Chapter 31 #2
His gaze rakes over my face, and the tightening of his features makes me fear he’s already guessed the truth.
He nods, grabs Norah’s hand, and says, “Follow me. Ash, you bring up the rear.” He bows his head and mutters into a walkie-talkie: “Withdraw. Package secured. Withdraw.” Then he starts running with Norah behind him, and we follow.
As soon as Kyler appears on my side of the truck, I throw myself into his arms and wrap my legs around his waist. I bury my face in his neck, and as his arms slide around me, my shoulders start to shake. Everything I’ve been holding down comes rushing out. The fear, the anger, everything.
“God, Laynie.” He kisses me on the forehead.
Behind me, the truck doors open and he puts me in the back seat. Then he slides next to me on the bench.
“Call the police for those other women. I’ll see you at the club,” Brooks mutters, then disappears.
“What’s he going to do?” I sob into Kyler’s shirt.
“They’re on bikes. It’s okay, girl.” He holds me tight against him. Meanwhile, Paxton starts the engine and a few seconds later we drive away from the harbor, away from those bastards, away from a life as a sex slave or whatever those lunatics had in store for us.
“Where’s Jen, Layne? He said he had all of you.” His eyes wander around the truck, to Norah next to me and Isobel in the passenger seat.
“I need to talk to him first, Ky,” I whisper, clutching his shirt in my fists.
“Where’s Jen? Is she here?” Kyler lifts my chin and looks me straight in the eye, but I can’t get the words out.
Kyler isn’t the first person who needs to hear what happened to Jen, that’s Brooks.
When I shake my head, a worried look appears in his eyes and he lets go of my chin.
I immediately bury my face back into his chest.
“I want to make an anonymous tip. There’s an attempt to traffic women through the port. A container has been breached.” Then Pax ends the call. “It’s up to the police now,” he breathes.
We arrive at the MC’s compound far too quickly. I’m not ready to let go of Kyler, to tell Brooks that his wife is dead.
Kyler jumps out of the truck, turns around, and lifts me out. “Rebel will be so happy to see you.”
My heart skips a beat when I hear my daughter’s name. Being here, finally able to go to her, feels unreal after I’d almost given up hope of ever seeing her again. I take a shaky breath and when he tries to lead me with him, I shake my head. “I need to talk to Brooks first,” I whisper.
Kyler tilts his head. “Layne, Rebel…”
“I want nothing more than to see Rebel, Kyler, but Brooks… When I’m with her, I won’t be able to tear myself away to talk to him, and Rebel doesn’t need to hear what I have to say to him.” Just as the roar of the engines becomes audible, he nods.
Brooks’ motorcycle barely stops before he shuts it off, kicks out the stand, and jumps off. With a few steps, he’s standing in front of me. “Laylay, where is she?”
My entire face seems to fall. Tears immediately start streaming down my face again. “Maybe we should go somewhere else…”
“No, I want to know now.” His voice goes up an octave.
I look at Kyler pleadingly, but he just nods.
“Where is she, Layne? Where’s my wife?” He takes a step toward me and grabs my arms. I freeze immediately, even though I know Brooks wouldn’t hurt me. My eyes widen as I stare at him, my mouth opening and closing as if I’m a damn fish. My heart’s pounding like crazy.
How do I tell him his wife is dead? I can’t find the right words and, to be honest, the whole situation is paralyzing me.
Norah’s hand grabs mine, and the comfort of her fingers is almost overwhelming. When I meet Brooks’ gaze, the fear of his hands on my arms subsides.
“Let her go, man.” Ky’s hands wrap around my waist and I breathe out deeply.
“Lay, please. Tell me she’s not… Don’t tell me my girl…” He shakes my arms back and forth, and I cry harder.
Bel steps forward. “They shot her. Those fucking bastards, they…” Her lip trembles and tears stream down the bridge of her freckled nose.
She wipes them away furiously as Brooks’ hands fall from my arms and he sinks to his knees in the sand in front of us.
Bel continues. “That bald bastard shot her in the head because they panicked. Those bastards whispered that you were on their trail.” She nods to Brooks.
“Jen said she knew you were coming to get her, that she’d already warned them once and that you were going to kill those fuckers and the bastard…
He couldn’t handle it and shot her right in the head.
” Bel sobs. “I’m so sorry. Jen didn’t deserve that and you don’t deserve to lose her. ”
Brooks’s on his hands and knees. His back is heaving as he pants.
“There was a man in a suit, he came in,” Norah continues after taking a deep breath. “He was furious and told the bald man that you were coming for him. That when you came, he would tell you who the bald man was. That they had to keep her body in a freezer for you.”
I freeze. I had forgotten that part, or blocked it.
“Damn it, I’m going to slaughter him.” The tone in Brooks’ voice is one I’ve never heard before, and I hope I never hear him use it against me. He sounds like death itself.
Suddenly, he stands up. “Did she suffer?”
I shake my head immediately. “One minute she was shouting, the next…” I shut my eyes.
“Don’t close your eyes, Layne. Look at me.”
“I’m so sorry,” I choked out. “She shouldn’t have been there. I’m just so sorry…”
“Stop. No, she shouldn’t have been there, but it’s not your fault.” He looks calm. Frighteningly calm. But I see his clenched fists, his tight jaw. He’s about to explode.
“If I hadn’t come here—”
“You didn’t.”
“I did.”
“No, Ky dragged you home. But you were already ours long before you were his, Laylay.”
I break free from Kyler’s grip and throw my arms around Brooks’ neck. “She didn’t deserve this…”
“Let me go, Layne. I have to go.” With those words, he walks away.
I turn around and hide my face in Ky’s shirt.