Chapter Twenty-Nine Olivia
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE: OLIVIA
The takedown was more straightforward than we expected. The three assholes inside didn’t see us coming. When they realized we’d infiltrated the building, we already had them zip-tied and kneeling on the concrete floor.
The calls for help from the service pit have Jack searching for the controls. He raises the car so that it no longer blocks the space. When we have enough space, Pirate and I slide into the pit. We expect to find one woman; instead, we see three—two of whom are close to bringing two more people into the world. The woman we thought we were rescuing stands guard over the other two. She looks ready to fight us to the death.
Pirate and I lift our hands. “We aren’t going to hurt you. We’re here to rescue you. A friend of ours saw these assholes grab you and followed you here. They called us to come get you out. My name is Lake, and this is Pirate.”
“Pirate?” she asks, her forehead creasing in confusion. “The same Pirate I spoke to yesterday about the Houma tribe?”
“You’re Rey Montague? The attorney?”
“I am. What’s going on? Why are you here?”
“Wait, you’re the one who has been working with my father? Coyote?”
“Your father is Coyote?”
“Yes. My name is Lake. You have an appointment with my brother, Toff, tomorrow morning.”
Rey lowers her defenses enough to let us help the other two women out of the pit. They introduce themselves as Letitia and Jasmine. Rey scrambles out of the pit once the other two women are topside. She helps them get comfortable while we wait for Levi to bring Annette and Olivia.
Rey paces while Annette and Olivia comfort the other two women. Hex sends Levi out to the SUV to grab them some nourishment. Abra stands guard over the three prisoners, but his eyes flash often to Rey. Her agitation is on full display.
“Excuse me,” Rey says. “Why haven’t the police and ambulance arrived yet? They should be here by now.”
“They aren’t coming,” Hex tells her.
“Why not? You need to call them immediately.”
“No cops,” Hex says, causing her head to snap in his direction.
“What? Why not? They can’t get away with this.”
“They won’t,” Hex says.
A shout from Jack has us rushing through the waiting room and into what used to be an office. Inside, lying on a dirty mattress is a naked woman. Blood and bruises cover her body. The sight of the broken woman has Hex rushing back to our captives. Grabbing a fistful of hair, he yanks the first one up and knees him hard in his junk. The man screams out in pain before dropping to the floor. Hex kicks him several more times in the same spot before he passes out from the pain. Without breaking a sweat, he repeats the treatment on the other two men.
“What did you find?” Abra asks. We’re all standing around the pieces of shit passed out on the floor.
“A woman. They brutalized her,” Hex snaps out.
“Can we call the cops now?” Rey asks.
“Fuck the cops,” Hex sneers. “Do you think the fucking cops are going to do anything about these mother-fuckers? They have the cops in their pockets, sweetheart.”
“Not all of them. Not my brothers,” Rey says, glaring at Hex. “My brothers will make sure they get what they deserve.”
“You’re brothers are cops?” I ask.
“Yes. I have three brothers, and they’re all in the force. They’re all good cops. One is in Boston, but the other two are here.”
Hex studies her before responding.
“How about we compromise?” Hex says. “Levi and Jack will take all of you to the hospital. You can call your brothers from there and tell them what happened. Give them this address. Olivia and Annette can go with you. They can tell the cops how we found you.”
“How can they explain?” Rey asks.
“Olivia and Annette saw you at the hospital just before spotting them,” I tell her, nodding at the men. “We had a run-in with them before, so Jack followed them. They saw the men kidnap you, so they called us once they arrived here. These assholes tried to kidnap Olivia a few nights ago. She can tell her story to your brother.”
“What about them?” Rey asks, nodding at the men.
“We want to talk to them. We’ll hand them over to your brothers when they show up. Will that work?”
“You aren’t going to kill them?”
“No. We may rough them up a bit, but we won’t kill them. You have my word.”
She glances at me. “Can I trust you to keep your word?”
I nod.
“Okay, I’ll trust you.”
“Thank you.”
Levi backs the SUV into the garage so Jack can place the unconscious and broken woman into the back. He’s lined the floor with blankets and covers her with another. I doubt she notices, but it’s a nice gesture. Once everyone is loaded in, Hex stops Jack and Levi.
“Lose the kuttes. Ray may trust her brothers, but there’s no sense leading them right to our doorstep. Levi, play the brother card to explain your reason for stepping in to help.”
“Got it, Prez,” Levi and Jack say together. They remove their kuttes and hand them over to Dixie to keep.
Once they’re gone, we focus on our prisoners.
“Abra, if you’ll do the honors,” Hex says.
Abra finds a bucket and fills it with water. He dumps the bucket over the middle guy, whom we determined to be the leader. He sputters awake, his eyes narrowing on Hex.
“You fucking bastard. You’re fucking dead.” He lets out a groan of pain when he shifts to sit up. His complexion turns green as we all step back in case he spews.
Hex chuckles. “Big talk from a man with a broken dick.”
“Just wait. Your fucking days are numbered spic.” He spits toward Hex.
“You are fucking clueless, aren’t you? I don’t have time to give you a lesson in genetics or geography. You’ll figure it out in prison. Why the fuck are you kidnapping women?”
“I’m not telling you shit.”
Hex nods at Abra. With the quickness of a snake, Abra lashes out, slashing a deep groove from his eye to his mouth. Blood gushes from the wound as the no-longer cocky bastard screams.
“Unless you want him to match it on the other side, fucking talk. Why were you kidnapping women?”
“Money,” he manages to say after spitting out blood.
“Someone paid you to kidnap women after disabling their cars?” Hex asks, getting a nod. “Who?”
“Don’t know names. Two doctors.”
“Where do you take them?”
Before he can answer, the asshole’s phone rings, Abra reaches into the guy’s pocket and pulls it out. He glances at the display. “Money Doc,” he says. Then he holds the phone in front of the mangled face of our prisoner. I’m surprised when it unlocks the phone.
Abra hands it to Hex before yanking the prisoner’s head back by his hair and placing the knife against his other cheek. The message is clear. Don’t make a fucking sound, or he’ll resemble Heath Ledger’s Joker.
“Yo,” Hex grunts into the phone. He listens for a minute before ending the call with “On it.” He hands the phone to Pirate. “Seems like the doctor is ready for his delivery. Where?”
The man clamps his lips shut, so Abra digs the blade under his eye. His intentions are clear. Give up the address or give up the eye. It’s his choice. Unsurprisingly, he rattles off an address.
Hex checks his watch and nods at Abra, who slams his gloved fist against the wound, knocking him out.
“Rey and the others should be at the hospital by now, so the cops will be here soon. Let’s ride. We have a couple of doctors who are about to lose their licenses. Permanently.”
Piling into the SUV, we take off with Zip driving.
“Shit, that was close,” Zip says, looking in the rearview mirror. We all turn to see three cop cars pulling up to the garage. The lights flash and light up the building. No one is chasing us, so that’s good.
The address the asshole gave us is for an abandoned restaurant. It sits on the river, surrounded by trees and an empty parking lot.
“I know this place,” Abra says. “I’ve eaten here before. They had seating on two floors and the back deck.”
We park on the road, out of sight of the building. Under the cover of the trees, we surround the place. The building has a Victorian look, complete with window shutters. Whoever was inside closed the shutters, but we could still see the light filtering through. The shutters work in our favor because we can approach the building without anyone inside seeing us.
Zip and I cover the sides while Dixie and Pirate cover the front. Hex and Abra are at the back, where Abra works to open the lock. The front door opens as we get Hex’s text letting us know they’re in. Two men in suits step out. Another pair of men follow them, wearing cargo pants and carrying military-grade weapons.
“They should be here soon,” the suit says. “Three women. Two are ready to pop. They won’t be a problem. The third is only four months along. Get them all inside and strapped down. Carver can check them out then.”
Dixie sends a text letting Hex and Abra know what’s happening outside. Hex replies with an order to take them out. The four of us converge on the men. Zip and I take out the muscle by slitting their throats. We let them drop to the ground just as Dixie and Pirate have the two suits face dirt in the mud with their wrists zip-tied behind their backs.
Hex steps out of the front door. With a clenched jaw, he glowers at the men in suits. “You two fucked up,” he snarls at them before glancing at Zip and me. “Dump those bodies in the river, then come inside. Better prepare yourself.”
Zip and I silently lug the bodies to the rear of the building and dump them into the river. They’ll either float downstream and get found or become alligator food. I realize this is close to where they fished out the body of Olivia’s friend.
“Not sure I want to see what’s inside,” Zip says as we return to the restaurant. Neither of us are prepared for what we find inside.