Below The Line Page 8

  “Where the fuck is Hadley?” I ask dropping my gun and firing a round into his thigh.

  Lo’ren cries out in pain and instinctively closes his legs. Catching his breath, he continues. “The woman found herself with child.” The words are now strained as he fights the pain. “To protect her, I begged her to get rid of it. She said she couldn’t have me, but this was her piece of me for a lifetime. I conceded. I tipped the domino over that sent the rest of them tumbling down and costing each of us more and more.”

  “Don’t you sit here and say you loved her!”

  I aim at his head again.

  “I did whether you believe me or not doesn’t matter. I can’t tell you anymore except to say, there is a Queen behind every King and she holds more power than anyone ever could see. Hadley was always safe with me. You, Owen Maximus Gallow, you are her downfall just as saving you was both your mother’s and mine. There is nothing any of us can do for her now.”

  Deacon steps up beside me. “Fucker is married and you won’t believe who to.”

  The words play in my head as he watches me.

  “My boy, so smart. He sees now, it was never me. Hadley is with Ava and she’s going to make her pay for loving you.” Lo’ren says and it shakes me to my core.

  “I’m not your boy. And Hadley has paid more than enough in her lifetime. You’re gonna pay now motherfucker.” With those words I fire the round between his eyes and relish in his blood splatter on my shirt. I feel nothing. There is no father-son bond gone, no opportunity missed. The man was dead to me long before he took his last gasp of air. If anything, I feel released.

  “Find the wife, and we find fucking Hadley.”

  “Already on it, got an address.” Deacon says.

  “Hang on Hads, we’re gonna save you baby.” I say as Rowdy already starts to clean up the mess. “Hang on.”

  I glance to the space where my mother took her last breath. The domino effect of one person’s crime going unpunished is ever lasting. A sordid love affair cost my mother her life, and I refuse to let Hadley lose hers.

  Chapter Twelve

  ~Hadley~

  I don’t know how much time passes when I hear the door open. An impeccably dressed woman comes in wearing a pant suit in gray and blood red high heels. Her dark hair is secured in a tight ballerina style bun. The makeup on her face blends naturally making her a strikingly beautiful woman.

  “Hello Hadley,” her voice is soft. If I wasn’t certain I was going to die a slow painful death, I might actually find her soothing. The air seems to shift from her presence.

  “Who are you?”

  Marco steps in behind her handing her a bag. She reaches in not answering my question and removes a crop.

  Oh hell. Memories hit me.

  “Now, now sweet Hadley we have clientele with,” he pauses, “different tastes. You must learn to enjoy a bite of pain.” Lo’ren taps the crop between my legs at my ankles and calf area.

  “Please no,” I whine feeling my body revolting even the idea of what he’s going to do before he even starts.

  “Shhh, Hadley, I don’t want to have to gag you. Close your eyes, close your mouth and follow the instructions I give you.” He explains tapping the insides of my legs again. “You need to spread wide so that the soft end can tickle your skin.”

  Watching him, I think about the fact that my arms may still be chained, but my legs are free. Lo’ren hasn’t done more than force orgasm after orgasm on me with his tongue, his fingers, and his array of toys, but never has he fucked me himself. Today might be that day.

  Fear crawls up my body from the tip of my big toe all the way through me like a chill of air brushing over me until it reaches the individual strands of my dark hair.

  When Lo’ren moves, I take the opportunity to kick out nailing him in the groin. He folds over covering himself to which I kick again hitting his face. After a moment, he stands and the crop comes up high in the air to land swiftly, firmly, on my exposed thigh. The sting is only the beginning of the pain he plans to make me endure now.

  “Hadley, what do you know of my husband?” Her voice brings me back to my new hell.

  I lay my head flat back to alleviate the strain on my neck. “I don’t know who you are so I don’t know your husband.”

  I have been a hooker for almost half my life, there is no telling who her husband is.

  “Lo’ren Cortez.” She says his name and ice runs up my spine.

  “I didn’t know he was married.” I reply truthfully. How could he be married and fuck the many whores he did? How could he have a wife and spend almost a year keeping me chained to a bed in what he referred to as ‘training me’? Where has she been all this time?

  “Honey,” she says the word in a tone that is far from soothing. “You work for me. You all work for me. You always have. Lo’ren is the face because for some reason women have this crazy respect for men, but let’s be clear … I run the show. Always have and most certainly always will.”

  She smacks my thigh with the crop. I cry out from the sting.

  “And yes, he’s married,” she taps the crop to her lips, “to me.”

  My mind blanks. I can’t process this.

  “Who are you?”

  She laughs proudly. “Ava Zambada Cortez.”

  Her name means nothing to me, but she says it like it should.

  The crop hits my exposed skin just under the brand on my inner thigh. “He always called you lucky ten because he got you on the tenth of the new year.” She lifts the crop and brings it down on my nipple. I don’t cry out, I don’t jolt. I don’t feel.

  “Ahhhh, Marco did a good job ripping the piercing from your nipple. That was a lesson for you, dear Hadley. One you didn’t learn.” Immediately, I go back to that night.

  “Lo’ren thought nipple piercings would make things more pleasurable for you.” Marco growls hatefully against the bare skin on my collarbone while tugging on the hoop ring in my left nipple. “I think you’re a naughty girl who can’t follow the rules.” He presses his thigh between my legs spreading me open.

  “Time to learn a lesson. No matter what a client what’s you give in. The word ‘no’ is not in your vocabulary.” His face is sinister as he sits up to stare at me under him.

  Before I can wrap my mind around what he’s saying, I feel his fingers grab both the hoops adoring my breasts and he yanks. I cry out in agony as the sensations run through me. I feel like a thousand bolts of electricity are shooting behind my nipple and into my soft breast tissue all the way down each of my arms and into my fingertips.

  The warm blood runs down the softball size mounds and only my ribs where Marco leans down and licks it up.

  “Oh Hadley, punishing you is always my pleasure.”

  I gasp as I realize she has been behind every single pain I have endured since being taken from the tent Owen and I shared. Rage consumes me. All these years, she’s been behind everything. So many people have been hurt, all because she was jealous. I pull against my restraints wanting to rip this woman apart the way she did Owen’s life. She has taken pleasure in everyone else’s misery. It pains me to think about it all.

  “Marco, she’s quick to learn. Yes, Hadley, I knew about the money you were taking off the top. Then you were asked to eat the pussy of a client’s wife in front of him. You refused. Strike two, dearest. I don’t believe in waiting around for a third opportunity for you to strike out. This isn’t baseball, after all. Marco ripped the nipple rings out to make you slow down and think about what you were doing. Lo’ren and I had a deal. You skimming money off the top wasn’t part of the deal. If he wasn’t going to keep you in line, I had to.”

  “Why?” I croak out.

  “Lo’ren had a soft spot for his son. I wanted the boy and his mother killed long ago. Lo’ren wouldn’t have it. So we made a deal. I needed Lo’ren and he needed to ease his conscious about his son.”

  “Did you kill his mother?” I stammer out to only feel the sharp pain of the crop c
ome down on my lips busting them open.

  The metallic taste of my blood seeps into my mouth but I refuse to cry out. Ava laughs at me.

  “Owen wouldn’t let it go. Poor Marco even had to get his tattoo removed with laser treatments because the boy kept trying to get anyone to listen about who he saw kill her. We had it under control. Owen was a beggar on the streets. Then you stumbled along. The boy changed. Suddenly, he walked differently, talked differently. Owen Gallow had a different mission in life.”

  “So why didn’t you leave him alone?” I ask knowing I shouldn’t but I need to know.

  The crop comes down in a whip against my exposed pussy as I pull against the restraints trying to close my legs.

  “Ambition is both a good and bad thing, Hadley. Owen suddenly had ambition to make something of his pitiful existence. Unfortunately for you this upsets the balance of power with my husband and I. You see, Hadley, I swore to Lo’ren the day I learned of his love child I would make sure his son knew the misery of loneliness. I would make sure the boy grew into a man knowing he would never know easy love, acceptance, and he would be miserable as his father made me.”

  “Oh my God,” I whisper but I was too loud and the crop hits my pussy again before she flips it and shoves the handle end inside me harshly. I hold my breath as the burn and pain lights like a fire burning me from the inside out.

  “I’m a beautiful woman Hadley, just like you. I wasn’t enough just like you. I couldn’t give my husband children but he found a whore who did. There will be no children for Owen as there were none for me.”

  She twists the crop inside me and I clinch fighting the movement.

  “That’s it, fight me,” she purrs. “I love when they fight.”

  I feel like I could pass out the pain is unbearable. Marco moves to stand over me. A man who has been in my bed more than once. His fingertips are rough against the soft skin of my stomach.

  “Oh the fun we will have, Hadley,” Marco growls before he drops his head and lips to my stomach lapping my skin like a dog licking a floor.

  I hack fighting back my need to vomit.

  Ava removes the crop from my pussy lifting it to her face, she inhales my scent before flicking her tongue out to taste the end.

  “Oh this is going to be delicious and devilishly fun,” she laughs before tossing the crop on the end of the bed. Marco uses his fingers to plunge in and out from my dry pussy while I watch Ava lift up her phone. The pain is horrific like he’s shoving sandpaper in my most intimate of places and yanking it back out.

  Shame fills me.

  I’ve never cared who watched me or videotaped me having sex before, but this I don’t want anyone to see. I’m helpless as Marco flicks his tongue on my nipple to which I feel nothing.

  “Now, now, let’s make it good for Owen.”

  She turns the screen and I see the app for the video call up. Owen answers. His face is pained and there is blood on him.

  “Owen,” I call out his name as the tears streak down my face.

  I twist my body under Marco trying to get him off, but my restraints keep me in place.

  “Hadley, I’m gonna find you baby.”

  Deacon is in the background telling Owen to stay on the line and not to hang up.

  Marco moves to unbutton his pants and release his cock. He strokes himself from semi-erect to full on hard before straddling me at the waist.

  “Make it good, Marco,” Ava instructs to which Marco moves up.

  I twist my head as his cock lands on my chin. Ava moves the phone closer to me.

  “Hadley, baby, I love you.”

  I open my mouth to tell him the words I haven’t yet said when Marco forces me to face him and shoves his cock in my mouth.

  “Fucker, you’re gonna die tonight. I’m gonna cut your dick off and shove it up your ass.” Owen threatens while Marco pushes on my cheeks trying to make me suck.

  I watch out of the corner of my eye as Ava positions the phone on some sort of stand to continue the video call with Owen without her having to hold the phone.

  Marco rips his cock from my mouth and lays over me. I arch up trying to buck him off me. I refuse to be still as I flap around like a fish to keep him from entering me.

  “Have fun Marco, when you finish, we’ll finish everything,” Ava instructs as I listen to the sounds of her heels clicking on the floor as she exits.

  “Owen,” I cry out his name.

  “Keep fighting Hadley. Fight for you, fight for me, baby don’t give up. I’m almost to you.”

  I let his voice and his words give me the strength because I believe in Owen Maximus Gallow and I believe in us.

  Chapter Thirteen

  ~Owen~

  Rage.

  Hatred.

  Infuriation.

  Like a volcano building before an eruption I am ready to blow. The number popped up for the video call and I never could have imagined what I would find on the other end.

  Luckily, Deacon has used the connection to track her. We are on the bottom floor of the building when a well dressed woman stands in front of me with a gun pointed at me. I don’t know her or why she has a gun aimed on me, but it’s a good sign we are close to Hadley.

  “I’ve dreamt of this day far more times than I can count,” those are the only words she speaks before the gun goes off. In a split second the future I could have with Hadley flashes in front of me.

  Dark-haired babies with their mother’s smile. A house, a real house with at least five bedrooms, all of which we fill with love.

  Searing pain.

  The fire burns through my upper chest shooting down my arm. The impact and pain knock me to the ground and I drop my phone, but can still hear the speaker as Hadley screams.

  “Owen, no!” Hadley cries out. “Ava, you fucking -,” her words are cut off through the phone.

  The sounds of shots ring out as my brothers fire round after round at the woman Hadley calls Ava.

  It takes me a moment to catch my breath and gather my bearings. By the time I can stand up to get the phone off the floor the screen is black.

  “Gotta get to Hadley,” I say in pants as the pain grows.

  I look to the woman laying in a pool of her own blood with her eyes wide open and spit on her as I walk over her to the stair case to find my way to Hadley. Rowdy is in front of me gun already drawn as we scour the house for her.

  Collector, Trapper, and Judge rush in behind us. I want to ask how the hell they made it here so fast, but there isn’t time right now.

  “Damn, I took the bullet first, the least you could do is wait for us to catch up and join the party.” Trapper says with his arm in a sling making me wonder how much fun he really thinks he can have like that.

  We keep moving checking room after room.

  Trapper can be heard behind us singing some song about a wicked witch being dead. He catches up to us as we get ready to open the last bedroom door.

  “We’re not in fucking Kansas anymore,” he jokes with a line from a childhood wizard movie with witches and little orange people. My mom used to watch it with me even though I thought it was quite creepy. Only Trapper can joke at a time like this.

  Rowdy opens the door and I see Hadley laying under Marco as he pushes in and out of her. She’s not moving and her head is turned away from the door.

  “Hadley,” the man groans in ecstasy. “Gotta hurry up, Ava didn’t call anyone else in. She can hold your guys off but only so long. I’ll need to go help her clean up at least.” His thrusts become erratic.

  He is so confident in his boss, he never turns his head to even look to see who entered the room.

  Ego.

  Cockiness.

  Arrogance.

  It’s many men’s downfall, including his.

  My heart falls to the floor as I think she’s dead. It’s like waking up in the tent with her bloody blanket all over again. I can’t do it. I can’t go through that again. I won’t come out okay.

  The pain fr
om being shot doesn’t come close to the pain I feel deep in my soul at the thought of being too late to save her.

  Lifting my handgun, the motion is pure agony. Adrenaline is all that is fueling me right now. I take aim as the hatred pushes me more. I fire sending Marco’s blood and brain matter splattering all over Hadley who still doesn’t move even with the man’s weight now suffocating her.

  Deacon rushes over tossing Marco off her. With his training, he immediately checks her pulse to which she turns her head.

  “Deacon, I watched Owen die,” she sobs.

  Rushing over to her, I look at her eyes and see how broken and scared she is. “Baby, I’m here. I’m okay. I was shot. Takes more than a bitch and a bullet to keep me down, Hadley.” I try to ease her worries.

  “Owen, I love you,” she sobs even louder as Deacon looks around for something to break the chains and cover her. Judge is the first to take off his cut and t-shirt laying it over her while Collector quickly makes phones calls to get emergency services here.

  I climb in bed beside her as my shoulder throbs and my arm tingles losing feeling with every passing moment as blood covers my shirt and trails all the way down my pants.

  “Owen, I love you,” she repeats.

  “Hadley, I know and I love you, too.” I say with gritted teeth as the pain radiates through my body. The adrenaline is quickly wearing off knowing Ava, Marco, and Lo’ren are dead and Hadley is beside me safe.

  The paramedics arrive and at first threaten to separate Hadley and myself. Collector talks to them and after a few moments, they allow us to ride together with the understanding that at the hospital we will be apart.

  Sonnie is meeting us there to stay by Hadley’s side since they are insisting on doing tests and said she may require vaginal stitching. It’s all too much to take in and only makes me wish I could put another bullet in Marco, Lo’ren, and Ava.

  I lay on the stretcher holding Hadley closely to me. She’s alive, I’m alive, and somehow we’re going to get through this.