My Bad Boy's Secret: A Bad Boy Billionaire Romance (21 page)

              Something else happened that I only learned about later on. Over in the last car in the caravan, the two corpses of the rangers were lying in the trunk of the Cadillac. One of them wasn’t a corpse yet. It was ranger Davidson, and she was still hanging on to life, despite being shot five times. She managed to pull her cell phone out of her pocket, and amidst the turbulent bumps and turns the car endured while driving through the mountain paths, she dialed 911 on her phone. It took plenty of tries and meticulous effort to overcome the pain of being shot and the worsening wooziness from blood loss, but she finally managed to get through.

              “911, what is your emergency?” asked the dispatcher.

              “This is Ranger… Janice Davidson…” choked out the ranger.

              “How can I assist you?” continued the dispatcher. This was a non-standard call, but as a dispatcher, she had strange conversations every day. Being prepared for the unpredictable was her job.

              “Please…I don’t have much time. My partner and I…just shot… Georgia state Department of Fish and Wildlife, Badge Number 30175. Please send help.”

              “May I please have your current location, ma’am?” the dispatcher tried to find out more.

              “GPS…”

              The dispatcher waited to hear more, but no more words were spoken. It didn’t sound good at all. People were seriously injured, maybe even dead. There was only a limited amount of information to work with. The last word, however, was crucial. The dispatcher had trained for this type of situation, and she knew what to do. She rehearsed what she was going to say, and then called the Georgia state troopers. 

Chapter 5 – Rose

              “What did they say?” I asked the police officer after he finished hearing a broadcast and turned off his radio. “Any important updates come up?”

              I tried not to sound desperate, but I was failing at that. Of course I was desperate for any news. I was feeling several million new emotions every minute, and I barely had any idea what was happening.

              The officer looked somewhat optimistic. “Big news, ma’am. We just got a statewide broadcast alerting us about the two rangers who were shot and killed. It turns out one of them had actually survived long enough to call 911 and ask for help. They didn’t say much else, but they didn’t need to. All state employees have GPs chips implanted in their ID cards. We can track the chips and pinpoint their location. It could very well lead us to the people who killed them.”

              This was good news. We finally had a lead.

              “Good, let’s go. We need to hurry if we’re going to catch them.”

              The officer stared at me in surprise. “You go with us? Sorry, ma’am, but you ought to stay out of this. It’s a dangerous situation we’re dealing with. These guys are killers. You’re not trained for pursuing criminals.”

              “I know,” I said as I tried to hide my disappointment. “But this is important to me. Please, the victim is someone I know. I have a personal connection with him. He’s – he’s my boyfriend. And I’m a lawyer connected with this case. I have to stay involved. So please, let me come along. I won’t cause any problems.”

              The officer hesitated. He scratched his head and thought for a moment. “All right, I guess it won’t hurt. It must mean a lot to you. Just follow our cars and stay behind us.”

              I headed to my car, but something I heard back at the cabin came back to me and hit me like lightning.

              “Wait, officer!” I called out. I ran over to the man. “I just remembered something that might help us. At the cabin, I heard a message on the answering machine. A man said something about having a ‘party in Memphis’. I think that was a message for the criminals. They must be heading to Memphis.”

              “You sure of that?” said the officer skeptically.

              “Yes!” I could barely contain my frustration. “We have to move quickly. The GPS signal came from Tennessee, right?”

              Another officer checked. “You’re right, ma’am. You may be onto something. We’ll get on the highway and head for Memphis.”

              I called one of my colleagues in Savannah to let them know I was going to be gone for a while, and asked her to watch Amber and Jessica. Four police cars then sped off and I followed them.

Chapter 6 – Blake

              I woke up again. My head hurt even worse than before. My vision was blurrier, and I ached all over. But at least I was still alive. I noticed that we weren’t moving. The door was open, and I saw the guys smoking and talking.

              I tried moving and calling out to them, even though I was bound and gagged. I finally made enough noise to get their attention.

              “Hey, go back to sleep, asshole! Need me to put you back to sleep?” One guy sauntered over and lifted his foot to kick me. I used all my strength and rolled out of the van, falling onto the dirt.

              The guy kicked me in the back of the head and got down to punch me. I tried wriggling away.

              “Hold it, Marco!” Luciana ordered him to stop. Marco obeyed, and she walked over and bent down to look at me. She removed my gag.

              “What is it?” she hissed.

              I panted for breath and forced myself to talk. This was my only shot to save myself. “I want to make a deal with you. I can help you.”

              Luciana’s dad sneered. “What could you possibly help us with? We already have our own trained assassins.”

              I ignored him and stared up at Luciana. “Not that. I can help you stay alive. Let me go, and I’ll help you avoid the Blood Brothers. You’re in their territory right now, you’re in danger.”

              “Excuse me?” Luciana wrinkled her nose at me.

              I had to make it quick. “What I’m saying is, the Blood Brothers aren’t loyal to anyone who isn’t a Blood Brother. You’ve been driving here for so long, you’ve probably been spotted by at least one chapter. They see your nice cars, and probably can tell you’re rich. They probably even saw who you are, so they know you’re mafia. They know they can hurt you badly since you’re not in your own territory. They’ll swoop in, kill you, kill me, and not pay you shit for handing me over. It’ll be a perfect deal for them, since they would be able to get rid of me and get rid of the Maggadino family at the same time.”

              I let it all sink in. Luciana was stroking her chin and considering my words.

              “But if you let me out, I’ll promise to help you fight. If I’m going to die, I might as well die free. I’ll help you get out of here alive and then you can let me go. I’ll tell you all the biggest secrets of the Blood Brothers. You’ll know everything you want to know. You’ll be able to destroy them.”

              Luciana stood up and smirked sweetly at me.

              “You’ve given us something to consider,” she said. “Excuse us for a moment while we discuss it.”

Chapter 7 – Luciana

              I told the guys to watch Blake and avoid hurting him too much. I walked with daddy to a secluded spot where no one could hear us.

              “So what do you think?” I asked for daddy’s opinion.

              He snorted. “Total bullshit,” he scowled. “I can smell it a mile away. Guy’s bluffing to save his life. He’ll say anything so we don’t deliver him. This is Blood Brothers territory? Give me a break. I know for a fact we’re not on the Blood Brothers radar. I bet he doesn’t know shit about them. He’ll talk out of his ass and we’ll be dumb enough to believe him.”

              “Well, I think he’s got a point,” I countered. “Blake has worked for the Blood Brothers a lot, and spent a lot of time with them. They’re some of his best clients. And the Blood Brothers control turf in the South. They’re probably in Tennessee too. I say we let him help us, and then kill him when we’re done with him. We may as well use him while we can.”

              “Luciana, when men are near death they’ll say and do anything to stay alive,” daddy replied, trying to be respectful. “Who’s to say he won’t shoot one of us the moment we give him a gun? I almost want to blow his head off now and forget the reward. Blake’s been nothing but trouble ever since you had us come down South to get him.”

              “Hold on, now you’re saying this is all my fault?” I said as my voice grew louder. “I’ve been busting my ass for the family, spying and giving us the edge that helps our family stay alive. If it weren’t for us, we would’ve been driven out of the business ages ago.”

              I didn’t see daddy’s hand move. He slapped me hard across my left cheek.

              “Don’t you dare talk to me that way! I’ve been through hell for the last twelve hours, and it’s all your fault! You think…”

              But he didn’t get to finish his sentence, because gunshots suddenly rang out and bullets grazed his hip and leg. I pulled daddy away behind a large rock.

              I drew out my pistol. The gunfire stopped.

              “Come out, come out, wherever you are, wop bastards!” hooted a gruff voice.

              “Yeah, come out, girl, we got something real nice to show you!” said another nicotine and meth-addled voice.

              Only bikers talked like that. “The Blood Brothers,” I said under my breath. “God damn!”

              I saw our cars in the distance, and some of the guys dashing over. Carrying daddy with his arm over my shoulders, I moved as quickly as possible over. The gunfire resumed when the bikers saw our shadows and our men.

              I turned my head back to look, and the sight made me sick to my stomach. There were about twenty of the ugly biker bastards. They wore their leather jackets and were armed to the teeth with guns and grenades. All we had were pistols. This was going to be a tough fight.

              I hid daddy behind the van. “Stay with me, daddy, I’ll get the first aid kit.”

              There was something else I had to do. I found Blake on the ground, still conscious. I undid the ropes and handed him a sawn-off shotgun from the trunk of my car.

              “We’ve got a deal. The Blood Brothers are here. Help us fight them off, and we’ll let you go. All right?”

              Blake looked at me, and I knew he was thinking about using the shotgun on me. But he didn’t. “Deal.”

              I had literally dodged a bullet. I wasn’t so sure if I could dodge all the other bullets, though.

Chapter 8 – Rose

              The driving was monotonous. We drove through winding mountain roads, steep ups and downs, and there were even some places when all we could drive on were dirt roads. We drove and drove for around five hours with seemingly no end in sight.

              When we finally reached the outskirts of Chattanooga, our luck soon began to change. We saw a few clues along the road, like empty bullet casings and footprints that matched the ones outside of the cabin. At the turnpike that went through a park and into the city, we saw something that we were unprepared for.

              A no-holds-barred gunfight was occurring without any stop that spanned the entire highway and made the traffic just impossible. On one side were a dozen bikers. Some of them were already dead or lying down injured. We saw from their jackets that they were indeed Blood Brothers. On the other side were men in black suits, though only a few of them were still attacking. They looked like mafia.

              If this sight was shocking, what I saw next was even worse. Blake was darting from car to car, taking cover and firing back at the bikers. He was wielding two guns and fighting for his life. He appeared to be bleeding from his arms, torso, head, and legs, and was struggling to stand and keep fighting.