callan
I circled around every mob hangout in Redwood multiple times, finally spotting an empty van that I had never seen before in the back of one. After I checked it for Vera and found nothing, I blew an angry breath from my nose and texted Blaise, who had stayed back with Poison.
Me: I checked the van as well as the building where we thought Vera was. Nobody is there. Even the cellar has been cleared out.
Gripping my stomach, I winced as the pain from the stab wounds shot through me. I hadn’t had a fucking minute to myself since they had released me this morning, and I just wanted to sleep for a few fucking days.
Maybe longer.
Blaise: What the fuck do you mean? Where the hell did they take her?
Me: Meet me at the state beach. That’s the closest place they could’ve gone.
There was one place that I hadn’t checked out yet. Last night, Yui had told me that they’d be at the beach for Vera’s auction, and I faintly remembered her mentioning something about the state beach.
Hell, it had been such a long night. I might’ve hallucinated it all.
Blaise: How would they get her there without anyone noticing?
Me: Just meet me there.
So, I gritted my teeth and started my car once more, heading in the direction of the state beach. Problem was that half of Redwood was beach, and the state beach stretched on for a good mile or so with too many bars and restaurants to count.
But since it was fall, nobody should be down there now. All I had to do was find Yui’s car.
When I pulled into the state beach parking lot, I spotted three cars parked at the base of a stilted building, where tourists hung around during the summer months. I parked my car about ten parking spaces away from the others and texted Blaise.
Me: The mob has a place here, but I need to figure out how to get in.
Hell, I didn’t even know where they were in this building. Maybe the basement, if it had a basement. I highly doubted it because it was the fucking beach. It would be flooded if the water rose too high during hurricane season.
Me: Let me go in first. I’ll unlock it. Wait five minutes, then come in.
Me: Understand?
Me: I can’t be seen with you or else the mob will know that I’ve betrayed them.
João pulled into the parking lot and parked a ways away from my car.
Instead of waiting for his response, I got out of the car and walked up the stairs of the building to the platform up top, where I used to hang out when I had been a teenager years ago. I padded around the top for a few moments, scanning the area.
Chatter drifted out from a back stairwell that I had never noticed before, even in all my years of visiting this dirty place. I slipped inside a room and behind a door, watching a kid who I’d had in school a couple of years ago, named Jim, walk up the stairs and toward the parking lot.
Me: Jim’s here.
I wasn’t sure if Blaise knew who Jim was, but I didn’t have time for that now.
Me: He’s going toward the parking lot.
Me: I’m heading down to where he left now.
When I reached a door at the bottom of the stairs, I blew out a low breath and cursed at myself that I was even going to do this. It was to protect my students, but I felt so … so fucking wrong and disgusted that this was even happening in Redwood.
I opened the door and began descending another set of stairs until I spotted Vera Rodriguez blindfolded on the floor in the middle of a cell with Peter something on top of her while everyone fucking watched.
“I’ll pay to take her first,” I said. “Get the fuck off her, Peter.”
“Callan Avery.” Yui chuckled. “Ah, I didn’t think you’d want a taste of her.” She sauntered over to me and leaned closer. “I thought you’d really decided to betray me after”—she brushed her fingers against the side of my stomach, where she had stabbed me last night—“all the fun we had.”
“You thought wrong,” I growled, looking at Vera.
She scrambled back from the man between her legs and shoved herself back against the wall again, curling up into a ball. A sob escaped her lips. And while I couldn’t see her face, my chest was tightening.
What if this were Sakura? What if they had taken her instead and auctioned her off to everyone and their brother in Redwood? What if she had been brutally raped by these men and women?
“How much?” Yui asked because she was a greedy bitch who had asked me to come and fuck a student tonight to prove my loyalty but still wanted me to pay for it.
“How much do you want?” I asked.
“You know what our price is for a student from Redwood.”
After grumbling, I walked toward the cell. “Take it out of my cut for this month,” I said, pushing the cell door open, the sound of metal scraping against the concrete. I grabbed Peter by the back of his neck. “Peter, I already said to get the fuck out of here. Vera Rodriguez is mine.”
People shuffled around the room, and then I moved closer to Vera. I seized her upper arm and pulled her to a standing position, but her legs gave out, and she dropped to her knees in front of me.
Where the fuck is Blaise and Poison? I didn’t want to touch her.
“Let me fuck her alone,” I said, wrapping my hand around Vera’s throat and lifting her.
“Only for double the price,” Yui sneered.
“Fine,” I growled.
“Please, make it quick,” Vera whispered as the others began walking up the stairs. A couple of stray tears fell down Vera’s cheeks when the last of The Family members walked out of the room and onto the patio section of the state beach building. “Please.”
And then a gun went off outside.
Vera jerked in my arms and ducked, a horrid scream exiting her throat.
Finally, those fuckers had shown up.