Chapter 87
CHAPTER EIGHTY-SEVEN
RUSH
I didn’t remember throwing the first punch or the second or the third.
But that fucker was sitting in a puddle of his own blood in the middle of an abandoned building on the outskirts of Redwood. The thick crack of his jaw breaking on the first collision replayed through my head, the way blood had flown out of his mouth in strands, how his body had hit the ground.
My hands were balled into tight fists, and I tried hard not to hit him again.
Because if I hit him again, I’d kill him.
But—fuck—I wanted to murder this fucker right here and right now.
He had sped all around the fucking state with me on his ass the entire time, thinking that I wouldn’t or couldn’t catch him, only to drive his ass back to Redwood. Wrong move on his part because I rammed him into a tree in the backwoods, dragged him out of his shitty car, and drove him here.
Hands trembling uncontrollably, I paced the room in front of his almost-unconscious body. He was tied to a rusted pipe, the roof half collapsed around him. This place reeked of piss, mold, and a rotting, disgusting fucking human.
One that I would kill once we found Astrid.
He sat there, using his last few breaths, laughing. Fucking laughing.
“You think dropping pieces of her is funny?” I snarled.
Another laugh left his mouth, and I grabbed him by the neck and slammed him against the wall, his skull cracking. His nose was already broken, blood pouring from his mouth onto his scrawny body and onto the ground.
“I’m going to have my fucking fun killing you,” I snarled. “Where is she?”
“As if I’d tell you.”
After slamming my fist into his face again, I dropped him. He landed on the ground with a thud, and the door behind me creaked open. Several sets of footsteps followed, and then Calix’s voice filled the room.
“Rush …”
I turned slowly to see Calix, Arch, Frasier, and Jo?o and Landon from Poison standing in the doorway. My entire body shook with rage, and Jo?o stepped into the room, a smirk on his face. I just turned back to the bastard in front of me.
“If I hit him one more time, I’m going to fucking kill him.”
Frasier grabbed my shoulder. “We need him alive to—”
Before he could finish his sentence, Arch slammed his fist into that fucker’s face.
Calix grabbed Arch and tried to hold him back. “Arch, we need him to talk.”
Jo?o crouched by the guy and pulled a knife from his boot. “He’s got about thirty seconds before I find another way to make him speak.” He drew his knife down his throat. “You want to see your sister again, don’t you?”
His laughter stopped completely. “Fuck you.”
“We have eyes on her right now. She’s finishing up her hot yoga class, isn’t she?”
The guy twitched, blinked, and clenched his jaw. “You fucking wouldn’t.”
“She’s about to go pick your youngest sister up from dance too,” Jo?o said. “They both can make a little bit of a detour here, don’t you think? That wouldn’t disrupt their night too much.” Jo?o looked up at Landon. “How do you think it’d feel for him to be forced to kill them both?”
“Don’t fucking touch them,” he growled, his voice cracking. “Please, don’t touch them.”
“Then tell me where she is.”
“Shipping yard. Pier 8. One of the old containers.”
Jo?o peered up at me. “See if it’s true. We’ll wait with him.”
“Fuck no,” I snarled. “As soon as they fucking find her, I’m killing him.”
I wasn’t leaving this in anyone else’s hands. As soon as she was safe, I was ripping this fucker limb by fucking limb. He didn’t deserve to be alive for a second longer than he had to. Nobody was going to kidnap our girl and get away with it.
“We’ll go,” Calix said, heading to the door with Frasier by his side. “We’ll find her.”