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Now the bastard had disappeared, leaving good ol’ Nolan to pick up the pieces. I walked around to the back, making sure he didn’t have some massive fucking hound for me to deal with before I stopped at the back door.
One twist of the pick and I was inside.
My intel said the wife and kids were away.
Fled two days ago, leaving Nolan at home alone.
I clenched my jaw. He wouldn’t be home for long.
I turned the handle and stepped inside, scanning the shadows as I made my way further into the house. Scents still lingered, burned popcorn and something sweet…and citrusy. I glanced toward the right, then upstairs. Following my instinct, I climbed, stepping out onto the landing.
The kids’ bedroom doors were open, leaving only one door closed at the end. I made my way toward it, glancing into the empty rooms. Drawers were open, clothes were strewn on the floor. Whatever happened to Nolan’s family, it happened in a frenzy. I stopped at what had to be their bedroom door, before I turned the handle and stepped inside…finding the bed empty, and still made.
I glanced around the room, then stepped into the closet and stared at the obvious gap in the hanging clothes. The wife was gone, with the kids, it looked like. I spun around, pissed the fuck off.
This was a goddamn waste of time.
I walked out, then back down the stairs, stopping at the bottom. My senses flared as the hairs on my arms stood on end. Instinct pulled me toward the garage at the front of the house. The moment I opened the door, I knew instantly, as the fetid stench of death hit me.
One flick of the lights and I found Nolan swinging. “Goddamn gutless bastard,” I snarled, lowering my gaze to the note on the concrete floor underneath him.
Please forgive me.
“Forgive you?” I muttered, finding his bulging eyes as he hung from the rope. “Not a fucking chance.”
FUCK! I turned around and clenched my fist, desperately holding back the need to drive it through the goddamn wall. But I didn’t. I left that house, climbed back into the Explorer, and went to the next address.
Only I found the same thing there.
Empty cupboards in discarded houses.
All the major players were gone.
Leaving gaping holes behind.
They played it well, setting it up to look like suicides. But it wasn’t. The Order was cleaning house and making sure they didn’t leave a damn crumb behind. By the time I crossed off the last address on the list after not finding a goddamn thing, I was fucking dangerous.
I drove along the darkened city streets, hunting. I needed just one fucking person, someone I could break. I clenched the steering wheel. Fuck, I needed to break them. My brother’s face haunted me as I pulled into the same alleyway I had been in before when I was lured there by the Sons.
I scanned the rear-view mirror, then pulled into the alley. The hairs on the back of my neck rose when I climbed out. I scanned the shadows, sensing nothing but vermin in the trash cans and loitering outside the side entrance of the rave as I neared.
One flick of the same card that was left for me by the Sons the last time, and the security guard stepped aside. Right now, I would’ve stepped into a lion's den if it obtained me the information I needed. Anything as long as it gave me back my brother.
The throbbing noise filled my ears the moment I stepped inside. I flanked the dancers, keeping to the outer edges of the room, and made my way to the rear of the club where another bouncer stood outside a secret door. I didn’t have to stop, or slow. One savage glare and he stepped aside. Only the moment I stepped through, I knew something was wrong.
The place was…empty.
I stopped just inside the doorway as my phone vibrated in my pocket. With a snarl, I snatched it out, scanning the empty seats around the bar before I looked at the screen.
Beep.
Looking for someone?
I slowly glanced behind me, then left and right as my phone vibrated once more.
Nothing has changed. We want the Daughter. So we propose a trade.
I barely had time to read the message before an image followed the message. Dark, grainy, barely more of an outline of a man tied to a chair with a black hood over his head. “What the fuck?”
