Chapter Nineteen
King
Pandemonium. That is the only word that can describe the absolute chaos happening around me.
“SHUT THE FUCK UP,” Ghost yells. “I get your anger, but we need to think rationally. Colt and Jax, go help Ma and Pops with tracking the signals from the necklaces. Viper, get ahold of the Phantoms and tell them what’s going on. If Cap finds out Bitsy was taken and he wasn’t notified, he’ll kill us all. Damnit, does anyone know how to run Knox’s security software?”
“Give me just a second,” Viper says, pulling out his phone. “Cap, listen. Shit’s gone down and someone crashed into the car that had four of our people in it, Bitsy included… I honestly don’t know, but we need Michael’s help. Knox was one of the people taken and we need access to his systems to check the live traffic feed… Knox, Bitsy, Sophie, and King’s new woman, Maddy… Yes, every fucking precious member of our family. Whoever the fuck took them is dead… Thanks, brother. Tell him we’ll see him soon.”
“Let’s head out and check out the crash site,” I say, grabbing my keys. “Is it still silent on the cell, Steel?”
“I hear some muffled sounds, but that’s it. I need to fucking do something.”
“Knox is so fucking smart, brother,” Blaze says. “He’ll find a way to keep them safe.”
“It’s not his job to keep them safe,” Steel growls. “It was our job.”
“Knox is smart,” I remind them. “Bitsy has been trained in self-defense and self-preservation. Sophia is stubborn as hell and has a deep understanding of evil people and Madaline has ways of making people feel safe, even those who aren’t kind. Those four know without a single doubt that we’ll be coming for them and will do everything in their power to stay alive. As much as it pains me to say this, we need to ignore our instinct to rage and focus on finding their location. The rage can be released once we have them away from danger. We must remain calm and clear-headed.”
“Listen to the man who kills for a living,” is whispered through the phone.
“Knox. Fuck. Are you okay?”
“My neck hurts,” he answers Blaze. “The airbags didn’t deploy when we were hit and my head got tossed around. Same for Bitsy.”
“Madaline and Sophia?” I ask with bated breath.
“Sophia thinks her right leg is broken,” he sniffs. “Maddy’s eyes are clouded and I think she may have a concussion. They didn’t have room to put their seat belts on because of the boxes of food.”
It takes everything I have to push the knowledge of Madaline being hurt to the back of my mind.
“Where are you?” I ask roughly.
“In the back of a semi-truck,” he says. “The idiots who took us released a gas into the car and didn’t wait but a few seconds before pulling us out. I told the girls to hold their breath for as long as possible. Luckily, these people aren’t very bright. Not even thirty seconds later they had us all pulled out and away from the gas. Then we pretended to be passed out.”
“Smart fucking boy,” Steel growls. “Good boy. Did you hear anything they said?”
“Only that they weren’t expecting there to be four of us,” he says quietly. “They were told to go ahead and take all of us and the other three would be dealt with. We were in my car. I think they were supposed to only take me.”
“It’s alright, Little one,” Blaze soothes. “We’re going to find you.”
“What if they get hurt because of me?” he sniffs. “This is all my fault.”
“Hush.”
The sound of Madaline’s voice has my knees buckling. Ghost tosses my arm over his shoulder and I’m grateful. Weakness isn’t something I hide from my family.
“Whatever happens to us is not your fault,” Madaline tells him, her voice not quite clear.
Madaline gasps and grunts in pain.
“Baby,” I call out. “Madaline, what’s wrong?”
“Her head hurts, King,” Knox says. “Talking seems to make it worse which is why she was supposed to stay quiet. I’m afraid she’s going to fall asleep.”
“Baby, try and stay awake for me, alright?” I say as calmly as possible.
“Viper, did you call my dad?” Bitsy asks.
“I did, sweetheart,” he tells her. “Michael is on his way here so we can get access to Knox’s systems. Are you alright?”
“I’ll survive,” she says. “I have bruising where the belt was holding me in place when the car was upside down, but other than that, I’m fine.”
“Sophia?” Venom asks. “Why is she being so quiet?”
“It’s dark back here, but she seems distant,” Madaline says. “Almost as if she isn’t here with us.”
“I’m fine, Maddy,” Sophia says. “Just trying to keep memories from overwhelming me.”
Sophia was held captive for over a year while she was raped. The people who captured her were having women raped to impregnate them only to sell their babies to the highest bidder. That was less than two years ago and I’m sure those memories are flooding back.
“You’re strong, baby,” Venom tells her. “Doc wants to know if you can feel your toes in your right leg.”
“Yeah,” she says. “But I don’t think I’ll be able to walk on it.”
“Alright. What about Maddy? Can you use the phone light to check her eyes?”
“Scoot over here Knox,” Sophia says. “Maddy, look at me, honey. Alright Doc, what am I looking for?”
“Don’t shine the light directly into her eyes, Sophia,” Venom says, his voice slightly higher with a British accent. Doc’s come out. “Tell me what you see.”
Madaline gasps in pain for the second time and it pisses me off that I can’t be there to help her.
“She definitely has a sensitivity to light,” Sophia says. “Her pupils are dilated but one looks to be more pronounced than the other one. The one that isn’t dilated as much seems to twitch every once in a while.”
“Damn. With that and her slurred speech I’m thinking she has a Grade 3 concussion. Were you passed out at any time?”
“She’s shaking her head, but I think she might have been for a few seconds,” Sophia says. “I called her name several times when the car stopped before she responded.”
“Knox,” Doc says. “What about you?”
“Just my neck,” he says. “I’m sore from my belt, also, but nothing too bad. How can I help Maddy? Do we need to wrap Sophia’s leg?”
“Is she bleeding?” Doc asks.
“No,” Sophia answers. “My skin is raised from where the bone is pressing against it. I’m pretty positive it’s broken.”
“The best you can do until we can get there is try not to make it worse,” Ghost tells her. “Do whatever you can to avoid putting any weight on it. Pops has a lock on your location now and we’re about to head out.”
“As for Maddy,” Doc adds. “Don’t let her fall asleep. She’s going to have a hard time concentrating and may seem a bit confused. For now, if you can get her some water that would be a good start.”
“The truck stopped,” Knox says. “We’ve only been in here for ten minutes.”
“What’s your charge on your phone, Little one?” Blaze asks.
“Eighty-three percent,” he says. “I just took it off the charger this morning before we left.”
“Hide it,” Steel says. “We’re putting our side on silence this time. Keep yours open.”
“Here, Maddy,” Knox says hurriedly. “Everyone, back to where you were and pretend you’re still out. Give it five minutes and wake up, but slowly.”
There’s a rustle of noises and then silence.
“Can we track his phone?” I ask as Steel mutes our side.
“Michael’s working on it from the air,” Viper says. “He says that once he has the cell towers mapped out then we can layer the signal from the necklaces on top of the cells signal and get a better location. It won’t be long.”
“In the meantime, gear up,” Ghost says. “King, I want you to take point. You have more experience tracking someone down. Colt, stay back with Ma and Pops. Everyone else, get ready for war.”
“I’ve sent the GPS pings from the necklaces to Michael,” Pops says, walking into the room. “He has it down to an eight-block grid. It will still take hours to search but Michael is hacking into some traffic cameras and searching for a semi that happened to be near the crash.”
“Tell him that Knox said they were initially hit by a black SUV,” Steel says. “Either they moved vehicles or the SUV will be following or leading the semi.”
“Got it.”
“We head out in five,” I announce. “I want us to head towards the location grid that way we’re closer when Michael has a better place for us to look.”
“They’ve stopped moving,” Michael says through Pops phone. “Are you guys still in contact with Knox?”
“We’re still connected to the call but everything is silent on their end,” Venom says.
“The next time you talk to him have him share his location,” Michael tells us. “It will give us an exact address. But, he has some damn blocker on his phone and I can’t access it. Smart fucker.”
“Let’s go,” I say heading toward the door. “My fingers are itching to put a bullet in some skulls.”
“Colt, keep the line open,” Steel says handing him his phone. “I want to know everything you hear.”
“Got it.”
Time to get my family back and to kill the fuckers who thought they could take what belongs to me.