I watch carefully as a nondescript white van without windows comes to a stop in the driveway. Three men get out and split up, two going left and one going right, while the driver stays put behind the wheel.
“Hector’s men are never this organized.”
“Must be those assholes Nico was talking about,” Coop growls, his brows furrowing as he watches the kidnapping unfold.
Wild Man flips the footage on and off, from inside the house to outside, showing the thugs dragging McKenna and Kelsey down the staircase while they scream in terror.
McKenna, brave and stupid woman that she is, makes a run for the door, and I smile.
“At least now we know why the alarm went off.”
My phone rings and vibrates in my pocket, and I answer without looking at the screen, hoping like hell it’s McKenna with a location to rescue her and her sister. “Yeah?”
The line crackles and then a familiar laugh sounds.
“Ace. You sound like you’re having a bad day. Too bad,” Hector laughs. “I have a feeling it’s about to get a whole lot worse.”
“Stop playing games, Hector, and tell me what the fuck you want.” He has our women, and his call confirms it.
He laughs, not knowing that he’s as good as dead right now.
“You want to get straight to business, fine. I have your whores, the rich bitch sisters. If you want them back, all you have to do is hand the business at the port over to me.”
Fat fucking chance of that happening. I let out a bark of laughter. “All right, let’s say I believe you. Where do you want to meet?”
“Meet? Why the fuck would we meet?” He laughs like he’s figured out some riddle. “So, one of your pussy ass men can try to take me out? Think again, asshole.”
I laugh again. “You don’t think the port works by word of mouth, do you?”
I motion to Wild Man to do whatever he can to try and track Hector’s location.
“This is a real business, legitimate as fuck, which I know you know fuck all about. But this business requires paperwork and tax ID’s and shit. If you want it bad enough to risk your life, you better come correct.”
“Liar,” he growls. “Give me the port, or I’ll gut your bitches like fish after my boys have filled them full of come. Got it, asshole?”
“Get your paperwork in order and call me back. And Hector, if you hurt either of them, I will personally skin you alive and keep you that way until infection slowly kills you. Got it?”
“Fuck you, Ace.”
I laugh. “That’s the plan,” I tell him and end the call. I look up at all my brothers watching the play of emotions on my face. “We have to find them. Scour every property owned by the Iron Kings or anyone associated with those assholes. Fuck up their lives and get me those addresses. Yesterday.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
McKenna
“Listen, Kenna.” Kelsey whispers because we can hear footsteps, but the room they hold us in blacked out, and we can’t tell how close they are.
“You hear all that traffic?”
I nod because I know exactly what she’s getting at. “We’re not in Angel Harbor.”
She shakes her head, and even though we’re tied at the wrists with our hands stretched above our heads and attached to the wall, somehow, her shoulders fall.
“No, we’re not. We must have been out for a couple of hours, long enough to get us somewhere before we woke up. Los Angeles, probably.”
Shit. I hope she’s wrong, but my gut twists as if it instinctively knows she’s right. “What about this place?”
It’s too dark to really tell, but given the roar of traffic, we must be close to a freeway.
Kelsey trembles so violently that the chains shackling us shake and rattle. She sniffles and lifts her head to me.
“My guess is a warehouse. It’s got that cold concrete feel.”
Double shit. The last thing Kelsey needs is to relive her trauma, or worse, be traumatized again.
“Look at me, Kels.” I wait until I have her attention, suck in a deep breath, and let it out slowly. “It’s going to be okay. Just breathe and try not to freak out.”
She makes a few attempts at deep breathing, but they fail through her tears. “Why aren’t you freaked out?”
“I am,” I whisper harshly. “But I’m more worried about you and the baby.”
The lights come on, and instead of a warehouse, we’re in someone’s shitty basement. There’s a bare bulb fixed to the ceiling, and I look up and then down, noticing my feet barely touch the floor.
“Don’t taunt him, any of them,” Kelsey warns me before she drops her head in resignation as if whatever’s going to happen is a foregone conclusion. I know that no matter what these guys are planning, I can’t let Kelsey get hurt.
Footsteps sound slowly behind us, hard soles beneath a big body. My heart kicks against my chest as if it knows what’s coming and wants to escape. It’s what I want too, but if Kelsey is right, and we are in Los Angeles, it might take Ace and his crew too long to find us, if they find us at all.