Las Vegas Sidewinders: Dominic (21 page)

“He was not there!” Toli
looked angrier than Dom had ever seen him. He muttered something in Russian
that made the only other Russian player in the room look up, startled.

“We have to go!” Dom was
finally moving. “That specific code means she’s at their old house.”

“Do you know where it is?”
Cody asked.

“Bet your ass I do.” Dom
nodded then swung his gaze back to Brad. “Coach, can you have Mr. Finch make
some calls to the powers that be in Henderson? This might get ugly. Do you have
all the information? I think they’re at his house, but we won’t know for sure until
we get there.”

“I’ll take care of it.” Brad
moved towards his office with Dave on his heels and Yvon still glaring after
them.

“We need to take your SUV
and Toli’s truck—mine is only a two-seater,” Dom said to Cody. “I’ll text you
the address, Toli, in case we get separated, but try to stay close.”

They were moving down the
hall now.

“Wait up!” Zakk Cloutier,
the twenty-two-year-old from the University of North Dakota, came down the hall
after them. He wore jeans, a camouflage t-shirt and biker boots. His arms were
covered in tattoos and his blond hair was partly shaved on one side and hung
down to his shoulder on the other. He looked like he belonged in a motorcycle
gang instead of a hockey rink.

“What’s going on?” he asked,
catching up to them. “Can I help? Where I’m from, we don’t let our friends take
care of trouble alone.”

“You don’t need to get
involved, kid,” Cody said. “This could be some serious stuff—”

“I’m pretty sure I can
handle myself, whatever it is.” Zakk looked at them, his green eyes moving from
one to the other. “If one of your wives is in trouble, I’m in.”

There was no time to argue,
and frankly, Dom had no idea what to expect. For all he knew, there would be a
slew of armed police in front of the house ready to shoot them. If this kid was
willing to have their back, he wasn’t going to say no. “Come on then!” he said
as he turned and jogged out to the parking lot. He got in beside Cody, and Zakk
climbed into the back seat. Drake and Karl went with Toli, and they pulled onto
the street going well above the speed limit.

“Where does he live?” Cody
asked, stopping at the corner.

“We need to get on the 515
south,” Dom said in a tight voice. It was taking all of his self-control not to
lose his mind. The idea that Tim had found her scared him to death, but the
idea that she might be hurt right now made him want to kill someone. It had
been ages since he’d felt this level of sheer fury, and the only thing keeping
him from breaking everything in sight was the fact that he knew Molly needed him.
If he lost control, she might die, and that was not going to happen. Not this
time.

“Someone needs to call
Suze,” Cody said. “She needs to know what’s going on.”

Dom picked up Cody’s phone
and hit the speed dial, putting her on speakerphone.

“What’s happening?” Suze
shrieked into the phone. “She sent the 666 message. That means he took her to
their old house! Dom, hurry!”

 “We’re heading there
now.” Dom said. “Cody’s driving.”

“You need to call Andra,”
Cody called out. “Tell her that Brad is supposed to be trying to get Lonnie
Finch to call his contacts in Henderson. We have no idea what we’re going to
find. None of us is armed, so we’re potentially showing up at a gun fight with
nothing but our fists—see if she knows anyone important she can call.”

“Please be careful,” Suze
whispered into the phone.

“It’s going to be okay,
baby,” Cody spoke with more confidence than he felt. “I love you, okay?
Remember that.”

“Cody…” She let his name
linger before taking a deep breath. “I love you too. Both of you. Please take
care of each other.”

“We’re going to be fine,
we’re going to get Molly, and we’ll call you soon.” Dom disconnected and took
several slow, steady breaths.

“So, is this about your
wife’s ex?” Zakk spoke from the back seat, breaking the silence since he had no
idea what was going on.

“Technically, my
girlfriend’s husband,” Dom corrected mildly. “Her divorce has been in limbo for
months—I’m going to fire that sonofabitch lawyer the minute we get done with
this!”

“One thing at a time,” Cody
said. He picked up speed as they got onto the highway. He could see Toli right
behind him and watched his speedometer creep past 70, 80 and then 90.

Cody’s phone rang and Dom
put it on speakerphone again. “Yeah?” Cody called out.

“It’s Brad.” His booming
voice seemed to vibrate through the vehicle. “Just got off the phone with
Lonnie’s secretary, and he’s on the phone with the mayor of Henderson right
now. Hopefully you’ll have backup from someone the mayor trusts, but if not…”
He let his voice trail off.

“This is on me, Coach,” Dom
spoke with finality. “My girl, my situation—I’m not going to let any of the
other guys get hurt. If we can’t handle this like reasonable adults, then I’m
going in alone.”

“The hell you are!” Cody
spat at him. “Molly’s one of us now!”

“You have a family to think
about!” Dom yelled back. “Somebody needs to be able to take care of Suze and
CJ!”

“Coach will take care of
them!” Cody was yelling too.

“Stop it!” Brad was yelling
through the phone. “You do what you have to do to get Molly out of there, but
if it’s too late, you get the hell out of dodge. Do you understand me?”

“We got it, Coach.” Dom said
after a slight hesitation. “We’re out.” He disconnected and looked back at
Zakk. “We’re talking about a bunch of dirty cops, a wife beater and possibly a
psychopath. You sure you’re up for this?”

“Ready or not,” Zakk said
with a small shrug, “I’m not turning back now.”

Molly came awake slowly, her
body aching in ways she’d almost forgotten. Her side still burned where the
stun gun had shocked her. Her legs felt like lead and her head was pounding,
but she didn’t dare open her eyes yet. She listened intently for any signs that
Tim was with her, but she couldn’t hear anything.

The last thing she
remembered was pulling out her phone in the back seat of the SUV and sending
out the
666
text. She’d heard Tim call someone and tell him that he’d
gotten her and was bringing her to the house. Though she’d been in a lot of
pain, barely able to move, she’d managed to get the phone out of her yoga pants
and quietly send the text before stuffing it back in. She’d slipped in and out
of consciousness after that, but she remembered Tim carrying her out of the SUV
and dumping her on the floor. He’d been screaming at her, kicking and shaking
her. Luckily, she’d blacked out.

She had no idea how much
time had passed, but she clung to the hope that even if Dom and Toli were still
at practice, Suze at least had seen the text and was letting them know
something had happened.

“Molly!” She heard her name
in a hushed whisper. “Molly, you need to fight through the pain and wake up! I
don’t know how much time we have!”

Molly’s eyes opened when she
recognized Sergei’s voice.

“Shh,” he said, still
whispering. He was sitting on one of their kitchen chairs, his hands tied behind
him. There was an ugly bruise around one of his eyes, and dried blood under his
nose and on his shirt. His shirt was torn and he had lost one shoe, but
otherwise he looked better than she felt. “Tim went outside—he’s been trying to
wake you for half an hour.”

“You’re hurt,” she
whispered.

“I’m fine,” he said quickly.
“He thinks I’m Toli.”

“Oh no!” She tried to sit up
but a splitting pain in her arm almost made her cry out.

“How are you?” he asked. “He
dropped you on the floor pretty hard and I think he broke your arm when he was
trying to smack you awake.”

“It hurts like it’s broken,”
she said, swallowing.

“Do you know where we are?”

“This is my old house.”

“Does anyone know this
place?”

“Dom does—I gave him the
address and he memorized how to get here, just in case.”

“Do you think they know
we’re gone?”

“I sent out a text before I
passed out.”

“He took your phone and
smashed it—I saw him.” Sergei frowned.

“I have another one,” she
said under her breath.

“Is it on you?”

“Yes.” She tested her left
arm and winced; she could barely lift it. She slowly moved her right arm and
slid her hand into her pants, her fingers finding the phone.

“Good girl,” he said softly.

Though her hand was shaking,
she managed to hit the speed dial code for Dom’s number. She brought the phone
up to her ear and leaned against the wall.

“
Molly?”
Dom sounded
completely freaked out.

 “Can you hear me?” She
was whispering.

“I hear you, babe. Are you
at the house?”

“Yes. Sergei is here too—Tim
thinks he’s Toli.”

“Is he hurt?”

“Not too bad.”

“Are you okay?”

“I think my arm is broken,
but otherwise okay.”

“Where is Tim now?”

“I don’t know, but I’m going
to leave the phone on and slide it under the couch. That way maybe someone can
track us… or something.”

“We’re only a few minutes
away!” he said. “Hang in there—I’m coming.”

“Someone’s coming!” Sergei
whispered sharply.

Molly dropped phone and slid
it under the couch a few inches just as Tim came stomping into the room. She
turned slowly, looking up at him.

“Look who’s awake!” he
hissed. He moved towards her like a predator, and Molly tried not to let him
see her cringe. She’d lived in fear for so long she didn’t want that to be the
last thing she felt before she died.

“Why are you doing this?”
she asked.

“Why?” he shrieked, his face
turning red. “
Why?
You left me, cheated on me, and then tried to
humiliate me by showing my lawyer that damn video! Do you know how much trouble
you’ve caused me?”

“Then why not just let me
go?”

“Let you go?” He was
blinking furiously, fists clenched at his sides. “And let you get away with
what you’ve done?” He shoved her, and she fell over with a yelp of pain.

“Dammit, no!” Sergei felt
the veins throbbing in his head as anger filled him. He’d been working on the
knots of the rope that tied his hands, but he wasn’t sure he’d made much
progress.

“What are
you
gonna
do, loverboy?” Tim laughed almost hysterically. He leaned over, close enough
for Sergei to smell the whisky on his breath. “I’ll tell you what you’re going
to do… you’re going to watch while I fuck her—and then
she’s
going to
watch me kill you.”

In the car, Dom gripped the
side of the seat so hard he could feel the leather ripping under his hands.
Listening to the muffled conversation on the other end of the phone, he knew
with every fiber of his being that he was going to rip Tim apart, piece by
piece. Gun or no gun, Tim would have to keep shooting because he would be dead
before he let him touch Molly again.

“Breathe,” Cody said as
steadily as he could. Though he was as terrified as he’d ever been in his life,
he knew Dom had to stay in control for as long as possible.

“I don’t know who this
motherfucker is,” Zakk sat forward in agitation. “But we need to get there.”

“I’m going 85 on surface
streets,” Cody snapped. “We can’t afford to get stopped!”

“It’s around the corner,”
Dom said in a deadly voice. “Turn here and then stop. We don’t want them to see
us pull up.”

Cody did as he was told. He
could see Toli, Drake and Karl getting out of the car behind them. “Do we have a
plan?”

“He might have his cop
friends waiting to stop us,” Toli said as they came together.

“You understand
nothing
is going to stop me?” Dom looked at his friends. “If they kill me, promise me
you’ll get her out.”

“Dom—”

“Promise me!” Dom gripped
Cody’s arm. “Cody—I need to know that if I don’t make it, you’ll take care of
her.”

“Yeah, of course.” Cody
swallowed and met his friend’s eyes. “But understand
me
—we’re
all
walking out of there.”

“What’s the plan?” Drake was
standing next to the car, his arms folded across his massive chest. Drake was
probably the only guy Dom knew that was bigger than he was, and he was grateful
for these men who had followed him into this hell.

“We need to see what’s
waiting for us first,” Dom said, joining them on the side of the road. “I can’t
believe he’s there alone with Molly and Sergei.”

“
Sergei?
” Toli’s eyes
darkened dangerously.

“Molly called—they think
Sergei is you and grabbed him by mistake.”