Page 51 of Lake's Legacy

“Were you expecting a war?” Levi asks with a smirk.

“Well, yeah. Maybe not a big one, but I expected to hear gunfire.”

“They didn’t need it. They caught the bastards unaware.”

Annette and I climb out of the SUV. She’s carrying the duffle bag with the supplies while I have the blanket.

“We’re going to need more blankets,” Levi says. “Hex said there are more victims.”

Annette and I follow him to the rear of the SUV. He opens it and pulls out a stack of blankets. I spot a locked box tuckedfurther back in the cavity. It doesn’t take a genius to realize the box likely contains guns and ammo.

Levi takes the blankets and the duffle bag before leading us across the street. We step into the shop to hear the sound of male cussing and women weeping. Levi leads us through the empty lobby into the garage. There, we see three men zip-tied and kneeling on the floor. They’re cussing at Abra, who stands over them. The prisoners threaten him and the rest of the club with everything from assassination to lynching. Abra ignores them. He focuses on his brothers as they lift two pregnant women out of the service pit.

Annette and I rush to wrap blankets around the two women shivering in the unheated garage. Pirate is helping the third woman, whom we spotted at the hospital, climb out of the pit.

“My name is Annette. I’m a doctor. This is Olivia. She’s a nurse. Are you in any pain or have any injuries?”

“I’m Letitia,” the oldest of the three women responds. “They didn’t hurt us.”

“But I wouldn’t say no to some food and water,” the second pregnant woman says. “My name is Jasmine.”

“Levi, go grab some Gatorade and protein bars from the SUV. That will suffice until we can get you to a hospital,” Hex says. “How long have you been here?”

“I’ve been here two days,” Letitia says. “They brought Jasmine yesterday.”

“Excuse me,” the woman we saw kidnapped interrupts. “Why haven’t the police and ambulance arrived yet? They should be here by now.”

“They aren’t coming,” Hex tells her.

“Why not? You need to call them immediately.”

“No cops,” Hex says, causing her head to snap in his direction.

“What? Why not? They can’t get away with this.”

“They won’t,” Hex says.

She narrows her eyes at Hex, but we hear Jack shout out for help before she can respond. Jack calls for me in a voice strangled with emotion. I rush back into the waiting room and through a door into what used to be an office. Now, it’s a makeshift bedroom with a mattress on the floor. Laying naked on the bed with blood covering her legs and face is a fourth woman. We don’t need a rape kit to tell us what we already know. Those fuckers used this poor woman as their fuck toy.

“Oh my god,” the woman next to me hisses.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE: OLIVIA

The takedown was more straightforward than we expected. The three assholes inside didn’t see us coming. When they realized we’d infiltrated the building, we already had them zip-tied and kneeling on the concrete floor.

The calls for help from the service pit have Jack searching for the controls. He raises the car so that it no longer blocks the space. When we have enough space, Pirate and I slide into the pit. We expect to find one woman; instead, we see three—two of whom are close to bringing two more people into the world. The woman we thought we were rescuing stands guard over the other two. She looks ready to fight us to the death.

Pirate and I lift our hands. “We aren’t going to hurt you. We’re here to rescue you. A friend of ours saw these assholes grab you and followed you here. They called us to come get you out. My name is Lake, and this is Pirate.”

“Pirate?” she asks, her forehead creasing in confusion. “The same Pirate I spoke to yesterday about the Houma tribe?”

“You’re Rey Montague? The attorney?”

“I am. What’s going on? Why are you here?”

“Wait, you’re the one who has been working with my father? Coyote?”

“Your father is Coyote?”

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