Sex & Mayhem 02 The Devil's Ride (50 page)

That was the last thing he remembered along with a
stinging pain in the side of his neck.

Tooth wanted to gnaw
off his lips. The whole outing was a failure. When
they arrived at Rick’s alleged apartment, it was deserted. The
bastard had left some garbage, but there weren’t any documents, any
clues. They scooped up some of the loose paper just in case it hid
something relevant, but Rick obviously knew wolves were after
him.

He watched the empty streets as they drove along
dimly lit roads, passing by prostitutes and the homeless walking
down the side of the road. There were no words for how frustrated
he was with the outcome of tonight’s mission. Tracy was still
waiting for his justice, and Luci would still have to endure the
fear of possible abduction. They all would.

As they turned to the gate to the compound, a small
shape moving on the side of the road caught Tooth’s eye. From afar,
he thought it was a rat, but the sinking feeling in his gut
deepened with the realization it was Manson wandering on the
sidewalk. The kitten backed away to the wall at the sound of
roaring bikes.

“
Stop! Stop the car,” he yelled at Don, who hit the
brakes so abruptly Tooth’s arms hit the dashboard. They were lucky
to be the last ones in the group, or things could have gotten
nasty. Ignoring the sudden pain in his side and the horn coming
from some car driving up to them, Tooth opened the door and ran
out
onto the sidewalk,
descending on the tiny kitten like a hawk. He cradled it to his
chest and ran for the gate with his stomach sinking all the way to
his navel. Luci would never leave Manson out of sight like that.
Would they find a bloodbath at the compound? His face heated up as
he reached the gate and slipped in even before it opened enough to
let in the bikes.

He almost tripped over something on the ground, only
to realize it was Luci’s phone.

It was as if his mind split into a thousand pieces
that couldn’t put two and two together. His throat tightened, and
he sped straight into the clubhouse where the three men
he
’d left on guard were
watching some shit on television. They all looked his
way.

“Where is he?” wheezed Tooth, rushing to the
staircase.

“He went to pet the goat or some shit, but then he
came back,” yelled one of the guys.

“
His fucking phone was
lying on the ground by the gate, and the cat was
outside. You were supposed to fucking know where he is!” shouted
Tooth on his way upstairs. He would have smashed in their faces if
it wasn’t for the fact that time was too precious. A tingle of hope
glinted in his heart when he saw their door, but upon entering, all
that greeted him was a cold, empty space. “Luci?” he asked quietly,
stepping forward with his mind blank.

Blitz followed him into the room, white as a sheet.
“I’ve seen him just like, ten, twenty minutes ago. He was walking
Astaroth to her scooter. I made sure he knew not to go out.”

All Tooth wanted was to kick Blitz in the balls.
He didn’t do it because he was still holding Manson in his right
hand. “Fuck. Tell Priest you lost his son,” growled Tooth, rushing
to the computer. The necklace. Surely, Luci would
still be wearing it.

He put Manson on the bed and started his computer,
pacing in front of it. Why did it
take so long? He needed this information as soon
as possible. And somewhere behind the corner of current thought was
Luci’s voice screaming at him, “I didn’t want you to go. Everything
would have been fine if you stayed.”

Tooth sat down on the bed and pulled hard on his own
hair. Luci had told him he was scared, and Tooth still left to find
stupid motherfucking Rick. How could they have gotten to Luci
though? Maybe the information about Rick’s house was all a
smokescreen to get a chance at abducting Luci?

Tooth finally got the tracking program to run, but
what he saw made his heart stop beating and blood run cold in his
veins. Tooth dragged his hand down his hip. If he was ever close to
crying, it was now. And just as he thought that, a beep turned his
attention back to the screen, where a
detailed map revealed Luci’s location. He sat down
and enlarged the picture, keeping air in his lungs. The results
made him break out in cold sweat, and he rushed for the
door.

“Priest!” Tooth turned on his heel and shut the door
to keep Manson in as he went into the corridor. “He’s not here.
He’s fucking gone!”

“I know!” Priest yelled from downstairs, and his
voice was followed by a scream. “These motherfuckers had one
job!”

“I tracked him. He’s in a morgue fifteen minutes
drive from here,” shouted Tooth breathlessly, already on his way
down the stairs. Adrenaline prevented him from feeling any physical
discomfort. On his way out, he saw Priest put a big long nail
through Blitz’s ear, pinning him to the bar. “It’s Ghost’s
hospital.”

“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” Priest showed his teeth when he
caught up, with his hands still bloodied.

Ghost followed close by. “Do you want me to call
them? Maybe someone knows something.” His contacts could come in
handy, but if Luci was still alive (Tooth would pray to Satan
himself for that to be true), they didn’t want to warn whoever was
with him that they were coming.

“
We need to go
now
.” Urgency burned in Tooth as if there was boiling oil
instead of blood flowing through his veins. He needed Luci to be
alive.

“Let’s leave someone with your computer, to inform
us in case he moves,” Priest said and ordered one of the guys to do
so before Tooth even answered. “We can’t take too many men inside.
Someone’s gonna notice otherwise.”

Tooth swallowed hard but nodded despite his doubts.
“You’re right. It’s a public building. Fuck.” Tooth bit his lip and
stormed through the door. “Let’s go.”

Priest must have given silent orders because several
men followed him to their bikes. His blood was on fire as he
reached the car.

Ghost got into the passenger seat and fastened his
seatbelt. “I took my instruments, in case he’s injured.” The pale
blue eyes had so much focus they relieved at least some nerves in
Tooth’s body.

“How long does it fucking take to take someone’s
organ?” asked Tooth, driving through the gate right away. He didn’t
look left and had to hit the gas pedal hard not to collide with
another car. But it was all nothing. They would be there on time.
He’d hold Luci and carve the heart out of Rick’s chest. In that
order.

He couldn’t stop thinking that all this
wouldn’t
have happened
if he stayed behind. Luci was so sad to see him go, and he had
reasons.

“
You need to cut the breastbone for the heart. I
think they would leave that as their second thing. And they need to
put him under first properly. Depends on how prepared they were to
do it today. Maybe they want to keep him for a few days under
observation. They probably don’t know about the tracker.” Ghost
sounded confident and calm as usual, but it wasn’t helping Tooth’s
anxiety. The image in his mind, of Luci having his breastbone sawed
through and ribs cracked open
, made him want to howl, kill, and smash skulls.

The streetlights melted into a single line
on Tooth’s left as he rushed
down the highway, followed by a swarm of motorcycles. They didn’t
give him much confidence this time. He should have never left Luci
with those three idiots. Images of blood mingled with those of
unbearable defeat and frustration only grew under his skin as he
left the highway to park near the hospital.

Ghost unbuckled his seatbelt and took his bag on his
way out of the car. “There’s a back entrance into the morgue.”

“
Do you have the keys or do we break in?” asked
Tooth, quickly parking the car and getting out to join the other
brothers. He
would
attack a
hospital for Luci, even one as vast as this one.

Ghost looked at his watch. “There should only be one
person there at this time,” he said, already leading them through a
row of trees and then along the back walls of the morgue.

Priest gestured for everyone to follow, and a
total of seven men slid into the shadows like a pack of wolves
tracking down a bear that
had snatched their young. Tooth was sweating from the
stress of it, but with his hand already on the gun, he was ready to
confront Rick any moment. This time it wouldn’t be him
bleeding.

Ghost stopped them, and heat flooded Tooth’s brain
when he noticed a man in scrubs having a smoke by the open
backdoor. This was the chance
they needed, but when he clenched his hands on the gun, Ghost
stepped out of the shadows himself. “Hey!” he said to the smoking
man. “I know it’s late, but I forgot my keys, and I don’t wanna go
all the way from the front.”

Tooth wouldn’t wait. He emerged from behind the
corner and went straight for the guy, who didn’t even have the time
to scream before the handle of Tooth’s gun hit the back of his
head. “We’re going in,” he said, pulling on the door. His skin
crawled the moment he faced a dimly lit corridor.

Ghost stalled for a moment by the unconscious man
but then pulled him inside like a good boy. He stood up and turned
on the white halogens.

“Tie him up,” Priest said to one of the guys.

“We have to be quiet. Noise carries easily here,”
Ghost said and passed Tooth.

There was no discussion, they needed to move
quick
ly. As they ran
down the sterile corridor, each room was a disappointment. Empty
examination rooms, offices, and what not. They all stirred when
someone gave a silent shriek upon opening one of the doors. All
became clear when Tooth saw a white silhouette on a steel table.
His stomach turned. He wasn’t afraid of blood and guts, and the man
was definitely not Luci, but the sight of a corpse on that fucking
table, lit up by the halogens like a fucking UFO victim, with his
chest open, had Tooth gagging. This was what would become of Luci
if they didn’t act fast enough.

Not to mention that even being here brought up all
the memories Tooth wanted to keep buried. Only now did he realize
that it was the exact same morgue where he
’d had to identify Tracy. They were in the room
where bodies were refrigerated, and checking all the shelves was a
tedious task, but it had to be done. As Tooth pulled out the metal
container with a young black man, for a moment he almost thought
time had stopped, and it was in fact Tracy, cold and dead. But time
didn’t stop. It was ticking quicker than ever.

“Where the fuck can he be?” Milk groaned as he
pulled a bandana over his nose and mouth.

Priest was already on the phone. “The tracker is
pointing to the morgue? Hasn’t moved at all?” He gave Tooth a grim
glare.

Tooth growled, hitting his thigh with his fists to
unload at least some of the tension deep within. He was looking at
body after body, but none of them was Luci. It didn’t make that
much sense if Ghost claimed the surgery would take time, but he
still needed to know if his love
hadn’t been drugged and left in the coffin-like
refrigerator.

“
Jesus fucking Christ!” Milk exclaimed with a yelp
when he opened another one of the shelves and stumbled back so fast
he tripped over something and fell
on his ass. There was a dead body with the head
open and brain on show on the shelf. It was something Milk had
already seen during his career in the Coffin Nails. Still, it was
gruesome.

Tooth opened his mouth to speak but shut it when
they heard a loud clicking noise and... one of the walls seemed to
stir.

Ghost hissed, looking around. “What the fuck is
that?”

Tooth shut the drawer and rushed to the strange
wall. At first he thought it was just wishful thinking, but no,
there was a gap at the corner, which
had previously seemed as solid white as the
rest.

“I’ll be damned,” muttered Priest as he too
noticed.

Tooth put his hand against the gap, and a shudder
went down his spine when he felt a cool breeze from behind the
wall. Without thinking, he slipped
in his fingers and pulled.

Milk pointed to his own chest. “It was me who found
it. Remember.”

He didn’t even get to finish before Ghost pushed him
away to help Tooth pull at the wall. Something cracked, and the
wall moved smoothly, uncovering a dark corridor leading to a lower
floor. Tooth was sure going down there would be like uncovering the
gates of hell.

He looked back, shocked with that find. Why would
the hospital obscure the entrance to the basement? The walls around
the stairs were a dirty beige, which reminded him of old,
non-renovated
buildings.

“Don’t look at me,” Ghost muttered with his eyes
wide. “I’ve never been there.”

“Let’s just go,” ordered Priest.

They descended the stairs in silence, and the
worst thing was that a part of Tooth yelled that this could just be
storage rooms, and they were wasting valuable time when Lucifer
could be dying. But
hadn’t they penetrated the rest of the building by
now?

He dove right in, step by careful step. The lamp at
the landing was unstable and kept twinkling, but it led them lower,
into a space smelling of antiseptic and old paint. His breath
stilled when he stood in front of one of the longest corridors he’d
seen. The light was extremely sparse, yellowish lamps placed just
close enough to provide sufficient light for moving around. He
didn’t see any doors either, just a broad walkway with a few white
pieces of furniture scattered on the way, as if this were some kind
of abandoned asylum.