Chapter 24
TWENTY-FOUR
Liam
Tate Piers.
You’re about to be all mine.
Such a foolish mistake has led to the end of your existence.
I look up as Gabriel comes rushing into the room. “I fucked up.”
“You never fuck up; I’m sure it was someone else’s fault,” I assure him, hand on his side from when he’d come sliding in, since I didn’t want him to ram his hip into the edge of the desk I’m sitting at.
“I left the fingerprint match up on the computer while I ran down here because I was worried about you. I wasn’t thinking straight. I was panicked about you—”
Well, that’ll make things a little more difficult, depending on who saw it.
“Jesse is gone and I’m confident he’s the one who saw it,” Gabriel says. “No one else has mentioned it to me. With it being Christmas, the department is pretty dead.”
My brow furrows. “Why would Jesse go after him? If Jesse called them on me to protect Lacey… why would he then rush back out and go for Tate? I wonder if he’s caught up in doing something else for this asshole… but then what would he need the information from the fingerprint for?”
The chair I’ve commandeered squeaks when I lean back and close my eyes to think.
“Like you said, it doesn’t make sense for him to go after Tate when Whitaker forced him to make the call to get you arrested. Whitaker’s likely pissed about the fact that you got one of his other ‘followers’ arrested,” Gabriel says quietly enough that only I can hear.
“Does Jesse think he’s going to use Tate against Whitaker?” I ask as I open my eyes. “Like as a bargaining chip?”
“That’s what I’m wondering,” Gabriel says. “Do you think he believes he can do something to keep Lacey safe?”
“Have you been able to get in contact with Lacey?”
“No.”
I slide the laptop I’d been using over to Gabriel. “While I’m out, I need you to figure out everything you can on Tate Piers and call me if you find anything of interest. This is what I have started. Call me if you find out anything new.”
I stand up, but before I can go, he grabs my wrist. “Liam, please be careful.”
“I will be.”
“I need you to come home to me tonight, okay?” he asks, his eyes looking so desperate.
I’m always surprised to see it. At no point have I felt concerned dealing with Whitaker, yet every time I leave, he’s filled with fear.
I don’t like making him feel such things.
Causing the man I love, the man I adore, any stress upsets me.
“Do you not want me to go?” I ask.
Gabriel looks surprised by the question.
“No, I’m not… I told you before that I wouldn’t control you.
If you are confident in what you’re planning on doing and it’ll save lives, then I trust you.
Even if it’s done for selfish reasons, the end result is that Whitaker can’t kill anyone ever again.
Please help Jesse. He’s a good guy. He doesn’t deserve this. ”
I give him a brief kiss and feel his fingers linger on mine even as I step away.
It makes me want to go back to him, pull him into my arms, and assure him that everything will be alright, but I know that we’re working against the clock.
I glance back and find him watching me, but he offers me a smile and sits down in the chair I’d just vacated where he quickly sets to work.
He’s such a handsome man.
Careful not to draw any attention to myself, I leave, using the darkness to find my way to the parking lot and over to a car I’d snagged the keys to. I won’t be around to hear Michaels bitch about it.
I head toward the address of Tate Piers’ last known residence, which is in a subdivision about twenty-five minutes from here. I have to assume this is where Jesse would head, unless Whitaker was sending him somewhere.
I’ve had very little time to look into Tate to decide what I’m going to do when I find him. It doesn’t help that Jesse now knows who he is, which means that if he disappears, Jesse might look my way, but it’s not like he’s going out of his way to do things lawfully.
Then again, if Tate ends up dead, Jesse might question why Whitaker would kill one of his own and start speculating who could have killed him.
Decisions. Decisions.
The real question is… what can I do to draw Whitaker out from where he’s hiding behind all of these amateur killers?
Whitaker seems to only come out when he knows he can get away with something, like Nadine’s murder.
That took days of planning. He thought of every scenario, and he knew just how to get through it without suspicion.
It was calculated and he pulled it off with finesse.
Everything else has been done by his followers who aren’t as talented, and it shows.
The darkness inside of me bubbles up at the thought of it. At the thought of what I can do to Whitaker. What I want to do to him.
But now we have Jesse tossed into the mix. Why must Jesse fuck with my plans? What exactly does he plan on doing?
I drive into the subdivision, heading for Tate’s house.
As I continue around the loop, I see Jesse’s car and pull in behind it and park.
I don’t want there to be any sign of this car having driven past the house if anything happens, and Jesse must have had the same thought because he pulled over well before he reached Tate’s house.
I pull on gloves and a mask before I get out and check Jesse’s car, but he’s not present. I have my gun but decide that a gun is possibly a bit loud in these parts, depending on how things go.
The lights are on and there’s a car in Tate’s driveway that matches the license plate I pulled on him.
The house is nice, tucked between other houses of equal value.
One quick glance at his history told me that he got the money for his house after the death of his parents where he was a main suspect, but the police were unable to prove anything.
There was a long article about it, but I only skimmed the beginning.
It basically detailed how Tate likely killed his parents and is now living off his father’s cash.
The main question now is what my plan is.
If I pull out my badge and arrest the man, how many steps have I skipped?
Will my blackmail on Michaels be enough for him to turn a blind eye to the fact that I’ve informed him of nothing that is going on?
That I’ve mysteriously ended up at Tate’s house after being framed for murder?
Michaels will likely just be pleased to have another in his grasp, but what does that mean for Lacey, who Whitaker could be holding? If he has her, will he kill her? Or is he lying just to push Jesse to the edge?
If he has her, I don’t think he will kill her. If he kills her as a punishment, he really will have no sway over Jesse. She’s too important of a piece.
He might hurt her, but she can live without a finger or a toe.
So I will just have to deal with Tate in a way that Jesse won’t suspect it’s me.
Sadly, I don’t have my knife, so my gun will have to do. I’ll go to the house and see what Jesse is up to. Hopefully Jesse will leave so I can take control of the situation.
I make my way toward Tate’s home, wondering if Jesse has chosen to confront the man inside his own home while completely unprepared. He’s being rash and should have consulted me. But then again, I have to believe he assumed I’d be rather pissed after being tossed to the police.
I check the area, but there are no cameras. It makes sense that Tate wouldn’t have them. If he’s caught, Whitaker wouldn’t want any video proof of anything that could connect him to any of the people he uses.
The neighboring houses might have something, but there’s a privacy fence that I follow along as I look in through the windows.
I don’t see anyone home, even though the lights are on.
Instead, there’s a trail of footprints through the snow that lead me to the backyard where the fencing stops to open up to a large pond that each of the houses in this circle surround.
With the biting air, the pond is frozen over, moonlight glistening off it.
It’s dark, but if I squint, it seems like I can see something moving out on the ice.
I walk out to the edge and look down at the way the snow dusting the top of the ice has been disturbed by two different sets of footprints.
I step down on the ice, testing it against my weight, but it seems pretty solid, so I set out on it, watching and listening as I go.
Thankfully, the dusting of snow has made the top of it gritty, keeping me from sliding on it when I switch to a light jog, wanting to get close enough to see what’s happening before it’s too late.
Gabriel would be rather sad if Jesse died.
I quicken my pace when it becomes apparent that the ice isn’t going to crack beneath my weight.
When I get close, I see a large man slam something into Jesse’s side.
Jesse goes skidding an instant before what appears to be a bat smashes into the spot Jesse had just been.
The ice cracks beneath the force, and without letting Jesse have a moment of reprieve, the man who must be Tate lunges at Jesse.
Jesse can’t get back far enough before the man slams him down to the ice, right where the bat had hit.
The sound of his head hitting the ice a second before I hear the ice cracking has me running.
I didn’t want to give up my position, but at this point, I’m not sure I have the option to remain quiet.
“Police!” I shout, but it’s too late. The sound of the ice cracking tears through the silent night, and I watch as the water swallows Jesse, who looks stunned from the hit to his head.
The man whirls on me once Jesse disappears from sight. I pull out my gun, but what would shooting him solve? No, I want to keep him alive so I can torture him for information on Whitaker. All of my plans will go down the drain otherwise.