Chapter 44 Ethan
ETHAN
I sat back in my desk chair and surveyed the video feeds for the hundredth time that day. It had become something of an obsession since the Hunt: watching the cameras, keeping an eye on the new guards Anton had hired to protect the property.
There was no reason to think Bram would know we were behind the Ghost masks during the Hunt. We’d kept the masks on until we’d exited the tunnels through one of the doors leading to the basement under the used book store.
And it wasn’t just the Hunt: it was the fact that the Ghosts — Viggo, Brock, and Milo — had quietly disappeared in the weeks since.
I knew what it meant: the Butchers had gotten to them.
Anton said there was no way the Ghosts had told the Butchers we were the ones who took their place in the Hunt, reasoning that if they had, the Butchers would already have come for us.
I wasn’t so sure. Bram and his friends were violent but you didn’t run a town like Blackwell Falls for ten years without also being smart.
I stood and paced my office, nothing but boxers under my open robe, the video feeds flickering on my computer screens in the background.
I had a bad feeling. A bad, bad feeling.
I debated going back to Hungary, or maybe some other country in Eastern Europe, which tended to make it easy to evade law enforcement if your pockets were deep enough.
And thankfully, mine were pretty deep thanks to my social media platforms and the cam and prostitution operations. Not to mention the powerful men under my sway in exchange for keeping their peccadilloes from the public eye.
But I’d pushed the limit in Hungary, had only gotten out by the skin of my teeth.
I chewed my nails and tasted blood. I’d bitten them down to the quick in the month since the Hunt, a childhood habit I thought I’d kicked.
It made me pissed at Maeve Haver all over again. It was her fault I was in this mess, her fault I’d ended up at the Hunt. It was her fault I couldn’t concentrate and her fault I thought every unexplained sound was Bram and his fucking Butchers coming for revenge.
Fucking cunt.
And who could blame me for being on edge? I could still hear the sound of Bram’s footsteps behind us in the tunnels. I hadn’t counted on that. I’d assumed he’d be too worried about the Haver girl to come after us right away, but apparently he’d left that to Poe and Remy.
The fact that he’d tried to hunt us down told me all I needed to know about how much he’d wanted vengeance. I’d seen the way he’d looked at Maeve Haver in the holding room.
I thought about the shot someone had taken at me in the city the year before. Could that have been Bram?
No, I was getting the timeline confused. Bram wouldn’t have had a reason to take a shot at me last year. I hadn’t even been back in the States full time.
I turned my attention back to the video feed. Maybe I should have Anton hire more guards, get cover for the perimeter by the tree line. Or maybe we should add a drone.
I picked up my cell phone.
“Boss?” There was an undercurrent of nervousness in Anton’s thickly accented English.
“Come to my office.”
I tossed my phone back onto the desk and bent over to scroll through my email. Mostly bullshit, but one from Noah Mack, my producer, with a subject line that read Scheduling.
I tried to remember the last time I’d recorded a video and couldn’t. Was it before the Hunt? Maybe.
I returned to the camera feeds and rewound the footage until I was looking at the front gate the previous night. I forwarded through the first few hours of the night, then played it at normal speed when headlights came into view.
The car didn’t stop in front of the gate like the Haver girl had done. It didn’t stop at all.
But still.
I tore off a piece of my nail and watched blood rush to the surface under the rest of it.
A knock sounded at the door and I called Anton in.
“Yeah, boss?” His limp was more pronounced now thanks to the kick the Haver girl had delivered to it during the Hunt.
She’d put up a fight in the tunnels, I’d give her that, but that just meant she was overdue to be taught a lesson, and with every day that passed, I itched to be the one to teach it.
Anton’s gaze slid to the handgun sitting next to my computer.
I pointed at the feed. “Did you see this car last night?”
I’d ordered him to review the security footage every morning, make sure no one was casing the place.
He nodded. “Checked the plate. It’s the realtor who listed the house down the road.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
It didn’t make me feel better. What if Bram was casing the place some other way, watching me come and go, waiting for the right time to exact his revenge?
I resumed pacing while Anton watched. “I think we should hire more guards, maybe put other measures into place.”
Anton shifted on his feet. “What other measures?”
“I’m thinking… a body double.” I’d been holed up in the compound too long, that was the problem. I needed to get out, get a change of scenery, find someone to fuck, maybe do a retreat to clear my head.
“A body double?”
I nodded. “Someone who can throw them off.”
“Them?”
“Are you going to repeat everything I fucking say or are you going to do it?”
“Just want to be sure I understand the order, boss.”
“Find someone who looks like me, or someone who can be made to look like me. We can send him out of the compound, see if anyone follows, if anyone takes a shot at him. Or we can leave him here so I can get the fuck out of this place for a while without drawing attention. We can put him up in the empty guest house, pay him to sit on his ass in between field trips.”
Anton lived in the main house, necessary since that’s where the security room was, and Nick occupied one of the two guest houses.
Anton hesitated, the nodded. “Whatever you say, boss.”
I felt a rush of irritation as he limped out of the room. I really needed to think about a replacement. Anton had been formidable in his day, but now he was old, physically compromised.
He wouldn’t stand a chance with the Butchers, and it was only a matter of time before we met again.
I picked up my phone and dialed a number I hadn’t dialed in at least a year.
“Ethan.” The voice was clipped, with a Russian accent.
“I need your help."