“If we can believe the Joker, she’s still alive. And no, they’re not going to kill her, at least not yet. She’s worth more to them alive than dead at this point.”
The fucking bastards. Seth could imagine the terror Stacey felt, knowing what was going to happen to her. Surely she had to know her fate by now. And for what? What had she seen? Or was Nikki right? Had they mistakenly kidnapped Stacey instead of Nikki? The thought of Nikki being in the same position prompted a surge of anger that started in the bottom of his gut and blossomed outward. His free hand tightened into a fist as he looked at Grady.
“Levi’s heard your plan?”
Grady nodded and glanced down at his watch. “As soon as our scout gets back, we’ll implement.”
23
Nikki
Nikki had insisted. No way in hell was she going to be left behind while everyone else rode off to rescue her sister. Seth had tried to convince her to stay back at the cabin. They had even spent precious minutes arguing about it, but she didn’t budge. Finally, he had capitulated.
Grady wasn’t so easy. He had tried to nix her coming along even after Seth gave in, but she had charged out of the cabin, the two men staring after her in surprise as she headed for the main building. She pushed her way inside the door, ignoring the startled looks of the men downstairs as she pounded up the stairway to the second floor. She knocked hard, two times, and then opened the door that closed off Levi’s throne room from the others. He spun from a spot by the window, his eyes wide with surprise. A scowl immediately replaced it.
Nikki stood in the middle of the room, chest heaving, hands planted on her hips, an equally dark scowl on her face as he stared at her, then behind her. Wondering where Seth and Grady were? Surprised that she had dared come into the main building? That she had the balls to confront him? She heard them entering the building below.
“Grady told me of the plan to rescue my sister.” She pressed forward without giving Levi a chance to say a word. “I’m going with you, and I’m going to help, so you’d better find something I can do to help. No way in hell are you leaving me behind. You got that?”
Levi frowned as Seth and Grady appeared behind her, then lifted an eyebrow toward her.
“All you had to do was ask,” he said. “No need to come charging up here like an angry bull.”
She stared at him for several seconds, the wind taken from her sails. “Oh,” she said, glancing at Seth as he entered the room.
“Actually, she might be useful,” Levi said. “If you go in as a couple, maybe with a bunch of boxes in the back of a truck, it’ll look more genuine.”
The plan was a good one, at least as far as Nikki was concerned. She and Seth would go to the storage facility just before the office closed, obtain a locker, and then drive into the facility. Seth would give the others the gate code. According to the scout, as Seth called him, there were no night patrols by a security company there, nor dogs set loose, but there were cameras. One of the guys was an expert lock picker and could get in to the office in under twelve seconds, or so he promised. Another guy, Shakespeare she thought he was called, could do something with the computer security system that would glitch out the cameras for a few minutes. Enough time for the others to get inside. They couldn’t go in on motorcycles of course, too loud and obvious and sure to tip off the Jokers, if they were watching. Levi had a truck parked behind the main building of the compound that they could load with boxes, with enough room for a couple more Kings hiding in the bed.
It was a good plan. It had to work! Her heart pounded with anticipation. Was she really only an hour away, or maybe even less, from reuniting with her sister? God, she was nervous, trembling with anxiety and the adrenaline that kept building inside her.
“Ready?” Seth asked, taking her hand in his, wrapping his fingers around hers and engulfing it entirely in his large grip.
She nodded, afraid to speak, afraid that her trembling voice would give away her fear. Everything had to work just right. It all came down to timing, and she could only hope and pray that these guys knew what the hell they were doing. Oddly enough, she had faith they did.
Six of them had headed for the storage facility. She, Seth, Grady, and Levi. Shakespeare and the guy who could pick the lock. She couldn’t remember who he was, about her age, lanky, and with a no-nonsense stare. While Levi had laid out the plan to them in his room back at the compound, she had watched that man, his nimble fingers playing with a quarter, his sleight-of-hand moving the coin across his knuckles, disappearing, only to appear again, his dexterity admirable. She wondered what he had . . . No, best not to go there. All that mattered right now was that they were helping. They were focused, all of them determined, to find and rescue Stacey. But they had to do it quickly, before the Jokers or the cops arrived.
“Okay, let’s go.” Seth pocketed the keys to the truck as he opened the door and jumped out onto the concrete lot. His face was a picture of calm. How did he manage it? She was sure her face would give them away in an instant, should anyone look too closely.
They had parked just outside of the office to the storage compound. Taking a deep breath, she pulled the door latch and slid out of the truck, pretending to be a normal girl. Smiling at Seth, she could only hope it looked natural. She felt sick. Nervous. What if the plan failed? What if—
She and Seth walked into the main office, hand in hand. The guy behind the desk looked at them, glanced at the clock on the wall, and scowled. “It’s closing time.”
She glanced casually around, twirling her fingers into her belt loops to stop her from twisting them together. A camera sat high in the corner behind the counter, stationary. Seth pulled out several hundred-dollar bills and slid them toward the man, half hiding them behind his arm so that the camera in the corner of the room wouldn’t see the bills. The tall, stocky guy behind the counter wore sleeve tattoos up both arms, but nothing that definitively identified him as a Joker. Her heart pounded erratically despite her efforts to appear calm. Her hands began to shake and so she shoved them into her pockets.
“We’re in a hurry,” Seth said. “Appreciate it if you could just give me the paperwork. I’ll fill it out as quickly as I can.”
The guy glanced at the money, reached under the counter, and produced an application and a pen, which he placed on top of the bills next to Seth’s arm. When he pulled his hand back, the bills were gone. While Seth quickly filled out the paperwork, the guy tapped his computer keyboard, and in moments, the transaction was complete. He quickly gave Seth the spiel about hours, glanced at the code numbers that Seth had specified, typed them into the computer, and explained how the process worked. Seth nodded impatiently, occasionally glancing at the clock.
“Okay, you’re done,” the tattoo guy said. “You got a padlock, or do you want to buy one from us?” he asked, gesturing to a number of padlocks in stiff plastic packages on the wall behind him.
“Got my own,” Seth said, pulling a padlock from his back pocket.
“The office is going to be closed for the rest of the night. We open at six o’clock in the morning.”
“This place has security cameras, doesn’t it?” Seth warily asked.
“Yeah, yeah,” the employee said, gesturing to the camera in the corner of the room. “There’s also several exterior cameras, one covering the entrance, and interspersed throughout. We haven’t had a break-in for years.”
“But no dogs, right?”
The guy shook his head. Did he think Seth would cancel the rental and ask for his bribe back?
“Had one a while back, but because people come and go at all times, there were liability issues. Like I said, we haven’t had any trouble here for years.” He gestured toward the door. “If you guys don’t mind, I’ve gotta lock up. No overtime, you know?”
Seth rapped his knuckles on the counter once, nodded, and turned. “Got it.”
Nikki followed Seth out of the office, a sign of relief escaping her lips. Her heart pounded harder now, so
anxious was she to find the locker where her sister was being held. Time was of the essence. They couldn’t—
“Hold on,” Seth said softly, wrapping his arm around hers as they walked back to the truck. “We’ll be inside in a few minutes.”
She and Seth climbed back into the truck, and he maneuvered the truck toward the sliding gate and the upright post that held the keypad at door level. He tapped in the code and the gate slowly slid open. Why did it move so slow? Finally, they slowly drove through. At the same time, the employee exited and locked the main office, tugged at the door once, then headed to his car. In seconds, he was inside the sedan. With the screech of tires, he pulled out, calling it a day.
The moment he disappeared, a shadowy figure appeared in the back window of the truck. Nikki had been expecting it, but she still jumped.
“Go straight down this aisle,” came the voice from the darkness in the bed of the truck, his arm thrust through the open window, pointing. “There’s no cameras down here.”
Halfway down the aisle, Seth stopped the truck, and Shakespeare and the lock-pick guy clambered out. They disappeared into the shadows. Moments later, Seth’s cell phone dinged a message. He turned to Stacey. “Okay, they’re inside the office. Cameras are off. We’ll have about five minutes.”
Seth drove quickly down the aisle, turned right, past two more aisles, and then turned back up the next one.
“There!” Nikki exclaimed, pointing. “It’s that one!”
She was already reaching for the door handle. Did he sense her excitement? Did he feel it, too? Just then, he froze, titled his head, and extended his arm to the side to stop her.
“Son of a bitch!”
“What?” Nikki gasped. “What?”
“Motorcycles . . . I hear motorcycles!” He peered through the windshield, then the rearview window. “Shit!” Several popping sounds came from near the front of the property, and he turned to her. “Buckle up!”
“What?” she asked, startled as she turned to him, eyebrows lifted in confusion. What are you—”
“Do it!” he shouted. Without watching to make sure she did as he asked, he stomped on the accelerator. The truck shot forward with a squeal. Nikki screamed and reached for the dashboard, bracing herself from going flying out the windshield. He took the corner at the end of the row of buildings hard, both of them leaning to the right, she pressed against the passenger-side door. The moment the truck stopped, Nikki reached over and quickly fastened her seatbelt, eyes wide.
“What are you going to do? We can’t leave! We have to get Stacey! Seth—”
The back window of the truck shattered, spraying them with tiny bits of safety glass. Nikki yelped at the same time Seth shouted again.
“Get down! Get your head down!”
No, this couldn’t be happening! They were so close to finding Stacey. Heart pounding, her stomach knotted with dread, her pulse pounding in terror, she could only hang on for dear life as Seth zigzagged his way through the complex; making sharp turns, slamming on the brakes, fast accelerations. Hunched down in the seat, tightly grasping the door handle, every muscle in her body tensed, she could only wait. The loud splat of bullets hitting the truck seemed never-ending, digging into the metal. They rang out over the sounds of Seth’s muttered curses, and the distant shouting, both in Spanish and English. The only thing louder was the muffed echo of each shot, bouncing off the close-quarter concrete walls of the facility, each one sounding impossibly louder until it felt like her head would explode from the noise.
Was it the Steel Kings? The Jokers? All of them? She didn’t know. She wanted her sister, out of here, now! Surely the gunfire would alert anybody in the area, and the cops would soon be swarming the place. But was that a good thing? She wasn’t sure. Suddenly, she heard more popping gunfire, much louder than she had expected. Were the Jokers right beside the truck? The motorcycle roared, muffler loud but—she turned, eyes wide as she watched Seth half-lean out the driver’s side window, firing a black automatic.
“Seth, be careful!” she screamed just as a bullet took out the driver’s side mirror. Another shout, more gunfire, and the sound of crunching metal. The motorcyclist had gone down, maybe even hitting one of the sliding metal doors first, by the sound of it.
“You okay?” he called to her, the wind ruffling his hair through the open window. Similar sounds seemed to echo around the entire lot as bikes flew past her, too fast for Nikki to see the colors on the patches. Where there more Kings or Jokers racing past on the sudden battlefield? She remembered what little she’d heard about Grady’s past. The guy was a sniper. Was he out there somewhere, picking off their enemies before they had a chance to reach the truck? Seth jerked the wheel again. Maybe there were being stalked, herded into a corner, only to be taken down when they were finally surrounded. She had no idea.
“We have to get Stacey! We have to—”
Seth pressed down on the gas pedal, shot down the far side of the storage compound, took a sharp turn, then another, and just as suddenly slammed on the brakes. She seatbelt tightened around her shoulder and waist. She sat up, looked frantically around, and spied the numbers over each of the storage doors.
“Stacey—”
Pinging sounds echoed both near and far, and shadows seemed to dance impossibly fast through the dying light of dusk. Nikki darted her head back and forth trying to keep track even as Seth tried to shove her back down the truck’s floor. Shakespeare and Grady appeared like ghosts in front of the truck. They positioned themselves firmly against the front of the vehicle, shooting backward at ghosts still unseen behind them. Seth exchanged a look with Grady, who immediately moved position and laid down covering fire. Seth grabbed his weapon and pushed open the door. “Stay there!”
Before she could react, he was out of the truck, around the back, and reaching into the bed. He dashed in front of the truck, the headlights briefly illuminating him carrying a bolt cutter. She turned, saw the locker number, and realized that he had managed to get them back toward the locker where the Jokers were holding Stacey. Grady continued to cover him while Shakespeare had moved further back to the side of the building. Their attentions away from her for what was likely only seconds, it was now or never.
Nikki unlatched her seatbelt and reached for the door handle, clambering out just as Seth cut the bolt, threw the bolt cutters down, and removed the padlock. Grady and Shakespeare both now stood in front, their eyes cold and alert, scanning the concrete jungle of winding pathways and highrise storage units that lay in front of them. The sudden silence rushed in her ears, almost overwhelming her senses. The ground was peppered here and there with downed bikes, men lying at impossible angles nearby, dark pools filling the concrete around some. She thanked whoever was up there listening that none of them looked familiar, but her heart sank as she realized that she hadn’t yet met all the Kings. She’d spent most of her time locked away in Seth’s cabin. If they had lost men out there, she would have no way of even knowing. The thought chilled her, and she ran toward Seth before one of the shadows could rise up and take her down.
She slid on the ground next to him, crouching low as he reached for the rope to open the sliding metal door. Her blood pounded in her ears. What if Stacey wasn’t in there? What if the Joker had been lying? What if—
The door slid open and in the glow of a light on the exterior of the opposite row of lockers, she saw inside. Her heart leapt, and her ears rang. “Stacey!” she cried, rushing forward, forgetting the carnage that lay outside in an instant at the sight of her sister. Stacey lay huddled on a mattress in the rear of the otherwise empty storage locker. Her hands were tied behind her back, her feet bound around the ankles, and a dark blue bandanna wrapped around her head, gagging her mouth. A scream erupted from her throat as she saw Nikki rushing toward her. Heart pounding, every muscle in her body trembling, Nikki fell to her knees and wrapped her arms around her sister, crying and laughing at the same time.
“We found you, we found you!” She tu
rned to Seth. “We—”
“Move over. Quickly!”
Without hesitation, she obeyed, keeping one hand on her sister’s shoulder, hesitant to relinquish even that brief contact. Seth pulled a pocket knife from his jeans pocket, flipped it open, and sliced through Stacey’s bindings. Her arms dropped limply to her sides. He sliced the knife blade carefully through the bandanna over her mouth. Stacey collapsed into Nikki’s arms as Seth cut through the bindings on her ankles.
“Sorry, ladies, but we have to hurry.”
Without a wasted movement, Seth crouched down, gathered Stacey up into his arms, and hurried out of the locker and toward the truck. He placed her inside, Nikki close behind, and by the time she shut her door, Seth had climbed in on the driver’s side and shut his with Stacey cradled between them.
Grady and Shakespeare reappeared, with Levi and several others joining them, forming a convoy of protection surrounding the truck and leading them out of the facility. As she watched the men riding ahead and beside them, many with guns still drawn, each with a large skull surrounded by flames emblazoned on the back of their cut, Nikki’s heart filled. These men, each and every one, had gone into battle, had risked their lives, all for her sister, all for a woman they hardly knew. And there was only one reason why. Because the man sitting next to her had asked them to. She looked over to Seth, his face streaked with dirt and probably other things, but she could feel nothing but love. She no longer cared what anyone thought. These men were a true family, and now they were hers too, if Seth still wanted it. She was all in. There was no doubt left in her mind.
She reached over and tightly clasped her sister’s hand, her eyes riveted to the pale features of her twin, tears brimming in her eyes, quiet sobs racking both their shoulders.
“We’ve got you, Stacey,” she choked out. “We’ve got you . . .”
It was over.
Confession Page 17
