Sanctuary, page 22
Samara frowned. “You’re not going home?”
“Jack said he’s going to be at least an hour since he has to help his dad. He’ll be upset if I walk home.”
She sighed and put her mug down. “He needs to teach you how to drive.”
I shrugged. “I don’t really have a desire to learn. I could take the subway when I lived in New York, and Jack or his dad always drives me now. It makes him happy, and I like to keep him happy.”
“Oh, I have no doubt how happy you like to keep him,” she laughed. “Give me a few minutes to grab my stuff, and I’ll drop you off. I can finish the new plans for that heifer at home.”
I snickered at how she grumbled about Lynn all the way to her office. When she came back out, she had her tote full of blueprints tossed over her shoulder. “We’re heading out, Jos,” she called into our boss’s office. “If Jack stops by, let him know I took Nishia home.”
“Okay, honey. See you both on Monday.”
“You don’t have to do this,” I told her, feeling guilty for pulling her away from work. “It’s only an hour, and you were busy. I could have found something to keep myself occupied until he was able to pick me up.”
“I need a change of scenery anyway,” she dismissed. “Besides, if Elias can leave early on a Friday, so can I.”
“He went to help with an issue at Reid’s site.” I felt the need to defend him. I adored Elias. He was easy to talk to. Kind, and not the fake kind either. He was legitimately a good guy. That wasn’t to say he didn’t have moments of being a total dick, but every time I’d seen him like that, it had seemed like it was warranted.
Or maybe I was biased because I counted him as a friend. Now that I had several, I found that I was very protective of them.
“Meh, he still left the office.” She glared off into the distance. “Fucker didn’t even tell me he was leaving.”
I opened the passenger door when she unlocked her car. “What are you two arguing about now?”
“I don’t argue,” she said with a pout. “Besides, arguing with brainless buffoons like Elias Reid will only give a person a headache.”
I bit back a smile. “You must keep the headache-relief pharmaceutical companies in business, then.”
She burst into giggles. “Smartass. Text your man to let him know you’re going home.”
“I’ll do it after you drop me off. Otherwise, he’ll get all grumpy and leave to come check on me. I don’t want to distract him while he’s busy.” My first day of work, he’d left his motorcycle in Aggie’s parking lot and drove his mom back to Sanctuary before dropping me at work. Except for the previous Wednesday when his dad had had to pick me up, Jack had driven me to and from the construction company.
“You’re not saying you don’t like to distract him any other time,” she snarked.
“No comment.”
Laughing, Samara tossed her long, dark hair over her shoulder and backed out of her parking spot. Looking at her, I noted how similar we were. With her dark hair and blue eyes, we could have passed for relatives. The shapes of our faces were different, and she was significantly taller than me. Her eyes were definitely much brighter than mine. Mysterious. Magical. Full of laughter and mischievousness more often than not.
Whereas, when I saw my eyes in the mirror, I felt like my entire past shone back at me like a neon sign from behind my glasses. I didn’t like seeing it. I wasn’t that lost little girl anymore. Loving Jack had changed me in more ways than one.
“I love how much you and Jack have grown since I first met you, Nishia. I’ve known Jack my entire life. He’s always been so distant. Honestly, I didn’t even think his facial muscles worked correctly until you came around because I can’t even remember him truly smiling until he found you.”
My heart melted, sad that he hadn’t had much to smile about but deliriously happy that it was me who had brought out the smile. I remembered the ghost twitch his lips would make when I was in the hospital. Now, he was always smiling—at least when I was with him.
Once she pulled onto the main road, she reached over and squeezed my arm. At just after five, the road was empty, which was typical for this side of town at this time of day. “I’m thankful you make him happy. It’s not hard to see how much you love each other. But I have to warn you. My sister-in-law will kick my ass if I don’t tell you that no one will ever find your body if you hurt him.”
“I would never—” My vow turned to a scream when an older truck pulled out in front of us.
Samara had the reflexes of a cat, her hands flying over the steering wheel as she tried to turn us so we didn’t collide. But it was too late. There was no way she could have kept us from hitting the truck.
It all happened within a matter of seconds. One minute, we were laughing and teasing; the next, I heard the crunch of metal, and the airbags were deployed. I felt a pain explode in my face and head. For a flash of an instant, I was scared my jaw was broken again, the memory of the pain I’d endured floating through my mind like a slow-moving old black-and-white movie.
But then the world faded to black, taking me away from the pain and fear.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
jack
I picked up two cases of beer and carried them into the walk-in cooler, what was left of the previous week’s order already shifted out of the way to make room for the new supplies. There was supposed to be some big event at Trinity tomorrow night. College students’ parents would invade Creswell Springs for the entire weekend, and from experience, I knew we would get hit hard.
My uncles were on a run, but they would be back in time to help out. Hopefully, Kingston would be over the stomach bug he’d gotten by then. We already had some of our MC brothers scheduled to work as bouncers, because the past few years, those damn college brats had stirred up trouble. More often than not, fights would break out so bad that shit would get broken, and Ben would have to come out to arrest a handful of people.
Dad and I were down to just a few cases of our hard liquor when my phone went off. Placing a box on the bar top, I fished it out of my pocket. “Yeah?” I groused, distracted by what needed restocking on the top shelf.
“I had to go to Reid’s site.” The hint of panic in Elias’s voice instantly put me on edge, my lungs contracting and pushing out all the air in my lungs. “On my way back… I found her car. There’s fucking blood all over the airbags!”
“Whose car?” I demanded.
“Sammy’s!” His voice broke even as he roared her name.
The pressure in my chest eased enough to allow me to take a breath. “Did you call Ben or 9-1-1?”
“I’m fucking calling you!” he raged. “She’s not in the goddamn car, Jack. There’s so much blood. Ah, fuck. Fuck!”
“Okay, man, I need you to take a deep breath. Maybe she hit her head. Even a nick on the forehead can cause a lot of blood without—”
“She’s not fucking here!’ he exploded. “And I can’t fucking breathe. Where is she? I never should have left. Should have stayed. Should. Have. Told. Her—”
“Elias!” I shouted, realizing he was trapped in his head. “Listen to me. I need you to calm down so we can figure this out. Just stay where you are, and I’ll call Ben. I’m on my way. I’ll help you.”
I heard his shaky inhale. “Jack, there were two passengers. I can tell because there are blood smears on both the driver’s and passenger’s sides. There’s a pair of glasses. They’re broken. Was Nishia with her?”
The tightness in my chest returned, but I tried to fight it. My fingers went slack on the neck of the bottle in my hand, and it crashed to the floor, glass and tequila exploding across my shoes and jeans. “I told her to stay at the office until I picked her up.”
“That’s not a no!”
I inhaled with difficulty. “I-I’m on my way.”
Hanging up, I called Nishia’s phone. It rang and rang. She always answered, even if she was busy at work. Even when I knew she was being overwhelmed by calls on the office landline, she never failed to answer, to reassure me she was okay.
Cursing, I walked faster, my chest feeling like it was caving in. Breathing hard, I tried her cell again, but still no answer.
“Are you done already?” Dad asked as he came out of the office.
“I have to… Accident. Sammy.” I wasn’t making sense, but I couldn’t fucking breathe, let alone put an entire sentence together.
“Hold up, son. Deep breaths.”
Unable to follow his instructions, I hit connect on the landline number. It rang at least ten times before someone answered. “This is Jos.”
“Nishia,” I croaked out. “Is she there?”
“Jack?”
“Is Nishia there?” I bellowed.
“Okay, calm down,” she snapped. “No, she’s not here. Samara drove her home. They left about ten, maybe fifteen, minutes ago, tops.”
“No, no, no,” I chanted.
“What’s wrong with you?” she demanded, but I was already hanging up.
“No, she’s okay. She wasn’t with Sammy.” I stabbed my hand through my hair, dislodging it from the bun at the back of my head. “She’s fine.”
Dad stopped me before I got to my car. I’d used it more in the last three weeks than I had in a year, needing to make sure Nishia was comfortable. I wanted her on the back of my bike, but she had physical therapy at six o’clock four days a week, and I didn’t want the ride to tire her out.
“Jack, you’re not fucking driving when you can’t even talk.” He pushed me up against the door of the car when I struggled to get away from him. “Jack!”
“She’s okay. She’s safe. She has to be. Dad, she’s okay. Right?”
He grabbed my face in both hands. “What the hell are you talking about, boy?”
“Samara drove Nishia home. But Elias found her car.” I closed my eyes, fighting the sting of tears and the pressure that wouldn’t fucking ease from my chest. “No girls. So much blood.”
“Get in the car, Jack,” he commanded.
My legs shook as I stumbled around the front of the car. It took three tries before I could get the door open, my fingers trembled so badly. Vaguely, I heard Dad on his phone, but all I could make out of the conversation he had was that he was speaking to Ben. I couldn’t identify words because all I heard was an echo in my head.
She was okay.
She had to be.
I saw Elias’s truck and shook my head in an attempt to focus. Tunnel vision fell over my eyes, and I locked on to Samara’s car. My heart felt like it was being ripped from my body at the sight of the front end folded up like an accordion. Elias stood at the driver’s door, his head in his hands.
As soon as my car stopped, I was out and running, expecting Nishia to be sitting on the side of the road with Samara. But all I saw were the airbags. Somehow I ended up at the passenger door. It was open, just like the driver’s door was, and there was blood everywhere.
But it was the sight of her glasses, the lenses cracked, one earpiece bent at a weird angle, that nearly broke me completely.
I didn’t hear the sirens of Ben’s cruiser or the firefighters and EMTs when they showed up. I didn’t see their flashing lights. There was only the crimson blood smeared all over the white airbags and those precious, broken glasses.
Gasping, I fumbled for my phone, acid churning in my gut. I didn’t have time to puke. I needed Nishia back.
Mieke answered on the first ring. “Sup, biker dude?”
“Find her,” I demanded, my voice so hoarse it didn’t sound like my own. “Find her now!”
“The little fairy?” The once-annoying sound of her typing didn’t bother me as she rapidly clicked away. “Okay, I just sent you her location.”
Pulling my phone from my ear, I hit my thumb on the GPS coordinates she’d texted me. A roar filled the air when I realized it was where I was standing.
Swallowing the bile that rose in the back of my throat, I tried to think. Nishia’s phone was the only way I’d been able to keep track of her. How was I going to find her now?
The world went dark around the edges. No, I had to figure this out. I had to find her. From the blood, I knew she was hurt. She and Samara both.
Muttering a curse, I ended the call with Mieke so I could call Nova.
“Hey, Jack—”
“How can I track Sammy?”
There was a long pause on her end, and I tried to remember how to swallow. “Why?”
“Nova, can I track Sammy or not?”
“I need to know why.”
“There’s no time for that. Just tell me.”
“Her phone,” she began, but I heard the evasiveness in her tone.
“Anything else?” I barked.
“Jack, what’s—”
“Stop wasting my time, and tell me if there is another fucking way, Nova!”
“Okay, okay.” She blew out a heavy sigh. “We started putting a microchip in everyone’s arms after what happened to me all those years ago. Just in case. My kids each have one. So does Samara.”
“How do I track it?” I demanded, slapping my hand on the top of the car in order to stay upright. “How, Nova!”
“You can’t!” she shouted. “No one can but Anya. No one is even supposed to know about the chips, okay? I don’t even know why I’m telling you, except you sound half crazy, and you’re freaking me out. Is Samara okay?”
I looked down at the blood on the airbags. Seeing Nishia’s glasses again, I squeezed my eyes closed. “I don’t know,” I told her honestly, struggling to breathe.
“Oh God,” she groaned. “Okay, let me make a call.”
“Hurry.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
nishia
“I told you she had dark hair and blue eyes—and wore glasses.”
My father’s raised voice roused me. There was a rage in his tone that I’d never heard before, and that scared me. On top of the fear, my entire body ached, especially my face and head. Fighting a moan, I tried to remember how I’d ended up wherever I was, but the last thing I’d seen was the airbag exploding.
Samara!
Slowly, hoping that my father and whoever he was shouting at didn’t notice me, I lifted my lashes and tried to look for my friend. I was lying on a hardwood floor that was so dirty I couldn’t tell what color it had been originally. Dust bunnies and cobwebs were all around my face, and I tried not to whimper at the thought of how many spiders were in my hair and walking all over my body.
It took several moments before my vision cleared enough to see past the end of my nose. But even when I was able to focus a little more, everything was blurry because I didn’t have my glasses on. There was a window across the room, but no light filtered in. I didn’t know if it was because it was dark outside or if there was a blackout blind over it.
Finally, I spotted a body a few feet from me. Samara. Her hair was over her face, making it impossible to see what kind of state she was in, but I saw a dark puddle beside her head.
My stomach churned.
Blood.
Tears burned my eyes.
I’m so sorry, Sammy.
I never should have let her take me back to Sanctuary. I knew it was dangerous, but I hadn’t even been thinking about my father. I’d been too concerned about getting back, changing my clothes, and then trying to get to Hannigans’ so I could help Jack and his dad out tonight.
Jack!
Heart hurting, I clenched my eyes closed. Jack was going to be so upset. I hadn’t listened, and now I’d gotten not only myself into trouble, but Samara as well.
I want Jack.
“Well, every time I’ve seen that one this week, she was always wearing sunglasses, so stop bitchin’ at me, man.”
Every muscle in my body froze. I didn’t recognize the second voice, but the utter lack of emotion in the tone while facing my father’s rage was enough to chill me.
“There are like eight inches’ difference in their heights, you dumb fuck.”
“Can’t really tell that when they’re sitting in a car, now can I?”
“You got an answer for everything, huh, stupid?” Dad’s voice was still full of heat, as if he couldn’t hear the danger in the other man’s voice.
“Didn’t sound like you were asking questions, Morgan.”
“A wiseass too.” Dad’s laugh didn’t hold an ounce of humor. “You had one job. Just one. Bring me my daughter. Now we have to get rid of this bitch.”
“You telling me you’re squeamish over offing a woman, Morgan?” the cold-voiced minion scoffed. “Didn’t you give your baby mama fentanyl-laced heroin?”
“She went the way she wanted to go.” I couldn’t help sucking in a ragged breath at how callous he sounded. “Faye already served her purpose. All I needed was for her to get that girl to adulthood, and then I was able to put my plan into action. But no, she derailed everything. Had to go and fall for a fucking Hannigan. I bet his mother was behind this. That cunt has always tried to fuck me over.”
I nearly opened my mouth to scream at him that he was delusional, but I quickly pressed my lips together before I gave myself away. I didn’t want either man to know I was awake, but I didn’t like him talking about Gracie like that. She hadn’t even known he existed until recently, so how could she attempt to fuck him over in any way?
“I could have already had Nishia on my side if your men hadn’t been so incompetent. Not a brain cell to share between any of you idiots.” From the creaking of the floorboards, I could picture him pacing while he raged out. “Hannigan killed them all, and now we have to do this on our own?”
Jack killed the men who’d taken me?
Of course he did. I wasn’t even surprised. My beautiful bear wouldn’t have been so at ease if the ones who’d hurt me were still breathing. A part of me already knew that. It was why I was able to sleep so peacefully tucked into his side at night.
Oh God, he must have been losing his mind.
I needed to get out of here and back to him.
“We? Seems like I’m the only one who is doing any work around here, Morgan. All you do is sit around and run your dick-sucker like you own the world. Yet you don’t have two cents to rub together. Why am I still working for your broke ass?”
