Chapter 34: Asher

I ran my hands through my hair. She was right. Everything she'd said was right. We had judged her. We hadn't trusted that she would be ok with Deke being a top assassin, at least not yet. Her heart was too tender, and we were still too new to her life.

"We fucked up so bad."

'Understatement of the year.'

'Fuck you furball. If you can't be helpful, then be quiet right now.'

'Fine. I won't speak with you then. Let me know when you have removed your head from your ass.'

I felt him turn his back on me. Fuck. Now I had hurt and pissed off my wolf. I was two for two.

"What are we gonna do? How are we going to make this up to her?" Deke sounded lost. "I was so afraid of losing her that I didn't trust her with the truth, and then we drove her away anyway because we didn't trust her."

Jer was pacing back and forth. 

"We have to show her that we're sorry. That we do trust her and believe in her love."

Suddenly Deke got a call on his cell. 

"Yeah Taylor?"

His face went white.

"What! When? Why didn't you follow them?"

Fear gripped my heart at the panic on Deke's face. What the hell was going on? Deke hung up the phone without saying anything else, whirled around, and pounded up the stairs.

"ZOEY!"

Jer and I dashed up the stairs right behind him. Deke got to her door, but it was locked. He didn't hesitate. He rammed the door with his shoulder and broke down her door. I froze when I saw that the room was empty, and the window was open. I saw her clothes were still there but there was a stack of money on the dresser. Deke gave a howl of pain and rage.

"What the fuck is going on Deke? Where's Zoey?"

Deke dropped to his knees. I felt the devastation flow from him to us. He looked at us with haunted eyes. His voice was barely above a whisper.

"She left us."

"WHAT?!"

I was in shock. Deke nodded.

"She left us. We didn't trust her, and she must have felt she couldn't trust us anymore, I guess. She's run away from us and now she's in trouble. All because of us being fucking morons."

"What the fuck do you mean she's in trouble?" Jer sounded panicked.

"That was Taylor. He had just come around the corner from walking the neighborhood and saw a guy loading someone that looked like Zoey into the trunk of a car. She was limp and he thinks she was unconscious, and they left a duffle bag on the sidewalk. When he got to the bag, he saw her name on it and he knew it had to have really been her. But I came up here hoping he was wrong."

I slammed my fist into the wall, putting a hole in the drywall. 

"Goddamn it! Wilmington. He was just waiting for a chance to grab her. And we fucking drove her right into his fucking arms! Why the hell didn't Taylor follow them?"

"By the time he could get back to his car they were long gone. He's got no idea where they went. Taylor has her bag. He searched it to see if he could find some clue but all that was in it were some wornout clothes and the things we picked up from her apartment. So, her bag is a dead end."

"FUCK!!" Jer screamed with rage. "We have to get her back. Shit. I don't even know where to fucking start looking. What do we do? Any ideas, Ash?"

I shoved down my panic and waved them to follow me. I ran down the stairs and went into my office. I went to my desk and pulled out the file on Wilmington and their business. 

"He's got to have somewhere he's taking her. It's gotta be somewhere quiet because he won't want to be heard. We know our girl is a fighter and she isn't gonna go along quietly when she wakes up." 

I pulled out the paper that had the list of properties owned by the company, Wilmington Sr., and Wilmington Jr. 

"Take a look at this list, Deke. These are the properties held by Wilmington and company. Which one would you use if you were wanted to go somewhere private and where no one could question any… loud noises?"

I couldn't say the word screams. I just couldn't or I would lose it. My poor mate. This was all our fault. We promised to protect her and never let anyone hurt her and we failed. AGAIN. I never thought I would fail my mate so much once I found her. But I was proving to be a sorry excuse of a mate. We had to save her, show her we love her, that we trust her, and that she can trust us. I prayed to the Goddess that we would find her and be able to keep our mate. But in my heart, I knew if we didn't, it was what we deserved for doubting her and driving her away.

Deke looked over the list and was silent for a few minutes. Then he pointed to one.

"This one. The building is still in good shape but it's been abandoned for years. It's in a section of town where no one sees or hears anything. No one would blink if they heard screams coming from the building. And no one would go in to help even if they admitted to hearing anything."

Jer was shaking. "We need to make a plan. Get Taylor in here. We're going to need everyone we can get to help on this."

"Already here. I and my team are at your disposal. She shouldn't have slipped past me, and he shouldn't have been able to get to her. This is on us as much as you."

Jer turned to where Taylor was standing in the doorway.

"How did you know this is on us?"

"I'm not stupid, Jericho. I could see by her face you didn't tell her about Deacon, and she didn't strike me as someone that would have been comfortable with you keeping her in the dark. My impression of her is she wouldn't have cared who he was then, just about who he is now."

"Fuck." I ran my hand through my hair again. "You know our mate better than we did."

He gave a dark chuckle. "It's my job to read people in an instant, Asher."

We got the rest of his team on the phone and started working on a plan to coordinate an attack on the building to rescue our mate.

"Let one of my guys go check if there's any heat signatures in there while we talk. There's no time to waste, and I don't want to focus on a building if there isn't anyone in there."

"Smart, Taylor. I hadn't thought of that. I just know we need to hurry. It's been over an hour since she was taken."

"I know, Asher. We're working as fast as we can to get her back safely."

My phone rang and when I looked, it wasn't a number I recognized. I hit answer and put it on speaker so we could all hear. I prayed it was just a spam call, but it seemed the Goddess wasn't answering my prayers today.

"Welll well well. If it isn't the famous nobodies of Silver Falls. It seems I have something you want back very badly. Say hello to your friends, you fucking cunt."

There was silence on the phone. Then there was the sound of flesh hitting flesh and Zoey's scream rang through the room. Rage made my sight go red. My voice was barely more than a growl.

"God damn you, Wilmington! You better not lay another fucking hand on her!"

His crazy laugh sent chills down my spine. He really was insane and that made him unpredictable.

"Oh, you're a little late to the party, now isn't he my dear? She already has such a pretty black eye and a lovely split to her bottom lip. Not to mention a few bruises on those creamy ribs. But don't worry. She's going to be such a beautiful shade of black and blue all over before I'm done playing with her. Oh yes, black and blue and even some red, I dare say. I think a nice necklace of bruises around her neck would look lovely, don't you? In fact, I think that's a perfect idea. I can leave them as I strangle her while I fuck her. After my other fun is done, of course. I wouldn't want to rush anything. It would be selfish of me to not let her feel every bit of it."

"What the fuck do you want, Wilmington?" Jer sounded a little crazed himself. 

"For you fuckers to pay! After you canceled with our company so did a lot of others, the fucking cowards. My father killed himself this morning when he saw that the company he'd built from the ground up was now going under. And he had the nerve to blame me! It's you fuckers that's to blame. You took something important from him… so I'm taking something important from you in exchange."

I heard something snap, and Zoey's wail of pain was all I could hear.

"That's one finger broken… nine more to go. Eenie meenie miney moe…" 

Another snap and a shriek of pain from our mate.

"Better hurry. She only has so many fingers left before I move to some other more painful bones. And I still have that tight ass to shove my way into and make her bleed."

The line went dead, and we all stared at the phone in silent shock. I heard a choking sound and looked up to see Deke's eyes go wild for a second and then go completely dead and emotionless. Oh fuck. I hadn't seen that look in years. And while him in assassin mode will be a big help in finding her, I just hope we could get the Deacon we knew and loved back when this was all over.

"He is a dead man."

Jer swallowed at the venom in Deke's voice.

"We move. Now. I heard a train in the background and that building is on the rail line. That's where they are. He won't be expecting us to figure it out so soon. Taylor, get your people there immediately and have them surround the building. He doesn't get to escape this time. But keep them out of the building. I don't want them to die because I mistook them for someone else. Now let's move."

As we all rushed to the garage, I just prayed we were in time before our mate was hurt even worse.