered in the cold night air.
Ducking my head, I ran to the door. God, please don’t let anyone see me. Just as I reached the entrance, the outdoor light buzzed loudly, blinked twice and then died. I couldn’t believe my luck, yet the sudden darkness threw me for a moment until my eyes adjusted again.
I was wiping the water from my face when I heard the sound. My boy. He was c
rying, sobbing his little heart out. I heard it even above the pounding noise of the music and the people and the storm outside.
I’d hear that cry anywhere.
Jamie had always been afraid of thunder and lightning, and I could only imagine the terror he was feeling now. I was so damn close, yet too far to comfort him.
Nobody was stopping me now. I opened the door, the creak no doubt smothered by the sound of pouring rain, and stepped into a dark empty laundry. I followed the sound of the sobbing down the passage. Just before I reached my destination I heard voices from the room before it.
“Jesus, is that kid gonna wail all night long?” a woman asked, her shrill, high pitched voice grating my nerves.
“Shhh, baby, I’m supposed to be watching the little cunt. I don’t want the boss finding you here while I’m on duty, so don’t make waves.”
“Oh yeah? Well how am I supposed to come listening to that, huh? Maybe I should go in there and slap him around till he stops.”
“That would be fun. Maybe we can make him watch you come. That will stun the little bastard into silence.”
Holy shit! What had these lowlifes put my child through? If they harmed one hair on his head, this mama was going to go crazy.
As I slid along the wall, just as I was in front of the doorway a bolt of lightning struck again, lighting up the room they were in. The woman was on her knees, sucking one of the biggest cocks I’d ever seen. The man stood leaning back against the wall, his head rolled back, a gun in his one hand, the other on her head, forcing her to take him deeper.
My gag reflexes took over, nearly making me puke. I wiped the sweat from my brow with a wet sleeve. How could I be hot and cold at the same time? I reached for the door handle of the room I’d heard the crying come from and turned.
Please let my boy be okay.
Please let us get out of here fast . . . and alive.
