Chapter Nine
Keegan
B y the time we’re finished talking to the MC, Landry is wrung out…but we still have one more thing to do today. One more conversation we need to have.
When Dillon knocks on the door before striding into the living room, she tenses against my side, her eyes locked on him.
“It’s okay,” I murmur, slipping my hand into hers.
She clings to my fingers like I’m her lifeline, barely breathing.
“Let’s give them a few minutes,” Cash mutters to the others, who file out without a word.
Jude stays put, prepared to act as her lawyer if necessary. I don’t think it’ll come to that, though. Dillon is a ten-toes down kind of motherfucker. He’s the best thing that ever happened to this town.
“Landry baby, this is Sheriff Dillon Armstrong,” I say, reintroducing them. “Dillon, this is Landry Corbett, and our daughter, Lily.”
“Hey, sweetheart.” Dillon keeps a respectable distance, as if he knows not to crowd her. “I came to ask you a few questions if you’re willing to talk to me.”
Landry glances over at me, a question in her eyes.
“He isn’t here about the car. He wants to talk about the MC.”
“Oh.” She swallows hard, her gaze flickering in his direction. “W-what do you want to know?”
“Anything you’re willing to tell me,” he says, pulling out a voice recorder. “And I’d like to record the conversation if you’re okay with it.”
She glances at me, and I nod, silently encouraging her.
“I guess so,” she whispers to Dillon, sending pride washing through me.
Dillon shoots her a small grin and then clicks on the recorder, stating his name, badge number, and the date and time. And then he settles onto the couch across from us, his eyes locked on Landry. “Can you tell me how you ended up with the Sons of Loki?”
She hesitates again and then sighs. “My uncle sold me to Garrick Albright to cover his drug debt.”
My entire body tenses when she says it, fury churning through me all over again. If I ever get my hands on her piece of shit uncle… God, he better hope I never do. I intend to kill him slowly and painfully, make sure he feels every goddamn second of terror she’s lived because of him.
“Can you tell me a little about how that happened?” Dillon asks her.
“Um, they didn’t realize I was home,” she says, rocking Lily as if the motion brings her comfort. “Garrick kicked in the door, intending to kill him, but he knew that Garrick bought and sold women, so he offered him a deal. Said if Garrick let him live, he could have me.” She licks her lips, staring into space. “I always wondered why he worked so hard to keep me from moving out after I turned eighteen. As soon as he made the offer, I realized that was why. I was his shield, something he could throw in front of the MC when the time came.”
I open my mouth to respond, but Jude shakes his head, silently telling me to stay quiet and let her talk. I bite my tongue hard enough to taste blood, battling back the urge to tell her that she’ll never be a shield for that prick again.
“Before Garrick even agreed, I started throwing clothes into a duffle bag. I grabbed the money I’d stashed under the floorboard, and I just…ran,” she whispers.
“They came after you?” Dillon asks.
“Yes. They caught me when I stopped for gas in Texarkana.” She flinches. “Chased me all the way to Oklahoma before I ran one of them over.”
“How did that happen?” Dillon asks.
“He was in f-front of the car, waving a gun at me. Garrick and some of the others were behind the car. I didn’t know what to do so I just…hit the gas.”
A tear slips down her cheek, and I can’t fucking take it anymore. I pull her up against my side, pressing my lips to her forehead. “You did what you had to do,” I murmur against her skin.
She trembles in my arms, burrowing against me. “I sold my car a few towns over and bought one they wouldn’t recognize, and I kept driving after that,” she says, her voice raw. “For months, I drove. I never stayed in one place for more than a single night. I took backroads whenever I could, gave a fake name, and slept in the car. But by the time I ended up in Colorado, it’d been months since I saw them last. I thought it was safe enough to stop for a while. I didn’t have enough money to keep going…” She trails off with a strangled laugh. “I guess I stayed too long. The day I met Keegan, they found me again. I heard Garrick outside my apartment, so I jumped through the window and ran.” She cranes her head back, looking up at me. “I met you.”
“And they found you,” I rasp.
“It was worth it.”
“Christ,” I groan, burying my face in her hair. “Don’t say that.”
“It’s true. If they’d found me with you, they would have k-killed you. But you’re still here, so it was worth it.”
I groan quietly again, clutching her tighter. No matter what I do in life, I’ll never deserve this woman. It’s impossible. She’s so goddamn selfless. She risked everything just to protect me, and she did it without a single thought or hesitation. Even now, knowing what it cost her, she doesn’t regret it.
Dillon clears his throat, recalling Landry’s attention. “What happened after they found you?”
“Um, it took them a couple of weeks to catch me. When they did, they cornered me in an alley in Oregon. Garrick was talking about how he was going to hurt me,” Landry says, making my blood run cold. “So I told him that I was pregnant. I thought maybe it’d give me time to come up with a way to escape. Instead, he just got this look on his face…” She shivers again. “He told me that Sonny Johnson and his old lady would be happy to hear the news since they wanted a baby. H-he intended to give my baby to them.”
“Did you agree to this?”
“No!” she cries. “I begged them not to take her, but he just threw me in the back of a van and then locked me in a room at the compound once we were back in Dallas. They kept a guard on the door and bars on the windows. I was only allowed out to eat or see the doctor who stitched them up when they needed it.”
“What can you tell me about your time there?”
“It was hell,” she rasps immediately. “Every single day, it was hell. I lived with monsters, constantly afraid Garrick would come in and…” She trails off with a shake of her head. “But he never did. I think maybe he was afraid I’d lose the baby. Since he’d already promised her to Sonny, he’d lose respect with the MC if I lost her because of something he did.”
It takes every goddamn thing I have to keep my expression impassive, to keep from vibrating with fury against her. But somehow, I manage it. Barely. My mind is full of murder and mayhem the entire time.
“When Garrick and most of the MC were out on a run, I faked going into labor. The guard they left behind was an idiot. He didn’t know what to do, so he took me to the hospital. As soon as they took me back, I ran out.” She glances down at Lily, smiling slightly. “I got away.”
Eight months pregnant, and she still managed to escape. For our daughter. If I hadn’t already fallen in love with her in Colorado, that would do it—the realization that she fought as hard as she did, even scared, alone, and pregnant.
She’ll never be scared and alone again. She’ll never go through shit alone ever again. I don’t care what it takes to make it happen; she won’t know hell ever again.
“What else do you need to know?” I growl at Dillon.
“Can you tell me anything about your time there? Anything you may have seen or heard?”
She thinks about it for a minute. “I didn’t see much, but I heard plenty. I know Garrick and the MC get new drug shipments on the last Wednesday of the month. They pick up drug money from their dealers on the second and fourth Thursday of the month.” She swallows hard, her throat working. “And they send women to a club in Dallas to sell them.”
“A club? Like another MC?” Dillon asks.
“No, like a nightclub. They have a-auction nights.”
“Do you know where the club is?”
She shakes her head. “But I heard two of my guards talking about it one day. They were l-laughing about it being out in the open, and no one knowing what really went on after last call. Said the people who came to watch the girls dance were clueless.”
“A strip club?” Dillon asks.
“Sounds like it,” Jude growls. “Shouldn’t be that goddamn hard to hunt down a club with MC ties. There aren’t that many strip clubs in Dallas to begin with.”
“When were the auction nights?”
“I don’t think they were on a specific day,” she says. “I…I think every five or six months, maybe? There was one right before I escaped.”
My stomach sinks. That was five months ago. If they only hold them every few months, they’ll be holding another one soon.
Dillon seems to have the same realization because he glances at Jude. “Ask Finn to start prying into the records of every club in Dallas for me. And into Garrick’s background. I want to know every business he’s associated with, and I want to know yesterday.”
“Might ask Ryker Montgomery to help,” Jude says. “He still has federal connections. It’ll speed up the search, maybe get you guys in before…”
Dillon jerks his chin in a nod, his eyes running over Landry again before he reaches for the recorder, turning it off. “I think that’s enough for today.”
“We’re done?” she asks hopefully.
“Yeah, sweetness,” I murmur. “You’re done.”
She slumps against me, burying her face against Lily.
I meet Dillon’s gaze. “She gave you more than enough to bury those motherfuckers,” I say as calmly as possible. “She’s done answering questions about them now. We aren’t putting her through this shit again.”
“Understood,” Dillon says, his expression soft as he glances at her. She shakes in my arms as she cradles Lily like we’re the only things holding her broken pieces together. “You focus on your family. I’ll handle this shit.”
“Just fucking promise me that you’ll handle it,” I growl. “Her prick of an uncle, too. Because if they come anywhere near her or our daughter, I won’t stop to ask questions before I pull the fucking trigger.”
Dillon’s gaze hardens as he hauls himself to his feet. “I’ll help you bury the bodies if that happens.”
“It better not.”
“It won’t.” He shoves the recorder into his pocket and then sighs. “Give me a few days to get shit together. In the meantime, keep her close. Keep Giant with her.”
“That’s the plan.”
Right now, it’s the only goddamn plan that matters.
“I’ll walk you out,” Jude says, hauling himself to his feet as Dillon turns toward the door. He shoots me a glance, silently letting me know that he’s trying to give us a little privacy, and then he strides out with Dillon, both of them murmuring quietly.
I haul Landry and Lily onto my lap, wrapping myself around them. “I’m so fucking proud of you, Landry baby,” I whisper against her skin, holding them close to my heart. “You did so good.”
“I d-don’t want to talk about it anymore, Keegan,” she says, her voice shaking. “I don’t want to think about it or relive it. I just want to be free.” She rests her head against me with a sigh. “It’s all I’ve ever wanted.”
“You will be,” I promise.