So far, he’d only abused her with fists and boots, but the leer on his face as he pulled down the collar of her shirt for a peek meant she didn’t have much time left before he started violating her with his dick. Her stomach rolled, and if she could’ve opened her mouth, she would’ve thrown up on his shoes.
He patted her cheek and pain ricocheted around her face into her brain. “Whether you help me or not, I’m going to kill him. I’m giving you the chance to decide which side of the gun you and your baby want to be on.”
Her open eye welled with tears. She’d expected to be saved by now. It had been days. Felt like years. And she wasn’t far from giving up. If not for the baby…
He took her hand and helped her from the chair. “You can sit over there.” He pointed to a chair on the other side of the room. When Fiona tried to pick up the baby carrier and winced, he chuckled. “I forgot to tell you. I got you some help.” He walked to the door and poked his head out. Fiona stared at the screens. She wouldn’t have seen him if Tyler hadn’t walked out of the room, wouldn’t have had any hope, but there he was, there they were. Grier and Hamilton and even that damned Kye, looking for all the world like heroes come to save her. The camera barely picked them up, but she would’ve recognized Grier anywhere.
When the door opened again, she spun away from the screens, the suddenness costing her much-needed breath, but she didn’t want Tyler to see her watching the cameras. Her stomach churned as he walked in with some twenty-something woman whose blonde hair was chopped short to match her shorts. She had the same brand on her neck as Fiona and a wild, scared look in her eyes. Young. Stupid. Ready to follow Tyler to the end of the world and let him throw her into the abyss. That was the look she had. Not someone Fiona would be able to count on to help her.
The girl bypassed Fiona and went straight for the baby. She took London out of the car seat and walked around the desk cooing and babbling in a syrupy sweet baby-talk voice.
“I thought you might not be getting enough beauty sleep at night.” Tyler brushed his finger over her bruised cheek to her swollen jaw. “You’re looking a little rough, so Jade is going to keep the baby overnight.”
Fiona shook her head. “No.”
He cocked an eyebrow and approached her with his hand drawn back. Fiona couldn’t take another hit to her face and cowered behind her arms. “Please, no.” The words reverberated through her head along with the thought of being away from London, the only comfort either of them had in this whole mess.
He dropped his hand as the door to the office slammed open. “Give her the baby.” The woman didn’t move, and Fiona lifted her head to see the man in the doorway, the man whose gravelly voice reminded her of her own father but whose eyes were all Grier.
Willy Carr walked further into the office and took the baby from Jade, cuddling her close to his chest as he walked toward Fiona. “Aren’t you a mess?” Mess was such a nice way to put it. “Did you put up a fight?” Fiona couldn’t be sure whether he was talking to her or the baby since he spoke so softly, but she shook her head. “Well, let’s get you cleaned up. Some food. Some fresh clothes. A bath. Then we’ll talk. Just you and me and this little love.” He handed her the baby and looked at Jade. “Take her to your room and help her.” The don’t cross me was implied.
And while Fiona was grateful for his timing, his kindness, and that he’d given her baby back, she knew enough not to trust anyone. Least of all Willy Carr.
Grier hadn’t seen much movement in the few hours since Carr showed up. No bikes in. No one out. Even the guards disappeared from their posts. He looked at Hamilton. “I’m going in.”
“Grier, that’s suicide.” Kye hissed the words as they stood at the corner of the building.
“I’m tired of sitting here with my dick in my hand while she’s in there.” He hadn’t seen her, but he knew she was there, could feel it in the part of him where he kept his love for her.
Kye spun him around and pushed him against the building, his forearm against Grier’s throat. “You don’t know she’s in there.”
“I feel it here.” He punched his fist against Kye’s chest. “If it was Eli, you’d have shot this place up already.”
“And we will, but first, we need help. We need more firepower, more men. You can’t go in there alone. You won’t make it out. There are at least twenty guys in there and each one of them probably has two guns, a knife and grenade launcher.”
Now he was exaggerating. “Then get them here because I’m not waiting much longer.”
Hamilton nodded.
And Grier saw the logic. Going in alone, there were a hundred ways it could go wrong, and almost no chance he would walk out alive with his wife and his baby. But if there was one tiny little possibility he could save her a minute’s pain, he had to take it. But he held up his hands. He stayed at the side of the building shadowed by the sun. He couldn’t see more than the parking lot which was half-full of bikes but without guards.
He didn’t know more than he had to get to Fiona and London. Every minute they waited, his imagination rewarded him with some vision of Fiona, some horrid idea of what she was suffering. The panic was real. And Fiona was inside, probably cool and put together, because she didn’t lose her shit. Knowing her, she was in there taking names, making lists, and collecting weapons to bust herself out of there. God, he hoped so.
Hamilton tapped Grier’s shoulder and motioned toward the house next door. He nodded to Kye who shook his head. He would stay behind which was fine since he wouldn’t be welcome in a Demon planning session. They circled around the back of the house and through the side yard to the street, and Grier walked beside Hamilton down the block, just two guys in leather jackets on someone else’s turf taking a leisurely stroll. Two guys in leather jackets climbing into the back of a transport truck while two more guys in leather jackets stood look-out because that didn’t look conspicuous at all.
Grier took a seat between Hamilton and Dave. No one looked at him and that was probably for the best. He wasn’t strong enough to hide what he felt right now. And one way or another it ended today.
The crates they were sitting on were full of guns - rifles, shotguns, automatics of every make and model. They brought him comfort. He stood up. The man in charge. And it was time to take control, time to right the wrongs.
“This isn’t about the club or the business.” His voice came with confidence. “It’s about me. They want me.” The plan sat somewhere just out of his grasp, but he had their attention and he needed to keep it. “And I want Fiona and London safe.” A couple of random nods. “I need to go in.”
“You plan to just walk in the front door?” Hamilton stared at him. “They’ll kill all three of you.”
That wasn’t the endgame plan. Sedotal didn’t want Grier dead. Not until he made him suffer. He wanted to take everything. Fiona and the baby. Jez. The club. Then he would kill Grier and not one minute before. And he didn’t have the club yet.
“No. He needs the connections that Fiona has. The names, the computer, won’t do any good without her.” This was thinking out loud, spit-balling. “And she won’t give them anything if they hurt the baby.” Yes. He knew that. But the damned plan. He just couldn’t get a hold on it. “She won’t let them hurt the baby.” God, he needed sleep, to clear his head, figure out what to do. “I have to go in.”