Chapter 15 #3
The building looked worse up close than it did from far away.
The paint was peeling off the door and the exterior of the building had been tagged with graffiti.
That let me know it hadn’t been used in a long time.
It pissed me off that Bryce brought Tracey to a shitty place like this.
The only reason Bryce managed to get his hands on her was because some idiot prospect thought betraying his brothers would earn him a payday.
Storm lifted two fingers, signaling quiet, and we froze in place. Celt moved up beside him, muttering under his breath. “Place reeks o’ trap,” he whispered.
I didn’t speak up, but I agreed with him. Something about the fucking situation was setting off my Spidey senses.
Storm just whispered back, “Stay sharp. The difference between a trap and a regular fucking day is awareness.”
Everything about this situation was wrong.
It was too isolated, too easy to find and way too quiet for my liking.
A prospect turned on us, and now we were walking into a fucking trap.
I’d bet my bottom dollar on it. Without thinking about it too hard, I went ahead and pulled out my weapon, ‘cause trap or not, I had a woman in need of rescuing.
Breaker shifted beside me, restless and annoyed with Storm stopping to press his ear against the door. “Fucking hell, let’s quit staring at the damn paint and get after this asshole,” he grumbled.
Storm shot him a sharp look. “The four of us are first wave. We go in standard formation.” His gaze landed on me. “Don’t fuck this up by being too eager to get your hands around that asshole’s throat.”
Storm wasn’t wrong to warn me to keep my shit together. I wanted to rip the doors off their hinges, shoot every fucking thing in my path until I had Tracey back in my arms. But Storm was right. One wrong move, and someone could wind up dead. I gave him a tiny nod. “Got it, Prez.”
Storm raised his fist. We lined up behind him, ready to make a move.
When Storm gave the signal, Celt placed a crowbar into the latch and snapped it loose in one brutal motion. He eased the door open enough for Storm to get through and the rest of us followed. Our boots made barely a sound against the concrete floor.
The reception area was empty.
Celt’s voice carried low. “It’s too quiet, cousin. Way too quiet.”
Storm raised his chin towards Breaker, motioning him left. “Let’s get movin’.”
We eased ourselves through the open doorway and into the back of the warehouse. It was full of rusted out floor-to-ceiling shelves that had once held merchandise. Bryce, Tracey, and his security guards were somewhere nearby. I could feel it all the way down to my bones.
Grit motioned up with his gun. “Do ya see the cameras?” He tapped his temple with one finger. “That fucker is probably watching us right now.”
Storm’s hand went up to the earpiece he used to communicate with Hacker in real time and mumbled something I couldn’t make out.
My anxiety went up a notch. Why had Bryce lured us here to record his little showdown? He was the criminal, not us. It didn’t make any sense.
We passed through another set of metal shelves, going deeper into the storage area.
That’s when I heard a soft, muffled noise. It was a woman’s whimper. I froze in my tracks, trying to figure out where it came from. “Tracey,” I whispered.
I almost surged forward to find her, but Storm’s hand shot out, blocking me. His eyes were annoyed because I was doing that thing he told me not to do. “Hold,” he mouthed.
The whimper came again, along with words being muffled. She was trying to speak but he wouldn’t let her.
Celt murmured near my shoulder, “She’s bait, lad. Don’t lose yer head.”
But I was beyond listening. I pressed past Storm’s outstretched hand and stalked towards the sound. The whimpering led us to the very back of the huge, cavernous warehouse.
Tracey was sitting in a chair. No, she was tied to a chair. Her wrists were bound behind her. I didn’t like the way her hair hung in her face. I couldn’t see if she’d been crying or if he’d bruised her up. I rushed over to her, smoothing her hair back. “Baby, are you okay?”
“Axel,” she choked out breathlessly. “Get out. It’s a trap.”
I started untying her, and whispered in her ear, “Yeah, we know.”
And that’s when a voice filled the stillness of the warehouse. Bryce’s tone was loud and smug and slightly amused.
“Well, well. Took you long enough.” Bryce stepped from the shadows of a metal shelf in a finely tailored suit looking like he was about to present the annual figures at a board meeting.
His smug smile let me know he thought he had us all playing his game.
After surviving a brutal prolonged war overseas and busting my ass to earn my Slayers patch, I could see Bryce honestly had no idea that he was the one in the viper’s den right now. He’d invited all the vipers himself.
Tracey fell into my arms the moment her hands were free. She held onto me with force, trying to get away from Bryce. I picked my gun back up and tried really hard not to just shoot the stupid fucker on the spot.
But then that would be doing exactly what he wanted.
Mounted on the wall behind him were several cameras.
This was Bryce’s stage, and this was meant to be his last opus.
I could see it all so clearly now. Those might be his private duty security but more importantly they were his witnesses.
If I shot him, they’d shoot me or serve as eyewitnesses so he could put me behind bars.
“Always knew you’d come running, like the nice guy you are, Axel.” Bryce said smoothly. “You could never resist white knighting. Especially, not back in college and certainly not now.”
My grip tightened around the Glock until my knuckles ached. “Step back. I’m taking her outta here.”
He actually chuckled, like I’d just told him a funny joke.
“You hear that, Tracey? He sounds just the way he did when you were mooning over him back in the dorm hallways. It didn’t matter how many times you brushed him off, he kept right on chasing after you, like a little lost puppy.
Back then, you only had eyes for me. Because I was the one who gave you everything you wanted, remember? ”
Tracey’s claws dug into my arm, and her eyes pinned him with an angry glare. “That’s not what happened. You’re lying,” she said through gritted teeth.
“Am I?” Bryce’s self-satisfied grin widened. He took a step closer and seemed to thrill at how she recoiled into my arms again. “Time to tell the truth. You were a woman who wanted nice things. You never looked at Axel because he was skinny, poor, and socially awkward.”
I cut off his bullshit tirade. “You’re a fucking lying piece of shit, Bryce. I don’t know why I didn’t see it before.”
“Because you were stupid back then. Both of you were.”
“We’re done talking asshole,” I ground out.
“I think not,” Bryce stated, lowering his voice. “Remember that little friend of mine I paid to run her mouth?” Glancing at Tracey, he added, “You remember her, don’t you? She told you Axel was already spoken for. And you believed it. Just like I knew you would.”
Bryce turned his gaze back on me. “And you always wanted her. You didn’t deserve her, but you wanted her.
In fact you’ve been standing in the wings, waiting for the right moment to swoop in and steal her and my girls away,” his grin twisted.
“And you’re stupid enough to think I’m just going to give my family up. ”
Rage rose in my chest until it was fit to burst from my chest. I shook Tracey off and came to my feet. He’d stolen her, abused her, tried to break her spirit, and the bastard was proud of it.
“You don’t have the capacity to love but more importantly, you can’t even understand how precious a good woman is.
Tracey is mine. Those girls of yours, the ones you signed away to get out of paying child support, they’re terrified of you.
You failed as a husband and a father,” I ground out, voice low, shaking with fury.
“Where exactly does that leave you.” Looking him over, I shoved my gun back into the holster.
“I guess that leaves you parading around with that personal assistant you’ve been cheating with as if she could ever come close to what you lost.”
“You spoiled what I had, turned my wife into a biker’s whore. Any man would feel some kind of way about that.”
“Do yourself a favor and shut the fuck up before I have to shut you up.”
Bryce spread his arms wide, making some kind of grand gesture that meant something in his own head. “Perfect. Keep talking, keep threatening. My lawyers are going to love this footage.”
Storm came to stand beside me and snorted a laugh. “He’s doing a piss poor job of staging conflict.”
I heard a click of static from Storm’s earpiece. Then Hacker’s voice spoke. “Hacked the cameras. You’re clear.”
Storm’s lips twitched into a rare smile. “Your show’s over, asshole.”
Bryce blinked, his eyes narrowing. “Whatever are you talking about?”
Celt answered gleefully, “Yer cameras are shite now, ya pompous prick. Our Hacker gutted them.”
Bryce spun towards the walls, eyes wide, searching for proof. The red lights still blinked, but now there was a hint of worry on his face. He turned back, clearly trying to recover his confidence. “No,” he said, “That’s not possible.”
Several footsteps could be heard overhead.
We all glanced up at the same time. Bryce’s security team stepped forward on the catwalk.
There were five or six men, all with rifles trained on us.
I saw Fred, moving amongst them, still wearing his prospect’s cut.
I was gonna rip that cut off his back if Storm or Celt didn’t get to him first.
Bryce’s evil grin jumped back into place. “Surely, you didn’t think I came alone. Change of plans. You all die instead of going to jail.”
Storm’s voice shouted, “Form the fuck up!” The warehouse exploded with gunfire from every direction.