I pace up and down the corridor, my bare feet taking up the long stretch of space in quick strides.
Texas, Spade, Storm, Bull and Zero have been in my room for an hour, they have their cuts on so I know this is bad. It’s close to one in the morning.
The Houston chapter will be arriving at the Clubhouse in the next half hour.
I have no clue what’s going on besides that Lucca has called.
When Aron told me earlier, he heard Killer telling his dad that Jade was missing, I made a call to someone who could find information to help them.
I didn’t think that the information will be Lucca.
He actually kidnapped her.
The bedroom door opens and Zero steps out.
“Come on Beauty,” I follow him inside the room.
Spade is the first face I see, and he looks livid as he leans against the window. His arms cross over his chest as he glares at me from across the room.
Texas is plastered to the chair in front of the bed, his face in a bored mask. But he isn’t fooling anyone.
I’m startled forward at the fingers on my back. Thank god I’m wearing long jeans and a t-shirt because my hair isn’t going to protect me from these angry bikers.
I feel Zero’s presence behind me but I don’t turn around. I look to the man sitting on the bed. And right now, he isn’t my friend he is the Vice President of The Satan Sniper’s Motorcycle Club and I’m the threat.
I swallow some phlegm that comes up from the back of my throat.
“I’ll tell you what you want to know, but my name is my own,” I say it to all of them but my eyes stay on Storm.
“You got no fucking choice,” Spade retorts.
Zero is across the room in seconds and has Spade in a chokehold as Texas shouts,
“Don’t talk to her like that.”
I’m standing in the middle of the space watching it all unfold.
How did Lucca find me so quickly?
My contact said one of the men had to be working for Lucca. My first thought was Knight, but Knight is part of the Famiglia.
The Famiglia are enemies of the New Orleans outfit.
“Zero let him go brother. We just talkin’, no one is going to hurt Beggar and Spade keep your mouth shut. I’m the one in charge here, so everyone sit the fuck down. We have two women to find, Beggar sit down please.”
Zero keeps his position for a few seconds longer before he lets Spade go. They do some handshake arm thing and they’re cool. Men.
I take my place on the bed until my back hits the headboard.
Knees to my chest, hands to my toes, chin to my knees, but it doesn’t touch. It mustn’t.
My hair doesn’t fall properly over my face to hide me, but I’m okay. I have an Enforcer in the room to save me.
The room quietens and I don’t look at any of them. My eyes stay firmly on my white bedding.
“Let’s start with the basic question, how do you know Lucca Sanati?”
I hear that name of his and my mind goes instantly back to the day we met when I was just a girl and he was so much more.
“My mother had been dead for four years. I ran away from the system at twelve after the man who was assigned to look after me, raped me. It was hard to survive on my own. I was sixteen, cold, hungry and stupid when I met Lucca. I wanted to get a job. Get a life. This girl I met told me I had to look in this club, she said they’d hook me up if I got an I. D card.”
“What kind of job girly girl?” The question comes from Knight.
I didn’t hear him enter the room. Still, I answer.
“I wasn’t looking to be a prostitute if that’s what you asking. I was thinking more of a waiter. I was stupid, I got the I. D not realizing that I had to be eighteen to work there. Got turned down before I even entered. I was hungry and so tired that day. I had to walk 10 blocks for that gig. I just sat there, outside this joint. It was closing on 10 that night when I saw him jumping out of his black Bentley. He was so handsome in his black suit, his smile so big.”
A throat clears, snapping me out of the daze that is my mind.
“He took me out to some fancy-ass place but the kitchen was closed so we ate cold sandwiches. It was nice. He was nice. After that, I met him every few days. We dated until the night I was due to move in with him, he found my I. D card in my back pocket…”
I shake my head as memories of that day claw its way to the forefront of my mind. My reality slipping.
“Im going to fuckin’ kill you,” His angry voice hisses in my ear.
My screaming is so loud as he pulls my hair. The brutal punch he delivers to my stomach, I feel it all. The loss of air, my wheezing chest as I try to regain the loss of oxygen. I remember thinking I was going to die.
“No, no, no, no, please, please, I beg you. I don’t wanna talk anymore about this please.” My fingers lock around my toes until my knuckles are white as I fight off my nightmares.
I rock myself back and forth, my chin doesn’t touch my knees. It mustn’t.
“He got Jade, took Falon a few hours ago. He wants a trade Beauty.” Zero says in a small and haunting voice.
A phone chimes cutting off any further talking. Storm answers it and grunts.
“He wants to talk to you, no speaker.” My head shoots up to Storm who looks remorseful as he holds the phone for me to take. I swallow the memories that cloud my mind.
Memories of him.
And I take the phone putting it to my ear.
“Beggar, Beggar, Beggar, my filthy dirty Beggar.” He laughs at his own sick joke.
“Lucca.” My accent thick as my memories fight for my mind.
He knows, he can tell.
“ENOUGH!” He commands and my mind instantly obeys like the obedient slave I was trained to be.
“You cost me a lot of money and a lot of men Amariya, millions. I’m tempted to take it out on the redhead. She’s so tiny, easily breakable, but all will be forgotten if you give me one thing.”
“What do you want Lucca?” I stammer like a little girl.
I hate how scared I am of him.
I hate him!
What he did to me!
What he took from me!
“You know full well what I fucking want. I want my daughter,” He says it likes it’s the most obvious thing in the world.
“I told you, she’s dead,” I whisper but my voice is firm.
He laughs.
He always laughs.
“You lie, you always lie Amariya, it was the biggest problem with you. I know you got her somewhere, it’s only a matter of time until I find out where.”
“I won’t lie about this Lucca. I wish it was a fucking lie, I wish I had her.” I scream, “but you, you took her from me. You raped me! You took what I would’ve given you for free, what I gave you for free, so YOU killed her, not me.”
“It was consensual, you SIGNED the contract.” He shouts and I swear if he was here, he would’ve strangled me.
“I was sixteen, what the fuck did I know about signing contracts? I trusted you! It was you who left me with those men, you told them to take me back. Do you know what they did to me? YOUR. MEN. Your loyal fucking servants. DO YOU?” I scream and snarl.
He’s silent and normally I would keep quiet. But no more.
For the first time in four years, I tell Lucca exactly what I have to.