by Brook Wilder
“Rash?” I asked, clenching my hands at my side. “Rash? She asked for your damn help and you turned the other way. If anything, you should be fucking out there, not her!”
Chains’s eyes narrowed. “I told her to give me twenty-four hours.”
I let out a harsh laugh. “Yeah, but you had no intentions of helping her since you got your hands on that SIM card. No intentions. Go on, lie to me.”
Chains had the grace to look embarrassed. “I didn’t know she would go after him on her own.”
I did something I had never done, not in all the years of being in the club. I jacked Chains up against his own truck, my hands fisted in his shirt. “You better hope she is still alive when I find her, or I am going to hold you personally accountable for her death.”
Chains clenched his jaw. “You threatening me, Crankshaft?”
“You’re damn right I am,” I snarled. “Wouldn’t you do the same for your wife?”
“Yeah,” he answered after a moment. “I would. So, it’s like that, huh?”
“It’s like that. You got a problem with it?”
He didn’t answer and I let him go, walking away before I hit him. He didn’t understand the concern I had in my gut about what Sabrina might encounter. He didn’t understand that with each passing second, her life drifted away.
He didn’t understand how I felt about her.
Chapter 17
Sabrina
I didn’t know what I was doing.
Biting my lower lip, I eased the truck into some trees near the location, switching off my gps on my phone that indicated I had arrived at my destination. It looked like an ordinary storage building or garage along a dirt road, but I knew it was nothing of the sort.
My father was in there or at least I hoped he still was.
That and I was hoping I had the element of surprise. It hadn’t been seventy-two hours like the text message had said, which meant there was a small chance I might catch them off guard.
Well, I didn’t have much else going for me. I had no gun, leaving Harrison’s behind in a rush to leave before he woke. I had no knife, no way of protecting myself against whom I might encounter.
I wasn’t a very good rescuer.
Pulling the keys out of the ignition, I shoved them into my jeans, along with the SIM card from my own phone, the one that didn’t have the files on it.
Not files they would be interested in. It was my back up plan, in case I was dealing with a very negotiable kidnapper who might actually keep his word about letting my father go. Hopefully we would be well on our way back to town before they realized they had a bunch of lame pictures and not those files.
That is, if they didn’t shoot me first.
I squared my shoulders, tamping down the urge to throw up. I had to do this. I had to be the one to attempt to rescue my father, alone. Too many others had gotten hurt and I couldn’t take it any longer.
Harrison’s face floated through my mind and I pushed it away, not wanting to feel the tenderness in my heart for that man. He was probably pretty pissed off that I was gone, and I assumed he had already woken and found me missing.
If I lived through this, I might not live through his wrath.
First, though, I had a mission to complete.
I took off to the building, my steps barely making a sound on the dry desert floor. The sun wouldn’t be up for another two hours, which meant I had the cover of darkness to scope out the situation. In Harrison’s truck, I had found a penlight, but little else.
For a man who was such an enforcer of violence, I had expected to find some sort of weapon. Instead I found a very tidy truck, adding an additional layer onto an already complicated guy.
My heart lurched and I forced myself to push him aside. I couldn’t think of him right now. I couldn’t think of the way he made me feel or how much I had grown to like him.
Reaching the side of the building, I leaned against the aluminum wall and took a few breaths to steady my pulse. I had never been this nervous before about anything, but right now I was terrified about what I might come against in that building.
This was so not part of my current life.
I inched around the corner and ran into a solid wall that somehow had hands that shot out and grabbed my upper arms painfully.
“Well, well, well, what do we have here?”
I was screwed.
***
An hour later, two guards stared at me, holding some wicked looking guns as if I was some dangerous criminal. One of them had dragged me into the building kicking and screaming, throwing me into the chair I presently sat in and not saying anything else.
Now my legs were asleep, and my butt was, too, but I didn’t dare move.
I didn’t know what they were going to do to me.
So, I looked around, noting the building used to be some sort of mechanic shop, though the rusted out shell hadn’t been in service for years.
Probably decades.
There was one small shop off to the side, but I didn’t see anyone in the window, which could only mean one thing.
My father was not here.
The realization hit me hard and fast. He could be dead. I could have come out here for nothing.
Except for my own impending death.
The door opened behind my two guards and I sat up straighter as a tall man with long, black hair entered the room, his boots ringing on the concrete.
“Ms. Cortez. I’ve been expecting you.”
So, this was the guy who had texted me. “Where is my father?”
“Where is my card?”
“I don’t have it,” I said, sticking to my first story.
“That’s a shame,” he tsked, shaking his head. “I thought you were a good girl. Your father led me to believe that you were a good girl.”
I lifted my chin, staring at him defiantly. “I do know the code to unlock the card.”
He stared at me, a hint of a grin on his face. If he wasn’t so evil, he might have been handsome. “And that’s going to do what for me? Without the card, you are useless.”
I swallowed hard. He walked the perimeter of the room, his hands clasped behind his back.
“Unless you have a legion of Jesters heading here, looking to rescue you. I assume they have the card?”
The surprise must have shown on my face.
He chuckled. “Ah yes, Ms. Cortez, I have been watching you. I knew you would come, you see, as you think you can save your father. I am going to relish in the fact that I will wipe out the Jester council.”
Oh no.
“And by the look on your face, that will be very upsetting for you. Good.”
“Why are you doing this?” I asked in a near whisper, not really wanting to know the answer.
“Because I can, Ms. Cortez. Because I can.”
***
They took me through another door in the back of the shop, one I hadn’t seen from where I was sitting, and to my dismay, they led me to two iron cells.
“I would say that this is a family reunion,” my kidnapper was saying. “But your father is not here at the moment. Perhaps if you stay alive long enough, you can see him.”
He didn’t say if he was alive or not.
The guard holding my arm pushed me into the cell and closed the door, giving me a leering grin as he locked it. “That should hold you in.”
The man in charge came to the cell bars, looking at me with some curiosity. “Your club will come for you, Ms. Cortez, and I will be waiting on them. You will know that this entire massacre was your fault and your only solace will be death.”
I fought hard not to show any emotion as they left the room, waiting until the door was firmly closed before I let out a gasp. What had I done?
Why hadn’t I listened to Chains or to Harrison? I had been wrong in my thinking, wrong to think I could save my father and escape here unharmed.
Sliding down the wall, I fell to the floor, pulling my legs against my chest. They would all die.
Because of my stupidity. I wanted to think that Harrison would stop at nothing to come find me, but I couldn’t be sure.
A tear slid down my cheek and I wiped it away angrily, mad at myself for putting me and the rest of the club in this horrible situation. I should have listened.
I should have paid attention. There was no doubt this had been a trap all along and this… whoever he was, knew I would come for my father.
Worse, I didn’t even know where my father was.
***
Hours later, someone came into the room again. I had lost all track of time, but I knew I had been there long enough for someone to notice I was gone.
The problem was, no one knew where I was. The location was on my cell phone, which was wherever these kidnappers had taken it.
I was just waiting for my own death.
“So,” he said as he closed the door behind him. “You are Joaquin’s daughter. I expected more.”
I flinched, unable to hide that he had wounded me with his words. “Where is my father?”
“Straight to the point I see,” he laughed, hunching down until he was eye level with me on the other side of the bars. “Where is the SIM card, Ms. Cortez?”
I thought about the SIM card tucked into my small jeans pocket, one they hadn’t searched before throwing me in here. I could play it off, give it to him, and hope he would be willing to give me my father.
If he didn’t go through with those plans, then I had just lost my last bargaining chip.
I couldn’t do it, not yet. “I don’t have it.”
He tsked, shaking his head. “That’s a shame then. I was really hoping you would come through for me.”
“I know the code,” I said hastily. “I have it memorized.” That was enough to keep me alive, or at least I hoped it was.
He arched a brow. “So, you are saying you are valuable to me?”
I gave a sharp nod, my heart pounding in my chest. “You won’t be able to open the files without the code.”
He straightened. “I’ve sent word to your precious club, warning them to deliver my SIM card. Maybe I will keep you alive a bit longer, Ms. Cortez.”
I swallowed. “Is my father…?” I couldn’t finish it. Just the mere thought of my father dead made me want to scream and cry out. If he was gone, my mother would be devastated.
I would be devastated.
“He’s still alive,” he finally said, a frown on his face. “For now. That will be the only good news I give you, but if I don’t get what I want, Ms. Cortez, he will not be.”
Relief flooded through me as he walked back out of the room, shutting the door behind him. My father was still alive. That meant I had to stay alive, too. I couldn’t help Harrison or the rest of the Jesters now, but I could help by not rocking the boat until they got here.
Shifting on the concrete floor, I placed my head back on my arms. The only thing keeping me sane at the moment was how Harrison had said my name right before I snuck out of that bedroom.
It was almost like a sigh, and just the thought of him dreaming about me made me want to stay alive.
I wanted to see Harrison again.
Maybe it was just the wish that this could work out if I got out of this alive, but I wanted to hold onto that wish for as long as I could. Sure, we had different lives. It sucked that we had different lives, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t be together.
That is, if Harrison was still interested in a nerdy college student after this. I didn’t have a lot to offer him. I didn’t know how to ride a motorcycle; I didn’t know how to shoot a gun.
But I did know the man he was and that had to be enough.
Chapter 18
Harrison
I picked up the glass from the bar before setting it down again, hating the way my hand shook from the simple movement. It had been hours since I had jacked Chains up against his own truck, but every time I tried to pick up that glass in front of me, I put it back down.
I was stone cold sober, and I fucking hated it.
“You know there is plenty of that shit behind the bar. You don’t have to nurse it like that.”
I chuckled as Machine Gun slid onto the bar stool next to me, then shoved the glass his way. “You want it?”
“After you been breathing all over it? Hell no.”
“Then get your own shit. That will be the last time I try to give you something.”
Machine Gun rested his elbows on the bar top. “I heard what happened. That sucks, man.”
The pain in my chest increased. “Yeah, it does.” Every second that ticked by I thought about her and how I had failed her yet again. There was no way Sabrina could have survived running into the cartel. She didn’t have the SIM card, giving them no reason to keep her alive.
I didn’t want to think about it, but I felt like I wasn’t gonna see her again.
Not alive anyway.
“Of all people,” Machine Gun continued, reaching behind the bar to grab a beer from the cooler of ice. “I never thought you would be a guy who would be interested in a girl like that.”
I hadn’t either. Sabrina had been far different from the ones I might have found myself attracted to in the past, but her faith in me, me as a person and not as a club member, wasn’t anything I could ever compare anyone else to. She had a good soul, and for some reason, thought I did as well.
God, I hoped I was wrong about her being dead. Sabrina was one of a kind, the only person I found myself giving a fuck about in this miserable world.
She meant more to me than this damn club did. “Yeah, well shit like that happens for a reason.”
Machine Gun blew out a breath. “Yeah, I’ve been there, too, man. I know how it feels. Just know I don’t mind getting drunk with you when the time comes.”
“Thanks, man.”
But there is no way he could know how I felt at this moment. He couldn’t. I felt like my chest was caving in with every breath I took, worried sick about what Sabrina could be going through.
If she was still alive. I didn’t know where to start or even how to start tracking her. I had no ride to even go out on my own, and after my blow up with Chains, I didn’t dare go rogue. I had crossed a line with him and was flirting with banishment from the club. No one had ever struck out at a president before and I wasn’t sure what the repercussions could be.
I felt fucking helpless.
“Crankshaft.”
Chains’s voice cut through the quiet and I turned, seeing him at the doorway. He didn’t look like he was about to hand me my ass, but with Chains, he could hide his shit pretty well.
“I need for you to come. You and Machine Gun.”
Slowly I slid off the stool, wondering if I was about to be stripped of my enforcer privileges. No matter what Chains had done for the club, I had stepped over the line by putting my hands on him. The right thing to do would have been to walk away, to cool down, but I had lost it and there was no excuse for that.
Not even for Sabrina.
But even as I thought about it, I didn’t really care if they did kick me out. As long as I found Sabrina, I would be alright with the punishment.
We followed Chains to the back office, where Widow Maker sat on the desk, her gaze narrowed as we walked into the room. I knew she had heard about the fight. It was written all over her face.
“We got something.”
I looked at Chains, the grim look on his face still giving me hope in his words. “What?”
“Sabrina,” he said, pointing to the computer. “Another message on the SIM card. Looks like El Templario has her.”
Shit. El Templario was the cartel’s personal enforcer, known for his unusual torture methods like sleep deprivation and caffeine highs. I’d had a run in or two with him over the years, as had the Jesters, mostly picking up the bodies of his victims once he was finished with them. “She’s still alive.”
“I’m not sure,” Chains said with a grimace. “But he wants the SIM card. My gut says she is and maybe sh
e’s bargaining with him.”
Sabrina was a smart girl and I felt a flush of pride at the thought of how she was using that gorgeous brain of hers to keep herself alive. “We got to get her. She can’t survive him for long. He will grow bored with her and then she’s toast.”
“I agree,” Widow Maker spoke up. “It’s our fault she’s out there in the first place. We should have given her help when she asked for it.”
