“You know what’s funny? Crew will lose everything because of you. Including his precious little daughter. He chose you over me and now he’ll pay for it.” She smiled.
“You’re fucking delusional.” I said
“Maybe. But you’ll be dead, and I’ll be the last thing he sees before he breaks.” She smiled with unhinged joy. Kennedy straightened to her full height, looking satisfied with the fear she hoped she'd spread. The man guided her toward the door.
“Time’s up.” He groaned.
Pausing at the door Kennedy looked back at me before she smiled and said, “Don’t go dying on me yet, Nova. I want you awake when everything you love burns.” She giggled.
Her crazed laughter fading once the door slammed shut behind them, leaving me breathing heavily in pain, lip bleeding, and fear taking hold of me.
Crew
The fire crackled in the fireplace of my office as I continued to wait. I sat in an oversized armchair in the center of the room, elbows on my knees, head lowered, and jaw so tight it was giving me a migraine. This waiting shit was for the birds, everything in me said to take the biggest gun I could find and head into the hollow guns blazin’ and air that shit out. But my common sense told me I needed to be meticulous about this. That was the only thing keeping me in this chair, in this room.
Black leaned against the far wall, arms crossed, eyes dark and assessing. Blue sat at a long folding table with three screens pulled up, fingers flying across the keys in near silence except for the occasional click. The last of the tortured men they'd dragged into their office hours ago was long gone, dissolving in a dumpster of hydrochloric acid behind the warehouse with a broken neck and bullet in his skull. But his words still echoed in the silence.
"Big old house in the woods. On the outskirts of town. The hollow used to be a hunting cabin. She’s there. I swear she’s there."
Blue exhaled through his nose, watching the property records crawl across the screen. My gaze never left him, thoughmy fingers drummed slow and lethal on my knee. Black spoke first, low and grave.
“Anything?” He grumbled.
Blue didn’t look up, just grunted, fingers tapping. How did August stand these niggas. They never really talked, just grunts and one-word answers unless it was absolutely necessary. But they were loyal so I would have to get used to it.
“Patience.” Blue sighed.
Black’s eyebrow twitched, his only sign of annoyance.
“If you’re playing games with me, Blue…” I groaned, cracking my neck in agitation.
Blue’s fingers froze. He slowly turned his head, expression flat as a blade.
“Don’t.” He said.
He was right. I trusted them. Had to. But the fury in me was a live wire sparking off every nerve. I gripped the bridge of my nose and let out a heavy sigh. “You got it.”
Blue’s eyes flicked to another screen. He scrolled deeper, faster, chasing something. We watched, trying to read the man’s mind, but Blue was an unbreakable vault. Then he paused. His pupils narrowed and for one fleeting moment, something unreadable flickered across his face. His eyes caught mine for a slit second before they went back to his screens. Unable to keep quiet I asked if he found something, anxiety getting the better of me.
“Did you get it?”
“Property listed under shell company. The Harris family owns it.” Blue said, giving a tight nod.
“The Harris’,” Black repeated, voice like gravel, jaw tightened.
Blue nodded once more.
“They buried it deep under layers of names and offshore bullshit. But it’s theirs.” Blue said.
My knuckles whitened as I leaned forward in the chair. The Harris’, Kyle’s family was behind so much in this city it didn’t surprise me that they owned the place Kyle was keeping Nova. “Location?” I ask.
Blue pulled it up on the biggest screen. A satellite image of an overgrown patch of forest, bisected by an old logging road. A single building sat in a clearing like a rotted tooth.
“Here.” He said.
“Access?” Black said, pushing off the wall and walking over as he peered at the map.
Blue zoomed in. “Old branch road. It's mostly overgrown. I’m Picking up five vehicles hidden in the dense trees. There are three exits that I can find.”
