Harry Styles
I was helplessly trying to control my brain and my heartbeat for the past hour, but I failed.
Pain was something I was quite used to, and I knew I wasn't very good at handling emotional pain despite enjoying the physical aspect of it so much.
But what if the emotional pain was so strong that it became physical? I learned that I also couldn't handle it very well, it was so fucking different from what I'd experienced before.
I had thrown up several times already and there was nothing left in my stomach but the sour bile.
Every time I thought about Cleo and what happened to her, I would feel sick. It hurt more than all the other times I nearly died during my lifetime.
I was beyond the point of rage, I had reached an emotion I had never felt before. I was devastated, broken, angry, sad, desperate... all mixed up together and suffocating me.
Cleo was somewhere out there and I was currently on my way to Ash's house at six in the fucking morning.
It was extremely difficult to think properly when my own mind was torturing me so much. I kept thinking of Cleo's finger... the way that man talked about her... the way they fucking abused her.
She was strong, I knew that. And I had to be strong for her, too.
Cleo needed me right now and I was going to find her and kill everyone who fucking dared get in my way.
My hands were still shaking as I flexed my fingers on the steering wheel, the broken bones were barely any pain compared to what I was feeling inside.
I kept wondering why Ash had to live so far away from my penthouse, the drive felt like it was taking forever. She was the only one I trusted in this city and the only one who probably knew who had taken Cleo.
I had to force myself to think and be smart, each fucking second mattered now.
Ash knew about the gangs and the guy's voice from the call wasn't Rowley's, but it didn't mean it couldn't be some random man that worked
for him. I just knew she could help me because I had no idea where to start, and I wasn't going to stop or do anything else until I got Cleodora back.
I was going to go after every single gang leader or whatever the fuck they called themselves, kill each one of them until I found which motherfucker fucking dared to lay their disgusting hands on her.
Fuck, I would burn the whole city to the fucking ground if it meant I was going to find her. My head wasn't in a very good place and I was seriously going insane, there was no fucking way she could die.
I didn't plan on going back to that fucking penthouse so soon, so I packed the necessary weapons and ammunition before I made my way to Ash's house.
What sucked was that I didn't have a phone and I didn't waste my time buying one. The kidnapper probably tried to call me again and I fucking hated myself for breaking my phone so carelessly. I lost the opportunity of finding her quickly and each minute gone by could mean her life.
I was so fucking affected by the call that it didn't even occur to me that whoever had taken her wouldn't have a way to contact me anymore. But what if they decided to ignore me and focus only on Cleo? What if they didn't even bother to reach out anymore?
That wouldn't be a problem, nothing could stop me from finding her.
Zayn could've also called me but I doubted he'd even boarded his flight. He had no idea what was going on and it wasn't fair to him now that he was worried about his daughter. This wasn't his fault, it was mine.
I left Cleo alone when I shouldn't and now I was going to get her back. She wasn't going to die and she'd be okay.
She had to be okay.
I could do this on my own, I just needed Ash to point me in the right direction.
No matter how many people I had to kill.
Finally, after thirty more minutes of driving on the edge of the speed limit, I parked my car in front of Ash's beach house and I made sure to grab my gun and keep it loaded. I tucked it in the back of my pants and rushed out of the car, ringing the damn buzzer over and over again to wake her up.
"Who the fuck- Harry?" Her voice answered and I looked up to find a security camera right on top of the main gate. "It's almost seven-"
"Let me the fuck in, Ashley." I interrupted her, and my tone was enough to make her open the gate.
I rushed inside and made my way to the front porch, and she was already opening the front door with a very confused and sleepy face, wearing polka- dotted pajamas.
"Holly is asleep, what the fuck is this?" She whispered angrily but I walked past her to get inside the house, bumping my shoulders into hers and letting out an exasperated breath.
"What the fuck is wrong, Harry?"
"Someone took Cleo from my apartment when I wasn't there and I have no fucking idea where she is, some guy called me and he told me he raped her but I broke my phone and they fucking left her finger on the bed as some sort of sick message and I can't fucking take this anymore!" I tried to keep my voice down but I failed, running my fingers through my hair and tugging at the roots.
My head was throbbing with pain and I felt like I was going to be sick again, the tears threatening to fall again only made me feel more hopeless.
Never in my life I had worried about someone this fucking much, love was such a dangerous feeling.
"Whoa, what the fuck? They raped her?" Ash furrowed her eyebrows, looking around the living room as if she wanted to make sure Holly hadn't woken up. "This is so fucking sick and wrong, didn't they tell you a name? Was it Rowley?"
"It didn't sound like Rowley but I honestly didn't pay much attention, my brain is a fucking mess. Why the fuck would they cut her pinky finger and leave it behind for me to find? God help me, I'm gonna cut their fucking heads off!" I was shouting by now and she glared at me, but I had no control over my emotions.
However, her expression changed slightly as she processed my words, and perhaps she was finally fully awake by now to fucking help me.
"Her pinky finger?" She asked me and I nodded, and said finger was being kept in ice back in my car but the hours were passing by fast... I had hopes I could get to her in time, but her not having a finger wasn't a fucking problem.
The problem was that these motherfuckers thought they had the fucking right to touch her without her consent and hurt her in the first place. They fucking dared to cut her finger off, Cleo was probably just as frustrated and pissed off as me.
If she was alive.
"I think I know who it is, a guy named Ray has this new gang and he already caused some trouble with Rowley. His m.o. is to always cut a pinky finger off, it's how we know he was around." She grimaced. "Kinda like a signature."
"What the fuck?" I was about to lose my fucking mind.
"His business is mostly drugs and guns, but his men are disgusting," Ash told me. "I have a friend who used to own a strip club about an hour from here, Ray forced her to sell the place to him and I heard his men did terrible things to the dancers there to scare them into staying and working. It's a 24- hour club, maybe you could try going there and figuring out where they are?"
"Ray?" I asked, taking a deep breath.
The fucker had a name now... and if their reputation was this bad, it only made me feel even more terrified. I had to find Cleo, I was going to try anything.
This clue could lead to nowhere but now I had somewhere to start, and I didn't fucking believe in coincidences.
He liked to cut fingers off? He had no fucking idea who he was dealing with.
"I think you know him, before leading his own gang he was part of another...you got into some trouble with them too, but I doubt you remember," Ash said, her brown eyes were concerned and this information didn't make things better.
Of course, I didn't remember. No one liked me around here and I didn't fucking care, but I was mostly high and drunk during my time here in L.A., it was around the time my dear mother had died and maybe I did get in a lot of trouble.
This was all her fucking fault, and to think we still had to have another conversation.
"Give me the fucking address, I'm going to this club." I snapped.
"Harry, you're wanted by the FBI and it's daytime-"
"Ashley, I swear to god." I interrupted her with a glare. "Tell me where it is."
"I'll tell you, but I can't simply go there with you... I'd be crossing territory now and I don't want any trouble for the future." Her voice was serious and I couldn't blame her.
I didn't want her to get dragged into my mess, I didn't ask her to come.
"Fine, I'm losing time," I said, watching as she grabbed her phone from her pocket and she typed something down.
"Take my phone, the coordinates are here already." She handed it to me. "I'll wait at the tattoo parlor. I'll call our doctor just in case she needs any urgent help, and it's safe. Okay? Just bring her over when you find her, she's gonna need some professional assistance."
I was gonna puke.
Ash was right, Cleo would most likely need a doctor and the private ones I usually went to were back in New York and associated with my father. And my family was literally ruined now, we needed help here and I was lucky Ash was willing to do this.
Getting involved with our problems could seriously put her life in danger and make a mess, she didn't need this... especially since we didn't plan on staying too long.
I thanked her and grabbed the phone, running out of the house and getting back inside my car so I could drive to this strip club. I just had a feeling I'd find these men there, if this was some usual hangout and it was open 24 hours a day, then it had to be some kind of meeting point.
This Ray was going to regret being born, I'd make sure of it.
I drove too fast and there were more cars on the street now, probably because people were driving to their workplaces, completely unaware of how fucked up the city was.
I was careful not to forget the speed limit because the last thing I needed was fucking cops after me, and I finally reached my destination.
After parking my car and grabbing an extra loaded gun, I walked out and towards the entrance of the club.
The space around the club was quite deserted, this was a bad neighborhood. There were many abandoned constructions around and no residential area.
The club looked like shit, a pink neon sign was the only thing that gave away it was an actual strip club, other than that it looked like a house.
It reminded me of Eroda and my blood boiled even more with every step that I took closer to the door, and the parking lot had only five other cars parked, it was indeed too early.
There was no one else around besides me and this tall security guard at the door, and he was already glaring at me the moment I reached for my gun.
I didn't even wait for him to say anything or react, I shot him right between his eyebrows and his body fell dead on the floor.
I kicked him to the side and pushed the black doors open, making my way inside the club as if nothing had happened. I was too consumed by rage to stop now.
The lights inside were pink like Eroda's but the space was a bit smaller, with more tables. There was only one main stage with two girls dancing around, but my focus was quickly on the only table where three guys were talking and drinking.
I had used my silencer when I killed the man outside, I doubted they listened to the gunshot with this annoying music in the background too.
My gun was still in my hand as I approached the table carefully, looking around to analyze my surroundings.
It was too early, there was only one girl at the bar and no other security from what I could see, only this table near the stage with these men sitting around it.
"Yeah, I'm tired as fuck. He was crying on his way home because that crazy bitch cut his dick off." One of the men said when I was close enough to listen, and none of them had paid attention to me yet. "She's with Ray now-"
"Who the fuck are you?" A sudden voice made me snap out of it and realized one of the other guys had spotted me, glaring at me with furrowed eyebrows.
All of them turned in my direction and I knew they were talking about Cleo.
She actually cut a dick off in the process of being kidnapped, as she fucking should. Didn't change the fact they abused her... but putting up a fight probably got her into more trouble and I had lost the little sanity I had left.
But now that I was lucky enough to arrive in the middle of this conversation, I only needed this one man to tell me where Ray was.
So I quickly aimed my gun and shot the other two guys in the head before they could even reach for their weapons, making the dancers scream and run off the stage, as the only remaining man gaped at me.
He was unlucky to have all my attention now.
I grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and bashed his head against the table, ignoring the throbbing pain on my broken hand and using the barrel of the gun to hit the side of his head.
"Where the fuck is Ray?" I asked him, forcing the gun on his temple."I'll give you five seconds."
"Who the fuck are you, man! You can't walk here and shoot everyone, Ray is gonna make you pay-"
I tucked the gun back in the back of my pants and reached for an empty glass on top of the table, smashing it against the surface so I could grab one of the sharp shards. I cut my own hand in the process but I didn't hesitate when I slowly pushed the piece of glass into his eye.
The man squirmed and screamed in pain as blood poured from his now missing eye, and I pressed the glass on his throat now after I bashed his head on the table one more time.
"Where is Ray?" I asked him again, slowly pushing the shard a bit more to cut his skin.
"Who the fuck are you, man? Where's the security!" He cried out, making me lose my fucking patience.
I used the glass to carve his other eye out and he was bleeding a lot, screaming way too loudly.
So I leaned closer to whisper in his ear, reaching for my gun again. "I'm Harry fucking Styles."
If he had eyes I was sure they'd be wide right now, because his crying stopped and his body completely froze under my hold.
"What? No screaming anymore?" I asked him, aiming the gun at his head again. "I'll kill you quickly, tell me where the fuck Ray is. He's got my girl, and if she's not alive by the time I get to her..."
"Ray's at his house! She's probably there or at this abandoned building behind it! Two blocks from here, it's the only house with a red door." The man said, literally shaking.
I was pretty sure he pissed his pants too.
"Thank you." I sighed, pushing his body to the floor and shooting his crotch at first, before I aimed at his stomach.
It'd be more painful like this, I shot him three times and the blood pooling underneath him was already enough to let me know he'd be dead in a few minutes.
"Put your gun down!" I turned around as soon as I heard the voice, and there was another security guard probably, with his gun aimed at me.
The dancers and waiters had vanished and it was just us now... And he picked the wrong day to dare to talk to me.
I aimed my gun and pulled the trigger right when he was about to shoot as well, but I was faster and my aim was always perfect.
His dead body fell on the floor and I wiped my bloody hands on my pants as I walked out of the club, knowing I was covered in blood and walking around armed in broad daylight, but I didn't fucking care.
Two blocks. Red door.
And I was on my way.