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“Take a seat, gorgeous. You need to rest your leg.” His eyes plead with me to sit down on the bar stool in the kitchen. I feel fine, but by the way he’s looking at me, I’m probably going to need this seat after seeing what’s in the box. Zep slides the box in front of me so I can look inside.
My brows furrow as I open the lid. It just looks like a bunch of random bills, nothing special. I snap my gaze to Zep, my brow furrowing in confusion.
“Keep looking, gorgeous.”
I shuffle more papers around until my hand freezes. I pull out the piece of paper and just stare at it. All I can do is blink rapidly at what I’m seeing. I expect it to vanish each time I open my eyes. This can’t be real. There’s no way this is happening right now.
“The symbol. Fuck, it’s the symbol.” I look up at Zep, who’s looking at me with worried eyes. On this piece of paper is the same symbol as the one that was dropped after Lainey was taken. The same symbol that this Omega guy uses. “Holy, fuck. Is Brandon Omega? Was he working for Omega?”
Thiago gently grabs the paper out of my hand so he can look it over. Rian leans over his shoulder to get a better view. “There’s an address. I’ll look it up. Maybe we can go check it out?” Rian says, as he pulls out his phone.
“What are you thinking,meu amor?” Thiago comes up to me and wraps an arm around my waist.
I lean into him, bringing my eyes up to his. “Honestly, I don’t know. My brain feels like it's short-circuiting right now. Brandon just seemed like an average guy at work—now I know he’s a stalker, a kidnapper and attempted murderer, and he might even be Omega or at least be involved with Omega? It’s just a lot to take in.”
His eyes turn as dark as night at my words. “I’m going to kill that dick. I can’t wait to get my hands around his throat and see his life slowly fade away.”
“You and me both, brother, but we need to figure some things out first,” Zep says, trying to reason with Thiago.
“Zep’s right, we need to check out that address and see where we go from there. I’m betting Brandon’s in hiding right now and won’t make any moves too soon after what happened today. Given his age and also the fact that he was extremely unhinged today, it still doesn’t seem likely he’s Omega, but he obviously has a connection to Omega in some way. We need to find him and get answers.”
Zep and Thiago both nod, as Rian comes back from checking out the address. “I looked up the address, it looks like a condemned house, but that doesn’t mean anything. We can go scope it out for a bit and if things look normal, we can go in and check it out.”
We all nod in agreement. I am feeling so many emotions right now. Being kidnapped, tortured, and then finding a connection to my sister has really taken a lot out of me. We leave Brandon’s apartment a mess as we walk out, heading back to the G-Wagon. I lean back in my seat, looking out the window while Rian directs us toward the address on the paper.
Pulling up to the location, it’s obvious this place is a condemned house. It looks like shit, like it could collapse at any moment. The brown wood siding is splitting, the roof looks like it could collapse at any second, and green moss crawls up the front of it. I guess if you were trying to hide something, no one would expect it to be at this pile of garbage. This place looks worse than most places in the West Side and that’s saying a lot.
We sit outside the house for two hours without seeing anything suspicious. “I think we should go check it out. We haven’t seen any movement since we’ve been here so it doesn’t look like anyone’s around.”
“Alright, everyone have your weapons ready. We don’t know what we’re going to find in there, it could be anything,” Zep says, as we each pull out our guns ready to go. We slowly approach the house, splitting up to case the place. Not seeing any cameras, system triggers or any other traps, we all meet back up at the front entrance. We walk up the front steps and Zep tries the handle. Surprisingly, it opens.
As we enter the house, we split up again to cover more ground. I appreciate that the guys know I can hold my own if I have to. I might be slightly injured right now, but I can still kick someone’s ass if I need to. This place is honestly kind of creepy so I’m expecting some crazy murderer to pop out at any moment. There’s absolutely no furniture, the paint is peeling from the cabinets, the wallpaper is yellow and shredded, and there are holes in the floor.
The floorboards creak under my feet with each step I take, as I make my way upstairs. I take it slow just in case someone is here waiting for me. I hit the fourth step and suddenly I’m flying forward. “Fuck!” My foot fell through the wooden stairs. This place is so old that I wouldn’t be surprised if the rest of the stairs are all rotted out too.
I make my way upstairs without any more falls, and check each room, but nothing looks out of the ordinary. Graffiti lines the walls, there’s random furniture everywhere upstairs unlike the wasteland downstairs, but no one is hiding out up here. Definitely doesn’t look like a human trafficking operation is happening here. I cautiously make my way downstairs as each guy comes back at the same time.
“Nothing?” I ask. They all shake their heads. “Well, this was a bust. Come on, let’s go. I’m tired.”
Great, another dead end. More wasted time with no answers. This building has some kind of significance, I just don’t know what it is yet. The address wouldn’t have been on the paper if it didn’t mean anything.
I go back to the G-Wagon and slide in without a word. I feel Thiago's body press next to mine, but he doesn’t say a word. I lean my head against the window and slowly exhaustion takes me as I drift into the darkness.
Twenty-Nine
It's been three days. Three days since Brandon kidnapped me and tortured me. Three days since I stabbed him. Three days since anyone has seen the fucker. I left him laying on the floor of his apartment covered in blood and now he’s gone. Vanished.
The guys spent time scoping out his apartment the past three days. Nothing. He hasn’t been back there since he got away from me. He hasn’t been to work—not that I expected him to show his face here, but he’s probably crazy enough to do it.
There’s been absolutely no sign of him. This man threatened and tormented me and now he’s nowhere to be found. Radio silence. I should have made sure he was dead before I ran. If I’d have just checked, this would all be over. I wouldn’t be looking over my shoulder at all hours of the day.
I’ve been extremely on edge since I know he’s still out there somewhere. The other day at work, I pulled a knife on Thiago when he came into my office. That’s how off my rocker I am. The guys probably think I’m going crazy, and they might be right.
I woke up about an hour ago, but I’ve been too lost in my thoughts to actually get up. A warm body stirs behind me, pulling me in closer.
“Meu amor, it’s Saturday, you should be sleeping in,” Thiago sleepily whispers in my ear.
“My mind is racing too much to sleep.”
