Chapter 25
Thorn
The guys were all standing around me. I hadn’t asked them to, but they had followed me to the hotel room near Ensley’s apartment. Brooks was missing, but I didn’t have the headspace to think about where he might have been.
Topher, Jamison, and Beckett were standing over me, watching me as I fumed. I kept cracking my knuckles and muttering to myself. For the first time in my life, I was feeling helpless, and I didn’t know what to do with myself in that situation.
That asshole had her. That cowardly psychopath had kidnapped the only woman who had made me feel alive, and I couldn’t do anything about it.
“I’ll kill him myself,” I growled after there had been silence in the room for several minutes.
“We have to find him first,” Beckett stated, and I glared at him, throwing daggers at him with my eyes.
I cracked my knuckles again and watched Jamison as he ran his hand through his hair. I could sense that he hadn’t stopped feeling guilty about everything that had happened and I wasn’t sure if I had forgiven him fully yet either.
“If he fucking touches her, I’ll kill him,” I growled again, and I caught the guys exchanging looks.
“So, what do we do now, boss?” Topher asked, and I shook my head.
“Call Church,” I commanded, and they exchanged looks again.
“This is Church. I called it because you told me to, remember?” he replied, and I stared at him blankly. I realized that I was feeling more lost now than I had felt before.
“Where the fuck is Brooks?” I growled, and he shrugged his shoulders.
I jumped up from the chair and walked to the wall and punched it. I needed to feel the pain shoot up my arm. I was trying to knock some sense into myself.
“Okay, Thorn, Boss, you need to calm down and tell us what to do. We want to get the guy just as much as you do,” Topher said, and I whipped around to him, charging at him in full force. Topher took a step back from me, suddenly surprised by my behavior.
“No, you fucking don’t!” I barked at him, and he looked back at me with a question in his eyes. I knew what he wanted to ask me. Why I cared so fucking much about a client, but he didn’t dare ask me that.
“Fuck, Jamison, why did you leave the door?” it was Beckett who asked that, and we all turned to look at Jamison who ran his hand through his hair again.
“I don’t know. I was an idiot. It’s all my fucking fault,” he said, and I clenched my jaws.
“No, it’s not. It’s all our faults. We should have been prepared. We should have anticipated that fucker’s next move. We took him for granted. We thought he was just a deranged loony,” I growled, and Jamison was looking at me gratefully.
I knew what the consequences were when your brothers start blaming you for something gone wrong. I knew Jamison had slipped up, but I didn’t want him to face the consequences for that for a lifetime. I was going to forgive him this time and hope that he didn’t fuck up like this again.
“Did she give you anything? Any clues about where he might have taken her?” Beckett asked me, and I shook my head.
“She had no idea where he was or what he had been up to in the past five years since she left New York. We didn’t even know for sure if he was in LA,” I said and clenched the fist that I had punched into the wall. I could still feel the sting of the force, and it made me feel good. I wanted that fist to break Ryan’s jaw. He had taken Ensley out of her bedroom, out of her home and now he was going to have to pay for it.
I was going to find him and make sure he never touched a hair on her body again.
“So how are we going to find this fucker?” Topher asked, just as there was a rap on the hotel door. We exchanged looks, and Beckett pulled out the gun he had stuffed in his belt. Jamison approached the door and looked through the peephole.
“It’s Brooks,” he said, rolling his eyes and opened the door to our brother.
Brooks walked into the hotel room, and I immediately charged at him.
“Where the fuck have you been? We were all supposed to be on duty, watching Ensley’s apartment. Do you even know that he’s taken her?” I was barking at Brooks who was watching me intently, listening to every word that was spitting out of my mouth.
When I was finished, he took in a deep breath and stuck his hands into the pockets of his jeans.
“Yeah, I heard. Topher told me. I wasn’t here because you ordered me to do some digging and my shift didn’t start till five in the morning. Remember?” he hissed at me. We were both glaring at each other.
“And if you have to bark at someone, do it at Jamison. From what I hear, he’s the one who couldn’t control his nicotine cravings when he needed to. If he hadn’t disappeared for so long, that bastard wouldn’t have been able to walk into her apartment,” Brooks continued through gritted teeth, and I stepped angrily towards him.
I didn’t know who or what I was angry at anymore. All I knew was that I needed to hit someone, punch something again, so I could get the rage out of my body.
“Okay, we need to take a step back. Thorn, Brooks, let it go. We’re all here now, and we need to work as a team!” Beckett had stepped in between us, and he was trying to catch both our gazes so he could talk some sense into us.
I stepped away from them, clenching my jaw in the hopes that I’d be able to calm myself. I didn’t need to pick a fight with one of my brothers. We were all on the same side. We had slipped up, but I needed all their help to get Ensley back.
Brooks nodded his head slowly, with his eyes still on me, and pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket. He held it up, and I could see that there was an address scribbled on it.
“I got into his bank account,” he said, and I narrowed my eyes at him. What did an address have to do with his bank account?
“And anything there we can use?” Jamison stepped up to us now, and Brooks turned to look at him.
“I noticed a transaction at a motel off the 405. Four nights in a row. That’s where he’s living,” Brooks continued, and I could feel a renewed surge of energy in my veins again.
“Or at least was living before he took her,” Beckett added.
“It doesn’t matter. That is where we’re going,” I cut in, and I grabbed the piece of paper out of Brooks’ hand. I could sense him staring at me while I read the address over and over again. When I looked up, I met his eyes and nodded my head.
“Good job, brother. We might find her with this,” I said and finally, he grinned. He stretched his hand out to me, and I shook it. I had lost myself there for a few minutes. Losing Ensley was making me turn on my brothers, making me doubt everything I knew and trusted. What was this effect she was having on me?
Whatever it was, I knew I had never felt it before.
We stormed out of the hotel and got on our bikes. Together, we were riding towards the motel off the 405, and whatever happened, I was determined to find Ensley tonight. Whatever it took. I wasn’t going to let him keep her for a moment longer, now that I knew where he had been living all these days in LA.
Ensley’s beautiful heart-shaped face floated up in front of me as I rode my bike hard. Her luscious pink lips, those sparkling green eyes, and her silky smooth golden hair. I wanted her in my arms again. I wanted to hold her and tell her that I would take care of her. I wanted to fall on my knees and beg for her forgiveness for fucking up.
Would she ever be able to trust me again? She had hired me because she had complete faith in me and I had broken my promise to her, to keep her safe.
I could feel my veins pumping with rage and adrenaline as I rode my bike hard towards our destination.
There was nothing I wouldn’t do to get her back.