Page 99 of Mercy & Malice

Brooke’s grandmother, Annette, tells me, “She didn’t come out this way. She would’ve had to go out the back door. Sometimes she likes walking along the levee.”

There’s no point in checking. Brooke didn’t walk out of this house on her own.

I shift closer to my father. “You have five seconds to tell me where she is.”

Luca guides me back while our father proclaims, “Sorry about my sons. Emotions are at an all-time high.”

Bobby grumbles, “Seems so.” But his disgust is pointed squarely at my father.

Tara announces, “I’m calling the police.”

“Good thinking,” Dad declares as Vincent appears in the kitchen. “I’ll go out and look for her. Vincent will assist in locating her. All work-related tasks can wait. Boys, would you like to help out? Micah, you certainly should. You know her better than anyone. Maybe you know a few sanctuaries she might have fled to.”

Bobby grabs his phone as he says, “I’m going to walk her favorite spots on the levee.”

Dad claps his hands together. “Perfect, you check around here, and we’ll expand a little farther out. Call us if you find her.”

He’s playing savior, knowing where she is and that no one will find her until he’s ready.

“Micah,” Luca forces me out the house, lowering his voice. “He won’t hurt her. There’s no way out for the motherfucker if he does. And he still obviously thinks there’s a play for him to walk away from this. He knows if she’s harmed, there’s no turning back. We stick to the plan and let him bury himself. It’s still our best shot.”

I can’t lose her. “Him taking her was not part of the plan.”

“We’ll find her. And we’ll bring her home safely. But you need to keep your cool and get him out of here so he can tell us what he actually wants. He’ll never let the mask slip with an audience.” Everything Luca says makes perfect sense. But keeping cool while she’s in his clutches sounds like the hardest thing on earth to do.

There’s no question in my mind that he has her.

Troy states, “I should’ve gone inside. I didn’t know he was here. There were no vehicles in the driveway or any indication he was here.”

I should’ve been with her. “Doesn’t matter. All that matters is finding her and ending him.”

Dad walks outside as a limousine pulls up. “Let’s go for a ride, boys.”

Luca gives me a just-keep-your-cool look before I follow behind and get into the car.

Troy parks behind the limo and walks over as we follow Dad into the building.

It’s empty. She’s not here. “Where is she?”

Dad keeps a steady tone as he saunters around. “First, I think we need to set some ground rules so we can all walk away from this unharmed.”

“If you think you’re going to get away with what you’ve done, you’re fucking wrong,” I shout as Luca shifts in front of me, his back to me as he asks our father, “What are your terms?”

I shove my brother. “You know we can’t trust the motherfucker. He will turn on us the first chance he gets.”

Dad tsk-tsks. “I feel like I have more to lose than the two of you. Yeah, I might be able to buy my freedom from law enforcement if you rat me out, but I don’t want to deal with the mess. Besides, then you’d have to explain your full involvement with everything. We’ve all committed crimes and done things we shouldn’t have. But it is what it is. I need to know if you’re interested in moving forward or if there’s going to be more blood on your hands.”

He grasps that I don’t have a choice but to bargain with him for her sake as I grit out, “The fucking terms?”

“We let the past be the past, move into the future with a clean slate and no animosity. Brooke will remain unharmed. Her mother will become my wife. And we’ll all be one harmonious, united front.”

This motherfucker has lost it if he ever thinks I’ll be united with him in any lifetime.

“I’m not agreeing to anything until I see her.” I need to see her. I don’t fully trust that he hasn’t already hurt her.

Dad waits for a solid, silent minute before he agrees. “Very well, follow me.”

Luca positions himself between my father and me as we follow him through a doorway into an enormous, empty shop with a grimy concrete floor and rusted metal walls. And in the center of the vast space sits a metal cage. And Brooke is in it.