CHAPTER47
JAX
“They’ve stopped,” I say to Alejandro as I watch the small red dot fixed on the screen. “They’re about twenty miles up ahead.”
He nods and floors the accelerator. We were already way over the speed limit but he pushes the SUV to the max. “Let’s go get her.”
When we pull into the parking lot of the boarded up diner, I see a silver Prius parked beneath the trees. We jump out of the car, looking around as we run to the door.
“You think he’s alone?” Alejandro asks.
“There’s only one car. If he’s not, there can’t be many of them in there.”
He nods and tries the handle. When he’s met with resistance, he pulls his handgun from the waistband of his pants and aims it at the lock. I grab his arm before he can pull the trigger.
“What the fuck?” I hiss.
“We need to get in there fast,” he snarls.
“It’ll take me less than two minutes to pick that, then we still have the element of surprise.”
“You got two minutes before I shoot my way in there.”
I take a small pick from my pocket and get to work on the lock. I feel him fidgeting beside me. He has seen me do this countless times but today the stakes are much higher than they usually are. I feel it, too. I can’t let my mind start to drift and contemplate what we might find when we get inside this place. What state she might be in. What he might have done to her. But the thought that keeps on persisting is the one that she might not be in there at all—that he’s found her tracker and managed to fool us somehow. This guy is good with tech. Who knows what he’s capable of?
“Come on,” Alejandro hisses and I tune him out, keeping all of my attention on getting through this door as quickly and as quietly as possible.
I breathe a sigh of relief as I feel the mechanism inside give against the pressure and after a soft click, the door is open.
I look at Alejandro as I curl my fingers around the handle. “Ready?” I whisper.
“I want this cunt alive,” he growls.
I nod my understanding. A quick death would be far too easy. Neither he or I are known for being men of mercy and I know he feels the hatred and venom for the man who took Lucia from us as fiercely as I do.
I pull open the door and the sight that greets us makes my heart stop beating in my chest. I see everything as if in Technicolor and it is an image that will be burned into my brain for the rest of my days.
Lucia is shackled to the table, naked except for her bikini bottoms. Her body shivers uncontrollably. There are large droplets of fresh blood on the floor and a psychopath is running the tip of a knife up the inside of her thigh.
I raise my gun and Alejandro does the same as we edge into the room, but the electric light casts a shadow and the movement alerts Richard to our presence. He drops behind the table, peering over the top like a frightened meerkat as he holds the knife to Lucia’s throat.
She turns toward us too. Her eyes meet mine and they are filled with relief and tears.
“You come another step closer and I will make her bleed out faster than you can possibly imagine,” he sneers as he presses the tip of his blade against the main artery in her neck. “Just a quick slice and she’s gone. I even gave her some blood thinner along with her roofie. I like it when they bleed.” He cackles to himself and seems genuinely impressed with his own genius.
“He’s fucking loco,” Alejandro hisses.
I aim the gun at him and he ducks lower while pressing the blade against her skin until it pierces it. A trickle of blood runs down her throat.
“Can you make that shot?” Alejandro whispers.
“Which one?” I hiss.
“I know you can kill him,” he mumbles. “Can you make the other one?”
He knows I can. I can take the stalk off a cherry from fifty yards away. But if I miss—well, it doesn’t bear thinking about. Unfortunately for Richard Peterson, I never miss.
“Yes,” I growl.