Chapter 22 Camryn #2
“But you’re holding on. Keep doing that, Cam.” He bends and presses a kiss to my lips then nods at Lucy, who is standing next to me. He follows his brothers, and Lucy and I go back over to the couch.
Lucy turns to me when we sit down. “There’s a plan, and it’s not going to fail, okay?”
I nod. “Okay.”
Waiting is the hardest part, but it had to be done.
Jude showed up at the clubhouse before we left.
Danny made it out of surgery and is in the ICU.
He’s still unconscious, so now it’s a waiting game to see if he can recover from the blood loss and trauma.
Linc and Wyatt have stayed back at the clubhouse to protect the rest of the women and Colby, just in case this is another trap to get to the Black Roses through their families.
The rest of us are meeting the small plane at a field not far from the clubhouse.
Barrett asks me again to stay back with the other women, and again I refuse.
If my niece is in Connecticut, that’s where I’m going.
I don’t know what they’re going to walk in on, but I know I have to be there for her.
I can’t sit at home and wait. Anything could have happened to her at the hands of those goons who broke in.
What if they—no, I’m not going to think of what-ifs.
I’m going to get to my parents’, and she is going to be fine. That is the only outcome I’ll accept.
On the way to the airstrip in Connecticut, Liam fills Abel and Hendrix in on the plan. I’ve never met these two men, but it’s obvious they’ve done this type of thing together many times and are a well-oiled machine at this point. That brings me a small amount of comfort before we land.
It’s fast-paced and methodical—the vans are loaded up and ready to go in less than five minutes when we touch down. Each van bears the logo of a local carpet cleaning business. Liam says it’s much less suspicious than having an unmarked vehicle parked on the side of the street.
No one lives close to my parents’ house, and from the trees that surround the home, you can’t see any other houses in the distance.
“This is perfect cover,” Sawyer says from the tree line.
Hendrix and Abel are staying with the vans in case some lookie-loo gets too curious and starts snooping around. It also means they stay out of anyone’s sight at my parents’ house, but they can haul ass up to the front door when it’s time to get the hell out of here.
I hope to God this is the last time I’ll ever have to set foot on this property again.
Barrett begged me to stay in the van with the other guys, but I flat-out refused.
I did promise to stay hidden in the trees, though, at least until he’s out of the house with Syd and the threat has been neutralized.
He didn’t love it, but Sawyer said he’d stay with me the entire time.
I know Barrett feels torn. He wants to make sure I’m safe, and the only way he can do that is with his eyes on me, but he needs to get Syd and protect her, too.
It’s a shitty choice, but I told him my choice will always be what’s best for Syd, and right now, it’s having her dad with her as soon as humanly possible.
Sawyer is sitting on the ground with his computer in his lap and a pistol next to him—just in case they spot anything in the trees and come to investigate, he told me.
He pulls up the feed around the house.
“Your dad should have really invested in a closed camera feed. Lucky for us, he’s a dumbass,” he says as frames load on his screen. I spot one person on the side of the house and two in the backyard.
“Do these guys look familiar?” he asks.
“They were in masks, but it looks like it could be the same guys who came to the house. They’re dressed the same.”
Liam walks over and takes a look. “That’s one of the men who went on the run with Sokolov.” He points at the screen. “I don’t recognize the others. Could be new recruits.”
“Too bad they picked an outfit that only offered a short lifespan,” Jude says next to his brother.
Liam looks at Jude. “How are your long-range rifle skills these days, brother?”
“Do you even need to ask such a stupid question?” Jude replies with a smirk.
“I’ll take the two in the back, you take the one on the side of the house, then we all move to the front door.”
The men nod.
“Comm check,” Liam says, and through my earpiece, I hear checks from everyone—and a “fuck you” in an English accent.
Liam rolls his eyes, and Jude smiles before they head to the best vantage point to take their shots.
Nausea rolls through me as I watch the camera feed from Sawyer’s laptop.
The man on the side of the house is the first to silently go down.
Watching brain matter explode from the back of his head makes me want to throw up, but I stay upright.
The other two go down just as quickly and just as silently.
“Clear,” Jude says through the comms right before Liam does the same.
I just watched two people lose their lives, and I feel…nothing. They took my niece. They won’t get any sympathy from me.
Two loud gunshots sound, and we all look toward the house.
“That came from inside,” Liam states, and I take off running.
“Camryn, no. Wait,” Barrett hollers after me, but I can’t stop. I won’t stop. Sydney is in there.
Oh God. Let her be okay. Let her be okay, I keep chanting in my head to anyone who might be listening over and over as I sprint toward the house.
“Abel, Hendrix, time to move,” Liam calls through the comms.
Before I reach the door, Barrett grabs me around the waist and stops me, but Liam and Jude dart past us.
Liam kicks the door in and immediately raises his weapon.
I turn, hearing the vans’ engines revving before driving over the expansive green lawn of my parents’ estate.
They skid to a stop three feet from us, then Hendrix and Abel jump out with their guns drawn and ready.
The sound of my mother’s screams reaches my ears. I break out of Barrett’s hold and run up the front steps and into the house.
Marion Fuller is standing in the living room to the right of the doorway with a gun in her hand, shaking like a leaf next to my father in a pool of blood.
“Oh my God! Mom!” I yell, and her terrified gaze lands on me.
“He was going to leave me,” she cries. “He can’t leave me!”
“Where is my daughter?” Barrett yells, but my mom doesn’t answer. Her eyes travel back to my father as though she’s realizing what she just did.
“Dad!” Sydney yells from somewhere upstairs. “Dad!”
“Stay fucking here,” Barrett barks at me before he and Ozzy go bounding up the steps.
“He was going to leave me. I couldn’t let him. I couldn’t let him,” my mother says over and over, her eyes never leaving my father’s body.
Moments later, I see my niece in Barrett’s arms as he carries her down the stairs.
“Don’t look, sweetheart,” he says into her hair as he and Ozzy pass the living room. “Ozzy is going to stay with you, and I’m going to help your aunt, okay?”
“O-okay,” she cries into his chest as the three of them head out the door.
Barrett returns a moment later and comes to stand next to me.
“Did you know?” I ask my mother, but she doesn’t look at me. “Did you know?” I yell, and that finally gets her attention.
“What?” my mother asks.
“Did you know what he did to Samantha? What he made her do? The men he made her sleep with so he could reap the benefits? Did you know?”
I don’t remember a time when my mother was in her right mind. But there were moments of lucidity. Brief, but there were a few.
“No. I had my suspicions at one point when Samantha came to me and told me what was happening at the parties. But I asked your father, and he promised me she was lying. He promised. Your sister was a known liar, Camryn.”
“And you believed everything he said, didn’t you? Samantha wasn’t a liar. You made her one, though. She couldn’t tell anyone what was going on because her own mother wouldn’t believe her. You took the word of her abuser instead of getting us the hell out of this house!”
“You don’t understand!” she screams. “Your father wouldn’t have lied to me. He knew my secrets, and I knew his. We protected each other. He married me knowing that Samantha wasn’t his. He swore it didn’t matter. Your father never broke his promises.”
My mouth hangs open at her admission, trying to process what she just told me.
“He was going to, though. He vowed never to leave me, to always take care of me, but he was going to leave with those men outside. He told me he couldn’t stay here anymore, and I couldn’t come with him.
He promised he would never leave me,” she cries, practically incoherent at this point.
When her gaze locks on mine, there’s true fear in her eyes.
It’s the first real emotion I’ve seen from her in decades.
“You have to help me. You have to get me out of here. If the police find me—”
“I’m not doing anything for you. You made your bed when you took his word over your own daughter’s. When I walk out of that door, I will never speak to you again. You can rot in hell for all I care.”
I spin on my heels and take a step toward the door, toward my niece who needs me more than the deranged woman standing over a dead man.
“Stop. Put it down,” Barrett yells, and I turn back around to see my mother lifting the gun in her hand.
“Put the gun down!” Jude yells and raises his weapon, pointing it at my mother.
But she doesn’t.
Instead, she presses the barrel against her head and pulls the trigger.