Page 36 of Liberator

“I pushed for her to go. We all share some of the responsibility, including Vikki. After all, she did listen to a private conversation and then volunteer. I do not think any of us would have considered her for the job if she had not. She was a prospect, and you do not give them assignments like this,” Zoe expressed.

“Don’t say she ‘was’ anything as if she’s gone or dead! She’s alive and coming back. I won’t give up on her and neither should you!” I demanded.

“We’re not giving up. We promised we’d protect her and get her out when the time came, and we will. We just aren’t certain the time has come. Get in my office and help us watch for clues in the videos she sent, then we can make a decision,” Prime ordered.

There were fifteen videos in all, three times the amount she usually sent at one time. They were longer and the pictures were less clear than others she had sent. We figured it was because she was hiding and farther from her target then ever before.

Some were of places we’d never seen, and we couldn’t have known about. How she had gotten the footage was a mystery to all of us since many of them had nothing to do with prostitution. There were videos of children toiling on a farm and others of more kids packaging what appeared to be marijuana and cocaine.

Her previous information had all been about the trafficking for prostitution, but it appeared the cartel was into something new. It was information that was needed, and Petrov was going to be thrilled, yet none of it showed Vikki was in any danger, or whether she’d been noticed filming it.

“We have no definitive answer,” Prime sighed. “I can’t go against Petrov without some kind of proof that she’s in trouble.”

“It is possible that the phone was discovered and taken without anyone knowing who it belonged to. Hopefully she sent the videos and then deleted them from the phone before it was found. She says she always deletes them once they are sent. If they did know it was hers, she may have been punished for having a phone but not because she was spying,” Zoe said.

“No one has communicated with us about her, and I think the cartel would have taunted Father with the information if they had discovered she was spying,” she added after we didn’t comment.

“It’s a good point, but I wouldn’t count on it,” Prime replied.

Nervously, Zoe took out her phone and made a quick check of something. She was upset by what she saw and tossed it onto Prime’s desk as if it offended her.

“It has been another half hour and the phone still is in the same spot. I do not like it,” she stated.

I glanced at the phone which was unlocked and lit up. I caught sight of what was on the screen. It showed information from the tracker on Vikki’s phone. An address was showing as clear as day, beckoning me to run out and find her.

“I’ll give your father his time, but only until morning. Vikki belongs to my club, and I won’t continue risking her without some knowledge that’s she’s unharmed. I don’t want to screw up our relationship, but a woman’s life is hanging in the balance and that overrides his authority as far as I’m concerned,” Prime declared.

Zoe nodded her agreement.

I stormed out. If I hadn’t I would’ve had a tantrum. I was already on precarious ground since I’d punched Prime. I couldn’t afford to lose it around him again.

I tried to relax and sleep, tried to believe the hogwash that Prime and Zoe spouted about Vikki’s safety. After tossing and turning for four hours I gave up. That was the limit of my newlyfound patience. I didn’t believe she was safe at all, and I wasn’t going to wait on the fucking mafia to allow me to do what I figured needed to be done.

I stopped by the weapons room and took everything I thought might be needed to get through the security at the address shown on Zoe’s phone. Knowing I couldn’t do this alone, I went to the prospects’ quarters and woke up three of the more seasoned men and ordered them to stand with me. They didn’t like what I was ordering them to do, but they didn’t dare argue with an officer.

We quietly slipped outside where I stopped to hand over guns, knives, and even a hand grenade each. I nearly jumped out of my skin when a deep voice came out of the shadows beside the building.

“What the hell is this? What do you think you’re doing, Rage?” Sweet demanded.

“I’m done waiting. It’s been close to seventeen hours since anyone has heard from Vikki, and her phone hasn’t moved in all that time. Petrov is being hardheaded and refusing to allow us to go in and get her despite the promise she was made. I won’t let her die. You’d do the same if it were Jemma and you damn well know it!”

“If you live you won’t be a Sinner anymore. Prime won’t be so lenient this time,” Sweet reminded me.

“I’ll chance it,” I shot back.

“Hell! So will I. I’m the fucking enforcer, the guardian of the club. This spying shit is payback for rescuing Jackson, my kid. I owe as much of the damn debt as anyone. If Prime corners me though, I’ll say I went under duress, that you fucking used my family against me or something. I’ll take Doc’s van in case she’s hurt. Let’s get the hell out of here,” he replied.

Chapter 26

The houses became morescattered the closer we came to the address I’d memorized. Eventually, there was nothing but empty space and a whole lot of darkness. The roar of the engines echoed in the stillness, making me nervous that we’d have a welcoming committee waiting for us due to the noise of our approach.

Wary of being heard, I decided to dump the bikes and the van in a grove of trees that were about a half mile from the address. We went the rest of the way on foot, sticking to the trees and ditches. We finally came upon a small, gated compound that reminded me of a prison. Guards were at the gate and in towers at the fence corners.

“How do we get in?” a prospect named Ike asked nervously.

“We look for a break in the fence somewhere and pray that it’s no electrified,” I said in frustration. “Every fence has a weak spot, especially when the owners’ mind is on making money and he thinks he can’t be taken down because he’s invincible. That’swhat this fucker has started to believe, that he’s a god or some such nonsense. Why else would he dare to try to frame Petrov?”

“I count six guards in our sightline. One in each tower and two at the gate. We have to imagine there are more that we don’t see. There’s probably a back way in that’s guarded and I assume if there are captives here then they’ll have guards at those buildings as well. There’s only five of us, so we need to try to not get into a battle if there’s any way around it. We sneak in, have a look around, and get out as fast as we can,” Sweet advised.

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