Second Chance SEAL(52)

“If you give me trouble, I will beat you to within an inch of your life. Then I’ll let my men have their way with you. Understand?”

I nodded, eyes wide.

“Good. You stupid bitch. You’ve been a lot of trouble, you know that?” He sighed, starting the engine. “I might let my men have their way anyway, just because.”

We pulled out and started driving. I stared back at the cabin until it disappeared around a bend.

Gates was back there. Gates was in that cabin, burning to death. And I could do nothing to save him because I was weak and pathetic.

I held the tears back. I couldn’t give Tony the satisfaction. I wouldn’t let that maniac see me crying.

He reached across the seat and put his hand on my leg, a creepy smile spreading across his face. I couldn’t believe I used to want him to touch me like that.

“Don’t worry, Pipes,” he said. “It’ll all be over soon.”

He started laughing, and I had to force myself not to vomit.





Chapter 24





Gates





I heard something crack. Glass shattered nearby. Heat was scarring my feet. My face felt like I had an awful sunburn.

I opened my eyes and coughed hard. Smoke was everywhere, billowing from the fire in the corner of the room.

The fucking fire.

I came to myself instantly. The fucking cabin was on fire, and I was still alive. I was in pain, but the idiot hadn’t finished me off. I quickly got onto my hands and knees, blindly groping for the door.

Nearby, I heard someone groan. It was the other mafia guy, the one that I was in the process of killing when that bastard blindsided me. I crawled over to him and grabbed him, pulling him along behind me.

Out in the hall, fire forced me into the next room. Ahead, I saw the windows. I got to my knees, leaving the guy, and grabbed a lamp. I smashed the window then grabbed him and dragged him over.

I climbed out first and then pulled him after me, not really bothering to protect him from the glass shards. He groaned as he fell to the ground beside me. I coughed hard and felt like throwing up, but I dragged him along behind me as we got further away from the burning house.

“Piper!” I yelled. I looked around, but couldn’t see her. The mafia’s car was gone, but the truck was still there. “Piper!” I yelled again, and stumbled down toward the lake.

What the fuck happened? I couldn’t imagine how they found us so easily. General Maron wouldn’t have given away our position so easily and quickly. There was just no way that he had betrayed us like that. Maron may have been angry with my choices, but he wasn’t a genuinely bad man. He wouldn’t have given us up to the mafia like that.

“Piper!”

There was no response. I moved down along the lake and found a canoe overturned near the water. There were footprints but I couldn’t figure out what had happened.

“Piper!” I tried yelling her name a few more times, but there was nothing. Just a deep, deafening silence.

She was gone. I had to accept that and make my next move. I went back toward the house and found the mafia guy I had pulled from the flames. He was beginning to stir, so I kicked him hard in the stomach.

“Fucking bastard,” I said to him. “Where is your boss taking her?”

“Fuck off,” he said.

I kicked him again. “Start talking and I’ll leave. Don’t talk, and I’ll break your fingers one by one.”

“Fuck you, pussy.”

I got onto my knees next to him and grabbed his hand. He tried to fight free but I easily subdued him, shoving his face into the ground. I grabbed his hand again and took his pinky.

“Tell me,” I said.

“No.”

I wrenched it back and he screamed. I heard the bones snap.

I grabbed his ring finger. “Talk,” I said.

“Oh, fuck you,” he said.

I snapped that finger and he screamed even louder.

“It only gets worse,” I said. “Talk.”

“Warehouse,” he said through the pain. “Warehouse in Chicago. On the edge of town. Used to be for some shipping company, J&J shipping. Fuck, I don’t know the address.”

I let go of his hand and stood. “Thanks,” I said.

“You’ll never save her,” he sneered.

I kicked him in the teeth. His head snapped back and I kicked him again.

“Watch me try,” I muttered as I walked away.

The truck was still sitting there. I had left the keys on the dash, and so I climbed in and started the engine.

As I went to pull away, it hit me. The reason for all of this. I had to sit there for a second and stare out the window, feeling so fucking stupid and tired.

I climbed back out and slowly walked around the perimeter of the truck, feeling along the edges.