CHAINED: A Motorcycle Club Romance (15 page)

Talon nodded back at Cain. "The girls are probably kept somewhere else. No need for them to hear the screams every time one of them gets... requested."

Cain thought of Jenna, and shivered. His grip on the shotgun, however, remained tight and steady. Now, more than ever, he hoped with vicious rage to run into one of her captors in here.

They'd only made it halfway down the corridor, heading towards the T junction they could see up ahead, when they heard a new set of sounds, ringing out from somewhere else in the warehouse through the open expanse above the tops of the walls. All three men froze, moving up against the sides of the hallway as they listened.

Voices, coming from another part of the warehouse. The bikers heard several male voices, one of them shouting, the others sounding like they were protesting.

And then, a second later, a gunshot rang out.

The loud bang catalyzed Cain into action. Nudging the others, he hurried forward, down the corridor. After a glance around the corner to make sure that there weren't any other guards lurking on the other side, he kept advancing, praying that he wasn't already too late.

At the end of this corridor, the hallway opened up into what looked like a large area. At the far side, only barely visible in the gloom of the interior of the warehouse, Cain saw a couple large sliding doors, looking more like garage doors than anything else, built into the wall of the warehouse. That must be where they'd brought Jenna inside.

As he and the other two bikers approached, a man suddenly stepped into their line of view! Cain and the others shrank back against the side wall, but the guard at the other end didn't see them. His eyes were fixed on some drama playing out just around the corner, out of their line of sight.

Bucky had his rifle up and was sighting along it at the guard, but Cain waved him down. There were others still out of sight, and he didn't yet want to get caught in a firefight. Instead, he edged forward, trying to peer around the corner.

When he managed to get close to the corner, peering around the edge but trying to keep as much of himself hidden as possible, he saw a chair, facing away from him, with a slender figure strapped in. Even with the girl in the chair facing away from him, however, there was no way for Cain to mistake her identity.

Jenna! She was cringing away from the man standing over her, but she was still alive, and looked unhurt!

For a moment, Cain felt dangerously compelled to charge forward and try to rescue her, other men be damned. Only barely did he manage to bite back on that urge, even as he felt rage rising back up inside of him.

He shifted his attention over to the man standing over Jenna. This man's face was in clear view from around the corner, although his attention seemed totally focused on Jenna. The man's big jowls and receding hairline, cut short, gave him the unfortunate appearance of a bulldog. He was growling something down at Jenna, and his hands-

Cain froze, the rage and anger inside of him boiling over. The man was unbuckling his pants, and from the way he stood over Jenna, his intentions were clear. In just a few seconds, he'd have his shriveled little dick out, and then he would-

Turning, Cain pointed at Talon. "See if you can circle around the other way," he hissed. "If any of them try and get past you, shoot them."

Something in Cain's tone or body posture must have communicated his rage. Talon didn't waste any time arguing, but instead immediately turned and headed down the corridor towards the other arm of the T intersection.

Cain switched over to Bucky. "Cover me - shoot any fucker who tries anything," he ordered.

He saw the other, younger Iron Skull gulp visibly, but the man nodded, checking to make sure the safety on the assault rifle was off. He then brought it up to his shoulder, giving Cain a little nod to go ahead.

Gripping his shotgun tightly, Cain stepped out around the corner.

With Jenna in the way, he couldn't take a shot at the bulldog-looking man immediately. That was unfortunate. But there was another one of the men standing closer to him, and Cain didn't hesitate to make his presence known by blowing one of the man's knees out with his shotgun.

The blast roared through the close quarter space, making the other men jump as they stared up at this sudden newcomer in their midst. Out of the corner of his eye, Cain saw one of the other men lift his gun, but Bucky's rifle cracked behind him, and the man dropped backward with blood spurting from his chest.

Two more, plus Bulldog, Cain counted. One of those men was close to him, and he rushed forward, grabbing at a knife in his belt.

Cain switched his grip on the shotgun and slammed it forward with both hands into the man's face. He felt something crack beneath the blow, but didn't give the man a chance to recover before reversing the direction of his swing and knocking the man off his feet with a blow to the back of his head.

One more, plus the leader. Cain had pumped the shotgun to reload it after shooting the first man, and he now brought it up to his shoulder. The last thug was trying to draw a bead on Bucky with his pistol.

Cain fired, and the shotgun punched a hole in the man's chest.

Now, only the bulldog-looking man was left. Cain saw that the man, instead of backing away from Jenna and trying to get to a weapon, had instead darted closer to her. "Keep back," he hissed, and a knife blade glinted wickedly in his hands as he held it near Jenna's neck.

Bulldog's eyes flickered back and forth, darting between Cain and Bucky. He was searching for some way out, like a rat cornered in a burning building. "Keep back," he told them again, even as the knife shook and trembled in his hands.

"Okay," Cain said, lowering his gun slightly. "Don't hurt her. Just let her go."

Desperately, Cain hoped that Bucky would pick up on his body language. Bulldog had switched all of his attention over to the older biker, now, staring at him and licking his lips as he tried to plan his escape.

And then, as one last crack of a gunshot echoed through the air, Bulldog's head snapped back.

He slumped backwards, dropping limply to the ground behind Jenna's chair. Blood spread slowly from his head, where most of the rear of his skull was blown away. Only a couple drops emerged, however, from the round hole drilled into his forehead by Bucky's single shot.

For a moment, there was silence in the huge warehouse.

Chapter twenty-four

That silence didn't last longer than a heartbeat, however, as Cain finally dropped the shotgun from his big hands and rushed forward. He dropped to his knees beside Jenna's chair, his hands fumbling as they ran over her. He wanted to check her to see if there were any injuries, but suddenly his fingers wouldn't stop shaking.

And then Jenna lifted her head up and smiled at him, and he felt as though a weight had just been lifted off of his shoulders.

"I knew that you'd come," the girl murmured, her eyes hanging half-open. Was she injured? Was this some sign of blood loss, her starting to lose consciousness?

But even with his hands shaking, Cain could find no signs of injuries on the girl. Jenna had a shiny mark on one cheek that looked like it would soon bloom into a nasty bruise, but there was nothing else wrong with her. He quickly hurried to undo the straps that still bound her to the chair.

"Are you okay?" he asked anxiously, as he freed her from the last of her bindings. "I'm sorry we couldn't get here faster - I hope that he didn't hurt you-"

But before Cain could say anything else, Jenna was up from the chair and in his arms, her lips searching for his. It took only a moment for their mouths to find each other, and the rest of Cain's words were abruptly cut off in the ensuing kiss.

"Well, okay," he breathed, when they finally separated. His throat felt choked up, but all of his concern was rapidly fading away. "I guess I'm forgiven."

"There wasn't anything to forgive," Jenna murmured back to him, rubbing his face with one hand. "I knew you'd come and save me. I believed it, and that gave me strength. I knew it would happen."

Cain stood back up, his hand still holding Jenna's firmly. He was unwilling to let go of her, not after only just getting her back so soon. He looked around at the bodies of the men he'd hurt or killed, scattered around them, and was amazed to realize that all the anger inside of him, which had felt about to overflow only moments earlier, had vanished. It was as if someone had removed the a stopper and it had all simply just drained away.

A sudden thought occurred to him, and he reached into his pocket. Sure enough, he could feel that button still there, the brass button he'd found earlier. Squatting down next to the dead body of Bulldog, he held it out against the man's jacket - and sure enough, it matched perfectly.

Cain wasn't sure what he'd just proven to himself, but he dropped the button, leaving it there with the dead man.

Now that the adrenaline was no longer pumping through his veins, Cain suddenly felt tired as well, a wave of exhaustion sweeping over him. He glanced over at Bucky, and saw that the younger Iron Skull officer was showing the same expression on his face.

Bucky shook himself after a moment, looking up. "So, time for us to burn the place to the ground and get out of here?" he asked, sounding almost hopeful at the opportunity to leave.

"I don't think so - not unless we want to commit a lot more murders than these."

All three of them glanced up in surprise as Talon spoke out, striding across the space towards them.

The tall, rangy biker didn't even spare a glance down at the dead men scattered around the room. "I went down the other way, like you said," he continued, looking at Cain, "and what I found there - well, you're going to have to come see this for yourself."

He turned around without waiting for an answer, knowing that Cain and Bucky would follow him.

The other bikers did so, Cain still clutching Jenna close to him. The henchman that he'd kneecapped looked to have passed out, and the other man that he'd hit with the butt of his shotgun wasn't showing any signs of stirring. Cain figured that they'd be safe enough to leave where they lay for the moment.

Talon strode briskly down the corridor, heading down the third, as-of-yet unexplored corridor of the T intersection. This corridor also ended after a short distance, but instead of leading to an open area, it ended at a door with a clear bar and padlock across it, holding it shut.

At least, that was the security system that looked to have been in place. Talon had smashed the lock off of the door, and the bar lay propped up against one of the side walls. "In here," the tall biker instructed, pulling open the door and stepping inside without waiting for the others.

Cain, Bucky, and Jenna followed him in through the door - and then they stopped short, staring around in aghast horror.

This room was large and laid out like a dormitory, with rows of narrow cots. Half of those cots were empty, but the other half held women - sleeping girls, most of whom looked little older than teenagers.

"I think we've found the rest of this operation, the place from which Jenna escaped," Talon commented grimly, as the other two bikers stared around in horror, still trying to find the words to express their shock.

Bucky was the first to pull himself back together enough to speak. "What are we supposed to do? There are dozens of them!" he pointed out, shaking his head.

As the two newcomer bikers looked around, Talon stepped forward to the nearest occupied cot, reaching out and laying a couple fingers against her neck. The others watched him nervously, but he stood up after a minute and shot them a quick thumbs up. The girls might be asleep, and Cain could see that several of them appeared to be handcuffed by at least one limb to their cots, but they were at least alive.

Bucky still kept on staring around, an aghast expression on his face. He wandered up and down a couple of the rows between cots, shaking his head but otherwise not speaking. He did a slow circle, and then returned to the others.

"So, what do we do?" he asked, finally. "Do we call the police, let them take care of this?"

"No!" Jenna burst out suddenly, shaking her head. "You can't call the cops! They won't be able to help!"

The other three glanced at her. "Jenna, the Iron Skulls don't always get along with the police, but surely this is more suited towards-" Cain tried, but the girl cut him off, again shaking her head and making her hair toss wildly around her face.

"No! This whole place is run by James Archon - and he's too strong for the police! Even if they come, all of these girls are going to end up vanishing again, and he'll just find some way to get them back, or to make them disappear."

She shuddered, wrapping her arms around herself. "I know he can do it. And there have been some police officers here. Before. They were clients."

Cain patted her on the back, but Jenna remained resolute; he knew that he wasn't going to be able to change her mind. Besides, he reasoned, if some of the police officers were on the take here, it would be next to impossible to know who was safe to trust to handle taking care of these women.

There was one other thought, but Cain didn't want to address it. Instead, he looked at the others, hoping that perhaps one of them had come up with a better option.