by Bella Jewel
I whip my head to the left where the girl in the cage beside me is sitting.
"It doesn't make a difference," she goes on.
She's pretty, but it's obvious she's lived quite a dark life. Scars up her arms, dark rings under her eyes, and track marks tell me so. Still, she's only young and doesn't deserve what's going to happen to her.
"You're not like the rest of us," she says, tipping her head to the side, "you're clean."
I don't know if she means I'm clean from drugs, or just clean in general.
"I'm a cop," I exhale, sitting down onto the gross foam bed.
It's hard and uncomfortable.
"You are?" she asks, eyes widening. "How did they get hold of a cop?"
"With great force," I mutter. "How did they get hold of you?"
She shrugs. "I was looking for drugs. They just swooped in, told me they had drugs, and got me high. So high, I blacked out. I woke up here. It wasn't hard. Not like I have anyone looking for me. It's tragic. I'm not even scared of being sold. Maybe it'll be a better life than the hell hole I was living before."
That makes me so sad.
That someone's life could be so bad that they consider being sold might be better.
"What's your name?" I ask her.
"Kelli."
"I'm Zariah."
She nods. "That's a cool name."
"How long have you been here, Kelli?"
"About a week. So far, we have been stuck in these cages. Someone comes in once a day, cleans up after us, feeds us, and gives us water. Then they leave again."
That's horrible.
"Some of the girls are coming down from drugs. Fiona at the end there, she screams most of the night, so good luck sleeping. Then, she passes out from exhaustion all day. She even electrocuted herself last night, because she was losing it so bad."
"That's terrible," I say, feeling my stomach twist again.
"Yeah," she nods. "Yeah, it is."
"I'm going to find a way out of here," I whisper, more to myself than her.
She smiles bitterly and then lays back down. "Good luck to you."
I will.
I will find a way.
Goddammit. I will.
My baby boy needs me.
I won't leave him.
Panic seizes my chest as I think about him. I pray the club knows what happened after that phone call and that they have him, and he's safe.
The very thought that he might not be makes me so sick I curl into a ball, and a tear runs down my cheek.
Please.
Please.
I need to get out of here.
20
KENDRIC
"This is horrible," Briella breathes, running her hands down her face.
Karen is standing beside her after Briella told her the news about Samson. The two of them are in the room with Cohen, Bohdi, Alarick, and I. We're trying to come up with a way to get Samson to give us what we need. The only way we're going to find Zariah is to find out what he knows, and the only way we're going to get him to talk is to catch him off guard.
"Got the boy?" I ask Briella.
She nods. "I got him from daycare. He's with Merleigh at the moment."
One thing I know Zariah would be panicking about is Jayden. I made sure the moment we figured out she was missing, to call and have him picked up. If he's with us, he's safe. I will not let anything happen to that child.
"Good," I murmur.
"What are you going to do about Samson?" Karen asks, her eyes wide with shock.
"We're goin' to bring him in and make sure he tells us what we need to know. After that, it ain't your concern," Alarick mutters.
Briella's eyes widen. "You're not going to hurt him, are you?"
"He betrayed my club, Briella. He is part of the reason your sister is dead. Do you fuckin' understand that?"
"Maybe he didn't know them then, and..."
"He's related to them. I can guaran-fuckin'-tee that. He knows exactly what's goin' down."
Briella looks down at her feet, her face flushed. "I just don't believe...it just can't be real. He has been so good to this club, why would he do something like that?"
"That ain't for us to worry about," Alarick mutters, his face drawn and tired. "Right now, we gotta get Zariah back before somethin' happens to her. She has put everything on the line for this club, and we haven't given her the time of day she deserves. We're makin' sure she comes home to that boy. So get it together, babe. We don't have time for tears."
Briella looks up at him, and then with a deep, sharp breath, she nods. "Okay."
"We need to find Samson, get him in here, and tell him what we know. Don't give him a chance to know it's comin'. The only way we're going to play this is if he suspects nothin'. I'll beat it out of him if I have to, but we are goin' to get him to lead us right to her."
I nod and turn towards the door. "I'll get him."
"I can get him," Karen says, shrugging. "I just saw him before, and we were chatting. I'll ask him if he can help me with something."
I look to her. "No offense, Karen, but you ain't part of this club. He isn't your brother. He's ours. I'm goin' to get him. You shouldn't even be in this room."
I turn and walk out, hearing her mumbling something. I stride down the halls with purpose. I don't want to scare him off, but I also have to make sure he comes with me. I find him sittin' at the bar, shooting back a shot of tequila. He swallows it down, his face scrunching harshly, and then he turns and glances at me.
"Brother," he murmurs.
"How's it goin'?" I ask him, sitting down and waving my hand for a shot, too.
The barmaid - a tiny, half-dressed thing - smiles and saunters over to get us another shot.
"It's goin'," he murmurs. "You?"
"Yeah. We got some leads on Zariah. Pres wants us all in there to hear the plan. You good for that?"
"He callin' church?"
It feels like a knife to the guts when he looks at me. Like a fuckin' burning poker, bein' plunged into my soul. He's my brother. My friend. Why would he fuckin' do this to us?
Why?
We moved out together when we were younger, fuck, he's been in my life since we were young men. Knew him for so fuckin' long. Never knew much about his family, he always told us he had nothin' to do with them. Was that a lie all these fuckin' years? Why now, too? Why would he choose now to come in and fuck this club up? I guess we're about to get our answers.
"Yeah, let's roll."
I take the shot, he takes one, too, and we get up and walk out of the building towards the sheds.
I feel some hesitation from him, but he follows me all the same. We reach the sheds and find a seat. A minute or two later, Alarick, Cohen, and Bohdi walk in. We usually put Mykel on Facetime for this, but we're not goin' to now because if he finds this out, he'll lose it.
Waverly will come chargin' in here wantin' to find her sister.
Right now, we can't risk any of that.
"Brothers," Alarick says, glancing at Samson as he walks closer.
Bohdi shuts the door and locks it.
Samson glances over at it. "Where's everyone else?"
Before he can say or do another thing, Alarick and Cohen have guns on him. It only takes a split second, but the look on his face is pure guilt as he stares at them. He knows they know. He's not even tryin' to act surprised. He drops his head, his big shoulders sagging, and it fuckin' breaks my heart. It kills me to know that he has done this to us. It kills me to know it's breakin' him apart so heavily.
He's tired.
Worn down.
Broken.
"Why?" Alarick demands, his voice so low, so broken, it fuckin' feels like a knife to the heart.
Samson shakes his head, his hair falling around him as he hangs his head. "You'd never understand. If you're goin' to kill me, do it now, Alarick."
"You do not get away with it that easily," Alarick roars, slamming the gun over Samson's head in a wild rage. Then he lunges at
him, and the two of them crash onto the floor. "You fuckin' tell me why? Why would you turn against your whole fuckin' club? Tell me!"
Alarick drives a fist into Samson's face. Over and over again.
He doesn't move.
Even when blood spurts from his mouth.
He doesn't fuckin' move.
"Enough," I bark, leaning down with Cohen and hauling Alarick up. "This ain't getting' Zariah back. You cool it, Pres. You gotta fuckin' use your brain."
Alarick is panting as Samson slowly gets to his feet, blood dripping from his mouth and nose, and a large gash on his head.
"Why?" Alarick rasps.
"He has my daughter."
For a moment, we all stare at him. Shocked. Confused. He has a daughter? Since fuckin' when has Samson had a daughter? We've never, not ever, seen him in a relationship. How the fuck does he have a daughter?
"Explain," Cohen growls. "Do it fast before we kill you."
Samson exhales, making a gurgling sound. He wipes the blood away from his mouth with his leather jacket. "When I was fifteen, I met a girl. She was older than me, maybe by two or three years. I was young and dumb, and I was in a fuckin' shit family. There's a reason you never knew about my past, about my family. I came to that club a broken man, and King took me in. That was where my past ended."
"Save the fuckin' pity party and finish the story," I growl.
Samson glances at me and continues. "This girl, her name was Annalise. She was all fucked up, crazy, you know? She and I had a very brief relationship. Took my virginity. I was young. She was young. It was fucked. Drugs and alcohol. She came to me a month or so after it ended, told me she was pregnant. I flipped out. You can imagine how fuckin' scary that was for me, just shy of sixteen fuckin' years old. I told my brother, I didn't have parents. Only had him. I hated him, but I knew he could help me."
"Blanche," Alarick snarls.
"Yeah, Blanche. I told him, he went and spoke to her. Came back to me a few days later, told me she got an abortion, and wouldn't bother me again. That was the end of that. I went on my way, separated from him, and joined the club. I didn't even question if it was true. I just wanted to be done with it. Never spoke to him again after that. Knew he was high and mighty, knew he was doin' big things for himself, but I didn't give a fuck. He left me to my life, and I left him to his."
"You're fuckin' lyin'!" Alarick bellows, slamming his fist onto a table. "If that were true, you wouldn't have backstabbed us."
"Listen," Samson growls, his voice gravelly. "When Briella came into town and started lookin' into Magnolia's disappearance, and the club got involved, things changed. He came to me, out of the blue, and told me that I needed to stop you all or he'd make me pay. I didn't give a shit, told him to go fuck himself, and if he was involved in all the illegal shit with Dax and Peter, he was goin' down."
He pauses, his face tightening.
"So, he showed me a birth certificate. For a woman named Annalise, and a guy...me. A baby born, a little girl, seven months after he told me she got an abortion. I didn't fuckin' believe him. I didn't because I would have known about it. He presented a fuckin' DNA test. This cunt had been holdin' that under his belt all these years, so fuckin' smart. He was waitin' for a time when he'd have to use it. He told me he had followed Annalise and found out she had passed away, and my daughter was in foster care. He went, adopted her, and fuckin' took her out of the system. He has her. He has my little fuckin' girl."
"How can you be so fuckin' sure?" I snarl. "He could be makin' all of it up. Fake DNA, fake birth certificates. Surely you're not that fuckin' stupid, Samson?"
He pulls out his phone and scrolls through, and then turns the screen around and faces it towards us. I glance at Alarick, and he nods, I walk forward and take the phone from his hands. On the screen is a picture of Blanche and a girl. She's only maybe sixteen or so, beautiful. She looks exactly like Samson. There is no way in the fuckin' world you'd ever assume she belonged to anyone else. Long, thick black hair. Brown eyes. A face that's a replica of his.
She's beautiful.
I hand the phone to Alarick, and I know the moment he sees it too because his face drops.
Samson goes on.
"When he found out you were all lookin' into Dax, he used it against me. It started small. Make sure I was leadin' you all in the wrong direction. Then when Waverly was sent in, he sent me a fuckin' video of him hurtin' her. Told me he'd kill her and film it for me to see if I didn't give him everything he needed. So, I told him about Waverly. That was fuckin' it. That's how Dax knew. It's how they came up with the fuckin' plan."
Alarick looks to him, his face confused, broken, and hurt.
"Then he found out Zariah was involved. It was the perfect chance for him to come to town and get closer to make sure you all stopped. That's what he did. He got her workin' on a case for him, got himself right where he needed to be. He's fuckin' smart."
"Fuck!" Alarick bellows. "Zariah could be fuckin' dead, do you fuckin' understand that?"
"She's not dead," Samson mutters, his teeth gritting through the evident pain. "He won't kill her; he'll sell her. Then he's goin' to take down this entire club. He'll finish this, don't you fuckin' doubt it."
"Not if we get in first, he won't," Alarick says, crossing his arms. "You're goin' to find out how to get to him, and you're goin' to do it now. If you don't, we'll kill you here and now, and you'll never fuckin' see your daughter again."
"You're goin' to kill me anyway," Samson spits. "Might as well fuckin' do it now."
Alarick walks over, leaning in close to Samson's face. "You're goin' to do this because you owe us this much. Do you fuckin' understand me?"
Samson holds his gaze, his expression hard. Then, in a low, gravelly voice, he growls, "Yes, boss."
"Where is your brother?" Alarick demands.
"On a fuckin' island."
"Where?"
"I can show you," Samson mutters. "He'll kill me before I get my daughter back. But let's do it your fuckin' way."
Alarick snarls a curse at him. "You don't get a choice here, Samson."
Samson stares at him. "Then you better get movin', or it'll be too late."
Fuck.
This is gettin' intense.
Here goes nothin'.
"BIKE!"
We're standing in Alarick's office, discussing our next move, when Jayden comes running in and right over to me, stretching his little arms up to pick him up. In the last two days we've had him, he has been clinging to me non-stop. The kid has decided he likes me, and I can't deny that I fuckin' like him, too. He's a good kid, fuckin' cute and sweet. I pick him up and smile at him. "Hey buddy, we'll go to the bike soon, okay?"
He wraps his arms around my neck.
Something inside of me goes soft.
Fuckin' kids.
"What are we going to do with Jayden while you all get Zariah?" Briella asks, smiling at Jayden.
"You and Merleigh will have him," Alarick tells her. "We're leavin' tonight, goin' to keep you here at the club where I know you'll be safe."
"That fucker know we're comin'?" I ask Samson, who is bound to a chair, dried blood on his face.
"He knows fuckin' everything."
"You're goin' to call him, say whatever it is you say, to make sure that he doesn't know we're comin' for him," Alarick orders.
Samson glares at Alarick. He isn't sayin' a word.
"How do you usually contact him?" I ask Samson, bouncing Jayden to my other hip because fuck, this boy is heavy.
"I don't," Samson mutters. "He contacts me. He's not stupid enough to have a way for me to trace him."
"You know where this island is, you're certain?" Alarick asks.
"Yeah," Samson answers. "I know where it is."
"Then we don't waste any more time. We need to get movin' and catch him out before it's too late."
"You can't just show up there," Samson shakes his head. "He has that place on watch. They'll see you comin' a mile away."<
br />
"How does he usually get there?" I ask, forming a plan in my mind.
"He has a stock ship that goes back and forth Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday."
It's Friday today.
Perfect fuckin' timing.
"Then we get on that today," Alarick stands, looking to Bohdi. "Find guns, weapons, anything you can pack in a bag. One each."
"That'll never fuckin' work, he'll kill you," Samson argues, tugging at his restraints.
Alarick walks over, leaning down, hands either side of the chair. "We've got no other fuckin' choice, thanks to you. We die, our blood is on your hands. That fuckin' clear?"
Samson's jaw ticks.
"Flick!" Briella says, her voice wobbling. "It's too dangerous..."
Alarick glances at her. "We got no choice, babe."
"There has to be another way."
"He's got Zariah and Samson's daughter. We go in there, and we get them back. There isn't another option. He's too fuckin' smart. We think this over too long, and he'll find out. We're leaving today."
"If you knew where this island was, Samson," Briella says to him, her face hurt when she looks at him. "Why did you not just go and get your daughter?"
"You think it's that easy?" Samson growls. "He never kept her in one spot. I looked into it. He is smarter than any of you realize, and he's goin' to get away with all of this. You're fucked if you think you can beat him."
"Bike!" Jayden cries again, tugging at my jacket.
"It's sleep time, little man," I say to him. "If you don't have a daytime nap, your momma is goin' to crush my ass. Let's go."
I look to Alarick. "I'll get shit sorted. Meet you here in a few hours."
Alarick nods.
I turn and walk out with Jayden. We get to a spare room that I have allocated to be his and only his, and I lay him down on the bed, sitting beside him. "Time for a sleep, yeah?"
He shakes his head, putting a stubborn look on his face that reminds me of Zariah. God, how did I fuck up so bad with her?
"You got to," I prompt.
He tugs at my jacket, and I exhale, lying down beside him. A huge smile spreads across his face, and he snuggles into my side. My heart feels big again, a pulsing, soft muscle that's makin' me feel things I've never felt before.
