Hell And Back(75)

“I fucking told you not to take her. I told you we were going too fast.” I shake my head. I can’t stop pacing, and I can’t stop the shaking that is wracking my already tweaked body.

I look over at Chuck. “I fucking told you it was a bad idea!”

Those were the last words I ever said. In the next instant, Chuck raises his gun and fires it at me.

Once, twice, three times, and I’m finally, finally, fucking free.





Chapter Forty-Nine


Jackson





I jump in the passenger seat of the car since Mick is driving, and I immediately call for backup.

The address they gave us is about twenty-five minutes out, but with the way Mick is driving, we should get there in about ten, maybe fifteen minutes max.

There are five undercovers on-site, waiting around the corner, scoping the place out.

There is a black Honda parked right in front of room eight, which is the room we think they are in.

We let the on-sites know when we are two minutes out. I want into the room the minute we get there.

“You loaded?” I ask Mick, knowing he understands I’m asking if he has more than one gun on him.

“Got two on me. A couple in the back, locked.”

I nod, preparing myself for the war that is about to be waged at the motel.

The moment we get there, I walk in the front door and straight to the reception desk. “Adam Fletcher, what room?”

She looks at me, smacking her bubble gum. “Who are you?”

I take my gun out and place it on the counter, her eyes going as wide as saucers. “You really want to do that right now?”

She shakes her head. “Room eight.”

I don’t even wait to hear her finish before I walk back out, talking to the team that has gathered. I open up the trunk so Mick and I can grab our vests and put them on.

“Room eight confirmed. We know they are armed. Brenda has a bullet hole to prove it.”

I look around at the twenty officers who have showed up, plus the ten of Brian’s guys, all waiting for the war to start.

“We just saw movement,” Brian says while looking over at the room.

“It’s go time. Seems they know we are here.” I turn to walk away from the car to attack the door from the side.

We’re a few feet from the door when we hear a shot fired. My stomach drops, and I rock to a halt as my feet stop moving. Two shots and my breathing stops. Three shots and I brace myself on the wall outside room seven.

I hear shouting all around me. The door is kicked in. I snap out of it and run through the door where my past is holding my future.

“Drop your weapon!” Mick commands, upon entering the room. “Drop the fucking weapon now!” he warns again right before he fires a shot at the man’s leg. The man cries out in pain as he drops the gun to staunch the blood flow in his leg.

I enter the room, taking in the scene before me.

Bella is on the bed naked, and three young girls are chained to the wall and clearly drugged.

My brother is slumped on the floor in front of the television, which probably fell over when he was shot. I see three bullet wounds in his chest.

I rush to the bed, checking Bella for a pulse. It’s there, thank God.

I cover her with the filthy sheet and gather her in my arms to walk out of the room. I look down at Chuck, who is cuffed in the middle of the room, blood seeping out of his leg.

Brian, Hulk, and Roger are all working to remove the chains from the three other girls in the room.

I make it to the car just as the ambulances start to arrive. Six in total. I run with Bella to the closest one. Placing her on the stretcher, they start asking me questions I don’t have the answers to. The one thing I know is there is a puncture wound in her arm and her head is bleeding.

“Sir, we need to know what she is on,” one of the paramedics asks as the other starts taking her vitals.

“I don’t know. We just found her.”

“We need transport. I’ll draw her blood for a tox screen. They’ll run it when we get to the ER, and we’ll know in about thirty minutes,” he says to me while gathering up the items he needs to draw her blood and his partner heads up front to drive.

I look toward the motel room and see Mick walking out holding a girl who is so jaundiced, she looks yellow. Her blonde hair is stringy with filth, and if I didn’t know better, I would assume she’s a junkie.

“I need help,” he calls as he places her on a stretcher right outside another ambulance.

He looks over at me and calls out, “It’s Lori. We found them.”

I don’t say anything more because the door to the ambulance I am in is shut, and we are rushing off to the hospital where I hope and pray we are in time and they can wake her up.





Chapter Fifty