WRECKED: GODS OF CHAOS MC, BOOK FOUR (22 page)

If I was needed, they would wake me.

My brain finally slowed down, my shoulders relaxing as I drifted off to an easy, peaceful sleep.

I didn’t hear the soft footsteps.

I didn’t see the flash of the knife.

It happened so fast, I wasn’t even aware of the pain.

It was better that way.

Vanessa

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

I swam through the fog in my mind, barely aware of the rocking. The rustling sounds of blankets, a warm hand on my arm, the incessant, loud beeping that had woken me up had finally stopped. Movement. And then a sudden, jerking stop.

I opened my eyes, the light burning, blinding. I blinked, over and over, until I could focus, the ambulance coming into view slowly.

I tried to move my arm, but it was stuck, strapped down. The movement started again, only going forward this time and without the beeps. We started moving fast - too fast - so fast I thought I would be sick if we didn’t slow down.

And then I turned my head.

The scream that escaped from my mouth was ragged and rough, the pain ripping through my lungs in a burning flash of hell.

I blinked again, trying to blink away the nightmare in front of me.

“Hello, darling,” Royce said, his face inches from mine. “I’ve missed you.”

Wreck

The hospital was on lock-down. Outside was a madhouse of police cars, news vans and groups of people standing around in hospital gowns and scrubs. I parked the SUV and ran up to the entrance, but the cops wouldn't let me in.

“What happened?” I demanded.

“Homicide,” he answered, “nobody’s going in but emergency patients.”

“But my girlfriend is in there! In ICU!”

“Sorry, man, I can’t let you in.”

“Who died?” I asked.

“What?”

“You said it was a fucking homicide, who was murdered?”

“Can’t say, man, sorry.”

“Was it a fucking man or a woman?” I growled, my heart beating so hard it threatened to rip right out of my chest. I must have looked like a crazy person, I’d driven here so fast, completely panicked.

“A man, alright?” he said. “Now get out of the fucking way!”

A sheriff’s car was pulling in, one of the cops holding up the crime scene tape so he could get through. I took a few steps back, waiting at the edge of the crowd, trying to figure out what to do. The sheriff jumped out of his car and ran up to a man wearing a suit by the entrance.

“What happened,” he asked. I strained to hear them, but I was close enough to make out the words.

“Old guy waiting in an ICU room. Someone slit his throat. He bled out before a nurse found him.”

“Shit. Any suspects?”

“Nope. They’re checking surveillance now.”

“Good,” the Sheriff said, starting to walk inside.

“That’s not all, Sheriff,” the man called. He turned and walked back to him.

“We got a missing person too. A patient. Vanessa Randolph. You know the Captain’s old golfing buddy, Royce? It’s his wife.”

“She’s missing?” he asked.

“Yeah, whoever killed the old guy seems to have taken her too. She was unconscious. Nearly drowned out at Hug Point this morning.”

“For fuck’s sake,” he said, shaking his head. “Has anyone called Randolph?”

“I don’t know, sir.”

“Alright,” he replied, shaking his head again. “Anything else?”

“No, sir. The Captain is with the head of hospital security right now.”

“Alright, then,” he said, gesturing to the reporters who were frantically trying to get his attention before walking away. “Keep the vultures at bay.”

By now my blood was cold with fear, my hands shaking, my stomach quivering. I’d heard every fucking word that was said and I had no idea what to do.

I turned around slowly and headed back to the club. I needed the Gods, because if I had to handle all of this on my own, I’d never make it.

Ryder

We shuttled the girls and ourselves into Grace’s van, leaving all those fucking pricks tied up like a bunch of prized pigs at a livestock event. The cop’s were already on the way for them and even though Wreck had thrown a huge wrench in our plans by rushing off, I couldn’t blame him for it. I would have done the same fucking thing.

So, we shuttled the girls and Grace to their safe house, and we sped back West towards the clubhouse and the hospital. I’d tried to call Wreck and Doc along the way, but neither of them were answering. I’d finally remembered that Wreck’s phone was ruined in the ocean, but the fact that I couldn’t get ahold of Doc was pissing me off.

I wanted to warn him that Randolph was coming, so he could be extra alert. I knew how badly Randolph wanted Vanessa back, and I wouldn’t put anything past him.

“Any luck?” I asked Slade and Riot, who were trying to get ahold of him too.

“Nope,” Riot said.

“Doc’s not answering my texts, but I did just get one from Diana,” Slade said. “She said something was going down at the hospital in Seaside. Just came through on the scanner.”

“What happened?” I asked.

“She’s on her way there, said it wasn’t clear but there’s a shit load of cops there already.”

“Alright,” I said. “I guess we’re going to the hospital then. Tell her to keep us posted.”

“Will do,” Slade said.

“I don’t like the fact that Doc isn’t picking up,” Riot said.

“You and me both, brother, you and me both…”

***

We’d driven in silence another half hour when my phone rang. I looked down at it and picked it up right away.

“It’s the clubhouse,” I said. “Hello?”

“Ryder, it’s Cherry,” she said.

“Hey, darlin,’ what’s going on?”

“I need you here right away, Ryder,” she answered, her voice quivering.

“What’s wrong, babe?” I asked.

“Wreck’s here. He just came from the hospital, Ryder. It’s bad, Ryder, it’s bad, just get here now.”

“Fuck! I’ll be there in fifteen minutes. Wait for me!”

“Hurry, Ryder!”

I threw the phone down and stepped on the gas, wishing like hell I wasn’t driving this slow ass van. I needed the speed of my fucking bike now, more than ever.

“What’s wrong?” Riot said.

“I don’t know man. It was Cherry. She said Wreck’s there, she said we gotta hurry. She said it was bad.”

“Fuck!” Slade yelled.

“Hold on tight, boys,” I said, pressing the gas pedal all the way to the floor. “Let’s see how fast this bitch goes.”

Wreck

I sat on Vanessa’s bed with my head in my hands. Everything had gone terribly fucking wrong and I had no idea what to do. As soon I told Ryder about Doc, he broke down crying. A man should never have to feel pain like that. I’d never seen someone so fucking strong, so fucking tough, break down like that.

It was all my fucking fault. I traced my actions all the way back to the fucking beach and if I hadn’t let her stand in that goddamned water, she wouldn’t have gone under, she wouldn’t be at the hospital and Doc would still fucking be alive.

I was going to kill Randolph and it was going to be the best thing I ever did in my life.

But I couldn’t do it alone. The cops were swarming the hospital and I couldn’t get anywhere close to her room. Besides, I heard what they said. She was gone.

Royce had killed Doc and taken her. But where?

That’s what I didn’t know. I didn’t know the first fucking place to look for her. I’d have just gone out looking anywhere, everywhere, but what good would that have done? I was lost. I needed the Gods. I needed Ryder.

But I didn’t know if that was going to be possible anytime soon.

He was wrecked by the news of Doc’s death and I had no idea when he would recover enough to even talk. He’d insisted on being alone and retreated to his cabin to wait for Grace. Nobody knew how long she was going to be because she was helping the girls we’d saved at the safe house. There was so much to do. Lacey was with her, thankfully.

Which had left me with Riot and Slade at the clubhouse. Slade was enraged, his body tightened into a thick ball of tension that was threatening to explode at any second. He wanted revenge, just like the rest of us. But we had to wait.

At least until we could come up with a plan.

Riot retreated to his room, saying he always felt better when he was working.

I didn’t know what to do with this tornado churning around inside me, so I had come into Vanessa’s room. Not that it was really her room, but it was the only place I could go to be close to her. I shoved my face into her pillow, trying desperately to pick up her scent.

I couldn’t let myself think about what she might be going through. Fuck, she hadn’t even woken up yet, as far as I knew. And if she had, and she was with Royce, she must be terrified out of her mind.

It was too much to think about.

I laid down in her bed, pulling the blanket over me and something fell to the floor. I reached over to pick it up and saw it was the journal Grace had given her. I stared at it in my hands, contemplating if I should open it.

But then I thought of Frankie, of Vanessa telling me she was Frankie, and I couldn’t help myself. I had so many fucking questions and maybe some of my answers were in there.

As soon as I saw the handwriting I knew.

I remembered it. As distinctive as her laugh, Frankie’s handwriting was unique. She’d written me dozens of love letters and poems and I still had them all. They were worn and faded by now, but it was the same writing that was staring back at me now. I flipped through the pages and stopped when I saw my name.

Wreck doesn’t see me. Do I look that different? Sound that different?

I was hoping he’d notice on his own, but maybe I should tell him soon. He looks at me like he’s never seen me before and part of me doesn’t want to tell him, I want him to figure it out on his own. But maybe he never will…

And what if he doesn’t believe me?

What if he doesn’t want me anymore?

I have no proof. My father’s dead. I don’t even have a birth certificate! There’s nothing left to prove to anyone who I used to be. Unfortunately, I’m falling for him all over again, or maybe it’s just all those old feelings reigniting, but whatever it is, I want more of it.

I wish we could just go back. I wish none of this ever happened. If I could wish for anything in the world, it’s that I could go back to that night before the explosion, if I could go back and lie in his arms in the back of his truck and stare up at the stars with him. I’d give anything to listen to him talk, to tell me the story about his father’s Christmas tree again.

But I can’t.

I’ve just got to tell him, to convince him somehow that it’s really me.

If I had any twinge of a doubt left, it was gone. And with that knowledge, a surge of adrenaline rushed through my veins. Ryder may be in mourning, but I had to move now. There was no time to waste. I couldn’t wait any longer. There had to be a way to find out where Royce had taken her. There had to be something we could do.

I put the journal back down on her bed and walked back outside to find Slade. He was near the front porch, punching on a torn up punching bag that was barely hanging on.

“I can’t fucking wait,” I said. “We’ve gotta do something.”

“I agree. What do you want to do?” he asked.

“Fuck, I don’t know. Have you heard anything else from Diana?”

“Nope, the fucking cops are shutting the media out completely. My guess is Royce has friends who helped him escape and they aren’t talking.”

“Yeah, probably,” I said, kicking the dirt. I was anxious, I was jittery and I was about to jump out of my fucking skin. “We’ve gotta figure out something. We don’t need Ryder.”

“We always need Ryder, dude,” Slade said, shaking his head. “I can’t fucking believe Doc’s dead.” He turned away and punched the bag so hard it fell to the ground. “Fuck!” he yelled, kicking it.

Riot walked out onto the porch and strode over to us.

“You alright?” Slade asked, pulling him in for a hug.

“Yeah, man,” he said, as he pulled away. “I think I found something.”

“Yeah, what?”

“What?” I asked. “Do you know where they went?”

“No, unfortunately, but…well, after you told me Vanessa said she was Frankie, I started digging around a little. Francesca Maria Moretti’s death certificate was filed ten years ago.”

“Yeah?”

“Her father’s was never filed.”

“What?” I asked. “That’s weird. Wouldn’t they be filed at the same time?”

“That’s what you would think. So I dug some more.”

“And?” I asked, growing inpatient. What was he trying to say?

“This is going to sound weird, but I don’t think her dad died, Wreck. Frank Moretti has been living in Cannon Beach for the last ten years.”

“Are you shitting me?” I asked.

“Nah man, I’m not.”

Vanessa

“Where are you taking me?” I asked Royce, or rather tried to - instead I erupted into a horrible coughing fit. My lungs felt like they were filled with razor blades.

“I’m taking the princess to her castle,” he said, his eyes flashing with pure insanity.

“No!” I croaked, trying to get up but he had me strapped to a gurney in the back of an ambulance that was speeding through the streets. I had no idea where we were, or how I got there. The last thing I remember was standing in the ocean and watching Wreck walk away from me. And then the wave hit and I was under the water. That was all.

Now here I was back in some horrible nightmare that I couldn’t blink away. The ropes digging into my wrists told me this wasn’t a dream at all.

“Just sit tight, Vanessa,” he said, reaching over and caressing my cheek. I cringed, recoiling in disgust at his touch. My heart sank in disappointment and my entire soul seemed to fill with anguish.

I thought I’d gotten away. I thought I’d finally escaped his torturous imprisonment. I thought I’d finally found a way to have a life of my own. I thought about Wreck, how upset and confused he must be. Once I told him the truth about who I was, he’d become so upset. I knew he wouldn’t believe me at first. But I also knew I just needed more time to convince him. I let him walk away from me because I figured he needed a minute or two, some space alone, before he’d come back and I’d explain myself.