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  “Come here, Love.”

  As usual, she walks to the table and sits in my lap like a robot. I wonder how much stiffer she will get when I show her the message that Savage brought to me two days ago from Snake. Will she be mad I didn’t show her sooner or will she still not believe what I’m saying, even though I show her the proof of her sister’s life?

  ∞∞∞

  “Snake sent this to me a few days ago.”

  Jax turns me in his lap towards the table and pulls the typewritten paper to me. I look down a little reluctant. What does he want me to see? Does it have anything to do with why he has looked so sad this last week? He has what he wants, doesn’t he? Does he think this paper will be a game changer for him? My eyes go wide as I read the first sentence.

  We have a special report on the two missing sisters from Ocean City, Delaware. We have reason to believe that one of the sisters has been spotted in the Virginia area traveling with a sinister looking man. He is over six feet tall with dark hair and blue eyes. He was last seen wearing a dark gray shirt and black pants. Our sources report that the woman was quickly removed, by the man, from the restaurant bar when she was recognized by patrons. It is also reported that they are heading south on I 95. The two sisters went missing from a local nightclub in Ocean City, Delaware on April 15th. This is the first possible sighting. For updated pictures, watch Channel 2 News at 4:00 p.m. We are pleading with travelers to keep a look out for these young women. Contact your local police with any information you may have.

  Tears are flowing freely down my cheeks by the time I finish reading the article. He pushes it away and pulls another paper forward.

  “It is our deduction that one of these women has been traveling south on I 95 towards Florida. The other sister has been spotted leaving Montauk, NY by boat but we are not sure of the direction they traveled. We believe that the men they are being held by are armed and dangerous. Please do not approach them but call the number listed below with any information you may have on the whereabouts of either of these women, Thank you.”

  “The first article is from a radio announcement and the second was on the news. I know I’ve lied about a lot of things, and I kept what I suspected about your sister from you. I hope you will understand my reasons for doing what was necessary and will find the ability to forgive me someday. I promise you, that when I was 99% sure that Derek had your sister, I told you what I knew. Now you have the physical proof other than my words.”

  Jax lifts me off his lap and stands up. He kisses the top of my head and for the first time walks away from me and out the front door. I am stunned silent, except for sniffing to keep my nose from running. I know I have given him the silent treatment for the last week and really never said much before that, but now all I want to do is talk. I think he has finally given up on me like I have given up on myself. Maybe he’s walking away from me because he thinks that’s what I want.

  It is, isn’t it? My heart hurts.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Regret:

  *feel sad, repentant, or disappointed over something that one has failed to do. *feel sorrow for the loss or absence of something.

  My porch has never felt so lonely. Before Tori, I welcomed the peace and quiet. After Tori, I am going to go crazy if someone doesn’t say something, yell, cry, scold, I don’t care, just anything. I know that thought comes too soon when Tavi comes screaming and running like a bat out of hell up the dirt road.

  “Señor J, Señor J. Serpiente envìa una emergencia.” (Snake sends an emergency.) Shit! I jump up and meet Tavi half way across my lawn. The message reads: “Sully has Tori’s sister. Meeting Derek in Montauk to burn The House down.’

  Shit! Not without me, they’re not. “Tavi, go get Savage.”

  I race inside to grab my weapons. In my room, Tori is sitting up in bed staring at me expectantly. I don’t have time to talk about her sister or the news reports, so I say nothing and grab my go bag from the closet. “I’ll be back tomorrow night.” She opens her mouth, but I don’t give her the chance to say anything as I rush out of the house. I have a seven plus hour flight and no time to argue or fight with her about what she wants. What she needs is peace of mind and what I need is revenge.

  Savage pulls up just in time to rush me to the airport. “I need you to stay with Tori. It’s a little over a seven-hour flight into Montauk, so I should land around 5:00 am. My plan is to come back tomorrow as soon as we have handled the situation. No crude sexual jokes, Mate. She is in a fragile state of mind, and I don’t need you to push her over the edge. She sneaks out the balcony doors every morning and goes to the village to play with the children. I pick her up around 4:00 pm and bring her back. Keep her safe, Sav. I’m counting on you.

  “Sure thing, Buddy. I’ll treat her like my own soul mate.”

  He winks just to piss me off.

  “Yeah! We all know how that turned out......Livvy”

  “Screw you, Jax. Just for that, we are going to party it up. She will probably still be drunk when you get home. Just remember, I can’t be responsible for her inebriated actions.”

  “I’m not in the mood, Sav. Don’t mess this up for me. I need to concentrate and fly a plane so don’t put shit in my head that I’ll want to kill you over.” He gives me the scouts honor sign, even though I don’t think he was ever a scout.

  ∞∞∞

  Hearing a jeep pull up, I rush to the front door, hoping Jax came back to talk to me. I need to tell him I’m sorry that I didn’t believe him. That I’m sorry I never trusted him. That I heard everything he whispered to me at night and that I love him too. Savage steps out and my heart drops. Tears start rolling down my cheeks, and hiccupping sobs rack my body.

  “Hey, hey, hey, Sugar. Don’t cry. He’s coming back.”

  Savage catches me before I hit the floor in a boneless heap. My legs are numb, and it feels as if that numbness is climbing my body to freeze my heart so it will never beat again. Will I get another chance to tell him how I feel? Will he care at that point? Maybe he is done with me and wants to set me free. I can’t think through that thought, and the tears come faster. “Where did he go?”

  “To find closure, Sugar. He will tell you everything when he gets back.”

  This is going to be the longest twenty-four hours of my life. I have been so confused about my feelings toward Jax. I was drawn to him when he first came into The House but hated myself for it. I was convinced he was just another guard that trained slaves with a different approach and agenda. I thought he used my emotional state and my hormones against me to get what he wanted. He did, but for the sake of keeping a ruse and keeping me safe. I spent weeks in that house under humiliating circumstances just waiting for someone to save me, not even realizing that the second he came into the house, Jax was there to do just that. He has put his life at risk for me and not once have I thanked him. He has given me time to come to terms with my situation and on many occasions asked me to just “see him.” He asked for trust and I couldn’t give that either. Even after coming here, the character of this man was right in front of me, reflected in the eyes of the people here and I still refused to see it. No wonder he left. Is his form of closure walking away? Is he going to set me free? Will he give me the freedom I have been begging for and now don’t want? The pain in my heart is so crippling that all I can do is curl up in bed and wish that he was spooned behind me, keeping me safe and warm while whispering himself in my ear.

  ∞∞∞

  This seven-hour flight is going to exhaust me. The thoughts racing through my head during the flight are torturing me. Walking away from Tori is going to kill me. I don’t know what I could have done different that would prove to her that I’m one of the good guys, except put our lives in more danger by telling her the truth from the beginning. When it was safe to do so, it was too late for her to believe anything I said. Even my actions did not get through to her.

  Watching her for the last week with the village children made me fall in love with
her even more. The way her eyes light up when she’s happy will haunt my dreams for the rest of my life. Now I know why Troy is so miserable losing the one that got away.

  Landing in Montauk was a piece of cake, but the FBO is still closed at 5:30 a.m., so I call a cab to take me to The House. The driver drops me off a block away, and I run the rest of the way hoping to have not missed all the action. Jim is sitting in the back of a black SUV with the back latch open staring at his screen. Racing over, I look down to see ten heat signatures, some that appear to be moving and then some are not.

  “Three dead downstairs, nine up, now being dealt with.”

  “Shit! They did start without me.” I run into the house and head straight upstairs. The voice coming from the left is made by Snake cursing, “Die asshole, Die.” Knowing that he is in the zone, and I would hate to get in his way and be stabbed by accident, I turn to the right. I see Derek’s head being pummeled by a linebacker with at least a hundred pound advantage sitting on his chest. The first shot is the kill shot and the second one was just for good measure.

  “Shit!” Derek squeezes out as the dead linebacker’s weight steals the last of the air in his lungs.

  “Need a hand, Mate?”

  The look he gives me promises vengeance, so I laugh and push the heavy weight off to the side and hold out my hand to help him up.

  “It’s about damn time you show your face. I hope you have a damn good reason for going off grid.”

  Before I can answer Derek, Snake walks in.

  “Jim tells me we are missing a guard. He saw nine heat signatures up here and three down on the main floor. When the fighting broke out, he says one person headed downstairs, and once he moved to the basement, his signature was lost.”

  They both look to me assuming that I went downstairs first. “Not me, Mate. I came through the front door and came straight upstairs. Kinda pissed you started the party without me.”

  We make our way to the basement, searching every corner as we go. Snake moves for the rooms to the left of the living room and Derek goes to the right. I will search the two storage closets along the back wall and the one under the stairs. Pulling out my hunting knife, knowing if I find anything it’s going to be up close and personal, I step up to the storage door under the stairs. Grabbing the doorknob, I slowly start to pull it open when Slim rushes me, screaming like a lunatic. He slams into me, and we both go down to the floor. He is trying to bring his gun up between our bodies to get a shot, when my hand slices my blade across his jugular spraying his blood all over my face. Pushing him off quickly, I roll to the side and up onto my knees. Slim has grabbed his neck trying to hold in his life’s blood and gurgles out something about his wife.

  “She’s better off as far as I’m concerned,” I mumble.

  “Jax!” Radio Case and get him down here.”

  Running towards the sound of Derek’s voice, I dread what I’m going to see. Please, God. Don’t let it be Serenity. I knew Derek loved her when I met him at the General Store in New Hartford. It would kill him if he didn’t get to her in time. I rush through the first door I see and stop dead in my tracks. “Oh, Shit! Tori’s dad.”

  I order Case to get to the basement, and he replies he’s already on his way. Derek has stripped off his shirt and is tearing it into strips to bind Nicholas’s wrist, but I’m afraid he is too late. Case rushes in, pushing us all out of the way and gets to work. Derek stands and moves towards me scanning my face intently, and I realize he is sees all the blood from Slim.

  “Not mine.” I take the shredded shirt he’s offering and clean off my face.

  “Charges are set, and I have trigger finger. Does someone want to hold the remote?” Boomer says nonchalantly.

  Shit! I didn’t even hear him come up behind us. He is a scary son of a bitch, and I’m glad he’s on our side. As Case and Boomer pick up Nick and move him to the SUV, the rest of us become the clean up crew, dragging all the bodies to the basement and into the rooms reserved for slaves. This will be a fitting burial for these bastards.

  When finished cleaning up our mess, I move into the dingy bathroom to wash the remaining blood off of my face and out of my hair. The shower reminds me of pinning Tori to the wall. I’m instantly turned on. Damn! It’s going to be a long rest of my life without her.

  During my seven and a half hour flight, I came to the realization that I haven’t been listening to Tori anymore than she listened to me. I just wanted her to hear me and understand who I am and why I did what I did. She has been asking, no begging, to go home since the minute I found her, and I have basically ignored her. Of course, I can claim it was for her safety, but I now know that I wasn’t ready to let her go. It’s going to be a long flight home to set her free.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Appease:

  *pacify or placate someone by acceding to their demands. *Assuage or satisfy a demand or feeling.

  The flight through the middle of the night on no sleep has kicked my ass. Lying on the stinky man sofa upstairs, I rest my eyes while Boomer fills me in on the plan. I’m horrified that Mac & Jones are the ones who found Serenity and are bringing her back. Apparently, they had to spend the night on their way here, and I dread what they have possibly done to her out of anger. Maria experienced their wrath first hand. If they have harmed even one hair on her head, we will probably see a side to Derek that we’ve never seen before. That could be PTSD waiting to happen.

  When Boomer goes quiet, I don’t even have to open my eyes to know that Derek is standing by the couch waiting to get answers. I’ll get this over with quick.

  “I know you have a lot of questions, Mate, but I will say what I say, and that will be the end of it.” He is eerily quiet, so I continue. “As you know, I came into this house undercover to train submissive women. I searched missing persons after I left you that day and found Serenity and Victoria James. Gone missing April 15th and fitting your description of Ren. She and Tori look so much alike they could be twins. Unspeakable things were happening in this house, and I knew I had to make my move soon. There were four women when I arrived and yes, as you know now, Ren was the missing woman. I’m sure over the last six weeks, you have been able to gather more information than I have about what happened to these women in captivity.” He looks confused, although I’m sure that Ren talks and has told him more about what went on here before I came.

  “Snake contacted me last night right after he spoke to you. I didn’t want to leave Tori, but I needed to take this opportunity to take these bastards out so she could start healing. She is broken but slowly healing. She eats and sleeps but communicates very little. She was in this house fighting for her sanity for two weeks until I got here. I had to keep her here for another week and lie my ass off about who I was, all while trying to get her to trust me when she believed me to be the bastard guard sent here to rape her. In the week she has been free, she is practically mute. Before you ask, I am not moving her or disclosing our location yet. I know Serenity has to be worried sick, and her father is now fighting for his life. However, you are going to have to trust me that this is what’s best for her state of mind. Once we know all of these bastards are taken care of, I will set her free.

  “Goddammit, Jax! You don’t get to decide what is best for her. She has a family who needs her, and she needs them! You are not her family!”

  Now he is just pissing me off. I know I’m no good for her and she deserves better, but this hypocrite asshole does not get to tell me what to do. I will let Tori go when I’m damn good and ready, not when he says. I stand up so fast I get a little dizzy, but get right in his face to prove a point.

  “The hell I’m not! She is mine! I will do everything in my power to protect what’s mine. Are you telling me you don’t feel the same way about Serenity? Are you telling me that this,” I wave my hands around to encompass the house, “is not you protecting what’s yours? Who the hell are you to tell me anything when you locked Serenity away in your secret lair? You didn’t call the po
lice. You didn’t take her to a hospital. Why, Mate, why? Because you knew deep down in your bones that she is yours, and you won’t trust her safety and well-being to anyone else. Don’t lecture me when you have kept Serenity’s whereabouts from her father as well. I know why you did it. Having her father know about her and worry what was still happening to Victoria would have killed him. Having him know about either one of them would expose one or both sisters and put him in danger. I know how you think because I think the same things. It may seem cruel to keep them hidden from the people who love them, but that is the safest way for now until we remove this threat. Sully Vrennikov will stop at nothing to retrieve these two sisters. Their escape alone has put his life in jeopardy. His buyers are at risk of being outed, and they will kill the supplier before they go down themselves.”

  The confused look that crosses his face is comical, but his anger wipes that away real fast. He starts shouting again, but I am so exhausted that all I hear is.....

  “Sully? wanh, wanh, wanh, wuh-wahn,”

  Like that Charlie Brown cartoon. Then something, something,

  “Why she ran. Blah, blah, blah. A little communication from you.”

  Is he really blaming me for him not keeping track of his woman? He is the one who exposed her by taking her out in public. My boys have gathered around just waiting to prevent the explosion of fist flying that’s about to happen.

  “What the hell do you think going off grid is? I was running too, you dumb son of a bitch! I couldn’t even use all my boys for backup. I was hoping you would’ve been smarter than to take her to Hartford for a day at the spa. They had scouts out looking for her within a hundred mile radius. People talk, Mate. You could still be holed up in your hidden mountain retreat if you’d just laid low.” His expression tells me that I hit home.