Page 41 of Jagger
“Wrong answer, motherfucker,” Animal responded and kicked him between his legs, causing him to fall to his knees and vomit.
I motioned for Roughstock to follow me, and after locating the green truck, I began running my foot through the dirt and snow to find the entryway. I felt something hard under my foot and leaned over to grab the handle from the flat plate. Lifting with all my strength, Roughstock helped me, and as we opened the door and descended the stairs, we pulled out our guns, just in case we were ambushed.
The stairs led down to a small room, not much bigger than a tornado shelter, and sitting huddled together were two crying women. Using the flashlight on my phone, I illuminated the room beyond the single bulb hanging from the ceiling as Roughstock spoke to the women.
“My name is Trent, and this is my friend, Lincoln. We’re here to take you home.”
They seemed unsure, so I turned around and showed them the back of my cut before I turned back to them. “We’re not a part of anything that man who took you is, and if you’ll let us,we’d like to get you out of here. My wife is upstairs and is here to help.”
That was the second time I’d referred to Jackie as my wife, and I liked the way it sounded. Roughstock looked at me as we helped the girls up the stairs and into the light. They didn’t have shoes on, and the snow was piled up around the door, so I looked at them and asked, “Can I help?”
The younger girl nodded with tears in her eyes, so I carefully picked her up under her legs and back and carried her past the junk cars and into the clearing Blur wasn’t there, but I could hear Phantom and Animal with someone on the other side of the trailers, so I knew they had moved him away from the girls. Turning, I was prepared to get the other girl when Roughstock carried her out.
Jackie and Laura walked out, and instantly, Jackie ran up to the young girls and ushered them back to the trailer. The look in her eyes was murderous, but she was focused on getting the women taken care of.
And that left us with Blur. By the time we left this property, Blur would be a bad memory of an ex-brother who died. Nothing more.
And if Jamison had a problem with that, then he could drag his ass up here to the Dakotas and deal with us directly. But I didn’t expect to hear from the Bastards again after we killed Blur.
That didn’t mean I wasn’t going to mail them a little present.
Chapter 20
Jackie
Ididn’t expect to throw that knife at Blur, but seeing the woman, Laura, dirty, with no shoes and chapped lips, made my blood boil. No one deserved this treatment, and as I got the other two girls each a glass of water, I looked around the trailer. There were toys tossed into a corner, and the smell of old garbage and something else unpleasant was faintly in the air. I looked at the three women who’d been held here.
“My name is Jackie. I know you’re Laura,” I said to the oldest of the three, “but who are you?”
The youngest-looking girl was the one to answer. “My name is Pattie, and this is my sister, Paula.” Her body was racked with tremors as she asked, “What’s going to happen to us?”
I took her hands and tried to reassure her. “We’re going to take you back home to your families,” I began, and Paula started crying harder as she pulled herself closer to her sister. “Can I ask where you were taken from?”
I could sense the thought of home for them was scary, but I needed to know what we were dealing with. I didn’t know if the police were going to be called, and I needed information to protect the club from blowback. Blur didn’t deserve to take anyone else from us.
“We were living with our mom and her boyfriend in Arkansas when that man took us. He said he was going to take us to our dad, but he . . . he brought us here and locked us in that room,” Pattie explained. She lowered her voice and added, “We don’t want to go back to our mom.”
“How old are you?” I asked them while Laura looked on.
She seemed to have fared better than Pattie and Paula, but not by much. I thought she would’ve had most of the answers, but I had to figure out what to do with them all.
“I’m nineteen, and Paula is almost eighteen.” She paused and said, “Our mother took us from our dad a few years ago, and we were running away to find him. That’s when . . . that man took us.”
“And Laura? How long have you been here?” I asked.
She cast her eyes down and whispered, “Two years. I . . . I came looking for my sister and stumbled upon that man and his partners. They locked me inside here, and I was only allowed out to help . . . with the girls.”
I took her hand into mine and spoke softly. “Do not let that man win. You did nothing wrong and only did what you had to do to survive.”
She didn’t seem sure, but now wasn’t the time to go over what she’d survived. I couldn’t imagine what she’d seen or experienced, and I wasn’t going to ask.
“Do you know where your sister is?”
“Montana, I think. She took off after the courts awarded custody of her kids to their father. That’s why I came here. I was worried about her, and I’m afraid he . . .”
Pulling out my phone, I opened the image I’d snapped from my computer and asked, “Is this your sister?” She looked and nodded as tears flooded her eyes. I hugged her as I whispered, “We’ll find her. I promise.”
There was a knock on the door, and all three women jumped from fear before they huddled together. I knew we were safe but would be cautious, just in case. Pulling the gun from my back, I checked the chamber for a round before I positioned myself between the girls and the door.
