“Shit.”
I heard footsteps around me as someone picked me up off the ground. Everything was a blur as my back fell against something cool. Something soft. Gauze came down onto my face and something stung my lip and my nose. I flinched away, grumbling as blood trickled down my neck.
At least, I thought it was blood. Because I hoped to fuck on high I wasn’t crying in front of all these men.
“Notch, can you hear me?”
Stone’s voice pierced the haze of pain and I slowly opened my good eye. Which couldn't even focus I was in so much pain.
“Stone,” I breathed.
“Notch, what happened? Can you talk to us?” Texas asked.
“He’s got two broken ribs,” Bronx said.
“His nose is busted, but not broken,” Asher said.
The world slowly came into focus as they sat me up. Making me sick to my stomach with a painful fire I’d never experienced before.
“What the hell happened to you?” Stone asked.
He sat down beside me and took my hand, squeezing it and trying to reassure me the way Stone always did. I coughed, feeling blood spewing from my lips. Bronx came into view long enough to wipe it away, then asked me to open my mouth.
“I don’t think he’s bleeding internally. He’s got a couple lost molars, though. Bleeding pretty bad from them,” he said.
I groaned as my head fell back into the cushions of the couch.
“Notch. Talk to us. What happened to you?” Texas asked.
I sighed as my eyes gazed up at the ceiling.
“Harry,” I choked out.
“Here, this should help you feel better,” Stone said.
I felt two pinches in the crook of my left arm, and suddenly relief flooded my veins. My vision cleared. The tears I didn’t want to admit I was crying dried up. I licked my lips, tasting the sour metallic essence dancing against my skin.
“Harry and his goons found you?” Texas asked.
“And Maya,” I said gruffly.
“Where is she?” Bronx asked.
“He… he took her,” I said.
“Why the fuck were you with her in the first place?” Stone asked.
“You know what, Stone? I get that you’re upset with the guy for essentially walking away from your crew. But I’m on his side with this one,” Asher said.
“Good thing you don't belong to me,” Stone grumbled.
“Tuck it in already,” Texas said. “This entire time, Notch has been the only one who had the guts to be honest with all of us and stand up to your selfish ass. To do what is necessary to get us out of this shithole, no matter the fallout. Shut up and listen to him. Be a president, not a damn dictator,” Texas said.
The room fell silent as Stone kept hold of my hand.
“You still believe Maya isn’t with them?” he asked.
I nodded, grimacing at the pain in the base of my neck.
“Yes. I—he’s—gonna sell her, Stone,” I said.
“Sell her? Like, human trafficking?” Bronx asked.
I nodded again, feeling more tears crest my eyes.
“Holy fuck, this hurts,” I choked out.
“How many guys?” Stone asked.
“Four,” I said.
“Did you not have your gun on you?” Texas asked.
“Too busy getting the plates of the car Harry stuffed her into. I had to play dead in order to get them to stop beating on me,” I said.
“I assume you’re wanting to go after her?” Stone asked.
I’d had enough of this man’s bullshit for an entire fucking lifetime.
“Why is it that all of you—including Bronx—are willing to drop every fucking thing for your girls, but you guys aren’t willing to do shit for mine?” I asked.
The entire room froze as I lifted myself up from the couch cushions. The bloodied gauze fell away and I felt butterfly bandages holding my forehead closed. I flexed my neck slowly, trying to see if it would make me sick. I wasn’t sure if I had a concussion or not. But the fact that I was standing was a good sign. I slowly turned around, eyeing everyone with my good eye. My strong eye. And as the pain medication worked its way through my system, I felt stronger than I ever had before.
I felt a renewed sense of vigor and lust for death.
“Notch, look at me,” Stone said.
My eyes fell onto him as he stood up from the couch.
“Do you trust her?” he asked.
My heart slammed against my chest, confirming what my lips hadn’t just yet. And it was time. Because we needed to go get her. I needed the only shred of family I’d ever had in my life believe me for fucking once.
“Yes. I do,” I said.
“Do you love her?” Bronx asked.
My eyes slowly dropped to the man gathering up the fistfuls of bloodied gauze from the couch.
“More than anything in this world,” I said.
The room fell eerily silent, and it made me irate with anger. The more seconds that passed, the greater the chance that Maya was dead. Or worse, sold off to someone we’d never be able to track down.
I’d burn this entire world to the ground just to find her. If that’s what it took.
“That’s enough for me,” Texas said.
“Me, too,” Bronx said.
“I don’t know about Stone, but we’re in. Me and my men,” Asher said.
My eyes connected with Stone as he sighed and nodded his head.
“I never thought I’d see the day. But I guess this is the time. If you trust her, then so do we. But you know how I am. I’m going to want to hear this from her. To look into her eyes and get a read on her,” he said.
“I’m fine with that if you’ll give me my leather cut back,” I said.
“Missing it already?” he asked, grinning.
“You guys will never not be family. But you’ve really been pissing me off the last couple of weeks,” I said.
“That makes two,” Texas said.
“Three,” Bronx said.
“And a whole bunch of others,” Asher said, chuckling.
I grinned as Stone reached behind the couch. He grabbed my leather cut and helped me ease it back onto my shoulders. Everything in my body ached. But I knew my body well enough to know there was nothing serious, outside of the two broken ribs. Ugh, I’d feel those for weeks. Which also meant I’d have to take a back seat in all this. Rely on my gun instead of my instincts to keep me safe so I could get to Maya.
“Then, I guess there’s only one question to ask,” Stone said.
“What?” I asked.
“You got any idea where the fuck they took her?” he asked.
“Actually, I think I can help with that,” Asher said.
I eased myself around, staring at the behemoth of a man as he stood in the middle of his men that had come to help us.
“You know where she is?” I asked.
“I have an idea. I’ve been doing a lot of tailing. A lot of research. Your facial recognition program helped me with a lot of it. I’ve been searching around for properties any of those assholes in the pictures I took might own. Or have taken out in Yung’s name. They don’t have any other properties around here except for their old headquarters and the new one,” Asher said.
“So, they probably have her at one of those locations,” Stone said.
“My men and I can go to the old one, and you guys can get to the new one. Harry sounds like he’s scrambling. And if you had to play dead in order to get those goons off you, then it means he meant for you to be dead. That’s the only advantage we’ve got right now, so we need to use it. It’s probably best if you stay in the shadows, given your wounds. But it’ll also give these Chinese assholes something they don’t see coming,” Asher said.
“I like the way you think,” I said, grinning.
“I’ll send my men out to go check out the old warehouse. If you want, we can wait for their word, and then all of us can head to the new warehouse. You know, cover our bases and make
sure we have as many men as we need to take these bitches down and get this woman back. What’s her name?” Asher asked.
“Maya,” I said.
“What do you think, Stone?” Texas asked.
We all turned to him, and for the first time since I had joined the crew, I felt we were finally on the same side. He looked at me with a sparkle in his eye and a hairpin grin on his lips. And when he nodded his head, strength bled life back into my tired bones.
“I think it’s time we catch ourselves some assholes,” Stone said.
22
Maya
I had to get out of there. I had to warn Notch somehow. Whatever my brother was planning, it was massive. And I knew he would leave no survivors. In the grand scheme of things, I had a feeling of how this would go down. My brother would use me as bait. Lure the entire crew here before slaughtering them off. Then, he’d do with me as he wished. He’d fully morph into the monster I now saw him as, and I’d be trapped in this damn closet the entire time. Listening as blood spilt and Notch was killed before I could even do anything. It was unacceptable. It made me shake with fury and fear.
“I have to get out of there,” I whispered.
The men came and went pretty frequently. A few opened the door just to make sure I was still there. One of them brought me water and food whenever I heard my brother demand it of them. I’d already pissed on myself. It couldn’t get much worse than this in terms of embarrassment. In terms of humiliation. I closed my eyes and tried coming up with a plan. But I didn’t have much at my disposal with my hands bound and my ankles tied to this damn chair.
But my head still moved.
As I heard footsteps traveling down the hallway, I figured the only way I could get out of here was to get them to untie me. If I could at least get my ankles free of the zip ties that cut into my skin through my clothes, I stood a very good chance at getting my hands out of the mess they were in. My arms were going numb and my toes tingled. If I lost feeling in all my appendages, I was stuck. No matter what I wanted.
So, I held my breath until I felt lightheaded before I closed my eyes.
“Hey yo, bitch. Got some water for you. Courtesy of your soft ass bro—”
The door flung open and my head fell forward. I slowly let out the breath I held, trying to center myself. The man paused before the light came on, and it took all I had not to flinch. He cursed and murmured to himself before a hand twisted itself into my hair.
“Hey. Wake the fuck up,” he said gruffly.
A hand came down across my cheek and I forced myself not to wince.
“Wake. Up!” he roared.
He tossed my head back and I made my body go limp.
The chair teetered on its legs and I thought I was going backwards. I braced myself internally, waiting for the snap of my arms against the floor. But the man stopped the chair from tilting back with his foot. He mumbled and cursed, practically spitting on me as he tapped my legs. Called out for me to wake up. Splashed the damn water in my face, like that would do anything except make me more of a damn mess.
“Fuck,” he spat.
A knife clicked before my legs were freed. Yes. Holy fuck, yes. Acting as if I had passed out was working. He gripped my shirt and ripped me up from my seat, sliding the knife around to my back. The blade traveled, and I tried not to let it dig into my skin. My head flopped around as he snapped the ties on my wrists, and I automatically felt blood rushing through my veins. The tingling was too much to bear. It felt like someone was stabbing me with a thousand of those knives the man had in his hand.
“Harry’s gonna kill me,” the man murmured.
Good.
He splayed me out on the ground, panicking. Waves of worry tumbled off him in droves. My back laid there against the floor and he spread my arms out, seemingly ready to try and give me CPR despite the fact that I was breathing. Not a bright one there. Was this all the help Harry could muster with his fancy new job that paid for his expensive ass suits?
The knife fell to the ground as the man settled his hands over my chest.
The knife rested underneath my fingertips and I slowly reached for it. I curled my hand around the base of the knife as the man questioned what he was supposed to do. And I had a plan for either path he took. Men cried out for him. Wondering what the fuck was taking him so long to get back to their card game.
Their fucking poker game.
“Shit. Breathing first, I think,” the man whispered.
Perfection.
The second he came face to face with me, my eyes popped open. He lurched back and I followed him, crashing my head into his nose. His blood sprayed onto my forehead. He grunted out in pain as I came around with the knife. I jammed it into his back, pulling and tugging the only way I knew how. And when he stumbled back into the wall, I scrambled off the ground.
“See ya, sucker,” I said, grinning.
I raced out of the small closet and looked down both hallways. I heard voices, but I didn’t see bodies. I was in the closet of a small room, and that small room didn’t have any damn windows. The man struggled to breathe behind me. He gurgled on something, and I forced myself not to look back. I grabbed a pen off the dresser, not seeing anything else I could possibly grab to defend myself. From the looks of it, I was in a warehouse. Some sort of place designed to house and feed men, though it wasn’t really a house. Or a lodge. Or anything like that. So much metal, and such hard floors. It was almost inhospitable, and the bedroom furniture seemed wholly out of place.
But it didn’t matter. Even warehouses still had doors and windows. I needed to find one of them, too. So, after creeping out into the hallway, I silently closed the door behind me.
I inched my way out into the hallway as the men continued to curse and yell for someone named Ralph. I tiptoed into the room across the hallway, looking around to see if there was a way out of this damn place.
And thank heavens, there was a window.
I ran the pen along the painted windowsill, listening as the paint flaked. The window jarred itself open, and I slowly eased it up. It made way too much noise for my liking, but I didn’t have a choice. If I encountered those men, they’d shoot me on the spot. I knew it. And my brother would watch with pride in those devilish eyes of his. I stabbed at the screen with the pen, poking a big enough hole until I could tear it with my fingers. The sound of chairs scraped against the floor as I climbed up onto the windowsill, inching my way through the small hole.
I never thought I’d enjoy how petite I was until that very moment.
I tumbled to the ground, thankful that I was only on the first floor. Guess my brother didn’t think that much of me. I gripped the pen tightly in my hands as I pulled myself up from the dirt and the dust, then I ran as fast as I could. I didn’t look back. I didn’t try to see what was going on. If I could make a break for the edge of the small wooded patch in the distance and shroud myself in shadows, I’d be free.
Free to get my ass lost and eaten by wild animals. But, free, nonetheless.
The men yelled as I made a break across the lawn. Their scattered footsteps faded into the background as the wind kicked up, swirling me and shrouding me in a wall of dust. I thanked Mother Earth for her cloak and dagger. For her ability to encase me in invisibility so I could get to the woods. Tears crested my eyes as pain rushed throughout my body. My cheek hurt. My neck hurt. My legs ached and my arms were still regaining their strength.
Then, I heard it.
The sounds of motorcycles rumbling in the distance.
I dove into the shadows and rolled until I hit a tree. I looked back at the house, watching in the distance as the men poked their heads out of the window. I clapped my hand over my mouth when gunshots rang out. When glass broke. And even from the distance I sat, I heard my brother yelling.
“I’m coming for you, Maya!”
I backed myself into a tree as the growing sound of motorcycles dawned on my ears. I wanted to make a break for the sound. But if I showed myself,
I stood a chance at being shot. At being killed. I saw the lights in the house turning off. One by one, as the sound of roaring motorcycles grew closer. And when I smelled the dust they were kicking up, I made my second break.
I ran, full force, toward the sound.
Hoping beyond all hope Notch was with them.
23
Notch
We revved our engines and sped as quickly as we could to the warehouse. Stone and Asher in front, and the rest of us lined up behind them. Two crews, coming for blood to end this shit once and for all. I kept my eyes on the house as the lights began turning on and off. Most certainly a signal for them to rally. I licked my lips, trying to get a layout of the warehouse as we moved. Two stories, longer than it was thick. Minimal windows, which would make it harder to find Maya. We crested the hill and came around the corner, and I saw the warehouse surrounded on three sides with brushes and trees.
I looked up at Stone and saw him already diverting us off. Straight into the woods on either side of the warehouse. Asher and his crew to the left, Stone and us to the right.
But as we turned off to follow our leaders, a movement in the corner of my eye caught my attention.
“I think one of the windows is busted,” Bronx said into the intercoms in our ears.
“Looks like the screen’s hanging out, too,” Texas said.
“I clocked it. You think it’s a trap?” Stone asked.
“No,” I said plainly.
It was Maya.
Somehow, she had gotten out.
All of the lights in the house went dark and the movement in the woods grew. As we sped for cover, our bikes jumping off the ground with every rock and divot we hit, I saw the whites of someone’s eyes. A figure ran around in the shadows. Stumbling along as the outline of the person’s form slowly came into view.
Holy shit. It was Maya.
“Look out!” Stone exclaimed.
Before we could get to the edge of the shadowed brush, gunshots rang out into the night. My bike careened into a small sand dune, slinging me over the handlebars. I fell onto my back and my mouth filled with sand. Bullets whizzed by as a cry echoed around in the darkness. Maya. I heard her. She yelled my name as bullets splintered the trees around us.
Notch: The Lost Boys MC #4 Page 14
