Blood Revealed (Brimstone Lords MC Book 6)

by Sarah Zolton Arthur

  Half the contingent thinks we should hit up Lady Sings the Blues for our night’s entertainment, but there’s this new steakhouse that’s opened up on top of the hill and it’s getting some great reviews. The other half, including myself, wants to try the new steakhouse. Eventually, we get the Lady contingent to agree.

  I could use a mixed cocktail that I don’t have to make. The brothers like their alcohol, but it’s beer, tequila, whiskey, vodka, and gin. Ask for a piña colada and they’ll laugh you out of the clubhouse. I’m getting a damn piña colada tonight.

  So calls made, I walk back into my room to shower—well, since he decided we needed to quit dancing around making me his old lady, and I accepted, but he left before moving me into his room, I took the liberty of moving myself into his room, which means it’s now our room. I curl my hair, pick out a kickass outfit of tight plumb-colored jeans, a black camisole with a plumb-colored thin sweater with a scoop neckline and slashes over the fabric so the camisole is visible underneath. I wear my black leather jacket and black, leather, spike-heeled boots. To finish the look, I drip silver from my neck and ears. My makeup is on point. It sucks my man is so far away because I’d definitely be getting laid in this outfit.

  I let the boys know I’m heading out. Rig, a giant of a man who looks like he was smashed in the face with a cast iron skillet is one of the brothers left in charge of the compound while the others are away. He orders one of the new prospects, Benedict, to follow me. Benedict is about my height with dishwater blond hair and brown eyes. But he has a scar above one eye that gives him character. I think growing some facial hair would go a long way to making him hot rather than meh.

  Though, I have Blood, so I’m probably not the most objective on what makes a dude hot. No one is as hot as Blood. Not even Chaos or Hero. I know all the men, but the ones left aren’t the inner circle of men I’m the closest with. Still, he was left in charge so I’ll be a good old lady and not argue about the prospect coming along. Besides, it’s a big deal for him. Protection duty is huge for a prospect wanting to patch in as a full member. It means the brothers trust you with the lives of their women and families. I walk outside to stop at my sister’s place first. She’s already home.

  “You good?” I ask. “Need anything?”

  “Nope. I’m good. Caitlin is dropping off the kids in a bit and she’s bringing us some kind of alfredo pizza she made and snacks. We’ll be good. You look hot, by the way.” Brin grabs her phone. “Let me take your picture. Send it to Blood so he knows what he’s missing.”

  I let her snap off a few shots and she sends them to my phone.

  “Okay, well, tell Caitlin that I’m heading down to get us a table.”

  We exchange cheek kisses and I leave her to it. The new guy waves me through the gate and I head down the mountain, ready to get my drink on. It only takes me fifteen minutes to reach the new restaurant. I get out of my truck and walk inside to get us on the waiting list.

  The hostess hands me a light buzzer that will flash when my table is ready and I take a seat at the bar to wait for the other women. A couple men try to buy me a drink. One man in particular, who wears a suit well but otherwise isn’t particularly noteworthy, is pretty persistent.

  “Come on, dollface. It’s just a drink.”

  “Dollface, huh? That usually work for you?”

  “Look, I’ve seen you dancing at that club. I know how your kind operate.”

  My kind? Oh, this should be good. “Tell me about my kind,” I offer.

  “I’ll buy you a drink, hell, I’ll even spring for dinner, but I don’t pay for sex. You girls like it for free, though, don’t you? As much as you can get.”

  My vision goes blurry with thoughts of ending this douche. I stand to move closer to him. He stands too, smiling like he thinks he’s getting some tonight. I catch him off-guard by grabbing a fistful of his balls and squeezing with all my might. “If you’ve seen me at the club, then you know it’s a club owned by the Brimstone Lords. My old man doesn’t take kindly to jackasses like you making passes. I tell him, and rest assured, I will tell him, you’ll have a target on your back the size of Wisconsin. Now, sit your ass down, drink your drink, and don’t say another word to me or any woman until you leave, got me?”

  The man’s face goes from the flush of pain of having his balls in my vise grip to ashen white when I mention the target on his back. No one wants to mess with the Lords. They may not live the lives of a lot of bikers, but they’re formidable and aren’t to be messed with. And that includes their women.

  Lucky for him, right as I get to the part where I threaten his life, the light buzzer blinks, so I let him go, straighten out the lapels of his suitcoat, and pick up my buzzer and drink, heading back out to the hostess station.

  She takes the blinking light from my hand and leads me over to a large table by the window facing the parking lot. It’s nice inside. Sleek. They use dark walnut wood and stone in a way that makes it look modern, not “country” or homey. The chairs are all fabric-covered with a clamshell shape. They’re dark gray with big buttons at the tufted points. They have that same dark walnut legs as the table and flooring.

  I set my drink down in front of a spot perfect for seeing the girls arrive and I wait. It’s not too long before Caitlin shows up with Frankie. I stand and wave to get their attention. Liv shows up next, her gorgeous, long hair the same color as Blood’s swishing behind her on that incredible, tight ass of hers. God, I would love to have an ass like hers. That’s one place I’m not as streamlined because of my job. After seven years, I’ve got the thick, muscular thighs and bubble booty of a dancer.

  As the women approach the table, I stand and give cheek kisses, inviting each of them to sit. The waitress comes to take their drink orders, too. We wait to order our appetizers or dinner until Elise shows up.

  Not five minutes later, I see her Jeep pull into a parking spot near the window. I stand up to wave at her through the window when a man in jeans and a black hoodie, with the hood up over his head, approaches her, taking her attention. He has something in his hand, hanging down at his side. I squint my eyes hoping to get a better look when he raises that hand and presses it against Elise’s stomach.

  I scream and take off running as she drops, getting tripped up by people walking from the bar, entering and leaving the restaurant or going to the restroom. A million people seem to come out of nowhere exactly when I need them to move the hell out of my way. When I get out to the lot, he’s dragged her to his van. I keep running, but he’s shoved her into the back and gotten into the driver’s seat before I reach them. The other women follow. I make contact with the hind doors of the van, pounding my fist on them as he tears away with Elise unconscious in the back.

  Okay, keep calm, Han. Keep calm. What am I supposed to do? Caitlin has her phone out pointed at the tail end of the car as it speeds away, taking pictures. Benedict, who apparently dropped the ball on his protection duty comes running out from around the restaurant zipping up his fly. I don’t want to know what he was doing. His one job tonight was to sit on his bike and watch. To keep track of everyone entering the parking lot while we dined inside. Instead of owning up to his mistake, the punk jumps on his bike and takes off, leaving us behind in the dust. Guess we won’t be seeing Benedict again.

  Right as I’m dialing 911, Tommy Doyle, also known as Sgt. Tommy Doyle to the good people of Thornbriar, shows up to drop off Maryanne. We descend on his car, all of us yelling over one another at once.

  “Calm down. What happened?” he asks.

  Caitlin speaks for us. “Elise got taken.”

  “A man approached her in the parking lot with something in his hand,” I explain. “He touched it to her stomach and she dropped. I’m assuming a Taser. Anyway, he shoved her in the back of his van before we could get to her.”

  “Fuck,” he bites out, going full cop mode. “What did the car look like?” Caitlin hands him the phone with the pictures she took. He grabs the radio and calls it in�
��what do they call those? An APB or something? I’m not big on police lingo, seeing as I avoid having to deal with the police outside of socializing with the Doyles. “You got Maryanne?” he asks Caitlin.

  We all answer “yes” at the same time. He kisses her and speeds off. Poor Maryanne has tears in her eyes. She and Elise have been best friends since like their junior year of high school.

  The other women all have their phones out. I pull mine from my purse and press Blood’s contact. It rings. It rings again. It rings a third time— “Gah!” I scream at the damn thing when his voicemail picks up.

  I need Blood. I need him. Dammit. This shit is so bad.

  “Scotch isn’t picking up,” Frankie says. I look over to see her pacing in a small line back and forth.

  “Duke isn’t, either,” Caitlin answers. “What the hell is going on? Why are none of the men answering?”

  My stomach sours. I feel like puking and I haven’t even eaten anything yet. Liv tries her husband. Nothing. “I left a voicemail,” she says. “Told him what happened, that we have Tommy on it and that he needs to call me back as soon as possible. This can’t happen again. Oh god—” Her voice is shaky and then she drops. Her knees buckle right out from under her. Both Caitlin and I grab her before she hits the ground and I let Caitlin take over once we’ve laid Liv flat. Caitlin’s the doctor, after all.

  “It’s okay. She’s going to be fine… You’re going to be fine, Liv,” Caitlin says in an ultra-soothing doctor voice. “I need you to breathe for me, okay? One of you, go back inside and get some water please.”

  I nod, then realizing no one is looking at me when all their eyes are trained on Liv, I clear my throat to say, “I’ll go.” There’s a crowd gathered by the front door that I have to push through. The manager is one of the gawkers.

  “I need water. My friend needs it.”

  “What happened?” he asks. Did he not hear me?

  “Hello? Water!” I shout at him and that lights a fire under his ass. He’s gone only moments when he runs back out carrying a glass of ice water, handing it off to me like we’re runners in a relay race. I run it back over to Caitlin, who has Liv on the ground but sitting up now.

  “Drink,” she says, offering up the cool liquid to Liv’s parched lips. I suppose shock will do that to a person. No one can blame her. Everything Liv went through when that maniac Houdini was on the prowl. The things Elise survived. Just the memory of hearing about the kidnappings and attacks is enough, imagine reliving it like poor Liv.

  We give her space, keeping the gawkers back, and when she’s able to, Caitlin helps Liv from the blacktop, then she and I help her to Caitlin’s truck.

  “Everyone, back to the compound,” she orders before starting the engine.

  Being the president’s old lady, we do what she says.

  Several hours pass before the calls from the men start trickling in. We’re all gathered in Caitlin’s great room, with the kids playing or sleeping in either Jade or Diesel’s bedrooms when she gets the first call from Duke. She looks stricken and then I hear her say, “No. It was Elise who was taken. Didn’t you listen to the voicemail I left?” She pauses again, presumably to let her husband speak. “Hannah is here with us. I’m looking right at her.”

  Then the man yells, “Fuck!” so loud that we all hear it through the receiver and I don’t know if I should be hurt by that or not. Was that fuck because it was Elise and not me? Or was it because one of the women was taken to begin with?

  As Caitlin ends the call, she turns to us. “Okay, ladies. Here’s the deal. Duke hadn’t listened to his voicemail. They got word that there was a threat put out against Hannah and he was initially calling to warn us, but as we were talking, news came in that she was nabbed.”

  What?

  “They were after me?”

  Caitlin drops her head, her hand resting against her hip, her phone dangling in the other. “It appears so. Sweetheart, I’m sorry.”

  “So he thought Elise was me?” I ask, again dumbfounded as the information registers, even if it’s not really registering for me.

  “You both look incredibly similar. Same shape, with those big boobs, same sandy blonde hair, even the same eye color. You two look more like sisters than you and I do,” Brinley says.

  I got Elise kidnapped. I got Elise kidnapped. For the rest of my life, this will be hanging over my head. I’m tough—it takes a lot to make me cry—but dammit, I can’t hold back the tears from falling this time. The dam’s been breached. My hands to my thighs brace me, keeping me from tumbling forward. And they’re the only things to keep me upright as I begin to hyperventilate.

  “Shit,” Caitlin says, rushing to my side. “Sit, girl. You’re okay.” She helps me to a stool and someone hands me a glass of ice water. My hands shake violently as I bring the cool liquid up to my lips.

  At the same time as I drink, my phone buzzes and Blood’s name flashes across the screen. Somewhere in the back of my mind I decide that I need to change his contact to something more personal. What a stupid thing to think about at a time like this. I cough and choke while trying to answer in time. Caitlin helps with that too, swiping to answer for me.

  “She’s choking on water,” she says to Blood. “Give it a second.”

  When I can finally catch a breath and quit coughing, Caitlin hands me off the phone. “Blood,” I croak.

  “Baby?” he says that word as a question, the concern evident in his voice.

  “I got Elise kidnapped,” I whisper into the line, tears wetting my lashes once again.

  “No… No, you didn’t.” It’s nice that he wants to console me, wants to make me feel better, but I know the truth.

  “He was coming for me. Me. I know what’s gonna happen, Blood. It’s why I ran away.”

  “I know why you ran away, Han.”

  Not wanting my pregnant sister to hear what I have to tell him, I stand and walk over to the utility room off the kitchen, closing the door behind me. “No. You don’t. Not all of it. He killed Cassandra.” I’m barely understandable at this point. “She used her last breath to warn me. I ran away. I left Brin… thought she’d be safe… He’s found me…”

  “Who?” he asks, sounding completely baffled, which he would be. I never shared this part because I was a coward then and it’s my cowardice that got Elise kidnapped.

  “El maestro.” I whisper again, biting my lips and the tears coating my lips.

  “Who’s that, baby?”

  “Escalante.”

  Then he gets it, sucking in a sharp breath. “Fuck. How do you know Escalante, Hannah? This is so fucking important.”

  “My dad. He sold me to Escalante. El maestro owns me and he wants what’s his,” I cry harder into the line.

  “You aren’t fucking his. He doesn’t own you. You’re mine and I don’t even fucking own you. Don’t say that shit again, Han. One person can’t own another person.”

  “It’s my fault. Who knows what they’ve already done to her? God! How did this happen? I was so careful. So, so careful… I just…”

  “Hannah!” The way he says my name sobers my mini freak-out. “Baby, you are not responsible. Now that they know about you, do not under any circumstances leave the compound. Understand?”

  “Yes.”

  “Baby, I’m not fucking around. Don’t you dare leave. I can’t be there to protect you.”

  “Okay.” I’m back to whispering.

  “Love you, baby,” he says and that just makes me cry harder, those fat ugly tears that make your face go all blotchy because I don’t deserve the love of such a good man. Not now anyway. “Han,” he says again. “Love you.”

  “I love you too, Blood.”

  “That’s what I needed to hear.” He hangs up without a goodbye and I wipe my arm over my eyes to wipe away the tears. After a couple of cleansing breaths, I walk back into the great room as I try to pretend that it’s just the events of the day getting to me.

  “Napkin? Tissue?” I ask of anyon
e and Brin hands me a small stack of cocktail napkins that I wipe my nose with.

  “Who’s Escalante?” Caitlin asks when I’m a bit calmer, letting me know she’d listened at the door.

  “Cartel,” I answer. “They deal in flesh.” This part my sister knows about. She might not know about Escalante specifically, but she knows all too well about flesh peddlers as she was bought by a man, herself.

  “Flesh?” Maryanne asks.

  “Yes. They sell women to men who want to buy them for sex.”

  “My best friend has been kidnapped by sex traffickers?” Maryanne screeches, and like every conversation in the room stops.

  “Hush,” Caitlin admonishes her.

  “Yes. My dad sold me, just like he sold Brin. But he sold Brin to a low-level jackass. He sold me to the number two guy in the Anguino cartel.” I’ve done my research over the years on just exactly who he was. I knew back then that the guy had money, but I had to know who I was fighting in order to not get caught. That’s why I laid low for so long. That’s why I wouldn’t let Blood claim me.”

  A man with the power, influence, and reach of Carlos Escalante is a formidable foe. Elise doesn’t have much time. God knows what they’ve put her through already. I have to get her back.

  The Lords are good. They’re strong and loyal, but they don’t know what they’re dealing with. Dealing with sex traffickers is different than meth labs and distributers. I have an idea about where to start looking for her. And I’ll give myself over if it comes to that. I’m done hiding.

  “I have to get out of here,” I say to the women around me, knowing full well I‘ll be disregarding Blood’s request for me to stay put. “I have an idea of where they might be taking Elise.”

  “Right. Where are we going?” Caitlin asks.

  “We aren’t going anywhere. You’re keeping your butt here, where it’s safe.”

  “Girl, surely, you don’t think you’re going at this alone?” Frankie asks, leaving little room for argument.

  “You all have kids. I appreciate that you want to help, but that can’t happen. Just help me get off the compound and we’ll be good.”