Chapter 20
Xander
“Faster,” Cole demands as I punch the boxing pads he holds in front of his chest. I push myself harder. I only have two more days before I face ‘Pit Bull’ and not a damn thing is going to stop me from taking that fucker down.
Cole moves the pads and my eyes follow each of his movements, not missing a beat.
My phone ringing in the background cuts into my concentration but I ignore it. I’ve got shit to do. I continue with the punches, kicking and evading while I hear Jace in the background, answering the call. “Road-kill grill. You kill em, we grill em.”
I roll my eyes but can’t help the grin that comes across my face. “Shit, yeah. I’ll grab him,” Jace says, as he jogs over to me.
Cole instantly puts his pads down and I turn to Jace who has a strange look on his face. “Sorry dude,” he says handing the phone over. “It’s some guy Micky, says there’s a problem.”
I take the phone instantly. If it’s Micky that means it’s got something to do with Charli. My heart rate increases, despite the workout Coles been putting me through. “Micky,” I say, “What’s the matter?”
“Have you heard from Charli?” he demands immediately.
“No,” I tell him. “She ok?”
“Don’t know, kid,” he says, the concern clear in his voice. “Just had a call from Gina, Charli never returned from her lunch break.”
“What?” I question. Charli has never ditched on work before. It’s just not something she is capable of, even if she was on her deathbed, she’d still try and head in. Something must have happened. My first thought is that she is laying somewhere in a gutter hurt or lost my second is for her step-mum.
“I gotta go,” I rush out, hanging up the phone and instantly dialling her number. The phone goes straight to voicemail and I give it a second try then a third. “Shit,” I roar.
“What’s wrong?” Cole asks, alarmed.
“It’s Charli. Something wrong.” I tell him as I rush to the back and grab my shit. Cole throws me the keys to his truck and I could never be more grateful. I don’t even say goodbye before I’m out the door and rushing home, hoping she just wasn’t feeling well and I’m going to walk through the door to find her curled up in bed, pleased to see me.
I make it home in no time and push my way through the door, narrowly escaping having to replace it. “Charli?” I call, as I make my way through the house but I know in my gut, she isn’t here.
I double check every room of the house before I head over to Micky’s and bolt straight up the stairs to check the apartment but of course, she isn’t here.
I head back down to the bar and find Micky, standing at the bottom of the stairs waiting for me. “Anything?” he asks.
“No,” I groan in frustration. Where the hell could she be?
Micky tells me he is going to do a drive around the city and leaves me to check the more serious places. I’m half-way to her step-mother’s place when a text comes through on my phone. I pull it out of my pocket and open the text. I come to a screeching halt in the middle of the road when I see the picture before me.
Charli lay’s on a wet concrete floor in what looks like some kind of basement. She is bloodied and bruised with her hands and feet bound, her clothes torn and duct tape across her mouth. She seems to be passed out and my blood runs cold.
My eyes instantly snap down to the message below.
Unknown – Throw the match or you’ll never see this little bitch again.
“Fuck,” I roar.
I should have known. Fucking ‘Pitt Bull’ has my woman. How stupid could I have been to assume this was about Charli, that it was her stepmother? But of course, it’s about me. The moment I’m finally in control, someone has to come along and fuck it up. But this dickhead is finally going to learn his lesson. You don’t fuck with what’s mine.
The thought crosses me that I should do as he says and I’ll safely get my girl back but the fight is still two days away and who knows what could happen to her in that time. He’s an unpredictable bastard and probably wouldn’t stand by his word.
I pull Coles truck around in a screeching U-turn and hit the gas. I make it back to Rebels Advocate in no time and I burst through the door. Cole and Jace are already standing there waiting. I pull out my phone and toss it over to Cole who looks it over with wide eyes before they come narrowed and full of fury.
“How the hell am I going to find her?” I ask.
I see the answer laying beneath his eyes. “Let’s go,” he says. We all pile back into the truck while Jace gets on his phone and gives Luke a call, asking if he can get his friend to track it the number the message came through on before telling him to meet us at Mario’s ASAP, he then calls Caden and says the same. I recognise the name instantly, he is the guy that does all the paperwork for the Underground. He’s dodgy as fuck but he’ll know where I can find ‘Pitt Bull’.
We come to a stop in front of some old restaurant and find Luke and Caden already waiting. We catch up with them and before I know it, the five of us are storming into the place. I follow Cole’s lead and it’s damn obvious they have been in a similar situation before.
We walk straight past the gawking diners and through the kitchen before Cole busts down a door. We come into an office which has Mario sitting behind a desk. He doesn’t startle and I realise it’s because he knew we were coming. The whole side wall of his office is covered in monitors and surveillance equipment making me wonder just how dodgy this mother fucker is.
He stands from his expensive chair, placing his hands down on his desk and fixing us all with an intimidating look, though, this guy must have something special up his sleeve because he stands before five guys who are all twice his size, as confident as ever. “Gentlemen,” he says. “I’d love to say what a pleasure it is to see you again, but that would be a lie.”
Cole lets out a grunt. “We need information on ‘Pit Bull’,” he demands.
Mario lets out a scoff. “No can do, you know the rules of the game,” he says.
“Mario,” Cole says, using a reasoning voice. “You know how this is going to end. You can either give us what we need or we’ll find it ourselves.” His eyes narrow dangerously on Cole before flicking to the rest of us. He lets out a sigh and sits back down in his chair before going through some paperwork in his desk drawer. “Good choice,” Cole says with a thick sarcasm lacing his tone.
“Well the last time you idiots ransacked this joint it cost me nearly ten grand in damages,” he informs us.
“Lesson well learned then,” Jace murmurs, earning himself a nasty stare from Mario.
Mario finds what he is looking for and silently hands it over to Luke. “This is all I’ve got,” he says. “Now, can you please leave? It’s bad for business.”
Luke looks over the papers and he clearly doesn’t seem happy about it but he grunts anyway. “It’s going to have to do.”
He hands the paper to me and all I see is the name and address of a gym. “Let’s go.”
Moments later we are back in the truck, tearing down the street towards the address on the piece of paper. Cole pulls up and parks up on the walkway, in front of the gym and I’m out the door before he has even flicked the ignition off.
I push the door but it’s locked, then I give it a good shake just to be sure. “Fuck.” I groan.
Luke and Jace appear behind me and see the dilemma. “We’ll check around back,” Luke says before they swiftly disappear. They return moments later. “No luck.”
I shrug my shoulder’s. If we can’t get in the right way, then we’re doing it my way. I take the few steps back to Cole’s truck and search the back. I come back with a crowbar in my hand and without a second thought, I smash through the thick glass doors.
The alarm instantly goes off and the five of us make our way inside. “We don’t have long before the cops are here,” Caden says, making us all move a little faster.
I head straight for the office with Cole on my heels. I kick in the door and instantly start rifling through the filing cabinets for any type of clue who this fucker is and where he would have my girl.
Cole hacks into the computer and we spend the next few minutes searching. Each minute searching is another minute that Charli is in the hands of that bastard, doing who knows what to her. The thought has another spurt of anger coming on. I finish searching through the cabinets and come up with nothing.
I’m two seconds away from ripping the cabinet off the wall and trashing the joint when Jace comes darting in with a picture frame. He slams it down on the table, sending a big crack right through the centre of the frame but that’s not what’s caught my eye. ‘Pit Bull’ stares straight back at me with text below stating he was last year’s most promising fighter and his name right next to it.
Jackson Fucking Delaney.
Cole instantly gets searching through the gym's records and pulls up the fuckers file, finding every bit of information on the guy we could possibly need and more.
We’re out the door with moments to spare and turning onto the main road when we see the cops heading in the opposite direction.
“Where are we heading?” Cole asks.
I look over the paper once again and find two addresses. One is a residential address while the other seems to be a warehouse. I give Cole the details of the warehouse and he hits it with Luke and Caden following behind.
It’s just past nightfall when we finally get to the place we have been looking for. The warehouse is old and abandoned with dim lights coming from inside. The place reminds me of the locations where the underground fights have been and I don’t doubt that this place would probably be used in the future.
We all get out of the trucks and make our way towards the doors.
Hang in there, Charli. I’m coming for you.