Chapter 16

Amy

W e pull up at the mill and at first, I’m disappointed because there are no vehicles or indication that anyone has been there in ages. I jump out of the car and take my axe because unlike the farmhouse, this mill is in a state of disrepair. The door’s been boarded up, but my trusty axe will make short work of the decaying, dried-out wood.

I watch Meli squat down and look at the ground. She motions me over to look at what she’s found. It’s tire tracks and footsteps that lead away from the mill and off to the side.

“What do you think it means,” I ask.

She brings one finger to her lips, shushing me. My mouth snaps shut immediately. I feel stupid for not thinking that my grandfather could have left one or more of his men here to guard my mother.

Meli pulls out her gun and holds it with both hands pointed towards the ground as she starts following the footprints. I remember her saying that her deceased husband taught her to track and shoot. Those skills were coming in handy now because she looks as practiced as any cop in the police dramas on TV. I stay close and alert for danger. Meli is wearing black pants, a black turtleneck and has her light brown hair pulled into a severe knot at the back of her neck. Her black knee-high riding boots with a flat heel, polishes off her outfit and provides good traction on the uneven ground. If I’m being honest, the black monochromatic color of her clothing makes her look a bit like a cat burglar. I don’t say that of course because she already shushed me once.

I keep looking around, trying to see if there’s an old cabin or barn that we’re missing. These footprints are leading somewhere after all. I see movement in the bushes nearby and stop in my tracks to see what it is. A squirrel goes scurrying past with nary a pause.

When I turn around, Meli has surged ahead and is squatting down again. I hurry forward, worrying that she lost their trail. When I come up behind her, I realize she didn’t lose anything. She found something. It looks like a root cellar or some such structure. She scrambles down the embankment, presses her back to the wall beside the door and gestures for me to call out to my mom.

Meli has smartly positioned herself to shoot whoever comes out the door, assuming it’s not my mother, so I follow her directions. “Mom, it’s Amy. If you’re here, shout to me so we can find you.”

My mom yells, “Run, Amy. It’s not safe. Get the hell out of—”

She’s cut off abruptly, as though someone shut her up. That infuriates me. Tossing the axe aside, I pull out my gun. I’m not above shooting someone to save my mom. Good thing I was quick about it because the door swings open and a man I don’t recognize emerges. He’s carrying a shotgun. The second his eyes land on me, he raises his weapon.

He doesn’t get it all the way up because Meli presses her pistol to the back of his neck.

“Drop your weapon. Do it now,” She demands. Her adorable French accident makes her words seem much less threatening than they would otherwise be.

I reinforce her words by lifting my own weapon and pointing it at his chest. “Do as she says,” I say tightly. “If she doesn’t riddle you with bullets, I sure as hell will.”

Being boxed in with weapons bearing down on him from both sides, he doesn’t really have a choice. He gently tosses his gun off to the side. It lands on the ground with a satisfying thud.

“Get on the ground, face down,” I tell him. “Put your hands behind your head.” I don’t like him being on his feet near Ven’s mother. He’s twice her size and I can see him trying to jump her if he turns around and realizes how small she is.

He kneels and then moves onto his belly. When his arms come up behind his head, I realize that we don’t have anything to tie him up with. I can tell by the look on Meli’s face that she’s realized the miscalculation we’ve made right along with me. The only thing that I can think of to solve our dilemma is to use the thin belt I’m wearing. It’s more ornamental than practical but it’ll have to do. I stash my weapon, remove the belt, and kneel beside him, bringing both hands down to the small of his back and bind him as tightly as I can, wrapping the long belt around his wrists multiple times in order to make it more difficult for him to escape.

“Anyone else in the root cellar?” I ask.

“Just Rufus’s daughter,” he responds. This man doesn’t seem particularly scared or upset by us getting the jump on him and that worries me.

I scoot around him and step down into the cellar. It’s dark but I see something move in the shadows. It takes only a moment for my eyes to adjust, and I realize that it’s my mom lying on the ground. Her wrists and ankles are bound, but she’s trying to sit up.

“Amy, is that really you?”

I rush to her side. “Yeah, mom. I’ve been looking all over for you.”

“Sweetheart, you shouldn’t be here. It’s not safe for you.”

“I’m not alone but we need to get you out of here before Granddad returns.” I concentrate on untying the knots in her ropes.

She stammers, “Your grandfather has finally lost his mind. He calls me by my mother’s name and…” She trails off as I pull the last of the ropes off her.

Glancing up at her hurt expression, I finish her sentence, “Yeah mom, I know. His sons kidnapped you. We know all about it.”

“Who’s we?” she asks, her eyes big and scared.

I pull her up by one arm. “I’ll tell you about it later. Right now we need to get back to town.”

She nods, allowing me to lead her out of the cellar and into the daylight. She blinks at the bright sunlight, making me wonder how long she’s been underground. She’s also not too steady on her feet.

I ask, “How long has been since you had your medication?”

Glancing up at me, she replies, “Early this morning, Dan’s always good but he had to go out and I haven’t seen him since.”

Before we can make it five feet, Meli comes careening into us. My hands come out to catch her, not understanding why she’s colliding with us. Then I see two men over her shoulder. The man we tied up is now free and he has a buddy who looks almost like his evil twin standing at his side. To be honest, they both look a bit evil with their dark hair and matching smirks. They’ve also both got their weapons pointed at us.

“You ladies didn’t actually think you could just walk in and take the place over, did you?”

I step forward, pressing my mom behind me. “We just came for my mom. Let us walk out of here and no one needs to get hurt.”

One of the men scoops my axe up off the ground and gives it a brief once over. The other points Meli’s big pistol at me and says, “Hand over the gun and any other weapons you have.”

It takes every ounce of self-control I have not to get into a screaming match with this guy. I slowly remove my gun from the holster and toss it in his direction. He picks it up and laughs. “Look Boyd, it’s small, like a toy.”

The other man reaches out and maneuvers the barrel away from his face. “It can still do damage, Brock. So how’s about you don’t point the damn thing at me.”

Brock murmurs an apology, and they turn their attention back to us. “Come on ladies, we ain’t got all day. Rufus is meeting us at the ranch. He wants to have a word with you.”

Boyd is all smiles. “He’ll be thrilled to hear that we captured a French woman. How exotic,” he teased Meli.

“There are millions of us, connard ,” Meli responds bitterly.

They just laugh at her aggravation and walk us back towards the old mill. They put me behind the wheel of their pickup truck and Meli behind the wheel of hers. My mom clings to me, so they put her in back of the vehicle I’m driving. I can’t say I appreciate having a gun trained on me while I drive but I manage to get through it without breaking down and that’s all that matters.

As we get near the farm, I can hear a helicopter in the distance. My secret wish is for it to be a news chopper that accidentally captures footage of our abduction at the hands of these ruthless assholes, but the way this day is going, I don’t think I’ll be that lucky.

I’m ten kinds of angry that I finally found my mom and got caught trying to get her free of this mess. And I somehow managed to get Ven’s mother wrangled up in my family’s drama. As far as my grandfather goes, I’m not looking forward to seeing him. God only knows what he’s got in store for me, the person who threw a huge wrench into his life.

He waiting for us on the porch when we pull up. He’s almost indulgent with my mother when he sees her. More so than I’ve ever seen him, though his reaction to me is less indulgent.

“What the hell you doin’ back here? You ungrateful shit of a daughter, should have let my dogs catch you,” he spits out.

I glance at my mom for a second, before I realize he’s addressing me. God, this really is fucked up. Edmund helps her into the house, and I remind him, “She needs her noon meds.”

He looks over his shoulder, “I know. Why do you think we brought her back right away?”

I just stare at him because I don’t trust a single word coming out of his mouth. I wonder what happened at the clubhouse, I know they were going to do a trade, Edmund for my mom. The fact that Edmund is here, and my mom clearly wasn’t taken to the clubhouse, makes me uneasy. I had a bad feeling about all this when I left this morning, I hope nothing’s happened to Ven.

I glance at Meli, wondering if she’s thinking the same.

When the front door closes behind us, my grandfather glares at me. “You,” he practically spits out at me. “Why can you never leave well enough alone, girl.”

Rubbing one hand over my face I sigh. “I’m not a girl. I’m a woman. And I need you to know that I’m never going to give up trying to free my mother. You can’t keep her cooking and cleaning like your personal slave.”

“Brenda is back where she belongs, with her family.”

“You stupid old man, she’s not your wife! She’s your daughter and you’ve been holding her prisoner here.”

For a moment he looks confused, then the belligerent expression reappears, “I’m not having you turn your mother against me, it was your fault she left me all those years ago. She’s home where she belongs and I’m gonna beat some sense into you, now.”

“Neither of us are going to live out some tradwife fantasy on your ranch, old man. Ven and his club brothers are going to come looking for us.”

“Yes, Edmund told me all about you and that dirty biker.”

“My son is not dirty,” Meli states firmly.

My grandfather stares at her, unsure what to make of her. “I think you need to go back to where you came from, missy. And take that son of yours with you. My daughter doesn’t need to get herself mixed up with biker trash.”

By this time Meli has had enough of my grandfather. She makes a rude gesture with one hand. “You are a senile old man with no wits about you. My Serp is going to take you apart piece by piece for daring to think you can steal women away and turn them into your servants.”

Rufus makes a disgusted noise and gestures to Big Joe. “Get them inside and keep them quiet while I decide what to do with them.”

The hopelessly stupid man I now know is my uncle, shoves us inside the house and up the stairs. I drag my feet, reluctant to end up locked down like my mom has been for the last eight months.

Big Joe grumbles, “Get your ass moving or so help me God, I will break your legs and carry you.”

I roll my eyes and move a little faster.

“Whatever you say, Joe. Just stop pushing and shoving. Our legs aren’t as long as yours so naturally we can’t walk as fast as you can.”

“Well, you better do something, because I’m gettin’ real aggravated with you today.”

I didn’t clap back because I didn’t want to keep escalating the argument. He eventually routes us to a bedroom in the back of the house with metal bars on the windows. He shoves us roughly inside and slams the door shut. I can hear the deadbolt locking, so I know we’re here to stay, at least for the short term.

Meli rushes over to look out the window. “There is a helicopter circling overhead. What do you think that means?”

I shrug, “Probably nothing. Just some bigwig getting to a meeting quicker than usual.”

“It does not matter. My Serp will get us out of here. Merde ! Why did I leave my phone in the glove compartment?” She starts pacing back and forth in front of the window.

I drop down onto the bed and sigh. My cell phone was in the same place, when I’d armed myself to go and check out the mill I’d left it there. My eyes go back to Ven’s mom, this woman is still energetic and sounds so confident. I wish I had her optimism. I’ve spent so long trying to convince the police that my grandfather was holding my mom against her will but could never prove it. And now I’ve found her, I worry that we’re falling into exactly the same situation. Maybe now is the time to tell Meli my fears, if Edmund is here, then that means the trade for my mom went south, and no one is coming to get us.