Chapter 28
Onyx
We’re ten strong and armed to the teeth when we park far enough away from the sister’s house so that the bikes won’t be seen or heard and we wait.
I look at it through binoculars, trying to get a feel for the layout.
Unless I miss my guess, the property sits on about five acres, surrounded by a dozen or so other similar houses.
It’s posh, and like Striker said, the community is gated.
The house looks quiet. There’s not much activity coming from the neighboring properties either. This is good news for us today.
The best time to breach would be at night, but no one’s even considering leaving my old lady at the mercy of these assholes for several more hours.
Striker crouches beside me behind a hedge, with his laptop balanced on his knee.
Jasper and Mica fan out without being told to do recon.
Slate’s not here, as he’s at the hospital with Christina.
She and the baby are okay, but they’re keeping her in as a precaution.
My club brothers do what they can to stay out of sight.
Jinx and Flint are keeping watch around the back of the property in case anyone leaves that way.
At this point, the plan is simple. Find Emily and get her the fuck out. Nothing else matters.
Striker lifts his head and meets my eyes. “Give me thirty seconds. I figured out what kind of security system this place uses. I just need to create a patch to disrupt it.”
“Thanks bro. I owe you.”
He smiles as his fingers bang against the keyboard. This man is a fuckin’ credit to the human race, not to mention our club.
It used to be that we had to jack directly into the security system at the source, but nowadays it’s all done remotely. I bring my binoculars to my eyes again and watch as, one by one, all the small green lights along the perimeter cameras blink out.
“The alarm’s dead along the main fence,” he says quietly. “The backup won’t trigger for another six minutes.”
That’s our cue to move our asses. Striker stays behind to deactivate the security so we can get out again.
The fence is tall but decorative. I think fences like this are more about being impressive. Lots of people really care about status, rich, prideful people most of all. I eagerly scramble over first. I’m silent and drop down on the other side smoothly. Jasper is next. Then Mica, and the others.
We make our way to the house two at a time, being as casual as possible.
I double-check to make sure their home security isn’t on and I’m not surprised to find it isn’t. A lot of people only set theirs at night. Getting in only takes a moment or two.
I stand and listen. There’s voices coming from further along the corridor and it sounds like they’re arguing. I move closer, my brothers flanking me.
A female voice says, “I am sick and tired of arguing about this with you, babe. You’re either in or you’re out. What’s it going to be?”
“Look dear. Why does it have to be black and white? I can be on your side without wanting to kill anyone else to cover up for your brother’s indiscretions.”
The woman’s voice turns sugar sweet. “Why don’t you stop arguing with me, take care of the loose end in the basement, and then we can discuss how we’ll proceed, moving forward.”
It sounds like they’re having a fucking business meeting, not planning on killing and disposing of my woman. I stalk into the room, startling both of them. “You might wanna rethink that plan.”
The man looks like he’s about to piss himself, but despite his fear he runs for a nearby desk drawer. I close the distance between us and slap his ass down onto the floor.
“Hands,” I demand. And when he does as I order I zip-tie them together. Then I give him a swift kick in the balls for good measure before turning to the woman. She’s clearly the mastermind, but right now she’s staring down the barrel of Mica’s gun.
Her face is scared shitless. She opens her mouth but closes it again when no words come out.
“Keep an eye on him. I think my old lady is being held in the basement.”
Walking over, I grab the woman who was trying to convince her fiancé to kill my Emily by the back of the neck and growl, “Take me to Emily. If you try anything at all or if she’s hurt, I’m gonna snap your fucking scrawny neck like a twig.”
“There’s no one here but us, I swear.”
I give her neck a little squeeze and pull her ear close to my mouth. “You wanna rethink that? What about that loose end in the basement? I know my old lady’s here. How much do you wanna bet I find a black SUV with front-end damage locked away in your garage?”
“I can’t breathe,” she gasps.
“Boo-fucking-hoo,” I snarl and squeeze tighter.
“Onyx.” My old man’s voice cuts through as a warning. This is his way of telling me to dial it down a notch. I don’t care what anyone has to say, not when it comes to getting my Emily back.
I give Charlotte a shake and say, “If you want air, take me to my old lady. If not, I’ll just find her myself when you pass out.
” Now I know that I’m way over the line, but I can’t stop myself.
If she thinks I’m gonna cut her some slack because she’s rich and used to getting her own way, she’s sadly mistaken.
She begins stumbling forward. I stay right behind her, keeping my hand in place. When we get to a door at the back of her kitchen, I ease up a bit. She chokes out, “I lost the key.”
I toss her to Mica, who says, “Do you think we’re fucking stupid or something?”
I can’t wait for her to decide to do the right thing, so I ram into the door a few times with my shoulder, and it splinters around the lock. A nice strong metal door like we use at the clubhouse would have solved this problem.
The woman shouts, “Your lady friend is fine. We didn’t hurt her.”
I glance over my shoulder. “You had better pray that you didn’t.” I give Jasper a meaningful look and tell him, “The best thing you could do would be to call Detective Morgan. If anything happens to Emily or the baby, I won’t be responsible for my actions.”
The woman gasps. I guess she didn’t realize Emily was pregnant. Jasper just nods. These people abducted Emily and hurt Christina. In our world, that turns this situation into a blood feud.
I shove down all my anger and stomp down the steps to check on Emily.
I’m not sure what I’m expecting, but I’m greeted by a force of nature waving a metal shelf bracket in her hand. The minute she realizes it’s me, she drops her makeshift weapon and runs into my arms.
At first, I’m thrilled, then I see the dried blood at her hairline. When she throws her arms around me, I wrap one arm around her and use my other to move her hair around, trying to see what kind of damage they did.
“Are you okay? What happened to your head?”
She looks up at me with fear and anxiety filling her face. Bringing her hand up, she touches a spot in her hair. “It’s nothing. I bumped my head when they threw me in the back seat of their SUV.”
Mica asks, “Did you lose consciousness?”
“Yeah, but not for long. The big news is they tried to kill me.”
My body is vibrating with the kind of rage I have rarely felt in my life. “They fuckin’ did what?”
She pats my chest. “Calm down. I said they tried. They weren’t successful because I outsmarted them. I didn’t think my plan was going to work, but it did.”
My old man speaks up. “Start again. How did they try to kill you?”
She walks over and snatches a pillow off of a wine bottle. Gesturing to it, she explains, “They tried to poison me. I’ll bet it’s the same poison they used on the other women.”
“So, it’s true Charles Brennan didn’t kill the other women?”
She shakes her head. “Not from what I heard. Let’s get out of here and I’ll tell you all about it.”
Jasper says, “No can do. Detective Morgan is on his way. ETA is about ten minutes.”
That’s about the time that my eyes drop to her wrists because I notice raw, red skin there. This time, I’m more worried than angry.
I walk over and ask, “What’s this, Em? Did they restrain you?”
Pulling her thumb back towards a chair with rope hanging off it, she explains, “Yes, they had me tied up.”
I gaze down at her and ask cautiously, “Em, what’s going on here? You’re not normally quite this…resilient.”
“Somewhere along the line, I got tired of feeling like a victim. If there’s one lesson I’ve learned from hanging around with you and your family, it is you can either stand up for yourself and die fighting or just roll over and let people kick you around your whole life.”
Pride surges in my chest for this beautiful woman of mine. “So, you decided to fight back? I’m not being disrespectful, but did you forget the part about you not knowing how to fight?”
Her face lights up. “I decided to fight with my brain instead of my fists. When they tried to poison me, I spat the poison right back in their faces and did my best to convince them that Charles was the real problem, not me. They’ve been arguing about it ever since.”
Jasper is leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest. He’s been listening to her story. “That was smart. At least it bought you enough time for us to show up.”
I make a snap decision. “I don’t give a fuck about Detective Morgan or any damn thing else. I’m taking you to the hospital to get you checked out.”
I scoop her up in my arms and carry her up the steps. As we walk out the front door, Morgan shows up with half a dozen squad cars.
Jasper gestures with one hand. “What the hell is this? A bit of an overkill for one couple, don’t you think?”
Morgan straightens up, clearly making an effort to look more authoritative. “I got allocated extra resources because my department has been working extra hard to keep our town crime free.”
Jasper doesn’t look impressed. He states, “Yeah, you can thank us for that later, since we’re the ones doing your dirty work as of late.”
Morgan’s eyebrows fly up. “It’s leg work, not dirty work. Law enforcement doesn’t have dirty work.”
“Yeah, keep tellin’ yourself that. Are you comin’ to brunch on Sunday? Allied clubs are comin’ for a quarterly. Thought you might want to extend your sphere of influence.”
Morgan’s eyes light up. “I’d be honored. Is it true that these two are the real killers, instead of Charles Brennan?”
I speak up. “It’s true, and you’ll find the poison they used in a wine bottle in the basement. They tried to kill my old lady. I know you’re gonna want to talk to her, but I’m takin’ her to the hospital right now. She’s pregnant and I want her and the baby checked out.”
He frowns. “On your bike? I think not.” He gestures to a uniformed officer. “Take Mr. Jackson and his fiancé to the hospital and drop them off. They are high-value material witnesses, so be polite and drive safely.”
“Yes, sir.”
Once we’re snuggled up in the back of the cruiser, Emily asks, “Did you ever think you’d be getting a VIP ride as an honored guest of the Cedar Falls PD?”
I snort a laugh. “No, of course not. Cops are supposed to be the enemy of MCs, but since we don’t do illegal shit, I guess we can be on better terms than most other clubs.”
“I meant what I said about being a stronger person because of being around you and your family. Queenie and Tessa make speaking their minds look easy, but it’s a skill I had to learn.”
I pull her close and let her rest her head on my chest. “At least you learned from the best, Em. You know your grandfather would have been proud of the way you handled yourself today, right? Coming at me with that metal bracket like a fucking wildcat.”
“Yeah, about that. Just before you came, I was trying to get out of the air vent. I’m not sure my hefty ass was gonna fit through the hole. I was just out of other options.”
“Your ass is juicy,” I say with a grin. Then add, “Still, I’m proud of your inventiveness. I just wish we’d shown up earlier.”
Her head tilts up and she murmurs, “I knew that you’d come. In fact, I thought it would take much longer than it did.”
“We have Striker to thank. He followed the money, and it led right to Charlotte Brennan.”
We continue to talk and cuddle on the way to the hospital. I must be the luckiest man in the whole fuckin’ world. This is the one time in my life when all the risks landed in my favor. It’s made me realize that Emily is now wrapped so deep in my life and heart that I can’t survive without her.
My hand slides down to cover her still flat belly. This little family I’m creating will be the source of all my joy and happiness in life. I know that all the way down to my soul.