Joe grinned, sending another involuntary shudder of fear up my spine. Waving me forward with his gun, I walked between the two of them. At the top of the stairs, they opened another door, leading into a hallway. We appeared to be inside an older house. The carpet was almost as bare as the walls and I could hear a television from somewhere to my left. We turned right and took a few steps before Brass stopped in front of a door.
“In you go. Hurry up.”
“My hands… I can’t unzip my pants.”
Brass stepped forward, unbuckled my jeans and slid my zipper down, his fingers brushing against my panties. I winced, and he bared his teeth at me again.
“Can you please just cut my wrists free?” I asked. “I’ll need to pull my pants down and wipe.”
“I’m not cutting the zip ties off, but if you’d like, I can come in and help you out.” His gaze raked over my body and I had to suppress a shudder.
“Thanks, but I’ll manage.”
Laughing, he pushed open the door and turned on the light. “We’ll be right in the hallway. Don’t try anything stupid,” he said before closing me in the bathroom.
I let out a breath and surveyed the small bathroom as I stepped through my arms to bring my bound wrists in front of me. Tattered linoleum flooring stretched from the door to the dingy bathtub insert across from the sink and toilet. The window was small with privacy glass. Hurrying over, I slid it open and peeked outside. It was still warm outside, but the sun was setting. I’d probably been down in the basement for about four hours or so.
“Hurry up in there,” Brass said, tapping on the door.
I knew I could use the friction of my shoelace to cut my hands free, but it would take time. And it was useless since I would never fit through that window. Discouraged, I slid it closed, worked my jeans down, and went to the bathroom. As soon as I finished, I washed my hands and rinsed the blood off my face and the vomit out my mouth before taking a quick drink.
Glancing in the mirror was a mistake. My right cheek was swollen and red, my lip was split, and I looked dazed and confused. The fuzzy darkness around the edges of my vision told me I probably had a concussion, but looking at my reflection, I was sure of it.
I had no clue how I was going to get out of this mess, so I sure as hell hoped Link and Eagle were working on something.
Eagle
HAVING MOVED TAP and Morse to the large meeting room we referred to as the chapel (since that’s where we held church), Link was alone in his office when I returned. Without knocking, I marched right in and plopped a duffel bag full of cash on his desk. I hadn’t been able to find Naomi—nobody had—so I’d made a quick stop by my bank before it closed and withdrew the hundred-thousand to cover her ransom.
“What’s this?” Link asked, scowling at the bag.
“You know damn well what it is,” I replied.
He zipped open the bag and looked inside. Nothing but stacks of unmarked bills. “Fuck, Eagle. You know this isn’t how we work. We don’t pay people off.”
“I’m not planning on paying Brass off. I’ll use this to get Naomi away from him, then I’ll take his ass out. Make sure he doesn’t try this shit again. If I get caught, you need to say I went rogue… handled it on my own without the club’s permission or help.” That’s why it needed to be my money. I didn’t want any of this to touch the club and destroy everything Jake and Link had worked so hard to build.
Link seemed to consider me for a moment before peering back into the bag. “This is a hell of a lot of money. What if you lose it all? Everything. Naomi and the cash.”
Did he really think I cared about the dough? “I haven’t had a goddamn thing to spend my money on in six years. I finally do, and I’m not gonna fuckin’ lose her. I’m bringing Naomi and our child back if it costs me every cent and every drop of blood I have. You feel me?”
“You think I want her out there with Brass, wrapped up in whatever shit he’s gotten himself into?”
“No. I think your hands are tied, Prez.”
His jaw ticked. He didn’t like that one bit, but it was true. Link had important responsibilities that he couldn’t just throw away whenever someone was in danger. “What’s your plan?”
“I’d rather you didn’t know. Plausible deniability and all that shit.”
“If you think I’m letting you out of here without knowing what you’re up to, you’re high, Eagle. I’m responsible for you, goddammit.”
Link had been a Special Forces commander. He’d been leading a team for as long as anyone could remember, and he was still at it. Only now his team was bigger and wore cuts and drove bikes. Seeing no way out of sharing my plan with him, I broke down and spilled it all.
“I’m gonna steal a tracking device from Tap… one of those thin ones that I can slip it into a stack of bills in case they put the money in a different bag. If I steal it, this shit doesn’t touch Tap, either. I’ll do the exchange and get Naomi to safety, then I’ll track down Brass and whoever he’s working with and take them out. When’s Brass supposed to be calling you with the drop point?”
Link glanced at his watch. “About three and half hours.” He rubbed his beard, and I could tell he was thinking over my plan. “Not a bad plan, but you failed to utilize your two greatest strengths.”
“What’s that?”
