Chapter 27
Thorn
The motel wasn’t hard to find. Keeping my rage in check was the hard part.
We had found our way to the place quickly, and we jumped off our bikes and walked towards the room. A broken neon sign glowed above the compound that we walked into. There was no doubt that residents and the management had heard our ride into the place, but nobody had come outside. They all wanted to mind their own business. Our leather cuts and our bikes were easily recognizable, and everyone here knew to keep their heads down when we were around.
“Where do you think they are?” I heard Beckett asked, as the others followed me.
The rooms were lined up one after the other, and the lights were out in every one of them. It was the middle of the night, and everyone was behind locked doors. I didn’t even know for sure if this was where Ryan had brought Ensley. There was a high probability that he had taken her somewhere else. That they were already out of the state by now. Time was of the essence, and I started walking in front of every room one by one. We didn’t have the time to break down every door and check.
The others were following me, keeping their ears cocked for any noise. I tried looking through every pulled curtain too, but the rooms were too dark. We might have to knock on every door, I was beginning to think.
Outside room 8, I stopped, and with my brows crossed, I stared at the door. I thought I heard like a struggle was going on inside.
I didn’t miss a heartbeat. I kicked the door with my foot, and it flung open. I cocked my gun in my hand and held it out.
It was a small room, and in the middle of it, Ensley was standing with her shoulders heaving. Ryan was in front of her, just about managing to stand up. Whatever had happened before this, I could see that right now, it was Ensley who was in the better position. Had she hit him? How?
I stared at her. Her blond, beautiful hair was a mess. Her makeup was running down her cheeks, and her shirt seemed to be torn at her shoulders. Ryan, who I saw for the first time, growled and straightened himself, going straight for Ensley.
I charged at them, knocking Ryan over with the full force of my body. I had thrown myself at him, and now I had him pinned to the wall. He was a big guy, but definitely not as big as me. Neither was he as strong. He struggled to move away, but I pressed my arm right up to his neck, choking him, while I held my gun pointed at his temple.
“Where do you think you’re going, motherfucker?” I hissed into his face.
I could sense Ensley behind me.
“Thorn, please, let’s get out of here,” she yelled, and I had to fight every muscle in my body to not turn around and pull her into my arms.
“Leave us, Ensley,” I hissed, with my eyes still focused on Ryan. He was still trying to get out of my grip, but now that I had him, there was no way that I was letting him escape.
“Thorn, I want to go!” she screamed.
“Leave us!” I growled back at her. I could sense that she didn’t know what to do. She was feeling helpless, but I couldn’t help her right now. I needed to deal with this bastard first.
“Jamison, take her out, now!” I barked, and I could sense the movement behind me. Jamison was trying to pull Ensley away and out of the room, while she struggled against him. She didn’t want to leave my side.
It was only when I heard the door slam shut behind Jamison, that I released the pressure on Ryan’s throat. He coughed and choked as he tried to steady himself, and I stepped away from him.
Beckett, Topher, and Brooks were standing behind me, each with their guns pointed at Ryan. I didn’t need to point my gun at him anymore. There was nowhere he could go now, and he knew it.
He wrapped his hands around his neck, as though that would help him breathe better. Still coughing, he steadied his eyes on me finally. His dark eyes seemed to be popping out of their sockets. I could smell the alcohol on his breath. He had been in the middle of packing his bags when we got here.
Which meant that we had got here just in time. Any longer and there was a good chance that he might have already taken Ensley away from this place.
Ryan was glaring at me now, then looking over at my brothers standing behind me.
“How did you find us? How did she tell you?” he asked, in a weak choking voice. I breathed in deeply, watching his crazed eyes as he tried to catch his breath.
“The first rule of kidnapping is that you don’t pay for the holding room with your credit card. You dumbfuck,” I said, in a low even voice.
Ryan snarled and then rubbed the back of his hand across his mouth.
“It doesn’t fucking matter because she will never be yours. Ensley is my woman, and nothing will change that,” Ryan hissed, and I took one step towards him. He was a coward. He stepped away from me in fear, as much as he tried to cover up that fear with his speeches.
“Did you hurt her? Did you hit her?” I asked him.
It didn’t matter to me what his reply to that was. I knew the truth. I had already seen the blood trickling down Ensley’s nose. I already knew that he had hurt her. I just wanted to see if he would tell me the truth.
“I would never hurt Ensley. I love her. Everything I do for her, I do because I fucking love her. She just doesn’t know it yet,” Ryan whelped. Now he was beginning to shake, as reality began to set in. He knew he was cornered and he had no escape.
“Did you hit her?” I asked him again, taking a step closer to him. Ryan’s nostrils flared, and he glared back at me, challenging me with his eyes.
“She fucking hit me. All I was doing was loving her,” he said, and I lifted my gun up to his head.
Ryan was standing in front of me, and I was pointing the gun at his head. He had nowhere to run, and I was going to make sure that he never hurt another woman in his life, definitely not Ensley.
“You’re a sick fuck who likes to beat up women to make yourself feel good. Men like you don’t deserve to live,” I said, with the gun still pointed to his head. He was glaring back at me, still challenging me. He was sure that I wasn’t going to pull the trigger.
“And you think you’re her big hero? Ensley Adams’ savior? You think she’s going to worship you all your life? She’s a whore, and she deserves to be treated like one. It’s the truth. Nobody knows her like I do,” Ryan continued, and I tightened my grip on the gun. I knew he could see the blazing rage in my eyes, and he had got it into his head that he was talking me out of shooting him.
“Run while you can, man. One day, you’ll find yourself in my position. That is what whores like her do to the men they trap. That is what she did. She trapped me,” he said, and I shook my head.
“You are a sick fuck. And you don’t even know it. You hit and hurt innocent women. How many others like Ensley are out there?” I asked, and he opened his mouth to say something.
“Spare me the bullshit psychobabble. You’ve hurt Ensley, and that’s enough. That’s all I need to know,” I said, and Ryan widened his eyes, arching his eyebrows up his forehead.
“What are you going to do? Shoot me here in the middle of this motel? For everyone to hear?” he said, and I could sense a grin forming on my face. He was such an idiot that he didn’t even notice the silencer on my gun.
“Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m going to do,” I said, the second before my forefinger pulled the trigger. I felt the reverberation of the bullet leave the barrel and shoot through the air. In the next split-second, I saw Ryan stagger back and hit his head on the wall, where a spreading red stain remained. His body slumped and slid down to the ground, and I turned from him.
“Where is she?” I asked the others, who had said nothing and made no movement all this time.
“Jamison’s taken her outside,” Brooks told me. They were all smiling at me. I had got what I wanted.