I Remember Love 46 They Have Her.

"I need 3 of our best men as well as the location and any information you have them." He ground the words out while gritting his teeth, his eyes staring off into the distance while he rattled off his current address and location.

Cage, who was on the other line of the phone, could tell something wasn't right. Hunter's voice had been more curt than usual. He could almost feel his anger on the opposite end of the phone and he flinched.

"Sure thing. What's up?"

He knew it was silly to ask, you didn't just casually question the Boss of Satan's Foot Soldiers. But the request was that of a long time friend. It took Hunter a moment longer than to realize this. The words that fell out of Hunter's mouth next, made Cage's blood run cold.

"They have her." was the reply that came over the phone.

Hunter's voice was calm as it came over the line. However, it wasn't the relaxed calm of someone who was indifferent to the situation. Hunter was anything but indifferent. He was a raging ball of barely contained anger. Hunter had sprung into full out boss mode. He wasn't just Hunter Matthews anymore. The tension in that calm was enough to scare even Cage. It went far beyond the boss he knew. Even farther still than the soldier had fought and trained with. He knew instantly, he would have no choice but to go. If Hunter flew into full out berserker mode, he was the only one who could pull him back.

"Got it. I'll be there in five, Boss. Jimmy and Mitch can come with. Sit tight."

Cage sighed as he hung up the phone. So much for being discreet. This had turned into a full out feud. He looked at the papers in his hand giving him details on this small low scale gang. Den of Vipers. At least that's what they called themselves.

Cage raked a hand through his hair, hoping deep down, they were as their name implied. Otherwise, no one was coming out of this alive. Immediately, he picked up the phone and called his two best men. No one did covert better than they did. Within moments they were boarding a black minivan and making their way the address Hunter had given him.

Hunter, in the meantime, was pacing the alleyway, he wanted nothing more than charge after those men. But he was better than that. Revenge was a dish best served cold. He had promised the kid he wouldn't intervene. But this was different. They had come directly after one of his own now. He didn't know who they were, but by the end of the day, they would be groveling for their lives. And Hunter was feeling anything but magnanimous.

Within minutes, Cage had pulled in a small minivan. With him sat two other men, flanking his sides. All three of them dressed in black and armed to the teeth. Where they weren't carrying guns they had knives. They were prepared for a war, and just the sight of it had Hunter smiling. It was time to set an example, and he was a master doing so.

Meanwhile, somewhere in an abandoned warehouse across town, Amalia woke from her medicated slumber. Her eyes were blurry from the drug, her hands bound behind her back and she was disoriented. Faintly in the room hung a musty odor, it was damp and she was cold.

She s.h.i.+vered.

The room they had her in was so dark she couldn't make out her surroundings. With her vision still swimming, she closed her eyes tight to try and focus on what she could hear and smell. She needed to a.s.sess her surroundings.

Fidgeting into a sitting position she groaned feeling the muscles in her shoulder pull tightly. She winced. First things first, she needed to free her hands. It wasn't going to be easy, but it had to be done.

Biting down through her lip, she counted back from five in an attempt to prepare herself from the pain that was about to come. By the time she had reached three, she took a deep breath and with a force, she didn't know she possessed, wrenched her left shoulder free from her socket.

Amalia sucked in a deep breath biting back the scream which was dying to tear from her throat. She felt hot tears trickle down her cheeks in pain and sucked in another breath. It hurt but there had been no alternative. She now had the necessary slack to give her some leeway with the ropes which bound her wrists.

Rocking her arms back and forth she managed to loosen the ropes well enough to almost get her hands free.

"Come one 'Lia" she coaxed herself silently. "You need to think. Move now."

She shut her eyes tightly and listened. For sounds, anything that would give her location away. She had no doubt that Hunter would be on his way, but there was no way he would steal her thunder.

Remembering that sick feeling that filled her stomach before she lost consciousness she glared at the darkened room around her. These a.s.sholes, she had spent a lot of time trying to find them, and as fate would have it, they had walked right into her path. It was time they paid back the debt they owed her.

Just as Amalia was coming out of her drug-induced coma, Hunter and his men were scouring the premises. They would wait until nightfall to attack under the veil of darkness. In the meantime, they stalked around the building. Noting all the entry and exit points. He had a pan in the bush, keeping track of all the people coming and going.

While they prepared for the bloodbath that was to follow, Hunter's gaze was burning a hole through the door, thinking quietly to himself as he did:

"Be ok, Lia, Please!"