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My club brothers murmur their agreement, and we break apart, each slipping forward along the darkened hedgerow to get close to the house undetected.
The tension of the moment drives home what a really bad idea it had been for me to take my eyes off her even for a minute. I should have known she wasn’t safe in town, even with a bunch of people around.
We follow the plan Siege laid down. Me, Siege, Tank, and Dutch heading for the main cabin. I go up the steps first. Naturally, on such a luxurious cabin, the steps were solid. Therefore, there is no creaking to give away our presence. The others come up and spread out on either side of the porch. When we are all ready, I kick the door in, and we all surge forward. There are the men in the main room and they’re waiting for us. It’s clear these men are a legitimate security detail. They have a command center set up, and as I’m running forward, I notice they have several big screens. I can see our club brothers scattered out and at least two are walking into a trap. Siege immediately falls back to warn them on his com. I’m cursing myself, usually we go in prepared, take down the transformers and make sure no one knows what hit them, but today we had to act immediately and there was no time to plan ahead.
A bullet grazes my leg. I barrel into the first man and smash him into the wall. I’ve got my gun in one hand but I’m hesitant to kill a him because he could just be one of the security guards for some rich guy’s estate. Instead, I slam his head into the wall with my free hand and turn to see that Tank and Dutch have incapacitated the other two and were using zip ties to bind their hands behind their back and their feet together.
Siege rushes through the door and stands staring at the video feeds for a brief second. I know he must have gotten through to them, because the other members of the security team are down and being restrained.
Sierge and I head for the kitchen area, hoping to find Serena tied up there. I’m not quite that lucky. When the downstairs is thoroughly searched, including closets and such, we return to the living room to see one of the security guys trying to hop away. He’s not making much progress because his ankles are zip tied together. Siege punches him in the face and drags him back to sit with the others. “Do not fucking move,” he demands.
I could hear Tank and Dutch tromping around on the second floor. This was starting to feel like a bust for me.
Siege rummages through a nearby desk stuffing some paperwork inside his vest. We then go upstairs to see what’s holding up Tank and Dutch. We passed several doors they kicked in. It looks like they had torn the room apart only to find nothing. Kicking in several more doors we find nothing. Clearly whoever had been upstairs had rushed downstairs to face off with the Legion.
I cursed under my breath. “This can’t be right. There are multiple SUVs plus the minivan we were tracking. She has to be here somewhere.”
Siege shoots back firmly, “Rider cleared the basement himself. Other club brothers have cleared the outbuildings. There’s no place else to look.”
I don’t say anything to Siege but in my heart of hearts I just can’t accept that. Serena has got to be here somewhere. I just have to keep looking and she’ll turn up.
As we stand staring at each other, we hear a noise. Siege jerks back and looks around. We all do. When it happens again, my head tilts back and I stare straight up because that’s the direction the sound came from. “How about an attic?”
My heart is beating so fast that I can almost hear it, as we all run from the room and start looking for an access door to the attic in the hallway. I spy a trap door with a bit of cord hanging down with a loop on the end.
The thumping continues, a bit more angrily. My heart hammers away. I don’t know how I haven’t had a heart attack by now. This is my Serena telling me to come rescue her. I just know it. I jerk the ladder down and start to climb up.
Siege’s big hand lands on my shoulder. He pulls me back down.
“What the fuck?” I grumble, unable to understand why he’s holding me back from saving his sister.
“Draw your fucking gun,” he reminds me.
I feel like an overly eager idiot. Of course, I need to draw my weapon. Chances are good someone might be up there guarding her. I slide my weapon from my side holster once again and begin climbing up the ladder. The weird thing is that the thumping noise never stops. I’m getting ever more anxious, so I started climbing the few steps faster.
Chapter 26
Smoke
When I haul myself up into the dim confines of the attic it’s difficult to make out what’s going on. As my eyes adjust, I’m horrified at what I think I’m seeing. I immediately grope for the light switch but I don’t find one, so I stumble forward until a dangling lightbulb hits me in the face. I reach out with my free hand and pull the string. When the light flares to life, I see what’s happening, and relief floods through me. Serena is attacking someone, someone who might already be dead. I rush forward into the cluttered attic space and grab what appears to be a bloody baseball bat from her hand.
“Hey, hey, hey. It’s okay, I think you got him, Serena.” She freezes and just stares down at the bloody, broken body on the floor. I tug the bat from her hands and toss it aside. When I reach out to touch her, she jerks one arm back and shoves me away.
I lift up both hands to let her know I’m not going to push. Meanwhile, she’s never stopped looking down at the body. A few seconds of silence spin out between us as I try to find the words to distract her from the gruesome sight.
In a barely audible whisper, she says, “It’s not him. It’s not Stan.”
When she turns and I catch a glimpse of the front of her body, I want to kill whoever this bastard is, all over again. The front of her shirt has been ripped open, her clothing is torn, and her face is bruised.
I wrap one arm around her and say, “It’s okay. Whoever the fuck this is, started the fight and you finished it.”
“He’s one of the men who abducted me, he tried to strangle me,” she croaks out. For the first time, I realize how hoarse her voice is.
I smooth her hair out of her face. “You defended yourself. Everyone has the right to protect themselves. You know that, right?”
Her head lifts and I see a blankness to her expression that I don’t like. “It was supposed to be Stan.”
“Who is this guy? Do you know?”
