Chapter 25
Cole
An endless stream of inane one-sided conversation flows from Trish’s mouth, like a leaky faucet you can’t shut off.
Trish moans that she’s bored, and we should get going before it’s dark.
Unbothered by our indifference, she continues rambling about how her butt hurts from sitting on the hard bench by the bikes, then adds that she’s hungry.
I don’t respond. Neither does Rex. We’re not listening, we’re both too focused, too tense, our minds elsewhere.
We’re anxiously pacing like caged animals outside the old barn where we agreed to meet Judge, Doc, and the others. But they’re late. Far too late.
“They should be here by now,” Rex says, echoing the thought that’s been bouncing around my skull like a ricochet bullet.
I nod grimly, my jaw clenched. Rex is right.
Judge and the others are taking too long.
I’ve tried calling several of them, but I can’t get through.
Something’s not right. They should’ve shown up over an hour ago, and it’s not like Judge to run behind, especially not when Lena and Mia are on the line.
This kind of silence eats at your gut and whispers that something’s gone very, very wrong.
Rex’s phone rings, and he pounces on it like it’s a lifeline.
Part of me wants to tear it from his grip.
I stop pacing to listen in, willing my hearing to miraculously improve.
As he greets the caller, I realize that it’s Tank’s old lady, Amanda, on the other line.
The frown on Rex’s face deepens as he listens, and I know that whatever she is telling him is bad.
“What did she say?” I ask the second he ends the call, not even giving him a chance to tell me himself.
Rex’s mouth presses into a thin line, the muscles in his jaw twitching. “It’s bad. The Iron Vultures bombed the clubhouse. Tank and a few others were severely injured. They took Doc and Judge.”
The words land like a fist to the gut. I stagger a step back. A heavy, suffocating silence falls between us for a beat. My ears ring and my vision tunnels. I can’t believe what’s happened.
“Fuck!” I roar, my voice echoing through the woods surrounding us. I want to lash out, but I hold it in, clenching my fists. I want to throw something, smash something, tear down the damn world until I find Lena, find Mia, find my brothers.
Trish, annoyingly calm despite the news, interjects.
“They didn’t kill them there and then, which means they’ve taken them somewhere for some reason.
They have to be alive still. There’s a chance they could have taken them to the same house where Lena is being held.
If it’s their new base of operations, they probably brought the others there, too. ”
I bristle, irritated that she’s involving herself in our conversation at all, but I can’t deny that she has a point.
“She’s right,” I reluctantly admit. I look over at Rex, who seems equally as furious as I am.
“We should continue to the house with Trish. Hopefully, we’ll find them there too.
If not, saving Lena and Mia is our priority because the guys would want that, and they can handle themselves. If anyone can escape, it’s them.”
Rex nods in agreement, his eyes flinty. “Let’s go.”
We head back over to our bikes. Trish climbs onto the back of my bike again.
Rex would likely break Trish’s hand if she touched him, so I’m stuck with her.
Not that I blame him. I try to ignore the revulsion I feel as she clings to me, pressing closer than necessary.
I drown out the vulgar things she says with the roar of my engine.
The ride is long, winding through dense forest as twilight settles in, stretching shadows across the road.
It’s getting dark by the time we reach the rundown colonial house tucked deep in the woods.
Although it looks abandoned, it hasn’t been used for years; someone’s here now.
Floodlights out the front bathe the lawn in bright, white light.
Two armed guards stand sentinel by the front porch.
A few lights are lit inside. It’s a fortress.
We pull up just far enough to stay hidden in the treeline and kill the engines.
“How do we get in?” Rex asks me as we study the place from a distance.
Without hesitation, Trish confidently answers for me. “I know a secret tunnel that leads into the basement, we can go in that way.”
I look at her suspiciously. “How the hell do you know about a secret tunnel?”
She shrugs. “Someone showed me it once, told me it was where they’d smuggle booze in during the prohibition. Zeke plans to use it to sneak all kinds of things in and out,” Trish explains.
I’m suspicious, and I don’t like it, but with no other options, I agree. “Alright, show us where it is.”
Trish leads us away from the house into the woods, winding through the trees like she’s done it a hundred times. After a few minutes of walking, she stops and clears away a thick layer of dead leaves to reveal a rusted metal handle. She grins like a magician revealing her best trick. “Ta-da!”
She moves out of the way so that Rex can open it.
He doesn’t move. He looks at me, making sure I’ve got my gun ready in case anything is down there.
I nod once, and he opens it. The door groans, as if resisting the intrusion, but it finally opens.
The heavy metal door falls to the earth with a thud.
I peer down the dark hole; there’s a ladder leading down into the blackness, but it’s too dark to see the bottom.
The air is thick with damp, the cloying smell of wet earth rising to greet us.
“It’s a good job that phones have torches now,” Trish says merrily, turning on the flashlight on her phone. “I hope neither of you is claustrophobic,” she adds before climbing down ahead of us.
Rex and I follow suit, turning on our flashlights.
I don’t like having to holster my weapon to climb down the ladder, but I need at least one hand free to do so.
I reluctantly holster it and begin my descent.
The beam of my flashlight bounces off the stone walls.
The tunnel is narrow and cramped, barely enough space to fit a fully grown man.
It stinks even more of decades of rot and decay the lower down we get.
When we reach the bottom, I realize my mistake. I should never have let go of my weapon. It’s too quiet. This was too easy. I turn around with the flashlight raised and instantly regret ever trusting Trish.
Mary Beth and three goons are standing waiting to ambush us, their guns raised. Trish steps casually out of the shadows, a smug smile on her lips. She’s in on this.
While I didn’t suspect Trish, I’m not surprised to find Mary Beth here. We were pretty confident she was the woman who took Lena and that she was working for Zeke. For how long? Who knows. But I am surprised by what she says to Trish.
“Good job, sis.” Mary Beth says smoothly. Trish preens with pride.
“You two are sisters?” Rex says incredulously, voicing my thoughts exactly.
“Yep, can’t you see the family resemblance?” Trish says gleefully, excited to have pulled the rug out from under us and accomplished her mission.
Now that she mentions it, I can see some similarities between the two women.
Same jawline. Same eyes. Same snake-in-the-grass backstabbing energy.
I can’t believe we didn’t see it before.
But we never bothered asking much about their lives beyond the club, their pasts, or their families, so it’s easy to see how we never knew.
They both played their parts as the dumb party girls well enough to avoid us looking at them too closely.
I feel like a damn fool.
I can’t believe we fell for Trish’s trap, though. I should have known. There were signs, there must have been, but I was so eager to find Lena that I ignored them.
Mary Beth steps forward, her eyes never leaving Rex. “It’s funny. All these years, and you never saw me, not really. I would’ve been loyal to you, Rex. I would’ve stood by your side. But you chose that bitch over me.”
“She isn’t the one who became a traitor,” Rex growls, his voice like gravel.
Mary Beth shrugs. “Maybe not. But she wasn’t ambitious either. Zeke and I? We’re going to run the entire area. And you… Well, you’re going to die regretting your choices.”
I’m still focused on how my failure has doomed us all. There’s no point in Rex and me trying to fight our way out. We’re outnumbered.
However, Rex has other ideas. He quickly darts behind Trish, using her as a human shield, pointing his gun at her temple. “Let us go, or I shoot her.”
Trish whimpers, her eyes wide and pleading as she looks at her sister.
“I’m afraid I can’t do that.” Mary Beth is eerily unruffled by the fact that Rex has a gun pointed at her sibling’s head.
“Zeke wants to punish you for what you’ve done.
He’s my old man now, and I’m always loyal to my man, just like I would have been to you if only you’d seen how perfect we were together.
Zeke’s going places, and I’m gonna be right by his side.
But first, he needs to end this war once and for all.
Unfortunately for you, you picked the wrong woman. ”
“I’m serious, Mary Beth, I’ll shoot her,” Rex warns.
Mary Beth rolls her eyes. “This is taking too long, Zeke will get mad.”
Without flinching, Mary Beth points her gun at her sister and pulls the trigger. The bullet hits Trish in the gut, and she whimpers in surprise before crumpling to the floor.
“What the fuck?” Rex cries in horror as he bends down and tries to stem the blood flow.
Meanwhile, with one man pointing a gun at my head, I’m helpless to assist. One of Zeke’s goons slams the butt of his rifle into the side of my head, sending me sprawling. My gun is ripped away before I can recover, and they cuff my hands behind my back.
“She was a junkie whore, always asking me for money, always trying to take my men from me. She’s a liability. Where Zeke and I are going, she can’t follow. It’d be bad for our business, our image,” Mary Beth says callously.
The men move to disarm and cuff Rex, too, prying him away from Trish as he tries to apply pressure to her wound.
“Please… don’t leave me…” Trish cries out weakly, holding a hand out to her sister.
The men hesitate, looking to Mary Beth. “Leave her,” she orders with a dismissive wave.
As they lead us down the dark corridor, I can hear Trish’s desperate, clawing breaths as she’s left to die alone. Her sister doesn’t even glance back. I look at Mary Beth with new eyes. There was a viper in our den, and I never noticed how venomous she was.
Perhaps Zeke isn’t the enemy we should be concerned about. Even if we kill Zeke and take down the Iron Vultures, I get the impression that nothing will stop Mary Beth from achieving her goal of riches and infamy.
They lead us through the tunnel into a stone hallway that connects with the basement of the house. Every step we take echoes with humiliation. Anger. And helplessness.
I glance at Rex, whose eyes are dark and stormy. “We walked into a goddamn trap,” I mutter, hating myself for trusting Trish.
He nods once, cold and silent. “I should’ve seen it.”
But there’s no time for guilt. No space for regret. Because we’re in enemy territory now, and the only way out is through.
We have to survive.
We have to fight.
And if we’re lucky, very lucky, maybe all of our family is still alive.