Lake’s Legacy (Demon Dawgs MC: New Orleans #3)

Chapter Thirty-One Lake

We were not prepared.

Not prepared for the smell of unwashed bodies and human waste.

Not prepared for the sight of almost two dozen pregnant women strapped to beds.

Not prepared for the sounds of weeping and the prevailing cloud of despair that permeated every inch of the room.

“Where the fuck is she?” Screams a woman, pounding on our prisoner. “You mother-fucking bastard. What did you do to her?”

Hex grabs her, wrapping his arms around her even as she struggles to escape. He’s whispering, but I don’t think she’s listening. I recognize her from her picture. Dr. Marcia Carver. Olivia’s friend.

While Zip moves to help Pirate and Dixie free the women, I go to help Hex. “You’re Dr. Carver?” I ask her.

She stills, but Hex doesn’t release his grip. Probably seeing the hate-filled glare she sends at the man she attacked. “Do I know you?”

“No. But I’m a friend of Olivia Delacroix. She’s why we’ve been looking for you and Talia.”

“Talia’s dead,” Marcia says, nodding at the men. “Those fucking bastards let their hired thugs beat her to death right in front of us. We had to watch as they destroyed her.”

Abra yanks the man Marcia attacked up off the ground and punches him hard in the liver. I wince when I see he’s wearing his brass knuckles. Getting hit in the liver hurts like a bitch. The pain sucks all the oxygen out of the man’s lungs. He can’t manage a scream. Abra repeats the punishment on the second asshole.

“Who are they?” Hex asks.

“Dr. Anton Calder and Dr. John Merkel,” Marcia spits.

“You’re fucking doctors?” Hex snarls. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“They’re not doctors. They’re fucking monsters. This asshole stole my baby.” Marcia breaks loose to kick at Dr. Calder.

“That’s not how you get him to talk, sweetheart. Hit him where it hurts,” Abra says, taking off his brass knuckles and handing them to her. She stares at them before looking between Abra and the man at her feet.

A look of demonic pleasure crosses over her pretty features as she slides them on. She pulls her arm back and slams the mental prongs into Calder’s junk. I wince at the sight but can’t hold back the chuckle when his high-pitched scream echoes around the room. The other women cheer her on.

“Tell me where my baby is,” Marcia screams at the man who whimpers in pain.

Abra shakes him. “Tell her, or I’ll deliver a kick that will send your pathetic cock into your stomach.”

“Okay,” he wheezes out. “I gave him to a man who promised to take the baby out of the country. I couldn’t let them trace the kid back to me.”

Marcia collapses against Hex, who wraps his arm around her to steady her.

“Give us a name,” Hex orders.

“Mikel, something. I don’t know who he is. He worked for one of our clients.”

“Nero?” Hex asks.

The guy jerks at the mention of Hex’s dead father-in-law.

“When was the baby born?” I ask Marcia.

She shares the date, and I look at Hex. Could it be? The timing was right. So was the player, Mikel. He brought two babies and several other children onboard a ship setting sail for South America. All were destined for grim futures until the Demon Dawgs intervened and rescued the children. We returned all the children to their families except for the two babies.

“Any chance these assholes gave Mikel two babies?” Hex asked her.

She nods. “Yes. A second baby was born only a few hours after mine. His.” Marcia nods at Merkel, who has tried to make himself disappear. He goes green when we all turn to look at him. “Some poor girl that he impregnated and brought here. She didn’t survive the birth.”

“I don’t want to get your hopes up, but we found two babies on a cruise ship around that time. The man who brought the babies on board was Mikel,” Hex explains. “I don’t know if either of those babies is yours, but we’ll find out.”

“Really?” Marcia looks at Hex with heartbreaking hope.

“Lake, call Olivia. See if she’s still with Rey. We need ambulances and the cops to take over. Marcia, can you go with Lake?”

She nods and lets me take her arm. I lead her to a bed next to a woman who looks ready to give birth at any second—hex kneels to talk to the two doctors. I don’t know what he’s saying, but the fear on their faces tells me he’s making a point.

Olivia answers on the second ring. After learning she’s still at the hospital and talking with Rey’s brother, I give her our location and tell her to send the detective and every ambulance they have.

Hex finishes with the prisoners and comes to join us. “Olivia was still with Rey and Rey’s brother. They’re on their way here now. What are we going to do with them? Are we taking them back to the clubhouse?”

“No. Too risky. Besides, we don’t need anything from those two assholes.”

“Except for them to die after what they did to these women,” Pirate argues.

“They’ll get theirs. All we would do is kill them after inflicting some pain. Let them rot in some prison cell. My guess is they’ll get their asses beat daily by the prisoners once they learn these assholes were selling infants.”

“What if they get off?” Zip asks. “Two rich white guys? Odds are in their favor.”

“I already told them what we’d do to them if they didn’t confess.”

“Thank you,” Marcia says. “Thank you for finding us. Some of these women have been prisoners for almost a year. First as sex slaves, then once they got pregnant, those assholes had us caring for them so they could sell the babies.”

“I’m guessing they took you and Talia to care for the women?”

“Talia, yes, but they grabbed me because I was pregnant with Calder’s child. He and I worked together at Omega Hospital. He pursued me for weeks, but I resisted until he wore me down. Of course, once he had me, he moved on. Bastard. I can’t believe I was such a fool.”

“This isn’t on you. This is on him,” I assure her.

“Maybe. But I knew better. I knew Calder’s reputation. We lasted six weeks before he dumped me for a nurse who had just transferred to Omega from a hospital out of state. I transferred to Tulane Hospital when I realized I was pregnant. I debated telling him but figured he’d find out, so I did the mature thing. I met him for coffee and told him the news. He freaked out. Then, a few days later, he called and asked to meet. He told me he had time to come to terms with becoming a father and wanted to discuss the future. He came over for dinner. I woke up locked in a room and chained to the bed. That’s when the horror started.”

“Did he try to abort the baby?” I ask.

“Surprisingly, no. I almost wish that was what he’d done. Instead, he told me he owned me and that I would never be free again. He took me out of the room and into hell. Women were chained to beds while men paid to rape them. Calder and Merkel told me to care for the women, or they’d tie me to a bed. They forced me to treat those poor girls. At first, I refused, so they grabbed the nearest girl and slit her throat. The next day, they had a new girl chained to that bed. She was young and still a virgin. I don’t think she was older than sixteen. They told me I could either care for the girls they had or they’d dispose of the girls and grab new ones. I treated the women. I hated myself but didn’t want them to break another girl.”

“You said you were in a building. So, not this building?” Hex asks.

“No, I think it used to be an office building. There were multiple floors. Not sure how long we were there. Long enough to have my baby and lose him. Maybe a week or two after that, some kid showed up and told Merkel that they were about to get invaded by bikers.”

“What did this kid look like?”

“Young. Maybe nineteen. He had on a vest with the word Prospect on the back.” The rest of her description told us all we needed to know. Fucking Irish had warned the bastards. That’s how they knew we were coming and why they cleared out the night we attacked.

“They killed those women,” Marcia murmurs. “All of them. They walked around and slit their throats. The fuckers said it was a shame to waste them but that they could replace them. The only women they didn’t kill were the ones who were pregnant. He brought us here.”

Hex stalks over to the prisoners and yanks Merkel up by his tie. “Do you have another fucking whorehouse?”

Merkel sneers at Hex until Hex hauls back and punches him twice in the liver and then in the throat. Dropping Merkel back to the ground, Hex stomps hard on the man’s left hand and then his right before smashing his kneecaps. As Merkel curls up into a fetal position, Hex turns his attention to Calder. “Want the same? Or are you going answer the fucking question?”

“No, we don’t. I swear it. We haven’t had time to set it up yet.”

A disturbance at the door draws our attention. “Police!” shouts the cops as they stream into the building. Calder looks relieved until they slap on the cuffs.