CHAPTER 36
GRACE
Ryder was pissed. But what did he expect? That I was going to wait forever to save these women? No way. Enough was enough. We’d waited too long, in my opinion.
I couldn’t sleep thinking about the nightmare these women were going through. Lacey and Frankie had done a wonderful job of taking care of the ones we’d managed to free and I’d checked on them again before I left our clubhouse this morning.
The smiles on their faces were enough to keep me determined to get the rest of them out.
There was no other option, as far as I was concerned.
I wasn’t sure what we’d find at Snake’s place, but when we walked up to the gate with a suitcase full of cash, we found everything quiet and normal. Eli pushed the intercom and Snake’s voice crackled through the box.
“Who is it?”
“Snake, it’s Grace. I was hoping you’d have a few minutes to talk.”
“Be right out.”
Eli and I looked at each other nervously. We scanned the perimeter, looking out for the dogs, but it was eerily quiet.
“Something’s weird,” Eli said. “Too quiet.”
“Yeah. Just stay close to me.”
“I’m not leaving your side.”
Snake walked out by himself and opened the gate with a friendly smile.
“Thanks for seeing me.”
“I’m not one to hold a grudge, Grace. I apologize for being so short last time,” he said. He looked over at Eli and nodded. “Got a jealous streak a mile wide.”
“I didn’t mean any disrespect,” Eli said.
“I know, I overreacted,” Snake said, gesturing for us to come inside. “Let’s get in out of the cold, shall we?”
We followed him into the clubhouse, which was empty.
“Let’s go into my office,” Snake said, leading the way. I stayed inches away from Eli. His eyes darted into each and every dark corner, his hand on his gun in the hip holster he was wearing. Snake stopped in front of his office door and slowly opened it, gesturing for us to walk in first.
It wasn’t empty.
First, I noticed Sophia sitting in the corner, but then my eyes raked across the rest of the people and my stomach dropped.
Rob Goddell, the police chief of Multnomah County sat in one corner. Next to him was the man I worked with at the Northeast Precinct, Toby Nunes. Across from Toby was Roman Garcia, an undercover cop that I’d trusted the most, the man who was supposed to be helping me bring down Snake after we’d gotten the girls out. We’d been planning together all week by phone.
“What the…?” I murmured, my heart pounding. I turned back to Snake and saw the evil smile slither across his face. “Eli…”
Tiny appeared from a dark corner, throwing his arms around Eli and wrestling him to the ground. They fought, but Tiny sat on him, punching him in the face until he stopped moving. Tiny stood up, pulling him up and setting him down in the chair next to Sophia.
Snake pointed his gun at me.
“What the fuck is going on?” I asked.
“A reunion of sorts,” he sneered. “I think you know everyone here, don’t you? Rob and you go way back, right? And Toby was your first partner right out of the police academy, wasn’t he? Before the one who betrayed you during that whole mess when you first met Ryder. And Roman here, well you just talked to him yesterday, isn’t that right?”
Eli struggled against Tiny, but Tiny outweighed him by hundreds of pounds. Tiny quickly tied him to the chair, securing his hands and legs with duct tape.
“Stay put, Eli, or I’ll have to shoot Grace.”
Eli stared up at me and I shook my head.
“Why are you doing this?” I asked.
“Why am I doing this?” Snake laughed, as if I’d just asked the funniest question. “Because it’s people like you who remain a thorn in my side.”
“How is that?”
“Stop the act, Grace. It’s useless now. I know all about Solid Ground.”
I stared up at him in disbelief. How was it possible that I’d been betrayed once again?
“I know, I know, you’re surprised, right?” Snake asked. “You’ve taken down so many people already. Saved so many women’s lives. It’s impressive really.”
He took a step closer, his gun pressed to my cheek.
“I’ve been watching you for years now, Grace. I watched while you took down my friends. Huge operations that took years for us to build. You killed a few of them, too, didn’t you?”
I stared back at him silently, my head spinning.
“You thought you got us all, didn’t you?” he asked, a smile lighting up his face. “We want to show you something, don’t we boys?”
The three men I thought were my allies stood up and nodded, laughing.
I watched with disgust as they all reached down and unfastened their pants, dropping them to their ankles in front of me. At first, I thought they meant to rape me, and apparently so did Eli, because he began struggling against his restraints wildly.
But then I saw their legs.
Each of them had the same tattoo, the same tattoo I’d seen before. On each of their calves, a serpent slithered up and around their leg from the ankle. I shook my head in disbelief as I snapped my head back over to Snake.
He stood there in boxer shorts, his own jeans now bunched around his ankles, the same tattoo engraved in his skin.
“I’m surprised my name didn’t tip you off.”
No fucking way, I thought. This can’t be happening.
“All of you?” I asked, my voice shaking.
“Are you surprised?” Snake asked, as he leaned down and pulled his pants up. The others followed and sat back down after buckling their belts.
“You could say that,” I said, throwing angry looks at my ex-friends from the force.
“We did good, though, didn’t we?” Snake asked, pointing the gun back at me. “All this time, you had no idea you were working with the enemy. I mean, I figured you would stop trusting people after you left the force, considering your partner betrayed you so badly, leaving you for dead, but you didn’t, did you? Sure you took up with the Gods and did your best, you should be proud of that, Grace, really you should. But did you think it would last forever? That you could keep fucking with us, that you could get away with it forever?”
“I guess nothing lasts forever,” I said. I glanced at the door, trying to figure out how I was going to get out of this.
Ryder was right.
I should have listened to him.
I never should have come back.
I vowed to myself that if I made it out of this alive, I’d never question him again. Anger boiled through my veins as I realized exactly how fucked I was right now.
“So, what now?” I asked.
“Now?” Snake asked, the eerie smile spreading across his face again.
“Oh, well, that’s easy. Now you die.”