Sacrifice, page 17
I didn’t give a fuck though.
She was safe.
With me.
Her entire body shook with hard, heartbreaking sobs. I rubbed my hand against her back in gentle circles, carrying her toward the back porch of the house so at least she could be in the light again. “It’s okay, I’ve got you.”
“We’ve got the girl,” the cop announced into his radio, and the heavy footsteps of a flurry of officers shook the ground as they rushed around the corner of the house. “Let’s get her into the ambulance and get her checked over.”
He reached for her and Kadey screamed, burying her face into my neck while she clung to me with both arms.
“Come on, honey—”
“Don’t fucking touch her,” I warned with a deep growl, taking a step back while my brothers stepped in, flanking me on either side. We were all ready to cop a conviction to keep this little girl safe. The only thing that had stopped me from already swinging at that dumb motherfucking cop was the chance that I might accidentally hurt Kadey in the process.
A female cop stepped forward, pressing her hand against the young guy’s chest, forcing him to take a couple of steps back. She obviously sensed the tension beginning to swirl. “My name is Officer Sinclair. But you can call me Halle,” she said, speaking softly to the little person in my arms before moving her attention to me. “I’m not trying to make things difficult. We just need to see if we can get any information from Kadey that she can give us quickly. It will help us find the people who did this and get them off the street before they can hurt others.”
She had no idea we knew exactly who had done this.
And I planned to deal with them real soon, but the quicker I got the cops their information, the sooner I could get Kadey and Missy to safety at the clubhouse and finish this shit. I sat on the step, and Halle sank slowly down beside us. Kadey was curled into my chest, watching the woman cautiously. I slipped my club cut off my shoulders and handed it to Bishop before removing my hoodie.
“Kadey, let’s put this on you, okay?” I told her, gently slipping my hoodie over her head. She didn’t even bother putting her arms through the sleeves, just allowed it to swallow her, so the only part of her visible was her face. “You think you can tell this lady what happened?”
Kadey looked up at me, and I finally saw her face in the porch light. Her tears had left streaks through the dust and dirt that covered her cheeks. Her eyes were bloodshot and red, and snot leaked from her nose as she struggled to breathe through the tears that still wracked her little body.
“Deep breaths,” I told her, holding her gaze as I inhaled long and deep through my nose before letting it out through my mouth. “Your turn.”
She looked past me to the men I knew were standing at my back.
The men who had also fallen in love with this beautiful little girl.
Which is why, when she began her deep breath in, I wasn’t surprised to hear three more long, steady inhales behind me.
“Sounds like you have some really amazing men here with you, Kadey,” Halle said to Kadey with a warm smile. “You think with them here supporting you, that you can tell me a little about what happened tonight?”
Kadey glanced at me for reassurance again, and I nodded. “She’s okay,” I told her, rubbing her back with my hand. “You just tell her what you can.”
“Okay,” Kadey whispered, turning her attention back to Halle. “There was lots of noises. And banging on the door. Someone sayed, ‘open up!’ ”
Halle pulled a notepad from inside her vest and began to scribble notes down. “Did this someone sound like a man or a lady?”
“A man,” Kadey answered, leaning into me a little harder. “Daddy got me out of bed and put me in that little room. He sayed, ‘hide here. Don’t make no noise.’ ”
“Did you see what the person yelling looked like?” Halle prompted with a warm smile.
Kadey shook her head. “Daddy made me hide before he went to the door. There was lots of yelling. Then banging.”
I had to grit my teeth to keep from losing my shit. I knew Kadey had seen a lot of shit in her little life, but for the most part, Missy had done an amazing job of protecting her from most of it. This was going to hurt her.
Not just losing her Dad—which I was pretty sure she wasn’t aware of yet, but also being locked in that dirty damn box in the dark where who fucking knows how long it would have taken someone to find her if she hadn’t had the strength to call out when she heard my voice.
I was beginning to see the bigger picture, but a few parts were still blurry.
At least there was one thing we knew for sure, Jared had finally done something good in his life. He’d put his daughter first.
“That information is really amazing, Kadey,” Halle praised before looking over her shoulder at the young male officer. “Call through to the station and let them know to bring Kadey’s mom back so she can see her.”
The kid cleared his throat, his eyes shifting. “I already did. They haven’t made it to the station.”
“Did you radio Hoggarty and ask where the hell he is?” Halle demanded with a hard frown.
“He’s not answering his radio either.”
“Well, get me a fix on his car’s location.”
I glanced back at Bishop, who gave me a sharp nod. “Can I at least go and put Kadey in the car?” I asked, getting to my feet with Kadey in my arms.
Halle wasn’t buying my shit, the deep frown pinching her brow telling me she was well aware that there was something not quite right going on here.
And I’d suddenly figured out what the fuck it was.
“Sure, we’ve got your details, and we’ll be in touch if we need anything else. Just know this is an open murder investigation, so make sure you don’t leave the city,” she said, but I was already carrying Kadey down the stairs and around the side of the house, my brothers moving swiftly behind me as we made a beeline for our trucks parked out front.
Except Bishop.
He was waiting.
“They must have come here first, couldn’t find Kadey, so Isaac went to the apartment demanding to know where the hell she was.” Blue pieced things together quietly as I placed Kadey in the backseat, strapping her in before stepping back and closing the door. I’d already called Gem and she was due any minute. Cain would escort them to the clubhouse and make sure they were safe while we finished this shit and got Missy back.
“The cop is on the payroll and hears this come over the radio. He comes to make sure the investigation doesn’t point to The Valley,” I added to Blue’s conclusion. “And when he shows up, surprise, Missy is here.”
Opportunity called.
And he took it.
There was a reason that police car hadn’t made it the few blocks from here to the local station.
“He’s parked on a street just outside Ann Arbor,” Bishop announced, finally joining us. “Fieldcr—”
“Fieldcrest Lane,” Blue cut in. “It’s one of the last twenty places owned by The Valley that we haven’t checked yet. It’s about forty-five minutes from here.”
I shook my head. “We’re gonna do it in thirty.”
I hadn’t escaped that place for them to come back now and try to rip away my fucking happiness. Not in this fucking lifetime or the next. When you know, you know. And since this woman had walked into my life swinging a baseball bat, I fucking knew.
The Valley thought they hated me back then. They thought the fires of hell burned inside me and that, one day, they would destroy me.
They were wrong because the fire only grew.
Bigger, stronger, and fiercer than they could have ever imagined.
They thought it would be my destruction.
But in the end, it was going to be theirs.
MISSY
The car jerked to a hard stop.
I had no idea how long we’d been driving, but we’d pulled over in the middle of some suburban street lined with two-story brick homes. They were beautiful. It was definitely a more affluent neighborhood than the streets of Detroit I was used to now.
It reminded me more of where I grew up.
Homes with perfectly manicured lawns and quaint little flower beds.
The car door on the opposite side swung open, and I turned, ready to fight, scream, or both. But all that greeted me was a gun barrel pointed directly at my head. “You are going to get out and not make a noise.” I wasn’t convinced. From what I’d gathered from my police friend, I was more valuable to them alive than I was dead.
“You shoot me, and you’ll never be saved.”
I wasn’t really sure what that meant, but the man holding the gun clenched his jaw, and his grip on the handgun tightened.
“Okay. Make a noise, and I will take you inside and make you watch as I kill Grace.” Ouch. “Then you will be responsible for the loss of three lives. Her and the babies.”
I clenched my fists, knowing it was going to take everything I had not to fight.
But I had to keep my shit together.
Grace was here, and if we had any chance of getting the hell out of there alive, I needed to have my head together.
Inhaling deep through my nose, I finally nodded. “Fine.”
“Now get out of the car.” I shuffled across the seat, climbing out onto the grass verge. A cold wind whipped at my bare arms, and I shuddered. “Move. Down the side of the house,” the man ordered, jabbing the gun into my back and shoving me forward. I dragged my feet up the driveway to a large two-story home, turning to the right and walking down the grassy strip at the side of the house. I paused at a large gate, and my captor reached past me and flicked open a keypad.
His fingers danced quickly over the numbers.
Too fast for me to catch.
Who the hell had a keypad on the gate to their backyard?
People who wanted to keep the world out.
Or keep someone in.
The fences that lined the small backyard were all over six feet tall. There was nothing else back there—just a patch of grass and a concrete patio. No furniture. No children’s toys. No signs that anyone lived in the house.
Another man pulled open a sliding door.
He looked familiar.
“It is nice to see you again, Missy.”
If the voice hadn’t done it, the light from inside the house highlighting the bruise across his jaw would have. A bruise I gave him at Backroad when he and his creepy friends tried to touch me. I swallowed the burn at the back of my throat. Fear had twisted my stomach so tightly the contents were forced back up my throat.
“Come in.”
Every ounce of self-preservation screamed at me, trying to keep me from stepping inside this house.
But there was another emotion that trumped that feeling entirely.
Guilt.
I needed to get to Grace.
She was here, and I hadn’t protected her when these bastards had snatched her off the street that day. But I sure as hell was going to do everything I could to protect her this time.
I would get us both out of here.
Or at least survive until Hawk found us.
Because he would, there was no doubt in my mind.
I followed the creep from the bar down a short hall, where he pulled a key from his pocket and used it to open a padlock on the door at the end. He pushed the door open and stepped to the side. “In.”
When I didn’t move instantly, the man behind me jammed the gun into my back, and I stumbled forward, barely making it through the doorway before it slammed closed behind me.
The slam was followed by the click of the padlock.
I didn’t care, though.
Because someone else was there, curled up on the single bed with her eyes closed. “Grace, oh my God.” I hurried over, dropping to my knees at the edge of the bed. “Hey,” I whispered, brushing a couple of strands of hair back from her face. They were slick with sweat. It was practically dripping from her face.
She blinked a couple of times before forcing her eyes open. “Missy?” Her eyes grew a little wider when she finally realized I was there, and she scanned the room behind me as if searching for something or someone else.
“Sorry, no rescue party just yet,” I joked. “You’re stuck with just me.”
“What are you… How?” Grace muttered, groaning as she tried to maneuver herself into a sitting position. I helped her move her legs and swing them over the side so she could sit up at the edge of the bed. Her breathing was heavy, and I was sure her stomach looked like it had doubled in size in the couple of weeks since I’d seen her.
“Please tell me they did not bring you here.”
I nodded, shuffling back a little so I could sit with my back against the opposite wall. “They did. I don’t know what’s about to happen. I know it’s not good, though, right?”
She gripped the blanket beneath her, her fingers tightening around the itchy gray woolen fabric. It was the only other thing in this room besides the bed and a pillow.
“What is this place?”
Her shoulders slumped. “A prayer house.” The name sounded familiar. Something I’d heard Hawk and the boys talking about recently? “When they think we have wandered from our faith, we are sent here to find it again.”
I scoffed. “You’re locked in a room until you admit defeat and fall into line.”
“I did not tell them about Kadey’s birthmark.”
The sudden admission shocked me, and I shook my head. “I never thought you did.”
Tears dripped onto her cheeks, and her brow pinched into a heavy frown. “You did not?”
Shaking my head, I forced a smile.
Even when Hawk had made the connection earlier, I knew Grace would never have told these people about Kadey. She was a mother. She knew what it was like to create another being and love it so much more than you could have possibly imagined.
She also knew how painful it would be to have that person taken from you.
And I knew she would never do or say anything to put me in that position.
“We had some older children with us that day,” she explained, resting one hand on her belly. “They saw Kadey’s birthmark. I thought if I kept quiet, I could get out and warn Taylor so he could hide you and Kadey. But—”
“But the accident happened.”
She nodded. “Then they knew I was traitorous and hid me here.”
I scanned the room.
The wardrobe doors had been removed, and the windows were barred on the outside and nailed closed.
Grace forced a tired smile, swiping at a couple of stray tears. “These rooms are made to keep people in. There is no esca—” She groaned loudly, “Ahh,” and curled her arms around her stomach.
I scurried across the floor, my heart skipping a beat. “What’s wrong? What’s happening?”
“Oh no, no, please,” she whispered, lifting her gaze to meet mine, her eyes growing wide and round. “My water.”
Her pastel pink dress began to change color in her lap as amniotic fluid soaked through the fabric. My mouth fell open, not a single word coming out, just pure shock settling in.
“Oh… oh!”
“Contractions?”
“Yes,” she whispered. Her face was pinched in pain as she tried her best to suck in a long deep breath. She leaned back onto her hands, letting her head hang back as she grabbed fistfuls of the blanket.
I got to my feet, ran over to the door, and slammed my fist against it. “Hey! Someone,” I screamed, pounding harder. “You need to get her to a hospital. She’s in labor.”
I waited.
Expecting the door to fly open.
People to rush in and hurry her away.
But no one came.
“I think we might be on our own,” I announced, walking over and sitting down beside Grace. I offered her my hand, and she sucked in another deep breath before wrapping her fingers around mine. “When you need to squeeze, you squeeze.”
MISSY
“Just hang in there,” I told Grace as she fought another contraction.
They were getting closer and closer together.
And if she didn’t get to a hospital soon, those babies would be delivered right there. And after my birth experience, where I damn well died, I was getting increasingly worried about whether they would all survive.
“After three babies…” she started, fighting to catch her breath. “Should this not get easier?”
I laughed softly, dabbing at her forehead with the bottom of my shirt. “I’m not sure that’s how it wor—” Movement at the door had me leaping to my feet and cutting me off. My friend from the bar had barely gotten the door open before I stormed forward. “You need to help her. She needs a hospital.”
He swung, and the back of his hand struck me across the cheek. I used the wall to steady myself, and my eyes instantly watered from the sting. “Take her,” he ordered, and two men rushed into the room and grabbed my arms.
“No!” I dug my feet in, fighting against them as they tried to pull me out the door. “No, she needs a hospital. She’s in labor. Grace!”
Her soft sobs slowly faded as I was dragged down the hall.
This time, I fought.
I swung my body from side to side and lifted my feet, trying to make it harder for the two men, continuing to struggle against their hold as they dragged me up a staircase, and my knees burned against the carpet.
The top floor was darker, but a strange glow shone from a crack in the door to my left.
It slowly eased open, and I realized the glow was from all the lit candles in the room. The men holding me shoved me through the doorway, and I scrambled to my feet. I spun around several times, counting the men who lined the walls. There were at least ten.
They wore hoods, and, with the lack of light, I couldn’t see their faces hidden beneath.
But that wasn’t the part that had me backing toward the door.
The bed in the center of the room had me doing that.
There were shackles connected to the top and bottom of the bed.
