Exquisite Danger (37 page)

Cruz shook my hand. “Smoke, sorry to hear about what happened to Veronica, man.”

I stiffened, then nodded, not wanting to talk about it here in the baggage area. “Thanks.”

He shifted uncomfortably, shoving his hands into the pockets of his worn jeans then sighed. “Damn shame. Anyway, Julia sent me to pick you up.”

“Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, yeah everything is good. They managed to hunt down Tricks, and she was talking to him on Skype when I left.”

My stomach clenched as I imagined the conversation my sister was having right now and the need to be with her and take care of her, dug into my gut.

While Cruz and I talked about what had been happening at the clubhouse Swan stayed slightly behind me, her gaze darting around as her body language broadcasted her increasing unease.

I leaned down, brushing her soft hair away from her ear to whisper, “You okay?”

“I’m okay,” she whispered back. “Just…there’s a lot going on.”

While I wasn’t sure if she meant what was going on around her or all the bullshit that we’d been through, I knew the limit of her tolerance for the crowd was reaching its peak. She’d worn a peach long-sleeve turtle neck along with a pair of dark jeans to cover as much of her skin as possible in order to avoid freaking out over the accidental brush of a stranger. Right now she’d pulled the cuffs down over her hands and had fisted the fabric, shielding her exposed skin as much as possible.

Cruz continued to go on about Los Diablos being a dangerous pain in the ass—something about them beating the hell out of one of our prospects—but I was more distracted by my worry for my baby girl than the threat of an all-out war between the two clubs.

I gave Cruz a hard look. “Why the fuck do they want to go to battle with us? They know they’ll lose.”

It was true. Not only was Iron Horse bigger than Los Diablos—our men were hand selected for not only their physical strength, but their quick minds as well—we could outmaneuver, outshoot, and basically crush Los Diablos if it came down to it. If drawn into a fight, losses would be great on both sides, to us and our allies, as well as to Los Diablos and their allies. The thought of my brothers and their families facing that kind of danger made my protective instincts go full out. As soon as I got shit settled with my family, I’d have to deal with this new hot fuckin’ mess.

Swan moved away from me and I realized that while I was thinking our luggage had popped out onto the conveyer belt. As we gathered our bags, she was quiet, tense, and constantly scanning the crowd. Her big blue eyes met mine and the unease I saw there made the hair on my arms stand up. Before I could ask her what was wrong Cruz took her suitcase with a smile.

“Let me take care of that, darlin’.”

Swan handed her suitcase over without protest, and I gave Cruz a hard look that let him know flirting with my old lady was off limits. My closest friends got away with it because they were cocky fuckers I knew would never make a real move on my woman. Cruz hadn’t earned the right to smile at Swan like that. His gaze lingered on her breasts pressing against her peach shirt but before I could say anything, he looked away.

“Come on, let’s get out of here.”

I followed Cruz, the wheels of my suitcase bumping over the ground as we left the terminal and made our way to the parking lot. It was around ten o’clock at night, and the vast parking area was pretty much deserted except for the occasional random traveler off in the distance. The scent of Austin mixed with the smell of jet fuel filled me, and I was glad to be home. A few days ago, I’d been pretty sure that I would die trying to save Swan’s life from some pretty fuckin’ overwhelming odds. If we could beat those and come out the other side with our love stronger than ever, there was nothin’ we couldn’t do.

We stopped at a light blue mini-van with a ‘My Child is an Honor Roll Student at Lake Travis High’ bumper sticker on the back. I recognized it as Julia’s mini-van and an ache of homesickness went through me. Knowing my sister was probably a wreck by now tugged at my gut, and I was eager to get to her. We stopped near the back while Cruz fumbled with the keys.

“Isn’t this Julia’s ride? Where’s your Mercedes?”

Cruz owned his own lawn company that was doing pretty well if his lavish lifestyle was any indication. “Julia wasn’t sure how much luggage you were bringing with you. My convertible isn’t really built for hauling shit around.”

Swan stayed by my side, scanning the parking lot. As I watched her I wondered how long it would take her to decompress and what I could do to help her deal with all this bullshit. Thankfully, I wouldn’t have to figure it out on my own. Mike and Mimi were coming down to stay with us for a few days, and I wanted to take some time to sit down with them and talk. Sarah was also within driving distance, but I knew she has enough of her own shit to deal with at the moment, not to mention Beach. I’d be surprised if he let Sarah out of his sight ever again.

“Fuckin’ trunk is stuck,” Cruz muttered. “Swan, go ahead and have a seat inside while Smoke and I screw around with this.”

After a moment’s hesitation she nodded, and when Cruz opened the sliding passenger door for her, three things happened at once that turned my world into an absolute nightmare.

An unfamiliar man jerked Swan into the van and held a gun to her head. Two more guys spilled out of the trunk, with their guns trained on me, while a third quickly put a cloth over Swan’s face. The two guys from the back of the van I recognized as Los Diablos members, kept their guns pointed at me.

“Don’t you fuckin’ move,” the older guy with his salt and pepper hair and bad teeth snarled. “You so much as flinch in our direction and your bitch pays for it.”

I desperately wanted to go to Swan as she struggled against her captors, impotent rage churning in my gut. She had gotten a couple of good punches in, but whatever they drugged her with soon slowed her movements. Her eyes locked with mine right before they rolled back into her head and went limp.

Cruz took a step forward, refusing to meet my gaze as he looked into the van. “My part’s done. Where’s the money?”

While that betraying bastard talked with whoever held Swan, the other two guys approached me with duct tape and evil intent in their gaze. I tensed to fight when the old man shook his head. “Don’t be stupid. There is no way you could take on all of us. And even if you tried, we’ve got a couple of brothers in the lot waiting to shoot your ass. If you want to keep us from ass-fucking your girl until she bleeds while we ride to our destination, stow it and cooperate. Otherwise... ”

Wrath filled me, making me vibrate with the need for violence, but we were well and truly fucked. The thought of Swan being raped pushed me dangerously close to the edge, but I knew I couldn’t let go. I looked in the van and saw Swan was being held in the lap of some buck-toothed fucker who was currently grabbing a handful of her tit.

“Get your fuckin’ hands off of her,” I snarled.

The men laughed, but the older guy who was talking to me shook his head. “Sorry, you don’t get to call the shots here. Demon’ll keep his dick to himself, but I won’t begrudge him a li’l feel of those big titties.”

They shoved me into the back of the van, and I kept my gaze on the man holding Swan, who was now mauling her unconscious form. Disgust, rage, guilt, and the need to kill boiled inside of me. They secured my hands with a zip tie and put some tape over my mouth. My nostrils flared as I took a deep breath, already regretting that I went with them without a fight. There had to be something I could have done other than just giving up, but I couldn’t let Swan pay the price for my rebellion. If I died she’d be all alone, so even though it went against every instinct I had, I didn’t protest when they pulled a black hood over my head.

The last thing I saw was Cruz’s guilty look before nothingness overtook me.

Swan

My mouth tasted terrible and I couldn’t move.

Those were the first thoughts I had as I came back to the real world from the drug-induced slumber.

This being knocked out thing was really getting old.

As I struggled to open my eyes, bits and pieces of the last day came to mind in a confusing whirl of colors and emotions. I shifted and my extremities filled with pins and needles that cut through my disoriented thoughts. As I slowly surfaced, panic sped up my pulse rate, and the adrenaline in my system began to force everything awake.

Before I dared to open my eyes I listened hard, to see if I could hear anyone. Somewhere off in the distance there were faint voices, but nothing in here. The air had a musty smell to it, but no dampness, so I probably wasn’t in a basement again. I gradually, carefully opened one eye and found myself staring at a pale green wall with a peeling wallpaper border that had old lady style roses embossed on it. A quick glance showed a battery operated lantern not too far away from me on an old blue milk crate. I slowly lifted my head, waiting for someone behind me to say or do something, but I appeared to be alone. My neck strained as I tried to see where I was and despair filled me. A small part of my heart had hoped that Smoke would be here with me, but I was alone.

It was quiet enough for me to be sure I wasn’t in the city, but I thought I heard other faint sounds coming from somewhere in the house. For a moment, I imagined I heard a yell that sounded like Smoke, then nothing. Fear sat heavy in my chest and I strained to hear if it really was him but there was only silence.

Dreadful images of what they could be doing to Smoke right now, if he was still alive, tore at my mind and willpower. Without realizing it, I’d begun to struggle against my bonds, only to end up hurting myself as the zip ties chaffed my wrists. I was well secured to a folding steel chair and soon I slumped against it, my breath heaving out of my lungs as sweat trickled down my face. A boarded over window to my right let in a small amount of what I assumed was moonlight from outside, and from what I could see, it was still dark.

Something I was pretty sure was a generator of some kind roared outside, and I hoped that maybe I could use the noise to try and cover our escape—once I found Smoke.

I wanted to cry, to sob out my pain and hurt over the thought of anything happening to Smoke, but I managed to choke it back.

No, I had to hold on, had to save him.

With a renewed sense of determination, I began to shift my chair around, trying to minimize the scrape of the legs across the old wooden floor.

My senses were on high alert so when the squeak of the door opening filled the small space I froze, waiting to see what monster I had to kill in order to get out of here.

The person who came into the room was indeed a monster, but not the kind that I could ever kill.

No, this monster had my blue eyes, my blonde hair, and at one point, claimed to love me.

The monster was my mother, and she looked terrible.

Her once beautiful face had aged, making her appear haggard, like the wicked witch in a fairytale. She had scabs and open sores on her arms. When she smiled, I noticed that her once gleaming white teeth were yellow, and her gums had receded. Her appearance made her big smile all the more terrible, like some kind of insane clown from a child’s nightmare.

She had tried to put makeup on, but her hand must have been unsteady because the black eyeliner that she normally wore was smeared over her eyelids and her lipstick was a bright pink slash on her surgically plumped up lips. She wore a short-sleeved shirt, with a plunging neckline, which showed off her abundant cleavage, but even the skin of her chest was damaged. As I watched she absently scratched at her forearm hard enough to peel one of the scabs off, but she didn’t appear to notice.

I was so stunned by this zombie image of my birth mother that all I could do was stare at her. She came in and shut the door behind her while nervously licking her lips. When she leaned back against the dull wood and watched me, I became aware of a black cloth bundle clutched in her right hand and the fact that her pupils were pinpoint. I’d been around her enough while she was high to know that she was wasted right now. Far in the back of my mind, past the shock of my mother’s appearance and betrayal, a cold, practical part of me was happy that she was here because she was way easier to overpower than any of the Los Diablos members who had abducted me earlier.

“Swan,” my mother said in her husky voice. “I’m…”

When she just continued to stare at me with watery eyes I snapped. “You’re what? Sorry that you had me kidnapped? Sorry that my fiancé is probably dead right now? Sorry that you almost got Sarah and me sold into sexual slavery? Or is it because you used to beat Sarah for years? Maybe you feel bad for pimping Sarah out to a casino owner when she was sixteen. What part are you sorry for,
mother
!”

I was close to screaming and Billie crossed the small room, a panicked look on her face. “No, no. Shhhh. You have to be quiet. They don’t know you’re awake yet, and I want to help you. I’m going to make sure they don’t hurt you.”

Sudden hope bloomed within me. “Are you letting me go?”

She looked down at her hands and I noticed for the first time the track marks going up and down her arms among the scabs and scars. Oddly enough, she had massive bejeweled rings on every finger, the real kind, a fortune in jewelry on dried skin that looked like it belonged to a mummy. My stomach sank as she slowly shook her head, and I had to fight back tears when she looked back up, her apathy filling the air. She was utterly weak…defeated. Always so damn fragile. Even though I hated her for what she’d done, I also despaired at what she had become— a drug-addicted whore who would help in the kidnapping of her own child.

“No, Swan, I can’t let you go. If I do they’ll just find you again and take away my medicine.” She ignored my bitter laugh at calling whatever she’d been taking ‘medicine’. “This is for the best, really. The Chief wants you, and he’s promised me that he’ll keep you safe and take care of you as long as you behave. I think he has a crush on you.”

She gave a girlish giggle, like we were just gossiping about cute boys, and the sound made my skin crawl.