Page 113 of Menace

“I know, I know, brother, I was a dick. I should have told her the minute Gloria, who turns out to be fucking Carmella, appeared and made her claim. Harper is sharp, she would have seen through the bullshit immediately and maybe all this shit could have been avoided. She and our boy would have been here with me, and not in the house with only Bren, Viper and Magic as protection.”

Asa stepped forward from where he stood listening and all eyes went to him as he started speaking.

“Nothing you did would have stopped Salvatore from coming for her. He’s obsessed with her and he’s pretending he’s taking her home to marry an associate who also happens to be his best friend.” He smiled coldly. “A best friend who had a rather unfortunate accident a few hours ago and is no longer with us. Salvatore is lying to himself and everyone involved in her abduction. He wants her and he’ll go to any lengths to have her back under his control.”

His cold eyes came to Lucky and he knew he wasn’t going to like what the bastard was going to say next.

“The problem is he didn’t bargain on Harper having a baby. He wants her the way she used to be. He wants the young girl, not the woman who has given birth. I worry that he will do something to Ryder, thinking that with the child gone she will be as she was before. He’s mentally unstable so trying to determine his plans are difficult. I have people tracking Los Rojos and the Salvatores on the dark web. We’re hoping to pin point locations where they might be holding them. Once we have the information we will share with you and I’m hoping we can work together to extract the two of them and rain hell down on the motherfuckers.”

Maniac stood and gestured to the table. “Have a seat, Asa, and let’s talk.”

Lucky immediately pointed at his chair and Asa nodded as he took a seat.

Moving back until his back hit the wall he crossed his arms over his chest and waited.

Rider and his brothers joined him, so did Dive and Lure.

He felt their silent support.

Felt it and appreciated it.

All he needed now was for his cousins to come through for him.

They needed a location.

THIRTY TWO

Harper

Present Day

I woke up alone in a cell. I no longer had Ry strapped to my chest. They took him from me and I prayed they weren’t mistreating him. He must be so scared and have they fed him?

My head and body ached but the worst ache came from my heart. It ached for my boy and for my friends. Every time I closed my eyes I saw Bren lying lifelessly on the floor of my bedroom. Even with all the ink I had spilled under him I knew there was a lot of blood mixed in, too much blood. Was he alive? I prayed that he was.

I had no idea how long I had been in the cell or what the time was. The bastards had taken my watch when they dumped me in here. I was lying on a narrow hospital type bed with a scratchy faded grey blanket thrown over my legs. There were two doors in the room, the one keeping me in here and the other opened to a small very basic bathroom. At least the room and bathroom was clean.

I lay on my side keeping my eyes on the door.

I tried desperately to not give in to my fear. My worst fear was that my brother would hurt Ry. I worried about the drugs the bitch had injected me with. It hadn’t only knocked me out for what felt like hours, it had given me one hell of a headache and a dry mouth that tasted weirdly of paper. I was thirsty but I didn’t know if the water in the bathroom was safe to drink. I wasn’t going to take a chance on it. No way did I want an upset stomach along with all my other problems.

After I woke I explored my prison, hoping for a way out. There wasn’t one, the narrow dirty window was barred. Not that I would have been able to squeeze my ass through it anyway and no way would I escape without my boy. The bathroom didn’t have a window, only one of those extractor fan things in the roof.

My eyes kept going to the door, the only way out. It was dull grey and made of steel and had one of those small weird windows at the top that you saw in prison movies or in those scary mental hospital movies. There wasn’t a door handle, just blank steel and that small window.

I was locked in a cell.

That’s all I knew. I had no idea where the cell was.

For all I knew my brother had kept me drugged and flew me back to South Africa. He was crazy enough to do something like that.

The room was cold and I was thankful for the blanket. I pulled it up to my shoulders and tried to relax. Maybe if I wasn’t so fearful of Ry’s safety the headache would go away and I would be able to think clearly.

There was another reason I was scared. Not only was I scared of what my brother was planning, I was scared that if they had cameras in the room they might have seen me taking the phone from the back of my pants. Under cover of the blanket I had turned over, my back to the door, turned the phone back on but left it on silent and slipped it under the mattress. I was hoping the club would be able to track it now that I’ve turned it back on again. If Bren survived I knew he would tell them and help them to find me.

I don’t know how long I had been awake and lying there when I heard dull scraping and clanking sound coming from outside the door. Slowly swinging my legs over the side of the bed I sat up. The small window darkened as someone looked in at me before the door swung open.

I had never seen the two men who walked through the door before, they were strangers. My brother followed them into the room but didn’t come any closer, he stayed behind them. That was not like him, he liked to be the one in front, the one calling the shots. This was strange. Wasn’t he the one in charge here?

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