Page 7 of Shadow's Heart
As soon as I’m by the mattress, he shoves me down and grabs my left wrist, attaching it to a chain on the wall, before he repeats the process with the right. He stands against the wall and watches me, glancing between me and the food, clearly telling me without words to eat and drink what’s been provided. The food in the bowl looks like oatmeal, and I’m not in a position to be picky about what I eat. I need to eat whatever they give me to keep my strength up. There’s just enough length to the chains attaching me to the wall that I can move my arms to eat and drink what’s been provided.
It doesn’t take me long to devore what’s been given to me; I’m far hungrier than I realized, which isn’t exactly that big of a surprise when I remember the last time I ate was lunchtime when Sera went out and grabbed subs for everyone. The minute I place the empty items on the tray in front of me, baby face, as I’m calling him from now on, is next to me and taking it all away. He leaves the room after knocking on the door so it can be opened from the outside without ever speaking one word to me, and fuck if it doesn’t make me feel even more isolated and alone than ever before.
Being alone isn’t something I particularly enjoy under normal circumstances; I like being surrounded by people, especially those I consider friends and family, but right now it feels even worse than it normally would, as I can’t help but let my thoughts drift to Shadow, and my worry for him seems to be overtaking everything. Despite the fact that it’s me in this horrid situation. I can’t help but wonder how he’s reacting to me being taken. Is he coping okay? Is he sleeping? Eating? Causing issues by going crazy in his search for me? Not for a moment do I believe he isn’t doing everything he possibly can to find me; that thought never passed my mind once. I know him far too well to ever believe that.
I hate that I’m never going to know the answer to any of the questions running through my mind or that I’ll never see him again. God, I wish I could just see him one more time and tell him how much he means to me and how he changed my life for the better. My life would have been so much bleaker and darker without him in it. He became my ray of sunshine in all the shit life decided to throw at me, and for some reason I never thought to tell him that. I never imagined I’d mourn not telling him that just how his purely existing in my life made everything better. He has no idea just how deeply I care for him or has any sort ofunderstanding of the way I see him, and that might just end up being my biggest regret of all.
Chapter Nine
Eagle
Getting up at the ass crack of dawn isn’t something I’m used to anymore. I’ve become accustomed to civilian life, but I’ll gladly get up right now to go look for any signs of the fucking van that took Wreck. I’m still in shock that someone attacked Devil’s Ink and kidnapped him. It’s not something I expected at all. Don’t get me wrong, we have issues we deal with all the time, but normally there is some sort of sign or warning that trouble is heading our way, but this time we had none of that. This attack was totally out of the blue.
As much as I hope that we find something in the area where the van disappeared, I’m not hopeful. That would be far to fucking easy, and this search has been anything but. No matter where we’ve looked, who we’ve spoken to, or where Tech’s searched online, we’ve got fucking nothing. We’re not dealing with amateurs. These guys fucking know what they’re doing, and that’s not good news for us or Wreck.
Rock meets me by our bikes that are currently parked in front of The Clubhouse as we both stayed in our rooms here last night; we don’t speak a word to each other as we mount our bikes, both focusing our thoughts on our task. It doesn’t take us long to reach the area we need to search. This time inthe morning, our lovely little town is well like a ghost town. Everyone’s at home, tucked asleep in bed. We haven’t seen a single person at all since we set off.
Parking up, Rock heads to one side of the area where we know that the motherfucking van disappeared, while I start at the other. It’s only a one-block radius, so this shouldn’t take long. At all. There’s not many fucking places for them to have stashed the van around here.
Five minutes into the search, from the corner of my eye, I spot Rock looking down an alley. He’s close enough to me that I can read his body language, and his massive six-foot-six body is going fucking rigid before my eyes. Meaning only one thing, he thinks he’s found something. He wouldn’t be reacting this way for any other reason. I’m heading towards him before he can even alert me. I reach him within seconds and join him looking down the alley, immediately spotting what he did. A fucking black van with no plates. With determined strides, I head towards the vehicle I’m sure was used to transport Wreck from Devil’s Ink, pulling on a pair of gloves as I go. No fucking way am I leaving my prints on this van or messing up anything that could be used to help us. I wasn’t born yesterday.
Reaching the back doors, I pull the handle and find it unlocked. Which isn’t at all shocking; Wreck’s abductors were probably hoping someone would steal the van, getting rid of the evidence in the process. The moment the door starts to open, I’m hit with a scent I know all to fucking well. Industrial cleaner. Just like the stuff we use at Inferno’s, the nightclub I manage for the club. Fucking great, we’re not going to get anything from this van if they’ve used the same stuff we use at Inferno’s; it’s potent shit. So they didn’t just abandon the vehicle; they cleaned it first to make sure if we did locate it we’d have nothing of use. Yeah, these guys are definitely professional. They aren’t leaving anything to chance.
Rock comes and stops next to me, and I glance at him from the corner of my eye. He immediately starts swearing under his breath, and I don’t blame him. This van is the only fucking lead we have, and it’s useless. Doesn’t stop him from pulling his phone out though and contacting someone for a tow. We both know we still need to check the vehicle in case they missed anything when they cleaned up. I’m not holding my breath for that type of luck, though.
“Piston’s on his way. His words were fuck if I’m trusting anyone else with this.” Rock informs me once he’s off his phone.
“Don’t exactly blame him.” If I were Piston, I wouldn’t be trusting this with any of my employees either. This van is far too important to risk someone messing something up.
Rock just hums in response. We both walk over to the alley wall and lean against it to wait for Piston to arrive, and tow the van to Devil’s Garage. I have no doubts he’ll be going over it with a fine tooth comb; hell, I know he will be because I’m going to be right there next to him. I really hope these guys somehow, some way, against all the odds, managed to miss something during their clean-up and that we can find it, and that will help. I’m not hopeful, though. I’ve got a feeling we’re going to need a goddamn miracle to find Wreck, but fuck if I’m going to say those words out loud. It’s not going to help, if anything; if I voice what I’m thinking, Shadow will go off the fucking deep end, and that’s the last thing we need.
Chapter Ten
Shadow
Waking up, the first thing that hits me is Wreck’s scent, and for a moment that lasts mere seconds, I can’t help but smile. That is, until the events of yesterday come rushing back to me, and I realize even though I can smell his unique scent, it’s not because I’m with him; it’s because I’m in his home. He’s still out there somewhere in the hands of his kidnappers.
Pulling myself out of his bed, I scrub my hands down my face, not only to help me wake up but to try and snap me out of my somber mood, before heading to his closet to grab something to wear. I pull out a pair of my jeans that I left here on one of the many occasions I crashed here instead of heading home and a clean top of Wreck’s. As I pull it over my head, I’m hit by the fresh smell of laundry detergent mixed with Wreck, and I can’t help the tears that well up in my eyes. I’m a fucking mess; I need to get my shit under control or I’m going to be fucking useless. I need to be on my game and do everything I can to find him, and that means I need to push my pesky emotions down and focus. Easier said than done. I’m an emotional person.
As soon as I’m dressed, I take one last look around Wreck’s home before heading out to my bike. I need to get back to The Clubhouse, get an update on the search, and anything anyone’sfound out. I’m hoping and praying for some fucking good news. Actually, I’ll take any fucking news; I just need something.
The minute I walk into The Clubhouse, it goes silent, deathly silent, and everyone’s suddenly turning away from me, avoiding my gaze. Their reactions are telling. They don’t have anything new to report; if they did, they’d all be fucking bombarding me the moment I entered. Hell, they’d have probably all been bombarding me outside as soon as I pulled in if they had anything worthy to tell me. Shaking off my disappointment that there doesn’t seem to be any good or useful news, I head towards Wrath’s office. I’m hoping Wrath at least has some sort of update he can give me. No matter whether it’s good or bad, he’ll give it to me straight. That’s one thing I can count on when it comes to my brother.
I don’t even bother to knock; I just walk straight into his office. I’ll apologize for my rudeness when all this is over, but right now I just don’t have it in me to care. Wrath doesn’t even look surprised by my entrance; sometimes I forget how well he actually knows me. I am surprised by who’s sat opposite him though, Flash. I expected him to still be with Jake, but it means a lot he turned up for this. I wouldn’t have blamed him if he hadn’t, though; what Jake did could have cost him his life, and Flash has been determined to make sure he recovers well and knows how much he appreciates what he did. Which is what any one of us would have done if someone had taken a bullet for us—a bullet that, if it had hit, would have killed us.
“Any news?” I ask as I take the empty seat next to Flash.
“We’ve got the van, but it’s been cleaned. Eagle and Piston are going over it now, but we aren’t hopeful. Other than that, we’ve got nothing. Everyone’s still out asking questions, and Tech’s still searching online.” Wrath informs me, and I can tell he is not happy about the lack of progress, which in a way makes me feel better about not being the only one infuriated by it all.
I drop my head to my hands. I fucking hate this so goddamn much. I just want one fucking lead—anything to help me find him. How can these people have just disappeared without a trace? It doesn’t make any fucking sense. None of this makes any fucking sense.
“I’m sorry for walking out last night.” I start to apologize, but Wrath cuts me off.
“No. You did the right thing. You weren’t in the right headspace to deal with the shit coming out of Megan’s mouth last night. I may have had words with her when you left because I was pissed as fuck.”
“What did you say?”
“Told her stop being so fucking selfish. Fuck if I was going to stand there and listen to her bitch about you putting Wreck’s abduction before her.”
