Page 21 of Sabotage

“What are you getting at?” Viking demands, watching me closely.

“Ryann was taken both times by Roy. We didn’t know anything about the guy. He was a wildcard. A dead one, but he was one all the same. If she hadn’t gotten away this time around, we wouldn’t have found her,” I explain. “There’s got to be more than just him as a wild card.”

“He’s right,” Pirate agrees. “Makes sense. Connections to them never added up. Not completely.”

“Swear this shit is like a puzzle, and none of the pieces are wanting to fit,” Mayhem mutters.

“This shit feels never-ending,” Ice grumbles. “So, what do we do now? Figure out who the hell the wild cards are?”

“Pirate, the asshat who took the hard drive from Wolfe Oil Industries, you said he was hired by Drystan to obtain it?” Viking straightens in his chair behind his desk. His hands balling into fists.

“Yeah, Clad works for Drystan. I looked into him and found he was just a bottom eater in the chain and does whatever job is thrown at him. He’s been in the wind, though, since taken the hard drive. Figure he at least had enough smarts to get the hell out of Dodge before it was too late for him to do so.”

“If he’s in the wind, did he take the hard drive with him?” Mayhem asks, rolling his head from side to side. “He take off with it?”

“Clad’s not that smart,” Pirate denies. “If I’m right, he gave it over to Drystan and took off.”

“What we need to do is look past Drystan and Bishop, see what other connections there are between the girls and them,” I remark, popping my neck.“Drystan’s Nevaeh’s uncle, hated his brother, but I’m willing to bet there’s more to it. Why take his niece to hurt his brother?” It’s a question that’s been bugging me since finding out the truth about how Nevaeh came to be taken from her family.

“You think there’s more at play, don’t you?” Ice demands, voice deep, low and dark.

“Don’t just think it. I feel it in my gut. There’s more to all of this.” I just can’t put my finger on what exactly that something is. If it’s Bishop. Or Drystan. Or just the fact that each of these girls was taken and sold. They came together because of the similarities they share in features to Fawn, but they’d all been taken and used before they were ever sold. All of them except for Peyton. She’s the only one who was sold directly. “What do we know about the women who came before Peyton, Nevaeh, and Ryann?”

“You mean the ones that were used, abused, and killed?” Pirate asks, brows furrowed.

“Yeah,” I confirm.

“I’ll have to look, but I should be able to find out easily.” He grunts and looks back to his laptop. “If I can find the sellers for those girls in the files, we can maybe find the connection. Find the wildcards that connect them.”

“We’ll have to worry about looking for that later, Pirate,” Viking growls. “As much as I want to, we need to deal with the present situation.”

“Hate to say it, but Prez is right,” Ice agrees. “Though I say we need to figure out what other wildcards we could be looking at.”

“We should get Maverick to talk to Nevaeh, see what she might be willing to share with him,” Mayhem suggests.

“Doubt she’d know,” Viking states, shaking his head. “Besides, what would be the reason for them wanting Gianna now?”

“It’s a direct threat. Not just to War, myself, or Maverick,” I remark. “With them taking the hard drive, it makes it direct rather than coming at us through the shadows.”

“Agreed,” Ice grunts.

“I’ll come back when I have something else,” Pirate states, getting to his feet at the same time someone knocks on the door.

Mayhem moves to it and opens it to find the prospect standing there looking pale. “What is it prospect?” he barks out.

“Sorry to bother you, but we have company,” he says, looking at each of us, meeting our eyes, “a lot of it.”

My stomach tightens, and my gut twists. Whoever is here is someone none of us are going to enjoy visiting.

CHAPTER TEN

RYANN

Fear, unlike anything I’ve ever felt, threatens to suffocate me at any moment at the sight of the men coming into the clubhouse. It’s nearly overwhelming.

I stared at them all from behind the bar where I was helping Fawn and Shyann put together an order for restocking. Usually, it’s the prospect’s job, but being that we’re here, not going anywhere, we need something to do. With the threat being to War’s sister alongside me and Nevaeh, he wasn’t taking chances and is keeping Shyann on lockdown here right alongside me and the others.

I don’t mind it so much because of my latest experience with being abducted again. Granted, he no longer factors in, but I still prefer the safety I feel when I’m here at the clubhouse. However, I wouldn’t mind if Sabotage and I moved things to his house to have a bit more privacy.

---