“I don’t give a single fuck what your laws say. My girls are missing, and I will get them back.”
“And, I will help you get them back. But we finally have everything we need to put Hernández in a cage for the rest of his miserable life and I will not have that ruined by a bunch of cavemen out for revenge.”
I know what he says makes sense, but I can’t see past the red haze that has taken over my vision since discovering Rose was taken.
“Chains,” I say to my VP.
He takes a few seconds to read me before nodding. “I got it.”
“How about we split into teams,” Chains suggests to the detective. “You can lead the first one and another of your detectives heads the second. We’ll split the brothers up between the two and then hit both places at once.”
“Sounds reasonable enough,” Bear says. “Chains, Ink, Slim and Brick, you all go with the second team. Hawk, Trigger, and Josh, you come with me.”
“Detective Hudson, you’re with them,” he gestures to Chains. “Head to the Hernández estate. We’ll take the cargo container. Make sure you grab those search warrants. Everything by the book. I want no fuck-ups.”
“You got it,” the detective replies.
Without another word, we all head out the door.
***Rose***
You think I would be used to pain. Having my arms tied above my head isn’t all that new. But, it’s different now. Roman somehow pulled me higher when he chained me up, giving me just enough room to stand on my toes.
I’m standing as high as I can on the tip of my toes trying to relieve the fire in my shoulders. Every now and again, my knees go weak and my legs give out. Each time that happens the pain in my shoulders is so severe that I almost faint.
The pain, I can deal with. However, I’m completely naked and it’s freezing in here. If I don’t do something soon, I’m going to die of hyperthermia. I’m trying to remember what the signs of hyperthermia are when the door opens, and the room is flooded with a cold wind.
“Hello, bride,” Roman says while flipping on a light. “In the morning you will become my wife. Then we’ll be heading home where we can consummate our marriage for as long as we wish.”
Is he crazy? He’s just talking like this is a very typical conversation that we’ve had many times before. Like I’m not tied up like an animal waiting to be butchered. He almost sounds…bored.
“I will never marry you,” I tell him through shivering teeth. “I will never willingly go to your bed. I’d rather die.”
“Now, now. Be careful what you say. I do so enjoy a challenge. However, you belong to me. Your father made a deal with mine over twenty years ago, that in exchange for Hernández support during an election of his choosing, I get you. Well, as you can see, I got you, but your father got dead. Papa didn’t want him as governor.”
“You killed my friend,” I scream, ignoring the bit about my father. I’m not shocked in the slightest. “I will never stop fighting you. The first time you turn your back on me, I will shove a knife right in it. Literally or metaphorically. I will never truly be yours.”
Something flickers behind Roman’s eyes, but it’s gone before I can guess what it was.
“Benny killed your friend. But I did kill your father. Went back the next morning to collect my bride and learned that while I was away, she escaped. His execution was already planned, I just saved my family the time and money, is all.”
I don’t know if he was expecting me to be shocked by this information or if he was trying to make me break. What he doesn’t know is, I don’t really care. My life is better without that good for nothing man in it. He did me a favor.
“So,” he continues. “Here’s what we’re going to do. I’m going to let you down. Then we will go inside, get cleaned up and go to bed. We have a rather eventful day tomorrow.”
He’s lost his mind.
“The second you turn your back,” I remind him.
The calm expression he’s been wearing since coming into the building vanishes and in its place is pure rage.
“I will have nothing but your complete obedience, woman,” he says in a terrifyingly calm voice.
I’m the most scared as I have ever been, but I can’t let him beat me. My body yes, but he will never get my mind.
“The very second,” I whisper just one more time.
The chain holding me is jerked and my body is lifted completely off the ground.
“Fight as hard as you want, little mouse. No one is coming for you. Everyone you ever cared about is dead. Including that Infernal Sons bastard. You’re completely and utterly alone. Completely and utterly mine.”
Bear’s dead? I can feel my heart turning to ash with the thought alone.
A look of victory crosses Roman’s face. He knew just what to say to break down my barrier.
“I think a few more hours hanging here will do you some good. Teach you some obedience that your father was supposed to have perfected by now.”
Bear’s dead. The overwhelming emotions that flood my body is this all-consuming vortex of agony, and if I don’t let it out now, I’m going to burst. So, I do the only thing I can.
I scream. I scream with every bit of heartache I have. I kick out with my legs and manage a single blow to Roman’s stomach. I wasn’t actually trying to kick him. It just feels like my whole body is combusting.
“Still have a little fight left, I see,” Roman yells above my screaming before releasing the chain and turning around. “Well, just in case, we’ll do a little something to slow you down in case you manage to break free.”
I don’t fully acknowledge what he says. However, I understand his meaning a moment later when he swings a sledgehammer right against my left knee, and then my right. No longer able to hold myself up, my knees give out and I’m left hanging by my wrists alone.
It’s the worst physical pain I have ever been in. But nothing compares to the pain and emptiness in my heart.
I’m so sorry, my love.
My last thought is of Bear smiling down at me before I finally give in and slip into the waiting arms of darkness.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Bear
“Detective, we pulled the security footage you asked for.”
We found nothing inside the storage container, but Hawk did notice a camera pointing in its direction.
“Thank you, Mr. Smythe,” Detective Dick, says. “Lead the way.”
Mr. Smythe owns the shipping company that rented Hernández the storage container.
“We fast-forwarded it to the times you asked for,” Mr. Smythe says, as we enter his office. “Well leave you to it, then. Come on Zack.”
I have the video playing before the men even reach the door.
“Fast forward it at the slowest setting,” Hawk says.
I do, and for a while, nothing happens. But then a red ford truck pulls up directly in front of the storage unit and I hit play. A man too big to be Hernández gets out and reaches back inside. Then he pulls out a struggling woman. Trigger reaches around and pauses the video right on her face.
“Princess,” he growls.