Page 12 of Love is Blind

“The truck pulled in about thirty minutes ago. Everything seemed normal until I opened the back.” He turns and heads for the large semi-truck park next to us. “I opened up the back and found the top of one crate knocked off. I thought it was odd, but every once in a while it happens. So, I climbed in and found this inside the empty crate.” He hands Xander a folded-up piece of paper. “I double-checked the rest of the crates and found half the guns missing. But it makes no sense. Why did they only take half?” he asks out loud, but I don’t care. I focus on Xander, who scans the note before passing it to Maverick. He proceeds to read it, letting out a slur of curses before passing it to me. I try to tamp down the fire burning in my chest at what I might read, but it’s a lost cause as I take the paper and what I notice is a picture attached to the bottom.

I can’t believe my eyes at what I’m seeing. The picture is obviously an older one, but it causes the intended effect. A dark hungry beast roars inside my head at the sight of Wren, naked and tied to a chair, battered and bruised. What really causes the rage is Wren’s stunning blue eyes being held open with eye retractors. That’s when it hits me. This was probably the night the bastard tried to take her life. I don’t want to look away, but force myself to read the words written on the paper.

Isn’t my dolly pretty? She bled so pretty and behaved so well. I never liked sharing my toys, so when I was done playing with her, I threw her away. Had to make sure no one else would want a broken little thing. Seems my dolly didn’t know how to stay dead. Since she’s still alive, I want my toy back. She was always my favorite.

I’ll make you a deal. Hand over my dolly and I’ll leave your shipments alone. If you don’t, it will only get worse. You have a week.

-A

I’m vibrating with anger as I finish reading. “He thinks we would just hand over Wren and take his word. Who the fuck does he think he is? I’m going to kill him with my bare hands. I’m going to skin him alive over a period. Make him suffer for even thinking of Wren again.” I grind out. Thoughts of all the ways I could torture this man. Cause him so much pain he passes out, before waking him and doing it all over again. I’ll have Doc on standby so he can patch him up just enough to live, over and over and over. Adrian West will beg me to kill him, to put him out of his misery by the time I’m done with him. He will know what real pain is, and I’ll start by taking his eyes, like he did my princess.

“I think it’s time to talk to the driver. See what he has to say.” Xander calls out, already making his way back to the office.

Mav’s hand grabs my shoulders and squeezes. “We’re going to get him, J.” Then he’s gone, following Xander. I glance down at the photo once again. Wren looks so afraid yet, almost like she knew it might have been her last day to breathe. The thought of her going through that or anything else that twisted fuck can think of has me turning on my heel and storming to the office. The driver is going to give me answers and if I don’t like what I hear, I’ll kill him.

I’m not even to the door when I hear a solid fist hitting flesh sound. “How long have you been driving for us, Evan?” Xander’s work voice is back. The one that drops all emotion, cold, icy, and dangerous.

“T-Two years, Mr. Ashford.” Evan mumbles. His eyes are downcast to the floor as he sits in a chair in the center of the room. Evan is a young guy who has worked as one of our long-haul drivers for two years now. He has always been on time and never made mistakes until now. From the nervous posture and sweat beading on his brow, I think he knows he made one of the biggest mistakes of his life.

Maverick steps in front of Evan, blocking his view of me. “Why were you late?” That’s what we really want to know.

“There was an accident on one of the back roads I take. Some truck hit a deer or something. Ran into oncoming traffic and caused two other cars to crash. Had to wait for tow trucks and a crew to clean the debris.” Evan glances up at Mav before shifting his eyes to Xander leaning against the wall. When his eyes continue to search the room, I step up next to Mav’s side. Evan’s eyes widen in fear before shooting back down to the ground.

“Now, Evan, why don’t I believe you? I told you when I walked in and gave you that first warning hit. If you tell me the truth, you’ll walk out of here alive. If you lie to me, you’ll be leaving in a body bag.” Xander casually calls out and I watch as a full-body shiver of what I’m guessing is fear wracks though Evan’s body at the promise.

“I s-swear, Boss.” I’m done with the games, the lies, all of it. I lunge forward and land a hard punch to Evan’s face. It was so fast and unexpected that Evan goes flying backwards off the chair.

“Then why the fuck is half our shipment missing and a note threatening our woman left in its place?” I roar before sending a kick to his stomach. I was smart enough to wear my steel toe boots today. The punch and kick must have been effective because a second later, Evan is rolling over onto all fours and spitting up blood. I grin as his blood paints the office floor.

“O-okay. Okay.” The coward on the floor raises his hand in surrender before reaching for the chair. I kick it to him and he uses it to pull himself up.

“Did that jog your memory about what happened?” Xander asks, and I grin wider.

Once Evan has his ass in the chair, he looks up. Blood runs down his face from his nose to his lip and downward towards his neck. I think I broke his nose and busted his lip. “I-I got a call yesterday. Right after, I picked up the crates. At first, I thought the request was coming from you, but that made little sense. You’ve never changed the route or orders before, so I hung up and was about to call one of you when he called again.” Evan spits some blood on the ground and wraps his mouth before continuing. “The guy offered me 50K to just make a ten-minute pit stop outside the city. Boss, my mom’s sick and her medicine is expensive.”

I growl at his weak excuse. He could have come to us and asked for a loan or for extra hours. We aren’t as heartless as we like people to believe.

“What happened at the pit stop? Where did you stop? Who did you meet?” Xander rapidly fires out questions. His irritation getting the better of him.

“I didn’t meet anyone. I pulled over at the rest stop on the east side about twenty minutes from entering the city. The guy told me when I got there to go to the bathroom. That a black duffle bag would be in the last locked stall. If I wanted to keep the money, I just needed to sit there for ten minutes, then I was free to go. I waited and when I came out, I checked the truck, but nothing looked wrong. The lock on the back was still in place. I figured it was just to delay my delivery.” Evan’s eyes are shifting from one person to the next, probably worried about who might attack him next.

“You never saw the guy?” Mav asks, glancing at Xander then me. The silent communication is clear as can be. Evan has no more information that we need, which means he is of no use to us anymore.

“No, I swear. It was all through the phone. I don’t even know how he got my number. Here you can have it to check for yourself. Maybe trace it.” Mav takes the phone and steps back to go through it. Xander steps forward with a hum of consideration.

“You could have come to us, Evan. I’ll make sure your mother gets the money, but your services are no longer needed.” Xander gives me the signal, a single nod.

Evan’s pleas fall on deaf ears as I rush forward, my fist raised before slamming into Evan’s face again. This time, when he falls backwards, I follow him to the ground. Fist after fist landing anywhere and everywhere I can reach. The first few hits, Evan attempted to block, but I’m too fast. I may be big, but I’m sure as fuck not slow. The slap of flesh against flesh fills my ears and soothes my soul as I continue my brutal assault. I can feel Evan’s hot blood splash and soak me, but I don’t stop. Evan betrayed us by working with Adrian. The thought of Adrian adds fuel to my ever-burning rage, and I hit harder, wishing this was Adrian. Wishing it was Adrian’s blood covering my face and arms. I’m so far into the red haze of my anger that I don’t even realize Evan is dead until Mav is pulling me off him.

“He’s dead, J. He’s gone.” I hear his words, but it’s not until I look down at the bloody mess I’ve made on the floor. Evan is unrecognizable at this point. His face and skull are bashed in. I glance down at myself and see that I look like a character from a horror movie. My knuckles are torn, bruised and bloody themselves. The thought that Wren is blind and won’t be able to see me like this gives me a little sense of relief. I would scare the life out of her if she saw this. Probably never want to touch me if she knew I was capable of killing a man with my bare hands and not bat an eye.

“That’s enough, big guy. We’ve been away from our woman long enough. I just texted Abby, and she said Wren won’t go to bed until we are home. So let’s go, Mav, you can work on the phone there, and get some men out to the rest stop and see if they can find anything.” Xander doesn’t even glance at Evan’s body, used to the destruction I can cause. He tosses me a small towel and I use it to wipe up as much as possible before following the guys out. Bobby is standing on the other side of the office door as I pass.

“You know what to do.” He nods before pulling out his phone to make the appropriate calls.

I’m the last to the SUV, so I climb into the back seat, still attempting to clean up the blood, but I know it’s a lost cause. Tossing the towel out the window, I lay my head back against the seat and stare at the roof. Suddenly, I’m exhausted and all I want to do is shower before climbing into bed with Wren to cuddle. Xander starts the cars and peels away from the warehouse. Closing my eyes, I call out, “Let’s go home to our woman, boys.”

Chapter ten

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