Chapter 11

Damian

    

"Damian." I heard a voice and felt someone put their hand on my shoulder. I woke up and swung my hand. Mitch grabbed my hand before it hit him, "Watch that hand boy."

I took a deep breath relieved to find that it was him, "Sorry Sir."

I looked down and saw Ophelia was still sleeping. I moved my arms slowly trying to not wake her and got out of the bed. 

"What happened?" Mitch whispered.

"I came in here last night to check on her and she was crying so hard. I wanted to comfort her." 

"I was going to come see you after I checked on her. Let's step outside."

"Yes sir." 

Mitch and I walked out of Ophelia's room and into the hallway. I saw Jax, Noah and Oliver standing there as well. 

"What's going on?" I asked. 

 “We need to talk." Mitch said. 

I walked into my room first and Mitch, Noah, Oliver and Jax walked in behind me, closing the door. Walking closer to the bed, I turned to face them.     

"Sir, I'm sorry. I wanted to comfort her. She was really upset." 

"Damian, I'm not worried about that."

I sighed, I thought I was about to get my ass kicked for sure. 

"I want to know what happened. What went down, I want to know what you told Jax." Mitch said. 

“After we left the restaurant, we were driving back and suddenly there were vehicles coming up on us quickly. So quickly that I was worried they were going to hit us. I picked up speed, but the faster I went, the faster they went. I knew something wasn't right, so I told Ophelia to call Ben. Then there were two big ass pickup trucks with plows on the front of them that pulled into the road and blocked it. I slammed the brakes hoping that we would stop, but we hit the fucking plows and flipped upside down. The airbags hit us both so hard it knocked us out for a moment. I was in and out, she was in and out. When I finally came to, I got her to wake up and that’s when we were both pulled from the truck. I could hear her screaming and when they pulled me out the truck, I started fighting.  But one of them bastards hit me behind the head knocking me the fuck out. They put her in one vehicle and put me in another one.” 

"Did they say anything to you?" Mitch asked. 

"No Sir. When I woke up, they had us both tied to chairs on opposite sides of a big ass room. Anatoly kept telling her to read the fucking ransom note. She wouldn't and he slapped her a couple times. He had some guys standing over me and when she still wouldn't read it, they started hitting me. I tried breaking out of the restraints, but I couldn't. She finally read the ransom note, they took us to some fucking cold ass concrete cells and locked the door. For a little while, I was in the cell next to Ophelia, so I was able to talk to her and try to keep her calm. Then they brought us out of the cells again. Anatoly was talking to her again and again when she didn't answer he'd slap her. So, I started hollering at him and taunting him, told him to let me out the cuffs and I would kill everyone in there. I was trying to get his attention off her. They took the cuffs off, so I started fighting like hell, trying to take down every one of them but they kept coming, and I was outnumbered. I heard three gunshots and I turned around, I thought he had shot her. When I started walking towards him, he put the barrel of the gun to her head, and I froze. One of the guys behind me kicked me to the ground and they had a shitload of guns pointed at my head."

I stopped talking as I thought about what had happened, what Ophelia had done when they had their guns at my head. She put her life at risk for me, but I didn't want to tell the boss that. 

"Then what happened?" Noah asked. 

"Ophelia started screaming and some big ass Russian dude hauled her off back to her cell. I closed my eyes. I knew I was about to die. I was preparing for death, but I heard someone say something in Russian and Anatoly shot to the side of my head. They put me in a cell on the other side of the building and I never saw Ophelia again until y’all came for us."

"Did they ask you any questions?" Mitch asked.

"Yes Sir. They asked me about you." 

"What did you tell them?" Oliver asked. 

"I kept repeating my name and my tag numbers. I wasn't saying a fucking thing other than that." 

"I wanted you to fill in the blanks for me. I mean there is only so much we know. The rest of it, only you and Ophelia know." Mitch said. 

"I understand Sir. I wish I could have done more to get us out of there. I have no idea what they did to her after they separated us. I wish there were more that I could tell you." 

"Well, we have an idea of what happened to her, at least what the doctors are saying happened to her." Mitch said quietly.

"What happened?" 

Noah shook his head, "I don't think you want to know.”

"What the fuck, what the fuck did they do?" I asked, trying to hide my anger. 

Mitch didn't say anything for a moment, he stood there staring at me, then looked over at Noah and Oliver. 

“Would one of you please tell me what the fuck happened?"

"From what the doctors told us...she was um…" Mitch cleared his throat, "She was beaten and raped." 

My jaw hit the floor and I stumbled backwards before sitting on the edge of the bed. I put my hand over my eyes, my other hand balled into a fist. At that moment I wanted to throw something. I wanted to fucking kill someone. I wished one of the motherfuckers was still alive so I could fucking kill them in the worst possible way. I sat there for a minute trying to calm myself. How could they fucking do that? Why did they have to do that to her? Noah walked over and sat on the bed next to me, he put his hand on my shoulder but didn't say anything. Finally, I stood up and looked at Mitch. 

"I need to know something." 

"What's that?" He asked.

"How the hell did they know where she would be? How did they know she would be going out on that day, in that particular vehicle?"

The expression on Mitch's face changed as he looked at me then looked at Jax. His eyes widened as if a light bulb went off and he realized what I had asked. Noah looked at me the same why, as though none of them had thought about this before. 

"We have a fucking rat." Oliver said, finally breaking the silence.

"Wait! What?" Mitch asked, as if he didn't hear what Oliver had said.

"While I sat in the cell, I did a lot of thinking. The way they suddenly came up on us, it was like they were sitting and waiting for us to pass and got behind us. Like they knew what we would be driving. Something didn't add up. The two trucks that crossed the road, I mean that shit wasn't random. Someone fucking planned that out. Someone put a lot of thought into that. For them to take us so far off into the damn woods. I mean they knew how much time they had; they knew what they were doing." 

Mitch looked at Jax, "I was so consumed with finding her that I never even stopped to question that. Who else knew they were going out that day?" 

"Just about everyone at the compound knew, it had been planned for days." Jax responded. 

"I want everyone looked at. I want to know what everyone on my compound is doing. I want to know who the fuck they are talking to and if they are taking any extra money. I want everyone fucking looked at. I want to fucking know every move they are making," Mitch said, his voice getting louder as he spoke. 

"I’ll coordinate with Ben and we’ll let you know as soon as we find something." Jax said. 

"This conversation stays between us. I do not want Ophelia to know about this theory and I do not want anyone at the compound to know what we are doing. Is that understood?" Mitch said, looking at each of us. 

"Yes Sir." We said all together. 

All I knew, if I was right, if we did have a rat, then Ophelia was not yet safe. I had to do everything I could to keep her safe, to protect her, to make up for failing her. I would not fail her again. I would never let anyone hurt her again. I would not be able to live with myself if anything happened to her again.