Page 19 of Savage

For the second time in as many days, Tank and I sit in the van outside the warehouse, waiting. We’ve been here an hour already, and there doesn’t seem to be anyone moving in or outside the building, but Indie said a cop was involved, and if they’re onto us then shit won’t just hit the fan, it’ll cover the motherfucking ceiling.

“Prez is gonna cut off our cocks and feed them to his pit bull,” I murmur, fiddling with the air vent and pushing my fingers up against the broken slats to warm my cold hands.

“See, now I don’t know whether you’re referring to his old lady or his actual dog?”

“I mean it, man. If he finds out we screwed this up so badly we are six-feet under before we get back to the clubhouse.”

“Hey, I didn’t screw this up. The dentist, the girl, the fucking evidence? That shit is all on your pussy-whipped shoulders.”

I shake my head and glare through the windshield at the building that looms up before us. I don’t know what the fuck we’re waiting for. There isn’t another goddamned soul to be seen.

“How’s she doing?” Tank asks.

“Indie?” I ask and shrug. “She was raped, tortured, and held in a warehouse for three weeks. How the fuck do you think she is?”

Tank shifts in the driver’s seat, staring me down with a smug expression.

“What?”

“You named the bitch.”

“Yeah, considering she’s a missing fucking person, for shit’s sake. I had to name the bitch.”

“You could always shoot her.” Tank shrugs when I glare at him. “It’s true. If you’d let me put a bullet between her eyes, this little evidence thing wouldn’t have been a problem because you’d be thinking about what to do with the body instead of leaving incriminating shit behind.”

“Eat my dick, fuck-rag. You left that shit behind too.”

“Yeah, but I was busy dealing with the fucking dentist you shot over a bitch you didn’t even know.”

I change the subject. “What the fuck are you doing with Ivy?”

Tank laughs. “Aww, you’re really into this superhero complex, aren’t ya, brother?”

“Fuck you.”

“Nah, I don’t swing that way, but put that hot new bitch of yours between us and I might be up for a double tap.”

I let out an exasperated sigh, shifting in my seat. “This is bullshit. I’m going inside.”

Tank chuckles quietly as I open the door and slide out into the freezing cold night. We carefully cross the road—I don’t know why. There’s no one around to see us at all. When we reach the warehouse entrance in the alley, there’s nothing more to see than a lone plastic bag caught in a drainpipe and shaking with the wind. The door is still busted off its hinges, thanks to Tank’s handiwork, but when we shine our torches across the concrete floor, there’s nothing there—no chair, no blood stains, no video camera, nothing. It’s as though the past three weeks for Indie—for Kayla—didn’t exist.

“What the fuck?” Tank whispers in the darkness, and I know just by his tone that he knows I’m keeping something from him.

“We should go.”

“Start talkin’, brother.”

I shake my head, but even as I do, I know there’s no way out of this. Tank won’t hesitate to beat the shit out of me to get the info he needs. I may as well save myself a few fractured ribs. “Indie was the victim of a rape ring. The dentist wasn’t the only motherfucker needin’ a bullet to the brain. There was a cop, and a priest too.”

“Jesus Christ. You didn’t tell Prez about this?”

“No.”

“You gotta take it to the table, brother. If there’s a cop in on it, and they know we have her, we’re fucked.”

“Prez already wants her dead. I can’t give him that kind of leverage over her.”

“Why the fuck is this bitch so important to you?”

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