Page 18 of Fractured Heart

Daniel

Jones

Lionel

Jackson

Tom

Aaron

With four more names crossed off my list, I turn away from the fire and stalk past both the guys without uttering a single word. I feel like I can breathe a bit easier with seven names marked off my list. Eleven more of the cunts to go and I will be free to return to Canada and start the real war. The guys follow me up the incline where we meet Nano and the rest of the guys, each of them nods their head in a show of respect and for the first time in a long ass time I feel a flicker of… pride.

I push that feeling aside as I slip inside the car and keep my gaze focused out the window. Nano, Xander and Trey climb inside and for the first ten minutes of the drive no one speaks. I’m caught up in my own thoughts and planning my next attack. I vowed to destroy each of these fuckers and their families but I don’t know if I can do that after seeing those girls tonight. Ron has two daughters, I doubt they are aware of what their father has been up to in his spare time. If I were to kill each of their families, that makes me no better than them and I am nothing like those fucking cockroaches!

“Those girls you saved tonight.” I pull my gaze from the window and look over at Nano, he’s chewing on his bottom lip and gripping the steering wheel tight. Unlike Trevante, his accent is thick and I actually enjoy listening to him speak. “What you did for them… you saved them.”

I shake my head. “They each would have found a way to save themselves, I just spared them the pain of having to do it.”

He cuts a glance to me for a second and I see the argument swirling in his eyes. “No. You saved them, kid, not only did you do that but you also earned the respect of my men and… me.” I won’t deny it, hearing him say that means a fucking lot considering I have been treated as if I am nothing but a hole to fuck for years. This is the high I have dreamed of feeling for years and it’s exhilarating.

I say nothing and focus my gaze out the window. I feel the two guys in the back staring at me like they are waiting for some type of revelation, they’ll be waiting until hell freezes over for that shit. I may have felt a flicker of something at Nano’s words but that’s all it was, a flicker and nothing more. I used to feel everything, constantly worrying about what others thought of me but now, I care for nothing. I was stripped of human emotion. I was made to feel nothing and forced to be a doll who wants for nothing and feels nothing aside from what I was told to.

The scenery passes by in a blur as I’m sucked into my own thoughts, memories playing on a reel as pictures flash through my mind of what Aaron and the others did to me. I remember when Jones, Mike and Tom came to find me when Master was out of the house. Mike and Tom beat me with such brutality that I felt nothing when the guys, Tom and Jones, ran a train on me until Master came home and found them in my room. I thought the pain of the beatings would end there but I was wrong. They were ordered to take me to the basement where I was chained to the wall and whipped.

I tried to remain silent but I failed, I was being punished for allowing the three of them to touch me when Master wasn’t home. Those were the rules—they could have me whenever they wanted as long as Master was home. I shudder. I can still hear the sound of the whip sailing through the air, I can feel it tearing through the skin on my back, opening old scars. When I passed out, he stopped and waited until I came to again, then he continued. He never allowed me the reprieve of passing out, he wanted me awake and alert so he knew I would feel everything.

I would take being whipped and beaten over watching what they did to my son. I feel my breathing growing erratic and quickly pull myself from those thoughts. Whenever I get sucked into that black hole I always spiral and right now I don’t have time for that, I need to remain strong.

I’m not just doing this for myself, I’m doing it for my son.

As Nano brings the car to a stop inside the warehouse, I see Reid and the other Captains standing in front of us. I don’t wait for the others as I climb out and make my way toward the former leader who also happens to be the father of the man that ruined my life. At my approach, a wicked glint enters his eyes. I come to a stop before him with a blank look on my face, I don’t need to explain shit. My actions tonight showed what I am capable of and the fact the truck carrying the girls is already here proves I am more than competent.

Reid runs his gaze over me as he strokes the stubble on his chin. I don’t fidget under the pressure of his gaze or even when I feel Xander and Trey come to stand behind me, offering their support that I don’t need.

“It’s not often I’m proven wrong, kid.” I refuse to bristle at him calling me kid.

“I enjoy being underestimated, it makes proving you wrong all that much sweeter.” A smile tugs at the corner of his lips but I’m not done. “You have my terms and know what I am planning here, either you agree and offer to help or you stay the fuck out of my way because I will not spare you or your men.” His brows raise but I don’t wait for a response as I cross the warehouse floor. This time the men don’t leer at me or say a single word aside from giving a slight nod of their heads in a show of respect.

I find the girls all huddled into the far corner with blankets wrapped around them, their odor gag inducing, but I lived with that same stench for years so it no longer bothers me. All their frightened gazes are on me and I hate that I can see myself in each of them. I know what it’s like to be taken and worried you may never see the people you love most again. I would rather be dead than feel how they are feeling right now.

“You all have a choice,” I say in a firm tone, I won’t coddle these women and treat them like victims because they aren’t, they are fucking survivors! “You may return home to your families or wherever it is that you came from.” I run my gaze over each of them noting the shock on some of their faces at my words. “Or you can stay here with me and fight to help me end the men that stole you from your homes and planned to sell you to some sick fuck that would have used your body for his own pleasure and tried to destroy your mind in the process.” They begin to murmur among themselves for a moment until the girl that spoke to me in the boat stands up. She raises her chin and tries to hide the fear from showing in her features but I see the way her hands tighten around the blanket that covers her body.

“You said you were us two weeks ago, how did you go from this,” she says motioning her hands around herself and the others, “to where you are now in such a short amount of time?”

I shrug my shoulders. “I saw an opportunity to escape and I took it, I won’t lie. I had some help from… a friend.” I can hear Trey bristling behind me but I ignore him as I push on. “You don’t ever get over something like you have been through but you learn to deal with it and move on. For those of you that want to leave, you can, no one will stop you.” I peer over my shoulder at Xander and Trevante who both look rigid and pissed off, not at me or the girls but at the situation in general.

“You have our word, no harm will come to any of you,” Trey vows.

“You are under our protection now,” Xander adds and I can see from the way the girls shoulders lose some of the stiffness that their words have brought them some form of comfort.

“I want my mommy.” I cut my gaze to the left where a young girl stands with silent tears trekking down her cheeks—my heart breaks for her. She can’t be any older than nine. I crouch down to appear less intimidating and smile at her.

“Do you know where your mommy is?” She sniffles and nods so I push on. “Where is your mommy?” A sob tears out of her, the woman who spoke earlier shifts and wraps the wee child in her arms trying to calm her down as I watch on in horror. How the fuck could any person do this to a fucking child?

“Her mother was one of the ones that didn’t make it,” a timid voice calls out. I look to the center of the pack and see a frail young teenage girl who has fire in her eyes, that look is one I know well. “I’ll care for her,” she adds.

I shake my head ready to offer another solution but Trey cuts in before I can. “All of you who are underage will be taken to one of our safehouses where you can recover and we can formulate a plan for what comes next. The rest of you can call your families?—”

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