Page 9

Chapter Nine

Riverview Colt

I t doesn’t take them long to make it to Riverview.

The area Brock leads them to based on a pinpointed location from Hailey’s cell phone makes Colt shake with anger.

Old warehouses, an empty meatpacking plant, multiple abandoned business complexes, and three apartment buildings.

The perfect place to bring women against their will because no one will ever see, and if they do, they won’t care.

“This entire neighborhood is drug houses and squatter-central,” Brock says. “They knew just where to hide them.”

“You know which building she’s in?” Colt asks, his leg bouncing as they sit on their parked bikes down the street.

He nods and points. “The middle one. Said fifth floor?”

“Yeah, the doors lock at the fourth, so we’re gonna have to break it down.”

“What’s the plan?” Ky Short asks as he looks at his best friend while everyone begins to move towards the center of the industrial area.

His best friend will do whatever he needs him to because Colt and Ky consider themselves family. Everyone in this group is family, but they grew up together. Diapers to now. But he’s right. They need a plan.

“I say we just walk in like we own the place, and if anyone gets in our way, we break their fucking necks,” Venom says, cracking his knuckles.

“I’m with him,” Undertaker says.

The large man brings a sense of calm over Colt. Few people would dare mess with him, and it reinforces their chances of getting Hailey out of this unharmed. He just prays she hasn’t been touched yet.

I’ll kill anyone who’s hurt her. Painfully.

Venom takes up the lead with Psycho, but they’re met with a swarm of men as they step inside. An idea suddenly strikes Colt, and he places his hand on Venom’s shoulder to indicate to step back.

“This is an invitation only event,” a man wearing a long, black jacket says.

He looks around fifty, and everything about him screams lowlife. Coming from an outlaw, that really says something.

“Who’s in charge here?” Colt asks.

“I am.”

“And who are you?”

He smirks, and the weird overhead lighting in the large open space glints off of a shiny gold tooth. It looks more like they walked into an underground fight club, and this Joe Pesci from Home Alone wannabe appears to be in charge.

“No one you need to know,” he says.

Oh, you wanna play games, motherfucker? Let’s play. “I guess I’ll take my business elsewhere.”

“What business?”

“I don’t discuss business propositions with assholes who think they’re too good to give out their name.”

“Mel’s the name. What are you offering? Protection? Expansion? Or do you just need to buy a few girls for a celebration with the boys?”

Buy a few girls. It makes Colt’s stomach clench, but he keeps a smirk on his face instead. “I have a group of women I’m looking to sell, actually. They’re young strippers, but we’d like them to get experience in the escort business as well.”

His eyebrows lift. “How old?”

“Let’s just say the IDs we bought for them say they’re nineteen.”

This makes him smile even wider. “So, you wanna sell them to me to get some experience under their belt? How long? And what cost are you thinking?”

“That’s what I’d like to know. It’s the first time we’ve worked into the sector of the entertainment business, and we wanna know how much money it’ll bring in.”

“We’re thinking a commission for every man they fuck,” Waylon says, catching onto what Colt’s doing.

The Black Valley Treasurer steps forward, and Colt actually misses having him around with his guitar.

“Mutually beneficial to allow us to make money while you train them, but you also make something since it’s a short-term commitment. ”

“Why don’t we go into my office and talk?” Mel says and holds out a hand. “I didn’t catch your name.”

Taking his hand, Colt grips it tightly. “Colt Nichols.” He twists Mel’s arm until it’s behind his back, and he uses him as a shield against his men.

“Here’s the thing, Mel. I don’t want to give you shit.

In fact, I wouldn’t even know who the fuck you were if you hadn’t made the biggest mistake of your fucking life. ”

“Yeah? And what mistake was that?”

“You took my daughter. Now, we can do this the easy way, or we can make all of your deaths very, very painful.”

The laugh from Mel angers Colt enough that he nearly pops the man’s shoulder out. “Hate to break it to you, man, but I ain’t got your daughter. In fact, I don’t have anyone’s daughter here.”

“All the girls you have are someone’s daughter, asshole,” Psycho growls.

Having Psycho and the rest of the Black Valley men show up was a welcomed surprise, and between Venom, Psycho, and Undertaker, Colt knows he’s got a solid team of men who will do anything it takes to make these sick perverts pay.

“Who the fuck is your daughter?” a man shouts.

He looks about twenty-five, and Colt glares. Tall, lanky, and easy to knock the fuck down. “Hailey.”

Mel shouts as he struggles against Colt’s grip. “Gary, you said she was a fucking orphan!”

“That’s what her slutty roommate told me! Before I went where no man has ever gone before, she told me her roommate had no family.”

A tall man walks over and laughs. “Look, man. You’re old. We’re young. You’re small. We’re big. There ain’t no way you’re getting out of here alive, and you’ve just ensured we all fuck that little bitch of yours before we kill her.”

Undertaker steps up, casting a shadow on him as he has at least four inches on the man, and crosses his large arms over his chest. “You’re big, and I’m small? Are you sure that’s the stance you wanna stick with?”

“Jesus,” someone mutters from the sea of men.

Beckett Cohen walks up to a man nearly double his size, and he drops him to the ground with little effort. Two hits and a kick, and the man lays unconscious on the ground.

“I’m not sure how valid that argument is, chief,” he says. “Anyone else want some?”

“Where is she?” Colt growls as he pops Mel’s shoulder out of its socket, earning him a cry of pain. “Either I get my daughter and her roommate back, or I rip every fucking limb off until someone speaks.”

“Don’t you fucking tell them,” Mel orders.

Laughing, Venom sounds like a maniac as he steps up beside Mel. “I think I’m going to chop your fingers off and make you eat them.”

“What the fuck did you just say?” someone calls out.

Whipping around, Venom takes the man’s head between his hands and twists, snapping his neck before letting him drop to the ground. “I said that I’m going to chop off your boss’s fingers and make him eat every fucking knuckle.”

“Yeah, being smaller than the bitch boys here is just so fucking difficult,” Psycho sneers. “You must be beat, Venom. Need a break?”

“Take Gavin,” Ky says as the lanky man takes off running with another man. “We’ve got it covered down here, and the rest of Black Valley’s outside to catch anyone who runs.”

Shoving Mel towards his best friend, Colt runs towards the stairs with Gavin. He stops on the second floor to see exactly what these guys planned to do with Hailey. Every room has no door, and all he sees is men having their way with women who look completely blitzed out of their minds.

“What are you doing? I thought you said she was on the fifth floor,” Gavin says.

The rooms are filthy, and the women look like they’ve been beaten into submission. All of them could run away at any time, but they don’t. They know what would happen if they did, so they self-medicate to drown out the horrors.

“There’s not a single one over the age of twenty-five in here,” he mutters.

Gunshot from the floor below catches their attention, as well as the johns who walk out into the hallway with their dicks hanging out.

“What the fuck was that?” asks an older man who wears half of a rather expensive suit.

Pulling out his gun, Colt aims it at him. “Whatever you paid, call it good. Get the fuck out of here before I put a bullet in your skull for what you’re doing.”

He runs out without hesitation, not bothering to grab his pants. The girl stumbles into the hallway completely naked. “Are you here to kill me?”

Lowering his gun, he shakes his head. “No, sweetheart, I’m looking for my daughter.”

“Who are you looking for?” a mousy woman asks wearing lingerie that barely hides anything on her skinny body.

“Hailey,” Gavin says.

“Fifth floor. Come with me,” she says. “They’re planning to move her to the fourth floor in a few hours to start servicing men.”

They follow her into the stairwell, and Colt finds it hard to breathe. Servicing men? His dinner threatens to give him a second chance to chew it, but he follows her quickly up to the fifth floor. She pulls the chain from her neck and unlocks the door.

“I saw Gary and Jules head up the back way. You’ll have to hurry.”

“Let me go!” an unfamiliar voice screams.

The cries push Colt and Gavin to run down the hallway as Hailey shouts, “Don’t touch her! Gary, I swear to God, I’ll make sure you die!”

“Did you forget I’ve already touched every part of her, you stupid slut? She has to pay for lying to me. Jules, warm the bitch up for me. I plan to have a lot of fun with Hailey when I’m done here. I think I’ll have so much fun that I’ll split her in two.”

Colt aims his gun as he sees Hailey fighting against zip ties strapping her to a makeshift bedframe. A fair-haired woman tries to fight the lanky man he now knows is Gary, but she’s too small to fight him off with her restraints.

“Let her go! Gary, she didn’t lie. I did. And I swear, I’ll tell my dad to shoot you in the fucking dick if you don’t let her go!” Hailey screams.

“You’re supposed to be an orphan!”

“Hey, Gary,” Colt says.

Whipping around, Gary stares with wide eyes. “How the fuck did you get—”

He lowers the gun and shoots him in the groin. “Daddy’s home.”

“Fuck! You shot me in the dick, motherfucker!” Gary cries as he holds himself, blood flowing freely.

Aiming at the man who must be Jules, Colt shoots him between his eyes. “It’s not like you need it anymore.”

“Kill him,” Hailey says. “He’s the one who took us here. Targeted Lindsey. Please, Colt. Please… kill him.”

“Gladly,” he says, shooting him in the neck. Blood spurts out and pools onto the floor as he struggles to breathe, one hand on his crotch and the other holding his neck. “Gavin, take care of that girl. Give her your shirt to cover up with.”

He hurries towards Hailey and yanks his knife from his jeans to cut the zip ties. Her wrists and ankles bleed from where she pulled against them, and he’s surprised when she throws her arms around his neck and clings to him for dear life as she sobs.

Rubbing his hand over her hair, he holds her tightly. “Shh, you’re free now. You’re okay. No one’s going to hurt you.”

“I’m sorry, Colt. I’m so sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry!”

“This isn’t your fault. Here, take my shirt. No father wants to see his daughter dressed like this,” he says, reluctantly releasing her.

Lindsey rushes to Hailey after she slips on Colt’s shirt, and the two girls cling to each other, both sobbing. Gavin’s so pale that Colt worries he may pass out, and Colt knows he needs to call Lex.

“Do you have her?” Lex asks after the first ring. “Is our girl okay?”

Hailey hears Lex, and she sobs harder. “She’s okay. I got her. Do me a favor and call Grayson. Ask if he has any contacts in Riverview to come and collect these girls. I don’t feel right just leaving them here.”

“How many?”

Swallowing, he says, “Four apartment floors’ worth. Luckily, the first floor looks to be some type of underground fight club arena.”

“It’s where they kill the girls who try to escape,” the woman who unlocked the doors for them says as Gavin whips around and aims his gun at her. “Are they dead?”

He pushes Gavin’s arm down and says, “I gotta go, baby.”

“I’ll call Grayson. Lucas needs to see his sister, Colt. Don’t take too long to get her home.”

“He’s dead, Amanda,” Hailey says. “They both are.”

“They’re all dead by now,” Gavin says.

Amanda just blinks as her eyes never leave Gary. “He’s the one who brought me here.”

“Amanda, we’re free,” Hailey says. “We’re all free. Do you need us to bring you somewhere?”

She shakes her greasy head of hair. “No, I should… I should stay with the girls. We’re family.”

“Can we go home now?” Lindsey asks. “I want to go home.”