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I was going to make damn sure I changed that.
27
TANK
Luke pointedat the house that looked abandoned. “From Jane’s description, this is it.”
“If there’s a broken basement window, we’ll know we found the right place.”
Jumping from Luke’s truck, Bear and I followed him across the grass-covered front yard toward the house.
We walked the perimeter until Luke stopped and stared. “Jesus, how the hell did she fit through that?”
Bear and I stepped up beside him to see the window. He was right. It was small.
“That’s how she got so cut up,” I growled.
Luke squatted down and shined his flashlight inside the basement. “I see blood on the floor, but nothing else.” He stood and looked around. “This place is definitely abandoned.”
“I guarantee as soon as he knew she escaped he was gone,” Bear stated.
“Who the fuck is this guy?” I wondered aloud.
“Come on, we’re going in.” Luke gestured toward the door. “Don’t touch anything. This is an official crime scene. I’m only letting you in to see if you recognize anything.” He shoved open the front door, but when Bear glanced at me, I could tell something about Luke’s tone bothered him.
We both stepped inside, and it was as if we were living back in the fifties. Nothing had been updated since then, not even the appliances. Dust and cobwebs hung from just about every surface, and it was easy to see where outside animals had made their homes inside.
“No one has lived here in a long fucking time,” I stated, but that was obvious to everyone.
“This was just a holding area.” Luke walked into the living room. “I guarantee when we search the deeds, he has no affiliation with anyone who ever lived here.”
“Who?” Bear stopped and faced Luke, blocking Luke’s exit. “Who the fuck are you talking about? Do you know who took her? Because you’ve been acting strange since we got here. Why are we really here? And where the hell is the rest of your team?”
Luke dropped his head, but when he looked up, he was frowning. “Officially, this case is no longer mine.”
Bear and I shared a look before he faced Luke again. “Why the hell not?”
His eyes flicked back and forth between us. “What I’m about to share with you cannot leave this room.” When we both nodded, he continued, “Got a call this morning from the lead agent at the DEA. They’ve opened an investigation into Jane’s abduction.”
“Why?” I asked, but my gut told me I already knew the answer. And I bet Hawk had been right on the money with his theory.
“The DEA has been actively investigating since Snap was caught transporting drugs.”
“Why are they still involved? He was arrested,” Bear stated what we both knew to be true.
“He was, but he’s not the man they want.” Luke hesitated.
“You can trust us, brother. You know that,” Bear reassured him.
Luke’s stare grew intense before he started speaking. “After you brought it to our attention that Dominic was the scapegoat for a drug business right outside of town, and you got Dom out, I took it to my superiors. Something in my gut told me this wasn’t a small-time operation. We investigated and made local arrests, but during that investigation, we discovered a lot of shit that confirmed what I thought. We had no choice but to hand it over to the DEA when we discovered the amount of drugs being transported.”
“How much was it?” I asked.
“More than I’d ever seen.” He shook his head. “And we knew we’d only touched on a small part of a vast network. It was beyond our manpower.” He put his hands on his hips. “But during our investigation, one name kept coming up, and it’s been bugging the hell out of me because it’s the only man who seemed to have his hand in everything and the one we couldn’t get a backstory on.”
Bear studied him a moment, and then his jaw hardened, but I knew the bastard’s name before he even said it. “Manny.”
Luke nodded. “Yeah.”
