Page 9

“Name.”

“Reina.”

“Don’t play stupid. Family name.”

“Takahashi.”

I wait.

She waits.

Nothing.

Confusion flickers across her face.

I let the silence stretch, long enough for her to mistake it for hesitation. That it gives me pause. It doesn’t. The name means shit to me. But she doesn’t know that.

She huffs a laugh. “Not so big and bad anymore, huh? Something has you scared?”

I look her dead in the eye, devoid of emotion on my side. “Of what?”

I see the flicker of fear cross her face. Realization that the name alone doesn’t concern me like she’d hoped it would.

“My family. They’re with the Yakuza.” She says it with far more bravado. Even goes as far as spitting in my face when she stops talking.

I hold her stare, letting her spit stay on my cheek and showing no reaction. I suspected as much about who her family is, but it’s nice to get confirmation.

Makes sense now why Natalie was so closed off. A connection to a family like that has strings attached. If she was out here, on her own, there’s a story there. An even bigger one since it was her “family” who let us know where Ruby was from the tracker they had on Natalie. A tracker that General said he couldn’t find when he scanned her in the hospital when she was brought in to reset her leg once we pulled her and Ruby out of Colombia.

Natalie never should have been there. And now she’s there again. The thought pisses me off enough to react and let out some rage.

I hit Reina again, another love tap. She cries out once more as I pull her arm higher up her back, and the door opens.

“Atom,” Mad Max says.

It’s all I need, and I let her go and walk away. When the door shuts behind us, he walks with me upstairs. The door locks automatically, so I know not to worry about her getting any ideas.

“What is it?” I ask as we make our way back to where Church is being held. The only reason I’d be called up is if something new came in.

“Flint got a message. A link to a live feed.”

I look at him from the corner of my eye. “Nat in the picture?”

“Yup.” He nods and gives nothing away. Typical bastard. Only answers the question, never adds to it.

“From whom?”

He opens the door just as he speaks. “Devils Damned.”

Chapter 3 - Natalie

I’m not getting a van.

Van life isn’t for me. Not after that trip. Hell, not after any trip I’ve ever taken. How can I want a life in a van after how many times I’ve been thrown into the back of one? Yeah, that’s off the bucket list for sure.

Once again, I have no idea where I am. Unlike the last time I was taken, I’ve been awake the whole time. A bag over my head and a few smacks around, but nothing I can’t live with. At least I’m still conscious. Being sedated is one of the scariest things I’ve been through. The unknown is what I fear. Not what a man might do to me. It’s the not knowing what they did that I hate most of all.

At least this place smells nicer than the last. And when they transferred me to where I am now, they gave me a chair to sit on. Sure, my hands are chained to the back of it, but it’s ten times the accommodations of the last place I was held in.