Chapter Twenty-One #2
He moved toward the tent, knowing Ranford wasn’t going to be inside. The man had known luxury, and of course he had lived on the streets as well. It was one of the reasons Ranford could adapt. They had underestimated the fucker.
Pat opened the tent, and it was not a large size, but enough to fit some personal belongings. There was a sleeping bag, a small blow-up bed, and some snack-like foods. Other than showing someone had been living here, there was nothing else to suggest this was Ranford.
Until he moved the bed, and there on the floor was all he needed. A single photograph showing Ranford and his brother. Pat picked it up and pulled out his cell phone.
Bull answered on the third ring.
“It’s Ranford. Grant was right all along. He was not to be trusted.” Pat felt angry for even allowing himself to trust that fucker. He moved away from the tent.
“Pat ... they’ve gone missing,” Bull said.
“What?”
“Ava and her family, they’re gone.”
Pat stopped. “How the fuck did you lose them?”
“I wasn’t there. Lidia woke up, and I went to the hospital. She confirmed it was Ranford. He told her he was sorry, and the next thing she knows, she is waking up at the hospital.”
“Why the fuck would Ava leave?” he asked. “What about Bernice?”
“The dog stayed.”
“Fuck!”
Pat spun in a circle as he tried to think. “Something made her leave.” He scrambled his brain. “The fabric store. It’s the only thing that would make her leave.”
He didn’t know for certain, but his gut was telling him if Hazel and Violet left as well, there was only one place they would go—the fabric store, the last legacy of their father.
****
E verything was happening so fast.
Ava frowned as pain seemed to explode behind her eyes, and she struggled to focus on anything.
Lauren was dead.
She had gone to Pat, not the police. She wanted Pat to kill the man responsible.
“Ah, so I see you’re awake.”
Ava tried not to react. She was inside her mother’s fabric store. How did she get here? She rolled onto her front and took a deep breath. That’s right, she got a phone call, or the clubhouse had gotten a phone call, and Ava, realizing it wasn’t getting answered, took the call.
The fabric store had been threatened. If she didn’t come and meet the person who had killed Lauren, he was going to burn her mother’s fabric store to the ground. Ava wasn’t entirely sure if she had come to see who had murdered Lauren, or to save her mother’s store.
Violet and her mom had seen her panic, and they joined her.
She couldn’t recall what happened after that. Only, she walked into the store and everything had gone black.
Lifting up, she saw her mother and sister, both tied to chairs, and they were soaking wet. Ava recognized the smell as gasoline. Whoever had done this had covered her family in gasoline, and they were in a fabric store.
Finally, the man in question stepped into her line of sight. The first thing she noticed was the cigarette dangling from his lips. “Hello, sunshine,” he said. “You know, the last time I saw you, I was pretty sure you had blonde hair.”
He reached out to tug on one of her raven curls. The dye was turning out to be a little more permanent.
“You killed the wrong person,” Ava said.
“Ah, yeah, you see, my bad. In my defense, she did respond to your name.” He tutted.
“Who are you?” Ava asked.
“I thought Pat would have told you. I’m William Ranford.” He held out his hand, and she looked at it but refused to shake his hand.
“What do you want?”
“There are a lot of things I want. You see, it’s a really funny story, and seeing as you’ve got nowhere to go, I’m going to explain it to you.
I was minding my own business, probably, at the time, getting my dick sucked by some slut or other, when my brother was possibly lured into the cartel’s clutches.
” William shook his head. “You see, I had a whole city to myself. I had rid the streets of the pieces of shit, and I got them under my control. Then my brother, the piece of shit he was, had to go and exploit dogs. Fucking dogs.” He snorted.
Ava didn’t have a clue what to say. She felt sick as the anger was so clear to see as he stared right back at her.
“I love dogs, and Craig fucking knew how much I loved dogs. I even went vegan because I love them. They’re more loyal than humans, and all you’ve got to do is treat them well, feed them, and they’re yours.
They rarely change loyalty as well. So, you see, a whole lot to enjoy about dogs.
Yeah, he was using them in a dogfighting ring, in the fucking town of Carnage.
He got shot, and I’m not going to lie, he deserved it. I get that.”
“I don’t understand.” She let out a scream as he slapped her hard across the face.
“Well, if you shut your fucking mouth, you’ll learn something.
” William sighed. “It was in that moment, I lost everything. My brother wasn’t just making a name for himself.
Nah, that shit would have been easy to deal with.
Instead, he was working with the cartel.
The fucking cartel, and because they take no prisoners, nor give second chances, they took his head.
Literally. I got his head, and they stole his body from me.
” William shook his head. “And from that day on, it has been a battle, until I had no choice but to let my fucking city go. Now, you’re a sister.
Wouldn’t you do everything to get your sister’s body back, so you could finally put her to rest, to let her have peace? ”
Tears filled her eyes as she looked toward Violet. Her sister looked so afraid.
“Yes,” Ava said.
“Excellent, so we’re on the same page. So, I know Chaos and Carnage MC are up shit creek, and they’ve got no way of escaping.
The army I thought I had, well, it turns out they are only interested if there is a guaranteed win.
All I want is my brother’s body. I don’t give a shit about this town or about Bull and his fucking biker gang. I want my brother’s body.”
He was very adamant about getting his brother’s body.
“Now, I had no interest in turning my back on Bull. He’s an all-right kind of guy. I happen to like the MC, even Pat. But none of them could get my brother’s body. Their only interest is in Carnage. I don’t give a fuck about this town. It could rot for all I care.” He sighed.
“Can you see the difficulty I have with all of this?”
Ava nodded.
“Good, so when the cartel finally fucking captured me, they gave me two choices. To die, or to do exactly as they said, and I would get his body back.” William laughed.
“All I want is his body, and seeing as all they want is the town of Carnage, I figured it was a good trade. So, that is how it started. I was the one to put that mother and daughter with the perfectly working car to work. They wanted to get out of Carnage. I promised them they would, but I didn’t exactly tell them how they were going to get out of Carnage.
Besides, the best way to get out of this shithole is death. I granted it to them.”
Ava couldn’t believe what she was hearing, but here it was for them all to hear. It was terrifying.
“You understand the importance of family, and I am begging you, please, let mine go. My mom and sister have done nothing wrong. You shouldn’t be attacking them. They are not connected to the club. They are innocent, and you’re making a mistake.”
“No one is innocent, Ava.” William snorted. “No one. Besides, they’re your family, and I think it is only fair I give you the same option I was given. You can save your family. Help me, and I will let you and your family go. You’ll be free.”
With what he had just told her, and the fact her family were tied to chairs and doused in gas, she had a feeling he was not going to let them go.
“Please, let them go. It’s not them you want. You already made a mistake. You killed Lauren!” she said, yelling.
William sighed. He took a long draw on his cigarette. “You know, I could just put them out of their misery while you watch,” he said.
He made the move as if to flick his cigarette across the room. Ava panicked.
“No, stop, don’t do that.”
There was no way she wanted that to happen. She tried to lunge for his cigarette, but he shoved her hard and she fell back against the fabric stands. The pain rushed through her body, taking her breath away.
Violet and Hazel also had gags over their mouths. Ava heard them screaming against the gags.
Getting to her feet, she looked at William. She was not leaving this store, but she couldn’t figure out how to overpower him. The man was strong, and he had a lot of anger.
“What do you need me to do?” she asked. There had to be a way she could bide some time. Think of a way out of this mess.
“Simple.” He pulled a device out of his jacket. “You see this, this is a bomb.” Ava tensed up. “All you have to do is go into the MC clubhouse, take the bomb, call everyone inside, and then, boom .” He made an explosion sound. “You take care of a whole lot of problems for me.”
And she would be dead. The moment she stepped out of the store, her family would be dead as well. She took a deep breath.
“What is it going to be, your family, or you and the club?”
Ava looked toward Violet and her mom. This was not supposed to happen.
Violet was doing something weird with her head, and then her mouth was free. “He’s going to fucking kill us anyway, Ava. Don’t fucking do it. The man is a psycho.”
William walked over to her sister and slapped her hard. Ava picked up the first thing she could, which happened to be a plastic tape measure. It wasn’t heavy, but it stung, especially as she threw it and it landed at his head.
“Don’t you fucking touch her,” Ava said.
“Do you think you have any control of this situation?” William asked.
Ava took a deep breath, and she had no idea where she got the guts to stand up to him, but she wasn’t afraid.
There was no option out of this. There was no way she was going to that clubhouse and murdering all those people.
She also didn’t want to kill her family, but she knew that was what would happen.
Pat didn’t know she had gone. She had no idea if help was going to come. Right now, she was on her own.
“Yeah, I do. I’ve had control from the moment you called,” Ava said.
“After all, I still have my head attached to my body, which is more than I can say for your brother.” It was cruel, it was mean, and Ava couldn’t believe she had said it.
Only, it worked. It got William away from her sister and mother, and he started to make his way across the store.
Her heart raced.
“You think you’re funny, little girl? Let’s see how good you are at keeping your head.”
Ava had lived in this store since she was a kid.
Her mother rarely changed the setup, and she was able to make her way across the store, picking up a rotary blade and a pair of scissors.
Tearing into them with ease, she spun around as William came close and thrust the rotary blade into his hand.
Then, she hit out with the scissors, plunging them into any part of his body she could.
The scissors got stuck, and he grunted. The rotary blade was super sharp, and had slashed right through his hand.
She still held the rotary blade, but unfortunately, she didn’t get another chance to attack him, as he swung out, hitting her hard and fast across the face. Ava fell to the ground, and he wrapped his arms around her neck, and she tried to breathe, only he cut off her air supply.
In the distance, she heard the panic of her sister and her mother. She couldn’t get air. Everything around her was starting to get fuzzy.
She loved Pat. She had wanted to spend the rest of her life being with him, but life was cruel. That was not going to happen. The pain was so acute.
She was going to die, she felt it, and as her life seemed to flash before her eyes, most of her memories were of Pat. The time they spent. Him walking into the coffee shop. That gloomy face seeming to transform into a smile.
And then, out of nowhere, the pain around her throat stopped, and she suddenly could gasp.
“Ava,” Violet said, coming to her side.
She gasped and tried to speak but her throat was hoarse.
“Where’s Mom?”
“Helping Pat,” Violet said. “All those years of getting you to tie me up, paid off.”
Ava frowned.
“Remember, I wanted to be a magician and get out of every single knot.”
Ava had forgotten about that. Violet would ask her, their dad, and their mom, to randomly tie her up, and not help her. It was when Ava started to learn different kinds of knots.
That had stopped after their father died, and her sister had fallen in love with sewing and crafting, not becoming a magician. At least, it had been put to good use.
Ava got to her feet, and she felt a little off.
Pat and William were fighting, and this was not a nice, clean fight. It was brutal. She had never seen Pat fight before, and as she watched him, it was a wonder. He had saved her, and now she got to see him deal with William.