17. Q
Q
“You’re only making it harder on yourselves.”
“Done told you, asshole,” Rooster snarled. “You’re wasting your time. We aren’t telling you shit.”
“I’m about tired of your fucking mouth!”
We’d been in the stupid warehouse for hours. They’d done everything they could to make us talk, but it wasn’t gonna happen. Rooster and I would take the beating of a lifetime, and we still wouldn’t say a fucking word about our brothers or the club.
We certainly wouldn’t rat them out over a few hard punches and a couple of jabs with a switchblade, but they were still holding on to the hope that we’d break—especially the leader. He was growing more frustrated by the second.
He looked like he was about to come unhinged when he stepped back over to Rooster and stabbed him in the thigh—again. "Tell me the name of your supplier.”
“Not gonna happen, sweetheart.” Rooster seemed completely unfazed by the knife lodged in his thigh as he goaded, “Not today.”
“We’ll see about that.” He turned to his boys as he said, “Enough fucking around. Make ‘em talk.”
The four men stepped forward, and each took their turn plowing into us again. Only this time, they were growing tired. The blows had little effect, which gave me hope that we’d be able to hold out until the brothers found us.
But, in truth, they should’ve already been there.
Rooster’s phone was still buried deep in his crotch.
Wyatt or Big should’ve already tracked the phone and sent the brothers to find us, but there hadn’t been any sign of them—which made me wonder if there was a problem with the phone.
It was plausible, especially considering its location.
Rooster’s sweaty balls could’ve easily fucked with the electronics and caused it to short-circuit.
I prayed that wasn’t the case cause time wasn’t on my side.
Jules was out there with her ex. I had no idea what he thought he was doing by coming here looking for her, but deep down, I knew that asshole showing up here was only gonna lead to trouble, and it was killing me.
I'd waited a lifetime for her to come into my life, but she was worth the wait. Jules was everything I'd ever wanted and more, and the mere thought of something happening to her gutted me.
If that asshole touched a hair on her head, there would be hell to pay.
I’d make sure of it, but I’d have to get the hell out of this fucking warehouse first.
The lead asshole was getting more and more frustrated, and I feared he might get carried away with that fucking blade and end us before they arrived.
Rooster and I were still taking a beating when the sound of a cell phone ringing brought everything to a deafening halt.
I took the moment to catch my breath and listened as one of them answered, “Yeah, boss.”
There was a brief silence, and then he continued, “Uh, yeah. We’re getting close. Should have something for you soon.”
He started to pace back and forth as he listened to the other end of the call. There was no missing the fear in his voice when he asked, “What do ya mean they’re coming? No way they could know where we are.”
He whipped around and glared at us as he growled, “You got some kind of tracker on you or something?”
“You patted us down,” I answered. “You’d know if we did.”
“You’re full of shit. One of you has something on ya.”
He started toward me but stopped suddenly. Panic marked his face as he listened to his boss. After a few seconds, he ended the call and announced, “We gotta get the hell out of here.”
“Why? What’s going on?”
“We’ve been found.” He motioned his head toward Rooster and me as he said, “Won’t be long before their guys get here.”
“What about them?”
“I’d say put a bullet in their head, but the boss said to leave ‘em. It doesn’t matter anyway. We’ll finish them off later.”
The four wasted no time filing out of the room. The leader wasn’t quite ready to let go. “This isn’t over. You best prepare yourself. You Fury boys are about to have a rude awakening.”
Without waiting for us to respond, he turned and followed his friends out the back door. As soon as the door closed behind him, Rooster looked over at me and smiled. “Looks like my phone trick saved the day.”
“I don’t know about that. We’re still sittin’ here, aren’t we?”
“Yeah, but at least we’re alive and aren’t getting wailed on anymore.”
“This is true, but we’re still fucking here and...”
Before I could finish my thought, the sound of trucks pulling up drew our attention outside.
We both sat there silently praying that it was our brothers, and relief washed over me when the door flew open and Wrath, Two Bit, and Savage came busting inside with their guns drawn.
Wrath did a quick scan of the room, then asked, “Where the fuck did they go?”
“Left out about five minutes ago. Can’t be far.”
Two Bit nodded, then went back to the door and called out, “Hey, it’s clear! They just left out. Should be close.”
“We’ll see if we can track ‘em down.”
Seconds later, I heard truck doors close and engines start.
I wanted to believe that my brothers would be able to hunt these guys down, but I knew better.
These guys were prepared. They’d managed not only to find Rooster and me but also run us off the road, kidnap us, and torture us for hours on end.
It was enough to make me doubt that we’d ever find them.
But I was more than relieved that they’d finally tracked us down. Now, I could finally see about Jules. Wrath was still standing at the door when I called out to him, “Hey, come untie me.”
“Yeah, sure thing.”
He came over and cut the zip-ties, freeing my hands, then rushed over to Rooster and did the same for him. As soon as his hands were free, Rooster reached down and pulled the knife from his thigh, and tossed it on the floor. “What the hell took you guys so long?”
“Did the best we could.”
“Three hours?” Rooster huffed. “That’s the best you could do.”
“Power went out,” Stitch announced as he and Maverick entered the warehouse. “Transformer blew, and it took the city almost an hour to get it back up and running.”
Maverick took one look at us and let out a stream of curses before asking, “You got any idea who did this?”
“Wish I did, but they never took off their damn masks.” I stood and held onto the back of the chair as I told him, “You almost had ‘em. If you’d gotten here five minutes earlier.”
“So, what made them head out?”
“They got a call from their boss, and he warned them that you were coming. They knew better than to stick around.”
“How the fuck did he know that?”
“Got no clue.”
Stitch studied me for a moment, then grimaced as he said, “Damn. You look like hell, brother. They really worked you two over, huh?”
“Nothing we couldn’t handle. Rooster wouldn’t have had it as bad as he did if he hadn’t kept provoking them.”
He’d never admit it, but I got the feeling Rooster had provoked them on purpose.
He knew goading the guy would keep the heat off me.
I’d tried to prevent that from happening, but I hadn’t been as effective as my brother.
It pained me to say, “We’re gonna need to get Rooster over to see Doc. He’s gonna need some stitches.”
Maverick raised his brow as he said, “Looks like you could use some stitches of your own.”
“I’m good. I don’t need any damn stitches.” I started making my way over to the door. “I gotta get to Jules and make sure she’s okay.”
“About that...” I turned back to Maverick, and the second I saw his face, I knew I wasn’t going to like what he had to say. “Um, there’s been a bit of a situation.”
“What the fuck does that mean?”
“Well first, Jules’s okay. A little black-and-blue, but she’s okay.”
I was struggling to keep it together as I asked, “Why the fuck is she black and blue, Mav?”
“She had a run-in with her ex, and it wasn’t good.” Stitch shook his head as he added, “That motherfucker did a real number on her.”
“Damn it!” I roared. “Where the fuck is she?”
“She’s at the clubhouse. Doc checked her over, and she’s resting.”
“And the ex? Where the hell is he?”
“Smokey and Cotton took him to one of Stitch’s holding rooms. He’s waiting for you there.”
“Good.”
When I turned and started back towards the door, Maverick shouted, “Hold up, brother. I know you’re eager, but we gotta check things out here before we go. Gotta see if we can find anything that might help us figure out who these guys are.”
“Fuck that. I’m going to see Jules, and I’m going to see her now!”
“I’ll take them over.” Wrath helped Rooster to his feet as he told Maverick, “That way, you guys can take your time doing whatever you gotta do.”
“Appreciate it, brother.”
“No problem.”
Because of his large stature, it took some maneuvering to get Rooster out to the truck. He was worse off than any of us had realized and was bleeding like a sieve. Once he was settled in the backseat, Wrath gave him a towel and asked, “You good, brother?”
“Just peachy,” he groaned as he leaned his head back and closed his eyes. “Now quit fussin’ over me. We gotta get Q to his girl.”
Wrath gave him a pat on the shoulder, then said, “You got it.”
Seconds later, we were on the road and driving toward the clubhouse.
I felt a twinge of guilt for leaving my brothers to search the warehouse without me, but I knew that if there was anything to find, they’d find it, especially with Maverick there.
He had a knack for finding shit no one else could find.
Besides, I wouldn’t have been much help to them.
I was moving slow and struggled to see clearly with my swollen eyes; more than that, my head just wasn’t in it.
All I could think about was getting to Jules and seeing for myself that she was okay.
When we got to the clubhouse, Wrath got a couple of prospects to come over and help us out with Rooster.
We’d just started inside when Cotton came rushing up with Guardrail and Smokey.
The second he saw how bad off we were, Cotton clutched his fists at his sides and growled, “Ah, damn. I’m gonna fucking kill ‘em!”