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I started driving.
I wasn’t going to Talon’s.
I was going somewhere to take myself back.
Chapter Thirty–Nine
Jonah
Nothing.
I had nothing.
My family didn’t need me. I’d done nothing but fail them, especially Talon. Bryce sure as hell didn’t need me. He didn’t think our friendship was worth a fuck. And Melanie… I hadn’t had the strength to stick around and watch her leave me. Again I was a coward. I had been a coward, waiting so long to tell her the truth, and now I was even more of a coward, unable to stay and watch the outcome of my decision—watch the woman I loved walk out of my life.
So I drove. And though I didn’t think consciously about where I was going, in the marrow of my bones I knew.
Trevor Mills had given me an address.
* * *
Two hours later, I arrived in the small town near the New Mexico border. The address hadn’t shown up on GPS, so I had to drive the roads of the town until I found what I was looking for. It was a cracker box house on the outskirts of town. A one-car detached garage sat off to the side.
Tom Simpson’s hideout.
I parked a block away to hide my car and then walked stealthily to the small abode.
I didn’t bother knocking, just turned the knob on the door. Oddly, it was open. I walked in. A nice enough home, sparsely furnished.
“Tom? Come out here, you sick son of a bitch.”
No response. Not that I thought there would be. I walked through the living area, down a hall, to a couple of bedrooms. One was clearly being used, but no one was there. The door to what turned out to be a bathroom was also closed, but I opened it and walked in, not caring if I might catch Tom Simpson in the middle of a crap. But it was also vacant.
On the other side of the bedrooms was a small kitchen. Supplies had clearly been laid in. One more door. I opened it. It led to a dank basement surrounded by dark concrete walls. As I descended the stairs, eerie fingers seemed to crawl over my body.
The steps. The walls.
I inhaled, nearly gagging. Waste. Whether it was human or animal, I didn’t know.
I looked around once I got to the bottom.
My heart nearly stopped. It was exactly how Talon had described it. I could almost see the phoenix on the dark gray walls, taunting him.
I had just walked into the cave-like cellar where my brother had lived for two months when he was a child of ten.
My skin tightened around me. I could hardly catch my breath. Was there no oxygen in this place?
I suppressed my fears as best I could and looked around. No windows, which was odd, and the room was pitch black. I waited for my eyes to adjust, feeling the wall for guidance, and I checked out the space. The rough concrete walls scratched at my—
I jerked.
A groan had come from the corner. I inched forward slowly, and a heap of blankets emerged in my field of vision. More groaning.
Someone was here. Someone in this basement where those three psychos had kept my brother.
I didn’t dare speak. I made my way slowly and quietly to the blanketed lump on the floor and removed the dirty covers.
The body, bound and gagged, recoiled away, whimpering.
