AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My hand reactively dove under my pillow as I scooted out of bed and pulled out my pistol, tossing it on the center of my bed as I dashed half asleep over to my closet, fetching a fresh shirt and some pants.
“What happened?” I groggily demanded.
I continued dressing as Phantom began spurting some shit about Griffin, our cousin, saying he’d been shot. He said Sharkey called because Father was currently busy with the Vet and wasn’t where he could call and deliver the news himself.
“Is he alive?”
“I don’t know, Isaac. Hurry up, get dressed, and then meet us in the parking lot. Rhett went to get Samara. Father doesn’t want her left alone.”
He raced out the door, and I gushed out an annoyingly furious breath as I slid one leg in my pants and then the other. I sprinted over to my dresser and grabbed some socks. Less than two minutes later I had them and my shoes on, my phone and gun tucked away, and then I was gone.
I made it as far as the parking lot when I pulled out my phone and checked the time.Jesus, fuck.It was 4AM. I heard panting behind me and as I slightly veered back, Rhett and Samara, who was staggering sleepily behind him, were headed straight for us. I wasted no time and was inside Rhett’s car and had my seatbelt buckled before they made it and climbed inside the back.
“Here.” Rhett unclipped his keys from his belt loop and handed them over to Phantom who was sitting in the driver seat. Phantom eagerly took them and fired up the engine.
Nobody breathed a word when he stomped the gas, or for the short five-minute ride, really. It wasn’t until Phantom whipped the front end into the parking lot to the old vet clinic when Samara unbuckled her seatbelt and said, “Why are we at an animal hospital? This place looks deserted.”
“That’s because it is,” Phantom responded as he pulled the car around back and parked between Sharkey and Father’s freshly fixed SUV. “Well, sort of. Our pal Sharkey, his dad used to own the place. It’s a lot to explain, but this is basically where we send our injured to get patched up. We’ll be safe here.”
I got out of the car first and as the others followed my example, the back door to the clinic creaked open. Sharkey stepped out just to jump back into the doorway with his hands raised as the four of us began storming toward him barking out questions.
“Hang on a damn minute,” he snapped, making swift work of closing the door and pressing his back against it. “Val is in there!”
My brothers and I froze at the mention of Aunt Val.
Samara was confused as she glanced between each of our stunned expressions, but then slowly her features softened back out as she said, “You mean Finn’s mother is in there?”
Sharkey wildly blinked at Samara with a strange expression on his middle-aged face, his brows furrowing. “Yes,” he said after a moment of just awkwardly staring at her, clearing his throat as he settled his gaze back on me and my brothers. “She is, which is exactly why Xavier sent me out here to talk to you. Val doesn’t know the truth about what really happened to him.”
“So what did happen to—”
“But what about Ginger?” Samara worriedly cut me off, her voice cracking. “Is-is she in there too?”
“No,” Sharkey replied, answering Samara’s question first. “Ginger’s not in there.”
Samara’s face fell as she brought her hands up and covered her mouth, fighting back tears.
“All I know is that three nights ago,” Sharkey continued, “Xavier called me screaming his head off. He demanded I contact the Vet and for us to meet here. We found Xavier out here cradling Griffin’s body in his arms. Griffin was beaten to a bloody pulp and shot near the back of his head and in both feet.” He let out a sad sigh as he reached into his pocket, pulling out a folded sheet of paper stained in blood. “This is the note Xavier found next to Griffin’s body.”
Rhett moved first and took it from him. It grew quiet as the four of us read over the words. Words that had each of us, even Samara, wearing stupefied looks.
Fishnets. Saturday night. 9PM. Don’t be late.
“It’s a trap,” Samara burst in as she tugged the page out of Rhett’s hand, scoping over it again.
“And how could you possibly know that?” Sharkey wondered as he surveyed her closely with this look in his eye I really didn’t fucking like.
“BecauseFishnetsis in Damien’s territory. This ishisdoing. It has to be. He’s setting you guys up to be slaughtered!”
“If that’s true,” Rhett started, his face paling like he was about to puke all over the ground. “Then-then that means…”
“Griffin’s been exposed,” I finally spoke. “I think Samara’s right. I think Damien’s setting us up.”
“Jace,” Samara began fearfully whispering under her breath, her body shaking. “Oh my God… We gotta call Jace!”
“There’s no time for that,” Sharkey said with a stern shake of his head, his eyes narrowed at her.
He’d best calm his fucking tone before I made the unkindly decision to sew his fucking mouth shut.
