Chapter 41 Holden
Holden
“Zane! She’s not breathing!” Dex yells.
Les is as limp as a rag doll. I grab her hand, and it’s as cold as ice.
Zane slams on the brakes, jerking the car to the side of the road. He’s out of the car and running to the backdoor, yanking it open as soon as the car is in park. “Get her out of the car.”
Dex gathers Les in his arms, and she doesn’t move.
Her arms lay limp, her head hanging off his arm.
Zane helps him get her the rest of the way out.
Then they lay her on the ground beside the car.
Zane drops to his knees beside her, all of us watching, not knowing what the fuck to do.
“Beautiful.” He pats the side of her face.
“Alessa, you need to come out of this.” Out of what?
Her gorgeous blue eyes are wide open, moving around wildly.
“ALESSA!” Zane yells in her face. “Come back to us, Beautiful,” Zane pulls her up so she’s against his chest. “Come on. Come on. Come on.” He’s rocking her back and forth, tears starting to form in his eyes. “You can do this. Come back to us.”
Ryder drops beside Zane, running his hand through her hair. “What’s going on with her?” he asks softly, lost.
“I don’t know but she did it before, years ago,” Zane answers, still rocking.
“She’s not breathing, Zane!” Dex says, pacing behind them.
“Yes, she is,” Zane says evenly. “Come on, Beautiful. You can do this. You’re stronger than him. Don’t let him win.” Zane leans down, pressing his lips to hers.
She jerks back, sucks in a huge breath, then dissolves into tears again.
“Fuck,” Zane crushes her to his chest. “You scared the hell out of me.” He pulls back. “Don’t let him win,” he repeats; she nods weakly, then latches onto his neck. He stands up with her in his arms. “Ryder in the back with me, Dex; you drive.”
They get her bundled back in the car, tucked between them.
I slide into the passenger side seat, a massive lump in my throat.
I don’t know how much more she can handle.
She’s already been through so much already.
She’s always so damn strong, taking things in stride, but everyone has their breaking point. I’m afraid this is Les’.
“Go to the cabin,” Zane instructs.
“No!” Les said loudly. “We have to get Jay.”
“Il mio sole, you can’t go like this. Let us take you to the cabin and take care of you.”
“No,” she groans, “We might not ever get the chance again.” She roughly wipes the tears from her cheeks. “Go to that address.” We all start looking at each other. “Now!” Dex jerks back onto the road. “I can fall apart later. He dies today.”
“Okay, Baby,” Leo mutters, reaching back to grab her hand. “We got this.”
“For sure, Pretty girl. I need to make good on my awesome threats,” Gage grins.
Zane pushes his face away. “That’s what started this in the first place.”
Les shakes her head with a quiet laugh. “It wasn’t his fault.” I can see the color returning to her cheeks, her eyes losing that haunted look.
“For once, Il mio sole,” Ryder grumbles. “Let us blame Gage.”
She runs her hand over Gage’s face. “Never.”
Gage grins wider, causing Ryder to roll his eyes. She seems okay now, but I don’t like what I saw.
“Holden, look up that address and see what we’re walking into,” Dex says.
They pass my laptop to me, and I plug in the address. “It looks like an office building,” I look around it. “It’s vacant.”
“He’s not going to stay in one place,” Les sighs. “But we need to make sure.”
I see Zane and Ryder exchange a look over her head, something passing between them. They tuck her into their sides without a word, and I know all hell will break loose when we pull up.
We hit downtown Abbs Valley and drive further into the more vacant part of town. This part used to be overrun with gangs pushing people out of business until Les ran them off to Concrete Row. It’s just a matter of time before she buys this place.
Dex parks a building down from the address and nods at Zane in the rearview mirror; something is passing between them too.
Here we go.
Dex looks behind him, Leo and Gage nod, and they start sliding out of the car.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Les asks.
“I’m sorry, Beautiful. You aren’t going,” Zane says, he and Ryder closing ranks on her.
“What?!”
I pop my door open. “I’m sorry, Bright eyes,” I say and slide out with Gage, Leo, and Dex.
“Goddamnit! Let me go!”
I shut my door and still hear her yelling, “She’s going to murder us all,” Gage says, looking back at the car. It’s rocking, and I know she’s fighting like hell, pissed that we’re shutting her out.
“Did you see what just happened back there?” Dex says, whirling around on Gage, pissed off. “She has no fucking business going in here. If he’s in here, then she can come in. Until then, she can stay in the car.”
Gage holds his hands up. “I’m not disagreeing, man.” He jerks his thumb over his shoulder. “At least they die first.”
We make our way to the building, and it’s entirely pitch black. A weird feeling settles over me like someone’s watching. “Do you guys feel that?”
“Yeah,” Leo shudders, “I feel like eyes are all over me.”
Dex holds up a hand when we get to the door, running his hand around the outside. “What are you doing?” Gage asks.
“Will you shut up?” Dex hisses. “I’m checking for a trigger. He seems to like explosives.”
I exchange a nervous glance with Gage and Leo. Does he think we’ll get blown up when we open this door? I just had that happen; I wouldn’t recommend it.
“Step back,” Dex orders. When we do, he takes a deep breath, jerks the door open, and we duck, waiting to get blown to tiny bits.
Nothing happens. “Jesus Christ,” Dex mutters.
“Let’s go.” We pull our rifles in front of us, flicking on the flashlight on the end.
We walk slowly down the hallway. “Do you know exactly where he was?”
“Suite B is all that came up,” I answer.
We walk down the hallways, sweeping our guns side to side, waiting for the damn boogeyman to jump out.
My heart is hammering in my chest, and my finger is twitching on the trigger.
Storming Viktor’s buildings and that warehouse was different.
We knew what we were walking in on; we have no idea what’s waiting for us here.
Following the signs, we find the door for Suite B at the end of the hallway. Dex does the same thing to the door he did outside, takes a breath, and jerks the door open. Nothing.
“I’m going to have a heart attack at this rate,” Gage mutters.
“Shut up,” Leo hisses. “That’s not funny, asshole.”
It can happen, given Gage has a repaired heart because of this asshole. I’m sure unnecessary strain on it isn’t good. Not that I’m going to point that out right now.
Dex waves us forward, and you can see the eerie glow from computer monitors lighting up the walls. We check every corner before walking to them. Every monitor is focused on one thing.
The SUV Les is currently sitting in.
We all take off in a dead run toward the door. It slams shut before we can get to it, the sound of something slamming down on the other side.
“Four for the price of one,” Jay laughs through the door. I would know that piece of shit’s voice anywhere. “I hope you kissed my girl goodbye.” He laughs again.
“Motherfucker!” Dex yells, slamming his fists on the door. He rips his phone out of his pocket. “No signal.”
“He’s jamming it.” I run to the computers, watching the SUV. I leave one screen on and start typing like crazy. “Figure out a way out of here.”
Dex, Leo, and Gage check every window. “Don’t!” I hear Dex yell and flip around to look. “It’s fucking rigged.”
“He let us track him, didn’t he?” Leo asks. “He set us the fuck up.”
I let their conversation drown into the background, finding his jammer quickly. I get inside and shut it off. “Call them!”
Dex dials. “Get out of here now. It’s a trap,” he pauses, “I don’t give a fuck. Get her out of here.”
“Dex! They need to move,” I say, watching SUVs flying down the road toward them. The SUV Les is in finally lurches and takes off. I close my eyes in relief. “They’re gone.”
Gage looks around the room. “So, how the hell do we get out of here?”
Dex runs his fingers through his hair. “He probably set the whole damn thing to blow now. Anyone opens any of those doors,” He looks around at us, “we’re fucking dead.”
“Well, that’s great,” Gage says, flopping down on the floor. “Our explosive experts just left, and you’re stuck in here with us.”
Dex narrows his eyes. “What would you have them fucking do? Stay here with Les?”
Gage scoffs. “No. I’m just saying.” He lays back on the floor, crossing his hands behind his head. “We need to figure out something.”
“Let me call Ghost and see if he knows anybody,” Dex says, pulling his phone back to his ear.
I sink back in the chair, my heart beating out of control. What if something else triggers those explosives? Will we never see Les again? What if I don’t see Ryder or Zane again?
“You okay, man?” Leo asks, leaning back against the desk beside me.
I nod, then shake my head. “No.”
He squeezes my shoulder. “I know this sucks because you just went through this, but we’ll figure this out.”
“What if we don’t?” I ask.
“We will!” Dex roars, making me jump. I turn around to look at him, surprised.
Dex never raises his voice; he’s the one you can count on to keep his cool in any situation.
“Fuck. I’m sorry, Holden.” Dex blows out a breath.
“I’m on fucking edge after seeing what happened to Les in the car. Ghost is making some calls.”
I nod because I get it. It was like she was trapped in her head, stuck in some nightmare we didn’t know anything about. I’ve never seen anything like that before. We’re lucky that Zane has. There’s only so much more Les can handle, and she’s getting close to that limit now.
“Is she going to be okay?” Gage asks from his spot on the floor.
“Yeah,” I answer. “Bright eyes is tough.”
Gage smiles. “The strongest.” He looks over at Leo and me. “You know we can kiss our ass goodbye when we get out of here for trapping her in the car, right?”
Leo chuckles. “She’ll understand.”
“Keep telling yourself that,” Gage snorts. “I remember her not talking to Ryder for two weeks because he told a boy at school he was her boyfriend, so he wouldn’t ask her out.”
“Don’t forget the time she avoided you because you went into Concrete Row to handle something without telling her,” Dex adds, sitting beside Gage on the floor.
“What was Les like when she was younger?” I ask.
Gage grins. “Les has always been smoking hot. Tough. Caring. The best person you could ask for to have on your side.”
Dex laughs. “Do you remember the time she beat the shit out of that girl because she kept grabbing Ryder’s ass?”
“Do what now?” Leo asks, sitting down with them.
Gage sits up, animated. “We were at The Games doing our normal thing. This girl kept following him around; no big deal, right? Then she started getting clingy after Ryder turned her down. Les warned her the first five times she did it.” Gage shrugs.
“She didn’t listen. Les fucked her up.” Gage pauses, then laughs. “It makes so much more sense now.”
“What does?” Leo and I ask at the same time, making everyone laugh.
“Why Les would always fight our battles against chicks. She was jealous then and didn’t even realize it,” Gage answers.
We lapse into silence, lost in our thoughts of Les.
When Les stepped into my life, I knew she was the one for me.
Did I ever see myself in a relationship with her, much less with five other guys?
No. I never saw myself in a relationship with Ryder, either.
I wouldn’t change anything except the bad shit that seems to follow us.
“Do you think she’s going to say yes?” Gage asks, sitting up.
“I guess we’ll find out soon,” Dex answers.
We hear a pop outside the door, and all jump to our feet, guns ready. Did Jay come back to kill us? We hear the screech of whatever Jay blocked the door with. “Get ready,” Dex mutters.
The door jerks open, and Mateo sticks his head in with a grin. “Did someone call for backup?”
“Since when do you know anything about explosives?” Leo asks.
“Oh, brother,” Mateo shakes his head. “We all have our secrets.”