Honey Whiskey (A Bastards MC Novel) (38 page)

“
I will. And, you’ll explain
then?”

I promised I would and hung up. Christ, I
hoped she’d be ok.

Rob was back, piecing together the
problem on his own. He’d pulled out his phone as well. “I’m
checking with the prospects. Ian, call Ellie. You, call L.K.” My
phone was halfway to my ear when Wiz appeared in front of
me.

“We’ve got a problem.” The kid’s
voice was shaky and his hands unsteady as he set the tablet onto
the middle of the table. Slowly, he scrolled through a group of
pictures.

The first was of Taylor. She was
in a store, looking through a rack of clothes. She was laughing at
something or someone out of the frame. The next was a picture of Jo
and Jessie sitting at an outside table in a little bistro and
laughing. I recognized the outfit Jo had on this morning. I’d told
her the jeans hugged her ass perfectly and that she needed to take
them off and come back to bed. The next one had been distorted, but
each woman was looking at the camera and now had a number where
their face should have been. The final picture was of Taylor. She
was tied to a chair and was beaten. The number three had been
carved into her forehead. It was swollen and bloody, obviously new.
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, 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 the 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, and 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 like 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.

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 that 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 then 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’d turned to see who it was. Then
someone put a hand over my mouth, and I felt a prick in my neck.
I’d 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 that had Matty’s
face. Even though I knew better, I couldn’t remember any other
features of the man that 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 didn’t
happen.

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 who was 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 be able to
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, and then it was suddenly very quiet. It made my entire body
shake in terror.

I heard what I thought were
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 that it was someone coming for me. Before I
could prepare myself, the door flew open and the room was filled
with light that made my eyes 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’s 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 cuff and then
dragged me from the bed before I’d even gotten my feet under me. I
scrambled to stand up, but he took my struggles as an attempt to
fight back. Digging his fingers into my arm painfully, he hauled me
up and then backhanded me. “There’s no wheres to go, so don’t
fuckin’ bother,” he growled, tugging me along a hallway behind him
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 is where the screams came 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 that had me took me directly to
it, roughly pushing me down and tying 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 I want to know, or you
can tell me 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 to raise 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 that was standing next to Taylor. The second man, or
Thing one 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 lifted a chin in my direction, and I noticed
that the man that 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 then there were the good old-fashioned bruises. I
was relieved to see she looked like she’d passed out.

Thing two, 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 in, 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 going to be strapped in. Relief flooded through me when I
realized it wasn’t her, but instead a tiny spec of a woman that I
didn’t recognize. Not that I would want my worst enemy to be here
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
at me. Then, without any warning, he tipped his head and turned it
to 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 that didn’t even bother comin’ after you!”
No one said anything. Then, a sadistic look crossed his face and he
looked back at Thing one. “Blowtorch.”

Taylor reacted to that. Her whole
demeanor changed. 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 her 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
one came back with the lit torch, the gas hissing and spitting.
Taylor’s eyes got huge as Thing one walked past her straight
towards 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 fiancé 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. This man was not a
friend of my ex-husbands. There was no mistaking him now, however.
This was Scott. This was the man that Tank had showed
me.