by Kiki Leach
"You're disgusting."
He leaned his head. "It's part of why you fell for me, baby--"
"You tricked me into believing that you were somebody that you weren't, you delusional psychopath from hell. And all for the sake of what, exactly? God knows you getting me pregnant sure as hell wasn't planned."
"Wasn't it?” He leaned his head and made a face at me. Instantly, I became mortified. “See, I knew you wouldn't take me any other way before then because you were too fucking pure with your church and your preacher daddy and your values and all that other bullshit that you had learned over the years. And I knew that in order to grow my family and expand my dynasty in this business, I needed an heir with someone that I could be seen out with in public, somebody smart, seemingly, and respectable. Though I've gotta admit, I was hoping for a boy to carry on the last name and that he’d look more like me than you. Either way, fucking you raw was the only way to make that shit happen for me, but you wouldn't get on your back for me without a fight, so I gave you one. Even if one of those Shadow Riding assholes got to you after me, it wouldn't change the fact that once you were confirmed as knocked up, that kid was mine."
I gulped and gradually shook my head. "You always knew."
"You thought I was a fucking idiot just because I didn't contact you immediately after? You really are one stupid as fuck bitch, Mia. A fuck of a lot stupider than I remembered you being.” He snickered. “The doctor at the clinic that you took Avery to when she fell off her bike was my first cousin. You never questioned why he was the first and only doctor to come out and see you in the waiting room? I knew you'd have no choice but to end up there, and even if you didn't, I had others on alert no matter where you chose to take her, in or out of the city." He rattled his head. "All he did was confirm what I knew. And the only reason she fell off her bike that day is because one of my men feigned running her down. That pile of glass in the street that she landed into was an unfortunate accident," he replied, callous and careless as ever. "But it got me the information I needed to eventually get back here, and to you--"
"An unfortunate accident?" I snapped, cutting him off. "She could've been killed! She could've been killed all because you can’t help being a manipulative son of a bitch--!"
"But she wasn't killed, was she?" He placed the recorder on the floor and stood up from his chair. He slipped his hands inside the pockets of his slacks and stared down at me with a set of hard, brown eyes. "Did you really think that everything I did leading up to the night I dropped you off outside of River's club was a goddamn accident, Mia? Or a fucking coincidence? You should know by now that I never do anything without a rock solid plan set in place. I'm meticulous and I'm smart as shit, which is just part of what you fell in love with."
"I was never in love with you," I told him. "I didn't know the meaning of the word in terms of feeling it for someone else outside of Avery and my parents until River. You were just a bump in a very long road that led me straight to him, but--"
"So actually, you have me to thank for this," he said. "And because you have me to thank for this, I should be getting something out of it in return. Like my daughter."
"No--"
In an instant, he lunged forward and wrapped his giant hand around my throat, squeezing so tight that I could feel the air in my lungs subsiding and my face becoming cold due to lack of oxygen.
He moved his face over to the side of my head and pressed his lips alongside my ear. "You don't wanna test me more than you have already, Mia, alright?" he muttered. His breath was warm against my skin, and wet. It felt like a snake slinking up the inside of my thigh two seconds before sinking his teeth into my flesh to poison me. "Now I know that you had her shipped off somewhere outside of the city. All I need to know is where she is." He squeezed even tighter and I felt the tears rolling down my cheeks and splashing across the back of his hand, but he didn't flinch, not even a little. I stared up into his callous, angry and heartless eyes and watched in agony as he inched his fingers up toward my pulse to feel each side thumping against my skin in fear. "You tell me," he said. "And I'll let you live."
"No," I croaked out.
He roared like some kind of wild and angry animal and threw me over on my side and released his hand. I knocked my head against the arm of the couch and felt dizzy as I tried sitting up again. My vision became blurry, dark spots appeared before my eyes. When his phone started ringing, he reached down inside the pocket of his slacks to grab it and turned away from me to answer. I looked around the room at anything I could use against him, anything that could overpower him, but I knew that even picking up the chair to smash across his back would do no good. At over six and a half feet tall, he was inches shorter than River, but just as built in every area like a mac truck in the same manner as Trucker.
It was clear that if he had done nothing else in prison over the last eight years, Ricky had stuck to a strict workout and diet routine. His hair had been cut just below his shoulders, which I hated to admit made him look somewhat better than he had all those years ago; his beard was lightly shaven, though unlike River's he didn't have a single strand of grey, which made him look even worse in that respect. His clothes fit him perfectly, almost too perfectly as if they had been tailored right onto his body; which wouldn't have shocked me in the least, considering.
After a few more minutes of talking to the person on the other end of his phone, he bobbed his head and hung up, then turned back to me and peered.
"Sounds like River got a one up on his old man."
"What are you talking about?"
He waved his phone. "One of my men still out in Crescent Beach just called to let me know that Wolf's prick son is on his way up to retrieve you, if he’s not here already. Seems the old man gave him the heads up on where we are, probably hoping that River would spare his life, which I guess he did." He arched his shoulders and sighed. "Oh well. That just means I'll have to move faster than originally planned." He tossed the phone across the room so hard that it broke in half, then he raced forward and yanked me up from the couch by my arms, and forced me to stand to my feet. I tried kneeing him in the balls but that only resulted in him smacking me hard across the face, enough to leave what felt like a bruise across my cheek as blood trickled into my mouth.
When he realized that despite his attacks, I still wasn't willing to cooperate with him, he bent down to dip his shoulder beneath my waist and hiked me up and over it. My arms and legs swung from one side to the other as he dragged me up a set of unattached stairs, down a hall and into one of three empty bedrooms at the very end of it.
Everything started looking so terribly familiar then, but not as if I had seen any of it before; more as if it was all a replica of things that had already existed at some point in the past.
And that's when I realized just exactly where we were, and why.
"Oh my God." He dropped me back down to the floor once we were inside the room. It was dark, cold and wet. But the wetness didn't come from water or a leak somewhere throughout. After a few quick inhales, I concluded that what I had been standing in was nothing more than gasoline. "OH MY GOD!" I screeched and raced for the door as fast as I could, but Ricky darted in front of it and grabbed onto me, throwing me back into the wall on the other side so hard that I felt something pop inside my back. As I struggled to move, I looked around the room again and saw that the only window had been completely boarded up like those downstairs, and was wet with gasoline as well. "You can't leave me in here!" I told him in a panic. "Avery will find out what you did to me and she will NEVER forgive you for it! She may even kill you for it--"
"She can't kill me any more than you can kill anyone," he shot back.
"I've killed someone before," I told him. "A member of the Shadow Riders who tried and failed to attack me." He made a face of disbelief, but despite my partial lie on it, I kept up the front that it was true. “I know how to use a gun and a knife which means that even now, Avery can be taught the same thing."
&nb
sp; "That's good to know," he said, his tone remaining flat and careless. "Once I bring her back home with me to Italy, I'll be sure to gift her with such things." He grinned. "Now you tell me where she is..." he started. I latched onto a wooden panel and dragged myself up from the floor. "And I'll let you light the match instead."
"Not a chance in hell," I told him.
"Then I guess we'll meet again once I'm finally down there to join up with you." He looked behind himself for a few seconds and then turned back to me. "The entire upstairs floor is covered in gasoline," he said. "And every room in this house is made from nothing but wood and pine. I won't actually set you on fire myself, because I did love you once, Mia. And I know that despite what you say now, you loved me once too." His eyes crinkled and he pinched his lips. "So as much as I might want to see it happen, I can't actually burn the mother of my child alive. But I can hope that she dies in the fire that I've set for her. Or the fire that you set for yourself." He snickered. "I heard you on those tapes say how much River ... what was it? Inflamed you? Made you feel something real and satisfying? I don't think you really know the meaning of that word. And how it should be used," he told me. "At least you didn't then, but I'm guessing that you finally will now." He backed out of the room.
"NO!" I raced up just as he slammed the door shut. And when I grabbed down for the knob, I realized that any lock that the door might have had was located on the outside. And since the door opened inward, there was no way for me to kick it out and escape. "NO!" I banged on the door with everything I had inside me just to make as much noise as I could. I didn't know if anyone else was out there or could hear me but him, but I didn't care; all I knew was that I had to keep screaming, had to keep making myself known. "NO!" I screamed again. "Oh God." I backed away from the door and looked down at the floor and saw smoke from the outside instantly working its way through the cracks and filling up the room. "Oh my God."
I started coughing so hard that the strain of it burned my chest and throat. I raced over to the window and yanked on the boards, turning back every few seconds to see just how much smoke was coming into the room. When I realized I had no other choice as a way to keep it out, I ripped off my shirt and jeans and stuffed them against the crack at the bottom of the door. I didn't know how long they would be able to keep the smoke out or keep me safe; just like I didn't know where in the hallway he had actually tossed the matches or how long it would actually take to reach the door, burn it to the ground and send me up in flames as a result right along with the rest of the house.
Before now, I was never a quitter. I was never one to give up without a single fight for myself or anyone else. But for the first time in my life, I felt as if I didn't have a choice. I felt as if I didn't have a choice except to sit, pray and wait to die.
Chapter Fifty-Two
Silence filled the truck as River sped through Daytona in search of the location of the house that Ricky had rebuilt. He knew in his gut just what that motherfucker had planned to do to his woman, and why of all places he had taken her back there, but refused to say that shit out loud in fear that it could somehow come to pass. He wasn't ever a superstitious motherfucker by any means; more of a believer in the tongue holding a hell of a lot more power over people than he thought it should, unless that power produced something worthy of being greater than regret.
His heart was beating so goddamn hard and fast as he raced through lights and flashed past stop signs, reminding him of when they sped through Tampa to get back to Crescent Beach, and to Mia then as well, that even Blue could see it pounding out from his massive chest. Never in his goddamn life had he seen River so fucking scared; scared that not only he would lose the woman that made him whole, the woman that opened his eyes to a brand new fucking world, but scared out of his own goddamn mind that he'd lose himself right along with her if she never made it back to him.
"Brother?" asked Blue.
River clinched his teeth and glanced at him from the corner of his eye. He relaxed his grip around the wheel before tightening it up again. "What?" he asked through clinched teeth.
"We're gonna get to her, brother. You just gotta believe in--"
"Believe in what, asshole?" he snapped back. "In God? In that He'll save her from this crazy as fuck prick who wants nothin' more than to see her fuckin' dead?"
Blue shrugged. "That too," he said. They looked over at each other before River turned his eyes back to the road. "But I meant that maybe you should believe in yourself, and that you'll get to her before any of that bad shit that you keep thinkin' inside that goddamn head of yours manages to go down."
"I can't fuckin' help that shit, asshole!" he roared. He threw his hand against the steering wheel a few times and ground his teeth. "Goddamnit!" He rattled the wheel inside his hands and fell back against his seat. "GOD FUCKIN DAMNIT, I never shoulda fuckin' left her there to go and confront Wolf over this shit--"
"You can't control how the fuck that motherfucker chose to operate this shit, Riv. No matter when or how we came at that asshole, you had to fuckin' know that he's always been twenty steps ahead of us 'cause the fucker had time to think that shit out--"
"We shoulda made fuckin' time to do the same--"
"Yeah, motherfucker," said Blue, "but we didn't. And you know why? 'Cause we were too fuckin’ busy livin' our goddamn lives and havin' fun."
He peered. "Shit ain't been fun."
"You fuckin' Mia ain't been fun for you, brother? 'Cause if it ain't, then gettin' married to her is the last thing you wanna fuckin' do." He chuckled.
"That ain't the kinda fun I meant--"
"I know," he interjected. He pat River on the shoulder and turned his eyes ahead. "But this is the kinda life we live, brother. The kinda shit we deal with every goddamn day. Mia's a part of that now--"
"She shouldn't have to fuckin' be is my goddamn point--"
"You're sayin' that shit like she can't hold her fuckin' own while livin’ in it." He paused. "Look brother, I don't know if you know this shit yet, but your 'lady' is a strong ass woman. Overtakin' Eightball, puttin' a bullet right through his goddamn skull -- that shit woulda sent most bitches runnin' for the goddamn hills long before it even had to get that fuckin' far. You see where my bitch fled after Courtney got shot the fuck up? She took off runnin’ last night and I ain’t seen or heard from her ass since,” he told him. “Your girl knew what the fuck she was up against, asshole, and she took care of shit for herself when it came to that motherfucker, just like she was tryin' to take care of her kid in comin' to see you. And what you told me about her tellin' you to own that shit and the crown? Even after lettin’ her know just how the fuck you got initiated into the club, shit even I didn’t know ‘til now? Brother, they don't make old ladies better than that bitch. If you ain't about all of that anymore then--"
"Fucker."
"I'm just sayin', brother." He shook his head and grinned. "What was that shit you said Verna told you about her bein’ the sun in somebody else’s sky or some other bullshit? I’m just lettin’ you know for myself that they don't make 'em better than your girl." Blue threw a hand around River's neck and squeezed down hard. He felt the tension rising in his best friend and looked over at him again. "You make the best of this shit with her, yeah? Once we get her back, you make her proud as fuck to stand at your side and call herself not just your woman or your goddamn Old Lady, but your motherfuckin’ wife, brother; with you through thick and fuckin’ thin, for better or fuckin’ worse."
“This shit is worse if I ever fuckin’ saw it,” he said.
“I know,” he told him. “And she’s gonna fuckin’ survive this shit just like every other goddamn thing in her life that she’s managed to get through. You just gotta fuckin’ believe that shit for yourself. Otherwise, what the fuck are we doin’ out here?”
River turned to look Blue in the eyes and bobbed his head. "Yeah,” he replied. He sniffed and swallowed hard. “Yeah.”
Within what felt like hours later, though it had actual
ly only been minutes, they arrived at the location where the new house sat, though they were about one hundred or so plus feet away from the electric fence surrounding the property, and remained near a ditch on the opposite side of the railroad tracks in the hopes of not being seen by Ricky, his men or any cameras they could see surrounding the property.
The minute River shut off the engine, Blue stuck his head out of the window and looked around the area, at the dirt, grass and gravel all across the grounds of the place and scrunched his brows. "This house is sittin' right in the middle of a goddamn vacant field just like those lots out in Tampa. The last house we passed was sixty fuckin' miles ago and that shit was it?"
"Guess so, motherfucker," said River. He swung the door open to his truck and moved alongside it. "Place like this is perfect for makin' those dope deals."
“Even the dope deals we made out in other cities had other motherfuckers and houses around.” Blue hopped out of his side of the truck and moved around to the front. He pulled a cigarette from his cut and immediately lit up. "So what the fuck do we do?" he asked, blowing out the smoke. "Get in there and fuckin' grab her?"
"You just said yourself that this motherfucker stays twenty fuckin' steps ahead, right?" he asked. Blue nodded. "So if you were him, and you had done what you did eight years ago in the exact same fuckin' place--"
"Holy shit," said Blue. "You think he's gonna burn her alive?"
"I smell smoke, motherfucker," said River, trying like hell to keep his voice from trembling as he spoke. "Smelled that shit long before we even pulled up and fuckin'.... Shit, fuckin' prayin' that we didn't get here and see nothin' but a pile of ashes in place of this goddamn house instead."
"Jesus." Blue looked down at the tip of his cigarette hanging out from his mouth, then ripped it from between his lips and tossed it to the ground. He jammed his heel into the lit tip and dusted his hands on his pants. "So what the fuck do we do?"
