Chapter Seventeen
Cillian
To my relief, Jamie was already moving. He wore a grim, determined expression, and his knuckles paled he was gripping the steering wheel with such strength.
“She’s got to be there.” Finn pulled out his gun and checked it. “Where else is there?”
“Phone could have been dumped miles from where she is, a red herring so to speak,” Phil said.
“I don’t think this Reg Jacks is that smart,” Cillian said, staring straight ahead now we were approaching the big locked gate. “In fact, I know he’s not, ’cause he’s messed with the wrong guys, big time.”
“Not much going on there.” Dalton was using binoculars to check out the farm. “There’s three cars, though, and one is white, so I’d say at least three people are home.”
“Yeah, good shout,” I said.
“Could be the white car we’re after,” Phil said.
“Any dogs?” Jamie asked.
“No, can’t see any life. Oh…wait…there’s some guy walking across the yard.”
“What’s he wearing?” I asked.
“Black, black everything including beanie…in this weather, twat.”
“Fuck, that’s him.” I turned to Finn. “That’s what he was wearing when he took her.”
“She’s there,” Finn said. “I know it.”
“We need to be quick. Go faster.” I twitched with adrenaline. “Hurry the fuck up, Jamie.”
“I am…fuck, this damn road.”
We were all jostled as he flew over several potholes.
Phil’s head hit the roof. “Fuck!” he muttered.
He then drew to an almost skidding halt in front of a five-bar metal gate that had a substantial chain around it and the post to its left.
“Soon sort that.” Phil slid open the door and leaped out. After rooting around in the back for a moment, he appeared with massive bolt cutters. It took him all of six seconds to free the gate and open it wide.
Jamie drove through it, and he jumped back in.
“You still see Jacks?” I asked Dalton.
“No, he’s gone, into a stable, I think.”
“Fuck, bastard can only be up to no good.”
“If she’s fucking in there and he hurts a hair on her head…” Finn slammed his fist into his palm.
We were almost at the yard now, and weren’t even pretending to keep our cover, though Jamie did pull up into the shade of the stable block.
Finn and I hit the cobbles running.
“That one, second on the left,” Dalton called after us. “We’ll check out the main building.”
Neither of us replied. We turned the corner and raced over the straw-littered ground. Desperate urgency had gripped us both. I could sense it as acutely in Finn as it was in myself.
I scanned the area, kept on running. There was no movement, though a door in the farmhouse was wide open, as though someone was about to come out of it.
When we reached the black stable door, Finn shoulder barged the center. It flew open in one piece but then crashed up against the wall and splintered in two.
The scene that greeted me made my blood turn to pure liquid vengeance. Our beautiful Rebecca was being forcibly held down on a pile of straw. She was squirming and twisting and trying her best to get away. Her ass was exposed, and her cries were filled with both terror and fury.
“What the fuck?” Her attacker turned to us, cheeks flushed and eyes wide. He had his erect cock out, pants shoved to his thighs. “Who the hell are you?”
Finn let out a roar and lunged at him, knocking him to the right with the force of a bull elephant.
“Rebecca.” To my relief, it seemed he hadn’t assaulted her sexually. Thank God we’d arrived when we had. A moment longer…it didn’t bear thinking about.
“Cillian?” she managed weakly.
I rushed to her and took her in my arms. Her limbs didn’t seem to be working properly, as though they were leaden. “I’ve got you. We’re here. It’s okay.” I paused. I had to know. “Did he? Are we too late?”
“No, no…I’m okay. He didn’t…” She sobbed and gripped my t-shirt with weak fists. “Reg…it’s Reg Jacks. He…he…took me and…”
“We know. Shh…it’s over now.”
“Get off me, you cunt.” Reg Jacks aimed a punch at Finn.
It didn’t land. Instead, Finn dragged him to standing and shoved him against the wall.
His head banged off the wooden panels, and the air was pushed from his lungs.
“You’re dead meat,” Reg said, glaring at Finn and then me.
“Both of you. I’ve got business with this bitch, unfinished business.
You’ve interrupted me.” He was breathing hard, his cock still stuck up ridiculously from his dark pubic hair.
He appeared to notice this and tucked himself away, frantically pulling up his pants.
“This bitch happens to be the woman we love, you asshole,” I said. A war was playing out inside me. I was torn between holding Rebecca, who was shaking with fear, and my need to get up and physically tear the life from Reg Jacks. He was a dead man and taking his last few breaths.
“Looks like we interrupted just in time,” Finn said and jabbed out his fist. He broke Reg’s nose, right over the bridge, the crunch of bone unmistakable.
Reg cried out as blood exploded from his nostrils. “What have you done…I’ll fucking fuck you up…”
“That’s just for starters.” Finn turned to me. “She okay?”
“Yeah, just, and no thanks to him.”
Footsteps outside. A shout. Gunfire.
“What the fuck?” Finn turned to the stable door.
Reg made the most of his distraction and hurled himself at Finn, toppling him to the floor. Finn’s gun skittered toward an orange bucket, and a pitchfork fell over.
Rebecca gasped and curled up into a ball. I held her closer. Finn could handle himself with or without a weapon.
And he was handling himself just fine. Thumping, kicking, twisting the way he did in the cage.
Another shot rang out. I heard Jamie’s voice and then Phil’s. They were near the stable.
Reg grunted as Finn delivered a double kidney punch. But then in a move much quicker than I thought he was capable of, the asshole stretched for the pitchfork and scooped it up.
Finn jumped to his feet, lightning fast, and held himself ready to block an attack.
“Ha, thought you were so damn clever.” Reg snarled, and with blood dripping from his chin he jabbed the four prongs at Finn. “Rocking up here and thinking you can change things that have got to happen.”
“I’m gonna change every fucking thing for you, mate,” Finn said, then dodged to the right to avoid a stab to the guts.
I held Rebecca tighter, though I was a coiled spring, ready to burst into action should Finn need me. We’d done enough tag fights to be able to read each other in an instant. Right now, he was on top of the situation.
Reg jabbed at him again. Finn dodged and stepped into the shadows.
Something was going down outside. Galahad were responding to whatever threat they’d come across. We needed to get out there. We needed to get Rebecca away from this place.
* * * *
Rebecca
Cillian’s arms around me were like magic, a fantasy, and I was scared in my drugged state I’d dreamt him up. But his warmth, his breath, his voice, it all felt real enough.
And Finn, fighting Reg, that shit was really happening, I was sure of it. Straw was being tossed into the air, and the light coming through the open door glinted off the sharp prongs of the pitchfork.
“Oh God,” I managed, terror gripping me as Reg jabbed at Finn. “Please…no…Cillian…stop it, stop them…”
“Shh, it’s okay, we’ll have you out of here soon.” Cillian kissed the top of my head.
Calmness exuded from him, and I couldn’t understand how with what was going on.
I watched, wide-eyed, panic coursing through my veins.
Reg had backed Finn into a corner. Finn had nowhere to go, he was about to be impaled, gutted by the fork. I couldn’t bear it.
But then Finn moved so fast he was a blur to me. He kicked the handle of the fork, spun around a full three-sixty, and then pounced on Reg.
Reg didn’t have time to react and stared dumbly at his weapon flying through the air before he was slam-dunked to the floor and Finn captured him in a headlock.
Reg grunted, his bloody face red and puffy. He scratched and yanked at Finn’s arm. His legs kicked, and his heels scuffed on the floor, up and down, up and down. But it was no good; he was in a death grip.
“Finish him off,” Cillian said. “And let’s get out of here.”
“You sure she’s okay?” Finn said.
“Yeah.” Cillian hooked his finger beneath my chin. “He didn’t…did he?”
“No, but he was about to.”
“Thank goodness we got here when we did.”
His lips pressed on mine, and a tiny kernel of calmness settled in me.
“Then I’ll make this quick,” Finn said.
Reg was struggling to breathe around Finn’s grip. He was snorting and snuffling and gasping.
“Don’t watch,” Cillian kept my face tipped to his. “Just know he’s got this coming, it’s what he deserves. He’s an evil man, a killer, a rapist, he’s already proved that. He’ll never stop unless we stop him.”
There was a sickening crack and for a moment utter silence.
Cillian stared into my eyes. “Good girl, it’s over. He will never hurt you or scare you again.”
I knew what Finn had done. He’d broken Reg’s neck with one deft flick of his hand, taking the life from him in an instant.
“Fuck, shit is hitting the fan out there.” Finn was in my line of sight again. He grabbed his gun. “You wait here, I’ll make sure it’s okay to get her to the van.”
Cillian stood and took me up with him, his arms a safety net around me. My legs were like jelly and my spine weak, but I managed to pull up my pants.
Finn rushed through the bright doorway, his weapon at the ready.
“What’s happening?” Cillian edged us toward the door.
“I’m guessing Galahad ran into some bad guys.”
“Yes…yes…” I cleared my throat, my mouth so dry I could hardly talk. “There’s more of them, and something about girls, too.”
“Girls?”
“Yes, Reg wanted to put me in with them, but Bateman, a criminal you’ve got on your damn wall, he’s here, and he said no.”
“Ian Bateman! Fuck.”
Another gunshot.
I jumped in Cillian’s arms. The sound abused my eardrums.
Cillian flicked his head around the stable door.
I tried to see across the yard, but it was so bright and I blinked rapidly struggling to focus.
“I’m gonna get you to the van, it’s not far.”