by T. R. Ragan
Rage pulled a face. “She said she was just going to take a quick look around and then come right back.”
“How long has she been gone?”
“At least ten minutes now.”
“Shit.” He found Faith’s phone, then hit one of her contact numbers.
“Who are you calling?”
“I’d like to speak to Elaine Burnett,” Beast said to whoever answered the phone. “OK, when Agent Burnett is free, please tell her Faith McMann is at the Unlimited Strikes Bowling Alley on Lonetree in Rocklin, California, and we believe she’s been kidnapped. Go past the arcade, where you’ll find a hallway. Hopefully that’s where you’ll find her. I gotta go.” He hung up, tossed her phone back into her purse, grabbed his bowling ball and headed for the hallway where Rage had pointed.
“Kidnapped?”
“I had to think quick,” he said hurriedly. “Hopefully that will get them moving.”
Rage grabbed the Taser, then looked at all the other assorted goodies inside and took the whole damn purse before rushing to catch up with him. She never should have let Faith run off on her own. Stupid. Stupid. As she hurried to keep up, she tried to figure out how the Taser worked. While she’d used a gun plenty of times before, she’d never used a Taser. How hard could it be?
There was a door at the end of the hallway where Rage and Faith had seen the guy disappear.
Beast tried the doorknob, but the door was locked. “Step back,” he told her. And then he swung hard, his bowling ball crashing through the door.
Rage ducked low as splinters of wood flew through the air. Beast reached his left hand inside the jagged hole in the door, unlocked it, and pushed it open.
The Taser Rage held in her hand was a hefty thing, bigger and heavier than a Glock. With Faith’s purse hanging over her shoulder, she found the lever on the Taser and clicked it on as she followed Beast through a lobby filled with sexy magazines and weird smells.
When Beast pushed open the curtain, all she saw were naked men of all shapes and sizes scrambling around within the hallways, trying to get dressed. A voice came over a speaker telling everyone to get their things and take the back exit immediately. The place had to be soundproofed because she hadn’t heard a thing before Beast bashed through the door.
Rage looked inside the first room she came to and saw a woman bound, her wrists and ankles tied to posts at all four corners of an unframed mattress.
Rage’s nostrils flared, and her insides exploded. She Tasered the first asshole she saw, literally. He went down. She hit another guy before she realized she had to wait a few seconds before the thing would work again. After sending a jolt of electricity through three more men, she dropped Faith’s purse to the ground and shuffled around inside. Faith had smaller stun guns inside. Yellow, pink, and blue. Rage stuffed the pepper spray and a yellow stun gun in her pants pocket, then grabbed the pink and blue stun guns. She ran down the hallway and managed to stun two more guys before they could escape through a back exit.
This was complete bullshit.
She’d lost track of Beast, but she didn’t care. Every room looked the same.
Where was Faith?
Disgusting pigs scrambling to escape while young women lay naked and bound. Jolting the assholes wasn’t enough, she decided. She retraced her steps and started spraying them in the eyes while they were squirming on the floor, even got one man as he tried to run past her. She got nine men before the tenth guy saw what was happening and ran out the back door butt naked.
There was a lot of crashing and banging going on around the corner. By the time she found Beast, he looked as if he might rip the shoe guy in half. With his left hand, he held the little guy against the wall and was about to bash his skull in with his bowling ball.
“Don’t do it,” Rage shouted. “Put him down so I can Taser him.”
His face was a mask of anger, his hands shaking, his eyes bulging. But he did as Rage asked. She pulled the yellow stun gun from her back pocket and jolted him good. Then she sprayed him in the eyes for good measure.
While the shoe guy cried out like the weasel he was, she looked at Beast. “We need to check this guy’s pants pockets for keys so I can release these women.”
Beast leaned over and ripped the pants right off the man as he writhed on the ground, then searched for the keys.
“Where’s Faith?”
He gestured with a tip of his head to the back of the room.
Her heart sank when she saw Faith lying motionless, her head at an awkward angle. Rage ran to her, knelt down beside her, and felt for a pulse. She was unconscious, but she was alive.
“Is she OK?” Beast asked as he approached.
Rage pushed herself to her feet. She was about to take the keys he’d found and use them to unlock the cuffs from the other women. She’d leave Beast here to watch over Faith, but then she paused, frozen in place.
A wave of icy-cold air washed over Rage.
She’d felt it before.
Chills came next and then a feeling of déjà vu right before her thoughts began to race, ping-ponging from one side of her skull to the other.
She was having a seizure, or she would be having one soon.
She knew Beast was close by, and she reached for him. “It’s coming,” she said.
Her mouth twitched. Pulses of light flickered in her head as the ground beneath her feet began to rumble. She felt a tremendous pressure as if she were trapped in a car that was sinking to the bottom of the lake and there was no escape. “This is it.”
She felt Beast catch her as she began falling into a black hole. She thought she saw him remove his belt. Or maybe he’d done it so many times before she wasn’t seeing it at all. Maybe she just knew what would happen next.
She bit down hard, jaw clenched tight, felt the strip of leather between her teeth.
Her body twitched, and her muscles contracted.
“Breathe, Rage,” he said close to her ear, his voice calm. “Just breathe.”
FORTY-TWO
Diane Weaver paced the area in her motel room between the television and the bed. A reddish-brown cockroach skittered past, disappearing under the bed before she could squish it with the heel of her shoe.
Too many days had passed since Patrick had told her he’d be back with everything she needed to get out of the country. She’d left a half-dozen messages for Patrick just since yesterday, but he had yet to return her calls.
That worried her.
Patrick had changed since they first met. She usually had a good feel for these sorts of things, but when she’d seen him last, it was difficult to read his expressions. He was definitely hiding something. He knew more than he was letting on, but what? Had he helped Aster get rid of her brother and his wife? Did he know what had become of the McMann girl?
The Patrick she once knew had respected her. He never would have used his power to manipulate her into pleasuring him in that way. He wanted control; she’d seen that much in the glimmer in his eyes when he’d unzipped his pants, making it clear what he wanted without speaking a word.
He wanted to be the boss.
She looked at the few items heaped in a pile on top of the bed—a change of clothing, toiletries, and a wool coat she’d grabbed from her sister-in-law’s closet.
It was too dangerous for her to stay any longer. She went to the window and peeked outside. Thunder and lightning had kept her awake most of the night. One of the biggest storms ever recorded in the region had hit Sacramento after midnight. All morning she’d been listening to the local news reporters talk about trees falling on houses and damaging cars. People were being told to stay indoors.
She moved away from the window.
As she checked her phone to see if there were any messages from Patrick, she heard a knock. Relief flooded her as she rushed to the door and opened it wide.
Aster, along with a man she’d never seen before, stepped inside. They both wore gloves and black from head to toe.
The stran
ger shut the door and locked it.
Diane took a few steps backward toward the bed. The emotionless look on the stranger’s face sent chills skittering up her spine. Her breath caught in her throat. “What are you doing here?”
“Don’t worry,” Aster said. “Patrick told me everything. How frightened you were and how you felt the need to run because you were afraid I might hurt you.”
Why would Patrick tell Aster they talked? It made no sense. Patrick knew Aster would punish her for running.
“All you have to do is tell me where the girl is,” he said as he slowly slid off a glove, one finger at a time.
Removing his gloves was a sign that he might not harm her.
She breathed easier, although she didn’t like the other man standing near the door, his arms behind his back, his expression grim. “Why did you kill my brother?” she asked. “He was all I had left in this world.”
“Your brother? I didn’t know you had a brother.”
Confusion swept over her. Judging by the look on his face, he really had no idea. How could that be? Maybe there was still hope of finding a way out of this mess. “I left the McMann girl with my brother and his wife in Lodi. With all the media attention, I knew it was time to move the girl. I only meant to keep her safe—for you.”
“Since when did you start making decisions on my behalf?” He stepped closer, his thumb rubbing against the gloves still grasped in his hands. “I take care of you. I post your bail. I do everything but wipe your ass, and this is the thanks I get? Where’s the kid?”
“I don’t know. I swear. I knew we might be in trouble, so I had my brother take the little whore to his place. But someone killed my brother and his wife and took the girl.” She reached out for him. “Please. You have to believe me.”
“You were released days ago. Why am I only hearing about this now?”
“I was going to tell you right after I found a safe place for her, but then the farmhouse was raided and I was carted off to jail before I had a chance to talk to you. After finding my brother and his wife murdered, I was scared, so I ran.”
“You managed to call your brother from prison, but not me?”
She swallowed. How did he know? His cousin? Another inmate?
“How is it that Faith McMann discovered the location of the farmhouse in the first place? Can you tell me that?”
“One of the girls Mr. Smith selected escaped his suite. He’s to blame. Not me.”
“His name was Jack Byron,” Aster said. “He’s dead. His cock blown to tiny bits.”
That news surprised her, but she remained silent.
“Once again,” Aster went on, “I am reminded of how you took matters into your own hands instead of alerting me to her escape.”
“I know how busy you are,” Diane said, her voice trembling as she tried to gain his sympathy. “I thought I could handle the situation. I was shocked to see Faith McMann and her ridiculous angry mob show up at the farmhouse. I never imagined she would go so far.”
“But despite being shocked, you were thinking clearly enough at the time to send the girl away?”
She swallowed.
“They easily took over your little fortress, Diane, so I guess Faith McMann and her team don’t look so ridiculous now, do they?”
She lifted her chin in defiance. “Why didn’t you take care of that stupid schoolteacher right from the start? I heard she was a nuisance long before she showed up at my door.”
The scowl on his face told her she’d gone too far, but she hadn’t been able to stop herself. This was Aster’s fault. Not hers. The all-powerful Aster Williams had fucked up royally. “I didn’t mean to imply that any of this was your doing,” she said, backpedaling when she saw his expression turn dark.
“You talk too much. It’s always been a flaw of yours. Talking gets people into trouble.”
Her gaze darted from Aster to the other man. There was no way out. Her muscles tensed as she tried to think of what to do, where to run.
Aster walked over to the TV and turned the volume up as loud as it would go. He then signaled for the man she’d never seen before to take care of business.
Diane ran.
She darted past Aster and made it as far as the bathroom before she felt the thrust of a sharp blade cut through flesh. She fell to the floor, the left side of her face squashed against the wet, cold tiles.
There was no pain, only the mind-numbing knowledge of knowing she was dying. The beat of her heart slowed. She tried to move her hand so she could push herself from the floor, but it was no use. Was this really how she would leave this world?
She’d never imagined dying at the hands of a complete stranger. A car accident, perhaps, or by the big, strong hands of Aster Williams himself, maybe one of the many pimps she’d done business with along the way. But this?
Now that she thought about it, though, why not?
Another cockroach, or maybe the same one she’d seen earlier, crawled toward her, making her forget all else. The little bugger was fast. At closer view she could see wings and sturdy legs with claws. Cockroaches didn’t die easily. He crawled up onto her hand, its body heavy against her skin as he worked his way over her wrist.
And then her killer gave the knife a good twist, causing fiery spurts of pain to rip through her body. He yanked the blade out only to plunge it into her once again, deeper this time.
Her scream came out as a piercing cry that hurtled through the air and bounced off the walls around her, sending the cockroach skittering the other way only to find itself trapped in a puddle of blood.
FORTY-THREE
“How’s Rage doing?” Faith asked Beast as he entered Mom’s hospital room. Jana and Faith sat on each side of Mom’s bed.
“Same as always,” he said. “Antsy. Ready to go home.”
Faith and Rage had been taken from the bowling alley to the hospital in separate ambulances. By the time Faith had arrived at the hospital, the drugs had begun to wear off. Five hours had passed since she’d been stuck with a needle. She was still shaken, but mostly she felt exhausted. If not for Beast and Rage, there was no telling what would have happened. She kept tearing up at the thought.
Beast hovered over Mom and smiled—a crooked smile that worked its way to his eyes. Faith had never seen him smile quite like that before.
“How you doing, Mom?” he asked.
Faith looked over at Jana, and they gave each other a what-the-hell look. Since when had Beast started calling their mom “Mom”?
“I feel pretty good,” she told him. “But I’ve been meaning to ask. Did we ever find out what happened to the guy you tossed through the window?”
He made a face. “Broken neck,” Beast said. “He won’t be paying you another visit.”
“What about the others?” Jana asked.
“According to O’Sullivan,” Faith said, “the two men who were brought into custody have been tight-lipped so far. They refuse to say who sent them to the house or why.”
“I should have taken care of those thugs while I had the chance,” Beast said.
“No,” Jana said. “It’s best that they’re behind bars where they belong.”
Mom nodded thoughtfully before adding, “The doctor said I could stay here another night. I think Detective Yuhasz had something to do with that.”
“Everyone we know is in this damned place,” Beast said with a growl.
Faith stood. “Can I go see Rage? Is she awake?”
He nodded.
“I’m going, too,” Jana said. She looked at Mom. “You two visit for a bit. We’ll be right back.”
After they left the room, Jana said, “I talked to the sheriff in Mendocino. Still no word on Dad or Colton’s whereabouts. I didn’t want to bring it up in front of Mom, but it is time to hire a search team, something we should have done from the beginning.”
“We have to stay calm. It’s only been a few days. Dad said to give him a week before we started worrying.”
Jana rubbe
d her belly.
“Are you feeling OK?”
“I’ll be fine,” Jana said. “Everything will be fine.”
Faith stopped her sister and made her look into her eyes. “I hope you know I appreciate everything you’ve done for me, and now Rage. I love you.”
Jana smiled. “I love you, too, sis.”
As they neared Rage’s room, Faith asked, “Are you going to tell her, or am I?”
“It’s your call.”
“Hey,” Rage said when she saw them.
Faith didn’t like seeing so much pain in Rage’s eyes.
The nurse had just left her a plastic container filled with yogurt, and a fruit bowl.
“Anyone hungry?” She pushed the table away.
“You should probably eat something,” Jana said.
Rage rolled her eyes as she looked at Faith. “You didn’t tell me having a sister was like having another mother.”
Faith smiled. “You never asked.”
“Hey,” Jana said. “Be nice or I’ll go into labor right here, right now, and make you watch the whole sordid business.”
Rage shrugged. “If you do that, I’ll one-up you and die right here, right now, and make you spend the rest of your life feeling badly about being mean to me.”
“Jeez,” Jana said. “OK, you win.”
“Well, it’s good to see you two bonding,” Faith said as she moved closer to the bed while Jana made herself comfortable in the chair in the corner of the room. “Do you need me to get you anything?”
“You two don’t have to worry about me,” Rage said. “I’ve been through this enough times already to know I’ll be fine. As cruel as it is, I’m not done with the world yet. Speaking of which, have you talked to that FBI woman?”
“Agent Burnett?” Faith asked.
Rage nodded. “Yeah, do we know how it all ended at the bowling alley?”
“From what I heard, you made it possible for them to have their biggest john roundups ever. They’re still being questioned as we speak. She said it’s rare that they’re able to arrest so many people in one swoop. That bowling alley appears to have been a big moneymaker and a big part of the trafficking business in Sacramento County. You and Beast did good.”
