Love Renewed (Entwined Hearts #3) (26 page)

“You get her—”

“I get her, I’ll contact you straight away.”

“Okay then, now we can go,” I state striding to my car and hoping like hell that I can trust my girl to two good men that I hardly know.

They left him there, they left Jenson lying on the floor. They said he was dead. My heart feels like it’s breaking for someone I hardly knew. But something is forged when you’re stuck with another person in such a small space. Especially, when he’s fighting for your life more than his own. And anyway, all of that wouldn’t matter, just the fact that he’s friends with Dane would be enough to make me feel this way. Dane has never let people in easily. That’s why when he finds out about Ryan he’s going to go postal.

When I arrive at the warehouse, they’re expecting me. I manage to take out all six outside guards with my gun. I attached the silencer, so I manage to do it nearly all in stealth. When I get inside it becomes a bit harder. I didn’t have time to check the site out like I normally would. There were no cameras that I could see, but I missed the hidden motion detectors. They knew I was inside before I realised and eight of them came at me. I killed two quickly and swiftly and I was fighting two. Punches were thrown in abundance and I managed to get another kill shot off before I lost my gun. I had two men on the floor unconscious and three dead so that just left the three facing me. Unfortunately, these men were not amateurs like the other five. I held my own. Broke one man’s arm. Another one cracked his head on the floor when he fell from my head-butting. I rammed into another man and we both toppled over, I believe I cracked his collar bone as we landed because he cried out and couldn’t move. Just as I was winning, even with my injuries, someone new came at me from behind and I felt a knife pierce my side. That’s when I saw Dex. By then I’d been fighting two and was now back to fighting four with a stab wound. I kept going but then Dex pulled out a gun and shot me in each thigh, I lost my balance and fell. They pinned me down and pulled a bag over my head continuing to beat me.

Throwing me down, they pull off the black hood covering my head. I try to open my eyes, but the left eyelid is stuck, maybe swollen. As I pry the right open I want to scream at the pain, but I breathe through it, I’ve been in worse situations.

Take note. Stay sharp.

I can see three pairs of boots. At least one of those boots will have made the footprint-shaped bruises that I can feel forming on top of my cracked ribs. My shoulder is dislocated, I can feel my arm hanging loosely across my chest as I lay on my side.

“So you managed to get the amazing D?” The sound is muffled, I think there might be something wrong with my eardrum, but I can still make out Will’s voice.

“Ha, yeah man, he’s not so amazing,” says a voice I’ve not heard before.

“Never thought he was. Been protected, and ushered to fucking untouchable status by Jenson. No more, though. Not now Jenson’s dead.” Will’s words cause a blow in my gut that no physical touch could top. Jenson had always been there for me. Always. No questions asked. Now he’s dead because Will and Dex are fucking traitors.

I test my legs. They hurt like fuck, a bullet in each thigh will do that. Still, it could be worse, they didn’t kneecap me. When I need to, I
will
be able to walk, an escape is
always
possible. I won’t be able to run and I’ll have to use my left arm since the right is useless now. Either that or I’ll have to pop the right shoulder back in. The wound I’m worried about is the knife hole in my side. Not fatal—yet. But if I leave it too long I could lose consciousness, something I don’t need to do and not least because I have no idea what these fuckers would do if I black out.

“Grab him.” The unknown voice says coming closer. I’m pulled up by arms, dragging my dislocated shoulder sharply and I want to cry out like a bitch, but that would be feeding their egos. Anyway, I’ve been trained to withstand it. Never show fear. Never show pain.

I’m thrown onto a chair and almost slide off and back on the floor only catching myself at the last moment. They all chuckle. I take that time to look around. I’m in what looks like an abandoned factory or warehouse. There’s equipment in the corner. Seems like the place was once filled with machinery, but most of it has been taken away. The space is empty now, the odd piece of wood or milk bottle crate is scattered about but otherwise, me, this chair and the three guys in front of me is it. I only glimpsed at what’s behind me, but from what I could make out it’s just more of the same. I know that there’s an exit door in the right corner behind the abandoned equipment, another one thirty feet along the same wall, but that has chains wrapped around the escape bars. The door in front of me to the left leads to a corridor, it might be a way out, but it’s an internal door. The only other choice is the window behind me, to my left. I got a quick look before and saw it was ajar, and all eight windows in this room are big. Four foot wide and six high, so escape is possible. It will be a task, though, they are five foot from the ground at their lowest. My arm, legs and side alone will hinder my escape.

Shit.

“So D, huh, it’s like you were given that title because everyone is so beneath you. You’re far too good for the rest of us, right?” Will sneers at me. I say nothing. “What’s the matter? You don’t have an answer?” he continues.

“Sorry, didn’t think you were asking a question. Just thought you were pointing out a fact,” I say, my tone completely emotionless and I try to smirk, although I’m not sure if that’s what my face shows. My words get me two punches to the gut. Which starts them all laughing again.

Dumb fucks. They’re playing. They shouldn’t play. That’s when shit usually gets messy. And it will—for them.

“So
Dane,
tell me where Jenson hid the disk?” Dex demands.

I smirk again. I won’t give them anything. I don’t know the answer to their question. Even if I did, I wouldn’t give them what they want. They know this.

“He won’t tell you anything. He’s been trained not to,” Will tells Dex.

“He will with some persuasion.” The unknown man answers. I take him in. Amateur. He’s young, early twenties with dark hair. Looks Asian. Short and a medium build. He’s a trainee.

Dex steps forward and his fist connects with my jaw, once, twice, three times. I feel blood running down my chin and I look up at Dex smiling.

“He’s fucking crazy. Fuck!” he tells Will with widened eyes.

“He’ll think differently in a minute,” Will says nodding toward the trainee who walks away disappearing through the internal door. I look at the other two chatting and wonder if it’s time to make a move. Noting where the guns are. I want to find the knife used on me earlier, it belongs to one of them. I want to relieve them of it and show them how it should be used. I know it wasn’t Will’s knife as we were facing off when I was stabbed from behind. A metal rattling noise makes me turn my head toward the door. What I see causes more pain than all my injuries put together ever could. My breath is ripped from my body as I see them wheel in a trolley with meat hooks adorning it, but what’s hanging from the hooks isn’t a dead animal. It’s Nova, a very beaten, bloodied, unmoving Nova.

Suddenly, I feel nothing. All my pain disappears. Everything goes numb. My ears turn off every noise, my brain stops every thought. Everything but killing the three men in front of me. My mind focusses and I roar so loud it hurts my own ears.

“So he can feel emotion then?” Will laughs.

I close my eyes and take another breath. I didn’t think she was here. I thought she was at the house, that’s where I’ve sent Lewis and Cayson.
Shit.
I need them here and I didn’t even know it.

Fuck. This is what happens when you’re thinking with emotion.

“Do you want to know what we did to her?” Dex spits out and I look straight into his eyes.

“I’m going to kill you Dex. You know that don’t you?” The words are barely a whisper, delivered with a smile. I watch as his eyes widen and then he beats back the fear, bravado winning out.

“Yeah, whatever
Mr. Dane.
I’d be more worried about what Mr. Boss Man has done to your precious bitch over there.”

I work my jaw at his words and look back to Nova. For the first time, I notice her jeans are unbuttoned and her shirt is ripped open. It’s then that I feel something I haven’t felt for twelve years.
Fear.
It vibrates through my body and heats my skin. I don’t know what happens next, my vision goes white as I see everything and nothing all at once. The feral feeling in the pit of my stomach feeds me as I fly off the chair and at the three men. I grab the gun in my left hand and shoot the trainee in the neck before downing Will and slamming the gun into his head over and over. Then Dex shouts for my attention and I look up to see the gun pressed into Nova’s temple and her frightened eyes on mine.