21 | Cade
“What the fuck is goin’ on?” I roar down the phone to Spike, pacing back and forth, my heart racing because my fucking woman hasn’t returned.
“She ain’t here. I’ve been waitin’ and waitin’, but she ain’t here.”
“Then go and find her,” I bellow.
“There are fuckin’ thousands of shipping containers here, and I can guarantee most of them are guarded. If I step past this point, they’ll fuckin’ shoot me. I am doin’ my best to figure out what the fuck went on.”
“God dammit, Spike,” I rasp, my voice lethal. “Find her.”
Hanging up the phone, I take the keys to my bike and charge out the door. Jackson reaches out, blocking me, his eyes full of concern, but I can see the logic behind them. I know he wants to make heads roll, but he’s also calm, collected and thinks about things in a way that right now, I am not.
“Do not fuckin’ stop me from goin’ after her,” I shove him back, panting with my fists by my side.
“If you do somethin’ stupid right now, you’ll fuckin’ end up gettin’ her killed. Do you fuckin’ hear me? Stop actin’ on emotion and use your fuckin’ brain. That’s my kid, you think it isn’t taking everything inside me not to go in there and do somethin’ stupid.”
“Get out of my way,” I bellow, shoving him so hard he stumbles back.
Jackson might be older than me, but he doesn’t back down. He moves like lightning, pushing his arm against my throat and slamming me against the shed wall. He’s panting, his nostrils flaring, and there is a deadliness in his eyes that has me pausing. He isn’t pulling punches, and he’s making sure I know it.
“Do not ever fuckin’ put your hands on me again.” He growls in my face. “We are goin’ to get her back, but not if you do somethin’ stupid.”
He releases me, stepping back, and I stare at him as everything in my body is screaming at me to fight, to run, to go and get her. I should have never let her go alone, I knew it would be a trap, I knew something would happen, and I let her go anyway. I fucking made the biggest mistake of my life and if something happens to her, I’ll never forgive myself.
“I will make contact, see what he wants.” Muff steps up beside me, his eyes stark and his expression firm. “Let’s just find out before we lose it. If he has hurt her, I promise you, we will make him wish he was never born.”
“Call him,” Jackson orders, not taking his eyes from mine. “Now.”
Muff takes the phone Jackson hands him and dials the number that connects us to Marshall. He answers right away, and the laughter that trails through the line makes my blood run cold.
“I must say,” he chuckles, “you have a fiery one. I didn’t think she was stupid, but it turns out, she is. She just can’t help herself, can she? Always has to stick her nose in where it doesn’t belong, and it ends with trouble.”
What the fuck is he talking about.
“If you laid one fuckin’ hand -” I begin, but he cuts me off.
“I didn’t touch her. She stayed by choice. She was given two warnings to leave that container, and she chose to stay. What am I to do? If she wants to be there, I’m not going to say no. She’ll go for a pretty penny, too.”
Jackson snatches the phone from Muff’s hand.
“What the fuck have you done?”
“Like I said,” Marshall answers casually. “She chose to stay.”
“You’re a fuckin’ liar,” Jackson grinds out, his voice full of fear and rage. “She would never willingly stay. What did you fuckin’ do to her.”
“What can I say, I guess she saw something she liked? A deal is a deal. I didn’t hold her against her will.”
With that, he hangs up the phone.
Jackson launches the phone across the compound, until it smashes on the ground. Then, he spins to me. “What the fuck would she stay for?”
“Only thing I can make any sense of, is if she saw someone in there and didn’t want to leave them alone. For her to risk her life, it would have to matter. God dammit, I knew we shouldn’t have sent her in there. I fuckin’ knew it.”
“I know how we can find her.”
Ciara’s voice comes from behind me, and I turn to see her standing, holding Mercy in her arms wrapped in a blanket.
“Speak,” I grind out.
“She asked me not to say anything unless I needed to, but she had everything covered. She has a tracking chip in her hand, her friend Charlie put it in. She said if anything goes wrong, you need to speak with him, and he’ll help you.”
“A cop?” Jackson rasps, his voice barely above a whisper.
Stepping closer to Ciara, I growl. “You’re tellin’ me you want us to go and work with a fuckin’ cop?”
“Do you want her back?”
Not afraid of my wrath, she steps up into my face, her eyes wild.
“You fuckin’ know I do.”
“Then you’ll go to that cop, and you’ll find out where the hell she is before it’s too late. She might still be here, and the more time you waste, the worse the situation will get. So, I suggest you pull your head out of your ass and get moving.”
Muff grins. “Atta girl.”
Jackson’s gaze meets mine and he nods.
We’re in agreement.
There is no other choice.
We have to talk to the fucking cop.
Dammit, Addison, what the hell were you thinking?
~*~*~*~
“SO YOU’RE THE MAN WHO was tryin’ to steal my woman?”
Looking Charlie up and down, I give him a look so intense he is forced to take a step back.
“Let me guess, Cade is it?”
He’s calm, but I can see by the way he’s taking in the other club members, that he’s in a situation that doesn’t make him feel terribly comfortable.
“Addison is missing. Don’t have time for pleasantries. You need to find her location.”
His eyes flash and he shakes his head. “Dammit, I asked her not to do this. I have a tracker on her, we can see her location. One of you can come in, if the entire club walks into my office, we’re going to have problems.”
Jackson nods to me.
“Oh, and that has to go.”
He nods to my jacket, and my jaw clenches.
“No colors. I can’t help you otherwise. Do you want me to find her?”
Growling, I shrug my jacket off and hand it to Jackson before following Charlie down the road towards the station. When we step inside, nobody seems particularly worried about my presence. We move down the hall to an office and when we step inside, Charlie locks the door and walks over to the computer where he sits down and begins clicking.
I’ve never been more uncomfortable than I’ve been in this fucking office.
I would rather be anywhere else, but for her, I’ll do what it takes.
“Give me a second to bring it up,” Charlie murmurs.
He clicks and scrolls around, doing fuck knows what. I couldn’t figure out how to turn that screen on let alone use it the way he does, like it is an effortless task. Computers and bikers don’t mix. No fucking way.
“She is still in the yard, from what I can see. They haven’t moved yet. I will draw a map of her exact location so you can find her as easily as possible.”
My chest clenches, but I’m so fucking happy to hear she is still around.
If they take off, it will be a lot harder to get her.
“Thank you.”
Without letting him answer, I turn and start walking out.
“Cade?” he calls, and I pause, turning to glance at him.
“I know you don’t like me, or officers in general, but if you need me to do anything, I’m there. I don’t want to see anything happen to her.”
Nodding, I let him know I appreciate that with my simple gesture.
Then, I get out of there.
The guys are waiting outside. “She’s still there. We need to move.”
“What’s the plan?” Muff asks as I move to my bike.
“We need to swarm them, cause a distraction while I go in and get her. I know exactly where she is I just need to be able to get to her.”
Jackson nods. “You go in and find her, we’ll cause a distraction big enough to keep them busy.”
We all get on our bikes.
The moment we arrive there, chaos will unfold. I just need to be able to slip away while it does and find Addison. I don’t care how much blood is shed; I just need to know she is out alive. Chest clenching, I ride with a mission, to get my woman and ensure that anyone who dares step in my way is brought to their knees.
Arriving to the lot, I separate myself from the group.
I park my bike behind some thick bushes out of sight, and walk in, using anything I can to shield myself as Jackson takes the rest of them to the front entrance where they make a hell of a sound. Bikes revving, voices barking for someone to come out, it’s enough to get the attention of anyone nearby, and it works.
Only a few minutes in, men are coming out from different areas, some holding guns, as they approach the group of bikers. Now is my chance, slipping down the side of a large fence, I go toward the entrance where I keep my body hidden behind containers or large shipping crates until I manage to make it past the front gate.
Pulling out the map Charlie drew, I do my fucking best to find my way through this god-damned maze of containers. There are so many here, there is no way you’d ever find illegal shit even if you were looking for it. You couldn’t possibly open every single container. It just isn’t possible.
The commotion back at the entrance is getting louder, as voices yell and shout. I don’t have long, and I need to find Addison as quickly as I can. I know from the map, she is close to the large ships that load the containers, so I head towards the sound of water, figuring it has to be better than searching aimlessly.
I know I’m getting closer to where the container might be when I hear the sounds of the ship rocking in the water. Staring down at the map again, I keep moving, praying I’m on the fucking right track. Rounding a corner, I come to a stop when I notice an armed guard standing outside a shipping container.
It might be a wild guess, but I would bet anything that’s the one she’s in. Letting my eyes roam over the area, I see I can probably slip down beside another container close by. If I go down to the back of it, I might be able to find a way to check if she’s in there before I make a scene. Waiting for a moment where the man turns away to look at something else, I rush towards the containers I want to use to shield myself.
Pressing my back to them, I move as quietly as I can, until I manage to get myself at the back of the guarded container. Panting, sweat trickling down my forehead, I let my eyes scan the entire surface, and it’s there, I see a small hole. It’s probably the size of my fist, but it’s drilled through, and I know for damned fucking certain it’s for air.
Rushing over, I get close to the hole and growl. “Addison?”
A moment of silence, before I hear a sound I never thought I’d hear again. “Cade? Cade?”
“It’s me,” I say quickly. “What the fuck were you thinkin’?”
“There is a girl in here. She’s only young. I couldn’t leave her.”
Her and her big heart.
“I’m goin’ to get you out. There is a guard at the entrance. I need you to make such a ruckus that he will be forced to open the container. When he does, I’ll come in and take care of him. Then I’m getting you out of here.”
Her hand slips out of the hole, and I reach for it, curling her soft fingers in mine. “I couldn’t leave her.”
Squeezing her hand, I murmur low. “I know. Let’s get you both out. Make a scene, baby.”
“That I can do.”
Less than a minute later, Addison starts yelling out that she needs help, that the girl has passed out and is convulsing. The guard obviously does nothing to help her, this is probably a trick he has seen a million times. A moment later, I hear her yell that she is going to smash everything in this shipping container if he doesn’t open the door.
Then, true to her word, the sounds of smashing can be heard clear as day.
Moving back around to the front of the container, I peer around just in time to see the man angrily shouting at her to stop as he unlocks the keypad and swings the door open, his gun up and ready. I don’t think nor do I wait. I slip around and move up behind him, hitting him so hard in the back of the head he falls forward.
He tries to roll, but I take him by the hair and slam his face into the closest stack of wooden boxes. Just like that, he passes out onto the ground, blood pouring from a wound in his head. Taking his gun, I lift it and see Addison appear with a girl tucked in by her side. She rushes over, throwing her arms around me.
“You came for me.”
“I will always come for you, sugar. Now come on, we have to move.”
Stepping towards the exit, I’m immediately stopped when a gunshot rings out, bouncing off the metal that is so fucking close to my head I’m forced to take a step back. “Fuck,” I bark, putting my arm out to stop the girls moving. “Stay here.”
Taking another step toward the door, I’m forced back once again when another bullet flies in my direction. Someone is eager to take my fucking head off. How the fuck are we supposed to get out of here if we’re being shot at, and I can’t see where the fucker is. Eyes scanning the area, I do my best to locate the man shooting, but I can’t get eyes on him.
Addison steps up beside me, her fingers curling around my arm. “What do we do?”
“I don’t know, they’ve got eyes on us, so I don’t know how the fuck we’re goin’ to get out of here.”
“Maybe if we just stay in here, he’ll come closer eventually, and you can shoot.”
Smart girl. “Should be a biker, baby.”
She laughs, softly. “It would seem so.”
We wait, quietly, for the person with a gun to get closer. It takes a while, but eventually, we hear footsteps coming closer as the man tries to get a better look at us. Holding the gun up, I wait for the chance. The moment I see him appear into view, I fire. It hits him in the shoulder and his entire body jerks as his arm swings back. A bellow rings out, but he doesn’t go down.
He doesn’t go down because he’s wearing a vest.
I know it, even before he raises the gun toward me, that I’ve fucked up.
As if in slow motion, I think about pulling the trigger, but I don’t get a chance. Addison takes hold of me, pulling me back frantically as a shot rings out. I wait for the blinding pain, the unwavering burn of a bullet tearing through skin, but it doesn’t come. I wait, and I wait, but it’s only when I hear the gasping sound beside me that I know it wasn’t me the bullet was intended for.
It was her.
My body moving slowly, as if not a single part of it works, I turn to see Addison bring her hand up to her chest. Her eyes are wide, her mouth opens, and she chokes out a sob before collapsing onto the ground.
I don’t realize I’m bellowing until the container doors slamming makes the sound so much louder as we become trapped in the space. Dropping to my knees, I take her face in my hands as I watch her eyes get glassy.
“Addi, baby, do not close your eyes. Baby, please.”
A sound comes from her throat, a sound I never want to hear again in my life.
As if she’s struggling to breathe.
No.
God dammit.
No.