Chapter 3
Luca
Life goes on. That’s the saying and one I believe in.
I’ve seen it myself throughout my life. Only this time, it’s too close to home.
Life is moving on around her, but as much as she’s trying, she’s stuck in this moment of grief.
I catch glimmers of my Tor, but they’re fleeting, and I find myself craving and chasing those fleeting moments.
Needing them more and more. I’m not expecting her to get over it already.
I know my wife, she’s all the sensitivity I’m not.
As I watch her sleep, her eyes move under her lids, and I wonder what she’s dreaming about. She’s not having a nightmare, that much I’m certain of, she’s peaceful.
Climbing out of bed, I pull on my jeans and grab my phone from the nightstand. Letting myself out of our room, I intend to go down to the kitchen and grab a beer. At the top of the stairs to the bar, I stop. Instead of grabbing a beer, I walk along the hall and unlock the door to Effie’s room.
Unlike my old lady, she’s not sleeping peacefully. Effie tosses and turns on the thin mattress. She doesn’t wake as I walk across the room. Crouching down on my knees, I watch her.
The urge to gauge out her eyes builds. The urge to slice her nose off builds. The urge to pull her teeth out builds.
Blinking away the images of her blood seeping out, I roughly grip onto her chin. She wakes instantly and her eyes widen with fear.
“You have till sunrise to tell me where Ford is, or I’ll kill you, and track him down myself.”
“You won’t kill me, not without knowing where he is.” Her confidence irritates me.
“Maybe if he had no one dropping off water and food, but he does. Whoever you’ve got checking in, doesn’t know you’re here.”
“If that’s what you want to believe, that’s on you.”
I laugh. It’s the only thing I can do. “Your audacity knows no bounds. Go on, tell me, what should I believe?”
“That there’s a reason there’s someone still checking in on Ford. You think my men don’t know where I am?”
“Your men are dead,” I remind her.
“Not all of them.”
Once again, I laugh.
“You could have an army out there and I would still kill you if you don’t give me what I want.”
“I don’t think you will,” she quips.
I decide here and now that come sunrise, if she hasn’t given up a location, she will die. I won’t have anyone think they know my moves. I am not predictable.
“That’s on you.”
Pushing up to my feet, I leave the room and lock up. I eventually head down and grab that beer.
Sitting at the kitchen table, in the dark, I wait for the clock to countdown. Effie will die and Ford will return to us. I don’t know how she’ll die, and I have no idea how Ford will come back to us, but both are going to happen.
I finish my beer and toss the bottle in the trash can. Pushing up out of my chair, I glance over the security camera screens behind the bar and not a soul is around.
If she had any men left, they would’ve planned and carried out an attack on us by now to free her.
A part of me wants these so-called men of hers to come at us.
I want them to show their faces, if only so we can take them out and end them once and for all.
Another part of me wants her to see whoever she has will never win against us.
That every plan she’s ever had or will ever have, will always end in failure.
As the sun begins to rise, a sort of peace washes over me. Pope had full faith in me to protect and love Tor. Everything I do, every single day, will keep that faith. Not that I need his validation. I’d do what I had to do in order to protect her regardless.
The first ray of sunshine seeps into the bar and I check my gun. It’s fully loaded and ready to use.
Taking the stairs up to the second level, I bang on each door, waking the brothers. Before I reach Angel’s door on the third floor, his door opens, and he steps out.
“What are you doing up so early?” he questions.
“Effie either gives up Ford’s whereabouts, or she dies. This morning.”
“She won’t give him up.”
“Then she dies, and we figure out how to find him ourselves.”
I head for Effie’s room and then stop and ask, “Why are you up so early?”
His answer comes in the form of Rudi rushing out of their room, slipping her jacket over her hospital uniform.
“Taking her to work then I’ll be back,” he tells me.
I shake my head. “She’ll have to drive herself today. I need you here.”
“I won’t be long…”
“This is going down now.”
He relents and says, “Give me five minutes.”
“Meet us in Effie’s room.”
He goes his way, and I go mine. Everyone else is waiting outside Effie’s door.
“What’s going on, Luc?” King asks.
“Effie’s either gonna tell us where our brother is or she’s going to die, and before any of you fuckers start on at me, she’s only gonna get a bullet.” I look around them, noticing the prospect hangs back. Pointing to him, I ask, “You’re still here so I take it you still want the patch?”
“Yes.”
“Then today you’ll earn your place with us.”
I’m still enjoying the fact he cut Effie’s finger off. If he does this next order to my satisfaction, he’ll have my vote without hesitation.
Angel bounds up the stairs and joins us.
“Let’s do this,” I say.
It seems Effie took me seriously. She’s stood by the far wall, waiting for us.
“You’re on time,” she murmurs, her bravado on shaky ground.
“Told ya I would be,” I tell her.
We fill the room, leaving little room for anyone to move.
“Tell us what we wanna know,” I begin.
“Promise me I’ll live if I tell you.”
A new idea comes to mind.
“Yes. I promise.” The air in the room shifts with the brothers’ confusion. “I give you my word that I won’t kill you if you give up where Ford is.”
Her stare tries its best to capture me into some sort of lockdown.
I give her a look to say I’m being truthful.
That she can trust me. I have no idea if I’m pulling it off but when she sighs, I know I’ve got her.
The longer the seconds drag on with her silence, the harder and faster my blood pumps around my body.
I dare not move in case it trips her, and she changes her mind. The silence is chilling.
She leans forward, whispers in my ear, and smiles as my blood runs ice cold. I’ve never felt this sensation before and oddly, I don’t fucking like it.
“You better be fuckin’ with me,” I manage to choke out.
Her arrogant smile has me wanted to wrap my hand around her neck. “You wanted to know and now you do.”
Pushing through the brothers, I leave the room and head down to the bar. I go to grab a beer but end up pacing.
“Where is he?” Angel asks. “What did she tell you?” he adds when I say nothing.
I grip onto the bar, just to know this is real and I’m not stuck in a nightmare. I just can’t fucking believe it.
“Prez, you’re as pale as a ghost,” Trey chimes.
Angel grabs my shoulder and yanks me around to face him.
“What the fuck, Luc? Where is he?”
“He’s…” I slam my fist on the bar top. Anger overrides the shock. “He’s at my family’s cabin.”
“Leo’s old place?”
I can only nod.
“Fuck!”
“Exactly. He’s been under our noses the whole fuckin’ time!” I roar reaching for a chair and throwing it across the bar.
“Hold on,” King says. “Where is your family’s cabin?”
I inhale deeply before telling him, “Willow’s Peak.”
“That bitch has some front,” Warren grunts.
Ignoring the questions bouncing around, I take the stairs back up to Effie’s room and shove open the door.
“How many men have you got watching him?”
“I don’t think that would matter to someone like you. Thought it didn’t concern you how many you had to fight to get what you want?”
“It doesn’t but it’s nice to know such information. Cover my bases.”
“It’s just the one man. He only turns up to feed him then he leaves.”
“I hope you’re not too attached to him. He’s going to die today.”
“There isn’t a man alive that I’d cry over.”
Like I give a fuck.
“Since you’ve kept your word, maybe once you bring your brother home, we can talk about what happens to me next.”
It’s my turn to flash an arrogant smile. “You? There’s no reason for you to hope for anything. You’ll be dead once Ford has returned and then we’ll bury your body out in the middle of nowhere.”
“B-but… you said if I gave you…”
“And it’s on you that you believed me. That was fuckin’ stupid. Like I’d ever let you live.”
“Why not just kill me now?”
“Because as much as I’d like to ram my gun up your ass and unload the clip, there’s someone more deserving of the honor.”
Recognition ignites her. “You saved me so Ford could kill me.”
“I like how you catch on so quickly.”
Before she can say another word, I’m gone.
Once down in the bar, the brothers are ready to leave. Ready to hear my order and go.
“Should we call Leo. The Willow’s Peak chapter could get to Ford much faster than we can,” Angel suggests.
It had crossed my mind to call Leo, but this is my chapter and Ford is my responsibility.
“No. We were there when we thought we lost Ford, it’ll be us he sees when he’s freed.” I need to dress and find my keys. “Be ready to go in ten minutes. She has one guy stopping by to feed him but prepare for an army. We’re not taking any chances.”
I leave them in the bar and head up to the top floor. Tor and River are still sleeping, and I dress quietly and reach for my keys when Tor stirs.
I lean over the bed and press my lips to hers. “Morning.”
She smiles up at me, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. “Morning,” she murmurs.
“Effie gave up where Ford is. We’re leaving now to go get him.”
Her eyes widen, and she sits up, clinging to my hand.
“What are you waiting for? Go to him, bring him home.”
Her smile reminds me how she’s the opposite of me and that we balance each other so well.
The ride to Willow’s Peak is filled with an excitable urgency that I’ve not felt before.
All these months we’ve been mourning Ford’s loss, and he’s been alive all this time.
In Leo’s cabin, no less. A place where I spent a lot of time during my childhood.
I know the cabin and the land around it like I know every inch of Tor’s body.
Angel signals to pull over and only because I want to know what’s so important, I do.
“We should go the rest of the way on foot. We don’t know what we’ll be walking into.”
“Fuck that. This property belongs to my family, no one is gonna have me creeping around. We ride straight up the drive and kick the fuckin’ door down if we need to.”
Bringing my bike to life, brothers ride behind me and ten minutes later I turn off for the cabin.
I couldn’t care less how many assholes are guarding Ford, they’re all going to die. They can run or die, actually, fuck that, if they run, they’ll still die.
Parking my bike where dad used to park his, the brothers park either side of me, all of us moving our eyes over the cabin. Waiting for someone to show their face. The silence is eerily strange. The number of times I’ve been here, it’s never been this quiet. Almost like death lingers in the air.
Dismounting my bike, I take out my gun and keep my head held high as I head toward the front door. I twist the doorhandle, and it clicks open.
“Thought we were kicking it down?” Angel snorts.
“No point when it’s open, sweetheart.” Over my shoulder, I instruct the brothers, “Spread out, see anyone, shoot.”
I head straight for the stairs, poking my head around the corner to find no one in the hall. Angel passes me and checks the first bedroom.
Fuck this.
“Ford!” I holler.
No one comes out but Ford yells from the other end of the hall. The door is padlocked shut but Angel makes quick work smashing it off.
“Where the fuck did you get the axe from?”
“It was by the front door,” he tells me.
With the padlock gone, we still have to get through the regular lock. Kicking open the door, Ford is sat up on his knees, yanking at the chain around his ankle.
“Fuckin’ yes,” he sighs. Relief draining the last of his energy.
He collapses on the mattress.
“I’m alive. I’m here. I’m not dead.”
I cross the room and fall to my knees at his side. Collecting him in my arms, I scan his body taking in the superficial injuries. It’s the ones I can’t see I’m most concerned about.
“I’m alive,” Ford murmurs.
“Yeah, you are. We’re here. We’ve got you.”
Angel uses the axe to free Ford’s ankle. It takes the both of us to help him up and get him downstairs.
His legs give way as we hit the bottom of the stairs, and we haul him into the living room and dump him on the couch.
“Talk to me, brother, tell me what you need.”
Sheer fatigue plagues him but he takes a deep breath and says, “I just wanna get the fuck outta here.”
“That we can fuckin’ do, even if we have to carry you,” Maxwell hollers as the brothers file in.
They all crowd around him and I step back.
While they show him their love, I take a look around and nothing has been touched.
It’s eery to know a stranger has been here and yet there is no trace of him.
I check the windows and back door and make sure they’re locked.
I take out one of the spare keys from the pot in the kitchen and scribble down a note.
Moving through the cabin, I tack the note to the front door. Taking out my phone, I call my brother.
“You good?” he answers.
“I am now. I’m calling to let you know Ford is alive.”
“He’s what?”
“You heard me. Effie’s had him holed up all this time, at our fuckin’ cabin.”
“What the fuck? I was just out there other day. I didn’t see anyone, then again, I didn’t go inside. I went into the shed and then out on the land.”
Regardless of everything that has happened, it’s done now.
“You might wanna get some extra security out here.”
“Yeah, I’ll get on that.”
I end the call and slide my phone back into my pocket. “Let’s get out of here,” I holler.
Ford is alive and shit can get back to normal.
“Your services are no longer required,” Angel says reading my note.
I turn around and King and Trey are helping Ford outside. He closes his eyes to the sun and slowly opens them as he steps down off the porch. They help him over to the van and the prospect opens the door for him.
“I still can’t believe he’s alive,” Angel murmurs beside me.
“I’m sure we’ll all get over it soon enough.”
“I knew you being nice wasn’t gonna last long.”