Chapter 34
The class ended at seven. Ethan and Kane cleaned up, locked up, and then went to join the others at the Dawg.
They rode together since Kane would ride home with Daphne, and they spent the time talking about Ghost and the coldness in his tone earlier.
He’d been back to himself when they last saw him at five, and he said he’d be at the Dawg tonight. Normal shit, that. Thankfully.
The guys were all there when Ethan and Kane walked in, sitting around their usual table, eating wings and burgers and laughing about something Rory had said to Chance recently.
“Told me to fucking get off my pity pot,” Chance was saying. “And I said what the fuck is a pity pot? Apparently it’s where you sit when you’re complaining about shit.”
Ghost arched an eyebrow as he reached for a wing. “What were you complaining about?”
“Chicken shit. Those fuckers got out of the enclosure and ran riot. Shit on Chuck Two and Clyde, but Clyde’s used to it. I threatened to get Liza Jane and take care of all of them. We could have a huge fried chicken dinner if I did.”
Seth snorted. “Yeah, she took that well, didn’t she?”
“Man, you have no idea. Lucky I still got my balls.”
Rory named everything for some reason. If you didn’t know the shorthand, you’d be lost. But Ethan knew that Liza Jane was a shotgun, Clyde was Rory’s Grandpa’s old truck, and Chuck Two was Chuck Norris the Second, the truck Chance bought after Chuck Norris the First got run off the road when RJ Davis attacked Rory.
All of that meant the chickens got loose, shit everywhere, including on the vehicles, and Chance threatened to make dinner out of them.
“You’re the one chose a farm girl,” Kane pointed out.
Chance’s grin was goofy. “Yeah, I know. She makes me laugh and she makes me mad. Then we make up and I want to piss her off again so we can start over with the making up.”
“How was class?” Ghost asked.
“Fine. I expect there’ll be a few more happy reviews if Daphne has her way,” Ethan said. “I might have wiped my forehead with my shirt and exposed my abs as instructed. But only once. She wants more than that, too bad.”
Kane laughed. “That’s my girl, thinking up ways to keep the money flowing.” He looked at his phone. “They should be done soon, right?”
“I haven’t heard anything,” Seth said. “But Nikki didn’t go tonight, so who knows what they’ll end up talking about. I think Callie feels less inhibited when Nikki isn’t there. The kid’s going to college next year but Callie still acts like she’s twelve sometimes.”
Susan was their waitress tonight. She stopped by for orders and Ethan asked for a beer and a chicken sandwich with potato wedges. The food came and they ate while talking about the record heat and wondering what their first fall in Sutton’s Creek would be like.
Colleen Wright appeared out of nowhere, trailing a cloud of patchouli, purple caftan flowing around her ankles. “Good evening, gentlemen.”
“Ma’am,” they said.
“Reba and I are holding a workshop on crystals and haunted objects this weekend if you’re interested. Also, my spirit guide wants me to tell you that everything will work out. Have faith.”
She glided away and the six of them looked at each other.
“That’s ridiculously spooky,” Seth said. “Am I the only one?”
“Nope,” Ghost replied. “If I were the kind of man who believed in that nonsense, I’d think she was tapped into something. But since I don’t believe, I’m just gonna go with she has an uncanny knack of saying things that apply to whatever you’re dealing with at the time.”
“Still spooky,” Chance said.
“Yep,” Kane agreed.
At a quarter after eight, Ethan texted Paisley to ask if he should go pick up Violet and get her home and in bed. He didn’t expect a reply to immediately fly back to his phone, but when five minutes passed and his text remained unread, a sense of unease uncurled in his belly.
“Any of you hear from the ladies?” Blaze asked, looking at his phone, obviously thinking the same thing.
“No,” Seth said.
“No, but I can see she’s in the library,” Chance said.
“Same,” Seth, Kane, and Blaze added.
Ethan looked at the tracking app on his phone. “Same here, too.”
“But none of them are replying. Could be they’re so caught up in the discussion they don’t hear their phones.” Seth frowned.
Ethan’s gut twisted. “Paisley wouldn’t do that. Not with McCann still loose in the world. You said he was in London, right?”
Seth nodded. “That’s what was on his calendar. Left two days ago, due back on Friday. He’s not in the country.”
Ghost chimed in. “Think it’s time to go to the library, don’t you?”
They stood as one, tossed money on the table, and filed out of the Dawg.
Ghost went, too. They didn’t drive. They jogged the couple of blocks, slowing when the library came into view.
It was dark inside. Paisley’s Kia was in the parking lot.
Daphne’s car, Rory’s new ride, Callie’s vehicle.
Emma was the only one without a car in the lot, but she would have walked over or ridden with Rory.
The tickle of unease in Ethan’s gut turned to cold spikes of fear. “I don’t like this,” he growled.
“Agreed,” Blaze said.
“We need to go in.” Chance was already headed toward the doors.
“Wait,” Ghost barked and Chance stopped, his eyes as wild as Ethan felt. “Think. Need to do a perimeter search, then breach. You don’t want to walk into a trap.”
“He’s right,” Ethan said, though the words were a hard knot in his throat. Where was Paisley? What the fuck was going on?
“Dragon,” Ghost said. “The plan.”
Ethan forced himself to think, to run the scenarios. He was like a chess master, but with mission planning. That’s how he thought of it. The potential moves, the countermoves. Everything remained dark and still in the library.
“We need to check the doors for tripwires. Then we go in, sweep the rooms, but slowly. Have to look for tripwires so don’t rush. Whoever did this is counting on us to panic. If this is what we think it is, if it’s McCann, we have to think like he thinks.”
“Spread out, three and three,” Ghost said. “Sweep around the outside first. Find anything, call.”
Ethan, Blaze, and Ghost went left while the other three went right. They searched the perimeter of the building and met at the rear entrance. The door was propped open with a brick. Kane got down on hands and knees to search for any signs of explosives.
“It’s clear,” he finally said.
They ghosted into the building, pistols at the ready, and swept from room to room.
They didn’t have their usual gear, but they had training and experience.
They split up to check the building, and Ethan could smell the food as he and Kane made their way toward the meeting rooms in the back.
The door was open, the food on the counter.
Ethan’s marrow froze. Chairs were overturned, and cell phones were tossed on the table, their screens lighting up with unread messages.
“Goddammit,” Kane growled. “If the O’Malley family has somehow come after Daphne—”
He choked the words off and worked to get himself under control. Ethan understood where he was coming from. He was having his own hard time right now.
“Violet,” he breathed. “I have to check on Violet.”
He turned to go, crashing to a halt when his light illuminated a piece of paper stabbed into the wall beside the door with a knife. He moved closer, heart pounding.
Fuck you, asshole. I win.
“What the hell does that mean?” Kane asked, his voice cold and hard like a man who was about to go medieval on some motherfuckers.
“It’s McCann. He’s not in London.”
The others piled into the room then, wild eyes following Ethan and Kane’s gazes to the note.
“How do you know it’s McCann?” Ghost asked.
“It’s a piece of Violet’s paper,” he said, his heart numb. “I put a V in the bottom corner for her because she asked me to. Like an artist.” He pointed. “There.”
“Ah, Jesus,” Ghost said. “Need to get to Hettie Woods’ house, see if Violet and Hettie are there and secure them if so.”
“McCann wants something.” Ethan’s entire body was both numb and screaming with pain at the same time. “That note is meant to goad me, but he’s not done yet.”
“Then we’ve got a shot,” Seth said.
“Let’s roll, goddammit,” Chance growled, grabbing Rory’s phone from the table. “That’s my entire life he’s taken. I want her back.”
They each snatched their woman’s phone and then headed out the door. Ethan was last. He yanked Violet’s paper off the wall, folded it, and stuffed it in his jeans pocket.
Trey hadn’t won. Not yet.