Ace pushes up from a crouching position a bit more slowly and looks at me with a grave expression in his eyes. “Are you sure this isn’t a set-up?”
“I’m sure.” I look at my phone again and tap the call button to redial Kelsey. The phone rings and rings, and I swallow the lump in my throat.
“Sounds like your girl got caught cheating, and now she’s playing ghost.”
Ace, goddamn skeptic that he is, says the words with a hint of sympathy that’s the only thing that stops me from punching him in the fucking face.
“Coop, somehow I knew you would be calling me back.” Hector lets out his version of an evil laugh, the sound echoing in the cement room. “I’m guessing you’re calling for your smart-mouthed bitch?”
“You have Kelsey? Let me speak to her right now.”
Hector laughs again before the screen turns black for a short moment, and then the video feature turns on to reveal Kelsey, arms tied above her head with ropes wrapped around her arms and legs, holding her spread-eagle for the whole world to see. She’s stark naked, feet dangling about a foot from the ground. “Say hello, Kelsey.”
She looks up, cheeks a ruddy red color as tears spill down her face. Light bruising starts to show beneath one eye. “Coop?”
“Kelsey, what did these assholes do to you?”
“Nothing,” Hector said, his voice sounding a moment before his sneering face appears on screen. “At least nothing compared to what me and my men will do to her if you don’t give me what I want.”
My jaws clench because I know what he wants, and I know that I can’t give it to him, not without my whole club’s consent. “I’m listening.”
Hector turns to face Kelsey again. “Told you he gave a damn about you. You might live to see the sun rise after all.”
Kelsey’s blue eyes are filled with fear. And tears. And resignation, as if she knows what I just figured out.
“Coop.”
“Kelsey.” I start, but what can I say to her? It’s clear she’s not all right. That she’s already been hurt, who knows to what extent? And humiliated.
She moves her head. “Warehouse,” she shouts. “Smells like gasoline and other car shit.”
“Shut her up,” Santos yells to someone off camera.
“Shelves and shelves of boxes.” She’s looking around the room. “High windows. No sounds from outside.”
Nogales appears at that moment, takes the slack from the rope holding her up, and wraps it around her neck.
“You talk too much, bitch.” Three times he wraps the rope around her neck, tugging backward until she starts to struggle and gasp. “Don’t got much to say now, do you?”
The thrill in his eyes makes me worry that I won’t get to Kelsey in time.
“Nogales, you’re a dead man.”
“What was that Coop?” He tugs on the rope even more, sending Kelsey’s feet higher in the air, exposing her naked body to the camera. “Can’t hear ya over the sound of your bitch’s screams.”
At his words, Kelsey goes silent. Still struggling, but silently.
“Oh, you want to play games? I love games,” he declares with a wicked laugh.
The screen goes black, and Hector’s voice sounds again. “While you think about giving me what I want, you can listen to the sounds your whore makes while I fuck her.”
My heart catches in my throat and when I look up from the phone, Ace and Shades are there watching me, expressions going from sympathetic to angry.
“Let her go now, Santos, and I might let you live.”
Santos barks out another laugh. “You might let me live? I might let your whore live with the memories of what’s about to happen.”
“No!” Kelsey’s scream pierces my heart, and the black screen only makes it worse because I’m just imagining what’s happening to her. “Stop it! No, please.” Her voice goes from anger to panic to straight-up fear.
“Kelsey!”
“She can’t talk now. She’s full.” Santos laughs, and I feel my free hand bunch into a fist and then flex, over and over again.
A terrified scream sounds as an image flickers to life on the screen. Santos is standing off to the side of Kelsey, his hand between her legs while, Nogales still has a hold on the rope. His arm pumps, sending his fingers in and out of her pussy.
“Stop it,” she whispers. “Please.”
“Maybe if you ask again, but nicer, I’ll give you what you want.”
Kelsey shakes her head. “Liar.”
I cast a quick look at Wild Man to see if he’s got anything we can use yet. “Soon,” he mouths, his eyes never leaving the computer screen.
I stare at the screen, feeling powerless as Santos’ fingers plunge in and out of my woman, smiling at me as if this were a fucking peep show.
“I see why you like this bitch so much. Her cunt is tight as a virgin’s asshole, and she gets wet so easy. I’m gettin’ hard already.” To drive the point home, Santos grabbed his cock over his pants. “So fuckin’ hard.”