Break Me (Taken Series Book 2)

by Cannavina, Whitney

  The difference between this time and the last two times is that I wasn’t prepared before. I didn’t have all the facts. I didn’t know that there were other forces, forces that were supposed to be on my side but were in all actuality working against me. Now I know. The other thing I have going for me is everyone thinks I’m dead. It makes it easier for me to go undetected. I am a ghost.

  I have also changed my look. Instead of the short cut I sported I have grown my hair out. It hangs to my shoulders but I usually throw it back in a hair tie to keep it out of my face. I’ve also grown a decent looking beard and mustache. Unless you looked closely you wouldn’t recognize me now. It is just what I was going for because if I plan to stay invisible then I cannot let any of his men realize who I am. I’ve been training and trying to get my strength back by running ten miles a day and working out, lifting weights. If I was big before, I’m a goliath now. In size alone, I went up from a large that fit snug to a double x snug. I need to become invincible as well. My strength will be what gets me through the men watching Jeremy’s house.

  It took me a little while to find out where he had taken Sierra but eventually I found someone willing to help me. My informant who helped me rescue Sierra the first time from the whore house had no clue as to where the new house was. Since that night Jeremy has kept only a close counsel and because my original informant was to keep watch that night, Jeremy has apparently written him off as useless. Instead I had my newest informant follow the fights and listen to conversations of known buyers to find out where they were meeting. I knew it wouldn’t take long before someone gave away Jeremy’s location. It was only a few weeks of listening and waiting before he threw a small gathering with his biggest buyers to show off his latest conquest, which I assumed was Sierra, and to parade the girls he planned to sell for auction.

  I so badly wanted to say fuck it and go in with guns blazing and rescue my baby girl but I knew it wasn’t the time. He needs to feel as if he is invincible. I needed him to think that he had nobody looking into his world. I also knew that I needed to wait for my old boss, the man who shot me, the man who I trusted that turned out to be the mole, to make his move. I knew it would happen. He wouldn’t just let Jeremy steal his business out from under him without consequence. He spent years building it from the bottom to what it is today. All that time spent finding buyers of the drug trade, and all that time spent finding buyers in the sex trade was not easy. He had to kiss a lot of asses, prove his worth and show that he could be trusted. He wasn’t alone in starting the business but he became the sole ruler of his empire by killing all those who got in his way. All without letting but a small handful of people know his true identity.

  Sure Jeremy has made it even bigger since taking over but he’s stupid. He thinks he is untouchable but what he doesn’t know is he just made things worse for himself by jumping into the weapons business. Now not only does he have the FBI looking into him for human sex trafficking but he has the ATF looking into him for the drugs and weapons he’s buying and selling. They are waiting to strike once they are sure they have all the evidence they need. They are building a case against him that will put him away for life.

  Too bad for them I plan to get to him first and kill him with my bare hands. I have no doubt that since he took Sierra from me the second time that he has put his hands on her in every way imaginable. I just hope that she can make it out of this and get back to her life with little damage to her physically or mentally. I can’t imagine what she’s going through but from what I’ve seen it could get real brutal. I just hope for her sake that Jeremy wouldn’t want to hurt her because as she said before, he claims to love her and maybe that will be her saving grace in this fucked up situation.

  The day I escaped the hospital I knew I had to hide out. It wouldn’t take long for Jeremy to send someone in to confirm my death. Damon, my best friend and Sierras brother, and his parents did as I asked and held a funeral for me lowering an empty casket into the ground. They cried, brought flowers, had speeches and more people than I thought possible came to pay their respects. I felt like an ass for making all these people believe I was dead but I did what I had to do in order to make it seem legitimate so Jeremy would stop looking and so Sergeant Brownsfield, formerly known as my boss, wouldn’t search for me either. With them thinking I’m dead, I can easily slip in undetected and get the info I need.

  From what Damon has told me, the hospital had strict orders to make everyone believe they couldn’t save me. My name was changed on the records to a generic name and nobody besides my family and the FBI had known I was alive.

  Since the day of my escape from the hospital I have kept in close contact with Damon telling him everything I know. As much as I hate to have him involved I know there is no way that he would take no for an answer. If I hadn’t agreed to let him help me find Sierra I knew he would try to do it on his own and most likely get himself killed. He doesn’t know how deep this all goes. All he knows is that there are a few girls that are abducted and sold and drugs and weapons are involved. I am sure he sees the situation as a pond size problem when in all reality it is more like an ocean. There are more players in this game then on a football field. He’s not ready to jump into that kind of situation and I am trying to make sure he stays out of most of it.

  When it comes down to the day I decide to go in and rescue my baby girl I will need Damon there to drag Sierra out because I know she will not leave without me. Will I make it out of there alive, I have no idea but I will make sure to take down Jeremy first and anyone else I can that gets in my way of rescuing Sierra? And if I do not make it out alive, at least I will know I died saving the one person I love most and that she will no longer have to worry about being captive again. But my plan is not to die.

  I’ve planned out how this will work. The day Brownsfield decides to make his move, so will I. While he distracts Jeremy, Damon and I will go in through the opposite side and find Sierra. I’ve already mapped out the land and house so I know all the exits if things don’t go exactly to plan. Along with finding Sierra I know Jeremy won’t be far and once I know she is safely out of the house I plan to kill Jeremy. Damon doesn’t know my plan to that extent but I’m sure he probably has an idea that Jeremy won’t be coming out of this alive. I can’t take the chance that he may come back for Sierra later. And if need be I will kill everyone else who gets in my way. I’ve also made sure to have the direct line of one of the agents from the FBI so I can call them just before we go in. He is the same man that gave me his card when I woke up in the hospital after being shot. I worked hard to help try and bring this ring down and find the man known as ‘The Boss’ and I’m not going to flake on my original promise to help just because other more important things came up.

  The day I save Sierra is coming real soon. I can feel it. Brownsfield has been gaining allies, building enough force to go in and takeover. I have no clue if he plans to kill Jeremy but what I do know is he won’t let everyone think he’s a pussy. Brownsfield will make sure to punish Jeremy publicly to show whose boss but I plan to kill Jeremy before that happens and have Brownsfield in custody.

  Now I don’t plan to go in just Damon and I with hopes that the FBI gets there in time so I don’t get killed. I do have a few allies willing to help me that I had worked with before. They’re also undercover so they understand my need for secrecy about me being alive.

  When the time comes they will be by our side storming the house as quietly and efficiently as possible. These guys are the same guys who have spent years trying to take down this ring. They will be relieved once it’s all over because they can go back to their regular lives. Being undercover has taken them away from their families and friends. It is a lonely life not having anyone to talk to about what’s going on besides your small team. Some of the guys haven’t even been able to see their family in months for fear that they would be targeted if they made a mistake. Helping me rescue Sierra and watch as the FBI take down all the players in the ring has the
m excited.

  Since being in hiding I have felt pretty alone. I’ve been staying at a private residence with a little old lady that agreed to have me as long as I mowed her lawn and occasionally helped her reach things on the top shelves. She lost her husband years ago in a sting operation gone wrong so now she helps as often as possible by lending a room to agents and witnesses who need to hide out temporarily. No one can trace her to the agency so her place is one of the safest places to hide until the threat is taken care of.

  Her name is Lois and she is about five foot two with short white hair. During the days she gardens and every night she has supper on the table. No matter what I have going on I never miss supper with her. First off, her food is amazing. Second, she loves having someone to talk to. Our conversations usually consist of her late husband but when she starts to feel despondent talking about him she switches the topic over to me. I’ve told her nearly everything when it came to Sierra. How we met, how I felt then and how I feel now once I finally figured out that she was more than just a friend to me. I even replayed the most recent events leaving a few things out that just wouldn’t be appropriate and how I plan to rescue Sierra again.

  Just talking about Sierra leaves an ache in my chest bigger than I thought possible. I never thought that I would have to worry about her being taken from me and to have it happen twice has me feeling like maybe I can’t protect her like a real man should. But what I do know is that once I save her this time there will be no way she will ever be taken from me again.

  The other part of this whole scenario that I refuse to think about is what if Jeremy has already killed her or auctioned her off? It’s not something I want to think about but it’s a real possibility that he decided she just wasn’t worth it to him or that he could make more money on selling her to someone else than keeping her for himself. If he decided to sell her to someone else then it will be nearly impossible to find her again. I would continue to search for her until my last breath but it would be a search that could go on forever and I may never find her again.

  Every Wednesday I head to the underground fight club in hopes I may hear of anything new. I want to make sure there is nothing happening that will interfere in my mission to save Sierra. As I walk around the crowded, abandoned building through the throngs of shouting men I look for anyone who has any contact with Jeremy or his men. There are always a few buyers or their minions who do business here hidden in the dark corners or up close to the cage so they don’t miss a fight. The turnout isn’t as big as when I fought but it’s still a decent amount of people who show up to see two men fight until one goes down in a bloody heap.

  As I come to a group of men huddled over a stack of pallets discussing business I stand close enough to hear the conversation but far enough to make them believe I am watching the fight. Occasionally I throw out a ‘fuck him up’ or ‘fuck yeah’ to make it seem legit. The conversation is of a party Jeremy is throwing at his house for all of his buyers and is happening this weekend and they are talking strategy. Apparently there are a few girls they want but they don’t want to go over budget so they are picking a limit on how much to spend on each girl. Just listening to them talk about these girls as if they are just cattle is disgusting. How could anyone find buying women or children okay? I never understood it. Don’t these men have daughters, wives, sisters or mothers? What if that was one of them? Would they still feel the same way? To them women are just a means to an end; things to use and abuse before throwing them away like trash when their usefulness is over.

  I listen just a little bit longer hoping to hear anything else that may be useful but the only thing left for them to talk about is who they are betting on during the main fight tonight. I decide it’s time to leave before anyone notices me and starts questioning why I’m here. The people in this building may not recognize me at first but if they have enough time to look they may figure it out and I don’t need any extra problems added to my already growing list.

  I call Damon and automatically get sent to voicemail and I hang up. He has been keeping an eye out on Brownsfield since he left the hospital a few months back. Apparently he is no longer on desk duty now that he is healed from his gun shot wounds and is ready to get back out there in the field. Damon has befriended him hoping to keep close by playing on his loss of his sister and the mutual loss of me as far as Brownsfield is concerned. It’s working well in keeping him off my trail but I worry that he may turn on Damon thinking he’s out to get him, which he is.

  As my phone starts vibrating in my pocket with a text from Damon telling me to call him, I wait until I am in my car and on the road before hitting the call button.

  “Took you long enough fucker.”

  “Fuck you asshole. I was doing a little recon. Found out there is a party this weekend with a lot of business.”

  “Is that right?” Fucking Damon. His sarcasm is annoying.

  “Cut the shit man. What did you want and I’ll tell you the rest of what I got.”

  “Alright dang. You’re one moody son of a bitch.”

  “Get on with it.”

  “Well I heard about the party also and I got a way in for us to make a quick search of the perimeter and see how many guards on average he has during a gathering, where his room is and where he has Sierra locked up.”

  “That’s great. Let’s meet up so we can go over a plan of getting in and out quickly and quietly.”

  “Sure. Where at?”

  “Do you remember the place I used to fight before it was moved to the warehouse?”

  “That abandoned house? Yeah.”

  “Meet me in twenty and bring the map of the house and the perimeter.”

  “Ok. See ya.” I don’t reply as I toss my phone to the passenger seat and gun it towards the abandoned house where I first fought and was asked to join the undercover operation to catch the bad guys. When I arrive, Damon is already there waiting with a flashlight and a roll of paper with the floor plans of the house Sierra is holed up in.

  “What else did you find out?”

  “Not much. The party is Saturday and it’s another auction for his biggest buyers. It’s invite only so even if we wanted to slip in through the front door with everyone else we would get nowhere without the password and our name on the list.” Damon goes to open his mouth. “And even if we had a name on that list and a password doesn’t mean we’d get let in because he more than likely has a photo of each buyer or his guards would recognize them. He wants to make an impression on these guys. Bring them back for more and he’s not taking any chances on letting in the wrong people.”

  “Fuck. He’s strict.”

  “He’s smart, just not as smart as us. He’s going to focus all his efforts on the front door where everyone is entering.” I roll out the floor plans of the house and mark an X with my pencil on the front door and the back door so we know where the entrances are. “And the back door to stop anyone from sneaking off with anything that’s not theirs. You can’t trust anyone in this business so the two main exits will be blocked.”

  “So then how do you plan to get in?”

  “We are going to go through his bedroom door. There is a balcony and there won’t be any guards watching it because all the doors to the rooms will be locked and he will have the key.”

  “How do you know all this?”

  “Because that’s what I would do in a business like this. When you have a lot to lose you make sure you cover all escape routes. If he locks all the bedroom doors then nobody can try to escape without alerting him first.”

  “So how do we get to the balcony then without being detected? Doesn’t he have guard dogs or men walking the perimeter?”

  “No dogs that I know of but if so we will deal with it then. There will be men walking the perimeter so we will have to go early and find out how often they come around. Once we figure that out we will slip in through the fence between shifts and run to the balcony. It shouldn’t be hard to climb up there and once we do we’ll have to b
e extremely careful. We’ll head down the hall,” I point with my finger, “and check each door. I’ll bring a lock pic for us to use to get into each room to look around. I don’t want to be there for long so we have to move fast. Once we check each room and find out which one Sierra is in, we’ll leave and discuss strategy for when we come back for her.”

  “Why can’t we just take her at the party?”

  “Because it’s too soon. If we take her now then there is still a chance that he could come back for her or Brownsfield will come after her. I have to wait for Brownsfield to make his move so that I can take them both out at the same time. I’ll have the FBI on their way when we storm in to save Sierra. It will give us enough time to get her out and have both of them occupied long enough not to notice that the FBI is surrounding the place. Jeremy and Brownsfield will both be arrested and the whole ring taken down piece by piece.” I decided not to let him in on the fact that only Brownsfield will be arrested because I’m going to make sure that Jeremy doesn’t make it out of that house alive. I have no idea if Damon would hate me or want to help in murdering Jeremy but I don’t want him to have his hands dirty with another man’s blood.

  “Fuck!” Damon punches the wall behind him in anger causing drywall to crumble to the floor from the force of his fist.

  “Sorry man. Believe me I want to bring her home just as much as you do but we have to be smart. I can’t screw this up again and put her in even more danger. She’s not going anywhere anytime soon. She just needs to hold on a little longer. And you need to keep your cool or I won’t take you. I can’t have you taking your anger and frustration out while we’re there.”

  “I won’t man. Fuck. It just pisses me off that we can’t take her home with us.”