Page 32 of The Queen of Nightmares

ChapterTwenty-Three

THE QUEEN OF NIGHTMARES

It took a couple of the men to drag Bear out of the door. It was easy to hear him yelling as he was dragged down the hall. There wasn’t a single ounce of regret in me as I walked to the head of the table. I stared down at the empty chair for several seconds until someone cleared their throat, jarring me from the thoughts of Jack that swirled through my head.

I tossed the patch down on the table, watching as it skittered to a stop in the middle of the polished wood. Without a word, I pulled the chair out and took a seat, daring anyone to tell me I wasn’t allowed to be in the room, let alone sit in the President’s spot. I knew I had already crossed several lines and broken a dozen rules, but Jack had made me his Queen, and in my eyes, that gave me every right.

I looked around the room, meeting each man’s gaze individually. “Does anyone else have an objection to saving Jack from the Boogeymen?” When there were no grumbles or words of dissent, I clasped my hands and placed them in front of me on the table. “Good. Now, tell me what the plan is.”

I expected there to be pushback. I had no business being in this room, after all, but the men just glanced at each other as if asking,are we really letting her do this?Doc was the first to speak up.

“The plan is to take as many weapons as we can to the compound later tonight. One of our guys,” he nodded to a tall, skinny guy with shaggy brown hair and glasses. He was wearing a patch reading Tech on his vest. “Sent out a drone the other night, mapping out all the buildings.” He leaned forward and gave me a grave look. “We know where buildings are, but this won’t be easy. The Boogeymen will be expecting us. We can set C4 with charges to blow up buildings. We can take a shit-ton of ammunition, but we don’t know where they are keeping Bones, and we know they will be waiting for us. There will likely be a massive gunfight, and several of us could end up dead.”

Doc sat back and sighed, running his hands over his face. Looking haggard, he dropped his hands and stared at me. All the pain and hopelessness he felt was easy to read. “Even if we do all that, we still may not find Bones alive.”

I bit my lip to stop it from trembling. Everything he said was true. As I looked around the room, I saw looks of determination. There was a heavy dose of fear, but I could see each of these men were willing to take the chance, knowing that they could very well lose their own life by saving Jack’s.

I nodded. “I understand. You can’t go in guns blazing. It won’t work, and Jack wouldn’t want the rest of you to lose your lives to save him. Perhaps what we need to do is the unexpected.”

“What do you suggest?” Shock asked, watching me with an intense expression. I could feel him trying to read me as if he could dig into my brain and find all my secrets.

“I think we need someone who is familiar with the compound. Someone who will know where Jack is being held. Someone that no one will expect.”

Barrel snorted. “That includes… absolutely no one. It sounds like a great plan, but unless you know something the rest of us don’t, then we are back at square one.” He looked around the table. “Maybe one of us can sneak in to take a look around. If we are careful, we should be able to find where he is. We can take out whatever guards there might be quietly. Once we have him back, then we can return to Plan A and wipe the fuckers off the planet.”

There were a lot of agreements around the table. Most of the guys started discussing who would be best for the job, with several volunteers ready to take the risk. As I sat there and watched, I could feel eyes on me. I looked up to see both Doc and Shock staring at me intently. I chose to ignore their probing eyes. There were questions I couldn’t answer at the moment.

I stood up from Jack’s chair and nodded at the two men while the rest of them continued to discuss the plan. Someone had opened a notebook and was making notes. A small bit of warmth filled me at the sight of so many of Jack’s men ready to charge into danger for him. It was too small to override the aching coldness that had taken over from the moment those van doors closed, though.

I walked out of the conference room as the two bikers who had dragged Bear out were coming back in.

“Hey, Sally, watch out for that guy, okay? We gave him a warning, but assholes like that can react kinda stupid, you know?” I nodded my head, grateful for the warning.

“I understand. I will keep an eye out for trouble.”

As I walked away, my shoulders sagged under the heavy weight of emotions I was battling. I had slept for a while after Doc had dosed me with whatever the sedative was in that injection, but I was still groggy, and depression threatened to pull me under. The only thing I could fight it with was determination. I wasn’t going to stop until Jack was in front of me.

I entered the office then closed and locked the door behind me. I glanced around the room, taking in the simple decor. The desk was to the left, and the leather couch to the right. Behind the desk by the window was a filing cabinet with a small fake Christmas tree on top. I didn’t know how long it had been there and wondered if it was Jack’s doing or someone else’s. I saw a small box on the floor under the window and walked over to peer inside. I had no desire for any more nasty surprises, so I pulled the knife back out of my pocket. Using the tip, I lifted the flap of the box. I relaxed, my muscles loosening and shoulders dropping once I saw it was filled with Christmas ornaments.

I set the knife on top of the filing cabinet next to the tree and reached in for the first ornament. It was a ceramic gingerbread man, made to look as if it had been decorated with frosting. It was adorable and so well made it almost looked like a real cookie. With a small smile, I hung the gingerbread man up on one of the branches before reaching back into the box for another.

It didn’t take long to cover the tree since it was only about three feet tall, but it was festive and colorful, the majority of the ornaments being gingerbread men with slightly different colors. There were no lights or garland in the box, so it was a fairly basic decorated tree. But I liked it in its simplicity.

I backed up to take in the full effect of the Christmas tree until my hip hit the side of the desk, taking my attention. When I turned to look down at it, I noticed stacks of paperwork sitting there. Out of curiosity, and a feeble attempt to take my mind off things, I shuffled through the papers and realized I was looking at reports from the various businesses Jack owned in town. There was also a stack of invoices as well as written requests for all kinds of things like changing inventory and updating logos and signage. It seemed Jack did a lot more than financially back the town’s people the way he’d like me to believe. Maybe he was embarrassed, or maybe he truly believed he had no hand in what the businesses did. But from what I was discovering by looking through the papers, he actively aided them in business decisions and was still paying bills for a few of them. My guess was that the money was recorded as a loan to the ones who were still getting steady on their feet. From another financial ledger, it was clear that the repayment plans on his business loans were very generous.

My pride in Jack, the man, grew as I took in what I suspected was only the tip of the iceberg when it came to the town. I picked up the pen lying next to the paperwork and started reading through the requests again from the beginning, paying closer attention. I pulled a notebook closer to me and began making notes.

As I worked in silence, my mind kept drifting to what I had said in the conference room. I knew what had to be done, and like the men of the club, I hesitated. I wanted Jack freed more than anything, but I would be putting a woman in grave danger. Did I ask her to risk her life? Did Jack have a choice? I had no doubts that the club’s plan to send in a man would fail. Jack needed someone who knew exactly where he was being kept and could get him out undetected.

With a heavy dose of trepidation fueled by hope, I reached for my phone. With trembling fingers, I withdrew the piece of paper from my pocket. I didn’t know why I had suddenly needed to keep it close. After getting home from the hospital, I placed it in my shirt drawer underneath a blouse I never wore. When I was getting dressed this morning, I saw it sitting there, staring at me like a bold neon sign, so I picked it up and slipped it into my pocket. Now, as I sat at Jack’s desk, I typed the number into my phone.

It rang three times, and I was about to hang up when the person answered.

“Sally?”

“Hey, Daisy. Remember when you gave me your number, you said if I ever needed anything, I could call you?” I took a deep breath. “There’s something I need your help with.”

ChapterTwenty-Four

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