Chapter 39 #2
“Fair. Tara and Samaira are the ones bringing you the fucker.”
We were almost to the holding facility when the radio connecting to the Wildcats and Hugh crackled in my ear. While I was connected to my detectives through the official NYPD radio, I was connected to the Wildcats and Hugh through the comms he’d provided us.
“Knox, Lena, you there?” Hugh asked.
“I’m headed to the holding facility. I’ve got Sloane with me, Ruslan’s dead body in my hand. What is it?”
Lena’s voice immediately filled my ear. “I’m here. Vadim Orlov is also dead. Found the fucker right where Greg had told us. We’ve got eight girls with us. What’s the update?”
“Umm…We’ve got a problem,” Hugh said, his voice breaking at the end.
“What problem, Hugh?”
“Knox, don’t get mad.”
My eyes met Sloane, and I put my comm phone on speaker as I saw Dominic rushing out from the facility toward us, clearly hearing us on the call. “Now, I am mad, Hugh. Tara better be fucking alright.”
Lena yelled, “Hugh. Spit it the fuck out.”
“We’ve lost Tara. She just disappeared from the site.”
I watched Dominic’s steps falter at that. Sloane dropped to her knees. Lena’s voice was a mixture of rage and worry. My eyes watched the dread on Sloane’s and Dominic’s faces. My ears heard the shouting on the comms.
But my mind. My mind fucking splintered.
For the first time, my legs trembled with fear. My heart burst into agony, flames licking up my insides. It pounded against my ribs, bashing against the cage, needing to bellow.
Pain collided with wrath, and all I could feel was the blinding agony in my chest.
My hands shook as I pushed my throat to work and utter the words out of my chest. “Where the fuck is my girl?”
Samaira answered, “Tara and Sophie went inside the container that held the girls while Mark and I were outside taking down some ten fuckers. I was about to head inside when Tara told me via comms that Maxim had escaped from the back of the container. Mark and I took the nearest car and chased that fucker on the other side of the container aisle. By the time we caught him and dragged his unconscious body to the container, the backup had already arrived. Sophie was tending to the girls, but Tara was nowhere to be found.”
When I stayed silent, she said, “The only other person missing, along with Tara, is Greg.”
Greg. Greg. The fucker Greg.
An unhinged bark of laughter rattled through my chest. The guy I had put a little bit of faith in had kidnapped my girl.
I brought this upon my girl.
Dominic and Sloane stared at me as if they’d never seen a man who had just put the love of his life in danger.
The guilt, the anger, the wave of mindless fury exploded out of my chest in a thunderous roar. I whirled around and charged at the holding facility, my vision completely turned red.
My eyes clashed with Brandon, and I marched up to him and held him by the collar of his shirt. “Get me Greg’s fucking location right now. Contact the fucking IT specialist or whoever can track the chip we implanted in him.”
“Yes, sir,” Brandon said, looking down at my hands holding him in a ruthless grip. I let him go, and he immediately jumped on a call.
“What’s wrong, sir?” Clark asked, flinching when my eyes fell on him.
“What’s wrong is that the fucker has my girl. Anything else?”
“No, sir. We’ll get her back, sir.”
I marched outside to find Dominic with his phone glued to his ear.
I pulled out my contact list on the phone and dialed the fucker’s number, just in case he decided to pick up the call from the man who was going to kill him today.
Sloane stood beside me as the call rang on speaker. Sloane mumbled softly, “I knew something felt off with him. But why the fuck would he kidnap Tara? He could’ve just run. I don’t understand.”
Right then, the dead fucker dropped my call. Then he video-called me back immediately. Hot-blooded rage pounded through my body as I accepted the call with a swipe of my thumb.
“Hello, Lieutenant,” Greg said, his face washed in harsh light, as if he were in a dark room with a single light bulb. “Say hi to the ugly bitch.”
He panned the camera to Tara, who was struggling in a chair, snarling like a rabid beast at the fucker.
My heart thawed for a second, knowing that she was alive, before it exploded in fury.
The moment Greg turned the phone to himself, I pulled the camera closer to my face, as if he was standing right in front of me.
“If there is a single scratch on her, I will skin you alive until you’re only blood and muscles.
I’ll fucking keep you alive and then burn every single part of your body. You understand?”
The motherfucker laughed in my face. “Just like someone burned this bitch?” He instantly stopped laughing and cocked his head. “Don’t test me, Lieutenant Knox Steele. Or I will burn the other side of her face.”
My vision turned a violent shade of bloody red. “What the fuck do you want, Greg? Why all the fucking drama?”
He laughed then. He laughed and laughed until I was at the end of my patience, before pulling a chair next to my girl and sitting by her side, putting his fucking arm around her shoulders as if they were best buddies.
Tara, like the vicious little monster she was, turned her head and clamped her teeth around his ear, biting it until blood dripped down her lips.
If she were anybody else, I’d cheer for the brave fool. But that was my girl, and I needed her to be safe.
The fucker Greg punched my girl in the stomach, making her release his ear.
“Don’t you fucking touch her,” I yelled, but the fucker slapped her across the face.
He pulled the chair away and took a seat so I could still see her tied to the chair in the background. “Your girl is ugly but rabid. The other girl was nice. We could’ve gotten good money for her. Nobody would pay a dime for this disgusting bitch.”
The phone in my hand felt like it would crack. “What the hell do you want, Greg? Immunity?”