Chapter 6
Niran
Iwas getting a headache from all of Anurak’s crying, panicking, and his questions. Usually, I was calm and collected, even in the most stressful of situations, but I was on the verge of snapping at the boy. My patience was wearing fucking thin.
“Did you find him yet?”
“Any sign of him yet?”
“Where could he be?”
“What if he’s dead? Oh, God, it’s all my fault!”
Rico was doing his best to console him, but without Anurak’s anxiety meds, we were a little fucked.
Bento had his meds, just as he always did when he and Anurak went somewhere.
Rico had called in reinforcements, also known as Anurak’s boyfriend, Ace, who was part of the Ghost Born MC.
The dynamic Anurak, Ace, Rico, and Ace’s husband, Gunner, shared was a fucking mystery to all of us, but if there was one thing I knew about Rico, it was that he would give Anurak any fucking thing so long as it made his precious little perrito happy, even if that meant sharing him with someone else.
Doing my best to tune out Anurak, I continued flipping through the cameras in the parking lot, trying to find a good angle to get a make and model of the unplated van that’d driven away with Bento inside.
I’d already watched the footage of them beating the shit out of him.
How he survived getting his head smashed through the fucking window, I didn’t know, but it was proof of Bento’s endurance and his will to survive.
Had he gone through that window wrong, he could’ve had his fucking throat slit.
It was clear in the camera footage that he’d been disoriented and unable to fight back. I’d seen the moment he shouted at Anurak to run, and I’d seen where he’d tried calling me.
He’d just been unable to do so in enough time.
But I was going to find him. No one was keeping my man from me. And after this? Fuck everyone and fuck what was morally correct. I was claiming Bento as my own. I wasn’t capable of remorse, but I knew I’d hate every fucking day I didn’t get to have him as mine if I fucking lost him.
There. I slammed my finger over the space bar to pause the video feed.
I could barely make it out, but it was there.
A fucking Mercedes-Benz. Whoever had taken him had access to money, or they’d stolen the van.
I didn’t know which it was, nor did I care.
When I went in to rescue Bento, I’d go in with the idea they had money, which would mean they had access to high-tech security and military-grade weapons.
If I got there and it turned out they were dirt poor, then I’d resort to plan B, which would be to go in guns blazing and wipe out every mother fucker in my hunt to free my man.
“Anything yet?” Anurak asked.
“He’s working on it, perrito,” Rico soothed, but the look he shot me told me I’d better hurry the fuck up. I clenched my jaw and didn’t say a word, only continuing to focus on tracking the van through every traffic camera I could until I could get a fucking location.
My phone pinged with a notification that the front door had been opened, and then, Ace was sprinting into the room.
The moment his eyes met Anurak’s, Anurak burst into a fresh wave of tears.
Rico looked pained, as did Ace and Gunner, who finally walked in behind Ace.
Without a word, Ace slid behind Anurak on the couch and tugged Anurak into his arms.
“Here,” Gunner said, handing a bottle of pills to Rico. “Ace brought his pills thinking they might help Anurak.”
Without a word, Rico uncapped the orange prescription bottle and tipped out a pill before handing it to Anurak.
Grabbing the water he’d been using to keep Anurak hydrated during all his crying, he tipped it to Anurak’s lips, forcing the boy to swallow the pill.
I barely bit back a sigh of relief. Maybe now my headache would go away and I could focus without listening to all his fucking questions.
The room went quiet, allowing me to work in peace.
I flipped through more traffic cameras, watching every move the van made, and when it disappeared from sight, I flipped to the next one.
It was a long, tedious process, but it was all I had to run with, and for now, it was my only hope of finding Bento.
The van made it to the industrial area, then turned into the parking lot of a meat packing plant, which was closed since it was now after five P.M. After putting the address into my burner phone, I closed my laptop. “Found him,” I announced.
Anurak had passed out and was comfortably sleeping between Ace’s spread legs with Ace’s arms wrapped tightly around him. Rico looked up at me. “Where?” he asked, pushing to his feet.
“Meat packing plant out in the industrial park,” I told him, opening my phone to call for a meeting so I could assemble a rescue team to go with me. “I need to get a team together, and then, we can go.”
Rico shook his head. “You don’t need a team. Alfonzo and I will go with you.”
“I will, too,” Gunner said. “I’ll call Jax, and he can meet us there.
” Jax was also a member of the Ghost Born MC.
He’d gotten arrested at eighteen and spent nine years in a prison cell.
When he got out, he’d never been the same man.
I was pretty sure he was an undiagnosed psychopath like me.
We could usually sense each other. But he was loyal, and I trusted him.
And I knew Rico did, too. They were practically brothers at this point.
Jax was family, even if he wasn’t part of the Martinez family like the rest of us.
Gunner looked at Ace. “You stay here with him and keep him protected, understand?”
“I will, Papa,” Ace promised. “Nothing will happen to him.”
Gunner leaned in and kissed him. “Good boy. I’ll be back soon.”
“You better,” Ace teased, but there was a glint in his eyes that promised if Gunner got hurt, he’d make him regret it, along with anyone else who’d tried taking his husband from him.
Rico leaned down and brushed a light kiss to Anurak’s slightly parted lips. Then he looked at Ace, his fingers cupping the boy’s chin. I sighed, getting impatient. I didn’t have time for this bullshit. Alfonzo shot me a look, but when I just stared right back at him, his eyebrow quirked.
I knew right then that he knew I had a personal stake in getting Bento back home. But he didn’t say a word. Just focused back on the scene in front of us.
“I’m trusting you with him, Ace. Do not take that lightly.”
Ace scowled at him. “I would fucking never.”
Rico nodded, then stood back up to his full height. “Let’s roll. Niran, we’ll follow you, and we’ll discuss tactics on the way there through secure lines.”
Nodding once, I turned and headed for the garage, impatient to get on the fucking road and rescue my man before these mother fuckers killed him.