Lay It Down: Bastards MC Series Boxed Set (70 page)

Wiz swiped sideways one more time, and there was a black screen with red letters. “An eye for an eye? No, a life for every year you stole. I lost many years.”

They had them. Whoever it was, they’d taken our girls. The noise Tank made sounded more like a wounded animal than anything else. A bottle went flying across the room, and I heard someone swear. I didn’t realize my legs had given out until I fell to the floor.

Jo

The room where they had me was pitch black, cold, and damp. I could smell the mildew, so I assumed it was a cellar. My arms, pulled tight over my head, had fallen asleep ages ago, and now they were just numb. I felt something crawling on my stomach and tried to convince myself that it was just my mind playing tricks on me, or maybe a breeze blowing against the hair that made it feel like something much more. I struggled against the cuffs that kept me spread-eagled and tied to the top of the bed, but it was still no use. I couldn’t move.

If I closed my eyes and concentrated really hard, I could feel the sun on my face as Jessie and I sat outside, soaking up rays and catching up over a Danish and java. It had been such a fantastic day, from waking up next to Matty, breakfast with the kids, seeing Jess, then realizing I hadn’t needed to study because I was going to ace my test anyway. Nothing was in the correct order though, and when I thought back, it seemed as if I’d gone to school first. I spent my time trying not to lose my mind by focusing on putting my day in the right sequence.

Then the fire alarm had gone off, and I’d followed the professor and other students to the back of the campus instead of leaving via my usual exit. The exit I’d left the prospect outside of, making him sit on a bench in the shade to wait for me. I still couldn’t be sure how I’d been grabbed. There were hundreds of people around me as we hurried out of the building, so how did someone find me in the crowd and manage to get me away without anyone stopping them?

I’d felt a hand on my arm and heard someone say my name, so I turned to see who it was. Then someone put a hand over my mouth, and I felt a prick in my neck. I tried to scream, to fight back, but the next thing I knew, I’d woken up here. With a man on top of me. A man who had Matty’s face. Even though I knew better, I couldn’t remember any other features of the man who had hurt me.

Every inch of me ached. I’d been roughed up, I could tell that much. Slivers of memories came through the fog, and I remembered someone asking questions, hitting me when I didn’t know the answer or it wasn’t what they wanted to hear. The lower half of my body was bare, and I refused to acknowledge what that meant. I couldn’t remember it, so it hadn’t happened.

I was parched, my lips beyond dry. But I was more sore and confused than I was damaged beyond repair. It was nothing compared to whoever was being held with me though.

Wherever they were holding me wasn’t soundproof, because I’d heard the screams for what seemed like hours on end—horrible, blood-curdling screams that came only from someone suffering. Suffering badly. It was another woman, I could tell that much. I’d tried to hum over it, to retreat into my mind, but it was too loud. Instead I spent the time praying her pain would end soon and praying that I would see my kids again. That Matty would smile at me just one more time. And that if I was taken out of this room and harmed the way she had been, that I’d survive.

Minutes stretched into what felt like years. My body begged me to let it give in and sleep, but I fought against it. I wanted to be awake when the man came back in. I focused on happy memories, trying to bring anything to mind that would drive away the fear.

The pop-pop of fireworks startled me into the present, and for a minute, I thought that Matty and the Bastards had found me and were rescuing me from this hell. Then the screaming started again. Another pop-pop echoed through my room, then it was suddenly very quiet. It made my entire body shake in terror.

I heard what I thought was footsteps, but my teeth were chattering and every one of my senses was on alert, so the sounds could have been my imagination. As they got closer, I realized someone was coming for me. Before I could prepare myself, the door flew open and the room was filled with light that made me squint against the brightness.

The man in front of me was definitely not Matty, even though I could see why my mind had connected the two. He was roughly the same height and build, but that was where the similarities ended. His hair was lighter, and the expression he wore was pure malice. When his lips turned into a leer, I wanted to hide.

“You’re lucky da boss man wantsta see ya,” he mumbled as his eyes drifted over my body, “or yous and I’d have some more fun.”

Chapter 34

Jo

The man unlocked the cuffs then dragged me from the bed before I’d even gotten my feet under me. I scrabbled to stand, but he took my struggles as an attempt to fight back. Digging his fingers into my arm painfully, he hauled me up then backhanded me.

“There’s no wheres to go, so don’t fuckin’ bother,” he growled, tugging me along a hallway without letting me put my pants back on.

We ended in a large open room with seven or eight men, all dressed in the same dark shirts and jeans and all wearing gun holsters over their clothes. They all stared at me, and I felt some relief that my shirt was long enough to fall mid-thigh and hide my lack of bottoms. I searched the room, hoping for a sign of easy escape. In one corner, there was a jail cell with a cot in the middle. In the corner opposite was a tool bench and a large metal chair that reminded me of a dentist’s office. There was no doubt in my mind that was where the screams had come from. In the section between the two was a desk filled with things I couldn’t make out.

In the center of the room, four chairs sat in a large circle and a man stood in the middle. Only one of them was empty, and the goon who had me took me directly to it, roughly pushed me down, and tied me in, making the prickly rope cut into my ankles and already raw wrists. I was half afraid to look up, not wanting to see the evidence of the torture I’d heard and not wanting to observe what I was about to face.

A familiar voice had me snapping my head up though, instantly pissed.

“What the fuck is she doin’ here?”

“Call it a little extra incentive. We haven’t had any real fun with her yet. She’s the whore fucking your man, right? You must despise her,” a man with a gun goaded her. “I figure it can go one of two ways: we can hurt her for you, and you tell me what you want to know, or you can tell us and we won’t hurt her. That way, you can be the hero.”

“Save your time and go ahead and kill me,” Taylor snapped. She’d been abused badly. Her beautiful face was almost unrecognizable, filled with cuts and bruises. One of her eyes was swollen shut, but she still managed a glare with her open eye, and succeeded in raising her eyebrow in a gesture that said she didn’t believe he would. “I’m not gonna tell you a fuckin’ thing, you piece of shit.”

When she spoke, I noticed that she was missing at least one tooth. The man with the gun nodded at another man standing next to Taylor. The second man, or Thing 1 as I decided to call him, promptly brought his fist to her beautiful face once more. I winced for her.

She only laughed and spit out a mouthful of blood. “If you think for one second that Mateo didn’t put that little boy on the first plane out of the States, you’re a fuckin’ lunatic. He’s not going to let you get your grubby hands on him.”

The fist flew again. Then again. Hard enough to knock her sideways. It took a second, but she sat back up and shook her head. I wasn’t sure if it was to clear it from the beating or in defiance.

Crazy Man smirked. “Fine. We’ll play harder.”

Then he lifted his chin in my direction and I noticed that the man who had brought me out was standing between me and… oh, my God!

Jessie was tied in the chair next to me, but I only knew it was her from the hair and her clothes. Her shirt had been practically shredded, hanging off her shoulders and open in the front, showing her bra. Down the arm closest to me were hundreds of bright red lines, almost like little scratches. I inhaled sharply when I realized they were cuts. Someone had taken a knife to her—repeatedly. The patches of skin I could see were filled with marks: red puffy perfectly round spots, jagged angry pink marks, and good old-fashioned bruises. I was relieved to see she looked as though she’d passed out.

Thing 2, as I was calling the man next to me, at least had the decency to hesitate before backhanding Jessie’s already beaten-black body. I struggled against the ropes holding me, trying to get to her. Blood came flowing out of her nose and she started shaking, but she didn’t open her eyes.

If Jessie, Taylor, and I were here, then… terrified, I turned to the third chair, positive that Cris was strapped in it. Relief flooded through me when I realized it wasn’t her, but instead a tiny speck of a woman I didn’t recognize. Not that I would want my worst enemy to be here and going through this, and I felt awful that she was here, but I was elated that it wasn’t my soon-to-be sister.

“Where would Mateo send the kid?” Crazy asked Taylor again.

“Fuck off!” Taylor screamed.

The man raised the gun and pointed it at me. Then without any warning, he tipped his head and turned it on the little woman. He didn’t pause before pulling the trigger. The noise made me jump, and I could feel the tears running down my cheeks as the life slowly drained out of her. I may not have known her, but this was no way to die. Jessie had opened her eyes and was muttering to herself, head moving up and down in a rocking motion. Taylor didn’t react at all.

“You will tell me what I want to know,” Crazy Man screamed at us. “I want to know where the boy is! Stop protecting the man who didn’t even bother comin’ after you!”

No one said anything. Then a sadistic look crossed his face, and he looked back at Thing 1. “Blowtorch.”

Taylor reacted to that. Her whole demeanor changed, and it was if she shrank into herself as the color drained from her face. And poor Jessie! I thought she’d been quaking in fear before, but now her whole chair was shaking, which made it rattle against the cement floor.

“Ah, fuck!” the man next to me said, before grabbing a handful of Jessie’s hair and yanking her head back forcefully. “This stupid cunt pissed herself again.” He pushed her head down brutally as he leaned down next to her. “You’re gonna clean that up!”

The men around us laughed as Thing 1 came back with the lit torch, the gas hissing and spitting. Taylor’s eyes got huge as Thing 1 walked past her straight toward Jess.

I pulled against my ties, feeling the blood running down my fingers as the rope sliced my skin. I couldn’t handle it anymore. “Stop!” The word came out hoarse, but I knew Crazy heard me when he turned slowly. I swallowed, begging my body to release some saliva to help my burning throat. “I can give you what you want.”

Taylor reacted instantly, suddenly pulled out of her anxious state, swearing at me, calling me a liar.

The man scoffed. “You?” He sauntered over, twirling the gun on his finger, and dropped to a squat in front of me. “You’re gonna tell me that the great Mateo Murphy would come aftah a club whore but not his rich fiancée with the famous daddy?” He laughed bitterly. “You’re nothin’,” he seethed. “No matter what lies he told you, you’re just a stupid cow that he used for his own pleasure and he’s gonna discard with yesterday’s trash.”

I raised my head, summoning every ounce of courage I had, and met his eyes. Surprise had me biting my lip sharply, trying not to react. Before I’d left to meet Jessie, Tank had pulled me aside and shown me a picture, asking me if I recognized him as a friend of Will’s. I hadn’t at the time, but this was him! This was Scott. He’d gained weight, and his eyes were cold and dead, which I hadn’t noticed from the picture. Charles Manson eyes. But it was, without a doubt, Scott. He cocked the gun and moved before I could say a word, the cold metal biting into my flesh. Jessie whimpered.

I laughed. “I’m not the stupid one here, Scott.” I leaned my head against the barrel, trying to prove that I knew him, that I had something none of the other women had.

“Someone remind me why you grabbed this one instead of his sister?” he challenged the group as a whole.

The voice that answered wasn’t near me, and I couldn’t see a face. “Because the sister fell through. We went with plan B and grabbed you the next best thing—the whore he spends all his time with. He has her guarded twenty-four, seven. Figured she’d be easy to crack.”

Scott pushed the gun into me harder. “Even to us you’re just a backup, something that’ll work in an emergency.”

“You heard what the other guy said—I’m always with him. But that’s okay. Pull the trigger.” My eyes challenged him.

He thought for a moment, and I knew he was replaying the reasons they’d grabbed me. He didn’t lower the weapon but tipped his head. “Oh, yeah? And why are you so valuable to him?”

I wanted to lick my lips. They were so dry I was afraid the next words I spoke would crack them. Instead, I ignored the urge and watched Taylor over his shoulder. “Because she may be engaged to him, but I’m the mother of his child. He would move heaven and earth to keep me safe.”