Michael
The door to Lauren’s apartment was open. Not unlocked, but pushed open. I yanked my gun out from my waistband and held onto it as I slowly entered. Nothing looked touched.
A news broadcast played on the television set. A plate with an uneaten sandwich and glass of iced tea sat on the coffee table.
Tony stood at the doorway, his own weapon in hand. I motioned for him to sit tight and made my way to the kitchen. Empty. The bathroom door was open, as well as Lauren’s bedroom. Both rooms empty and no sign of Asya.
The only room left to check was Asya’s bedroom. I put my ear to the door, listening for movement. Soft, muffled moans. Turning the handle, I threw the door open with my weapon lifted and ready.
On the bed, hog tied and gagged, lay Asya. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying, and her body battered and bruised. Before I went to her, I checked her closet and the bathroom attached to her room. Once I felt comfortable that she was alone, I went to the bed and pulled the dirty rag down from her mouth.
She spat on the ground, then took several gulping breaths. “Where’s Lauren?” She wiggled against her restraints.
“Not here. Who did this?”
“Fucking Dean!” she yelled, then coughed. “Fuck. Get me out of these ropes.” She wiggled more.
“The more you squirm the tighter they get. Just stay still.” I called out for Tony and then began using my pocket knife to cut her loose. Tony took in the scene and cursed.
“Where’s this Dean guy?”
“I don’t know. He made me send those messages to Lauren. I had to. He had a gun to my head.” She started sobbing as I finished removing the last bit of rope form her legs. By the indents and bruises along her legs and arms, I guessed he’d had her tied up for several hours.
“Okay, okay.” I tucked my own gun away and told Tony to do the same. “Where’d he go?”
“I don’t know. He left about an hour ago. Said he had to finish up at the warehouse. What does he want with Lauren? Where is she?”
“She’s safe,” I assured her. “Did he say anything else?”
“No. Everything was fine, normal. He woke me up, we fucked, but then he went all crazy on me. He asked if I would invite Lauren over for lunch, but I said no. I knew you guys were in the middle of all this shit and I didn’t want to bug her. He kept insisting, and when I questioned why he wanted her to get here so bad, he went batty. He hit me. Dean has never hit me. Then he pulled out his fucking gun and told me to text her.”
“Did he know she was with me?”
“Yeah. I told him you were watching over her until the driver of the car was found. He knew that.” She swiped her hand across her lips as more tears fell. “But you didn’t bring her.”
“No. He knew I wouldn’t.” My phone starting vibrating and I pulled it out. “What?” I barked into the phone.
“Mike, she’s gone. That little girl is slippery. She took off about thirty minutes ago. Isn’t answering her phone.”
I cursed into the phone, then looked back at Asya. “You said he mentioned a warehouse. Has he mentioned it before?”
“No, not really. I mean…wait. He was late once picking me up from work about a week ago. I wasn’t mad but he started spilling all sorts of excuses, saying some tan guy held him up at the warehouse. I didn’t know what he meant, and I didn’t ask.”
“Tan…Tanner?”
“That might have been it, yeah.”
“Tanner Hunt?” Tony asked from the doorway.
“Yeah, that’s him. You know him?”
“Yeah, I know him. He’s got an office at a warehouse over on Ogden. Runs shit out of there. Knew a few guys who ran for him, dropped them there for their pickups.”
“Fuck. If Tanner called Lauren to meet him, she’d probably go. Damn her ass. I’m gonna head over there. Tony, you stay here with Asya. Get her back to the clubhouse.”
“You can’t take that place on by yourself.” He pushed my chest when I tried to get past him.
“It’s not me you should be worried about.” I glared at him until he moved out of my way, then ran my ass out of the apartment and down to my bike. Before peeling out, I sent a message to Johnny where Lauren was. I wouldn’t be taking on the warehouse alone. My brothers would back me up.
Lauren
No matter what Michael was going to do to me for leaving the clubhouse, I would welcome it compared to the angry man I faced in Tanner’s office. A man covered with scars and scabs along his nostrils and covering most of his face stood behind Tanner, who sat in his chair with the barrel of a gun pressed against his head.
I stood in the doorway unable to speak, just trying to take in the situation, when rough hands grabbed me and hauled me into the room. Dean. His dark eyes avoided mine as he dragged me to the chair in front of Tanner’s desk. “Sit.” He pushed me down into the leather chair.
I tried to get Tanner’s eyes lined up with mine, but he kept them focused on the doorway behind me. “Tanner, are you okay?” I asked, and was rewarded with a slap across the face from Dean for my trouble.
“Shut the fuck up,” he growled at me. I heard tape being unraveled before I felt the thick duct tape being wrapped around my torso. I tried to jump up from the chair, but he already had it around my arms and moving around the chair. Well, hell.
“This is the girl?” the man with the scabs asked. His raspy voice grated on me, as though it could scratch me. “She looks different. You sure you got the right one?”
“Yeah. This is her,” Dean snarled from behind me. He leaned down so his breath was hot on my ear and continued to breathe heavy like a dog who’d just ran around a hot backyard and needed water. “Right, Lauren? You remember Mr. Leonard, right?” A drip of spittle landed on my neck, and I tried to lean away from him, but the tape held me tight in position.
“Daniel.” Tanner still didn’t look my way, but his fingers drummed on his desk. “Daniel, let the girl go. I’m the one who cut you off, you don’t need her.”
“Fuck that. This bitch owes me. It was she who started the whole fucking thing. Can’t manage to grab the right package, and next thing I know I’m being cut off from the best shit in town.” He didn’t move from behind Tanner, or take the gun away from his head, but glared at me. “See this face? See this shit all over my skin? That shit Snake sold me did this to me. My fucking face peels off over and over again. I’ve had to do my business like a fucking freak, never meeting anyone face to fucking face, because look at me. Look at me!” His voice cracked when he screamed at me. I kept looking at him, seeing the scabs and the scars as his penance.
“You tried to rape me.” I spoke low. I knew I should have kept quiet, but he wasn’t going to blame me for getting himself cut off from Tanner. That was his own doing.
“Yeah, and for that Tanner here threw away years of friendship! Do you know how many times I got my attorney to keep his ass out of jail? Too many fucking times! And this prick,” he nodded to Dean, “this little prick was so fucking easy to buy off. Do you see how easy it is for me to make you disappear?”
“Hurting me isn’t going to make your face better. If you really want Pierre to have my internship, he can have it. It’s not worth this, not worth anyone getting hurt.” I didn’t look at Tanner. I needed to be strong, and if I looked at him, odds were I would crumble. I’d never seen him vulnerable. He was always the man in control, the man everyone else looked to for what to do and how to do it.
“Fuck Pierre. That kid can get his own fucking internship. All he does is bitch and moan about what he wants but can never earn shit for himself. When he said your name, though, when I heard your fucking name, it clicked; I asked him to describe you and I knew it was you. That white blonde hair of yours. Only took a few calls to figure out you were the same bitch who made this happen.” He pointed to his face again and I looked away. Not because the scabs disgusted me, but because of the raw hatred he held in his eyes.
“What are you going to do with me now?” I whispered. I needed time. More time to figure out a plan. Michael had no idea where I was. For all he knew, I was tucked away at the clubhouse.
“What do you think, bitch? We’re gonna have our fun with you first.” Dean’s breath carried the scent of raw onions that made my stomach turn.
“Where’s Asya?” I jumped beneath the tape, not getting far, but was able to move the chair away from him enough to angle my eyesight to him.
His lips curled over his teeth and he laughed. “Home in bed.”
“If you fucking hurt her—”
"Hurt her? Why would I do that? I just tucked her away for later use.” He laughed again. A nasty, toe-curling laugh.
“I don’t understand, Dean. Why would you do this?”
“Money.” He shrugged. “Mr. Leonard has gotten me out of a few scrapes, more than one that Tanner caused while I was playing his errand boy. I owe him some favors, and he pays fucking better than Tanner or the fucking Fallen. I remembered you from when you dated Colton. That fuckface didn’t know how to handle your ass. If you were mine, I wouldn’t be tolerating all that hoity-toity shit. You would have known your place.”
“Asya never mentioned you were in a motorcycle club. She would have told me.”
He laughed again. “Yeah, well, I didn’t need her all up in my business. Until I knew if I’d keep her as my old lady or not, I just kept her on the outside.” Obviously, Dean had lost his mind somewhere along the way. How could Asya not have noticed the tattoo? Didn’t he have one of his club on his body somewhere like Michael did?
“A double life,” I mumbled to myself. “Fucking pathetic,” I spat at him. “You are fucking pathetic to follow this asshole!” I’m not sure what came over me, but the burning anger in my chest exploded.
His response was quick and hard. A closed fist hit my jaw, the copper taste of blood spilled into my mouth. My lip had split, blood dripped from my lip down my shirt and onto my tongue. “Fucking bitch!” he yelled, and fisted my hair, dragging my head back.
“Touch her again and you’ll die slowly.” Tanner’s voice came across calm and collected, as though informing him of the weather.
Keeping his hand in my hair, Dean looked over at Tanner with a laugh. “How? By you?”
I tried to yank myself away but his fist connected with my cheek, this time cutting the inside of my mouth on my teeth. My teeth rattled and I worried he’d knocked a tooth loose, but the hot pain that scorched my face took priority.
Just as my vision started to clear up, I heard a pop. Dean grunted and let go of my hair. “Fuck!” he yelled, gripping his calf. “Where the fuck did that come from?” Before an answer could be given, another pop and Daniel was thrown back away from Tanner. Hitting the wall behind him, blood spread across the chest of his tan shirt, his eyes wide with surprise. His gun hit the floor at the same time he did.
Tanner stood up then and leaned over his desk, glaring at Dean. “No, fucker, by him.” He pointed to the door.