“What do we know?” I asked the room and grabbed bottles of water from the fridge along with a tray of cold cuts.
I tried to keep food for my guys, knowing that they put in long hours away from their homes for me. I was nothing, if not fair. You treat me right and I’d treat you right. You fuck me over and I’d fuck you up.
“I tracked the phone on the road heading east from Pierce Bluff. Seeing the signal had stopped about a mile out of town, I used the last location it pinged and sent Skid to investigate.” Skid then handed me a cracked phone and I recognized the case as Elise’s. James continued to speak as I handed it to Chuck and rolled my shoulders. “On a hunch, I started tracking the cameras lining Portstill and I saw her car enter the city about twenty minutes ago. He was driving and . . .”
“What?” Chuck asked, stepping around me and James looked to me for approval.
I nodded. Swallowing deeply, he explained, “She was passed out against the passenger's window. She didn’t look hurt, but I only caught her in two frames before I lost the angle. I’ve got the system searching for her car, but the tracker isn’t working. I’m guessing that he removed it before he took her.”
“What game is he playing?” Chuck asked and I had no answer.
“I think we need to go to Portstill. That way we’re close when we figure out where he is keeping her,” I said to the room.
Skid followed Chuck and I to the garage and he drove behind us to Portstill. Chuck filled Blaire in on the latest development. He finished the call with the three words that were sure to make a heart soar and I felt the cold blade sliding into mine. If anything happened to Elise, I would burn the world down around me.
“How did you meet my daughter?” Chuck asked as I sped out of Pierce Bluff, Skid right behind me.
“That’s a long story that’s best left for another night. Tell me about your brother.”
“I don’t know what to say. I can tell you about the boy I ran away with, about living on the streets, and struggling. I know nothing about the man that appeared at my house. I don’t know what would possess him to take her. What aren’t you telling me, Devlin? If my daughter’s life is in jeopardy, I deserve to know the fucking truth. And when the hell did you move into her building?”
“I own the building, Chuck. Along with three others overlooking Pierce Lake. I moved in when she did, and I’ve kept an eye on her ever since.”
“Okay, I wasn’t expecting that.”
“What did Cameron say about this deal he has going?” I asked, the sign entering Portstill just ahead of us. I had James call the chief over here and tell him we were pursuing a trafficking victim and needed to be under the radar. His men knew to leave us alone as we worked, so when we passed the parked patrol car, they flashed their headlights and went dark along the side of the road.
I flashed mine in response and Chuck looked over at me. “Jesus, who the hell are you?”
The truth will set you free.
“You know my past on the streets?” I asked and he acknowledged me with a single nod. “I have done a lot of bad things for a lot of good reasons. I’ve killed people who deserved it and pardoned people who needed a break. When I found Elise in the state they had left her, I knew I had to protect her from the world. I used my connections and sold off all my illegal businesses over the next year, took the capital and started Callahan Cyber. I waited for almost ten years to be with her and I stayed away as long as I could.”
I wanted him to see I was honorable when it came to her. That I protected her and saved her. That I would do anything for her. That I refused to let her go.
“What does my brother have to do with any of this?” he asked as I slowed at the traffic light.
I looked at him and responded, “The only thing I can figure is he’s pissed from something in the past, even though our paths have never crossed. I don’t understand his motives. All I know is he’s crazy and I’m going to end him.”
“Not if I get to him first.”
Chuckling, I pulled away from the light and asked. “By the way, what in the hell did you teach her? She put me on my ass without blinking an eye.”
Chuck laughed into the car as he looked at me. “Everything. I taught her everything.” His smirk gave me hope as we drove into the rising sun.
Skid flashed his lights at us, and I pulled into a diner on the edge of the industrial park. He walked over to the open window and showed me his phone. There was a text from an unknown number, and I looked at him quizzically,
‘We have the entire club combing the streets looking for her. Sit tight and I’ll touch base soon.’
Handing him back the phone, I gave him an expectant look, waiting for him to tell me who it was.
“I called my brothers. They are going to canvas the city looking for them or her car. If they're hiding, they’ll find them.”
“Who’re your brothers?” Chuck asked and Skid looked past me to him.
“The DeathHounds.”
Skid pulled up his sleeve, revealing a menacing dog tied to a fiery gate, protecting the devil behind the bars. The word DeathHounds was inked under it and the words Sergeant at Arms was struck through with a single line.
