Chapter Twenty-Eight
Cassie
My head is pounding but at least I’m awake. I put up a fight when he dragged me out of the trunk. I took great pleasure in seeing he was bleeding, the fucker. Not as bad as Eli was. There was so much blood on the floor. I don’t even know if he’s dead or alive.
My eyes squeeze tight to stop any tears from falling. I’ve walked around whatever it is they have me locked up in over a dozen times but am still no closer to figuring it out. It’s pitch black and feels like it’s been about an hour, but it could have only been five minutes.
Adrenalin is starting to wane now, and my brain is kicking into gear.
There is only one way in and out of here.
I need to be ready. One thing is for sure, this is the man who killed Marshall.
He was wearing a mask and gloves, he had a silencer on his gun.
As much of a dick as Vance is, and no matter what Harry thinks of him, he doesn’t have these resources. Or contacts.
I hope. Maybe I should want it to be him, better the devil you know and all that. My pajamas are getting stiff from where his blood has stained them. I’d take them off if I wasn’t naked underneath. I’m glad when I got up to get a drink that I put something on.
My brain jumps back to the struggle. He was so silent I didn’t hear him coming. It was only pure luck that I glanced at the oven and saw his reflection. Instinct took over, and I swung, throwing the glass at him. Ironic given what happened with Vance and Mace.
When I laugh, it echoes around me. It’s cold as fuck, the ground is hard, and the walls are solid. I make my way to where I think the door is and feel around again, paying more attention. The walls are ridged, made of metal. What is this?
It is starting to dawn on me when a clang outside makes me stumble backwards. At least I hit the wall and not the floor. The whole wall opens up and before I can stop myself, I run at the man standing there, screaming and throwing fists.
He easily knocks me back and I slip and fall, this time I do hit the floor, hard, pain radiating up my tail bone. I refuse to let him hear that hurt.
Behind him there are lights, hundreds of them, the sound of machinery and vehicles driving. It comes to me all at once. I’m at the port and this is a shipping container.
He slams the door and for a moment we’re in darkness, then a blue light flickers on, he’s holding a lamp, the kind people put up to kill bugs. It makes it hard to see his face. It’s not the man who grabbed me. I’ve never seen him before in my life.
“Let me go, you fucking asshole.”
“Shut up,” he says. He doesn’t sound angry. He’s quiet, relaxed. Which is probably worse.
“If you think I’m going to sit back and take anything you throw at me, you got it wrong. You have no fucking idea who I am or where I come from.”
“Cassie Beillo, daughter of the Enforcer for Devil’s Chaos MC. I know exactly who you are. In fact, I know a lot about you. Including the fucked up thing you have going on with two bikers. So don’t try to make out to me like your better than anything other than a filthy fucking whore.”
The name calling doesn’t bother me, I’ve heard worse. Him knowing about Dominic and Eli is different. He’s been watching us. Why?
I need to play this smart. I can either pretend to be scared and catch him off guard, or argue.
“Where’s your little lackey?” I ask to throw him off. “Licking his wounds.”
“He’s dead.”
That throws me. I don’t like being on the ground so get to my feet, touching my pocket. But he pulls out a gun, making me freeze.
“Yeah, you killed him,” he laughs. “That man had over ten years’ experience with the marines, was a mercenary for hire and a skilled killer. And you took him down with a fucking kitchen knife.”
I shake my head.
“Cut into one of his arteries. He’s lucky he made it back here with you before he fucking died. Lucky for me anyway.”
He sounds like an absolute psycho.
“It’s you isn’t it?” I say, not worrying about the fact I killed a man. That will come later. And, to be fair, he deserved it, so I’m not even sure I’ll be sad about it. “You’re the man she was running from.”
“I want to know where she is.”
“And you think I know?” I scoff.
“Cut the crap, I know what you’ve been doing. In fact, I made a deal with your motorcycle club so I could get closer.”
I don’t say anything because I don’t know what he’s talking about. I’m not sure if he understands how MCs work, and that women are kept out of it.
“The dumb fucker didn’t have a clue. I even made money off of it. I want to know where she is.”
“You’ll never find her.”
“That remains to be seen. No one knows where you are. I could put you on a ship and send you halfway across the globe. You’d be locked up in here for months, pissing and shitting and starving.”
“You’re disgusting.”
“No, I want to find my wife and child.” He watches my reaction.
“That’s right I know she’s pregnant. That’s why she grew a pair of balls and got her fucking idiot of a brother to help her.
Who knew that little shit could find the one way to get her away from me.
Now I need to resort to this kind of shit to find her.
And I will find her. If I have to peel your skin off slice by slice, I will get you to talk. ”
The fear starts to take hold. Eli could be dead. I can’t remember when Dominic was coming home. They might not even realize I’ve gone. There is a lot this psycho could do to me before anyone even finds Eli.
My heart aches at the thought of him dying. He had a difficult childhood, but he got through it, he made something of himself, found a home.
And he broke through my walls. This is a hell of a time to realize I’m in love with him. When I might have lost him. I steel myself against those thoughts. Until someone tells me so, I refuse to believe Eli is no longer in this world.
There is something this psychopath doesn’t know, and I touch my leg for reassurance. I only need opportunity.
“We can do this the easy way, or the hard way. Tell me where she is, and I won’t make you suffer.”
“I don’t know where she is,” I grit out.
“And even if you did, you wouldn’t tell me.” He says it in a mock voice, mimicking a woman.
“You’re a sick bastard. She wouldn’t have run from you if you treated her like a human being. Does it make you feel like a big man beating a woman?”
“You think your words bother me.” He takes a step closer.
I stand my ground even though my legs are shaking, desperate to run. I can’t make it past him and through the door and there is nowhere to go in here, nothing to hide behind.
It’s going to come down to his brute strength or my quick movements.
Shit, if I can down a professional killer…
“Tell me where the fuck she is!” he screams and goes to grab me.
The sound of motorcycles rips through the air.
My heart starts to pound. While he’s turned, his shoulders coming up at the sound, I make a break for it.
All those hours on the treadmill don’t let me down and I get past him and run out of the container and into a maze of even more shipping containers.
Without pausing to think about a route I just run.
The sound and the lights are assaulting all my senses after being in the dark so long but I pump my arms and legs and round a corner into a wide open space.
There are fewer containers and more buildings, a parking lot and a machine loading containers, but it’s too far away to get the attention of the driver.
I can’t see the bikes anywhere but I’m free.
Until something slams into my back and I go sprawling onto the floor. Asphalt and gravel tear at my palms which I managed to get up to stop my face hitting the floor. I buck hard to get him off me but he is stronger, and he shifts, getting up and dragging me with him.
“Bitch,” he slaps my face and drags me to him. “I’ll fucking kill you before they get to you.”
I lunge forward, head butting him right on the bridge of his nose with the full force of my forehead.
It hurts like a bitch but I was taught how to do it with minimal damage to myself. It’s still disorienting and not enough to shake him off. He grabs my arm and neck, wrenching me towards him.
“Singer!”
The man freezes for a second, then grabs me and pulls me in front of him, bringing the gun up and pressing it against my temple.
“Let her go.”
Dominic walks out of the shadows. He’s holding up a gun. I want to cry with relief but I’m not out of this yet. Neither is Dominic but his face is resolute, angry and he hasn’t looked at me yet.
Two more Devil’s Chaos brothers walk into the space. My dad and Hudson. They both have guns trained on us. None of them will shoot, not when he has that gun to my head. Even if they do manage to get a shot off, any reaction could make him pull the trigger and my head will be gone.
Dad is looking at me. People often say he’s unreadable, and for the most part he is but he gives me a look now that tells me to be strong.
“You won’t get out of this Singer, let her go.”
“Think you can kill me before I blow her head off?” he laughs. “Gunshots will bring security,” Singer says, like he’s talking about the weather.
“You hurt her, I’ll end you,” Dominic takes a step closer.
He shoves the gun further into my temple, making my neck twist. I grit my teeth against crying out.
“Ah, come on Mace, you can get another warm pussy anywhere, and one that is willing to let another man fuck it at the same. Maybe even better than this little whore.”
His face is like thunder and his hand twitches on his gun. Neither Hudson nor Dad have moved, their guns never wavering. Any embarrassment I feel at him stating so blatantly that I’m with Dominic and Eli is second seat to the pain in my forehead and neck, and the fear I’m struggling not to show.