I do as he suggests and fight against my need to crush it to tiny pieces when the image of her fills the screen once more.
There should only ever be one reason why she’s bound and gagged, and it has nothing to do with Donny or any motherfucker other than me.
The only person’s mercy she should ever be at is mine, but she should know that only pleasure will come out of it.
Ripping my eyes from Hadley, I look at her surroundings.
“Motherfucker,” I grate, now seeing all the things I missed before. “So she’s in our old trailer. What are you suggesting we do exactly? He’ll be expecting us. We can’t just march in and demand her back.”
“I haven’t entirely figured that out yet,” he admits with a heavy sigh.
“And here I was, thinking you knew what you were doing,” I mutter.
“I’m sorry, but this isn’t exactly a daily fucking occurrence for me. We just need to get there, is all I know.” He takes another corner way too fast, but I sense it coming this time and hold on as he leans into it. “We’ll go around the back, get a sense of what’s going on, and then we’ll make a plan.”
I want to cuss and shout that he doesn't have anything better, but I know he’s right. We can’t possibly make a plan until we know what we’re dealing with.
The rest of the drive toward Sterling Heights is in silence. The tension and anticipation in the car is so thick it’s hard to breathe, but I use it to fuel me. I channel it into my determination to get Hadley out of this in one piece.
Every part of me screams to go running in there, but I know I need to be smarter if I don’t want to get us all killed.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
“This is all your fault,” I grate out.
Ace glances over at me. “You really want to play that game right now?”
“I need to blame someone,” I mutter, once again beginning to lose control.
“Yeah, well try looking a little further afield than this car. I only did what I had to do to keep us alive. Our parents are the ones who fucked this all up.”
Ain’t that the fucking truth.
“You still want to go to James with this?”
“I don’t fucking know what to do about this right now. This is a fucking mess.” Anger fills his tone, and while I know that he’s pissed I took his place with Donny, I suspect he’s angrier with himself for putting me in that position in the first place.
“If that cunt had just done what he should have from the very beginning, then none of this would have happened,” I muse.
“It’s too late now, Cole. What’s done is done.”
“For you, maybe,” I mutter, but I soon slam my lips shut when he looks over at me.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing. Forget it.”
“Fuck that, Cole. What don’t I know?”
“Nothing. Go down that way,” I say, pointing down one of the various tracks that lead to our former trailer park.
He glances over, his eyes telling me that this isn’t over. As far as I’m concerned, it is. I have no intention of ever telling anyone the things that still haunt me from our childhood. No one else deserves to have that fucked-up shit in their heads.
Ace pulls the car to a stop and kills the engine far enough away that no one would hear us coming.
“What the fuck are you waiting for?” I bark at him when he remains in his seat.
“Pass me your cell again.”
I do as I’m told, and he stares down at the image in silence for a few seconds.
“What?”
“Nothing, let’s go and see what’s going on.”
We jump out of the car before climbing the bank that will allow us to see the trailer park in the valley below.
The second our old home emerges before us, we both notice the issue.
“Where the fuck is it?”
“Motherfucker,” I roar.
“We should have known it wasn’t going to be this easy.”
My eyes lock on the patch of land where our old, dilapidated trailer used to sit. Nothing else has changed, but our home, the only evidence we ever existed here, is gone.
“Now wha—” My words are cut off as Ace waves his arm in front of my face before pointing across the park.
“See him?” he whispers.
I narrow my eyes in the direction he’s looking, and after a few seconds, movement in the trees catches my eye. “They’re waiting for us.”
“So what’s the plan? She isn’t here, so it seems pointless going down there and getting ambushed,” I point out.
“But then how are we going to find out where she is? They’re the only fuckers who know. We need them to lead us to her.”
“What are you thinking?” I ask.
Ace blows out a slow breath that only succeeds in filling my stomach with dread. “I think that I should go down there. Let them catch me in the hope they’ll take me to the same place. You can follow.”
“Just like that?” I don’t like it, at all, but we’re running out of time.
“Do you have a better fucking suggestion?” he snaps.
“Beat it out of him and leave the fucker fighting for his life?”
Ace eyes me for a second. “You really think that just because he’s the only one we see, he’s the only one down there? Donny knows what we’re capable of. He’s got his best guys down there waiting for us.”
“Great,” I mutter.
“Exactly. That means they’re not surrounding her. He’s probably left her wide open. We find her, it should be fairly straightforward.”
“Ok, great.” Sarcasm drips from my words. “Off you go then.”
He turns to look at me once more, shaking his head. “I know you’re getting impatient. Trust me, I understand, but we need to do this smart, not fast.
“The longer they wait, the more they’ll start to believe we’re not coming. They’ll get bored, impatient… tired. We need everything to our advantage right now, not to mention that when the sun sets, it’ll make my arrival more of a surprise. I’m more than willing to take down a few fuckers if I can.”
“So we just sit here and wait until the sun sets while fuck knows what is happening to Hadley?”
“He won’t touch her.” Ace levels me with a serious look.
“You sound awfully confident about that.”
“I know Donny,” he says. “I know how his mind works.”
“And if you’re wrong?”
“Then it’s just something we’ll have to live with.”
“I need her fucking back, Ace.”
“I know, man.” He reaches over and squeezes my shoulder. “Trust me, I get it. And we’re going to get her back. Hadley is stronger than this, and lucky for her, we’re better than Donny fucking Lopez. You don’t work for that cunt for as long as I have and not learn a few of his tricks.”
The next couple of hours are up there with some of the longest of my life as we watch Donny’s guys below do exactly as Ace predicted. They get bored and start wandering around instead of hiding in the shadows like he guessed they would.
They expected us to turn up before now.