Chapter 55 Big Balls
FIFTY-FIVE
Big balls
REED
Carnage didn’t contact Lila about Kenzie.
Nor did he respond to her texts or phone calls.
Nope.
That fucker messaged me instead. Color me impressed, he can hold a phone while hoisting up his giant fucking balls.
I’m willing to make a trade. Your sister for Lila. You have ten minutes to reply before I start carving up this bitch.
I know who to thank for giving my personal number to the southern general of the motherfucking STK Brotherhood. He either got it from Kenzie’s phone or her big mouth.
It’s a mindfuck to be hoping she’s involved. The alternative is he had to force my number out of her.
Brief flashes of Troy Hartley’s butchered body hit me. A shiver runs down my spine as I envision Kenzie meeting a similar fate.
I had just pulled my lips off Lila’s when the text came in. Only in the building for a few minutes, and I was hit with another shit storm.
Because we were entwined in a relieved embrace, Lila saw the text on my phone. After telling her I would handle it, I quickly fled to show the text to my team and plan the response.
To buy time, I replied to the sick fuck to let him know we agreed to meet for a trade. Now, it’s a race against the clock to find them before I have to choose between my sister and Lila.
We’re down to five hours.
If I’m being honest, the choice is easy. I’d rather burn alive than sacrifice Lila.
That said, I won’t let Kenzie die.
Carnage won’t win this. I’m saving them both.
With the text handled, I return to my private office. Lila is safely here with Kri by her side.
To the bodyguard’s credit, she opted to stay with Lila, despite her being safe in these walls. The other Redleg guard is hanging out in the parking lot in case we need additional backup.
At first, I thought they were trying to get a few more dollars out of me by adding some billable hours. I no longer believe that.
While I was channeling a Formula 1 driver, Romero got a tad chatty with Kri and Lila.
It started innocently with his mention of our team being pulled in a hundred directions.
And when he accidentally mentioned the STK brotherhood, Kri refused to leave.
It seems Redleg has tangoed with the gang before.
My pride insists we don’t need assistance from civilian contractors, but my need to protect Lila and save my sister demands I accept her offer. On the plus side, Lila isn’t sitting alone in here.
She stands as I enter the office, her hands fidgeting at her waist and her eyes alight with hope. “Did you find her?”
“Not yet, cookie.”
Her expression loses all traces of optimism, making my heart ache. Unable to resist, I wrap her in an embrace. She trembles against me.
From over the top of Lila’s head, I trade glances with Kri. She leans toward my office door, brows raised in question.
“No. Stay,” I tell her.
I kiss Lila’s forehead and release her. “I came here to check on you. I need to get back to work now. We’ll find her. I swear. Are you okay?”
“Don’t worry about me.” She wipes her cheeks, her big brown eyes glimmering at me. “Is there anything I can do to help before we go to meet Silas?”
I don’t bother correcting her reference to his name, but I can’t let the rest of her statement slide.
“No.” I tenderly grab her upper arms and lower my head to her eye level. “And you aren’t going. We aren’t trading you for Kenzie.”
This sweet soul honestly seems shocked by my decree. “Why not?”
“We only told him that to buy time. Not a fucking chance am I sending you anywhere near him.”
“We originally planned for me to meet with him while wearing a wire, and I’m still game. I won’t abandon her, regardless of how furious I am with her.”
It seems Lila’s got balls as big as Carnage. Can’t believe she would still be up for that.
The thread of patience I had frays rapidly. “It isn’t happening, Lila.”
Her pleading turns to stubborn determination. “Is that your decision to make? What about my agreement? I’m supposed to serve him to you on a silver platter.” She edges around me, angling for the door. “Where’s your boss?”
With one wide step, I block her exit. “Stop it.” My voice turns acidic. “You’ve already done enough to uphold your deal. Don’t worry about charges. Get the idea of ever seeing that monster again out of your head.”
She crosses her arms and taps her foot, radiating defiance. “I don’t give a damn about the charges. I’m the one who sent Kenzie out of your condo. And I’ll save her. I won’t lose another sister. Estranged or not.”
Shit. I see what’s happening here.
I need to nip this guilt cycle in the bud.
Inside my chest, the blazing obstinance snuffs out almost instantly.
Releasing a protracted exhale, I gesture toward the chair. “Sit down, please. I need to tell you something about Kenzie.”
Lila picks up on my change in demeanor, her posture loosening. She takes a seat, keeping her eyes on mine. “Is she . . . dead?”
I kneel beside her chair and grab her hand. “No, cookie. She isn’t.” One more stalling breath, then I deliver the news. “We suspect Kenzie is involved with the crime ring. We found her ongoing communications with—”
Lila sags, head cocking to the side. “I already know about the messages with that woman. Romero told us.” She bunches her lips. “It doesn’t change anything for me. Whether she’s part of this or not, I don’t believe she orchestrated her abduction. After we save her, we can sort that out.”
I close my eyes, head falling. “Drake and his flapping trap.”
“Reed, get up,” Lila urges, pulsing my hand.
We meet eyes. Her tenderness and inner strength challenge me before she echoes it with spoken words.
I dip my chin in silent agreement.
“If you insist on preventing me from confronting that monster to save your sister, then you have work to do, dimples. Go find her.”
On the short walk to our team’s shared workspace, I take a few deep breaths to find my center.
Carson meets my eyes as I retake my seat at the table. “She good?”
“Yep. Any sign of Ginny’s car yet?”
“Still looking. Found it a few times but keep losing it when it leaves areas with cameras.”
Romero returns to his spot beside me with a fresh cup of coffee. “Am I the only one who finds it ironic that the Shoot to Kill Brotherhood is so fond of knives? All the bodies piling up, and only one of the vics was shot. Weird, right?”
Agent Fowler looks up briefly from his laptop, amusement perking up his exhausted features. “Maybe Carnage will change the name to Slice to Kill when he takes over. It would make branding seamless. No acronym change.”
“Solid business decision,” Romero quips.
With my patience in the toilet, I snap at them. “Will you please focus? Fucking hell. We’re running out of time.”
Catching me at my composed finest, SSA Chase strolls into our shared workspace.
After giving me a ball-shriveling glare, she plunks a report on the center of the table. “DNA results are in from the fingernails of the Tampa home invasion victim. It’s official. Ginny Lawrence is the female unsub. She was Bonnie to Hartley’s Clyde.”
She tips her chin at the stack of paper. “Those are copies of the ERT report from the follow-up search of Hartley’s house in there. I only skimmed it. Saw enough to know we’re locked in.”
I scramble over, swiping the pages to see it for myself.
Anything to help take my mind off the possibility of sending Lila into the Lion’s Den.
And that isn’t a metaphor. The Lion’s Den is a bar that closed last year after a fire destroyed the back half of the building.
Carnage picked it as the meeting place for the exchange.
Sounds like a terrific place to trade one life for another in the dark of night.
I skim the DNA report first.
The swabs taken from under Janet’s fingernails gave us three distinct DNA profiles. Her own, naturally. The second profile is a 99 percent match for Troy Hartley, while the third hit on the DNA sample we took from Ginny Lawrence’s water bottle the other night.
And that’s the upstanding woman my sister has been secretly communicating with.
Fan-fucking-tastic.
Chase drags a chair to the table and opens her laptop.
Despite the circumstances, I can’t get over my hero worship of her. Not all SSAs would dig in this way. Chase is in the thick of it with us.
I tuck the DNA report behind the other pages and search for something ERT found that might lead us to Kenzie faster.
Also studying the findings, Romero calls something out I didn’t get to yet. “Hayes, wasn’t your sister’s photo taken with a Polaroid from the first abduction?”
I answer him without looking up from the report. “Yep.”
“Bottom of page two,” he says. “They found a Polaroid camera at Hartley’s house. Nobody was looking for that on their first pass.”
While a solid find for the larger case, it doesn’t help me with Kenzie.
He continues with his semi-pointless recap. “They found clothes and shoes that match descriptions provided by several home invasion victims of the male assailant, including the images Janet Ross found online.”
My blood pressure skyrockets. “Well, we’re doing a bang-up job at getting evidence to convict Hartley.
Oh wait, he’s dead.” I grind my teeth, fighting off a groan.
“Perhaps we should prioritize preventing the next murder over solving crimes committed by a dead man and his shit-for-brains girlfriend. Are we the FBI or Mayberry PD? Jesus. The life of the most precious woman on earth is on the line. She’s counting on us to save her. Oh, and so is my psycho sister.”
“Easy, Hayes,” SSA Chase cautions, her wrist flexed to flash an open palm at me. “Do you need to step out?”
Although phrased as a question, it’s an order.
Maybe she’s right. I stand and prepare to take a quick break.
The trill of an incoming phone call makes my legs freeze.
Agent Carson puts the call on speaker. “What do you have for us, Andrews?”