My heart hammered with fear. Was she still pissed off about the fight? She couldn’t have been, we had make up sex and she had told me she loved me. I picked the paper up and it shook in my nervous grip.
“Oh fuck,” I whispered. Braiden read it quickly from beside me and was already dialing Dillon as we moved out of the house. There was no need for words, both of us knew what needed to be done. Braiden’s sleek black Corvette Stingray sat in the driveway under the moonlit night.
“Dillon’s in town but headed out that way now with backup, I need you to put your thinking cap on, Charlie, you know this town better than me. William would be holed up somewhere secluded. A house, a shed, warehouse, anything you can think of will help us find them. He won’t be out in the open, it’s too fucking cold out. If he’s lawyered up and holding Emily, he’ll want shelter.”
My mind ran over the possibilities. There was only one main highway that led out of town. At the Mountain Range Road exit, there were two directions: west that led towards the mountains or east that led through eighty miles of thick forest before hitting the next small town. My hands grabbed roughly at my hair as I tried to think of a place like Braiden was describing.
“Talk to me, tell me what you’re thinking.”
“Mountain Range Road exit...he could have headed up the mountain—”
“That would be unlikely. Less exit strategies and he’s unfamiliar with the terrain. He would keep it close to the main highway, but far enough from the road that you couldn’t see lights.”
I mulled over the possibilities as Braiden spoke. “Old Morris’s shack,” I murmured. “It’s the only place I can think of that fits that description. Take the Mountain Range Road exit. The shack’s about fifteen miles past the exit and the turnoff for the road it’s on is barely noticeable. The shack’s been abandoned for years over a family dispute. It sits on a hundred acres of secluded forest. It doesn’t have electricity though, do you think that would matter?”
“I doubt it, especially if there’s not much else around. William would make do, it’s temporary after all. It’s a start though so let Dillon know, and if you can think of anywhere else they might be, tell Dillon to check them out, too.”
Braiden drove fast, like fucking fast, and although I was grateful, it didn’t mean he wasn’t making me nervous. I gripped the arm rest a little tighter when I noticed the speedometer clipped one hundred miles per hour. The black Stingray cut through the forest roads like an inky bullet.
“Just warning you, I might just plain out kill this fucker when I see him,” I said, in an attempt to take my mind off the excessive speed, slick roads and the shadows passing too quickly outside my window.
“Just try and contain yourself until we’re sure the girls are safe. Our first priority here is the girls, Levier Junior is second priority, but I do agree, the prick needs to go down. To be honest, I think his father would probably thank us for taking care of the pain in his ass.”
We reached Mountain Range Road faster than I had ever made the trip and slowed to a stop when we noticed my truck pulled off to the side of the road. It was empty and the engine was cool. Rebecca had left it here some time ago. My gut churned with sickness at the thought that she could have been in the hands of William Levier for such a long length of time—enough time to do as he pleased with her. If he had so much as laid a finger on her, I would cut out his heart and set it on fire. Without making a sound, we were back on the highway and the next few miles passed in a haze of bloody images of William. Apparently I was a sick bastard because I had entertained some pretty fucked up ways to torture and maim William Levier. In my bloodied vapor ridden thoughts, I missed the turn off for the road to Morris’s shack. Although the winter snow, which was slowly receding, had flattened most the grass on the roadsides, the tall firs and forest that surrounded the long winding driveway to the dilapidated hovel had thickened a lot since I had last been out this way. As I quietly berated myself for wasting such precious time, Braiden subtly redeemed my self-discrimination.
“This is good. If any noise from passing traffic makes it to the shack, they would only think it was a car passing by. We can back track more carefully now and move in quietly. Trust me if they are here, a surprise attack will definitely be to our advantage.” It was only a five minute drive back along the quiet stretch of highway before I noticed the barely discernible mail box sitting deep within the overgrown brush. Braiden pulled the car a safe distance off the road, and quietly exited the vehicle, nudging the door closed with care. With the crumbling cabin sitting an easy mile away from the road, I didn’t think stealth was called for at this point, but I followed his lead anyway, slipping silently from the car. Braiden was at the open trunk, clicking back the lock on a long, large and heavy looking box that took up most the space. As he lifted the lid, my eyes bulged with unsuppressed shock.
“Fuck me, you planning on going to war sometime soon?” I admired the clean, orderly, and extensive array of weapons displayed in the three tiered, custom built steel box. Braiden moved quickly and efficiently, grabbing guns, loading cartridges and pocketing extra ammunition in the side pockets of his cargo pants. He handed me a gun, which I loaded, and slipped extra ammo in my back pocket.
“Call me old fashioned, but I always like to be prepared,” Braiden murmured, shoving a bad mother fucking looking knife in a sheath anchored securely around his leg.
“You were NYPD with SWAT training then a PI, right?” I asked him in disbelief. As far as I was concerned, Braiden was far too equipped for an ex-police officer let alone a private investigator. His weaponry and the way he moved, the way he carefully thought of everything and planned ahead was something more in line with Jax and Dillon, maybe on a special ops scale. Braiden lowered the trunk’s lid and it shut tight with a quiet snick.
“Mostly,” he answered vaguely.
When he turned toward the dark forest before us, I would have stormed off like a noisy pissed off man, ready for battle. Braiden, however, pulled me back with a pointed glare. “Stay behind me, try and follow in my footsteps. Make sure your phone is on silent. We know this prick has security detail who are more than likely patrolling the perimeter right now. Don’t speak unless you absolutely have to. With a bit of luck this is our target, if the place is deserted we fall back and contact Dillon ASAP.”
Frustrated at the slow progress we were making, I knew that Braiden was right. Storming in like a herd of elephants wasn’t really going to achieve anything but get Rebecca and most likely Emily killed. I didn’t know shit about this kind of shit. I threw a mean half-hook, a pretty damn cool roundhouse kick, and I managed a construction company. This was Braiden’s life and I would follow the set rules he had just dished out like a boy fucking scout. Walking through a soggy forest quietly wasn’t as easy as it seemed. Where Braiden moved like the wind, I moved more like a lazy cow. Even though it was a cloudless night, under the thick firs the radiant moon barely broke through, so to say it was dark was an understatement. It was pitch fucking black and following in Braiden’s footsteps was a joke. For every silent swift step he took, I took one long clumsy stride that seemed to snap every twig in the vicinity. Braiden came to an abrupt stop and glanced back over his shoulder.
“Wait here,” he commanded quietly.
I stood motionless, knowing I was impeding this whole stealthy ninja attack. My heart was pounding furiously, demanding that my feet move forward to the old shack that stood no more than half a yard in front of us. Every now and again I thought I saw a distant light break through the trees, but I was beginning to think that it was perhaps no more than my hopeful imagination. My body felt wired and jittery, much like I felt before and after a fight. I needed to run, or beat the shit out of something, but I could do neither. Rebecca’s life depended on me holding it together right now, and for her I could do anything, even the seemingly impossible.
A sturdy hand on my shoulder had me turning with my gun raised, finger inching towards the trigger. A rigid hand grip
ped my wrist and pushed the weapon to the side. Right before I could morph into attack mode, Braiden’s shadowy face got up close and personal. “Don’t fucking shoot me or I will hit you,” he growled in a low voice.
I almost laughed as relief filled my veins. I thought I was about to get my moves on with some badass fucker from the city. A pissed off Braiden I could deal with. At that moment, the moonlight found a clear pocket in the canopy of trees and reflected off the wicked knife now in Braiden’s hand. It shimmered with a red sticky substance as he wiped it on his pant leg, then shoved it carefully back in its sheath. I guess that meant Levier was here, which meant Rebecca was, too.
“One down. Keep moving forward, quietly if you can manage it at all.” He gave me a pointed look and I raised my hands in self-defense.
“This covert shit is not my deal, man, I just like to hit things.”
“I’m going to make my way around to the east and circle the perimeter to see if we have anyone else out here patrolling. Dillon is in route, he’s fifteen minutes out and bringing backup, but I don’t feel comfortable waiting. We don’t know how long Rebecca has been here or what’s going on in that cabin. I’ve cleared the way to the front door for you. When you get there stay low and see if you can get a visual on what’s going on inside. Whatever you do, don’t fucking panic—no matter what you see—you’ve got to keep that raging head of yours calm. If Rebecca is in there, we need to know where she is, what room she is in, same goes for Emily. See if you can make out how many people are in there, focus on weapons and points of entry. We do this smart or bad guy blood won’t be the only blood spilled tonight.” I took long deep breaths and knew this was important. I had to keep my temper in check. “Don’t go in without me,” were Braiden’s final words as he slipped away into the darkness, as sleek and swift as his fancy fucking car.
I rubbed a hand down my face and rolled my tight neck and shoulders, then turned to cautiously move the rest of the way to the old shack.
Chapter 22
Rebecca
My eyes felt like lead weights and my mind was fuzzy, vague. I had no recollection of the bender I must have had the previous night, but my body was telling me it had been a big one. As I began to blink away my blurry vision, I realized the room I was in was unfamiliar. Then reality slammed into me full force. I lurched forward, sitting up in a strange bed that squeaked and moaned beneath me. I met one of William’s huge, scary-ass men on the side of the road at the Mountain Range Road exit and he had swiftly patted me down and taken my gun. I actually expected it; I hadn’t been able to come up with a plan to hide the weapon anywhere else. Nor had I thought up a plan to obtain any other sort of weapon. I had walked into Morris Poreman’s dirty old shack defenseless and desperate. The flickering light from several lanterns lit up the room as I came face to face with William Levier. His cultivated good looks hadn’t surprised me, I already knew what he looked like, but his size certainly took me unawares. He was easily as tall as Charlie and equally as wide. He didn’t look like a drug addict; he looked like a freakin’ body builder. His snide smile and angry eyes had perused my body in a way that had my throat filling with bile. I pushed it down and pressed my shoulders back. I was here for two things: to sign a fucking piece of paper and get my sister back.
“You look tired, sweetheart, did you have a difficult week?” William had asked me with a smirk on that evil face of his.
“We can skip the petty remarks and witty banter, William. I want to see my sister or I won’t sign a thing for you.” My voice was strong even though my hands shook so badly, I had to force them behind my body in an attempt to hide my weakness. William nodded to another mountain of a man, who resembled a pro-wrestler rather than a body guard for a spoiled rich boy, standing next to a door on the other side of the room. He opened the door promptly and from the dim light within, I could clearly see my sister, and gasped at her appearance. Her wrists had been tethered and she was hanging from a rickety looking beam which ran across the ceiling. Her feet were barely touching the floor and her naked body was bruised and battered. Her head hung limply, and for a moment, I thought she was dead.
“She fought, therefore, she was punished, but that feisty heart of hers is still beating. We should probably move this along though so you can get her to a hospital.” William’s lawyer, a coward of a man who could not even bring himself to look me in the eye, seemed efficient and organized with his paperwork, but as for the character of the man himself, he was shit residue scraping the very bottom of the barrel. I think I hated him almost as much as I hated William. It was pathetically weak people like this who enabled the Levier men to live the evil lives they lived. As soon as the paperwork had been signed, William had stood tall with a shit-eating grin on his face. I had demanded he give me my sister then—BAM!—the world went dark.
Now, sitting on a dirty mattress in a room that smelled like week old feces, I felt the painful drum in my head. I tried to reach up to check for damage only to find my hands tied behind my back.
“B?” a soft voice murmured from the other side of the room.
I spun so fast the world tilted, and I feared I was going to pass out again. I sat still for a moment until the room righted itself and took in the sight of my sister. Cuts marred her body, so many I couldn’t discern one from another. Her ribs were black and blue, blood dripped from, well, everywhere. My eyes widened at the sight of her until they finally reached her face, also bruised and bloodied.
“It looks worse than it is,” she whispered. A sob escaped my lips at the sound of her voice. “Don’t cry, B, I made this bed, and now I have to lie in it.”
I couldn’t hold back the tears that fought their way up my throat. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?” I demanded, not caring if anyone outside the closed door heard me.
“Can you get your hands in front of you?” she asked, clearly ignoring me.
“Why?” I wondered out loud as the tears continued to fall.
“Because you can fight easier with your hands in front of you,” she calmly explained. There was tension in her voice but I wasn’t sure if it was from fear of the situation we were in or the pain she must be feeling from her injuries.
“Who am I going to fight?” I whispered.
“B, William will be back any minute. He’s just waiting for you to regain consciousness. He gets off on women who struggle. It’s no fun fucking a girl who doesn’t fight back.” Her words were not spoken in anger or fear. It was a statement from the lips of a girl who knew, but they were whispered with a control and nonchalance that made me a little nervous.
“Em, what happened to you?”
She didn’t flinch, she didn’t look away; her face was passive and emotionless. “Can you get your hands underneath you and over your legs?”
I stared at her for a moment before deciding that now was not the time for a family reunion. I shuffled my hands under my ass and around my legs, and when they finally popped over my feet, I rolled my stiff shoulders. Standing, I examined the ropes that held Emily in place.
“I’m going to need a knife to cut through that,” I murmured.
Emily shook her head. “No knife and no time. The windows will more than likely be jammed, but try them anyway. If you break one, it’ll alert William and he will be here before you’d have a chance to get through” I checked the two windows in the room, and just as Emily thought, they wouldn’t budge. “Look around for something to use as a weapon, check under the bed.”
I began searching the room—it didn’t take long—although the room was quite large, there were little furnishings with only a bedside table, and rickety bed with its questionable looking mattress. The bed was made from a steel frame construction, held together with nuts and bolts. If I could get one of the legs off, it would make a great weapon. The first two nuts I tried to get loose were rusted on tight, the third began to unscrew with a few curse words and a lot of grunting.
“Hurry up, I can hear someone out there.” My sister’s
tone was suddenly nervous, which made me even more nervous. I fumbled with the second nut that was slowly coming loose. I too could hear the heavy footsteps outside the door and my breathing became frantic as my fingers worked to twist the nut off. My wrists were bound so movement was difficult. As the door knob twisted, the steel leg came loose and fell away from me, trapped between the bed and the wall. I whimpered with frustration as I stood up, hands empty and turned to face William.
“Hmmmm,” he hummed with a thoughtful grin, taking in my hands still secure, but now in front of me. “Have you girls been catching up?” he asked. “How’s your head, sweetheart?” William walked further into the room, completely ignoring Emily’s presence, his sights set on me.
“You have our property. It would be wise if you would now fuck off now, before those dogs of mine track you down,” I said with false bravado.
“As I mentioned earlier, your dogs are busy scouring Claymont. No one knows you’re here. We have a little time for some fun before I leave.” His eyes roamed over my body and I shivered. Please let Charlie have found my note, I silently prayed. William took another step toward me and instinctively I took a step away, my legs hitting the bed behind me.
“Leave her be, William, you won’t enjoy her, I can promise you that,” came Emily’s calm voice.
He snickered, his eyes still watching me like a hungry lion. “Are you jealous, Mrs. Levier?” he crooned. “Because I’ve already had a small taste, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.”
I chanced a quick glance over his shoulder at Emily. Although her face had remained impassive so far, at the mention of her married name, she grimaced. William reached out and nudged me back onto the bed. It tilted slightly to the side where I had removed the leg and I scrambled back to avoid William’s hands.
“Leave her be, you fucker,” growled Emily.
William reached out again, this time getting a firm hold on both my ankles as I attempted to kick him. He laughed, holding me easily.
Mercy's Angels Box Set (Mercy's Angel #1-3) Page 48
