16. Zach

Chapter sixteen

Zach

“ W ell, that was disappointing,” I complained as Drew and I entered the house. The first place we stopped at had kids living over the convenience store we were there to burn, so we couldn’t do anything there. Then, we showed up at the next place, and they immediately surrendered and pledged themselves to the Romano Syndicate. It kept happening everywhere we stopped. It was like word had gotten out that we were making the rounds.

“You do realize we don’t want to burn the city to the ground, right?” Drew laughed.

“Yeah, but a little burning would have been fun,” I argued. “Only a little.” I followed Drew to Tyler’s office. When we entered, Colton was already there talking to him.

“Where’s Layla?” I asked.

“The last I saw her, she was doing laps in the pool,” Tyler replied.

“Bye!” I said excitedly as I left the office. Maybe getting back earlier than planned would have its reward. I jogged downstairs, contemplating how I planned to jump into the pool. When I rounded the corner, I saw Layla’s guard on the floor, surrounded by blood at the end of the hall.

“Layla!” I screamed as I rushed to his side. I only spent a few seconds confirming he was dead before I started ripping through the rooms, calling for her. “Layla!” I pulled my phone out and called Tyler. “Get the fuck down here and bring your laptop. Layla’s guard is dead, and I don’t see her anywhere.”

The house alarms started to blare as the house went into lockdown mode. I heard my brothers’ thundering steps on the stairs as they ran downstairs. They cleared the rooms as they passed them.

“She isn’t down here,” I told them. I kicked the observation room door open. “Pull up the cameras,” I said as Tyler rushed behind me. “What do you think I’m doing?” he growled.

Tyler set the laptop on the table, and we hovered around him as he pulled up the camera feeds. “Shit!”

“What?” Colt asked.

“Layla thought she saw someone watching us in the pool, but I didn’t see anyone. It turns out she was right. Look familiar?”

“That’s fucking Jason,” I said through gritted teeth.

“Yup,” Tyler said.

“Keep playing the video,” Colton ordered.

We watched as Jason peeked through the door while jacking off. Suddenly, he stopped and scurried into the gym across the hall. A few minutes later, Tyler left the pool and went back upstairs. Jason goes back to the door to continue watching Layla while pleasuring himself. He then looked over his shoulder and went back into the gym.

“What was he looking at?” Drew asked.

Tyler pressed a few keys and pulled up the feed around the corner by the stairs. We saw Karl, the dead guard, creeping down the hall. Movement on the other feed showed a towel-wrapped Layla leaving the pool and heading straight for Karl.

We watched as Karl rushed her and pushed her toward the interrogation room. When Layla scratched him and he started choking her, I wanted to throw up. Then Jason appeared on the camera, and as much as I wanted to kill the bastard, I was also rooting for him to save our girl. It was an odd sort of feeling. We watched him kill Karl and help Layla stand.

“What is she doing?” I asked when she went into the interrogation room and returned armed.

“I don’t have a clue,” Colton replied. We watched, puzzled, as she stormed down the hall, looking pissed as fuck and ready to go to war.

“Whoa!” I yelled when Jason suddenly grabbed Layla from behind and manhandled her into the panic room. I ran to the door and put my hand on the keypad. Nothing happened. “Layla!” I yelled, banging on the door.

“Is she still in there?” Drew asked.

Tyler held his laptop in one hand and hit a button. The camera feed sped up, and nothing showed on the camera until I came downstairs.

“Tell me you have cams in the panic room,” Colton said.

“One second,” Tyler said, trying to type one-handed. I grabbed the laptop from him and held it. “Thanks,” he said as he started clicking away. I watched upside down as he pulled the camera feed, and all we could see was blood on the lens of the camera.

“Get this fucking door open now, Tyler,” Colt ordered.

“I’m trying!” Tyler replied.

Colton paced beside us as Drew watched Tyler work over his shoulder. “Tyler, you have about a minute before I’m blowing the tunnel and going in,” Drew said quietly.

“Just— everyone shut the fuck up and let me work!” Tyler yelled. We fell silent, the sound of Tyler typing echoing off the walls. “Got it!” he finally announced. I set the laptop on the floor as the thick door behind me opened. We rushed into the room to find Layla standing in the middle of it, covered in blood. Beside her was what I assume used to be Jason.

“Are you ok?” I asked as we rushed to her side.

“I want pizza for dinner,” Layla replied.

We all exchanged worried looks. Did Layla finally lose the last of her marbles? Without me?

“Hellcat, are you hurt?” Colt asked gently while Drew inspected her.

Layla slapped Drew’s wandering hands in annoyance. “I’m fine,” she snapped. “Most of the blood isn’t mine.”

“What happened?” Tyler asked.

I wasn’t sure why he was asking. We saw the video feed. We knew what happened.

Layla gestured toward the hall. “Anton sent that one to kill me in my interrogation room. This one,” she said, kicking the meat pile with her barefoot, “wanted to rape me.” She turned and looked at Colt with pleading eyes. “Please, can I be responsible for my security until Keith comes back?”

He pulled Layla into his arms and kissed her forehead. “Yeah, Hellcat. For now, I won’t assign anyone to you, but you have to promise me that you won’t leave the house without one of us.”

“I promise,” Layla replied quickly. “Thank you!” She looked down at herself and sighed. “I’m going to go take a shower. I was serious about that pizza!”

I watched her leave and then looked around the room. Blood was splattered everywhere, and Jason’s face was unrecognizable. “I’d love to see the video of what happened here,” I said.

“How the hell did Karl even end up on our crew?” Drew asked.

Colton ran his hand through his short, dark hair. “Honestly, I don’t even know. Sean recruited him and Jason, but I don’t see him intentionally hiring men who would want to hurt Layla. I will go through the files of the rest of the men in the house with a fine-toothed comb.”

“I’ll go check on Layla. Make sure she didn’t hurt herself,” Drew said, following Colt out.

“I guess I’ll call the cleaners and have them take care of all of this,” Tyler said. “I’ll get a repair man out to fix the keypad as well.”

“I’m gonna go get that pizza,” I said.

“Good idea. Get one with onions,” Tyler replied.

“I know,” I laughed. “It’s been how long now? I know your pizza order.”

“I was just making sure,” Tyler replied.

I left the house, but I made a detour instead of going straight to the pizza shop. I was fuming over the danger Layla had been in tonight, and I knew just who to take that anger out on. When I got to the apartment, I threw the door open and stomped in. When he saw me, Sean immediately jumped to his feet and put some distance between us.

“Whoa, Zach. Hold on. What’s your problem?” he said, raising his hands in surrender.

I launched myself at him over the coffee table and tackled him to the ground. I got on top of him and began repeatedly punching his face. Sean tried to block my blows but only succeeded about half the time. It took me a while to realize that he wasn’t fighting back or defending himself. That realization made me pause.

“Why aren’t you fighting me?” I demanded.

“I don’t want to fight you, Zach. I have no reason to fight you,” Sean replied.

“No, but I sure as fuck have reason to kick your ass,” I growled, my anger building again at his submissive demeanor. This wasn’t what I came here for.

“Did you fucking hire Anton’s man so he would try to kill Layla?” I started punching him again, my blows punctuating every word. “Did you hire her ex knowing he would try to fucking rape her?”

Sean suddenly roared and bucked me off of him. He moved so quickly that I was pinned to the ground before I could react. I’d love to see him go up against Tyler. He might win.

“What happened to Layla?!”

The desperation, agony, and fear in his eyes soothed the beast within me. I almost didn’t tell him she was ok. I nearly left him to suffer. He deserved it. But I couldn’t do that to him, no matter how much I wanted to. I couldn’t imagine how I would feel not knowing if Layla was ok or not. It would drive me insane, just as it drove him insane now. He really did love her.

“She’s ok,” I told him, jerking against his hold so that he would get off me. He let me sit up, and I continued. “One of the men you recruited, Karl, was Anton’s man. Colt assigned him to be Layla’s personal bodyguard, and he tried to kill her. Jason, her ex, killed him before he could, but then forced Layla into the panic room with plans to rape her.”

“Tell me he didn’t,” Sean growled, jumping to his feet to pace angrily.

I stood as well and placed my hands on his shoulders. “Our girl?” I asked with a light chuckle. “You and I both know she would never let that happen. She turned him into a lump of meat.”

The corner of Sean’s mouth turned up. “You have a point,” he agreed. “Remember when we went to Alaska and had to drug her because she was kicking our asses?”

“Exactly,” I said, clapping him on the shoulders. “Listen, I’m sorry for coming here and accusing you of setting Layla up. And I’m sort of sorry for using you as a punching bag.”

“Terrible apology accepted,” Sean replied, holding his hand out to me. I hesitated a moment before shaking it. “I know it’s difficult to trust me right now, but I promise you, after the kidnapping, I swore on my life and Layla’s that I would never do anything to put Layla in danger ever again. Hurting her is the very last thing I ever want to happen.”

“You know,” I replied, “I think I believe you.”

Sean looked relieved as I turned and left. I needed to hurry and get the pizza for Layla. God knows you don’t keep a hungry girl waiting. Especially not one who can easily turn a man into chopped meat with a butcher knife.