I hurried to set his ass straight. “Don’t get any ideas. She's already taken.” My brothers grinned at me and then at each other when they heard my claim, as if holding her on my fucking lap wasn’t a loud and clear message.
Tate held up his hands. “Noted. When do you want to go?”
We thought about it. Bear was the one to answer him. “I’m rolling out in ten. Whoever is coming with me, be ready. We’ll need a truck or van. The rest of you can ride if you want. I need to get my go-bag and call Ilara. She’s worried to death over this. Who’s going to the hospital?”
“Joker, I want you and Lash to go. We’ll let you know as soon as we have him. As for the rest of us, I want the four of you to stay here to guard the other women and kids, in case he gets past us,” Bull ordered. He pointed to Demon, Tank, Tinker, and Maverick. Demon and Maverick had prior military experience. They’d make sure this place was locked down tight. “Get your shit.” The rest of us dispersed.
While Bear talked to Ilara, I grabbed my gun. No way I was staying behind for this. A part of me hoped the fucker would give me a reason to kill him where he stood. He hadn’t raped her, or at least she said he didn’t, but he still hit and scared her. I planned to talk to her when I got back. I’d make sure she wasn’t holding anything back about what he might have done to her.
I was already on my bike, waiting impatiently for the others to get ready when Bear came out. He had a furious look on his face like the one I knew was on mine. Bull circled his finger, signaling us to go. The ride went by in a blur as I seethed the whole damn way there. What if he wasn’t there? What if he came back and saw she was gone and ran? What if we had to hunt him?
When Tate signaled us to turn, I was tense and ready for anything. The ride was bumpy as hell on the gravel road he was taking us down. There were lots of trees on both sides of the road, which hid the road. It was a couple of miles until we came up to an old house. It was a total wreck. We didn’t waste time. We got into two groups and went to the front and the back door. We were assuming it had a back door. I saw a car parked under the trees in the shade. He was here.
The disappointment I felt when we got inside and found it empty was huge. The place was a damn mess. Tate shook his head. “It wasn’t like this when I rescued Tarin, and that car wasn’t out there. He’s around somewhere. I’m betting he’s in the damn woods.”
“Ajax and Player, you stay here in case he circles back. The rest of us will divide up in teams of two and we’ll search the woods. Let’s go find this fucker,” Bull growled. I didn’t say a word. I just walked over to stand by Bear. I wanted to be with him and I was praying we’d be the ones to find his ass, as we headed into the woods.
We’d been walking for maybe fifteen minutes when we came upon a thicker area of trees. I heard thrashing sounds, and I saw Bear looking at me. He heard them too. It sounded too heavy to be an animal. It had to be Hamilton. We spread out and crouched down then crept in the direction of the noise. We got to where the trees thinned to almost nothing and a meadow was in front of us. Hamilton was running across the meadow toward the trees on the other side.
Bear stood up and shouted, “Stop Hamilton!”
He turned part way around and Bear shot him in the shoulder of the arm that was holding a handgun. The gun fell to the ground and he let out a horrible scream. I smiled when he did. I hoped it hurt like a bitch. Bear and I ran over to him. I picked up his gun and tucked it into my waistband before he stopped moaning and cussing and thought to pick it up again. We yanked his ass up off the ground.
Hamilton looked like he’d been living in the woods for days, not just running for a few minutes. He had dirt and scratches all over him and he looked like he hadn’t eaten or slept in ages. Bear snapped at him, “Get on your feet, you son of a bitch! Did you really think you could try and take my woman and daughter and I wouldn’t find you? Then you compounded it when you took my daughter, Tarin. You fucked up royally. Not only am I pissed, but you pissed this guy off.” He pointed to me, and Hamilton got paler.
“Please, I swear, I’ll leave and you’ll never see me again. I know now that Ilara isn’t leaving. She’s made her choice. You won. I can admit that.” His voice grated on my nerves. He sounded like a fucking weasel with a whine. Nails on a chalkboard were more tolerable. He was babbling in the hopes of saving his ass. He was too late. As soon as he touched Ilara, he signed his death warrant. Taking Tarin only added to his pain. Bear jerked him around and zip tied his hands behind his back. He whined more, but we ignored him. The desire to lay hands on him now was overwhelming, but there was always a chance a hunter might come along out in these woods and see us. This needed to be taken care of back at the compound where we had privacy and tools if we wanted them.
Bear jabbed him in the back with his gun. “Move it. Start walking back to the house. We have a car waiting to chauffeur you to your final vacation spot. We have so many fun things planned for you. I can’t wait.” He snickered and smiled. The entire way back, Hamilton was stumbling and stopping. The begging and offering us anything and everything under the sun was the most entertaining. He did it the whole trek back to the old house. I sent off a quick text while Bear was tying him up, to tell the others we’d found him and were coming back to meet them at the house.
Everyone was waiting when we got there. The anger on their faces made Hamilton piss himself. Slash swore when he saw it. “Jesus Christ, really? We haven’t done anything to him yet. What a pussy. Shit, I’d hate to be you, Jake. You have to haul him back and he smells like piss.”
“He better not get any in the van or I’ll cut the fucker. I’m not going to clean piss out of it. Sure, the blood later, after we haul his dead body away is fine, but I draw the line at piss,” Jake said as he gave Hamilton a disgusted look. Yeah, bleed all you want, just don’t piss. I was amused at Jake’s limit. Hamilton was shaking so hard, I thought he might collapse. He tried again to beg and bargain. Bear wrapped a bandana around his mouth. What a relief.
At the van, Jake spread out a plastic sheet in the back. I helped Bear toss Hamilton’s ass in the back and then tied his ankles. Bear then asked, “What do we want to do with this place? I don’t care that his DNA is inside, but if anyone ever thought to check it out, they might find other prints like Tate’s or Tarin’s.”
“There’s no reason to think they will, but to be safe, I say we come back later and we either wipe it down or we burn it down. We can get rid of his car at the junkyard. Our buddy there will crush it and it’ll go out as steel to be reused,” Payne said. None of us had a better idea, so we’d go with that plan. We hurried to our bikes and got the hell out of there. I couldn’t wait to make him bleed and hurt. However, I wanted to check and make sure Tarin was doing okay first.