Chapter 21
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
WRENLEY
I wasn’t sure what woke me. Squinting at the bedside lamp shining brightly, I noticed Torch sitting, dressed in jeans and a tee, with his elbows on his thighs at the edge of the bed, beside my hip.
Reaching over, I rested my hand on his lower back as I rubbed at my eyes. “Can’t sleep?”
I hoped it wasn’t because of what we’d shared or from me using his name.
He shook his head.
My stomach cramped with worry.
Sitting, I rested against the headboard. That was when I saw the knife he twirled in his left hand. “What’s wrong?”
He glanced over his shoulder. “I don’t know.”
But something had him unsettled, and I wanted to help him relax in some way.
I kicked off the blankets, climbed around him, and got out of bed. Grabbing a sweater, I pulled it over my head and said, “We’ll go see if Death and Raya are awake and check on Harley. Maybe once you see everything’s okay, you can get some sleep.” I picked up a hair tie and pulled my strands up into a messy bun.
He straightened his spine but stayed seated.
I held out my hand to him and smiled.
He glanced from my hand to me and then over to my window just as glass shattered. I screamed, and something heavy landed on the floor.
Torch grabbed me around the waist, lifted me off my feet, and started for the door. There was another sound in the air, and Torch stumbled. Smoke filled the room, but it didn’t smell like fire.
I coughed and choked.
Torch reached the door and yanked it open. Some of the smoke blew away so I could see through watery eyes that needlelike things stuck out of Torch’s shoulder.
Fear slammed into me.
Not for me but him.
“Torch,” I cried.
“Death,” he roared through the house.
“Get her out” was bellowed back.
I heard it then— pop, pop, popping , like something was going off.
My blood froze at the realization that it was a gun.
No, no, no. They’re fine. We’re all going to be fine.
Torch fell to his knees but drew me behind his body to sit me on the floor and lean against the wall. I struggled to keep my eyes open.
“Torch?” I muttered, blinking up at him.
His next roar hurt my chest. There was so much terror inside the sound.
My arms grew heavy, harder to move, but I tried to touch him as he crouched over me with knives in his hands.
He snarled at the movement around us.
“He’s still awake?” someone said.
I blinked, but things started to blur.
“We need to go. The second team can’t get to the other people in the house. They’re staying back longer to distract them, giving us time to get away.”
Raya and Death. They were safe at least.
Just take me . I tried to speak, but my mouth felt like it was full of cotton.
Leave him. Please. Just take me.
Torch moved in front of me, snarling and growling.
“Fuck, he nearly sliced me.”
“How the fuck can he see and function? The girl only had the gas, and she’s out of it.”
“I don’t know, but we’ve got to get gone with them right now.”
There was another sound, a roar, and then a heated weight fell on me as I blacked out.
Groaning, I sluggishly ran a hand over my face and cringed at the sound around me. Someone was yelling, but I couldn’t understand what they were saying. There was a hard throb at my temples. Bile rose, but I swallowed it down.
Torch.
I opened my eyes, ready to search for him, only to shield them with my hand from the bright light.
“She’s awake,” someone said.
A hand fisted my hair, and I cried out when I was pulled up to my knees. I gripped and clawed at the wrist holding me.
As my eyes adjusted, I saw everything.
Breathing heavily, I watched as six men held Torch to the ground on the other side of the warehouse.
“Don’t fuckin’ touch her. Don’t. Touch. Her,” Torch boomed.
His furious gaze had locked onto the hand holding my topknot.
“It didn’t have to come to this.”
That voice. That damn voice I knew too well.
Tony yanked my head back, so I had to look at him.
My stomach sank. I swallowed thickly as tears welled.
“Leave him out of it,” I pleaded.
Torch grunted as he lifted off the floor a little but was forced back down.
Tony laughed. “Isn’t that sweet of you. But he’s staying right there. He’s going to watch what we do to you, and then we’ll kill you both.” He shook me by my hair. Pain sliced at my skull, and I sucked in a sharp breath, but I wouldn’t cry. Tony sneered and tsked at me. “I should have taken care of you a long time ago. But then you had to get him onto us. He scratched up my car. He threatened me. Made me look like a fool in front of my friends. But they now know the lengths I’ll go to end my troubles. Don’t you, boys?”
There were mumbled voices behind us. I couldn’t see them with the hold Tony had on me. Not that I wanted to.
Tony laughed. “And soon, my father will see what I can do too. He didn’t think I could manage getting to you, but I have. He’ll see.”
Tony cackled again as I met Torch’s gaze and smiled softly at him.
It’s going to be okay.
We’ll be all right.
“The bitch isn’t even listening to you.” Mitch moved close to my other side. How many were behind me? And who was holding down Torch? I didn’t know any of them.
Mitch pinched my cheeks and forced my head up. “Stupid little cunt thought you could run. Poor little Wrenley saw her daddy kill her mommy, and now she’s just going to end up like her. Dead. But that’s after we get to play again. This time you’ll be awake for it all.”
“Don’t. Touch. Her,” Torch snarled.
Mitch let go of me and faced Torch with a grin. “Don’t touch her,” he mimicked in a higher tone and then snorted. “What are you going to do about it?”
Tony tugged my hair hard to drag me up to stand between them. A whimper escaped, until I clamped my lips together.
“There’s nothing he can do,” Tony said. “So, I’ll do anything I want.”
His hand squeezed my breast. Mitch grabbed the other. I cursed and dug my nails into their hands as I pushed them away. Mitch laughed, jumping back when I tried to scratch him. Kicking out, I aimed and connected with Tony’s shin before he shook me by my bun again. The sharp sting had the fight draining out of me.
A grunted growl started from Torch. It grew louder and louder, gaining everyone’s attention. He forced his elbow back, managing to hit one of the people holding him in the throat. That man fell to his ass, coughing and spluttering. Torch took the advantage and rolled with a roar, punching, kicking, and pulling another man down on top of him, locking an arm around his neck, choking.
Screaming started, orders for him to stop, but I knew he wouldn’t. He wanted to get to me. He wanted to help me.
Even when the others started punching and kicking Torch, he didn’t let go of the man he held, whose face was now a bright red.
“Tony, we should leave. Take Wrenley and go,” someone said from behind us.
“Yeah, man. That fucker is crazy,” a new voice commented.
“He’s going to kill him. Choke him out and come after us if they don’t get a handle on him. We need to leave,” another male voiced.
“Shut the fuck up, you pussies,” Mitch ordered. “What, you’re good enough to mess with an unconscious girl, but you can’t handle the harder shit?”
“Tony—”
“Listen to Mitch,” Tony snapped.
There were four others in Tony’s group.
How were we going to get out of this?
No. I wouldn’t go down that train of thought. We would get away. I couldn’t question how. I just had to believe we would. Somehow.
The man Torch held stopped struggling and slumped over him just as a gun fired.
A panicked cry left me when I thought they’d shot Torch. But it’d come from the man standing over their group, who had sent a shot into the roof. Bits of rubble drifted to the concrete floor.
“Get this fucker back over on his stomach and fucking hold him,” the man ordered. “Who the hell is this guy?” he demanded from Tony but kept talking, “He didn’t go down with two tranqs. He’s awake earlier than anyone else would be, and now he’s managed to kill one of my men.”
“He’s a nobody. Just someone this bitch dragged into her home.”
Torch laughed then. Low and crazed.
He didn’t have his club vest on, so the guy wouldn’t know Torch was a part of the Diamond MC, and it was obvious Tony hadn’t informed them either.
“You’re a fool,” I said.
Slap. Mitch cursed at me, stepping back as he dropped his arm.
I rightened my head and smiled through the burn to my cheek.
Tony glared. “I’m not the fool?—”
Looking past him, I told the man, “He’s not a nobody.”
A ragged breath flew from my mouth when Mitch punched me in the stomach.
Noises broke from Torch. A keen, a growl—it was almost animalistic.
“Stop,” the man bellowed, firing off another shot. “When you hurt her, he goes ballistic. You’ve risked my men too much tonight.”
“You’re being paid handsomely for it,” Tony grouched.
“Your money ain’t shit when I lost a man. You said it’d be easy. You said it was a quick in, grab, and out. Who is this motherfucker?”
“You don’t get the details?—”
The man aimed the gun at Tony. “Listen, you little shit, you obviously lied when you said these two stole from you. That they were just college kids who you wanted to scare. It was fucking lucky I had the stuff to drug that damn dog and send in two groups instead of one. Tell me who this guy is.”
“If you shoot me, you don’t get the rest of the money. You’re here just to hold him while we teach him who’s in charge when it comes to this piece of ass.”
“Holding him ain’t fucking easy, dickhead. Who is he?”
“You don’t need to?—”
The roller door to the left swept up.
Torch stilled to take in whatever was about to happen when an older man walked in with two other middle-aged men who were dressed in suits.
“What is this? What’s going on?” the older man asked as he slowly approached. The guys at his sides pulled their weapons free but held them down.
“Oh, Tony, what have you done?”
“Who’re you?” the man with the gun asked, which he swung their way, causing the other two to aim at him in return.
“You told me I wouldn’t be able to handle the situation.” Tony waved his free arm around while shaking me a little with his other. “I’ve handled it.”
“No, no, no, son. You don’t know who she belongs to.”
Tony scoffed. “Belongs to? That guy?” He nodded toward Torch, who was still being held down.
Tony’s father cursed.
“I told you I could handle it. They don’t scare me,” Tony yelled. “No one knows it was me who took them. That’s what I hired Bentley and his group for.”
“Don’t use my goddamn name,” Bentley yelled, but he was ignored by father and son.
Tony’s father pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head before lifting and locking his gaze onto Tony. “You’ve made a big mistake, son.”
Tony scowled. “I handled the situation. The one you didn’t think I could.”
“I told you to leave it for a reason, Tony,” he snapped, then sighed and shook his head. “Why would you come here of all places? You know it’s off-limits.” He pulled a phone out of his pocket and started typing.
“Why are you here?” Tony countered, voice wavering a little.
“Hang the fuck on,” Bentley said, waving his gun around, but was ignored again.
“I’m here for other reasons before I meet with someone. Now I have to get him to go elsewhere. You better hope he gets my message.”
“Do your other reasons have anything to do with the meth lab in the back?” Tony asked.
His father scowled. “You know nothing, Tony. If you want to keep living the way you have, you’ll keep your mouth shut and make sure your friends do too.”
Two cars pulled close to the roller door.
“Fuck,” the father clipped.
Tony’s hand tightened in my hair, and I winced, meeting Torch’s gaze.
“It’s okay,” I mouthed.
His jaw clenched, his nostrils flared, and he tried to get up again. I could read the fear in his eyes.
Fear for me.
Car doors opened.
Bentley yelled at Torch to keep still.
He didn’t. Torch groaned, growled, and tried over and over to get out from under the other men.
“Stop moving,” Bentley screamed. He kicked at Torch before he moved near his head and pressed the tip of the gun to Torch’s temple.
“Don’t,” I screamed.
Torch stilled, falling back down to lie flat on the ground.
“What the hell is going on, Chester?”
Ice filled my veins as I slowly turned to see Officer Plank with ten other men standing inside the entrance.