Envy (18 page)

“Oh is she now?” Strike laughs, looking down at me. “Does daddy know all the awful things you have done Silver?”

“He knows everything
you
did.” Drew answers for me with anger. “My family fucking hate you! The whole club does!”

“Drew.” I warn.

“No, no.” Strike laughs. “Go on.”

Drew just stares at him, fed up of his games and I’m glad but I’m scared that she’s already said too much.

“Now that I know who are, you will do perfectly for what I need to be done.” Strike declares and dread fills my whole body.

“I’m not doing anything for you!” She screams.

“Oh I think you will.” He laughs back at her and his friends join in.  “If you want Silver to live, you will do exactly as I say.”

A hard hit lands on my head and I’m thrown to the ground. All I can hear is Drew screaming as darkness welcomes me.

I’m on my knees, crying more than I’ve ever done before as I watch them take Natasha away with them. I couldn’t believe my eyes when Strike hit her around the head and knocked her out. He threw her to the floor, not caring for her safety at all. While I was staring down at Natasha, a slight trail of blood running down her forehead, Strike told me what his plan was and I wasn’t relieved at all. He was asking me to let them take Natasha with them, and I hated myself for it.

I have to wait ten minutes before I’m allowed to go back into the clubhouse and let everyone know what’s happened. Strike forcibly told me to tell my dad and brothers, he wanted them to hear it straight from me and get a good look of my face and what he’s done to me. To hurt my family, Strike had them rip my clothes from my body but that’s not the worse part. They slapped and punched me, everywhere on my body including my face. Just to give my family a message. I tried not to cry out or show my pain, but there were so many men hurting me. I could only take so much.

How am I even supposed to know when ten minutes has gone by? Strike was most likely bullshitting me when he said one of his men was watching me to make sure I did what I was supposed to do.

Suddenly there’s a loud bang behind me and I scream. Is he back?

“Drew?” I hear Devlin. “The fuck?”

I open my eyes and see my big brother frowning down at me. It’s really dark out here so I doubt he can see the state I’m in.

“Why are you on the floor?” He ask, stepping closer to me. “Where the fuck are your clothes?”

I wrap my arms around myself and cry. “I’m so sorry.”

“Drew, what’s the matter?” He kneels down in front of me.

“He’s got Natasha.” I cry.

I see his body stiffen, even in the darkness. “What?”

“Strike has Natasha.” I repeat, tears running down my face.

Suddenly he’s up and running inside. I hear his voice shouting above the music and it’s cut off. Brothers run outside, all scattering around the garden and begin searching.

A blanket is wrapped around me and I look up to see Lauren. I jump up and wrap my arms around her, crying into her body as she holds me.

“Drew, what happened?” She asks, my brothers eagerly watching us.

“Tasha brought us out here to give me fresh air.” I cry. “It’s all my fault!”

“Get her inside!” My dad yells from the door looking furious.

Lauren guides me inside whispering encouraging words to me. That is until we’re in the light and she sees my appearance.

“Oh my god!” She gasps. “What did they do?”

At hearing her shocked voice, Grim stands beside her and stares wide eyed at me.

“I’m going to kill him!” He roars, becoming the Grim he is well and truly known for.

“Baby?” I hear my Dad’s voice. “What have they done to you?”

He sounds broken and that’s just what Strike wanted, to hurt my family.

“I’m ok.” I insist.

“You don’t fucking look ok!” Shouts Devlin.

“They hit me a few times but it was just to hurt you, don’t let them!” I plead.

My dad rushes to me and wraps me in his arms. I wince as soon as he does and he pulls back. “What?”

“I’m fine.” I argue but Lauren doesn’t believe me. None of them do.

“Let me see.” She steps closer and I pull away.

My mum comes from behind, cornering me so Lauren can lift the blanket. All the men turn to give us privacy without a word spoken and when Lauren sees under the blanket, her eyes shine with tears.

“Oh Drew.” She sobs.

When they have the all clear, the men turn back around and Lauren tells them exactly what I didn’t want her to. “She’s badly bruised already. Cuts everywhere, he didn’t?”

“No.” I immediately close that question and she breathes a sigh of relief.

Scrappy and Baby rush inside. Both of their eyes widening when they see me.

“Tyre marks leading west from the gates.” Scrappy informs.

My dad turns to everyone ordering them around. Luckily for us, we have CCTV so we should be able to see where they went. With Grims’ connections, they can also look into the police security a tape, that’s if the club has kept their good connections with them. After what went down with the prospects, Big John and Marie, it was really tough but without them, it would have been worse.

When my Dad is done and it’s just my close family I stop them from wherever they’re going.

“I need to tell you something.” I announce and I instantly get all their attention.

“When we were outside, Strike came out of nowhere, he was waiting for something and when we went out, we gave him what he wanted.” I take a deep breath a carry on. “She pushed me away, tried to get me inside but one of his men caught me. He was saying some fucked up things to her.”

“What things?” Devlin cuts in.

“Similar to what she told me was on that letter.” I admit to him and he pales. “He hit her around the head and she fell. I watched as he pushed her to the floor.”

Tears drench my face and the blanket I clutch around myself. Lauren and Elise begin to cry beside me.

“He told me I had to tell you his plan.”

“Which is?” Devlin steps closer.

“He said he has taken what’s his, but he still wants his Raven.” I look to Lauren and she nods in understanding. “He’s willing to let her go, if he can have Lauren back but if he doesn’t have her in the next twenty-four hours, he won’t let you have Natasha and he will still want Lauren, as well as me and Elise.”

“Fuck!” Devlin shouts, kicking the boxes of rubbish beside the door. “We have to get her back!”

Grim rushes to Devlin, wrapping an arm around him and holding him close. “We will brother.”

“How?” He cries. It’s heart breaking seeing my brother like this.

“I don’t know yet, but we will.” He demands and I really want to believe him. I should without a doubt but now that I’ve seen Strike in person, I don’t know what’s going to happen. That man is terrifying and will obviously do anything to get what he wants.

Lauren ushers me away followed by my mother and Elise. We go to my room where she sits me on my bed and runs me a hot bath. As they fuss, all I can think about is how Natasha looked when she lay on the floor. I just pray to god she’s ok.

Fuck my head feels so sore! What the hell did I drink last night?

With my eyes still closed I roll over to feel Devlin but I don’t feel anything. No warm body, just cold emptiness. I snap my eyes open and when I see I’m not in Devlin’s bedroom back at the clubhouse everything that happened flashes back in an instant.

Oh my god Drew! I hope she’s ok. I don’t know what happened after I was knocked out but I know it can’t be good. I remember Strike talking about a plan of his and needing Drew’s help.

I take in my surroundings and something doesn’t feel right. In my experience with Strike, I always end up in a grotty dirty hell hole, but this place doesn’t feel so bad. That doesn’t sit well with me. Don’t get me wrong, this is no palace. It’s plain and the only colours that seem to be present are black and white but it’s clean. Strike doesn’t do clean.

I slowly sit up on the bed and look around the small bedroom I’m in. The only window in this room is high on the wall, way out of my reach and tiny. Even I wouldn’t be able to fit through that! Looks like the only way out of this place is that door. I slowly make my way over as if I’m secretly being watched and try to open the door but as I thought, it’s locked.

I turn to lean my back against the wall in frustration and then I find something very odd. On a table against the wall are two magazines. Frowning I make my way over to them and flick through them. They haven’t been tampered with or anything, just normal gossip mags.

In confusion, I sit back down on the bed. What the fuck?

This isn’t Strikes style at all!

Sweat drips down my body as I continue to punch as the fake body in front of me. I have to get this frustration out somehow.

Natasha has been gone for eight hours. Eight long fucking hours and we have no information on where she is! I’m going fucking crazy!

Shit, when I came looking for her I knew something was wrong. She was supposed to come straight back to me and join me in my room. When she wasn’t there, I just knew. I felt it deep in my gut and started looking for her. When I found my sister in a horrible state and Natasha gone, my heart dropped.

The fucker had got her back and I failed Natasha. I promised to keep her safe and I let him fucking have her. My woman!

“Dev.” I hear Scrappy from behind me.

“Get out.” I continue to punch.

“We will find her.” He steps next to the fake body punch bag. Does he realise he’s in a dangerous place right now? I would much rather hit a real man, pound my fists into actual flesh and get the reward of seeing blood from my efforts.

“We have no leads and I sure as hell won’t sacrifice the girls.” I growl, punching a little harder.

Scrappy hangs his head and sighs. “I got in touch with Bomber.”

That makes me pause for a second. “I thought you hated him.”

“I do.” He confirms. “But we need Tasha back and I think he’s our best bet.”

“Did you tell Prez?” I ask, knowing that he probably didn’t.

“No.” He smirks. “I had to have a private chat with him, there were a few things I needed to make clear.”

I knew exactly who that talk was all about, my little cousin Elise. Poor guy doesn’t want anyone sniffing around his baby sister and I can’t blame him. Nobody will ever be good for Elise or Drew but they have to find happiness somewhere. I can understand where he’s coming from though. Bomber was with the Devils. Granted he was undercover, but he still wore their patch and saw the fucked up things they did, maybe even took part.

I nod. “Tell me what you know.”

“He has the photos.” That’s all Scrappy says and it’s enough.

Bomber has the pictures of Strike’s sister, we have some leverage!

“Fuck!” I scream, pounding the bag again. “We still have to find Strike to let him know what we have!”

“Bomber can help with that too.” Scrappy face changes and I fully understand.

I remove my gloves, jaw clenched. “I’m taking a shower; meet me in my Dad’s office in ten minutes.”

We walk out the gym together, and as I leave towards my room, Scrappy stops me. “We will find her Dev. She’s your old lady right?”

I stare at him for a few seconds and think why the fuck not?

“Fucking right she is.” I have to find her, I have to officially make her mine and spend many fucking years making it up to her that I let her go through this shit again.

“Then she’s family and we protect family. We will have her back and soon have mini Devlin’s running around.”

I push him away as he jokes. “Fuck off, too soon bro!”

I jump into the shower, and even though Natasha isn’t with me, Scrappys’ words leave me weirdly with a good feeling. I want what he just said, but first I have to get my woman back.

As soon as I’m done showering, I throw on some clothes and rush to my Dad’s office. He’s on the phone when I walk in so I sit on one of the sofas until he’s finished.

He’s not saying much so I don’t know who he’s talking to and when he finally hangs up he asks me how I’m doing.

“What do you think?” I snap. “My woman is missing and we don’t know where the fuck she is!”

“I understand son, I’m only trying to help you.” He answers in a calm and level tone.

“Who were you talking to?”

“Inspector Folks.” He answers, that’s one of our police friends. “Didn’t have much to say. There’s a few security tapes showing that the truck went into town but then they end.”

“Why?” I ask.

“They only have access to local cameras, but he’s working on it for us.”

I nod, I get that people are trying, but it’s not quick enough. I need her with me now.

“I wanna see the tape.” I say.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” My dad frowns.

My dad, Grim, Scrappy, Baby, Uncle Brace and even some brothers who aren’t related by blood have seen the CCTV of the moment Strike snuck up on Natasha and Drew. I still haven’t seen it. I know I shouldn’t because Grim told me if it was Lauren, he wouldn’t want to see that but I have to. I want to see what happened to her. If anything I just want to see her, the only photo I have of her is the one I snapped of her on my phone all those weeks ago. The one I pretended to delete, but I need more. I have to get her back.

“I have to see her.” I hang my head and I hear my Dad’s footsteps walk towards me. The sofa sags to my right as he sits beside me.

“I won’t let you watch it Dev, it’s not fucking nice to watch at all. Fuck, it made some of the brothers cry!” I didn’t know this.

“I have to get her back Dad.” I hide my tears from and he strokes my back.

I hear footsteps approaching and I man the fuck up. My dad removes his hand from my back and our moment is over. Scrappy walks in and looks between my father and me.

“You want me to come back later?” He asks.

“No, we have shit to do.” I quickly wipe at my eyes. “Tell my dad what you told me.”

Scrappy nods and then informs my dad what he had told me in the gym just thirty minutes ago.

“Well then,” my dad stands. “We have a church meeting to call.”

“Is that really needed?” I ask him, showing my frustration. “It’s wasting time, everyone will agree.”

“That may be true son but those are the rules.” My dad leaves his office to shout the beginning of church. There’s no need for phone calls or texts because everyone’s here.

“You trust Bomber?” Scrappy asks.

“I do.” I answer without a doubt. “What about you?”

“Despite how much I hate him and want the fucker to stay away from Elise, I do trust him where the club is concerned.” He crosses his arms across his chest, not looking happy about this at all.

“Then why ask?” I quiz him.

“Because what he’s said about the rat is pretty fucking serious. We need to completely trust what he has to say before we go in guns blazing and punish the bastard.” He cracks his knuckles, his eyes lighting up at the chance to see blood being split.

“It’s a serious thing he’s saying but what he’s told us seems legit. It matches with everything that’s fucked up lately. He says he has proof.” I can’t think what proof he has.

One thing is for sure, I feel it in my bones that we have a rat amongst us. If Bomber does prove that one of our own is working with a Devil, especially fucking Strike, then he’s dead. Without a doubt no matter who the fucker is, he’s dead man walking.