Saving Sky Page 12

  “What are you getting at here?” I asked him, hoping against hope he wasn’t about to say what I thought he was.

  “You’re going to give me a lap dance,” he said.

  “No the fuck I’m not!” I snapped. “There’s no fucking way you’re ever going to get me to do that.”

  The thought of it alone made me sick but thinking about the fact that I had a wire in my panties made it worse. I knew I could control how handsy the customers got, but Rocco would do whatever the hell he wanted. He might not be able to see the wire, but if he put his hands on me, he’d be able to feel it.

  “You have plenty of time to go whoring about with your little cop boyfriend despite the fact I clearly told you not to. You obviously don’t care what you do with your body though you love to throw a fit about what I ask you to do here. Get over here,” he said again.

  “Fuck you! I can do what I want with who I want when I’m not here. You don’t get to tell me who I can and cannot spend my own damn time with!” I snapped. I wanted to walk out the door, but he locked it from the inside deadbolt, and the key was sitting on the desk right in front of him. There wasn’t any way I could get to it without being within his reach.

  “If you don’t let me out of here this second, I’m going to scream,” I said. “I mean it.”

  “Do it if you like. I’ve got Boris watching the hall and keeping anyone from coming this way, and you know as well as I do the music is too loud out there. You can either do as I ask and I’ll forgive you for your blatant disrespect, or the next time your boyfriend sees you, it’ll be in pieces.”

  “You can threaten me all you want,” I said coolly. I knew the men at the station must have heard what he said, and they’d be on their way. I just had to stall for enough time. “But I’ll never let you put your hands on me Rocco. Not ever. I don’t give a fuck who you think you are!”

  Knowing that help was probably already on the way was making me bolder than I probably should have been before they actually got there.

  He sighed. I was sure I had won as he reached into the drawer of his desk. My stomach tied into another knot when he pulled out a gun and cocked it.

  “You would be surprised how much that music drowns out,” he said. “Do you know how many people I’ve shot standing where you are? And none of you stupid bitches was ever the wiser.”

  His words chilled me to the bone, and I thought I was going to faint. He had the gun on me, and I was running out of time. There wasn’t a chance the cops were going to get to me soon enough. I needed to stall and that meant one thing.

  He nodded from me to his lap, and I tasted bile.

  I swallowed hard. “If I do it, you’re going to let me go and forget about all this?”

  He smiled. “Consider it a down payment for my forgiveness. It won’t settle the whole debt, but it’s a good start.”

  I hoped to God Jack was able to hear what was going on. I knew he said that he was going to be patrolling for the first part of my shift, but I also had a feeling they were able to send the feed to him if they had to. I didn’t know how any of it worked, I just knew I had to stay alive until he could get to me.

  “Fine,” I said. He grinned the most sadistic smile I’d ever seen, and I walked forward.

  “No, no, no, take off your jeans. You’re going to do this right,” he said. “And your top.”

  Disgusted, I obeyed. I pulled off both my hoodie and my tank, then kicked my jeans to the floor. Half of me was surprised that he didn’t want a strip tease, too. For the first time in my life, I wouldn’t have minded taking my time removing my clothes in front of him.

  It would have given me more time for Jack to come to my rescue. I wondered what was taking so long. Where the hell was he? Where was anyone?

  I walked over to him, unable to believe I was about to do the one thing I swore to myself I’d never do. Slowly, I eased myself down, not wanting to even think about what I was doing.

  “Tsk, tsk, tsk,” he clucked at me, an evil grin on his face. “I want the VIP treatment sweetheart. Bra off.”

  I swallowed and undid my bra, trying not to gag when I saw the way he licked his lips as my tits sprung free in front of his face. His hands immediately went to my waist to pull me closer and his eyes nearly bulged from their sockets as his fingers felt the thin, flexible wire sewn into the seam of my panties.

  “What the fuck!” he snapped, his right hand coming up to wrap around my throat. My heart sank. I was as good as dead. He shoved me off of his lap and onto the floor.

  “Take it out!” he pointed the gun at me once more, and with a sinking feeling in my chest, I pulled out the wire. “You stupid little bitch!” he screamed.

  I was sure he was going to shoot me right there, and I braced myself for the blast. But it didn’t come. He flew from his seat and said something through his walkie talkie to the bouncer in Italian. I couldn’t make out the words.

  Then, he turned back to me. “Get dressed!

  “Why?” I demanded. “If you’re going to kill me, just do it!” I said, trying to stall.

  “Oh, no no no. No, you deceitful little whore. You don’t get off that easily. I’m going to take my time with you.”

  My heart was pounding in my chest, I grabbed my clothes and slowly pulled them on, taking as much time as I could. I wanted nothing more than to run, to scream. But as I dressed, he pulled duct tape out of the desk and started for me. He didn’t have to say a word for me to know what was happening.

  He was going to take me, and there was no one there to stop him.

  21

  Jack

  I drove past another warehouse, my fist gripping the steering wheel so hard my knuckles were turning white. I was pissed. Beyond pissed. I wanted to scream, I wanted to punch my fist through the windshield. I couldn’t believe what was happening, and I blamed the whole force for fucking it up.

  It had been two days since we’d heard from Sky. The men were in the control room down at the station listening in, but the feed had been shaky. They could pick up sentences and words here and there, but it was hard for them to hear what was really going on down at the club. It had been too loud, and Rocco had clearly had some sort of surveillance scrambling equipment installed in his office.

  I’d told them to be on high alert, to tell me as soon as there was any reason for me to get down there. I’d circled through the neighborhood in my patrol car more than once, hoping she’d be able to pick up something that would enable us to rush in and arrest him.

  But nothing came through my radio for nearly an hour. When it finally did, they weren’t able to tell me exactly what was going on. I didn’t care, at first. I was going to get in that club, arrest Rocco, and take him in for questioning. If there was any reason for me to think that we could get him, then I was going to go with it.

  I didn’t care if we were going to have to let him go. I’d figure out a way to get Sky out of there and keep her safe. Hell, I didn’t even care what the captain had to say about it. I was going to do things my way. I was going to be the one to save Sky since I had been the one to put her in the middle of the shit in the first place. We flew to the club, sirens blaring. I expected with cops surrounding me and our uniforms on, we’d be let right through. But once again, the bouncer did what he could to hold us back. I only played nice guy for a minute before shoving him out of the way and entering the place, threatening him with arrest as well.

  The place was crowded, and several of the dancers hurried for the back when we came in. It was hard to get through the sea of people who were mingling around, and I was pissed that there were that many people there on a Tuesday afternoon.

  It didn’t make any sense that there should be, as though fate had been working against us the entire time. We burst through the back, guns drawn, only to be met by yet another man in a suit. I was sure he was one of the men Sky had told me about, and he, like the bouncer, refused to listen.

  Every minute they were holding us back was another minute they
were able to get away with Sky, and they knew it. I wasn’t sure where she was being held, but the guys at the station assured me that it hadn’t been more than five minutes since they last heard her say something and them sending me the call.

  “He’s in the office,” the man told us. “But you can’t go in there.”

  “Get the fuck out of the way or you’re going to be finding yourself in a cell!” I snapped. I was stupid, so stupid. Of course he was just putting up a diversion. We shoved him to the side, and I gave orders behind me to put him in cuffs. Then, we broke down the door to the office.

  And it was empty.

  Sky’s purse was in there, with all her belongings inside. She didn’t even have her phone on her. There wasn’t any way to tell where she had gone, and that bastard in the hall had known it the entire time. I ran back through, pushing past fellow officers to the back door. Arriving just in time to see the black car that had been following us round the corner and hit a side street.

  I flew around the building, opting to take the sidewalk rather than try to cut through the club again, ignoring Welsh’s calls for me to not go alone. I wasn’t going to let the guy get away with Sky. Who knew what he was going to do to her when he had her alone?

  Fuck, he had been connected to so many murders and disappearances. I didn’t care that there wasn’t enough proof. Hell, I didn’t care that we had enough proof now to take him in. If he got away with Sky, then she would be gone either way.

  I now understood what victims’ families meant when they told me justice didn’t matter so much when it didn’t bring back their loved ones. I had to get to Sky, and I didn’t care what I had to do to find her.

  I put on my sirens and whipped around the corner, flying through the alley and hitting the same side street. But, by the time I arrived, the black car was gone. There were similar makes and colors all over the place, making it even harder for me to distinguish which one I was after.

  Common sense told me there was no way Rocco would be able to get very far with the traffic in Chicago, but it seemed to me that the guy had just vanished. It didn’t make any sense. But he was simply gone.

  I was driving around for nearly an hour before heading back to the station. The captain was far from happy with my decision to rush after the mobster alone, but I didn’t even care about his lecture. Sky was gone, and we had no way of knowing where she was.

  Now, two days later, I was out looking for her again. They had recovered the wire and listened to the recording of what had really happened. It was a lot clearer that way, and I was horrified that he had tried to force her into giving him a favor.

  It was the first time he had ever done such a thing, I was sure of it. Sky had told me more than once he never had before, so there wasn’t a reason in hell for us to think that he would now. But clearly, he had. He had asked her for the one thing that would have gotten her caught.

  Captain Markel told me explicitly I wasn’t going to go after her alone. He was pissed that I had made the choices that I had, and he wasn’t going to let me endanger my life or Welsh’s by going after Rocco. We didn’t know how many there were with him, and we didn’t even know if she was still alive.

  There were times I had to fight the tears that filed my eyes. I didn’t want to break down. I didn’t want to give up or think it possible she was gone. It seemed that way, but it was hard to accept.

  I had promised her I would get her through it, and I’d let her down. There wasn’t any way we could track her, either. The only thing we could do was bargain with the man we’d taken into custody.

  We’d thoroughly questioned the bouncer, and though the guy was an asshole, we released him, convinced he wasn’t part of the ring. The other man, however, the man from the hall, he was straight up mob muscle. We were doing what we could to get him to talk.

  He was the one man who would know where Rocco was, and if we could just convince him it was in his best interest to tell us, we’d be able to go for Sky in a heartbeat.

  But mobsters weren’t easy to break. They hated us as much as we hated them, and there wasn’t much we could do. Intimidation sure as hell didn’t work. They were more afraid of what the other mobsters would do to them if they talked than they were of what we’d do to them.

  Hell, if I was allowed to do what I wanted to get that man to talk to me, he would have been singing hours ago. But no, that’s not how it worked. I had to sit through the process and hope to God he would rather not spend his life in prison. But it didn’t seem like that was going to get us anywhere.

  I was off duty now. Driving around in my personal time and still looking. Captain Markel could tell me what to do when I was on the clock, but he didn’t have any control over my free time. At least, that’s how I looked at things. He might disagree, telling me that I had to honor the code no matter what time of day or day of the week it was, but the love of my life was on the line, and I wasn’t going to honor some code that required I sacrifice her because of it.

  My cell phone rang, and I glance down. Welsh was the last person I wanted to talk to. He had been right there through all of it, but he was becoming annoying. I didn’t want more consolation or encouragement that we’d find her. I wanted her found.

  I ignored the call at first, but he immediately called me back. When this happened a third time, I picked up the phone, ready to bite his head off.

  “Look, Welsh!” I snapped.

  “I know where she is!” he interrupted.

  “What?” I said. “How? Where?”

  “I’ve been working on this thug all afternoon. Finally, I convinced Cap to let me offer him immunity in exchange for telling us where she is, and that’s what I did. It took a while, but he gave me an address. It’s a warehouse on the North side of town. Northeast. He said that Rocco takes all his victims there,” Welsh said.

  “Oh, my God!” I felt relief and anger run through me all at the same time. “Give me the address.”

  “You can’t go there on your own,” Welsh tried, but I interrupted him.

  “Give me the fucking address, now!” I snapped.

  “You’re going to be outnumbered,” he warned, but he read off the address anyway. I punched it into my GPS and thanked him.

  “I owe you one for this,” I said.

  “You should wait for back –”

  I hung up before he had the chance to finish his sentence and sped off. I wished I was in a cruiser and had lights to put on, but then, I’d be able to get there subtly this way. Sneak up on the bastard, take him by surprise.

  My gun was in the dash, and I had adrenaline pumping through my veins.

  Hang on, sweetheart. I’m coming for you. And God help the bastard when I get there.

  22

  Sky

  I shivered in the closet, holding my knees close to my body. I wasn’t sure what time it was, or what day it was. The place was completely dark, and it was both cold and damp. My voice was hoarse from screaming, and I was freezing despite the fact I was wearing the hoodie.

  It was hard for me to fathom what had happened. We’d been so sure the plan would work. Instead, I didn’t even know where I was, and I was scared half to death. All I knew was that Rocco had opened that door twice since he had shoved me in the cramped closet, and that was only to give me the shittiest food I’d ever put in my mouth.

  I wouldn’t have eaten it. I was sure it was either wet dog or cat food. But I was hungry enough that I shoveled it in my mouth every time he opened the door. It felt like I had been in there for days. It could have been weeks. Maybe just hours. I lost all sense of time, and every second I couldn’t decide if death would be better.

  I couldn’t help but replay over and over in my mind how it had happened to me. Not just what had happened in the room with the wire, but how he had gotten me there. I felt like I was living in a dreamworld; one that only existed in the movies.

  Rocco had tied a blindfold over my eyes after duct taping my mouth closed and my hands behind my back. He sti
ll had the gun trained on me, and I knew he meant what he said when he told me he’d killed people.

  After he put the blindfold on me, he walked me through the hall and back outside. He said something to the man who was standing guard, but once again, he spoke Italian. I was surprised that I never knew he spoke Italian before. He sounded so fluent.

  Then again, I had a feeling there was a lot I didn’t know about Rocco. There was a ruckus coming from the other room, and I prayed to God it was the police coming to save me. I did my best to scream and fight him off, but with my hands behind my back, being unable to see what was going on, and the tape over my mouth, there wasn’t a chance in hell anyone would be able to hear me.

  He kept pushing me out the door and into the alley, then toward what I assumed was his car. The hard point of the pistol was in my back the entire way, and he was muttering something I didn’t understand. I tried to drag my feet. I tried to fall down.

  I was doing everything I could to slow him, but he hit me on the back of the head with the pistol, stunning me. I didn’t get knocked out, not entirely, but he did hit me hard enough that I was disoriented. I couldn’t fight him much, and he wasn’t bothering to be careful with my arms.

  At one point, he yanked it so hard, I felt it was going to come right out of its socket. I knew I wasn’t going to stand a chance with a broken bone, so I stopped fighting quite so hard. I had to do what I could to stay on top of things. I had to be ready for whatever might happen next.

  He shoved me into the back seat of a vehicle. Again, I tried to fight him, but he shoved my feet in and closed the door. It was hard for me to even reach a sitting position, let alone fight to find the handle before he got in the front seat and turned on the damn thing.