Verek (Savage Kings MC - South Carolina Book Series 3) Read online

  “Stop! What the hell are you doing? Put me down!” I scream as I kick my feet and try to free my arms that are pinned to my sides by the ones holding me. Whoever has me dives headfirst into the back of the van without letting me go. The side of my face lands on the hard floor with all of his weight on top of me.

  “We’re in! Go!” someone in the back says as the sliding door slams shut, and the driver takes off.

  “Isn’t she a pretty thing,” the man I recognize as the passenger says when he crawls over on his knees and grabs my chin and turns it toward him. “Fuck, I really do love redheads.”

  “I-I don’t understand,” I whisper to him.

  “I’m going first,” the man on top of me says as he starts unzipping the back of my dress, making my eyes fill with tears. I let out a shriek when he tears it the rest of the way so that it loudly rips in two and the cool air hits my back.

  “You know exactly what we’re going to do to you,” another man says with a toothy grin when he approaches, taking my phone out of my purse. “Don’t forget to wrap it up, man,” he says to his friend. “We don’t know where this bitch has been, and we can’t leave any DNA in case someone finds her body before Donnie takes care of it.”

  My body? As in my dead body?

  These men, they’re going to kill me! But not yet.

  I shake my head no, trying to figure out what to do, how to get out of here, as my panties are jerked down my thighs.

  It’s too late.

  That’s the only thought repeating in my head over and over again. It’s too late for me.

  I’ve been kidnapped by at least four men who are planning to rape me before they kill me. The van is racing down the road in the middle of the night. One of them took my phone I couldn’t use anyway with so many hands holding me down. No one will hear me screaming. All that’s left is to try and fight, to get to the sliding door and jump out. So that’s what I try to do.

  I get to my knees and lunge back toward the door but only end up getting my head slammed into the side of the van before everything goes dark.

  Chapter One

  Two months later…

  * * *

  Verek

  * * *

  Sunday morning I’m the first one to sit my ass down at the Savage Kings table, waiting for everyone else to slowly file in, my knee unable to keep still as I wait. That’s why as soon as I see Winston, I grill him since Roman banned me from the boathouse where we’re keeping our captive – one of the four men who raped Tessa two months ago.

  “Have you heard anything? Has the fucker really squealed already?” I ask in a rush.

  “You’ll find out the details as soon as I do,” Winston responds. “Roman did say that Hugo and Marcus were able to get names out of Joey,” our VP adds as he takes a seat and rubs his fingers over his growing black beard. I’m pretty sure he’s even smiling underneath the facial hair, a rare occurrence that I seriously doubt has anything to do with torture.

  “Names? All three of the other men?” I demand for clarification.

  “Yeah, the other men,” Winston replies. “But that doesn’t mean they’re legit. The asshole could’ve made the shit up just to try and get us off his back, so we’ll finally kill him.”

  Winston may have his doubts, but I know in my gut that this is it. It’s taken us a little over two months, but we’re finally going to make the bastards who hurt Tessa and those other three women pay.

  “How’s your leg?” I ask when I remember that he took a shot Friday night.

  “I’m fine,” he answers with an actual smirk rather than scowl. “Better than fine, actually. Zoe’s moving in with me.”

  “Good for you,” I tell him, even though I’m jealous. Not of his stepsister, Zoe, but of being able to go to bed and wake up with the woman he loves each and every day while the woman I care for was hurt so badly that she can’t stand to be touched. At least not by me, a man. It takes every ounce of willpower in me not to wrap her in my arms whenever I see her, wishing I could make everything better.

  Finally, the rest of the men hurry in with Roman on their heels, taking his seat at the head of the table.

  “Thanks for coming in so early. I figured you would all be happy to hear that we were able to get what we needed out of Joey,” Roman starts. “After…applying a little more pressure yesterday, he didn’t change his tune, insisting that the three names and addresses he gave us will lead us to the last of the bastards who were kidnapping and hurting women.”

  “So when are we going after them?” I ask.

  “Soon,” Roman answers. “But you know how this works. First, we need to confirm their identities. I’ve asked Reece at our mother chapter to do some digging and email his findings to me. I want to see where these fuckers live, who they know, and the best way to isolate them.”

  “How fucking long is that going to take?” I snap at him.

  “As long as it fucking takes,” Roman replies with his eyebrow arched in warning.

  “What if they’re out there kidnapping other women while we’re sitting here screwing off?” I demand.

  “You’re right,” Roman says as he leans back in his chair and narrows his eyes at me. “We should all just hop on our bikes right now, swing by the addresses, and blow the heads off everyone who lives there in broad daylight to end these assholes without any concern for our own lives.”

  “You know what I mean,” I grit out.

  “I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to spend the rest of my life in prison. I doubt you and the other eight men at this table want that either.”

  “I’m not saying we have to be careless, just quick,” I mutter.

  “You’ve always been too goddamn impulsive, Verek. And one of these days, that character flaw is going to bite you in the ass. You know I want these men dead as soon as you do, but there’s a certain way to go about it! We have to be smart, methodical. Consider every option to take them out and everything that could go wrong before we act.”

  I get it. I know we can’t go off half-cocked, but fuck, I want to end these assholes for Tessa.

  “If they had done this to Charlotte, do you think you would still want to wait?” I ask him.

  “You better watch your fucking mouth,” Roman warns, pointing his finger at me. “You’re on thin ice for showing up at the safe house and seeing Tessa after I forbade it!”

  “I’m sorry. I forgot you think you’re her father,” I retort as the rest of the table falls so silent you can’t even hear anyone breathing.

  “While she’s living with me and Charlotte, it’s my responsibility to keep her safe and happy. Not yours. I’ve told you a thousand times, Tessa doesn’t need you fucking with her head! Now, this is my goddamn table and it’s my decision how we go after these men, unless you want to challenge me for the gavel?” he asks, picking the wooden mallet up by the handle.

  I grit my teeth together but don’t answer. I don’t want to be the fucking president, not that I think I would have enough votes even if I wanted to try and overthrow Roman. All I want is to finish this shit for Tessa so she can move on with her life.

  I can’t even argue that he’s wrong about letting me see her.

  It’s my fault she left the club the night she was abducted. That’s why I have to be the one to make it right, to try and make amends by killing the men who hurt her.

  Tessa

  * * *

  “So, how was your weekend?” Dr. Burgess, my psychiatrist, asks as soon as I get seated on the light blue sofa in her office.

  “Fine,” I answer truthfully. Living with Charlotte and Roman isn’t ideal, but it’s better than being alone back in Raleigh. Or with Paul. And I definitely can’t tell her that Friday night, Roman and the Savage Kings were able to find one of my attackers and that he’s currently being held hostage and tortured for the other names.

  “Are you still having nightmares?” she asks as her pen moves across the notepad in her lap.

  God, I hate that que
stion. What I have are not nightmares. They’re real. Every night when I close my eyes and drift off to sleep, I’m right back in that damn van. I feel the same terrifying helplessness, knowing the horrors that await me but being completely unable to prevent what is coming. I thought I was going to die when I woke up in the storage facility with tape over my mouth. A man I didn’t know and hadn’t seen in the van was on top of me, inside me, biting my breast hard enough to make me bleed while the others held me down. When he finished, they locked my head and wrists in the stocks and…well, that’s when I wanted to die because what they did to me hurt so much. I never knew pain like that existed. I don’t know how a human body can survive such agonies.

  It’s not a nightmare. It’s the events I survived just eight or so weeks ago, replaying on a constant loop in my head. The only peace I get is at the end, when I’ve been left alone for hours that feel like days in the cold, dark unit, before I hear Verek’s voice and see his face when he carries me out of that hellhole. Only then can I finally sleep soundly for a few short hours before it all starts over.

  I retrieve a pack of gum from my purse, peppermint flavor, and unwrap a stick to put in my mouth. Ever since that night, the scent has been soothing, comforting whenever I’m upset. Once I’ve started chewing it, I finally answer the psychiatrist. “Yes. I still have trouble sleeping because of…nightmares,” I say, using her preferred word.

  “Are you taking the sleep aid I prescribed?” Dr. Burgess asks.

  “No,” I tell her honestly, biting down hard on my gum. “Those made it harder to wake up, so I stopped taking them.”

  She scribbles down more notes.

  “What else is new besides your living arrangements?” she asks. “Have you spoken to Paul?”

  “No. I told you I don’t want to talk to him.”

  “Because you don’t think he’ll respect your boundaries? That he’ll try to touch you without your permission.”

  “Yes, that’s part of it,” I agree as I stare down at my fingers twisting in my lap. “I don’t want to lead him on. We’re not getting back together, so I don’t think I should speak to him at all.”

  “It’s still nice to have friends.”

  “I have friends. I have Charlotte and Roman. My former coworkers, Bev, Sydney, and Ruth. Oh, and, um, Verek,” I reply, even though I haven’t seen Verek in a week, since I left the treatment facility. He used to visit every day, and now he only sends a couple of texts a day, asking how I am.

  “Let’s talk about Verek for a moment,” she says.

  “What about him?”

  “The two of you are just friends, but he was visiting you every day while you were an inpatient, bringing you flowers and telling you funny stories to cheer you up?”

  “Yes, that’s right,” I reply, sad that the peppermint gum in my mouth has already started losing its flavor. Isn’t that the perfect metaphor for Verek? All I’ll ever have of him is his friendship in small bursts before he leaves again, going off to sleep with tons of women who aren’t damaged. “We’re friends. There will never be anything…romantic with him. How could there be when he was the one who found me?”

  “You’ve discussed this topic with him?” Dr. Burgess asks.

  “Not directly, no, but it seems pretty obvious that it couldn’t work. We don’t need to discuss it.” Verek is a playboy who works in a club filled with beautiful women every night. I’ve known that since we met, when he put the moves on me. In fact, I’m certain he went home with a different girl after I left. I wouldn’t doubt that he took a girl home on the nights after he visited me. How could a man like him with a dirty mouth and a sexy body made for fucking ever want to be with the woman who was raped and can’t stand the thought of being touched by a man again? It’s impossible even if he is still attracted to me, which I’m certain he’s not. Verek just has a hero complex, like Roman.

  “Very well,” Dr. Burgess says, writing all of that down. “Is there anything else you would like to talk about today?”

  “I do have one question,” I start. “Do you think, well, with other victims, does their life ever go back to normal, like maybe after the assailants are caught?”

  “As I mentioned last week, you should probably not focus on words like ‘normal’ as a measure of improvement. You’re a different person now, Tessa, and that’s okay. It’s best to focus on constructing your new normal, one that you can live with and that makes you happy.”

  “Fine. Would you say that victims are happier after their rapists are off the streets?”

  “Sometimes, yes,” Dr. Burgess responds. “But unfortunately, there’s usually a day when the criminal justice system releases them back into the world, either on bail or after they’ve served their sentence. Prepare yourself for those days, when things are out of your control, and the fear grows out of nowhere.”

  Dammit! That’s not what I wanted to hear! I wanted her to say yes, that once the monsters are behind bars, then I could finally stop worrying about them finding me, of them coming after me, killing me because I saw their faces.

  Now I know what needs to be done – all four men have to die. And I need to be there to ensure they’re really dead and can never hurt me or any other woman again.

  Chapter Two

  Verek

  * * *

  Roman’s right.

  I may be impulsive, but I’ve always been a stubborn son of a bitch too.

  Which is why I skulk around the clubhouse all day Monday, sipping on a beer, watching, waiting, until our president makes the same mistake again – leaving his cell phone unattended.

  Charlotte came to visit for some alone time with Roman in his office while Tessa was at her appointment with the shrink.

  It’s not my fault if Roman didn’t take his cell phone with him or change his password after I broke into it Friday to find out the location of the safe house.

  And really, the man is asking for the theft by using the password Twix, or eight-nine-four-nine using those letters. He’s always had a sweet tooth, and I’ve seen the unlocked desk drawer in his office that’s full of Twix and packs of Oreos.

  As I slip past the bar, I quickly lift the phone and drop it into my pocket on the way out the door as I tell the other guys hanging out bye.

  Then, it’s just a matter of waiting for Reece, the mother charter’s IT genius, to come through with his intel.

  I head back to my town house and start packing a light backpack while I wait, tossing in a pair of binoculars and several weapons, unable to stop myself from checking Roman’s phone every few minutes until it finally comes in.

  The email from Reece is full of details – the addresses on maps for all three men, who they’re all related to, where they work, the descriptions and license plates of their vehicles. It’s all here in one very in-depth report from the former military man.

  I want to call Tessa, but since it’s been a few hours, she’s probably out of her appointment and back at Roman and Charlotte’s. Calling her is too risky.

  Instead, I send her a text message.

  Call me when you’re alone.

  I don’t have to wait long – maybe five minutes or so before my phone buzzes in my hand and her name flashes on the screen.

  “Hey, sweetheart,” I answer.

  “Hi, Verek,” Tessa replies, sounding a little out of breath. “Is everything okay? I haven’t heard from you in over a week.”

  “I text you at least three times a day,” I remind her.

  “Yeah, but you haven’t called or come by…” She trails off, making me smile because she’s basically saying she missed me.

  “I would have, but Roman thought it would be best if I not bother you.”

  “I’m not a child,” she huffs. “Roman doesn’t need to make those decisions for me.”

  “I know,” I reply, swallowing around the lump in my throat. “But, um, maybe he’s right about me not being good for you.”

  “That’s not true,” Tessa argues, and I wished she was
right. “I’ve missed seeing you.”

  “I’ve missed you too,” I tell her honestly. Even if seeing her struggle with the aftermath of those men hurting her is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do, I still love to see her face, to spend time with her. Which brings me to the point of my call.

  “So, if you’re not worried about Roman grounding you, how would you feel about going on a road trip with me?”

  “A road trip?” she repeats.

  “A few days, a few hundred miles away. We could stay at a hotel. You could have your own room,” I promise. “And, um, by the end of it, we could be reading the obituaries for three men who deserve to die…”

  I hear her gasp of acknowledgment and then silence before she speaks again. “You have their names? Roman said he was still trying to get them out of Joey.”

  “He lied. I have them. And the addresses,” I assure her. “But you don’t have to come. I can do it alone.”

  “Alone?” she repeats. “Not with the other Savage Kings?”

  “No. I want to be the one who ends them,” I tell her. “Roman wants to be cautious, to wait and come up with a foolproof plan for the group to avoid getting caught. I think he’s right. There’s no reason to drag everyone into this when I can handle it myself.”

  “Are you sure?” Tessa asks.

  “I am,” I reply. “So that just leaves one question – are you coming with me or not?”

  She told me Friday that she wanted to be there, to see Joey die because it was the only way to possibly end her nightmares. I’m no psychiatrist; I don’t know if seeing the men again will do more harm than good. What I do know is that if it were me…I would want to watch them die.