Chapter 16
ONYX
We tracked her fast. The second Stella called from the spa, Wizard was on it.
I was already dressed and down in the armory with Kevlar and King, shoving weapons into my gear bag when Wizard shouted from the back hall, “Video on your phone.”
Before I had a chance to retrieve my cell, Blaze stalked in, staring at the screen of his with a grim expression. “They carried her out.”
My head snapped up. “She was unconscious?”
Blaze nodded and passed me his phone. When the prospect we sent with them had confirmed Elena never came out the front entrance, Wizard tapped into the security footage.
Rage boiled inside me as I watched two men follow her into the bathroom, then come back out with her lying limply in one of their arms. They headed toward the back exit, then nothing.
“No fucking camera on the back door?” I seethed, my blood roaring in my ears.
“He’ll find her.”
King made it sound like a fact, not a guess or hope.
That should have brought me a sliver of comfort, but I was too caught up in my fear and anger.
My knuckles cracked as I curled the fingers of one hand into a tight fist. They’d taken her.
Probably iInjected her with something. Bound her wrists.
Thrown her in a van like she was nothing.
I was going to make them fucking bleed.
Several other enforcers joined us, and Kevlar got them outfitted with anything they needed.
Finally, Wizard appeared at the door with his tablet, his fingers moving quickly over the screen. “Pinged her cell. The dumbfucks didn’t remove the SIM card.”
King asked, “Address?”
“Narrowed it to a three-block radius. Near the shipping yard off Ellsworth. Close to the edge of the third block. Last signal was ten minutes ago.”
Ten fucking minutes.
King slammed a magazine into his pistol and shoved the gun into a holster on his hip. “Let’s move.”
I didn’t say a damn word.
I was already moving.
“Cross and Ash went to the spa,” Blaze informed me as we mounted our bikes. “They found two witnesses who saw a black van pull away in the right window of time. One of the spa attendants recognized one of the guys as ‘someone who gave her the creeps’ last week but hadn’t said anything.”
I was pissed as hell at whoever had made it possible for someone to snatch my woman, but I needed to focus on getting to Elena.
“Wizard’s using traffic cams and back-alley connections to track the black van and narrow down the search area, but it eventually went off the grid, where there were no cameras available.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but he cut me off, knowing exactly what I’d been about to say.
“Getting satellite footage would take too damn long.”
He wasn’t wrong. “Fine. We’ll head that direction and search every inch until he gets us the exact location.”
We’d been gone less than ten minutes when Wizard’s voice came across our comms. “Got it.”
We headed straight for the warehouse on the outskirts of town, tucked back behind an old industrial zone that hadn’t seen legitimate use in decades. Concrete crumbled in patches around the base of the building. Rusted roll-up doors and graffiti-tagged walls made it look abandoned.
“What is it with assholes and warehouses?” Ink grumbled. “So cliché. They couldn’t pick somewhere a little more upscale? With less rats?”
“Head in the game, jackass,” I muttered as I crouched beside King behind the shadow of a half-collapsed fence.
His voice was a low growl beside me. “Third-floor windows are sealed, but there’s movement inside.”
My jaw flexed as I adjusted the grip on my weapon. A short-barrel Glock, customized with a low recoil suppressor and mag extension. Standard loadout.
She was close. Which meant I was one bad decision away from blowing the entire op to get to her faster.
King’s hand clapped my shoulder, grounding me for half a second. “We move quiet and controlled. You don’t break the line unless she’s in sight.”
My teeth ground together, but I nodded once, then moved beside Kevlar as we crept toward the northeast corner entrance—quiet as we could be with reinforced boots and suppressed firepower.
The warehouse’s side door was chained, but Kevlar made quick work of the lock. He tilted his head, waiting for my signal.
I raised two fingers, then dropped them.
The door swung open. We slipped inside, one after the other. Ink was with me, Blaze took point beside King, while Tomcat and Rebel flanked the opposite side of the corridor. Fallon pulled up the rear, covering our six.
We paused, listening. Then there was a low, echoing thump of a bootstep above us. At least two sets moving around.
Two wasn’t enough.
Because Elena’s abduction hadn’t been random. It had been orchestrated. Precise. Whoever took her wasn’t just acting on impulse. They’d had orders. And those didn’t include keeping her whole.
I wasn’t leaving a single one of them breathing.
King signaled, and we moved in silence. No wasted motion or noise louder than boots brushing broken tile.
Ink and I headed straight to the third floor. Each step up the metal stairs vibrated through my bones, and every sound that wasn’t her voice made my trigger finger twitch. At the landing, I froze, my hand braced against the frame. Two voices drifted from the far room.
I breathed deep, slow, trying to remain focused and not give in to the madness edging closer and closer.
Ink glanced at me. “You get the girl. I’ll get the garbage.”
Two voices bled through the wall as we crept forward. Talking about how Marks should’ve kept a better leash on Elena.
My hands itched with the need to maim and kill. Every fiber of my body screamed to tear the walls down and let the monster inside me take over. But I held onto my control. Barely.
Because if I went now, I risked her.
Ink gave a tight nod beside me while they talked about carving that damn tattoo off her leg. The laughter that followed was almost maniacal, and the need to make a move became unbearable.
I felt rather than saw several more of my brothers join us outside the door, waiting for my signal.
Then Ink’s unreadable gaze met mine, and I nodded once.
He kicked the door open, and we breached the door.
The first man didn’t even see my fist coming.
His head snapped sideways, the crunch of cartilage breaking beneath my knuckles.
He fell backward, his gun skidding across the floor.
I followed him down and slammed my knee into his ribs.
Heard the snap. Felt the crack. A sliver of satisfaction oozed into my veins.
He tried to scream. I shoved my forearm across his throat and pulled my knife with the other hand.
“You lay a fucking hand on her?” I rasped. “No? That’s a shame. I like them better when they’ve earned it.”
Then I drove the blade home—fast and clean.
Behind me, I heard the telltale thud of a body dropping. Then Ink’s low voice cursing.
I rose and turned, seeing blood splattered on his cut.
The guy Ink’d taken down had bled like a stuck pig.
Ink crouched beside the body with a sigh, wiping at the leather.
“You got a name? No? That’s all right.” He reached into the guy’s back pocket, calmly pulled out a wallet, and flipped it open with a gloved hand, checking the ID.
“Just wanted to know who I’m sending the receipt to.
” Then, with a quiet click, he put a bullet in the guy’s temple.
Looking down at the blood soaking the bottom corner of his cut, Ink sighed, deadpan. “Fucking dry clean only.”
Tomcat appeared in the doorway behind him, scanning the scene. “Easy, Ink. Your Mafia’s showing.”
Ink arched a brow. “They got blood on my vest, man.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Tomcat smirked and stepped inside. “Go full Corleone after we’ve cleared the rest.”
I kept moving.
In the far corner of the room—curled on the floor, limbs bound, and eyes wide with shock—I saw her.
Elena.
Her hair was mussed, her cheek scraped from where her face had probably been pressed to the floor. But she was awake.
Her lips moved—my name, whispered so faint I almost missed it.
I didn’t remember crossing the room. Or cutting the restraints and dropping to my knees beside her.
All I knew was that I had her in my arms, her body trembling as I pulled her close, one hand sliding up her back, the other bracing the back of her head.
“I’ve got you,” I murmured, my voice rougher than I meant it to be.
She clung to me, her face buried against my chest. Her fingers gripped the front of my shirt like they needed something solid to hold on to.
“You’re okay. I’m here. You’re safe now.”
“I knew you’d come,” she whispered. “I knew it.”
I turned, my eyes scanning the room to make sure the others had finished cleaning house.
They had. Fallon checked the last pulse and gave a tight shake of his head. “All clear.”
Nobody was left alive.
Rebel walked over with a blanket, and I wrapped it around Elena’s shoulders, then shifted her into my arms, bridal-style. She was light, but my chest still ached with the weight of what they’d done to her.
I looked at King. “We need to send a message.”
He nodded. “Burn it. All of it.”
King and Tomcat started dragging bodies. Ink and Fallon gathered weapons and gear. Then Blaze dumped accelerant strategically while Kevlar made sure the place was rigged to blow after we walked out.
As I carried Elena through the warehouse, she clutched my cut like it anchored her to something real.
I reminded myself that she was safe. Back where she belonged.
But this wasn’t over. There was more to do before we could put this fully behind us.
And Marks was gonna find out what it really meant to fuck with the Hounds of Hellfire.