Leo nodded again. “Of course, but he did have to tell me everything he had on Del and Tray.”
“That’s who Jenkins is trying to get in with?” I was in the dark on everything they were saying. Fucking clueless.
Wrecker held up his hand. “Let’s try to stay on track here. At least for Brinks’ sake at the moment. He was in River Valley for a couple of weeks and has no clue about anything.”
“Storytime, then,” Oakley chuckled. He reached for a Styrofoam container of food from the center of the table and flipped back the lid. “Frankos?”
Nickel chuckled and nodded. “You know it.”
Oakley grabbed the burger and took a huge bite. “I need to get into fast food,” he mumbled to himself. “Shit is as addictive as blow.”
Wrecker grabbed the Styrofoam container in front of him and handed it to Leo. “Shut up and eat, yeah?”
Leo grabbed the container. “Since you asked so nicely.”
Once Leo and Oakley were eating their food, Wrecker continued. His eyes were trained on me because I was the only clueless dumbass. “When I couldn’t get in touch with you, I was trying everything I could to find you. Went to River Valley, turned over every leaf and couldn’t figure out where the hell you went. Then we found out Cora and you were hooking up. I was talking to Oakley and Leo, and both of them were trying to find you.”
“For a guy who is a straight-up psycho, he’s pretty damn smart,” Oakley added. “He was in River Valley with you, but he had basically gone underground with you.”
“Every lead we got led us back to River Valley, but once we got there, everything went cold,” Wrecker continued. “That is, until one night I was at the bar in town and a drunk came in. He couldn’t keep his mouth shut and kept going on and on about a new kingpin moving into town and that he was going to rule the whole state and then the whole country.”
“Sounds like the words of a drunk,” Nickel laughed. “Karmen gets drunk and turns into a pirate.”
“Yeah, except this guy was telling the truth.” Pipe shook his head. “He led us right back to where Jenkins was hiding out.”
“So why the fuck didn’t you kill the fucker then?” I demanded.
Leo grabbed a napkin and wiped his hands. “Because the almighty Wrecker got himself in a tight spot before he could.”
“We would have been fine,” Wrecker growled.
Leo tossed the napkin on the table. “I’m sure most of you would have been okay, but your pretty little woman would have been crying over a pine box.”
“Del and Tray’s minions got a hold of Wrecker and his guys before they could get to Jenkins.” Oakley grabbed the unopened beer in front of Wrecker. “Luckily, Wrecker was able to use his connections with Leo and me to strike a deal with them.”
Nickel raised his hand. “Am I the only one wondering why the hell we weren’t told that Wrecker got nicked by those two?”
“Details,” Wrecker muttered.
“Seems like a big fucking detail to me,” Maniac chuckled.
“So what kind of deal did you make?” Slayer asked.
“The kind of deal that involved Cora?” Jesus Christ. This was getting more and more twisted. “How is making a deal with some second-rank drug dealers a plan that will get Cora back?”
Wrecker kept saying it was all part of the plan, but I had to wonder if the plan was actually going to work.
“A deal neither of us were fans of, but it will eventually go away.” Leo flitted his hand. “Del and Tray share a brain between the two of them. They were barely smart enough to blackmail Wrecker into the bullshit they want. They talked to us over the phone, and I was surprised at the end of it that they didn’t have to run and ask their mom if it was okay to make the deal.”
“And they want Cora?” I asked. How did they even know about Cora?
Wrecker shook his head. “Jenkins wants Cora. Del and Tray want a future working with Leo and Oakley. If they became the ones close to Jenkins, that would give us information.”
“I’m still amazed at all of the twist and turns,” Boink chuckled.
“I don’t understand how Cora got roped into all of this? Why does Jenkins want her, and why can’t we just waltz into wherever the hell he is and take Cora?” They knew where I had been held, so why the hell didn’t we just go back there and take back Cora?
“I’ll field this one.” Leo rested his hand on the table. “Del and Tray caught Wrecker. Wrecker saw the only way out was to contact Oakley and me. We offered Del and Tray the opportunity to get in line with the two of us. In return, they would convince Jenkins to return you to us. They ran into a problem with that when Jenkins said the only way he would give up Brinks would be if he had a trade. Someone to take your place.”
“Cora,” I growled.
Leo nodded. “Del and Tray relayed that to us. We didn’t want to involve Cora, but she seemed to be the key to what we wanted. We didn’t even get the words out of our mouths before Cora said she would do it. So, we got you back, and now, Jenkins has Cora. Del and Tray are going to let us know where Jenkins and Cora are, and then we’ll get Cora.”
“So we’re relying on two shitty drug dealers to provide us with information.” My tone was flat, and I was ready to lose my shit.
“Two shitty drug dealers who are eager and desperate to be a part of a bigger deal.” Oakley wiped his mouth and drained his beer. “We have tails on them. As soon as they find out where Jenkins and Cora are, we will, too. These two idiots are not going to weasel their way away from us.”
“It was dumb luck they were able to put the drop down on Pipe, Freak, and me.” Wrecker folded his arms over his chest.
“There, there, bearded wonder.” Leo clapped him on the shoulder with a broad smile on his face.
Oakley leaned around Wrecker. “You heard her call him that, too, huh?” he asked Leo.
Leo nodded. “Sure as hell did, and I have been waiting for the right time to call him it.”
Wrecker jerked away from Leo.
“So, what do we do now?” I asked.
“We wait,” Leo and Oakley said in unison.
“For?” I drawled. The only thing I saw that would happen if we waited was Cora would die.
Oakley shifted in his chair. “For Del and Tray to give us intel. We’re assuming it might take a couple of weeks. Jenkins went off the deep when the idea of Cora came up.”
“I still don’t understand why he wants Cora.” Things were making sense, but that was a big thing I didn’t understand. She had gone this long without Jenkins doing anything to her. What happened that made that change?
Wrecker cleared his throat. “Del and Tray are into more than cheap blow.” He glanced at Leo. “Jenkins has been dabbling with human trafficking.”
Jenkins was going to sell her. “No,” I growled.
“Nothing is going to happen to her, Brinks. You have our word,” Oakley promised.
“Your word? I don’t know exactly what that is doing for Cora right now because she’s not fucking here.”
Holy. Fuck.
If we weren’t quick enough or messed up, Cora was going to be sold to the highest bidder.
*
Chapter Four
Cora
“I better get back to my room.”
Brinks’ arms wrapped around my waist and pulled me back in the bed. “You don’t need to leave just yet.”
“If I don’t leave now then everyone will see me sneaking back into my room.”
Brinks’ facial scruff brushed against my cheek. “Then we just won’t leave my room.”
“Because that is totally possible.” Brinks always begged me to stay, each time a little longer than the last. It was almost six in the morning, and it wouldn’t be long ‘til people started moving around the clubhouse.
“Well, it’s mostly possible. I can go grab some food when we get hungry, and then, the rest of the time I can spend memorizing every inch of your sweet, soft skin.”
A tremor ran throug
h my body. His hand glided over my hip and cupped my pussy.
“Again?” I gasped.
“Is that really a question? You know I can’t ever seem to get enough of you.”
That was the God’s truth. But the same went for me when it came to him.
When we weren’t together, locked away in his room, I was searching for ways to sneak away to steal just a simple touch from him. One night, after having too many drinks, somehow Brinks and I had wound up in the hallway outside his room, and instead of heading to my bed, I fell into his.
“One more time, and then, I need to get back,” I whispered. I really couldn’t ever say no to him. We both knew that I wouldn’t go back to my room unless he decided to come with me.
He rolled me onto my back and straddled my hips. He grabbed both of my wrists and lifted them above my head. “No moving until I say so.”
I bit my lip and nodded. “My favorite,” I hummed.
Brinks leaned down and pressed a kiss to my ear. “WAKE UP!”
I jerked up, and my body snapped back onto the hard floor.
“When are you going to learn that you’re handcuffed to the heater?” Susie laughed. “Every damn time,” she tittered.
I closed my eyes and tried not to sob out loud. I just wanted to fall back asleep and be back in Brinks’ arms.
That was all I wanted.
“Rise and shine. It’s time for your yummy breakfast.”
Uh. I fucking hated Susie. The chick had to be bipolar. One second, she was sweet as pie to me, and then, she was a raging bitch. Jenkins needed to spend a little less money on gas and try to get Susie some good medicine.
“I’m not hungry.” My throat was raw, and I swallowed rapidly. Sleeping on a dirty floor wasn’t doing much for my lungs. God only knew what kind of shit I was inhaling all night.
“Jenkins said I need to feed you. He’s going to be mad if he finds out that you didn’t eat.”
God, I wish she would just shut up and leave me alone. While Jenkins had said she couldn’t hurt the merchandise, that didn’t mean he was treating me well.
“Where did he go?” I croaked.
“He had a few errands he had to run.”
I slowly sat up, scooted my butt closer to where I was chained, and leaned against the wall. “And he didn’t want to take you with him?” I grimaced at the pain in my shoulder and took a deep breath. “Doesn’t want to be seen in public with you?”
Susie snapped the gum in her mouth. “Nah, I got me some good dick from him last night. I’m too tired to go anywhere.”
My lip curled, and I tried not to gag. “How nice for you.”
Thank God I had been too tired that I hadn’t heard anything last night. The bed Jenkins and Susie slept in was only a few feet away from me. Bile rose in my throat, and I struggled to fight it back.
“So what do you want to eat? Pop Tart or a waffle?”
“Coffee.”
Susie shook her head. “Jenkins said you need to eat something. You fell asleep after your bath yesterday before you could eat, so today, you definitely need to eat.”
I rolled my head from side to side, trying to work out a kink from sleeping on the hard floor. “I’m not hungry. I’ll just take coffee. Black.”
Coffee was the only thing that was going to help me start to feel human.
Susie strutted into the kitchen area and grabbed a box of frozen waffles from the freezer. “For every waffle you eat, you’ll get a cup of coffee. Deal?”
I groaned but nodded. “Fine. You better have syrup for them.” I planned on eating at least four of those fuckers if it meant I was going to get four cups of coffee. “Do I have to eat them on the floor?”
I prayed to God that Susie was in a kind mood and not queen bitch.
“Wherever I move you to, I need to chain you. Jenkins’ rules.”
Of course, those were Jenkins’ rules.
I eyed up Susie, trying to figure out if I could take her and maybe escape.
“The doors and windows are locked from the outside. Don’t even think about hitting me or some shit. All that’s going to do is piss off Jenkins when he comes back and finds me knocked out and you trapped like a rat.”
Well, hell. Of course, Jenkins would lock us in.
“Well, then I guess that means you and I are going to get to know each other, Susie.”
She stuck two waffles in the toaster then pulled a key from her bra.
Another deterrent for me to get the key. No way in hell I was going to reach my hand down her shirt.
Susie unlocked the chain from the radiator and led me over to the coffee table. She pulled a chair out and pointed for me to sit down. She locked the other end of the chain to handle on the fridge and went back to the toaster. “See, that was easy. You keep that up and everything will be fine.”
I rolled my eyes. Yeah, because being chained to a fridge was totally normal and fine.
God, I needed Wrecker and the rest of the Fallen Lords to figure out where the hell I was and come get me. It was only my second day here, and it felt like thirty.
“So, how did you meet my brother?”
Susie grabbed a plate and set it on the counter. “I was working at the club, and he came in with his crew.”
“Crew?” It had been awhile since Jenkins had a crew. Brinks had kept me in the loop with all of the fuck ups by Jenkins, and I figured he was holed up somewhere with no one left to even call a friend.
“It was almost two years ago.”
Ah, it must have been right after Jenkins had shipped me off on the back of Pipe’s bike to stay with the Fallen Lords. “That’s why we never had a chance to meet. I was gone by then.”
Susie grabbed the waffles from the toaster and set them in front of me. “Yeah. Jenkins really never mentioned you either until the past month or so. I was surprised when he told me he had a sister.”
That didn’t surprise me at all. Jenkins only mentioned me when it benefited him. Ninety percent of the time when I lived in the clubhouse in River Valley, I just stayed in my room. It was safer that way. The less he thought about me, the better off I was.
For some reason, the last month, I had been on Jenkins’ mind.
Susie grabbed a fork from a drawer and then grabbed the syrup from the fridge.
She laid the fork next to my plate and popped open the top to the syrup.
“How long have you been here?”
“Me?” She tapped her finger on her chin. “At least nine months.”
Holy hell. She had been living here for that long? “And where are we?”
She blinked twice, and I could see her niceness fade away.
Shit. I had pushed too far. Although, it hadn’t really seemed like I had pushed that much.
“You’ll find out soon enough, Cora. Once they come for you, where you are will be the least of your problems.” A manic smile spread across her lips. “Until then, we can be friends.”
What. The. Fuck.
My assessment of Susie being bipolar might be right, but I had a feeling there was a whole hell of a lot of other things screwed up about her.
*
Chapter Five
Brinks
This was it.
This was what we were doing until we got news from Del and Tray.
I drained my beer and tossed it in the garbage can behind the bar.
It had been two days since the meeting with Oakley and Leo.
Two days that I sat in the clubhouse doing absolutely nothing while every possible horrible thing that could be happening to Cora ran through my mind.
“Yo! Anyone order something?”
I turned around and saw Slayer walking toward the bar with a large brown box in his hands.
“Who’s it addressed to?” I asked. That would be the most logical thing to look at.
“Me, but I know I didn’t order a damn thing.” Slayer set it on the bar, and I grabbed my pocketknife.
“Then your woman must have been the one to order
shit.” I sliced open the box.
Slayer peeled back the flaps, and we both looked in the box.
“What the fuck?” I reached in and pulled out a black stocking hat. “I know it’s wintertime, but does your girl really need a box full of black stocking hats?”
Slayer dumped the box out on the bar.
“You guys planning on robbing a bank?” Pipe walked over to the pile of hats and pulled out a black ski mask.
“Brinks already did that,” Slayer chuckled.
“I thought it was an armored truck?” Pipe asked.
I glared at him. “You got an option to rob a Brinks truck or a bank, always go for the Brinks truck. They got a shit-ton more money than a bank.”
“Sound advice,” Pipe laughed. He sorted through the pile of black hats. “Six black stocking hats, six black ski masks, and two pairs of black panty hose.”
We all stared at the pile. None of us knew what the hell to think of the hats and ski masks. Throw in the panty hose and I wondered which kinky fucker ordered it all.
“Is that my box?” Wendy called.
“This is your shit, babe?” Slayer called. “What the fuck do you have planned for us tonight?”
Wendy’s jaw dropped, and she sprinted over to us. “Oh, uh, well, you know.” She scrambled to throw everything back in the box, but half of it missed and landed on the floor.
“Yo, Pipe,” Wrecker called. “You think you could head over to—” He stopped mid-sentence and watched Wendy scramble to toss everything in the box. Somehow, a pair of pantyhose got stuck on my chair, and she was struggling to free it. “What the fuck is going on?” he thundered.
“Wendy?” Alice called from down the hallway.
Oh, hell. Shit was about to get interesting.
“Oh, hey,” Alice called too cheerfully when she skidded to a stop in front of Wrecker. “I didn’t know you were, uh, here.”
Wrecker folded his arms over his chest and looked down at Alice. “This is kind of where I spend a lot of my time.”
She flipped her hand in his face. “I meant here, here. Not here in general.”
Wendy finally managed to free the pantyhose by almost knocking me off my stool and tossed them in the box. “I got the package, Alice.”
Fallen Lords MC: Books 7-9 Page 30
