WRECKED: GODS OF CHAOS MC, BOOK FOUR (23 page)

Instead, everything had gone so terribly wrong.

And now here I was again, under Royce’s control, and I had no idea how I’d gotten there. Had he been at the beach? Nothing made sense.

“How did you find me?” I asked, my voice a weak, faint sound.

“You don’t know?” he asked, smiling down at me. “I just assumed you’d woken up in the hospital.”

“I was in the hospital?”

“Yes, darling. But don’t worry. They did all they could for you. Too bad about your bodyguard, though. Tsk, tsk,” he said, clicking his tongue. “Old man like that? He should have been more alert. That’s what you get for sleeping on the job.” He reached up with a grisly smile and slid his fingertip across his throat. I shuddered when I realized what he was saying.

“Doc?” I cried.

“Is that what he’s called? Ancient old guy,” he shrugged. “It was time for him to go anyway.”

“Royce, how could you?” The words ripped through me.

“Darling,” he said, leaning close to my face. “Nothing is going to get in the way of me and my wife. What did you think, Vanessa? That I wouldn’t search for you? That you could get away? Surely, you didn’t underestimate me. You know me better than that.”

“You’re sick, Royce,” I said, tears streaming down my face.
Had he really killed Doc?
Where was Wreck?
I wanted to ask him, but I was terrified of the answer.

“Why can’t you just let me go?” I asked. “You don’t even love me.”

“Love?!”
he scoffed. “What does love have to do with anything? Vanessa, don’t you see? It’s simple. You’re mine. Nobody takes anything away from me, and that includes you. Nothing will ever change that, no matter what. I’d go to the ends of the Earth to find you. Of course, you won’t be escaping again, so I won’t have to do that.”

“Where are you taking me?” I asked again.

“You’ll be living on island now,” he said. “That way, nobody can get to you and you’ll be locked away safe and sound, just the way I want you.”

My heart sank. I couldn’t let this happen. I couldn’t let him do this to me, not again.

“No,” I shook my head, fear gripping my heart as I looked around for a way out. I was tied up and the ambulance was tearing down the freeway. Jumping out wasn’t an option.

Not yet, anyway.

I had to figure something out. I had to fight back. But I was as weak as a kitten and completely at his mercy.

Again.

Wreck

I walked up to the modern brick and glass house to the sound of waves crashing on Cannon Beach. I’d gotten quite a few second glances as I rode up on my bike, my cut drawing the attention it always did. I never quite got used to be stared at so much, but it was getting easier every day. Today, I barely noticed.

My stomach was in knots and I was bewildered and pissed off, and to be perfectly honest, still in a sense of complete disbelief.

I kept thinking on the way over that Riot must have made some mistake. Frank Moretti was a fairly uncommon name, especially on the West Coast, but it was possible there was another one, right?

I took a deep breath before knocking on the front door.

Within seconds, the door opened and I was staring face-to-face with a ghost.

My mouth dropped and before I could speak, he smiled and nodded.

“I’ve been expecting you,” he said, pulling me in for a hug. I was frozen stiff - in body and mind. “It’s good to see you, Jesse.”

“Dr. Moretti? I don’t understand…” my words trailed off as I searched his face for answers.

“Come in, son. I’ll explain everything,” he looked past me, scanning the horizon behind me. “You weren’t followed were you?”

“No…” I said, walking in slowly. He closed the door behind me and led me down a long, narrow hallway and into a cozy, sunken living room that had a view of the ocean that spanned an entire wall. I couldn’t look at it though. It only reminded me of Vanessa.

I mean, Frankie. She was Frankie, I knew that now. I had a million questions, but I at least had that one answer.

“I’m sure you have a million questions,” he said, walking over to a glimmering glass bar in the corner and pouring two shots of whiskey.

“Dr. Moretti, Vanessa - I mean, Frankie -,” I began.

“I know, son. I know. I know everything,” he said.

“But she’s —,”

“— missing, I know. Don’t worry, I know where she is.”

“You do? We gotta find her now!” I walked towards him, my voice trembling with urgency.

“She’s gone.”

“What?” I asked, the color draining from my face.

“No, wait!” he said. “Not gone. Not dead,” he said. “I’m sorry to scare you,” he said, handing me the glass of whiskey. I downed it in one quick second, welcoming the numbing burn. “And I’m so sorry about Doc, Jesse.”

“You know about Doc, too?”

“Yes, like I said. I know everything,” he flashed me a reassuring smile. “Here, sit down and I’ll explain.”

Numbly, I sat down on the couch, my mouth dry despite the whiskey.

“First of all, I’m so sorry everything turned out the way it did. I know you and Frankie were close. I hated that I was forced to tear her away from you, away from her life, but it was the only option I had at the time.”

“I don’t understand…”

“I know you don’t, but you will. Where should I start?” he said, scratching his chin. He looked exactly the same, with just a little grey added around his temples. “Okay, so we’ll start at the beginning. That’s the only way it’ll make sense.”

“Actually, maybe we should find Frankie first?”

“I have an arrangement in place, don’t worry, son. There’s nothing we can do right this second, so let me explain now and maybe by the time I’m finished, you won’t hate me as much. Alright, let’s start with Royce, shall we? He’s a bastard, isn’t he? Before he came to me, he was already an evil prick. He used people and spat them out as fast as he could chew them. As you know by now, that included kids. Two particularly strong girls he’d hurt decided to seek revenge. They set him on fire while he slept, but unfortunately, he survived. Not without serious damage to his precious face, of course.”

“Look, I already know this,” I said, impatiently. I just wanted to find Frankie, not listen to his fucking story-time hour.

“I’m getting to the rest,” he said, waving me off. “Randolph came to me, while I was working alone one night in my office. He insisted I restore his face, but I said no, of course. He became more persistent, until he found my one weakness. Frankie,” he shook his head, his voice haunted by memories of the past. “she was everything to me. You know that. You know I loved her, right, Jesse? You could see that, I know you could. Anyway, Royce told me if I didn’t do it, he’d kill Frankie. What else could I do? I’d researched him, I knew what he was capable of, I’d heard the rumors. So I did it. It was the biggest mistake of my life. I should have gone to the cops right away. But I was scared. I wasn’t a fighter. I was a fucking doctor, for fuck’s sake.

“So I did it. By the time he woke up, I was just relieved it was over. I wanted him out of my life and I planned to keep my mouth shut and just carry on with raising Frankie.

“Fortunately, someone took pity on me and tipped me off. It was another doctor I’d been a resident with at OHSU. He was Royce’s doctor and Royce had been blackmailing him for years to get the prescription painkillers Royce was addicted to because he had photos of him with a prostitute. Royce threatened to give them to his wife, so to avoid that, he kept Royce doped up on his drug of choice. He’d gone by Royce’s house one day and saw that he’d had surgery on his face. On his way out, he heard Royce talking to Travis about killing me, just to make sure I never talked.”

“Obviously, that didn’t happen,” I said.

“No, it didn’t. But he tried. Royce sent his men to do the job the night Frankie and I disappeared, but I was ready for them. I knew he’d hunt me down afterwards and I just wanted to get away from him. I wanted to protect Frankie. I wanted to give her the best life possible.”

“Obviously, that didn’t happen either,” I said warily.

“No, I guess not. When Royce’s men arrived, I was ready for them. I had everything planned perfectly. I was going to disable them, set their bodies and the house on fire - I even set a few bombs - and disappear with Frankie, faking our deaths and running away. My plan was to give her a new face, a new identity. I couldn’t perform surgery on myself, obviously, but I was going to change my appearance as much as I could to keep us from being discovered by Royce or anyone else. I had everything set up at the hotel and with the help of my friend, turned it into a makeshift surgery room. I wanted to change Frankie’s face as fast as possible. But she didn’t want it. Once we left that night, after escaping out of the back of the house and into the night, the house exploding into flames behind us, I told her my plan. She was horrified. She was devastated. About losing you. Losing her life. Losing everything she ever had that reminded her of her mother, especially her face. She was adamant that I not touch her face.

“It was a nightmare, but it was our nightmare, and that was the only way I knew how to deal with it. But she refused to let me carry out the surgery. She cried, she screamed, she almost ran away but she was afraid to leave and go out into the world, once I told her about Royce.

“I’m not proud of what I did, Jesse. I betrayed my daughter in the worst possible way. She cried herself to sleep that night, and I injected the anesthesia while she was sleeping. I performed the surgery, hoping that if I performed my best work it would be enough to make her forgive me. She was already so beautiful and I didn’t make her more beautiful, because that wasn’t possible. But I wanted to at least give her a face she didn’t hate. I don’t think I achieved that…”

His head fell, his voice trailing off and I sat there with my heart pounding in my chest on the edge of my seat, imagining everything Frankie must have gone through. It was heart wrenching.

“The next day, despite my best efforts, Royce found us. My doctor friend had caved because Royce threatened to kill his entire family. He told him what I was up to and where we were. Frankie was still under the anesthesia when he arrived.

“He made me choose, Jesse. An impossible choice that no man should ever have to make. He would either kill us both or he would let us both live and take Frankie. None of it made any sense to me at the time. But I didn’t think I had a choice. He had a fucking gun to my head, and my daughter’s head, and it was the only choice I
could
make. I figured I’d get her away from him eventually. Letting him take her was a horrible choice, but it was better than dead, right?”

“I - I don’t know…” I said, shaking my head, trying to make sense of it all.

“I know, it sounds so awful, but I didn’t know what else to do. He promised not to kill either one of us and to let me go, as long as I didn’t try to contact Frankie or the police. He’d already paid me five million dollars to fix his face. He reminded me that he had friends everywhere - cops, judges, lawyers - and that he would know within fifteen minutes if I tried to tell anyone.”

“So you just let him take her and you went on with your life?” I asked, anger rushing through my veins.

“I let him take her, yes, but I watched.”

“You watched?”

“Yes, I watched everything. From afar. And I hired cable workers to go into his house and install listening devices. That assistant of his, Travis, was so stupid, he’d let anyone in. I knew I couldn’t get close enough to do anything myself, Travis knew my face well. But - over the years I was able to keep track of what was going on and I saw - and heard - that although Frankie was miserable and kept like a prisoner, he wasn’t hurting her, not physically. He wasn’t touching her. In fact, he pretty much ignored her completely, unless he needed to parade her around as a piece of his property. But she was still alive, Jesse! And that’s what kept me going.”

“That wasn’t much of a life for her, Dr. Moretti,” I protested.

“I know, but it was all I had to work with. At least, until you came along.”

“What do you mean?”

“Frankie’s tough. She figured out how to get out on her own. I’m so proud of her for being so brave and getting away. I never imagined in a million years she would cross paths with you again, but I’m glad she did.”

“Well, don’t be,” I scoffed. “A lot of good that did. If it wasn’t for me, she wouldn’t be with Royce again.”

“That was a big wrinkle in the plan, yes, but nothing we can’t overcome. I already know where he's taken her. We just have to figure out how to get to her once we’re on island.”

“She told us about his island.”

“Yeah, she’s been there before. Royce usually goes there alone, or with his sick, perverted friends. I'm guessing she’ll be locked away in some cold, dark room that she can’t get out of. But Royce is pissed at her for running away, and that worries me.”

“That’s why we need to get her away from him as soon as possible!” I roared, standing up.

“I know, I know! Listen, I’ve reserved a private plane to take us to a nearby island and then we’ll have to take a boat to the island. After that, I’m not too sure, but I’m hoping we can surpass whatever security he has and get to Frankie. For such a hated and law-breaking prick, he sure is lax on security.”

“It’s his ego,” I said. “He thinks he’s fucking invincible.”

“Let’s show him that he’s not, Jesse. Once and for all, let’s bring him down. What do you say?”

“Fuck yeah,” I replied, my head spinning. This was so much to wrap my head around and it would probably take quite some time to process everything, but now wasn’t the time for that. Now, we needed action, executed with fearless precision. I knew there was no way in hell I could do this alone, as much as I wanted to bust onto that island with guns blazing like fucking Rambo. I pulled out the burner phone Riot had given me before I left and dialed the clubhouse. Cherry’s tearful voice answered and it cut right through my heart.

We’d never be able to get Doc back, but there was no way in hell Royce was going to get away with taking Frankie away.