Chapter 36 #3
“No.” Z shakes his head.
“Zane.”
“Marcella.” Z snaps his head, looking at her. “Calm down and let me finish.”
Axe nudges her to be quiet.
“As soon as we get her out, you get her and Tatum to the clubhouse. You don’t let anyone fucking near them.”
Nodding my head. That little voice in my head telling me I already know it’s going to be harder than that.
“Get them down to the panic room and stay there until we’re done.”
I nod my head again, understanding.
“I’ll let the rest of you know as soon as we get her. You guys go in.” He turns his head, looking in my direction. “Ace, you know the layout.”
“Of course.”
“Look it up, get ahold of Mace and see if he knows anything. Zeke,” he glances at his brother.
“You and Axe figure out who goes in where; let me know where to meet up with you guys. It’s a 5-minute drive from Tatum’s to the asylum.
I’ll be right behind you guys.” Turning back to the women.
“If there are girls being held there, men grabbing them won’t go over well.
Stay behind everyone. Get the girls out. ”
I stand in awe, watching him command the group.
“Just like Ash,” Ace nods.
* * *
As we walk back out of the garage, my phone rings again.
“Yeah.”
“Um…” I can hear the fear is Collins’s hesitation.
“You didn’t find her, did you?” I snap out, panicked for a moment. I can see Z walking over as I speak into the phone. Not sure if he heard the fear in Collins’s voice or my reaction.
“What?” Z snaps back.
“No.” Collins snaps out. “Am I on speaker?”
“Yeah,” I mumble.
“I need you to meet me somewhere.”
“What?”
“Pick a place. I just don’t want to tell you this over the phone.”
“The gym,” Z says. “15 minutes.”
“Uh — ma — okay,” Collins says before he hangs up the phone.
“Come on.”
“You’re coming?” I ask him.
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
“Because either it’s about Drew, or it’s about the case. Either way, I’m involved.”
Well, I can’t argue with him about that.
I’m sitting in front of the lake. Z had just gone inside to put the van keys away when Collins pulls up next to me.
He looks around as he gets out of the car.
“Why did you need me to meet you?”
“I needed to show you this.” He hands me a tablet.
“What? What is it?”
“Shit,” he mutters as he glances back over where Z stalks back over towards us. “Press play. I’m gonna try to keep him back.” And he’s walking over to Z. “Don’t watch it!”
I know Z well enough to know it just enrages him when he says it.
“It’s my goddamn sister.”
As he says it, the screen comes up. Drew’s hands are cuffed, hooked over her head as she rides me in the cruiser’s backseat.
“How the fuck did you get this!?” I shout at Collins.
“What the fuck is it?” Z’s charging at me.
“Don’t watch it!” Collins is shouting at Z again, and I know it’s for my safety.
“You don’t fucking tell me what to do!” Z snaps at him, turning around and towering over him.
“Zane!” He knows the severity of the situation by me using his real name. “I’ll tell you what it is in just a minute, but believe him when he says don’t watch it.”
He turns and looks at me, but before I tell him, I look back at Collins.
“How’d you get this?”
“Someone sent it around the station this morning. They sent it to me by accident.”
“Fuck,” I groan out as I lean back against his car. “It’s a video from the backseat of my cruiser the week before you got arrested.”
“Why would…” he pauses, cutting his eyes and looking at me.
“I had disabled all the cameras, but apparently one got kicked back on.”
“Kicked ba —” his eyes growing wide. “You fucked my sister in a cop car.”
“I did.” I nod my head quickly. “And not gonna lie, 0 regrets.”
“And now the entire precinct has seen you railing my sister?”
“I’m not gonna say what I really want to, but yes.”
Z just gives me a questioning look.
“Why now?” I ask Collins, who just shrugs his shoulders.
“Because she told them.” Z says.
“You’re right. She probably assumed they already knew; that they saw us together the other night.” Placing the tablet down on the hood, clenching my fist and punching the hood of the cruiser, just enough not to leave a dent, I look back up at both of them. “I’m gonna kill every single one of them.”
An evil smirk spread across Z’s face, laughing. “And he’s back.”
“He never fucking left.”
“What?” Collins asks.
“The less you know, the better.”
Handing the tablet back to Collins, I exhale before I contemplate something, but should probably wait until Z’s not around..
“Goddamnit,” he mutters, being able to see straight through me. “Just ask him.”
“What?” Collins questions as he slides into the car. “Ask me what?”
I let the smirk show for a second before I glance at him. “Send that to me before you delete it.”
And then Z and I are walking back towards the gym.
“What did you want to say?” He asks.
“What?”
“You said you weren’t gonna say what you wanted to.”
“Oh.” An evil laugh slips from me. “I was gonna say that’s an accurate depiction.”
I can see him trying to keep the smirk off his face as he shakes his head. “I’m gonna kick the shit out of you when this is over.”
“Worth it.”