He was being quiet so he wouldn’t be caught. I would be silent for a very different reason. I couldn’t scream, not without alerting him to where Olive was. I couldn’t fight him for the same reason. Any noise could wake her up. The only weapon I had was my silence.
“Bitch, he wants you alive,” he said, sliding the knife along my ribs. My heart thundered in my ears as I felt the sting and then the wetness. “But he said to get that kid by any means necessary.”
Silence.
His hand went to his waist, and before I could brace myself, he swung me wide and the impact of his fist against my cheekbone was almost as startling as it was excruciating. The only sound in the room was a dull thud. I didn’t even whimper.
He paused. Then, another hit. Another pause. Another hit, this one to my stomach.
I wheezed as I instinctively curled forward and was pulled straight by the hand in my hair.
“You think you’ll win this?” he asked, yanking me forward until our faces were just inches apart. I memorized his face. “Tell me where the kid is.”
I gasped and relaxed as much as I could, letting out a long slow breath. Then I spit in his face.
I’m not sure how long it went on. At some point, I lost track of everything except the overwhelming need to stay silent, to stay on my feet, to stay away from the bed. I focused on each point of pain as he paused, his words holding no meaning before the blows began again.
Then, like the sun coming out from behind the clouds, the door to the bedroom swung open and light from the hallway shined inside.
The loud report of a gunshot made my ears ring, and I dropped to my knees as the man in front of me went down, his hand still around my throat.
Olive’s high-pitched wails filled the room.
I’d done it. She was safe.
Chapter 14
Mark
“How the fuck did they get inside?” Casper bellowed as the sound of footsteps filled the hallway. I ignored the noise around me as I focused on Cecilia, waiting for her to say something. Anything.
I’d known something was up when I’d pulled in the front gate. Something was off. The back of my neck had started tingling and my gut had twisted, both signs that I’d learned to pay attention to, but I couldn’t see anything out of place. Boys were still manning the gate, a few old timers were sitting out front in lawn chairs passing around a joint, the main space of the clubhouse was empty, but still held the feeling of being occupied.
Not knowing what else to look for, but still feeling uneasy, I’d headed straight to our room. Just to check. Just to make sure.
My hand was on the doorknob before I’d heard the sounds. Thumping, but not with any sort of rhythm. I’d paused, trying to figure out what the noise was. I’d always hate myself for that pause.
Then I’d reached into my holster as I opened the door. And thank fuck, I had.
It had taken me less than a second to process what was happening, and in that small snapshot of time, I’d pulled my weapon from the holster, my body knowing what to do before my mind could even catch up. I hadn’t worried that I’d miss him, not at that distance. I’d fired without hesitation.
“Cec?” I’d called as they both dropped. I knew I hadn’t hit her, but she didn’t respond.
That’s when all hell had broken loose and men began pouring out of the bedrooms, most of them naked and armed to the teeth. The sound of gunshots inside the compound wasn’t unheard of, but inside the clubhouse? That was something else entirely.
Cecilia hadn’t answered me when I lifted her into my arms and sat down on the bed so I could pull the blankets off of Olive. She’d just reached for the baby, pulling Olive against her chest in relief.
It had been an hour since I’d found her, and she still hadn’t said a word—not while Forrest looked her over, not while her mom paced back and forth trying to settle Olive down, not even when her dad came and knelt in front of her, asking if she was okay.
She was with it. Her eyes were clear, even if her face was badly bruised, and she hadn’t lost consciousness at any point, but she wasn’t speaking. She wasn’t making a single sound, even though I knew it must’ve hurt like a motherfucker for Forrest to stitch up her side.
Wiping a hand over my forehead, I grimaced. I’d broken out in a cold sweat the minute I’d seen Cecilia being attacked, and while I was no longer cold, I was still sweating like I’d just finished working out. It was fucking disgusting.
“Can I talk to you for a sec?” Eli murmured, setting his hand on my shoulder.
I nodded. “I’m gonna go have a chat with Eli, baby,” I told Cecilia, brushing her hair back from her face. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
I paused, waiting for a response that didn’t come before getting to my feet. We’d been in Casper and Farrah’s room while everyone searched the grounds, and I was happy to take a step away for a few minutes. The air in there was thick with worry and fear and helplessness. My job had been to guard Cecilia and make sure she was alright, and I wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else, but it was still hard as fuck not to be one of the ones searching.
“Yo, we’re not finding anything,” Eli said quietly. “Not a single fucking thing. Nothing on the security videos, no holes cut in the fence, not a single member that remembers seeing anything out of the ordinary.”
“How is that possible?” I muttered.
“You know how it’s possible,” Eli said apologetically. “They’ve got someone here.”
“Nope.” I shook my head.
“Look, man, I know you got history with this place,” Eli replied. “And I’m sure most of these men have your back, and by extension, ours. But the least complicated explanation is usually the right one, and you know it. Someone let that fucker onto the property.”
“Fuck,” I breathed, looking over his shoulder at the men who were still roaming around, looking for any type of clue or threat.
“They might not see it, or just don’t want to admit it,” Eli said. “But we’ve got a problem. We can’t stay here.”
“We weren’t planning on staying,” I pointed out.
“Yeah, I know,” he agreed. “But we were planning on having bikers escort us to Eugene.”
“And if we tell them we don’t need them, they’ll know something’s up,” I said. “Goddamn it.”
“Pretty much.”
I wasn’t sure what the right call was. On one hand, I felt a loyalty to the club that had been ingrained in me since birth, but on the other hand, I couldn’t ignore what was looking me in the face. We had a mole, and worse than that, we had someone willing to risk getting caught in order to bring the enemy inside the gates.
“We need to talk to Casper,” Eli said. “Now.”
I nodded. “Grab Cam, too.”
“Will do. I’ll round everyone up.”
“Make sure you do it quietly,” I said as he turned away. “No need to make people nervous.”
“I’ve got it handled,” he replied dryly.
I wiped at my face again as I strode back toward Casper’s room. Jesus, how much pull did this Drake guy have, and how the fuck had he gotten to one of the members so quickly? Was there some kind of connection that predated this shit with Olive? And how the fuck were we supposed to find that connection?