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Him, being Cade. It’s a dumb question because there’s no other reason Maddox would be at the warehouse. Lev is the only one of us who goes there for something else.
When he doesn’t respond, I drop my phone back in the inside pocket of my jacket and tap in the code to unlock the door—1033. Once it buzzes, granting me entrance, I pull open the slate metal door. There’s multiple entry points, but all the other doors are locked, and this is the only one we use.
The scent of wet cement floods my senses as I walk down the hall to the basement door. As I bypass the open rooms, I envision tearing down all the walls and opening it up to accommodate a large crowd. I shiver with excitement at the thought.
I open up the door to the basement, and immediately see Maddox at the bottom. Before I can even ask him what happened, I notice the panicked look on his face. “Get the fuck down here, now!” His chest is heaving and his hands are shaking.
I push the door closed in haste before taking the stairs two at a time. “What the fuck happened?” Maddox doesn’t say anything, just starts walking toward the room where Cade is being held. “Answer me, dammit!”
Immediately, I notice the door is open, and when I follow Maddox inside, I can see that this 10-33 was necessary.
“Son of a bitch,” I grumble as I approach Cade’s lifeless body. He’s lying on his stomach in a thick pool of blood. I kick him in the gut to make sure he’s not faking it, although his glossy, open eyes make it clear he’s dead. “I needed him alive a little longer. What the hell did you do?”
“Me?” Maddox gasps. “Fuck no. I didn’t do this. I just got here and found him like that.”
I crouch down, observing his corpse. “Think he fell over and hit his head?”
Maddox sprints out the door, and the sound of him upchucking assures me he didn’t do this. Maddox doesn’t have the balls, or the guts, to kill someone.
While he’s emptying his stomach, I flip Cade onto his back. Immediately I notice one of his ankles has slipped out of the rope. He must’ve got one out and tried to free the other when he tipped over. It’s the only logical explanation I can come up with.
“Yo,” I holler as I pickpocket Cade in search of his wallet, unsure why we didn’t do this in the first place. He claimed to not have his phone on him, and Lev did a quick search and said he didn’t find it. “You heard from Lev at all tonight?”
“Nope,” he hollers back.
Once I find Cade’s wallet, I flip open the billfold and rummage through it, unsure what it is I’m looking for. I take out the cash that’s inside and toss the wallet back down before counting out my payday.Hundred and thirty bucks.Not bad.
My eyes land on the wallet and I notice a small plastic baggie sticking out from one of the compartments. Slotting the cash in the pocket of my jacket, I pick up the baggie, pinching it with just the tips of my fingernails so I don’t leave any prints on it.
Holding it up, I observe the six white pills inside.
I fucking knew this jackass was dealing pills.
I pick the wallet back up and shuffle through everything inside, tossing credit cards and business cards on Cade’s chest. One in particular catches my eye.
“Hey, Maddox. What’s the name of Lev’s therapist?”
He’s still outside the door, and I doubt he’s coming back in here anytime soon. “Ugh. Edmonds, I think.”
“Yeah,” I say quietly as I tap the card to Cade’s leg, smirking—Dr. Eugene Edmonds’s card. “That’s what it is.”
Why the fuck would Cade have Lev’s therapist’s business card?I stare at Cade, trying to make sense of it all. “What the hell were you up to?”
Lev and Cade had been rival cousins for as long as I can remember—there’s no way that this is a coincidence. I can’t imagine Cade did sessions with the same guy. There’s definitely a reason Cade has it, and I’m gonna find out what that it is.
I add the other things to my pocket and stand up.
“We’re gonna need to take care of this dipshit,” I shout to Maddox.
Seconds later, he’s vomiting again and it’s safe to assume I’m going to be handling this myself. Lucky for him, I’m no rookie when it comes to disposing bodies. Can’t promise he’ll never be found, but I can guarantee he’ll never be traced back to us.
CHAPTER12
MADDOX
“For the love of God,Ridge. Pick his fucking head up.”My stomach turns at the constant thudding of Cade’s skull against the stairs. I turn away before I get sick again, unable to look at his lifeless face and the trail of blood behind us any longer.
“He’s dead. He doesn't give a shit.”
