Page 67 of Cruel Savior

"Your club cost us quite a bit in the fallout of Frank's death. That's still playing out. Some retaliation should have been expected."

JD exploded, almost taking me aback. "Then let's go to war, mother fucker. We don'tneedanything from you."

Fine." The oldie in charge sighed. "What is it you want?"

Now we were getting somewhere.

"Just one thing," JD answered. "The Mazzeo heir." All three men looked ready to explode. "And this time, make sure he has whatever is necessary in place to keep your business the way you want it before I kill him. Not because I care, but because you do."

Chapter Thirty-Two

Axel

"You aren'tthe least bit worried that they let us walk out so easily? Or that they so easily gave up on Mazzeo?"

"Yes and no," JD said as we made our way back to our vehicles. "They gave him to us because that's what they wanted to do before we ever arrived. He is a thorn in their side. A wild card they can't control who is going to cost them everything if he isn't stopped. Why not use him in an obvious power play that gives them the very thing they want without the responsibility of taking care of it themselves?"

"So, you're okay with them using us like that?" None of this sat well with me. Other than the fact in about twenty minutes I would put a bullet into that fucker's brain.

"They need us to get to Izzy. When Mazzeo dies, she willagainhave to sign away rights. That's all they care about. And at the end of the night, that's what we'll owe them."

"And you think Izzy will just do it? When have you ever known her to just do anything? She isn't stupid."

He shrugged. "That's up to her. If she decides to play it a different way, then we'll figure something out. But it's unlikely. Houston won't want her pulled back into this world or risk her death."

"That's a pretty big fucking gamble, old man."

JD shot me a dirty look. "I'm going to take what I can get today, and worry about the rest tomorrow."

I didn't believe that for a second—

"What the fuck?!"

We'd turned the corner to where Tel, Houston, Mandy and Izzy were waiting, but what we found threatened to send me into cardiac arrest. Two bodies on the ground and several slumped over in the vehicle.

We both ran in that direction, JD stopping to check on the first bodies we passed. Cash and Rip were down, and while I needed to know if they were dead, it was the people in my truck that had my heart ready to explode.

"They're alive, just out cold,” I distantly heard JD say as I tore the back door open where I'd left Mandy in what should have been about as safe a place as she could be.

What the—

Her seat was empty.

I couldn't breathe, let alone move. If not for JD opening the front passenger side door and yelling at me to check for a goddamn pulse, I might have crumpled to the ground. My worst fear had come true. She'd been taken.

Reaching across the seat, I shoved my fingers into Tel's neck and immediately felt the strong thump thump of his pulse. "He's alive."

"So are Houston and Izzy. Thank fuck."

"He took her." My mind reeled with fear over what he could have done to her by now while we'd been inside.

JD grabbed my shoulders. "Pull yourself together. We're going to find her. That bastard worked way too hard to get her to just kill her right away. She told you herself what kind of person she thought he was."

I nodded, hoping I could hold onto that for a while until we could figure out where he'd taken her.

"So, what the hell did he do to the rest of them? How are they all alive and relatively unscathed? It doesn't look like there was any kind of fight."

JD nodded. "Looks like they've all been drugged or gassed or something.

---