AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Goddamnit,” I roar, slamming my fist into the nearest wall. It hurts like hell, but I welcome the pain.
I deserve it.
“We can take them,” Chase vows. “Those fuckers won’t know what hit them.”
I nod, leaving my anger and fear right here in the bar. There’s no room for emotion now. I need to be a fucking warrior. Merciless.
“Gear up,” I order, striding out of the room. I head into the back of the building, down to the basement storage room that’s intended for bar supplies.
I use it for a different kind of storage.
I throw open the hidden closet, revealing rows of firearms and ammo. Chase follows me in, kneeling down to a low trunk for a laser-scope rifle, his weapon of choice. As he bends over, I catch a glimpse of some raw-looking scratches, all along his neck.
Chase straightens and sees me looking. “Oh, yeah,” he says quickly, his hand reaching up to gingerly touch the wound. “Had a wild night with a real hellcat. Those fucking talons, they do some damage, am I right?” he gives a laugh.
“Sure.” I nod, but something in his expression makes me pause. He finishes arming up and turns to me with a grim smile.
“I’ll go round up the guys, let them know we’re going to war tonight,” he says.
“We can’t go charging in, guns blazing,” I remind him. “Not if there’s a chance Lily’s still alive.”
“That’s a long shot, wouldn’t you say?” Chase replies. I flinch. “Sorry, man,” he adds, slapping my shoulder. “I know it’s hard to hear, but we’ll make those bastards pay for killing her. Show them what it means to fuck with us.”
He heads out, and I watch him go. Something doesn’t feel right. An instinct, honed by a lifetime fighting Barretti wars. I can’t explain it, but something makes me grab my gun and head up the stairs, a careful distance behind him.
I exit the building out the back door, just in time to see Chase’s Charger speed away. I quickly climb into my car, and follow, leaving a couple of cars between us as he moves through the busy downtown streets.
It doesn’t take long to confirm that Chase isn’t going to collect any of our guys. He takes the Lincoln Tunnel instead, and then hits the freeway, heading north. Upstate.
Where the hell is he going?
He keeps on driving, and I keep pace behind. Every mile takes me further from the city, from that GPS location that showed Lily’s phone, but I can’t bring myself to turn back. Maybe I’m on a wild goose chase here, but I can’t shake the feeling that something’s amiss about her being held at the Kovack HQ.
Because it doesn’t make sense.
Igor Kovack gave me his word we had a truce. And sure, that may not mean shit to most people, but it was in their interests, too. They have a hell of a lot to gain from seeing our deal through—and even more to lose.
They know me. The Barretti reputation speaks for itself. They know I can burn their fucking world to the ground. So why suddenly fuck things up by taking Lily—the one thing guaranteed to turn me into a vicious killing machine?
But if they didn’t take her… Who did?
There’s a grim suspicion building in my veins, but I’m trying not to get ahead of myself here. After about an hour of driving, Chase turns off the main highway, and takes a series of country roads, away from the nearest town. We’re in the woods now, and I have to drop even further back to keep from being seen.
Finally, he turns down a dirt path. I ease to the side of the road and park, then jog quietly on foot, watching his progress ahead of me through the trees.
He pulls up outside a dilapidated cabin and gets out. He strolls up the front door, and unlocks it, but barely a moment later, he emerges again, looking panicked. He pauses on the porch and looks wildly around, then he tears off into the woods.
What the fuck?
I wait until he’s out of sight before slipping through the undergrowth towards the cabin. Chase left the door wide open, so it’s easy for me to climb the porch steps and just walk right in.
“Lily?” I call, looking around. But the place is empty.
I flip on the lights, searching for a sign that she might have been here.
And I find it.
The broken remains of a wooden chair lay shattered on the floor, smashed to shit, bearing the remains of rope ties. Someone was kept hostage here. Lily.
