Chapter 33
I glide across the smooth surface of the water, thinking about her. When the fuck am I not thinking about her? My feelings for Zilphia confuse me. Could I be falling in love? Nah. Hate is my love language.
And by fucking God, I hate that fucking girl with an intensity that burns brighter than the sun. Besides, I decided a long time ago that love doesn’t exist.
Do I want to fuck her? More than my next breath. Do I want to make her suffer? Absolutely. Do I want to make her bleed? That’s a hell fucking yes.
But love? Love is a fucking fairytale, the elusive unicorn for the dumb and desperate, only existing in unrealistic romance novels and television, filling impressionable young minds with bullshit aspirations and a false idealism that one day they’ll find their happily ever after…
their soul mate… their better half. Idiots.
All of them, but then again, everyone plays the fool once, twice, or several times in their life.
I once coveted the illusion until reality gave me a swift kick in the balls. Seeking the four-letter word came at a great cost to me, but the tables have turned, and my personal brand of revenge is a dish best served piping hot. So fucking hot, it singes the roof of the mouth.
Making her suffer won’t be enough to sate my bloodlust. I need something more, but I don’t know what that something is. If only I could reanimate the dead, I would fuck her, kill her, then bring her back over and over again—each homicide more gruesome than the last.
Blood rushes to my cock at the thought. I would gladly surrender my soul to the devil himself in exchange for the ability to kill Zilphia a thousand different ways.
I reach the end of the indoor pool and push into a flip turn.
Once upon a time, I couldn’t swim, but Zilphia taught me how.
Lesson after lesson, I became stronger, more confident in the water.
Zilphia never lost patience with me. She was always kind, always nurturing, and that only made me love her more.
My cell phone rings, snapping me back to the present. I swim to the edge of the pool and tap the speaker icon.
“Yeah.”
“We have a problem,” Snake growls, raising the hairs on the back of my neck.
“What is it?”
“Zilphia’s not at school,” he informs me.
“What the fuck do you mean she’s not at school?
” I snarl, already out of the pool and bounding toward the house, a million and one thoughts racing through my mind.
Did she run or was she kidnapped? Probably the former, but the brotherhood has many enemies, so a kidnapping isn’t far-fetched. “Where the fuck is she?”
“I don’t know. Me and a few brothers searched the entire building,” he explains. “We couldn’t find her anywhere. Meela isn’t here either. Could be a coincidence, but more than likely they’re together.”
“What about her other friend?” I ask, taking the stairs two at a time to my bedroom.
“She’s here but says she doesn’t know where they are.”
“You believe her?” I toss my phone on the bed and step out of my swim shorts.
“She’s lying through her fucking teeth, but I can get her to talk,” Snake states with grim promise.
“Take her to The Sanctuary,” I instruct him. “I’ll be there in twenty.”
“Will do.”
I’m dried, dressed, and out the door in less than ten minutes.
I called Zilphia, but as expected, my call went straight to voicemail.
I installed a tracker on her phone, but little good that’ll do me with the damn thing shut off.
If she left on her own, she’s going to regret the day she entered this world.
I put wheels to asphalt, burning rubber toward The Sanctuary.
Once there, I storm to the basement and into the hidden room where many of our enemies met their demise.
Snake sits at a table alongside the two fuckers who were supposed to keep an eye on Zilphia, the trio entertaining themselves with a card game.
Leah cowers in the opposite corner, her face stained with tears.
“I swear I don’t know where she is,” she sobs, pushing to her feet. “Please let me go.”
I ignore her and stomp over to the motherfuckers responsible for letting my property slip away.
A fist to the jaw unseats prospect one, sending him crashing to the concrete floor.
“You pieces of shit were supposed to keep an eye on her!” I roar and prospect two finds himself next to his counterpart with a bloody nose.
Leah makes a break for it, but Snake’s right behind her in an instant, seizing her long ponytail and flinging her into the wall. She plummets to the floor in a sobbing heap.
“My glasses!” she cries, reaching out toward the broken plastic and glass.
“Run again and broken glasses will be the least of your worries,” Snake warns her.
“I’m sorry, Sandman,” prospect one says, his eyes bulging with fear. “I don’t know how we missed her. We were watching the building, but didn’t see her come out.”
I drop to my haunches and coast a finger through the blood trickling down his chin.
“I wonder how long it takes a person to die from being skinned alive. Minutes? Days? Weeks perhaps?” I ask softly, but the threat is loud and clear.
“You two better hope she’s found sooner rather than later.
” I rise to my full height. “Get out, but do not leave The Sanctuary.”
A few of the brothers are already waiting upstairs to keep them company. It’s all hands on deck until Zilphia is found.
I stalk toward Leah, but Snake steps in my path. “I got this.”
“Go grab a drink at the bar,” I say, stepping around him. “You don’t want to be here for this.”
He places a firm hand on my shoulder. “I said I got this.”
I scowl at the offending appendage. “Do you want to keep that hand, little brother? One way or another, she’s going to talk.”
“I’ll get her to talk,” he rumbles, his turbulent coal-black gaze daring me to challenge him. Challenge accepted. I ball my hands into fists, ready to beat the fuck out of him, but his next words deflate my anger. “She’s mine.”
I understand now, this isn’t him trying to compare the size of our dicks. Leah is his, in the same way Zilphia is mine. No one else is allowed to hurt her; that privilege belongs to him and him alone. I nod. “I’ll give you ten minutes, little brother.”
Snake fastens a hand into her micro locs and hauls her to her feet. “Where the fuck is she?”
“I don’t—” he flings her into the wall, and again she crashes to the floor.
“The clock is ticking, Leah.” He saunters over to her and lifts a booted foot to her throat. “Are you prepared to die today?”
She clamps both hands around his ankle, trying to relieve the crushing pressure on her trachea. “Please,” she croaks, wheezing for breath. “I’m telling the truth.”
The girl is loyal, I’ll give her that, but my patience is wearing thin.
A bullet to the kneecap will have her spilling her guts real quick, but I’ll let Snake do his thing first. For the next several minutes, he tosses her around the room like a rag doll, but she doesn’t break.
She maintains that she doesn’t know where Zilphia is.
“I know what’ll get her talking,” Snake says to me, then leaves the room.
Leah grabs the leg of the table and pulls herself into a sitting position. “I don’t know where she is!” she wails. “Let me go before he kills me!”
“This is child’s play,” I remark, gesturing toward her. “When it’s my turn, the real torture begins.”
“You’re an animal,” she accuses, her tear-filled gaze flashing fire at me.
I laugh and dig my cell phone out of my back pocket, making a show of checking the time. “Yeah, I am, and in about three minutes, you’ll see firsthand just how much of an animal I can be.”
“No wonder Zilphia’s…” Leah starts, but then snaps her lips together.
“No wonder Zilphia what?” I question, straightening from my slouch on the wall.
My inquiry is met with silence. Just as I’m about to snatch her ass up and introduce her to the animal, Snake strolls back into the room with his pet python coiled around his neck.
“No! No! No!” Leah screams and crawls beneath the table. “Take it away! Take it away!”
Snake looks at me and smirks. “She has a snake phobia.”
“Clearly,” I deadpan.
He flips the table, and she scurries across the floor on all fours. “Keep it away from me!” she shouts, plastering herself into a corner.
“Tell us what we want to know,” Snake barks, kneeling in front of her. “Or you can spend the night with Marla.” He removes the six-and-a-half-foot reptile from his neck and places it around hers.
Leah’s terrified screams rend the small space, and I’m of a mind to knock her the fuck out. Zilphia’s screams are music to my ears, hers, not so much.
Snake rubs the top of Marla’s head. “Do you want me to take her?”
“Yes! Please get it off me!”
“Then you know what you need to do, sweetheart,” he whispers and places a kiss on the corner of her mouth.
“She went to have an abortion!” Leah cries hysterically. “Get it away from me!”
I stumble backward, my heart nearly stopping in my chest at her revelation.
Snake jerks his wide gaze to mine, displaying the same shock I’m sure is mirrored in my own.
Of all the scenarios that ran through my mind, this wasn’t even a bleep.
I expected her to be on a plane heading halfway around the world.
My turbulent emotions morph into raging anger.
If Zilphia killed our unborn child, her fate is sealed.
“Where?” I growl between clenched teeth.
“I swear on my father’s life, I don’t know!” she shouts, her eyes wild with fear. “They didn’t tell me. Please get it off me.”
Long strides carry me from the room and up the stairs. I need to round up as many brothers as I can to search for Zilphia. Time is critical. I have to save my unborn child.