Chapter 14
Ruby
Sitting in the waiting room of Dr. Ashlyn’s new clinic, I glance around at the couple of women waiting to be seen by her.
One has beautiful red hair and two little red-headed kids sitting with her.
A tall, elegant woman over fifty is with her too.
As soon as I hear them speak, I like their English accents.
“That’s the doctor at the vet clinic in town,” Boost offers. “I think her name is Dr. Erickson.”
I remember Evie talking about her and that she was attacked by Justin’s friend Dean.
I met him; he was a jerk who tried to get me to drink a cup I suspected was laced with something.
I wonder if that’s how he got to her too.
She looks so sad. I want to walk over and talk to her, but my name is called, and we head to the back.
After the initial exam tests are complete, we’re led to a room where I get up on the table and wait, with Ben sitting in the chair next to me.
When I came downstairs this afternoon, I was shocked to find that Chump would be part of our detail. I don’t trust him, and it seems as if my husband doesn’t either, which makes me wonder why he’s here.
“Why did you allow Chump to come with us?” I ask before Dr. Ashlyn comes in.
“He begged for a second chance.”
“You regret it now.” It’s not a question because I know my husband.
“I do. Something feels off. I just don’t have a good feeling.”
“Contact Hammer and have him back us up with a team,” I suggest.
“I didn’t think about that. Good idea, wife.” Ben pulls out his phone and sends a quick message just as Dr. Ashlyn steps into the room.
After our appointment, I talk Boost and Ben into stopping by the bakery to grab some snacks. Breanna made our wedding cake, and Ben likes supporting her business. She prepares our order while a young girl from town assists her, happily chatting with us until Hammer walks in.
As soon as he sees her, he tries to engage with her, but she won’t look him in the eye or speak to him.
Does she like him, or does he scare her?
He is covered in tattoos, has a military-style haircut, and tends to talk with a deep, raspy voice, so that could be it.
Either way, she’s having none of it and disappears into the kitchen.
We all walk out of the building and are almost to our SUV when the quiet of the day is shattered by gunfire. Ben places himself between the shooter and me before shoving me into the bulletproof vehicle.
“Lock the door and don’t come out. No matter what.”
I agree, and he turns, drawing his gun to help the guys defend us from multiple shooters.
Chump is hit and goes down, and I worry others will be hurt too.
Hammer is next; he falls to the ground, clutching his side as he tries to continue fighting.
Blood blooms on Ben’s leg, and I start to open the door, but he turns to look at me, shaking his head, knowing what I’m about to do.
“Sniper,” Hammer shouts as two of his men from the security company go down with headshots. Now, I’m really scared. “Hold on, help is coming,” he says; then, just as fast as the gunshots started, they stop.
Several soldiers surround Boost, Chump, and Ben, and I scream as my worst nightmare appears. He shoots Hammer again before grabbing Ben, who has a gunshot wound to his arm now, too. He slams the gun into the back of Ben’s head as he drags his body toward me.
“Open up, my dark angel, or I kill him.”
Ben groans, trying to tell me no, but I won’t watch Luan kill him. I open the door, and Chump limps over to the SUV.
“Don’t kill him,” I beg.
“I should just for letting him touch you and think you were his. I created you. You’re mine. Chester, drag her out of there.” Chump reaches in and grabs my arm, pulling me out of the backseat.
“Don’t touch her.” Ben tries fighting him, but he’s been shot a couple of times, and something else is going on; his pupils don’t look right. Boost looks the same way. Their responses are slower, their speech slurred.
What the hell is going on with them?
That’s when suspicion dawns. Chump is fine, but Boost and Ben aren’t. Chump gave them coffees—he fucking spiked them.
I begin to fight as my lip curls and my brows furrow. I swing on Chump. “You fucking traitor. He gave you a second chance, and what did you give them?” I hit him hard in the face, realizing his wound is superficial.
A cocking gun stops me. “That’s enough,” Luan orders, and I stop.
“Chester has been working for me the whole time.”
“He pays good. Maybe he’ll give me you, princess,” Chump sneers, tugging me into his body.
“Back off,” I demand, pushing away from him. “You won’t get out of here; the club is on their way.”
“They’re being held up,” Chump laughs wickedly. I pause, not hearing approaching motors as I should be. We got snow last night, so the men won’t be on bikes but in vehicles, or “cages” as they call them.
Chump pushes me into another SUV and steps back.
“You’ll never have her either,” Luan says and shoots Chump in the head, killing him instantly.
Blood sprays, splattering across the front of my jacket and face. Immediately, bile rises, and I’m about to be sick. I’m shoved back when I try to lean out of the vehicle and puke.
Ben tries to get to me, but he’s smacked in the head hard and falls into the back of the SUV’s cargo area. Boost sits next to him, with a calculating look in his eyes, figuring out a way to escape.
The other SUVs and vehicles all take off, surrounding the one we’re in. Luan rides in another one behind us. I turn to see Breanna rushing from her bakery to Hammer’s side as she talks on the phone.
Police attempt to stop us, but they’re disabled, and the convoy of vehicles continues out of Jupiter. I pray my brother can find us. That someone will aid in our rescue, but I realize we’ll likely have to do this on our own.
I puke on the floor at my feet because they won’t stop to let me be sick elsewhere, and the motorcade comes to a stop more than thirty minutes later.
We’re somewhere between Foster and Smithfield.
An old, nearly crumbling stone building rises in front of us, along with some other derelict structures.
I’m hauled from the SUV, along with Boost and Ben. They take us in through an entrance, and I realize it’s an old butcher’s shop—the equipment still remains. Both Boost and I are shoved into a room, and Ben is taken away. He still hasn’t regained consciousness since being knocked out in the car.
Boost continues to move slowly, but says, “I think Chump drugged our coffees,” confirming my fear.
“I think so, too.”
Pacing the cramped room, I search for anything that can be used as a weapon or an escape route. Our cell phones were taken from us before we left Jupiter, so I don’t know how Mal will track us.
Then a thought hits me; help will be here soon.
After my attack, my father installed trackers in all my shoes.
I swore when I went off to college, I would continue the practice, so I look down at the boots I have on.
In the heel is the teeny-tiny device, so unless there’s a single blocker somewhere in this building, my father and brother should be able to find us.
Until then, I’ll need to protect Boost, my baby, and myself.
I just wish I knew where my husband was.
Torch
My head swims, the drugs still pumping through my system, as they drag me through the antique butcher shop.
I have a sense of where we are, and I just hope Swede tells Judge about my wife’s shoe trackers.
She doesn’t know it, but there are other ones on her too—the ring I gave her, and some other jewelry just in case she isn’t wearing her shoes.
I loll my head to the side, noting that they pushed Boost and Ruby into a room separate from me.
I expected this because Luan Kurti is mad that I took away his play toy.
He feels as if he molded Ruby into what she’s become, and it’s time for him to conquer her.
But I own her body and soul now, so he’ll take his revenge on me first.
I recall the dossier Mal accumulated on this man; he included information on his behavioral background too.
Kurti craves power and uniqueness—my wife is both of those.
She is the princess of the most lucrative and lethal motorcycle club in Rhode Island, but she is also unique in that she survived his initial attack on her.
I failed to protect her from him, and I worry she’ll never forgive me for this.
I decided to give Chump a chance, and I regret that with every fiber of my being.
If his brains weren’t already scrambled and splattered all over the pavement, I’d do it myself, along with a bit of flame to ensure his spirit never doubts that I took him from this world.
The thugs lugging me down the hall open a door and unceremoniously drop me into a chair.
My hands are fastened behind my back, and my head wobbles as if I have a jello neck.
One thing’s for sure: Chump didn’t give me very much of the powdered drug, and thankfully, I only drank a couple sips, not wanting the caffeine so late in the day.
My limbs are already starting to return to me. They no longer fully tingle as if they are totally asleep.
Luan laughs with his back to me, a table in front of him. “I tried to think of the perfect thing to get even with you, and I believe I found it.” He slowly turns around, a meat hook in his hands.
“You watch too many movies.” My words and laughter come out slurred, and I can’t curb a cry of pain as a hook enters my right shoulder.
One of the guards snuck up behind me and pierced me upwards through my collarbone area.
Biting my tongue, I try not to scream again as they lift my body and hang me from the overhead conveyor hook system.
Apparently, I don’t do a good enough job, and I can hear my wife wailing my name, telling me she loves me.
My body jolts when it settles on the pulley, and I huff in pain, holding onto the upper part of the hook so that my body doesn’t just hang by the muscle and bones. My breathing is ragged and choppy.
One of the guards nails me in the stomach, my muscles jumping and bunching as the hook slowly tears through my body some more, making me bellow. The drug may be dulling my senses, but I can still feel excruciating agony.
“This is like the movies, guys,” I snark, and they continue to bat me around as Kurti talks to me.
“She was a beautiful picture of torture. A flower ready to bloom, and you took that from me. Those hideous tattoos will be removed the same way I’ll remove that spawn of yours from her. She will be mine again, completely.”
“She was and always will be mine. She was never yours.” I cough and try to control my movements, so I don’t shake so much on the suspended hook.
“That’s where you are wrong. Her nice boyfriend Nelson told me she was a virgin.
” He laughs ruthlessly, and I can’t control the rage coursing through my body while I grit my teeth.
“I would have had her that night if she hadn’t done this.
” He waves his hand over the eye that is so obviously a fake eyeball.
The lid is scarred, and the eye doesn’t move like the other one does.
“I will take one of hers as payment, and so we match.”
“I’ll kill you,” I growl, trying not to shift on the hook when one of his goons slams a fist into my kidney.
“Oh, you are so full of bravado. Just like my father when I killed him. The weak bastard thought he could give away my birthright and I wouldn’t rebel. To get it back, I killed my brother and father, and Bersha will be next. He’s just overseeing my claim until I complete my revenge.”
“We’ll never allow it. Bersha won’t either.”
His sinister laugh bounces off the walls. “I’m going to go take care of that fucking turncoat, then claim my woman.” He nods to one of the guys who punches me again. “I want you to hear her squeal as I tear her up and show her who’s in charge. Then I’ll drag her in here to watch as I kill you.”
“I’m going to burn you alive,” I grit out through the waves of agony.
He chuckles, then walks out the door, slamming it closed behind him.
I notice barrels against the wall and realize they’ve prepared a way to take care of mine and Boost’s bodies after he’s done.
The Thermite will cause the fire to burn hot enough to disintegrate the building’s blocks, while the crude napalm mixture will ignite the fire and rapidly consume everything in its path.
Combined, the two will burn through our bones until there is nothing left behind.
I need to get off this hook and help my wife. Initially, she’ll be able to protect herself against Kurti, but I don’t want Boost to die either. With that thought, two gunshots ring through the building. I hear Ruby screaming, crying, begging Luan not to do it, but I know it’s too late for Boost.
Only one guard watches over me, and every time I act like I’m about to pass out from the drug and pain, he comes over and hits me.
The next time he approaches, I don’t move until he’s close enough, and I wrap my legs around his body, squeezing until he goes limp.
Between his weight and mine, the rusted brackets holding the hook give way, and we both fall to the ground.
I lay there, trying to compose myself, but the pain is almost too much, and my vision blurs.