Vicky found Regina and took great pleasure in torturing her while Paul Lawrence acted as a lookout in case someone reported a disturbance. It was through Regina that she learned Mistress’s real name and location.
Vicky had just missed getting to Nancie when she and Lawrence broke into her apartment. After she destroyed her belongings, she uncovered the fact that Nancie was in Mexico. Meanwhile, the assassin she hired, Taran, had killed Nick.
That was when something odd occurred. Someone else had killed Nick’s friend, Johan. He had been next on Taran’s list, but an unknown person or persons had beat him to it.
Vicky wondered if Inga was somehow involved. She’d read the interview she’d given and Inga’s frustration at the police’s failure to arrest the Collins family was evident in her words. Maybe she had decided to go after them herself. In a way, that was true. Inga had contacted Maxwell Lee. Lee had gone after the Ventura family for Inga and involved Tanner in the hunt through their mutual friend, Spenser.
Vicky didn’t care who they killed as long as they didn’t harm Nancie Ventura. Mistress was hers and hers alone. She owed the woman so much.
Once she found out where Nancie Ventura was staying in Mexico, Vicky had Paul Lawrence gather up a team of men to get her. It seemed safe to assume that Nancie would have people guarding her, after so many of her family had been killed.
Lawrence and his team failed to capture Nancie, but they had driven her from her place of hiding. When Vicky had spotted Nancie walking along the street, she knew that she was on the verge of finally getting her revenge. Pummeling the bitch into unconsciousness was but the first of many pleasures she would have. She planned to torture Mistress for a long, glorious time. And no one was going to take that away from her. No one.
10
Betrayal
“No! The answer is no.”
Those words were spoken by Vicky Denton to Maxwell Lee. Maxwell and the others were called to the villa on Carril de la Fortuna by Tanner and Bo. Maxwell was trying to explain to Vicky why it was important that she let them use Nancie Ventura in order to free women who had been taken as she once was.
Vicky was having none of it.
“Look at my face. That bitch did this to me before sending me to a whorehouse in the underbelly of hell. Do you think I would risk her getting away now that I finally have her?”
“I understand your need for revenge, and I agree with it wholeheartedly,” Maxwell said. “But we’re not asking you to free her, just to release her for a short time. By doing so, you’ll save a number of women from being sold off as sex slaves. You, more than most, have to see how important that is.”
“It’s important. And I agree with you that it should be stopped. But why can’t it be done without Ventura’s help?”
“We’re assuming that they’ve changed the location for the auction. That means we won’t know where the new site is. Nancie Ventura does. If her people don’t hear from her soon, they’ll assume that she’s been captured and will reveal the new location, which means that they’ll change it again, to a site she doesn’t know. If that occurs, we may never know what happens to the women they have.”
Vicky stared at Maxwell, then looked around the room. She frowned when she noticed that Taran was standing beside Tanner.
“What? You’re on their side now?”
“I want to help the missing women, and I want you to have your revenge. Both these things can take place.”
Vicky shook her head. “That bitch might get away from them. If that happened… I…”
“She won’t escape us,” Tanner said. “Bo and I are going to be with her while pretending to be her bodyguards. That way, she’ll walk us right into whatever house they’re using. Better yet, Taran can join us. There’s no way this woman will get away. And once the women are safe, we’ll hand her back to you.”
Vicky looked at each of them again and saw that they were determined. After sighing, she nodded. “You can have her. But I had better get her back. And in one piece too. I need to be the one who kills her, and it won’t be a quick death.”
“Agreed,” Tanner said. He had wreaked vengeance on enemies but never felt the need to torture them for days on end. Their deaths were usually enough to slake his thirst for revenge. That said, he’d never been sold into sexual slavery and had his face butchered either. If Vicky felt the need to slowly torture Ventura, then so be it.
“Where is she?” Maxwell asked. “We need her to make a call right away.”
Vicky smiled. With most people, it improved their looks. With Vicky, it only accentuated the hideous damage done to her face.
“I’ll take you to her.”
The group, along with Taran, followed Vicky into a detached two car garage, where she opened the rear of a blue SUV. There were thick sheets of plastic back there, and the windows had a deep tint.
Nancie Ventura was lying on her side atop the plastic and she was tied up with ropes. There was a blindfold over her eyes and a ball gag in her mouth. Her face was a mass of bruises and there was dried blood on both cheeks from cuts.
Vicky slapped Nancie a hard one, then backhanded her. It opened up the cuts again. Nancie screamed into the gag and tried to squirm away. When Vicky removed the blindfold, they saw that one of Nancie’s eyes was swollen shut. Her one good eye, the right one, looked about wildly. When it came to rest on Vicky, tears began to spill down her bruised and bloody cheeks.
“Her face is a mess,” Kate said. “We’ll have to explain that.”
“She can say that it happened as she was fighting to get away from the house,” Tanner said. “Right now, we need her to make a phone call to let her father know that she’s alive.”
Vicky removed the ball gag and Nancie began begging for help from the others.
“Get me away from her and I’ll give you anything—anything!”
“No one here gives a damn about you,” Kate said.
Nancie stared at her. “I don’t know you. I don’t know any of you, and I’ve never done anything to you.”
“You’ve hurt others,” Ali said. “Many others.”
“So? They weren’t you. Why would you care about that?”
“It’s called empathy,” Maxwell said. “And it’s obviously a trait that doesn’t run in your family.”
Tanner had given Kate the pink phone he’d found, Nancie’s phone. Kate held it up.
“We need you to make a call to your father. He needs to know that you’re all right.”
“All right? Do I look all right to you?”
Vicky gripped her by the hair. “You’re a hell of a lot better than you will be when I get done with you.”
Nancie whimpered. As much as she relished inflicting pain, she was not someone who enjoyed being on the receiving end of it. She had come to while Vicky was tying her up, and Vicky had described just a few of the horrors that awaited her. She had no doubt that Vicky intended to inflict all of them on her.
“Look at her! Can’t you see that she’s insane? You have to get me away from her. Call the cops if you need to but get me away from her.”
“You’re going to call your father and tell him that you’re safe,” Tanner said. “And you’re going to tell us where the auction will take place. Refuse to help us, and we’ll hand you over to Vicky right away.”
Nancie opened her mouth to object, then thought better of it. If she didn’t help them, they would leave her to Vicky’s mercy. Vicky had no mercy where she was concerned.
“I’ll do as you ask. Just get me out of this car.”
Nancie was cut loose of the ropes and allowed time in a bathroom to use the toilet and wash her face. When she emerged, she was coached by Kate and Maxwell about what to say to her father. If she tried to warn him or failed to convince him that she was all right, she would be returned to Vicky’s custody immediately. There was no need for any other threats or intimidation. If they had vowed to blow her brains out it wouldn’t have been as frightening as the promise to hand her
over to a woman whose sole purpose in life was to make her suffer.
Arthur Collins saw his daughter’s name come up on his phone and felt immense relief. If she was calling and was all right, that meant that he wouldn’t need to change the location of the auction again. Doing so would have been a massive pain in the ass. It would have also meant that the ship would have had to be diverted once more. The fact that Nancie’s call meant that she was alive was a secondary consideration for Arthur. Although it pleased him well enough.
“Where the hell are you, Nancie?”
“I barely made it out of that house alive and was holed up in a vacant building. I was injured too.”
“How badly are you hurt?”
“My face is bruised.”
“I can’t have you around the bidders with a battered face. Emily and Karen are here with me. One of them can fill-in for you during the auction, but I don’t think either of them would be good at keeping the girls in line. How soon can you get here?”
Nancie gave her father a time and said that she would be flying to Houston, then driving to Stowell, Texas, where the auction was to take place.
“Will the ship be docking in Galveston, Daddy?”
“Yes.”
“Then I won’t be able to meet it. Instead, I’ll come directly to the house from Houston.”
“Come as quickly as you can. The auction will still be held tomorrow night.”
“Why so soon?”
“It’s the same time it always was, remember? It’s the ship that’s running a day late, because it had to be diverted to the port of Galveston.”
“Oh, right.”
“Should I send people to guard you?”
“I’ve already hired three men. They’ll bring me there and stay with me in case there’s trouble.”
“I guess we can’t have too many guards. That’s why I hired more. There are eighteen of them here now, from the same people we use in Mexico. I told them to expect trouble.”
“Daddy.”
“Yes?”
Nancie was about to shout a warning to her father, but then she looked over at Vicky. If she warned him, she’d never have a chance of getting away from the madwoman. If she didn’t warn him, Tanner and the others would kill her father and perhaps wipe out herself and the rest of her family. In the end it was no contest. Regardless of what fate befell her loved ones, Nancie wanted a chance to get away from Vicky.
“Nancie?”
“I just wanted to say that I’m sorry about what happened to Nick, and Regina and Johan too.”
“Once this auction is over, we’ll have time to regroup. When I find out who it is that attacked us, I’ll wipe them off the map.”
“Stay safe, Daddy.”
“You too, and call me when your plane lands tomorrow.”
“I will.”
The call concluded. Kate plucked it from the kitchen table and turned it off.
Maxwell was smiling. “All right. We know from your conversation with your father that the auction is to take place in Stowell. You’re going to tell us where in Stowell and make us a detailed map of the grounds and the house. You’ll also fill us in on any security measures that are being taken.”
Nancie was shaking her head. “If I tell you all of that now you might change your mind about taking me to Texas with you. You might decide you don’t need me and leave me… with her.”
“That sounds like a good idea to me,” Vicky said.
Tanner disagreed. “We’ll still need you. We can use you to enter the grounds as your bodyguards. It will be much easier to fight from within rather than have to fight our way in.”
“And after that, you won’t give a damn what happens to me, will you?”
“I don’t give a damn now, lady. But I’ll use you and then hand you back to Vicky. Or you can refuse, and she can have you right now.”
Nancie shook her head. “No. I’ll help you.”
Bo tossed a pad of paper and a pen in front of Nancie. “Start drawing that map of the grounds and the layout of the house. We need to get going soon if we’re going to travel to Texas.”
Nancie released a resigned sigh and did as she was told.
A short time later, Nancie was being watched over by Ali and Vicky in the kitchen. Nancie’s wrists were handcuffed behind her back and there was tape around her ankles. The ball gag was back in place. No one wanted to hear her talk.
Maxwell and Bo were out front on the porch making travel plans, while Tanner and Taran looked over Nancie’s sketches of the house and grounds in Stowell. Arthur Collins had bought farmland there years ago and built a large house. They were talking strategy and planning the best way to go about eliminating the eighteen guards Arthur claimed to have, as well as the bodyguards who would be there to protect the bidders. While they were doing that, Kate and Michael were using the computer and phone to investigate people from their past. At Tanner’s suggestion, they were searching to find out if anyone else they knew had recently died.
Ali and Vicky were drinking coffee and eating hamburgers that Ali had made. Vicky had been interested in Ali and asked her how she became involved with Maxwell and Bo. When Ali told her, Vicky had nodded.
“That explains it.”
Ali stifled a yawn, then said. “Explains what?”
“That look in your eye. There’s a wariness in you that most women your age don’t have.”
“Women my age? You can’t be more than a year or so older than me.”
“Chronologically, yes, but I’m ancient inside. Most of my years were used up inside the brothel I was sent to.”
Ali shook her head in disgust. “I can’t even imagine the hell you must have gone through.”
“No, you can’t. No one could. And it was all because of this bitch here.”
Nancie flinched when Vicky glared at her. After stifling another yawn, Ali asked Vicky a question.
“Have you taken any self-defense training?”
“No.”
“You should consider it. I’m trained in handguns, rifles, and knives. I’m also a karate student, and I’ve been learning Krav Maga this past year. It helps me to feel safe knowing that I can defend myself.”
“But you can’t defend yourself. No one can. You know all those martial arts, but what good would they do against a loaded shotgun?”
Ali had slid down in her seat as Vicky spoke. She was feeling exhausted. None of them had gotten much sleep since the start of things when they’d traveled to Florida.
“If I got close enough,” Ali said, then was interrupted by a yawn. She was having trouble keeping her eyes open. “Um, if I got close enough, I might be able to take the gun away.”
Vicky didn’t respond to that. Ali decided to shut her eyes for a moment, as she leaned forward and rested her head on the table. She was so tired.
“I’m sorry, Ali,” Vicky said.
“Hmm? Sorry for what?”
“I can’t let you have Ventura. I’ve waited too long to get my hands on her. She’s called her father and given you enough information to save those girls, but I can’t risk her getting away.”
Ali opened her eyes, then struggled to lift her head from the table. The attempt was in vain, and her head fell back onto her crossed arms.
“You drugged me?”
“Yes. I’m sorry. And your weapon skills and karate tricks won’t keep you awake. Tell the others that I’m sorry too, but I can’t risk it. I can’t.”
Ali’s next words came out slurred. Her eyes closed, and she was asleep.
Vicky stood and walked over to the counter, where she grabbed a butcher knife from a set of blades that were there. She smiled at Nancie.
“Soon, it will be just the two of us again. With no one around to help you.”
Nancie’s pants became wet, as she peed herself.
Bo and Maxwell heard the sound of the garage door going up as they were walking back to the house. After making arrangements to fly everyone to Texas, they’d taken a short wal
k to discuss possible problems they might encounter there. Maxwell had called Ali to ask her a question and received no answer. He thought that strange and was headed back to the house to find her. When they saw the blue SUV headed toward them, and Vicky behind the wheel, he knew that they already had a problem.
“Bo, help me close the gates. I think Vicky is trying to take off with Nancie.”
Bo cursed and ran back toward the gates with Maxwell. They were made of wrought iron and were rusty but were strong enough to withstand an impact from the car. The problem was that no one had locked the gates in years. By the time they each freed their side from the accumulated soil and debris around them, Vicky had already sped far along the winding driveway.
They slammed the gates together as Vicky revved the engine. When Bo went to slide the bolt in place that would lock the gates it wouldn’t budge. There was too much rust preventing it from moving. Maxwell saw that they weren’t going to lock the two sides together, nor was Vicky going to stop. She was determined to ram through the gates, and they were in front of them.
“Look out!” Maxwell cried.
He and Bo backed away just in time and watched as the SUV slammed the gates. Maxwell caught a glimpse of Nancie Ventura on the floor in front of the backseat. Her one good eye broadcast the terror she was feeling.
The car missed hitting them, but the gates didn’t. Vicky had slammed through them with such speed and force that they struck the stone support columns they were attached to and bounced back. Maxwell was struck on the left arm while Bo took a blow to his lower right leg. They both fell to the ground while crying out in pain.
Tanner and Taran rushed from the house. They had heard the vehicle speeding along the driveway and the clang of its impact with the gates.
Tanner sprinted over to Maxwell as Taran checked on Bo. On the ground was glass from a broken headlight of the SUV. It wasn’t the only thing broken. Maxwell had a broken arm and Bo a broken leg. Kate and Michael were headed toward them. Maxwell pushed aside his pain and called to them.
Sins of the Father and Mother (A Tanner Novel Book 42) Page 10
