Chapter 49
Deejay
I come to, looking up at Loki. I push him aside and get to my feet, panicked as I look for the twins. “The twins!”
I cry as agony wracks me. “They took the twins!”
“Loki, do it now!”
Chanda’s voice brings my attention to him in the doorway with Cary in his arms. I open my mouth so happy to see Cary safe when Loki’s arm comes around my neck, cutting off my air supply and the blood flow to my brain. In seconds darkness descends and I’m out again, shocked that Chanda ordered him to do this to me.
When I come to again, I am in the back of an enforcer vehicle, gagged, and restrained with my hands and feet cuffed together on a short chain. Loki holds a burger of all things, eating it while driving. I struggle against the cuffs and the gag, begging him to let me go. My babies need me. I need to get my babies. I need to find them.
“Calm the fuck down!”
Loki barks at me. “You are under arrest on suspicion of child abuse. You stand accused by Chanda Ntu Waamelika Muajamu, and I will fucking knock you into next week if you don’t shut up and sit there quietly.”
What? No! No! Why would he accuse me of child abuse? I would never! I can’t believe this. Why would Chanda do this? My babies have been stolen out of my house and he’s putting me in a cell under suspicion of child abuse?
“Good. Now, we are going to the Hub where your lover is currently sitting in a cell waiting for his turn in the Cage with me because he fucking brought a minor to the Hub. I am going to allow you the opportunity to share a cell with Matt Blank D’Aquino because you’ve been a friend to me and because I owe Matt the chance to see you before his death sentence is carried out. So sit there, be quiet, and let me figure out how to save you assholes. Why would you harm a child, Deejay? You know better than that.”
I shake my head in disbelief at him as tears spring to my eyes.
No. What minor? Matt would never. Why—? Why is Chanda doing this to us?
I let him into our home. I let him into our lives because Robbie liked him, because he’s the Ntu Waamelika, because he’s always had a reputation as being honorable. Why would he betray us like this? How did he hide such hatefulness in his heart while smiling to my face? While eating my food and drinking my wine and fucking my nephew! Matt would have seen it! He should have seen the lies. How did this happen?
Rage replaces the grief and fear. I will end him. He betrayed my trust, he betrayed my family, and he is currently hurting my children. I am going to fucking end him. One curse, that’s all I need. I can reach him wherever he is. I won’t have this gag on for the rest of my life and the moment it comes off, this ends. He knows how far my reach is. I can curse people in other dimensions, I don’t even need to be on the same plane as them. My curses can overcome any natural barrier.
It’s over for him.
Loki pulls into the Hub’s garage and goes to the lower level entrance. He parks right by the entrance, and he and Gage get out. Loki unlocks my restraints, but the moment I reach for the gag, sleep overcomes me, and I fall into darkness for the third time today.
Fuck this shit.
I wake up with a start. I’m lying on my side looking at the bars of a small cell. Right. It wasn’t a dream. My jaw aches, but when I try to move it, I realize I am still wearing the gag. I reach for it slowly but get sleepy whenever my hands get within a few inches of it. I drop my hands away and wake right up.
“Deejay,”
Matt’s voice comes to me softly. I sit up, aching with the movement, and look at him, sitting against the wall, legs stretched out in front of him. “If either of us reaches for it, it’ll lay us out. Recommend not trying. I did and it knocked me out,”
he informs me solemnly. “Loki told me that he arrested you on suspicion of child abuse.”
I nod slowly as the rage returns.
“He also told me that the twins are missing, but everyone else is ok, and he left Cary with Chanda and Amelia.”
Fear strikes my heart. Chanda has our baby. I try to tell him that Chanda isn’t safe, but I have no way to communicate that.
“I know. Chanda is the one who reported me for bringing Robbie here. He betrayed us and he has our kid. Robbie was abducted from school today by Elves. I don’t know if Chanda had something to do with that too.”
Oh no. Robbie. He’s going to lose it. Just the thought of someone trying to abduct Gage caused Robbie to have a massive panic attack. He won’t be able to handle that.
Oh fuck no. What the hell is happening to our family? Why is everyone suddenly targeting us?
Matt crosses his legs and pats his thigh. “I could really use a physical connection,”
he whispers softly.
I crawl into his lap because I could use the connection too. I hug him around his huge torso, laying my head on his chest where I can hear his heartbeat. His arms come around me, giving me something real to ground me, a connection to a person who loves me and would never betray me. “I’m going to have to fight Loki. I am going to win that fight, Deejay. I don’t care what it takes, I am going to win, and I am going to get us out of here and then we are going to lay waste to whoever stole our babies. And Chanda is going to regret the day he betrayed us.”
I sure as fuck hope so.