Chapter 41 #2
This wasn’t a situation where you could anticipate anybody’s next move, but when Drew began to laugh sadistically, spitting out as much of the blood as he could in between his sharp and shallow breaths, I truly believed I was seeing things.
“I would say I was sorry, but…” Drew sighed.
Cortez didn’t waste time in stepping up to him, his fist smacking him square across the jaw sending him swinging as much as his body would allow him to as he was held within the restrictions of the chains.
The sound was one of those things you can’t put words to—flesh on flesh, blunt trauma that comes so hard and fast, the sickening echo of it lingers.
“That one was just a warning. The next one goes across your woman’s face, not yours.
” Chester began to walk in a slow circle, making sure every inch of the sole of his shoe connected with the floor with each step he took.
“I wonder what the Navs would say if they knew you were imitating them to gain higher standing in the MC world.”
Drew glanced up, both brows rising as far as they could considering how swollen his face was becoming.
“You’re talking to me about imitating, Chester?” He coughed again, shaking his head slowly. “The Widow Makers were all you had? I can’t believe… I didn’t see it.”
Cortez threw his arms out to the side, showcasing himself to Drew. “You went big, I went small, and still, I am not the one who ended up in chains.”
“Not yet,” Drew added quietly, and I didn’t know if he was bluffing or if his confidence really was growing, but I knew I couldn’t tear my eyes away from him.
“Not ever.”
“I guess I should congratulate you on your chess move. Well played. I didn’t see you being behind those pissant kids.”
Cortez feigned a bow, sweeping his arm down and back up again. “I have more surprises where they came from.”
“So do I.” Drew coughed up even more, almost choking as he sucked in his stomach to try and combat whatever pain he was in. I felt helpless, but I was being caged by a man almost twice my size who seemed more than happy to prove how much stronger he was.
Stepping forward, Chester closed the gap between them, once again, tilting his head to the side.
“I think I know all your surprises by now, Mr. Tucker. I know more about you than you think. I knew your arrogance wouldn’t allow you to see what I was doing with those bastard boys.
I know now that the smirk you wear on your face is for nobody else’s benefit but mine.
I know your mind is racing with ways to save your bitch, even if that means sacrificing your own life.
I know pain doesn’t bother you, but shame does.
I know all about the way you tore my man apart in front of Sofia without so much as a thought for the family he was leaving behind. ”
Drew’s smile faded as he began to work the strong muscles along his jawline and the sound of the chains tightening rang out again.
“I also know you killed four of my men at the house fire.”
“Men who tried to burn two innocent people alive,” Drew hit back through gritted teeth.
“Ah, innocent lives. Let’s talk about those, shall we?” Cortez widened his stance, bringing both his hands behind his back as he leaned in closer to Drew. “Where is Hernandez?”
“He’s dead,” Drew answered matter-of-factly. “Buried in a shallow grave somewhere on the outskirts of town.”
The blow to his stomach was immediate, forcing all the air out of his body as he curled in on himself again and grunted in agony, unable to catch his feet beneath him as he rocked forward.
I didn’t know what I was thinking I could do to help, but my legs moved under me, only to receive a kick from the man standing watch.
He had to remove his foot from my head to do it, but he was reminding me of his constant presence.
“I’ll ask you again,” Cortez said, pulling Drew up to a more stable stand and resting his hand on his shoulder. “Where. Is. Hernandez?”
“I don’t know the location.” He sucked in a breath before rushing out to speak again. “But there’s a man in this room who does.”
Cortez paused in his next assault, the confusion across his face evident as he pulled back and leaned farther towards Drew. “Excuse me?”
“I said,” Drew forced his head back up to meet his stare head on.
“One of your men was with me the night we buried him. He also helped lure Sofia and her boy to the forest.” The slow smile on his face appeared again as he glanced over Chester’s shoulder and pushed out a humorless laugh.
“Y’all have got a rat up in here who’s played us both. ”
“No,” Cortez breathed out, uncertainty tainting his voice.
“Denial is to be expected.” Drew smirked.
“You’re lying.”
“I wish I was. I paid that bastard ten big ones of my club’s money to dish your shit out, and here I am strung up like fucking Jesus. I’ve got no reason to lie to you anymore. I’m dead anyway.”
Cortez spun on his heels quickly, glancing around at all the men he had with him in the shadows before he turned back to Drew and growled quietly. “Name. Now.”
“I’m no rat.”
“Name,” Cortez persisted.
“Look every one of your men in the eyes and you’ll see for yourself which one betrayed you.”
“Tell me who, now!”
Drew didn’t answer for such a long time, I felt like the walls were closing in on all of us, sure someone was going to pull a trigger at any given moment that would end his life and mine. The tension was thick and just one wrong move from anyone and the whole place would erupt.
When he eventually glanced up again, he found some strength in his arms and pulled his body back, only to laugh that sadistic laugh of his right in Cortez’s face.
“Doesn’t matter who it was who helped me bury him.
I killed him—these two hands of mine. They beat the last breath out of his body, just like Ramirez did with Pete.
I enjoyed every second of his pain. I watched him bleed and cry out for me to stop.
I got high off the stench of his blood. The more he cried like the pussy he was, the more I—”
The shriek from the shadows was so piercing it cut through the pain in my mind like a red-hot poker.
Before anyone had time to question what the hell was going on, the sharp click of heels came from one of the darkest corners of the place.
It seemed to take a lifetime for her to make it into the dim pool of light that was bathing Drew, but in reality, it was seconds.
It was the shock of what I was seeing that stopped time from having any meaning whatsoever.
Maisey Sutton appeared like a banshee, her lithe body ducking under the chains as she used Drew’s arm for leverage to swing her own body around to face him.
Her scream was still bouncing from the walls when her hand met his face.
It was slow at first, and everyone in the place seemed frozen in surprise as she clawed at his chest, half weeping and screaming at him.
I couldn’t stand to see her touch him. I pulled my legs under me and was halfway to standing when the asshole watching over me kicked the back of my knee, sending me sprawling on the floor yet again.
“You son of a bitch. I hate you. I fucking hate you, Drew,” Maisey screamed.
I pushed to my side, completely helpless, even though I could feel the rage pooling in my stomach.
“Maisey?” Drew asked with as much confusion as I felt right in the depths of my soul. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
“Hernandez was innocent, you asshole. He didn’t deserve to die. He was mine. Fucking mine!”
Drew looked as stunned as I did, his eyes flickering over Maisey’s face for a trace of a lie. I knew she hated me. It was pretty fucking obvious that she did, but I’d always thought it was because Drew wanted me. Maybe to some extent it was. I just wasn’t sure how long she’d been fucking an Emp.
“How long?” I demanded, shrinking away from the eyes that seemed to turn to me.
“Fuck you, Ayda,” she hissed back.
Cortez stepped away for a moment, his thumb tracing a path from his chin to his bottom lip again and again. He didn’t seem inclined to stop the line of questioning. In fact, he seemed to be enjoying it.
“It was never about you wanting Drew, was it? You just needed to get to him for Hernandez and his club,” I spat out.
Drew’s head fell back between his shoulders instantly, hanging limp as he stared up at the ceiling and let his disbelief fall free in a huff of laughter. “Well, fuck me.”
“Oh, I did,” Maisey snapped, turning her full attention to me. “Over and over and over again I fucked you, Drew. I did what I had to do. I stroked your ego and everything that went with it because I had to.”
“Of course you had to.” He sighed through a disbelieving smile, dropping his chin to his chest. In any other circumstance, he would have almost looked relieved.
“You had to be the rat in the short skirt for the Emps, and we just let you walk right on fucking in like the welcoming fuckers we are, right?”
She turned to look at him, pushing her chest out as if to show him what he was now missing. The surge of anger in my body went from wild to off the scale as I watched her taunting him.
“Your ego always let me in, just never quite as much as we needed you to.”
Drew raised a brow over his swollen eye and snarled. “There was a reason for that, Maisey.”
She moved closer to him. “I don’t give a fuck, Drew. You were a means to an end. I did what I had to do. I put up with Rosie’s constant crying, all your mens’ shit, your insatiable demands and then you went and got yourself locked up inside. I had to find some other dumb fuck to screw info out of.”
I couldn’t take much more. I pushed up to my knees again, shrugging off the asshole’s hand that clamped down on my shoulder. “Who?”
“None of your business, bitch. You ain’t nothing but a trick anyway.” She waved me off, her head rolling back to Drew, her body gravitating closer so she could bait us both.
“You’re calling me a hooker? You’re the one fucking people with an agenda. Why go after Sutton? If you were all about this Hernandez guy, why marry the chief?”
Maisey rolled her eyes, but she never looked at me. She kept her hooded eyes on Drew, working them down his chest like a rabid dog in heat. “You’re an idiot if you can’t figure it out.”
I was trying, but my slow, aching brain was also trying to put a round peg in a square hole and was coming up with triangles.
“You were counting on my rivalry with him.” Drew snorted with disgust.
“You surprise me sometimes, Drew. You’re too pretty to be intelligent,” she purred, slapping his cheek and turning to look at me. “Unfortunately, you showed up.”
People always say that the cock of a gun is one of the single most distinct sounds around. It was in that moment I finally understood what that meant. It cut through the silence that had settled after Maisey’s accusation.
“Well don’t I feel like a fool?” Sutton said, his service weapon pointed at Cortez’s chest as he stepped out of the shadows from what looked like an old, abandoned office in the corner of the building.
It was so dark it was hard to make anything out.
There was a mumble of surprise that was followed by four more guns repeating the same sound Sutton’s had.
It was clear no one had known he was there, and as he stepped to the side to get a better aim at Cortez, I could see the dim light from where the door behind him had been left open. He’d only just arrived.
I looked from the shadows to Drew in the middle. Another flash of fear ran down my spine, because by all accounts, he was in the crossfire of every single one of them.
“It’s not—” Maisey started, but Sutton cut her off, shaking his head.
“You used me?” he asked painfully. “It was all a lie?”
“No…”
“We had children together.”
“Howard, wait.”
“You’re never gonna see our kids again, Maise.” He reached for the radio on his shoulder and pressed the button. “This is Chief Sutton requesting back u—”
He never got to finish the sentence. The deafening roar of a gun going off triggered a domino effect, and all I could do was drop to the floor, keep my eyes on Drew and pray for a miracle.