The Beats in Rift (25 page)

I’m pulled up to my feet, whimpering at the pain in my head where he holds me. A fire roars in my nerves. His hand gropes my breast roughly. My hand immediately drops there, trying to push him away but he overpowers me, grabbing my hand, twisting at the wrist and causing a sharp pain to shoot up my arm. His face comes close to mine as he breathes heavy across my lips, and his tongue snakes out, wetting them. Vomit threatens as tears sting my eyes.

I push my lips together as tight as possible and he laughs. “You really are sin, you little dick-teasing whore.” He yanks me forward towards a door, opening it, dragging me up a flight of stairs and through a dingy kitchen into a dark hallway.

He opens a door and forces my head through the opening. “Say hi to Mommy,” he growls. My eyes flicker up to see my Mom naked, beaten and tied to a bed. My legs give out and I collapse to the floor as a sob wracks through my body. I knew he was a sick bastard but I never really allowed my mind to process just how bad he could have been if he had gotten away with what he wanted every time he cornered me. Yet, here I am, bleeding, in pain, and completely at his mercy.

I feel his breath against my ear. “Don’t feel sorry for her, she likes it rough. She was the one who introduced me to the painful pleasure side of sex like the good whore she is.”

Dragging me back to my feet and closing the door, he shoves me forward, guiding me to another door and pushing me inside. There is a bed and nothing else. It’s barren with bare white walls.

My mind explodes when I realize what he’s going to do to me. More tears leak onto my cheeks as I cower away from him. He reaches for me, grasping me by my belt loop. “No, no, no, no, no, no,” I chant. I feel like the little girl he trapped in the bathroom.

It’s like I’m looking at the devil himself. “Don’t worry, Justin wants dibs on you first then I get my turn, and you’ll be saying yes, yes, yes.”

My head feels fuzzy. “Justin?” I whisper, confused.

He pushes me backwards, the back of my knees colliding with the bed. I fall down onto the bare mattress. “You teased him for years. I had no idea you never gave it up to him. You fucking owe him and me, flaunting that body around and denying us. Your mother made you into the perfect whore just to punish me.”

“I don’t understand. Why would she want to punish you?” I whimper.

He grunts at me. “Because I knew the devil sent her, but I left her, stopped her from doing his work. She wanted me to raise you as mine.” He laughs. “She came to town when she was sixteen, three months pregnant and still flaunting her ass around. She tried to trap me with her pussy but I wasn’t stupid, I wasn’t going to let some tramp hold me down. I knew I could live my life, marry a lady, but still get my thrills from your mother because she liked to offer it out freely. But then when you started growing up, she moulded you to be like her; to tease and lure my boys, seduce them as punishment for me not marrying her and not raising you as mine. She wanted me to have to look at you every day so you could tease me and not be allowed to touch you.” He leans down to me, “And then as you got a little older she turned you onto me anyway, taunting me with your tight body.”

I flinch and try to cover myself even though I’m fully clothed. “I took what I wanted from her but then she married my loser brother and tried to deny me, and you lied to my son to make him hate me. You ruined him just like I knew you would. He gave up everything BECAUSE OF YOU!” he roars in my face, bringing his hand down hard across my cheek. The impact makes my vision blur, the mark turning to fire. I hear a ringing in my ear as unbearable heat burns the cheek he struck. I look at him with disgust and rage roaring through me. I kick out, hitting him in the stomach with my foot. He lets out an oof sound and doubles over.

I charge at him, knocking him to the ground, and attempt to run past him. Grabbing my ankle he tugs hard. I fall forward, my hands slapping the floor as I land, creating a sting in my palms and the earlier injury from him twisting my hand. He climbs me like a commando climbing a rope, grabbing at my clothes and flesh, pulling his full weight onto me. He grips my hair at the nape of my neck, lifting my head and slamming it down. The impact sends me into instant darkness.

I PULL MY bike up at the address he gave me, then pull out my phone and call Ice. He picks up after two rings. “What do you need?” he asks. I never ring Ice unless I have a job for him.

“I need you to make your way here. I might need you to clean for me.”

“Personal or business,” he asks, not that he will care. He only asks so he knows whether to involve any of the other brothers. “Just you, personal.”

“Leave your phone on, I’ll GPS it.”

I end the call and slip my gun from the side satchel into the back of my jeans. The place looks abandoned. I’m cautious of my surroundings. The fact that no one’s around and its deserted makes me edgy.

My heavy footsteps echo around the abandoned development as I slowly walk up the path to a beat down house. My phones vibrates with Justin’s name flashing on the screen.

“What?”

“Tell me you’re with Meadow.” His voice is strained.

“No, Dad called me wanting to talk, I’m like an hour from hers at some run down street. I dropped her off first. Why?”

“He’s fucking lost it. He’s insane.” His voice is weak, like he’s struggling. “I had a message from him saying that he’s going to give me what she flaunted for too long before he kills her.”

The break in his voice makes me swallow.

“What the fuck does that mean? He has her Mom. Does he mean her Mom?” My voice is laced with anger.

I run up the pathway and kick the rotting wooden door open. It crumbles under my weight, dust and dirt lift from the floor as it disintegrates. The house is empty, undisturbed for what seems like years. My stomach drops. “Where is he? Why did he make me come here?” I whisper down the phone, but I already know the answer. “He led me away from her. Fuck!”

“I’m on my way to you, Jared. I’ll be a few hours though. Shit, he’s changed his phone. I can’t get in touch with him!”

I end the call and bring Beats’ name up in my phonebook. I hit the ring icon and bring it to my ear. The endless ringing brings dread creeping into my bones. I hear the connect and my heart jumps until I hear her answer machine. “Sorry I missed your call. Please leave your details and I’ll get back to you.” Her voice washes over me like warm caramel over ice cream, melting my heart. I can’t lose her.

I rush back to my bike and take off in the direction of Beats’ house. I try Crystal’s phone and get no answer. I grip the handlebars and blast the engine, my mind playing havoc with me as the miles pass. I finally reach her street, the flashing lights from a police car and an ambulance sends ice shooting through my veins.

I jump from my bike, leaving it to crash to the floor. I rush past the crowd that has gathered and push my way through. “No sir, please stay back,” an officer says. I ignore him, fear driving me forward. He grabs at me and I shrug him off easily. More officers rush at me.

“That’s my family in there!” I roar as I barge them out of the way. I see Crystal standing in the passage, a paramedic trying to calm her down. Our eyes meet and she sprints towards me. “God Rift, I’m sorry. Someone took her, he forced his way in and hit me with something and I was coming around when I saw her being forced out the door.”

“Where are the girls?”

She gestures towards the house. “They’re okay, the paramedics are checking them over but they’re fine. My Mom’s coming to get them. They want me to go hospital because of my head injury.”

I pull her to me and squeeze her tight. “You should go then, but get back to my girls as soon as you can and look after them until I bring their Mom home.” I kiss the side of her head and walk away. I can’t see my girls right now, my body is running on adrenaline and I’m ready to put my Dad in the ground.

I hear the cops’ voices calling to me but I don’t stop for them. I take out my phone and call Digger.

“Yo, what’s up brother? You coming home yet?”

“My Father has kidnapped Beats. I need you all.”

I end the call, pick up my bike and take off. I drive for an hour before I reach my destination. The black iron gates open as I approach. The winding drive leads me to a huge white house. The door opens before I cut the engine and Kristy, Samuels little sister bursts through it, her pixie cut hair bouncing around her face. She’s wearing only a satin wrap; her bare legs show as she jumps. She looks around me down the drive and pouts. “Didn’t you bring me my toy to play with?” Samuel is a friend of the club, he knows computers, like code is written in his blood. He got me Beats address from just her phone number within an hour. He and his sister are both a little depraved, Ice usually comes with us to keep her occupied and sated when we have club business but this isn’t a social call.

“This isn’t business or fun, Kristy. I need your brother. Is he here?”

She turns and crooks her finger for me to follow. Our footsteps echo down the marble foyer. She opens a huge oak door to Samuel’s office and she saunters over to him. He’s sitting behind an oak desk, bashing away at a keyboard. He doesn’t look up until Kristy drops into his lap and strokes his hair. Their relationship is not the usual brother/sister relationship but he is the best at what he does so most people overlook the fact he’s banging her.

“Rift, I wasn’t expecting you,” He looks behind me. “Alone?” he asks and I nod.

“Hmm, is that why you’re in my lap, Kristy?”

She pouts. “He didn’t bring my toy.”

“I need you. My Father finally cracked, he’s taken my woman and her Mom.”

Kristy stops her mauling and stands. Rushing over to me she throws herself into my arms and whispers against my cheek. “Oh no, poor baby.”

Her Father is the reason she and her brother are so fucked up.

“Leave us, Kristy.”

She saunters from the room and I move closer to the desk. “Why has he done this?” he asks.

“He blames her for Justin giving up football, and it came to light that he has tried to get physical with her before, with force.” I bite out the last bit, my whole body screaming for me to find her. A dark shadow falls over Sam’s face.

“What do you need?” he asks.

“I have no clue where he is or where he’s been. I need you to hack everything that has his name on it.” He nods and I collapse into the seat opposite his desk.

A couple of hours pass and I’m pacing, feeling completely useless, but I know Sam’s my best chance. He can do things the police can’t and he’s a genius when it comes to computers, hence the mansion he lives in. His skill pays well.

“I’m into his computer,” he says. I rush around the desk and lean over his shoulder.

“How the fuck do you do that?”

He grins. “He has a sharing program. People think they’re harmless but it leaves your computer files open for others to see and use. I hacked in through that and can see everything he has.”

He opens a file named Sin. My stomach twists as images of Beats flicker onto the screen; her from years ago, all through her teens, some with her sleeping next to me at his house, and then more recent ones.

Shit, he’s been stalking her. A picture of me between her thighs on my bike at the bar lights up the screen next. Sam raises his eyebrows but he keeps clicking and then stops when he sees one of her beaten and bleeding on a bare mattress. He groans, and I realize I’m crushing his shoulder under my hand. “He just uploaded this one.”

He opens more files, bank accounts and shit. I shake with anger and fear of what he’s doing to her.

Another hour passes and I’m losing it. I can’t bear not knowing where to find her. The door opens and my brothers pile into the room.

“What the fuck happened?” Digger asks.

I fill them in on everything and we wait. “I’ve activated the camera, his webcam is now on, on his laptop” Sam announces.

I waltz over to him and look into the screen. My Father is sitting at a table holding a gun, and he looks jumpy. I watch him stand and pace then walk down a hallway that leads from the kitchen, where his laptop appears to be on a table. He stops at a door, opens it and looks in, then shakes his head and hits himself a couple times like he’s having an internal debate. My stomach twists into knots.

He walks into the room and I scrunch my hands into fists, struggling not to kill someone. He emerges minutes later holding a pair of jeans in his hand. Beats was wearing jeans. I bring my hands up to my face and scrub them down over my eyes. He sits back down and brings the jeans to his face, inhaling them.

“There’s a phone there but he doesn’t have one registered to him and it’s not your girl’s. I traced hers to her own address,” Sam tells us.

“Maybe it’s one of those ones you can’t trace. You know, the fifteen dollar ones from gas stations?” Ice asks.

“It’s too fancy to be one of those.”

“What’s her Mom’s name? Maybe it’s hers?”

We watch him pick the phone up and make a call. It lasts only a few minutes, then my phone rings.

“Justin.”

“Where the fuck are you? I just pulled up at Meds’ house and he called! He’s five minutes from here. I’m going there now. I’ll text you the address. Meet me there, Jared.” He ends the call and my hands begin to shake. She was five minutes away and I drove away again. I’m an hour from her now.