Axel had tried to call Houtter, but got no answer, which wasn't odd so we were waiting for a return phone call, in order to give him the full scope of what was happening and so that he could be present when Mia walked that asshole out for him to place into custody.
We were just about to pull onto the freeway that would run us straight into the city when Axel called us.
"Houtter call back?"
"No, I tried to call again, but Cynthia sounded off man. Told me that he wouldn't be accepting any calls for a while."
Mia looked at me from the driver's seat. "Did you tell him what was going on in the first message?"
"Well, yeah, it's Houtter, why wouldn't I? Especially with what it has to do with."
"You have an extra seat in your car Axel?" She asked.
"Yeah, why?"
She looked at me as she pulled her foot off the gas pedal. "You guys all need to get back to the house and stay there. Those guys show up and now all of the sudden this. I'll meet you back at house as soon as I can, but ALL of you need to get back there. We're going to hot swap; you're going to take Deacon with you back."
"The hell he is!!!"
"You're going with him and everyone else back! I know these streets, side roads and everything in this town better than any cop on that force, and I can do it better if I know where the fuck you are!! Just listen to me this once."
As we pulled off the next exit and I watched her speed off I knew something was wrong. "She shouldn't be going alone and we all know it. Mia's not wrong this doesn't feel right. Houtter never rejects our calls. Get back to the house as quick as possible, I want to be ready in case we need to get back out here on short notice."
----20 minutes later-----
As soon as we pulled in Rose and Trisha were running down the front stairs, the look of fear written all over them. "What's wrong?"
Before anyone could get a word out my phone rang. "Houtter what the fuck is going on!!!!"
"There was a reason I wasn't answering Deacon. We got a tip on a large warehouse on the docks where there are about 1500 girls. I had to get the okay to get you involved in this one, I didn't have a choice.
Where were you headed when Cynthia called me saying that you guys were already headed into the city to take care of business?"
"We were headed towards a group home that Mia had stayed in at one point, where the asshole was turning teenage girls into prostitutes."
"What was the name of the man?"
"Dimitri what did she say that asshole's name was?"
"Brady James Backrock." Dimitri answered loud enough for Houtter to hear.
"Shit!" Houtter snapped under his breath. "Brady James Backrock is the name of the man in charge of the operation down at the docks Deacon."
"Houtter, where's my wife?"
"They got tipped off, she never made it off the freeway before they intercepted her. She had to have thought that it was you guys coming back out, because when she saw them Deacon she slowed down. They literally had the same vehicles that you guys would have run. It had to have blind sided her. We've been trying to find ways to get them off her tail long enough for her to get turned around and a long lead ahead of them, but so far we haven't been able to find a way to shake them off her tail without risking something happening to her as well. I have every unit out trying to help, but we don't have the firepower or the capability to help properly. You need to get on that freeway now. Best case right now is that they hear that you are back on the road and that we can get use that as a distraction in order to get her the room to turn around and gun it back your way."
"You get that road cleared and get us a way on. Houtter get her turned the fuck around before we hit that road. It's just fucking her and she's unfuckingarmed!!! We'll get to her, but whoever these assholes are, you're going to need fucking body bags for because they aren't coming off that road alive. Your men see us coming they better be out of the way; we will go through them not around, this isn't just some job now, this is my wife, my children's mother, part of my family. I don't care what we have to do to make sure that we get to her before something happens. Are we clear?"
"Crystal." Houtter responded. "Attention all units, we will have incoming vehicles coming in from northbound, clear all traffic, everything. They are going to be coming in full speed. Do not, I repeat DO NOT hinder in any way. This is one of their own these assholes have trapped up there and they're going to be coming with intent to destroy."
"Sergeant, sir, we need to know who it is." I heard a voice respond.
"Tell them." I snapped.
"Trapped driver is Mia Lombardi, give them room to get her out of there and handle business. This is involved with the current situation that is going on at the docks. At this there is no verification that Brady Backrock is indeed in any of the vehicles involved with the entrapment on the freeway, but Mrs. Lombardi does have a past history with Mr. Backrock so it is a high possibility that if he knows that she would have been on her way there that he would involve himself with this situation.
I will repeat again, the incoming vehicles will be coming in northbound, do not allow any other vehicles to gain access to the roadway, this situation does not need to escalate any farther than it already has."
"Sir, no offense, but at some point or another they have all been responsible for saving all of our lives, we want to help. What can we do?"
"Axel, get us on their band." I demanded. "Houtter, I'm having Axel patch me into your band, your men better have their ears on." I snapped abruptly hanging up the phone.
"Got it."
"This is Deacon Lombardi speaking; my wife is on that road. I understand and appreciate that you all want to help but, the best thing that you can do at this moment is stand down. We have the capability to help her and the firepower as well.
After we get Mia, I plan on heading towards the docks and taking care of things there, that of course hinges on what kind of shit we have to go through to get to her in the first place." I said as calmly as I could muster knowing that right now Mia was alone, more than likely she has started to panic by this point. Releasing the talk button to the radio, I turned facing everyone that was standing close to me awaiting orders. "We're on the road in thirty! Nicco, Dimitri you're with me. Alex, Axel and Eric together." I called out as I tightened the last strap of my bullet proof vest tightly around my waist, grabbing the same gun I grab every time, I took the driver's seat.
"Would you rather have Dimitri or I drive so that you are able to react quicker Deacon?" Nicco asked cautiously as he approached the car.
"No." I snapped harshly. "If there's anyone that can possibly match Mia in both speed and ability it's me. That's what we need right now."
Every car that we had lined up roared life, except those of the other six heads. This wasn't important enough to them to get involved, though I silently prayed that after this, that they would no longer use the term Belladonna when they referred to Mia. Pressing down on the radio button I took a deep breath before speaking. "We're rolling and we're rolling hot Houtter, we'll be heading northbound towards exit 9. Get it cleared, we'll be there in under 5, make sure the road is clear and get Mia turned back towards us. We can intercept her safely and cleanly.
To any and all men of Houtter's men hearing this, clear out of our way. By no means do I mean any offense by this statement, but none of you are equipped enough or trained well enough to protect yourselves, let alone my wife should things start to go south."
Just as I changed the band back our own, I heard the radio clicking and popping like someone was trying to come through, but couldn't get a steady signal. "Deacon..." Her voice was small and the radio started to click again repeating the same pattern over and over again. "Deacon..." Again, her voice barely above a whisper as the radio began clicking and popping again in the same pattern.
Nicco was just about to turn the knob of the radio, when I realized that the clicks and pops were repeating a pattern over and over again. "Don't touch it. She's sending us a message with the radio. "I just don't know how to decipher it."
"Deacon, you getting this too?" Axel asked in confusion. "What is that?"
"It's Mia, she's trying to send us a message, but as to what she's trying to say I have no clue." I responded.
We were all silent as we continued our drive. After probably the tenth time that the pattern repeated, the realization of what the clicks and pops were made me sick. "Mia, why aren't talking to us?" I questioned over the radio.
Another round of clicks and pops followed. "Mia, you need to talk so we know where you are and what you need. None of us can figure out what you're trying to send us baby. Please." Taking a deep breath trying to calm myself, I triggered the radio. "Axel, I don't know what the rest of what she is sending is saying for sure, but I know that the first part of it is S.O.S., she's sending us a damn SOS message. Does anyone with you know Morris Code?"
"No." He answered frustratedly.
"The only person that she could have learned that off of is Dad, Deacon, so he would be the only one that would be able to translate what she's sending. Do you want me to get him on the band at the house?" I heard Alex saying.
"No, it wouldn't matter at this point anyways we're almost there and we cannot afford for any of us to turn back to get him. We push forward."
The button on her radio now held the channel open, we all heard what sounded like sickeningly happy laughter, mixed with hoots, hollers, and what now came through very clearly as strikes of a heavy hand against skin.
Although we were not all in one vehicle, you could feel the tension building as we could do nothing but listen, not knowing the true origin of the sounds coming from the other side of the radio. All of us hoping that it was Mia who was the one landing the hard hits that we were hearing and not the one that was receiving the hits.
Even I knew that it wouldn't matter how strong or defiant that Mia was, by the sound of those hits they were coming from someone large and it would take very few of those hits to land in order to incapacitate Mia for a while.
The sound of material ripping was the sound that instantly caught my attention, as my hand grasped the gear shift tighter, while pressing the gas pedal to the floor. "Off the band now. The only car that is to have that band open is mine now, are we clear on this?"
One by one I got verification that they all heard me, before I turned the band back to where it was before. It was now silent again, no clicks, no pops, so sounds at all. "Mia, damnit if you can hear me and can reach that radio answer me. "
The static of the radio blasted for a split second, as all three of us tried clearing our heads from the horrid sound, when a different one hit my ears.
"NO!!" We heard Mia's voice cry out. "Please, I'm begging you not to do this."
"SHUT THE FUCK UP!!" A male voice shouted. "You owe me at least this much for all the shit that you put me through. Always pretending to be such an innocent and sweet little peach, I guess your big secret that whole time wasn't that you were stealing anything and pickpocketing, no, that would have been the best case, scenario for you then, wouldn't it?
No, you weren't doing any those things were you? No, no, no, that would have ruined the precious, innocent image that everyone had of you, wouldn't it?
I looked for you day and night for months when you ran away and disappeared into thin air, to find you after four years and looking the way that you do. I figured by now that you would be begging for another fix, while someone slides between your thighs, earning your keep on your back, while he allows his friends to take you one after another until they're done and they'd find the best spot in the gutter for you, allowing you time to curse the body they used as you remember the days when your body was once young and beautiful." The smugness in his voice echoed as though he was standing right here. "Now here we are together again. Are you still going to act like such an innocent creature and still deny my yearning for just a small taste of something so sweet? Considering I can't even begin to imagine how many times you've allowed them to slide between these lips."
"NO!" Mia cried out over and over again in muffled sobs. "Please stop! NO!! NO!! NO!! Get away from me!"
"Shut up!!" The man snapped.
This is time instead of a crack, I made out the sound of a muffled thud, followed by what could not be mistaken as anything other than what it was. Someone had thrown something onto the front of a car.
Grasping the radio tightly, I tried pressing the gas pedal down farther when there was no place for it to go, holding the button down opening the channel. "I don't know who you are asshole, but I'm quite sure you know who I am. So, I'm giving you one and only one chance to save your damn life.
You're going to keep your hands off of her and you're going to meet me, our friends and our family at mile marker 152.2 in five minutes."
There was a short silence on the other end, almost as though hearing my voice had startled them.
A deep laugh broke the silence. "Give me that you fucking bitch!
Well, well, well, so the little bitch wasn't lying, she does indeed know you and your family Mr. Lombardi. Though I'm still a little shaky on how and why someone such as yourself would even bother with such an insignificant little girl, when I'm positive that you have plenty of stunning women that you would find more compelling and would be much more useful that this one has ever been to anyone."