"What neighborhood?" Hammer asked. Smart man. I"m burning to know.
His question went unanswered. Summers ignored him as if he hadn"t spoken. His attention was fully on Ryder.
"You and I will be connected via an earpiece. If I need information, I"ll talk to you. Other than that, you shut the f.u.c.k up and wait. We need to hit when they"re least expecting it. I"m warning you-it"s going to be a long f.u.c.king night. You better have a nap before we go."
"I"m not a f.u.c.king kid. I don"t need a nap."
"Now see, that"s not a smart answer. To be alert tonight you need your brain to be sharp." The chair sc.r.a.ped over the floor as he pushed to his feet and stretched his arms above his head. "In fact, I"m heading home for a good long sleep right now. I suggest you get over your bulls.h.i.t and do the same if you want to be ready to help us."
Ryder just grunted. He hated being told what to do.
"Nightfall. Be ready."
I gaped at his audacity as he walked away. The smug b.a.s.t.a.r.d had Jamie"s life in his f.u.c.king hands. And I"d be sitting home like a lame duck.
Waiting.
Chapter 36 - Mia.
Before I got to the door, I heard voices from the clubroom. Cobra, Ryder and Harrison"s were easy to distinguish. I stopped in my tracks, pressing my back to the wall to listen.
The G.o.ds were finally smiling on me. Their booming voices drifted to me and I greedily soaked it all up, hearing everything they were discussing.
My son is alive!
With a rapid heartbeat, I listened further to the plans Harrison had to raid Daemon"s place.
Harrison knows where my child is. At least that"s a start. But when he said he didn"t want even Ryder accompany him, I knew the operation was doomed. Harrison didn"t know Daemon like I did.
n.o.body knew Daemon like I did.
The depth of darkness in his soul and heart I"d experienced that night had deepened and it struck fear into my heart for what he was capable of doing to anyone who stood in his way.
I was the one who had caused the whole cl.u.s.ter-f.u.c.k in the first place, so it was on me to fix it. I had to follow them tonight-save my child from Daemon"s clutches. He wouldn"t hesitate to use Jamie as a bargaining tool, and I didn"t want my child to be collateral damage. I had to get to Jamie before anyone else did even if it meant offering myself up in his place.
Maybe then Cobra would finally see how I"d do anything for our family?
I suppressed a snort when Harrison told Ryder to take a nap. I"d need one too. Tonight would be nerve-wrecking, and I needed to be alert enough to outsmart everyone.
I nearly laughed out loud when Harrison told Cobra to stay home. There was no way in h.e.l.l the stubborn man was going to listen.
Kissing the cross around my neck, I shot a prayer to the heavens to thank them for bringing me here this early. I"d heard all I needed, and now I"d go back home to prepare myself for what was the most important night of my life.
My child"s life was in the balance. It would be up to me to get him back alive.
Chapter 37 - Cobra.
Let them all think I"d stay home while they were out there looking for Jamie. More than ever, I had something to prove. And Daemon was mine. I wanted to see the light fade from his eyes as I took his f.u.c.king life with my bare hands. The rage that had been building inside me for days was reaching breaking point.
After Summers left, I went to my room in the compound. I hadn"t been in there since Mia told me what had happened. I didn"t want to be in the s.p.a.ce where Daemon had forced himself on her, tricking her into thinking it was me, and then f.u.c.king her like a wh.o.r.e once she realized it wasn"t.
Since I"d decided to follow Ryder that night when Savage picked him up, a deadly calm had come over me. Suddenly, all the weariness of the weeks of worry crept into my bones and my whole body ached. I needed sleep. And to let my mind feast on the images of revenge as I dreamt of retribution for everything my twin had done to me and to others I cared about over the years.
f.u.c.ker wouldn"t know what had hit him. And once it was done and I brought Jamie back to Mia, I"d beg her forgiveness and ask her to take me back and love me again.
I unlocked the door to the room I"d feared to enter for weeks. I"d slept on the sofa or in an unoccupied room. Anywhere but here.
Pushing the door open, my gaze roamed around the deserted s.p.a.ce. It didn"t have the heavy impact I"d thought it would. It was just an empty room with a large bed in it. I sank onto the mattress and closed my eyes.
Yeah. I hadn"t slept more than an hour at a time for weeks. It was time I caught up so that I"d be ready for action that night.
Grabbing Mia"s pillow so I could inhale her singular scent, I was surprised how strong it was after all this time. Sadness pierced my heart at everything we"d lost. I"d never take anything for granted again. I missed holding my wife and cuddling my baby daughter.
Drifting away into a deep sleep, I clung to images flitting through my mind of happier days. Jamie"s birth, the happiest day of my life after marrying my beautiful Mexican girl, and Isabella joining her brother a few years later and completing our happy family.
Like a fool, I"d believed our love was indestructible. That I was f.u.c.king invincible. Bullets through my lungs and shattered beliefs about my family changed all of that.
Tonight I"d take it back. My family and my woman"s love. And Daemon would pay the price for the injustice. This time he"d be dead for real, unable to come back into my life ever again.
I woke with a jerk to loud knocking on my door.
"Who the f.u.c.k is it?" I groaned, unwilling to leave the peaceful state between sleep and consciousness before the troubles of reality hit me squarely in the b.a.l.l.s again.
"It"s me," Ryder said, pushing the door open. He stood before me dressed all in black from head to toe, his hair tied back in a ponytail, and a big knuckled ring on each finger, including his thumbs which were hooked into the loops of his pants as he leaned against the doorjamb. I"d forgotten how f.u.c.king intimidating he could be when he was dressed in all leathers and chains. This was what Ryder wore when he went to war. He was ready to go fight my battle for me.
I swallowed hard, my heart swelling that a man who wasn"t of my own flesh would be prepared to risk his life for my family and me. He had so much to lose now he"d found his own woman, yet it was never a question with Ryder. His loyalty belonged to the club and me, even though he"d more than repaid the debt he believed he owed me for saving his life in juvie. If only my blood brother had shown the same qualities, none of this would be happening.
I rolled off the bed and came to stand in front of him. Blinking, I gripped his upper arms and looked him squarely in the eye. "You have no f.u.c.king idea how much this means to me, Ryder. You are my true brother."
He nodded, a small smile twisting his lips. "I know. Brothers always, man." He swallowed before gripping me into a man hug. "I love Jamie too," he said simply. It wasn"t a matter of whose sperm the boy came from for either of us.
"Now get the f.u.c.k outta here before this turns into a G.o.dd.a.m.n soap opera," I said, trying my best to hide how affected I was by all of this.
"Yeah, yeah. We can"t keep the master planner waiting, can we?" he joked to lighten the mood. "Savage is on his way to pick me up-he called me as he left the office. f.u.c.k knows how I"m going to stay in the vehicle while they play cops and robbers."
Ryder"s eye had started twitching again. Alarm struck me in the chest. It meant things were going to get f.u.c.ked up. I"d come to believe in Ryder"s sixth sense; a twitching eye never bode well for us in the past.
Christ. Please let this work out. I hadn"t been a praying man, but lately I"d caught up at a rapid speed.
Ryder slapped me on the back and turned away. I watched his back for a few moments before I followed him. My bike was ready. I was ready. I just had to make sure neither him nor the cop noticed that I was following them.
Boots crunched on the path outside as Ryder made his way to the gate. I scrambled to my Harley like a stealth warrior. It was the first time ever I wished the beast didn"t roar like she did when I started her engine. f.u.c.k.
Ryder froze in his tracks for a split second. My heart beat wildly in my chest and I waited for him to turn around. He didn"t. He kept walking to the waiting vehicle and jumped right in without a backward glance, leaving the gate open against the rules. He knows.
Of course Ryder knew I"d follow them. It was a f.u.c.king no-brainer.
Chapter 38 - Cobra.
I kept my eyes on the black SUV as it traveled through the traffic, making sure I stayed a few cars behind and sometimes as much as a block away when I had a good idea of where they were headed. Savage was a sharp f.u.c.ker, and he"d be on the lookout for someone on his tail.
A few times my heart nearly arrested as I thought I"d lost them, but luckily the heavy flow of traffic always allowed me to catch up when they were caught at a red light or busy interchange. One benefit of living in an overpopulated city with nightmare traffic conditions.
Thirty minutes later, the SUV came to a stop outside a ramshackle building. I pulled up behind a huge refuse bin while I waited for them to move again. It made my skin crawl thinking that Jamie could be held hostage somewhere in this filthy rundown neighborhood. Most buildings we"d driven past in the last five minutes looked the same-some had cracked windows while others were completely windowless.
The neighborhood was notorious for gang fights and the kind of place n.o.body who wanted to stay alive went by themselves. Not even bikers. A person"s life wasn"t worth a dime. I shuddered as cold fingers gripped my beating heart and squeezed. I"d be lying if I said I wasn"t f.u.c.king s.h.i.tting myself.
I recalled that Summers told Ryder they"d stop up the road half a mile from the actual place they were targeting and that was the closest he"d get to the action.
Keep driving, keep going. This can"t be where we"re going . . .
If it looked like this on the outside, I had no f.u.c.king hope that the insides of any place on this street was any better. Litter lay scattered in the road and the sidewalk, and plastic bags had blown up against the wire fence, dancing in the gusts of wind that warned of rain.
It was dark and eerie, lightning struck in the distance, and the smell of rain on concrete filled my nostrils. Just what we needed-a f.u.c.king thunderstorm. Jamie hated those, and it would drive his fear to another level.
The day he was taken we"d had thunderstorms too. Was it an omen? I wasn"t superst.i.tious, yet the hair on my neck stood upright, making my skin crawl. I"d never forgive myself if Jamie didn"t get out of this alive. He"d been under my roof, under my f.u.c.king protection, and I"d let him down.
I stopped the motorcycle and let it idle in case they started moving again, hoping that this wasn"t the actual neighborhood where Jamie was. We didn"t live in luxury, but neither did we live in squalor.
A rat the size of a cat scurried against a graffiti wall and disappeared into the gutter. A shiver ran down my spine.
What if the boy was sick? Or worse?
Daemon hadn"t made any demands. It wasn"t normal to not ask for something when holding a captive. What kind of game was he playing? My stomach churned. f.u.c.k Summers and his commands. As soon as I knew where to go, I was going in to find out for myself.
For the moment I"d stay hidden and watch while I worked on a strategy to get past the SUV undetected and to find the right building.
Chapter 39 - Mia.
If I weren"t so f.u.c.king afraid, I"d high five myself that I"d managed to follow both the SUV and Cobra without being spotted. Sitting in Tanya"s car diagonally across the road from where the SUV had parked, I"d reversed into the driveway of what appeared to be an abandoned property. If my calculations were right, I was less than six hundred yards from the target. And my son.
My head was pounding with a headache from h.e.l.l. I slowly let the air I"d been holding out of my lungs. I"d known that following Savage undetected was going to be tricky, so I"d borrowed a friend"s old car for the night. Didn"t help that it was red, even if the paint was faded from the Californian sun, but neither of them would have suspected it was me in an unfamiliar car.
I hadn"t bargained on Cobra having the same idea as me. My heart nearly jumped out of my chest when I saw him pull out of the lot and follow Ryder and the cop. Shocked to see him but not surprised that he"d disobeyed Summers, I knew Cobra"s presence would add complications to my plan. He was a hot head, like all the Malone men, and wouldn"t be able to stay calm under duress.
It meant I had to change my plans and move in quicker. I had to find Jamie and Daemon before Ryder or Cobra did. More bloodshed wasn"t going to bring Ratbag back, and frankly I"d had enough.
I hated Daemon for everything he"d done to me and my family.
We were family, for G.o.d"s sake. Jamie was our son-mine and Cobra"s and nothing would change that. I just had to get Cobra to see past the ugliness that came in our path and get things back the way they were before. My heart ached so much and I longed for my husband"s closeness and his love. It was up to me to resolve this without another Scorpio Stinger or Jamie"s blood being shed.
The black SUV stood outside a dilapidated building. Jamie would be held in a building five hundred yards up the road from what Harrison had told Ryder. And Daemon would be there too. What would it be like to come face to face with him again after all these years?
Gripping the gold cross in my hand, I closed my eyes and shot up yet another prayer. I took a few deep breaths to slow my racing heartbeat, willing myself to be calm and rational. To go slow and easy. I had the element of surprise on my side. n.o.body-not even my husband, who usually knew my every move-had any idea that I was there, too.
The darkness of the night with the ominous clouds overhead would make my job easier. I sucked in a breath and opened the car door with trembling hands. I had to get inside first so I could talk with Daemon if I could find him.
I"ll bargain with the devil if I can save the lives of all the men and my child.
On wobbly knees, I slid along the wall and stood with my back against the cold bricks in the gusty wind for a few minutes while familiarizing myself with my surroundings and watching the parked SUV. If it moved again, I was screwed.
How would I know which one was the place where Jamie was held? I"d have to trust my instincts more than ever.
Five minutes later Savage was still parked there; I sprinted across the road with my heart pumping in my throat until I reached a building with a side gate. I"d have to jump fences between properties for the next six hundred yards to get to the target building without being detected.
It wasn"t just Cobra and Savage I had to avoid-a whole police squad was about to raid the place when Summers turned up. Not to mention Daemon and his men inside. There was no way in h.e.l.l that with all those eyes trained on the property, I wouldn"t get seen.
The gate hung on one hinge, and in spite of my best intentions, I accidentally touched the rusting metal frame, causing the gate to squeak back and forth a few times. I held my breath, waiting for someone to discover me and blow my little mission before it even started. A strong gust of wind swept through and banged the gate against the wall.
No reaction.
Somewhere in the distance a dog barked, but out there n.o.body moved.
Suppressing a nervous giggle, I realized that these sounds were normal in a place like this. Everything was in a state of disrepair, and a swinging gate was expected to squeak in the wind. It reminded me of one of those d.a.m.n horror movies Cobra loved watching. I hated horror stories but he loved when I always watched with him because they made me curl up under his arm and bury my face in his chest for most of the night.