Haunted by Secrets (Shadowed Souls #3)

Chapter Forty Six

I barely register the voice over the ringing in my ears. My limp form is pressed against Dax, my breathing shallow and uneven. The pounding grows more insistent, rattling the door on its hinges. A second later, the distinct crack of the door splintering cuts through us all.

A swat team swarms the room, a plastic barricade shoving the suited man against the walls. The goon holding Huxley at gunpoint makes a run for the rear door and is shot in the back without hesitation.

The Souls sit stock still in our seats, clearly distinguishing between the assailants and the victims. It doesn’t lessen how roughly we’re yanked from our seats and patted down, but without resisting, we’re escorted out without the need for handcuffs. At our backs, a few more shots are fired, and with each one, my eye twitches.

The casino is a ghost town, having been completely evacuated beneath the clamor of slot machines. Stripped of life, its gaudy neon lights flicker weakly against the suffocating quiet. The scent of stale smoke and spilled liquor lingers in the air, mingling with the metallic tang of blood that won’t leave my nose. Half-finished drinks sit abandoned on tables, their condensation pooling onto velvet tabletops.

My legs feel like dead weight as I stagger forward, barely held upright by the grip of the agent guiding me toward the exit. Dax is tugged beside me, his eyes darting around and trying to get my attention. But I don’t care about any of it. I don’t care about the barking orders of the SWAT team; I don’t care that Nixon’s body is lying on a games table, I don’t care what’s going to happen to us. All I care about is Avery and Meg’s safety. Whether I beat myself up about misplacing that deadly bullet or not depends on what happens in the next ten minutes.

As my senses come back to me, the effects of the taser wear off, and a dull roar builds in my head. Louder than the ringing, louder than the shouting, drowning out everything else. I yank myself free of the agent’s hold, stumbling forward ungracefully. A heavy hand clamps onto my shoulder, wrenching me back.

“Stand down!” I throw my weight against them, my chest heaving.

“Wait, there’s… we need to help my—” I cut myself off. What am I supposed to call her? My girlfriend? My adoptive sister that I like to choke and sink my cock into?

Wrenching myself free for a second time, I spin and hold my hands up, staring down the barrel of yet another gun. The agent regards me with caution. “Two girls have been taken hostage by an ex-con called Harrison. They might still be here.”

The agent’s scowl doesn’t shift as he shoves me back into line, forcing me out of the main entrance and toward the flashing lights of the waiting police cruisers. “A vehicle was reported speeding away from the building during our raid. We have cars searching the area.”

His uncaring tone belittles the words that slam into me like a freight train. I suck in a breath that doesn’t feel like enough, my knees nearly giving out beneath me. They got away.

The others are herded outside, their faces grim and their bodies stiff with the same tension overriding my bones. Garrett is supporting Axel, flanked by officers on either side. Huxley moves like a ghost, his usual sharpness dulled, his expression muted. We’re crowded in the parking lot, much less monitored than those who actually had guns on their person.

Someone is talking to me, one of the officers maybe, but their words barely penetrate the buzzing in my skull. My fingers twitch at my sides. Every nerve in my body is screaming to move, to do something, and to tear through the city with my bare hands until I find her.

But instead, I’m stuck here, standing in the center of a crime scene, corralled like a fucking bystander while men with badges pretend they have control of the situation. The static of several walkie-talkie buzzes, a brief report coming in that the car they were searching for has gotten away.

We’re out of time. Then, past the flashing red and blue, past the rows of uniforms and the cordoned-off entrance, like a freaking angel, I see Thiago. He’s standing just beyond the yellow crime scene tape, his pale eyes scanning the parking lot until they lock onto mine. The moment our gazes connect, he lifts a hand and waves me over casually, like this isn’t life or death, like I’m not already teetering on the fucking edge. I don’t think. I just move.

Before I can take two steps forward, a hand clamps around my bicep, yanking me back. “Where do you think you’re going?” The officer barks, his grip tightening on my shirt like he expects me to start running. I turn sharply, my teeth grinding.

“I can help find the girls.” He chuckles and shoves me back into Dax and Hux.

“You need to stay here until we’ve sorted everything out.” He says dismissively. “Leave the searching to the professionals.” He strides away before hearing my snort, putting his younger colleague in charge of watching over the five of us. Rage flares in my chest, but I force it down because wasting time arguing will only keep me here longer. Turning to our new overseer, I speak slowly, keeping my temper in check.

“You don’t understand. I can track them.” His brow furrows, suspicion flashing in his eyes.

“And how exactly do you plan on doing that?” I exhale sharply, my patience wearing thin.

“Look, I have a confession that I shouldn’t be telling a cop, but if it saves their lives, then so be it.” The Souls move in, gathering around with their ears pricked.

“What is it?” Dax raises a brow, and at my slight hesitation, Garrett sighs dramatically.

“Spit it out, Riot. Nothing you do shocks us anymore.” I scrub a hand over my face. Might as well get this over with.

“Avery has a tracking chip in her.” A thick silence follows until Garrett lets out a low whistle, shaking his head with the kind of exasperation that tells me somewhere between he’s impressed and mortified.

“Well, fuck me. You do still have that shockability factor. ”

“Whereabouts?” Dax asks, keeping his composure. Axel’s head is hanging forward, quietly absorbing the conversation around him.

“In her neck.”

Huxley completely loses his composure, choking on an outraged laugh, his features with disbelief and fury.

“You tagged our girl?!”

“I did it when I drugged and took her,” I admit, my voice flat as I let the truth settle. “While she was unconscious in the back of Hux’s car.” The cop glares, but to his credit, he doesn’t pull out his notepad and start taking notes. He listens, hopefully understanding my involvement is secondary to the current situation. He can take me to the station when Avery and Meg are safe with the Souls.

Huxley runs a hand down his face and then turns on his heel, walking a short distance away like he needs space to process. Axel’s jaw ticks. There’s no shock in Gare’s expression anymore, just a reluctant acceptance that, yeah, I did something this fucked up.

“Fucking hell,” Dax mutters under his breath, shoving his hands into his pockets and staring off into the distance.

“Explain,” Axel suddenly demands. I sigh, impatience flaring despite myself. Of course, Axe wants to know all of the facts before deciding how he feels about it.

“When Fredrick told me he was going to take Meg, I wasn’t foolish enough to think he’d suddenly leave Avery alone.” I force my voice to stay level, my gaze shifting between them all. “So, on the way back to the house, I stopped off at the dorms. There were rumors about a kid in bio-chem acquiring sedation drugs and other unsavory items. I paid him a visit, bought his entire stock, and disposed of everything except for one sedative syringe and a tracking chip tagger.”

Axel exhales through his nose, nostrils flaring slightly, but otherwise remains silent. His hands curl into fists at his sides. Dax is still watching me carefully, his expression unreadable, while Garrett just shakes his head like he can’t decide whether to strangle me or thank me.

“I thought it would be best to be prepared,” I continue, quieter now. “I just didn’t think I’d have to use it on her that very night.”

A thick silence follows. I wait for the shouting to start—maybe a punch in the face—but Hux doesn’t return to deliver it. Axel exhales a long, slow breath that does nothing to ease the tension in his frame .

Then, finally, Garrett breaks it, dragging a hand through his hair with a dry laugh.

“We are going to have a serious talk about boundaries later,” Dax crosses his arms. I meet his gaze, a scowl deepening at the corners of my mouth.

“You’ll be thanking me when it saves her life.”

No one else speaks. We don’t have time to argue about morality or ethics. Right now, the only thing that matters is that we have a way to find Avery. The cop considers his options, casting a glance at his superior. When he looks me over, he seems to have come to a decision.

“Do you have a way to follow the tracker?”

I nod, gesturing for Thiago to approach. He slips beneath the tape and manages to avoid being seen until the throng of our bodies covers him.

“Tell me you have a signal,” I demand, my pulse roaring in my ears. Thiago’s eye roll doesn’t fit the setting. Placing his laptop on the hood of a police car, he opens it to reveal the map he already has loaded. Of course, Thiago already knew about the chip in Avery’s neck since I told him earlier in the week as insurance. He wasn’t phased in the slightest, but clearly, he doesn’t have the high expectations of me that his cousin does. Tilting the screen towards me, I nearly collapse in relief when I see the blinking dot on the map.

“She’s moving fast,” Thiago murmurs, tracking the signal as it weaves through the city streets. There’s a beat of silence, hesitation flickering across the officer’s face, his gaze bouncing between the glowing screen and the rigid set of my jaw, as if debating whether or not to trust me.

His stalling presses in on all of us. Every second wasted is another mile between us and Avery, another stretch of road leading her further out of our reach. My hands turn to fists at my sides, itching to force the officer to move, to let me go, to do something other than stand here and waste time. Dax leans in beside me, his shoulders squared, his own tolerance wearing thin.

“What the fuck are you waiting for? You have a location,” he juts his chin towards the officer. I’ve never heard Dax speak so aggressively to anyone, let alone someone who could have him locked up for it. Garrett, still clutching at Axel like he’s the only thing keeping him upright, mutters something under his breath, too quiet for me to catch, but whatever it is makes Axel’s lips purse underneath the dried blood splatter covering his face.

Huxley finally rejoins us, his breathing heavy, his hands shoved through his hair in a way that leaves a mess of unruly waves, but I barely glance at him. I know exactly what he’s thinking and feeling—the same thing we all are. Rage. Helplessness. That deep, gnawing fear clawing up our throats like poison, threatening to drown us in the possibilities of what could be happening to Avery and Meg right now.

The officer clears his throat, his gaze locking onto me with something between skepticism and reluctant understanding. “This is completely unethical and could hinder the investigation when it goes to court,” he relays as if reminding himself of the consequences of his next decision.

“I don’t give a fuck about any of that. You have the lives of two young women in your hands. What are you going to do about it?” I tilt my head. Challenging a cop who hasn’t entirely made up his mind probably isn’t the best decision. His mouth twitches into a fragment of a frown. He doesn’t like this. Doesn’t like me. But I don’t give a fuck about his moral code. I care about getting Avery back.

Thiago makes an impatient noise, tapping a finger against the laptop. “They’re heading south, fast. They’ll be out of the city limits if we wait much longer.” I don’t hear anything after that, not really—just the sound of my pulse pounding. I approach his shiny uniform, ignoring the way another agent shifts, clearly ready to intervene.

“They’re in danger. Right now. While we’re standing here, they’re being taken further away, and God knows what kind of situation they are in. I need you to take action, or believe me, I will do something stupid myself. Either way, I won’t stand here and let them disappear for good.”

A muscle jumps in his jaw. He knows I’m right. He fucking knows. A decision is made between the straightening of his shoulders and the authoritative stance he adopts. With a heavy sigh, the officer finally nods.

“Fine. I’ll gather a few cars and personally take you two,” he says, looking pointedly at Thiago and me. The rest of you will be taken to the station for questioning.” The Souls appear reluctant but agree. This is the best shot we’ve got right now.

As promised, the officer heads off to collect a few others, announcing that we will do a drive-around based on his hunch. That’s fine with me. Holding his laptop carefully, Thiago follows me into the back seat of the nearest police cruiser. I have a few precious seconds to turn a sharp glare on him.

“What the fuck took you so long to tip off the police? We had a plan,” I grit through my clenched jaw. Thiago, to his credit, doesn’t even flinch.

“I only had three minutes, tops, to climb into the vents with my laptop when I saw the thugs storming the hotel to take Axel, and Avery’s mic stopped transmitting as soon as she stepped in that back room. I was completely blind on the ground and trying to gauge when you needed backup whilst hiding for my life.”

Thiago puffs out his cheeks at the inconvenience of it all. I have to remind myself he’s here as a favor to Dax, not because he has a dog in this fight. Forcing my jaw to unlock, trying to stay positive, I reach across him to close the door. Huxley catches it before I get the chance.

“I swear to fuck, Wyatt,” he growls, his blond waves falling forward around his narrowed eyes. “If you don’t bring her back to me alive, I’ll end you. You’ve made too many mistakes at her expense.” His voice is low, barely restrained, with the kind of quiet rage that promises violence if pushed just an inch further. I level him with an unflinching stare while Thiago cowers between us.

“If I can’t bring her back safe, I’m not coming back at all.”

And Hux knows from the seriousness radiating from my posture that I don’t mean I’ll be going on fucking vacation. It’s taken me a long time to come around, but I know now that there’s no me without Avery. There’s no believing in heaven without my Angel.

Avery landed in my life like an atomic bomb, destroying my existence as I knew it and leaving a fresh slate in its place. Now all I need is to get to her so I can start to rebuild a world she can be free in. All her fears and reservations about me will vanish when she realizes I don’t want to cage her. I want to encourage her to do whatever her heart desires. To live and love and cry and laugh, and I want to be there every step of the way. I’m done putting any distance between us. I’m done watching from the side lines.

The young officer eases Hux back by his shoulders, slamming the door closed with a thud of finality. Dropping into the driver’s seat, protected from us by a mesh grate, he twists the key in the ignition, the engine rumbling to life beneath us as red and blue lights flicker across the interior. His hands tighten around the steering wheel as he radios in our transport, his voice clipped and professional, but something flickers beneath it. Hesitation, maybe, or the weight of knowing he’s putting his credibility on the line for our sakes.

“Tell me where to go,” he twists his head to call back. Thiago is straight on it, using his illegal hacking skills to chase the signal and read out the current location. We’ve got a lot of ground to make up, and I pray that Avery can hang on. The car pulls forward, rolling toward the main road through the mass of flashing lights and uniformed bodies swarming the parking lot. Instead of watching my Souls fade into the background, I press my knuckles against my temples, squeezing my eyes shut for half a second.

Unexpectedly, a hand rubs my shoulder, and when I peer up, Thiago isn’t looking at me, but he doesn’t withdraw his hand. I frown for a moment, then nod, thankful for his show of comfort. This man doesn’t know me, and he certainly doesn’t owe me anything. Yet I believe he can sense the lengths I’d go to and that I mean well in the depths of my damaged heart.

Mimicking his small smirk, because it seems like the right thing to do, I sit straighter, ready to face the world once again. For the first time since we entered the casino, something inside me clicks into place. Harrison thinks he’s won. Thinks he’s gotten away. But he’s wrong. Because no matter where he runs or where he hides, I will find him. And I will burn his entire fucking world to the ground to get to my girl.