Chapter 25
Rhys
W hen I thought the call disconnected before we got the location trace, I grabbed my hair and screamed, “Damn it!”
Devlin and James were typing on their computers and barely lifted their gazes to see me losing my shit.
Lucian approached and grabbed onto my forearms, only for me to shake them off.
“Let them work, Rhys. We have to figure out what she meant by that call, so let’s go over it while they work their magic. ”
My vision was clouded with a red haze, and it took a moment for me to concentrate on what Lucian said. Nodding, I followed him to his man, Johnson, who’d recorded the call. “Play it for us while you analyze the background noise.”
Johnson pressed play, and I felt sick as I listened to Hannah speak, knowing she was probably being watched, or worse. I looked at Lucian and said, “Play it again.” Listening again, I asked, “Hannah doesn’t have a younger brother, so was that a clue? Or an alert to us of something else?”
“I believe it was a clue,” Johnson said, and I snapped my head to him as he explained. “Listen to the background.” He lowered Hannah’s voice, and I could hear something in the ambient noise. “There. Did you hear it?” he asked, and I lifted my eyes to Lucian.
“Someone is helping her if he told her to play along. Who do you think it is?” I asked, but no one had an answer.
“We got the trace,” Devlin said, and I spun on my heels and met him at his computer.
Looking over his shoulder, I watched the screen as he pointed to something on a map.
“This is the cell tower she pinged off of, and if I remember correctly, wasn’t there a whorehouse the Syndicate ran just outside Memphis? ”
James began typing and pulled up the list of known whorehouses before scanning the list. “Here,” he remarked, pointing to an entry. “The house owned by the Syndicate’s holdings is within the same cell tower umbrella, so I think it’s safe to assume someone took over and the feds didn’t catch it.”
“Then we need to go get her,” I said and looked to the men surrounding me.
“I’m gonna call Gunner and see if he can send a few brothers as backup. Just in case,” Skid reasoned, and Devlin looked at him before nodding.
Skid walked out of the room as he began speaking with someone on his phone, and I turned to Lucian. “We’re going to need firepower and a plane. I’ve got the first, but you’re going to have to handle the second.”
“I’m on it,” he said and began typing into his phone. Lifting his eyes to me, he said with a menacing tone, “Get your weapons, Rhys. It’s time to find your woman and destroy this facade once and for all.”
I looked at his four men and nodded to two. “Johnson, Booker, if you’ll follow me, we can get what we need.”
My hands were tingling, and I felt an adrenaline rush as I quickly walked down the hallway and into my private office.
Glancing over my shoulder as they followed me inside, I turned away and walked to the small sitting area along the far wall.
Grabbing the chair to the left, I tossed it aside, lifted a picture from the wall, and dropped it to the floor.
There was a panel behind the picture, and when I pressed my thumb to the pad and it beeped, it entered my eight-digit code.
The two men stood in their black pants, shirts, and boots, with their arms crossed over their chests as they watched me crack the wall open after the lock disengaged.
Sliding the panel to the side, I motioned for them, and Johnson was the first to stick his head inside my private vault as I began to pull weapons from their positions.
“Fuck me, Rhys,” Johnson said as Booker whistled. “You’ve got enough fire power to start a small war.”
“You never know what might come up, and I like to be prepared,” I returned and started handing weapons to them.
I knew everyone here had a pistol on their side, but we needed heavier firepower if we were going to have the upper hand.
If someone was crazy enough to take Hannah twice, then we needed to hit them with everything we had, and this time, everyone would stay alive until I interrogated and tortured them for additional names.
There was no way I was letting this Syndicate bullshit go one more day. Those assholes were responsible for so much pain to so many, and I was determined to bury them all and never look back.
On a whim, I grabbed four hand grenades and handed them to Booker. “Be careful with these.”
His eyes grew wide, and he glanced at a shocked Johnson before he took them and placed them into the cargo pockets of his pants.
I loaded each man up with as many long guns they could carry and started stacking boxes of ammo onto a little cart.
Pushing it out of the vault, I closed and secured the room behind me and walked up to Lucian’s men.
“Is this enough?”
They looked at the arsenal we were carrying, and Johnson acknowledged, “I think we’ve got what we need.”
“Take these to Lucian and Devlin, and I’ll be right there. I need to get changed.”
They didn’t respond as they turned and walked out of my office.
I collapsed into the chair and rested my hands on my head as I took deep breaths.
I’d done a lot of fucked-up shit in my life, and I’d killed more than a few people, but this was the most important mission of my life, and I couldn’t fail.
A soft knock sounded into my office, and I lifted my head to see Regan walking in. She offered me a tight smile and walked behind the desk and propped herself on the edge. “Are you okay?”
Sighing, I looked at her and admitted, “Not really, Re. What if . . . what if I’m too late?”
“Then you heal her like you healed me. You give her time, space, patience, compassion, and understanding, and eventually, she’ll come back around. Just . . . don’t give up on her,” Regan advised, and I stood and hugged her to me.
“When did you get so smart?” I asked, and she looked up at me with a smile.
“I’ve always been smart. You’re just now seeing my brilliance.”
I chuckled and whispered, “I love you, little sister.”
“I love you too. Now, go find my future sister-in-law and bring her back to me.”
I went to leave my office, and just as I walked out into the hallway, I heard Regan say, “I’m proud of you.”
Until I met Hannah, Regan was the best part of my life, and knowing she’s as worried about Hannah as I am told me so much.
Regan struggled to open herself up after her ordeal, and if speaking with Hannah helped, then maybe I needed to see about getting some of the ladies together so they could talk.
Anything to help them find their way back to the light.
Grabbing my clothes from the footlocker in the corner, I quickly changed into my black pants, shirt, and boots before strapping a gun to each ankle and one to my hip.
Returning to the banquet room, I saw James and Devlin had their computers packed up as Lucian and his men inspected the weapons.
They heard me walk in, and Lucian turned his head and remarked, “Did you bring enough guns?”
“I’ve got more, if that’s not enough,” I said with a neutral expression, and Lucian shook his head with a smirk.
“The plane’s ready for takeoff, and Skid said Gunner is sending over four of his men to help,” Devlin explained as he walked up to us.
Exhaling, I looked around at the men who were going to charge into the unknown to save my woman and announced, “I can’t say thank you enough for helping save Hannah.”
“She’s family. Not only to Lucian and me, but to everyone here. So, let’s put away our training bras and go get her,” Devlin exclaimed, and I nodded as everyone briefly made eye contact with me.
Filing out of my house and into the SUVs parked outside, I bounced my leg as we made our way down the long driveway and past the guard shack.
They opened the gate and James turned onto the road, headed toward the private airstrip close to my house.
Lucian was in the backseat behind me, and Devlin was behind James.
Skid was following us with Lucian’s men as we flew down the road.
It was barely past noon when we pulled into the airstrip and parked our vehicles.
The nine of us loaded all the weapons onto the plane before we climbed inside and got ready for takeoff.
We taxied down the runway less than five minutes later, and as we took to the skies, I hoped Hannah was able to hold on until we found her.
A brief thought crossed my mind. What if we were wrong about where she was or who had her? Where would we look next? And would it be too late?
THE DIRT RUNWAY WE landed on felt like it was paved with potholes, and twice I had to reach up and push away from the bulkhead before I smashed my head into it from the bumps.
“Fucking hell, this is a shitty runway,” Booker remarked as we jostled and rocked from the uneven ground below the wheels.
“Blame the Syndicate. They refused to pave the runway when they owned it, and from what I can tell, the cows are the only ones keeping the grass mowed,” Lucian said as the plane began to turn toward a hangar that appeared to be falling down.
The door slid open and an older man stepped out and wiped his hands as the plane came to a stop. Johnson lowered the stairs and, one by one, we filed out of the plane and walked up to the man.
“You must be Rosco,” Devlin said, and the man nodded and spit brown liquid on the ground before he chewed on his tobacco again.
“Do you have my money?” the old man asked.
Lucian reached into his pocket and pulled out a small stack of bills. “You get half now and the rest when we return. If you warn anyone we’re here, I’ll not only kill you and burn your life to the ground, but I’ll find anyone you’ve ever looked at and destroy them too. Are we clear?”
The man swallowed and nodded as two vehicles pulled up behind us.
Seeing them defend Hannah was more than I ever expected.
I thought they’d turn away from her, or even have a quasi-relationship as siblings, but I never thought they would go into battle for her.
Hannah’s good heart and innocence in Sergey’s wake gave her a glow that shined goodness and light into the world.
“What do we know about this place?” James inquired as he got behind the wheel and pulled the vehicle onto a small country road.
I opened my laptop and began typing. “The house was raided by the feds around the time Lucian went undercover, and they helped relocate the women who were rescued.” I kept typing, feeling Lucian’s gaze on me as I dug a little further.
“Fuck me.” Devlin spun around, and James looked into the rear-view mirror as I turned to Lucian.
“This . . . this is where Stella was rescued from.”
The rage on Lucian’s face was evident as I clenched my jaw instead of yelling. However this came to be, it all connected back to one man and his narcissistic need to control the world through ill-gotten power.
“Someone needs to explain to me how a whorehouse owned by the Syndicate and raided by the feds is where we think Hannah is. How does this shit keep rolling around on itself?” Devlin huffed, and I was at a loss for an answer.
“It had to be one of his whores,” Lucian remarked as we got farther from the airstrip and closer to saving Hannah. “I can’t remember much about them besides the fact there was one who hung on his every word. Maybe she’s the one who’s calling the shots.”
We were all quiet as James maneuvered us closer to where we believed Hannah was being held. One man and his selfish decisions caused all this pain and heartache, and there were still missing pieces. But one thing we knew . . .
This ended today.