Page 20 of Dusty and Dented (Fallen Angels MC #2)
T he movie hadn’t yet hit the halfway point, at least according to how much time was left, when he realized that Andy had fallen asleep.
He didn’t move for a while, wanting to make sure she was good and asleep, and that his moving—even getting up, if he could manage to get out from under her—wouldn’t wake her.
When he felt she was sleeping hard enough, he eased out from under her, then stood next to the bed watching her sleep for several seconds. She looked so peaceful, so innocent, that he wanted to pull her back into his arms and protect her from the world.
But he had things he needed to do first. things that would help ensure that Andy was safer. He took a deep breath and pushed it out in a rush, then forced himself to turn away. He picked up his boots and carried them out of the room with him.
He carried them down to the main room on the ground floor to put them on so he didn’t wake her. He hoped she would sleep long enough that he was done with this, but didn’t think he would be that lucky.
It was nearly midnight and he didn’t think Andy would wake but he wanted to be prepared, he went in search of Taylynn so Ravan’s old lady could keep an eye out for Andy, just in case she came out of the room before he came back upstairs.
Then after speaking with Raven and his lady, he headed downstairs to confront Shadow, with Shotgun and Bear at his back.
He opened the door to the cell where Shadow sat bound in a chair at the center of the room.
Dagger didn’t say anything as he walked around the bound man, trying to decide what to do or say first. He wanted to start with pain.
He wanted to hit Shadow and keep hitting him until he couldn’t lift his arm anymore, or until Shadow was just a bloody lump of meat and bone, but while it might make him feel better, it wouldn’t get them anywhere.
No, he needed to do this more carefully.
He needed to find out who had sent them after her.
Why had they targeted Andy and what had they planned to do with her?
As he began listing the questions he needed answers to, some of the rage passed.
Not that it was gone, but he was able to push it back, at least enough so he could think more clearly about what had to be done.
He moved around the man once more, trying to decide the best way to approach the questioning.
He didn’t think Shadow would tell him anything, not without some significant incentive.
Dagger was more than ready to provide the incentive, but just as he clenched his fist and prepared to deliver the first blow, a vision of Andy, sleeping and peaceful in his bed two floors above them, flashed in front of his eyes, making him pause.
An ache flashed through his chest, followed by determination even stronger than before.
“Why Andy?” he asked through gritted teeth.
“Who?” Shadow asked as if he had no clue who Dagger was talking about.
“You could have snatched anyone. What made you and your minion choose Andy to take? What made you think she was the best target to get our attention?” Dagger forced himself to pace around the bound man and not use his face as a punching bag like he wanted to.
“We weren’t trying to get your attention. We didn’t know she had anything to do with the Angels.”
“Then why take her?” Dagger clenched his teeth again. If this wasn’t Angels’ business, then why had she been taken? Was someone after her?
Shadow lifted one shoulder and let it fall, as much as he could with his hands bound to the chair behind him.
“It was a job. We were hired to take her.”
“I hope the money was good,” Bear said from where he leaned against the wall in one corner of the room, his big, beefy arms folded across his chest.
“Think it was enough money for what’s about to happen here?” Shotgun shot Bear a look that said he didn’t think so, no matter how much they’d been paid.
“Who hired you?” Dagger demanded, still pacing.
“I don’t know ... some guy out of Denver.”
“Why?” Dagger flexed his fingers, then cracked his knuckles against the palms of his hands.
“I don’t know. Didn’t say.”
“What were you going to do with her?”
“Nothing. Just deliver her to him.”
“What was he going to do with her?”
“I don’t know. He didn’t say. Just that he wanted her.” ‘
“And you don’t have a name?”
Shadow shook his head. Dagger watched him a moment.
The man knew but some bit of loyalty kept him from saying.
Dagger would find out, no matter what it took.
They only needed one of these guys to carry their message back to the Crows, and he didn’t even have to be alive, if they did it right.
And if Dagger had his way, that wouldn’t be Shadow.
Dagger looked up and met Shotgun’s gaze.
The other man nodded. It was as if they knew what the other was thinking without having to say anything.
Not that surprising since they’d both been Angels for more than five years.
They knew each other well and knew they could rely on each other.
Shotgun would make sure the other guy, the kid who Hawkeye hadn’t recognized, didn’t know the name of the guy the Crows had been working for, if Dagger couldn’t get it out of Shadow.
“Last chance, Shadow. Tell me who hired you or I’ll have to do this the hard way.”
Shadow shook his head.
“You’re going to do this the hard way, anyway—just get on with it.”
Dagger looked up and met Bear’s gaze, then Shotgun’s.
Neither made any move to stop him as he balled his fist and hit Shadow in the face.
The crunch of bone, along with the blood streaming down his face told Dagger he’d broken the other man’s nose.
But hitting people in the head hurt. There wasn’t much skin and you often ended up cutting up your hands on teeth.
That wasn’t what he was after today, though he had to admit the crunch of his nose had been satisfying.
“Let’s string him up. I want to make him hurt, a lot, before this is over.
” Bear stepped forward and helped Dagger move Shadow from bound in the chair to arms above him, chained to the ceiling as his feet reached the ground, barely.
Once he was secured, Bear stepped back and Dagger went to work.
He used Shadow like he was a heavy bag, scoring hit after hit to his torso until he was sure that the Crow’s entire abdomen would look much like Andy’s back, minus the boot tread print.
Dagger kept going until he was breathing heavy and his muscles started to ache, then he backed up and stared at Shadow for a couple of seconds.
“Are you ready to tell me?”
“Tell you what?”
“The name of the man who hired you to take my woman.”
“Your woman?” Shadow looked surprised. Since other than that first blow to the face, Dagger had avoided the head, it wasn’t hard to read his expression, despite the swelling that had set in. “No one told me she’s your woman or that she belonged to anyone with the Angels.”
“And that makes it okay for you or any of the Crows to show up in Craven’s Creek, snatch a woman and haul her off to fuck knows where to endure fuck knows what?”
Shadow didn’t say anything. He seemed to know that there was nothing to say that wouldn’t earn him more of what he’d already endured.
“Who hired you?” Dagger asked again, jaw clenched as he was getting close to losing what little control he had left on his temper.
Shadow shook his head again.
Dagger turned to where Shotgun still stood against one wall.
“Lift him up. Let’s make him really hurt for a while. Maybe he’ll be ready to talk after he hangs here for a bit.”
“No problem.” The enforcer hit the button for the wench they’d hooked Shadow’s chains to and lifted him several inches, so if he stretched, his feet would just brush the floor, but he couldn’t get any support from them.
“Have a good night. Maybe tomorrow you’ll feel more like answering my questions.
” Dagger turned and left without a look back.
In the hall, he stopped, braced a forearm against the wall and leaned his head against it as he tried to wrap his head around what Shadow had told them.
This hadn’t been Angels business raining all over her, but someone had sent them there for her.
Who? And just as importantly, why?