Chapter Twenty-Seven
Eli (Handlebar)
I’m all for double teaming Cassie. We’ve even tied her up a few times and put her on her knees, having her take turns taking our cock in her mouth, before taking care of her too.
We’ve slipped into this odd domestic situation where we’re all learning how to be what we resisted for so long. The fucking is becoming more than that. It’s growing into something else. Something I’ve felt for a while.
I’ve finished eating her out for the second time after fucking her in between and she’s lying naked on the bed, hands hanging off the side and her eyes closed. Fuck what she does to me.
Mace is in Stroudsburg on club business, and I was more than happy to be here with her this afternoon.
She lets out a satisfied sigh as I grab the clothes we tore off one another and tidy up.
Her phone rings and she groans but rolls over to grab it off the nightstand.
I stare at her ass. Mace has talked about us fucking her at the same time a couple of times.
Right now, I’m beginning to come around to the idea.
“Hey Laura, what’s up?”
I’m not sure who Laura is but I finish tidying as Cassie listens turning and kneeling up on the bed. Catching a look at her expression in the mirror I turn around, instantly alert.
“I can’t believe it… No, I don’t blame you… of course I won’t say anything. I know what you mean. When will it be made public? Okay… Thanks for telling me, Laura. Yeah, I miss you too. Take care.”
She ends the call and sets the phone down between her knees, lost in thought.
“Everything okay?” I ask.
“Yeah,” she shakes her head, coming back to the room. “That was my old assistant. The judge made a ruling on Vance’s case.”
“I’m not sure if its good or bad based on your reaction,” I walk over and sit on the edge of the bed.
Cassie reaches for her robe and pulls it on. I get it, she doesn’t want to talk about that asshole while naked.
“They awarded Cara everything she asked for. The judge threw out his countersuit. She won.”
It’s clear she wants to celebrate, but it’s an odd situation for her. The man she was defending lost his case. And it’s because she did something she shouldn’t have to help this woman. If she’s found out, she could lose her license to practice law.
“I’m not sure what I feel.”
“That’s understandable.”
“I mean I’m glad. The guy is a prick. He deserves to lose his millions. I’m not sure it’s going to change him. If anything I’m worried it might make him mad.”
“Are you concerned about Cara?”
“Maybe. He wouldn’t be that stupid. Do you think…”
“I’ll ask War,” I tell her. The relief on her face says it’s the right thing to do. “I’ll call him tomorrow.”
She leans over and kisses me.
“Want to celebrate?”
“My poor vagina can’t take anymore.”
I laugh. “Not like that. We can have a few drinks raise one for Cara.”
“Sounds good.”
We head downstairs and break out the last of the whisky. When she’s a little tipsy, I tell her it’s time to call it a night. She’s all smiles and happiness and it’s the first time I’ve seen her so genuinely happy, it’s beautiful.
After brushing our teeth we get into bed and she snuggles into my side. As much as I don’t mind Mace being here, it’s nice to have her to myself. Mostly because my ass isn’t almost hanging out of the bed.
Whatever happens after this, when we’re sure we don’t need to worry about her, we need somewhere with a much bigger bed.
That gets me thinking about what is going to happen next. We live in different areas, almost an hour apart. Cassie will never move to the compound. Both Mace and I have houses but it would be difficult for us to move to one of them, someone will always be too far away from where they need to be.
I fall asleep thinking about getting a house somewhere in the middle, where we can have our privacy but still be ready when we’re needed. Cassie doesn’t have her job in Parsippany, there is nothing holding her there. It’s a really nice thought to fall asleep too.
Something disturbs me and I crack my eyes open.
It’s still dark, and it takes me a second to orientate myself and figure out what woke me.
I reach behind me, but Cassie isn’t there.
Rubbing my eyes I pick up my phone and check the time, it’s a little after two, we’ve only been asleep a couple of hours.
It scares the shit out of me when it rings in my hand. What the fuck? It’s a withheld number. I answer and hold it to my ear. At first it’s only quiet breathing.
“Who is this?”
“Sanderson called us.”
Shit, I sit up fast. The Veil Line.
“Thank you. I need to ask about a woman you picked up in Ohio-”
“Don’t talk,” she cuts me off.
“But she might be in danger, her brother who got her to you is dead.”
“Do yourself a favor and keep your mouth shut.”
Seriously? What the hell?
“I won’t discuss business with you. It doesn’t matter to us what happens to anyone else.”
“What if we need you again?”
“Do not get anyone to contact us like this again,” she says. “You’ve burned Sanderson. And that is going to cause a lot of trouble for a lot of people.”
Oh Jesus. I can’t have that on me. “Don’t hang up.”
“Goodbye.”
“Fuck,” I get up and pace back and forth. I try to call them back, but the number says it’s been disconnected already. I get the feeling I blew any chance we have of knowing anything about them, or utilizing them.
Cassie still hasn’t come back to bed and I’m about to go check on her when I get a text. It’s a name, one I don’t recognize. I don’t get it. Who is this man and why have they sent me his name?
Setting the phone down, I pull on a pair of sweatpants and head out onto the hallway. I need to talk to Cassie, tell her what just happened.
There is a light on downstairs, but it suddenly shuts off, then something breaks. I take the stairs a bit quicker than I usually would have, becoming more alert.
Then Cassie screams.
I don’t think, I react and run around the corner to see her in the kitchen with a large man. She’s fighting him off, but he’s bigger than her. Fuck. I grab a vase from the bureau beside me and shout out.
“Eli! He has a g-”
She doesn’t get anything more out before a spitting sound and a pain jerks me sideways. I drop to my knees and struggle to figure out what happened. There was no sound, no gunshot.
“No!” Cassie screams and jumps on the man, fighting with him as he raises the gun again.
No wonder I didn’t hear anything, it has a silencer on it. This isn’t the time to be wondering about that, not when the burning sensation in my abdomen is spreading, and blood is pouring between my fingers when I try to see where it’s hurting.
He’s not taking her, as long as I have breath in me, I won’t let him. I stumble forward on my knees, my head spinning as a wave of dizziness takes over.
I somehow manage to lurch up screaming at him to let her go. He pushes her back and the gun points at me. Throwing myself sideways, the shot goes wide, another spit of the gun, then pain rips through my shoulder and I fall backwards.
Cassie is screaming again, but it’s not fear, it’s pure unadulterated rage. The man grunts and from where I’m lying I can see her pushing against him. I can’t make out what is happening, but he grabs her hand and slams it back against the wall. Something clatters to the floor.
A knife. Good girl, Cassie. I try to move again but another wave of dizziness stops me.
No. No. This can’t happen. He’s dragging her and they fall to the ground.
Why the fuck didn’t I call War before we went to bed, have someone watching Roderick.
I never thought he would do this. And how the fuck did he know where she is?
The thoughts start to jumble as the pain becomes unbearable. The sound of Cassie’s struggle gets further away, like they’re underwater. If I lose consciousness, she’s dead. I can’t let that happen.
I roll over, blood pulsing from the wound in my side but nothing works, my arm gives way when I try to push up.
He drags Cassie across the floor and pulls her up by her hair, then he slams his elbow into her face and she goes limp.
I wait for him to finish me but he runs out of the door with her over his shoulder.
I scream and start dragging myself across the floor, a burst of adrenalin giving me the strength to move.
But it’s not enough. A car starts and takes off outside.
The room starts to fade but not before I spot her phone on the floor, with weak fingers I grab it, almost losing my grip from all the blood. I have her passcode and manage to get it unlocked. My fingers aren’t working, there is no way I can call anyone, but the SOS app is there, on the home screen.
Thank fuck. I tap it, missing a few times before it finally bulges and a beep goes off. It falls from my hand, clattering on the wooden floor and I fall onto my back staring up at the ceiling. Just long enough to hear the phone start to ring.
There is a lot of noise around me, someone is prodding at me. I try to push them off. Then it feels like I’m flying and more voices and hands are all over me. What the hell is happening?
A pain tears through me and someone apologizes, then another voice and gentler hands are on me. It starts coming back to me in slow increments and I blink my eyes open, wincing at the bright light.
Doc is leaning over me. What the hell is Doc doing here? Where am I? At the house. With Cassie.
“Cassie,” I shudder and try to get up but I’m held down.
“Handlebar don’t move.” Another face swims into my vision as I blink hard. “You were shot, lost a lot of blood, let Doc deal with it and stay still.”
“Cassie,” I repeat.
Hudson nods. “We’re trying to find her.”
“He took her… She fought him.”
“Don’t talk,” Doc says, his hands working fast.
War is standing next to him, handing him what he needs. I struggle to get up but am held down. The pain is fucking unbearable and I let out a loud groan, Doc apologizes but doesn’t stop what he’s doing.
“You’ve lost a lot of blood,” he says. “I need to stop it and get fluids into him. War grab that bag, I need something to hold it up. Hudson find a vein so I can get this into him.”
Everything is blurring again but I turn my head to see Ballistic. He’s on his phone but he’s watching me. Fuck, I let them take his daughter.
“I tried.”
Ballistic nods. “I know.”
“Do you remember who took her, how he got her out of here? Anything?” War asks as Doc shoves a needle into my vein.
“Fuck,” I grunt. “I didn’t, he was in a car. I didn’t see him… But Vance..”
“We’re sending men to his house now. If he has her, we’ll get her back, Handlebar. You did everything you could.”
I growl and push at Doc. “It wasn’t enough. I have to find…” My eyes roll and I lose the battle again, passing out cold.
The next time I wake up someone else is screaming. The pain doesn’t feel as bad, it’s a different feeling, like I’m floating. They’ve given me something for the pain and it’s dulling my senses. I do feel better though. If a debilitating, burning sensation is better.
The voice starts shouting again. It’s Mace. War is trying to calm him down, but he’s losing his shit. He sees me awake and runs over.
“What happened? What the fuck happened? Where is she? Was it Roderick?”
I shake my head, I don’t know.
“We have to find her!” he roars.
“You think we don’t know that.”
Everyone stops talking and I turn my head to Ballistic. Cassie is his child, he’s got to be in a worse state than we are but it doesn’t show.
“That was Shady,” he waves his phone. “They’re at Roderick’s place. She isn’t there. He had another woman. We’ve got her away from him and dealt with it.”
“Dealt with it?” Mace asks.
“Fucker is dead.”
“But what if he-”
“He doesn’t have her.” Ballistic turns to War and Hudson. “This is something else, someone else.”
Something shifts in my head, a thought I can’t catch hold of. What is it? Mace has his hands on his head and is pacing. Everyone is watching him, seeing how he’s reacting to this and it’s obvious to everyone in here that both of us care about her, more than anyone knew.
I’m glad the SOS worked. It means I have at least some small chance of helping find her and I’m not dead on the fucking floor.
That tickles something again, just out of reach. There is only one other thing we’ve been working on that Cassie has been involved in. My eyes widen.
“My phone,” I croak out. Mace turns to me. He sees the frantic expression on my face. Without questioning me, he runs for the stairs. Everyone is talking but I wait for him to come back, he practically jumps over the railing. He holds up my hand to unlock it because my fingers don’t want to work.
“Texts,” I hiss. “They sent it to me.”
“Who?” Ballistic asks.
“The Veil Line. After I asked… about Marshall’s sister.”
Most of them don’t know what I’m talking about but Mace goes rigid, he knows who I’m talking about. The killer, the ghost assassin who works for the man abusing Marshall’s sister.
He opens the texts and straightens up. His face creases in confusion, he shakes it a couple of times.
“What?” I gasp out, the pain crippling me when I try to get up, along with Doc shoving me back down on the couch.
“The Veil Line sent you this? Are you sure?”
“Yes,” I croak out. “I talked to them, they told me not to call, then that text… came through.”
“You need to stop talking,” Doc says, pressing down on my stomach making me groan in pain. “I have to stop this bleeding. There is still a bullet in his shoulder. I need to get him back to the infirmary, now.”
Someone runs off to get a car, but I haven’t taken my eyes off Mace.
His face is white as a sheet. Ballistic grabs his shoulder and spins him around.
“What is it?” he snarls.
Mace looks at me. “I know where she is.”