Chapter 25 #3
Neither of us wanted to hang around here. There were more important things to discuss back home. Ballistic and War needed to take part in the vote on whether we attack the Kingsmen, as part of the council. He turned to look at me, waiting for me to decide.
“No point wasting more of our time. We can get the others to watch him till he’s shipped back home, but we need to go back. King needs us to strategize.”
Ballistic agreed, and we got into the truck, and we waited until Raptor and Felix’s truck pulled up. War got back out and gave them the information they needed on Declan, then we hit the road. I wanted to ask how the conversation had gone with Waverley, but I was hesitant.
I didn’t want to discuss my relationship with her in front of Ballistic and after our spat at the rest stop, War had been pretty closed off towards me anyway. So I held my tongue and just watched through my window.
As we were nearing home, War’s phone rang again.
“Yeah?... What?” he shouted. Both Ballistic and I glanced at each other before he looked back at the road, and I turned to see the panic on War’s face.
“Is he okay?” He put his other hand to his head and pulled at this hair.
“Fuck!” he roared, and I was stunned to see a tear run down his face, which had gone ashen.
I reached back and grabbed the phone from him when it fell from his hand.
“It’s Hustle. What the fuck just happened?”
“Oh God,” it was Rosa. “You need to get back here.”
“We’re on our way. We won’t be long. What the fuck is going on, Rosa?” I turned back to see War holding his head in both hands. He started screaming at Ballistic to hurry the fuck up. Ballistic put his foot down, and the truck lurched as he sped up. “Rosa?”
“Waverley’s gone.”
“What? Gone where? What do you mean?” I swear my heart stopped beating. She couldn’t be gone. She was safe inside the house on the compound with dozens of people around her. This was bullshit. She couldn’t be gone.
“I came back to the house and found Connor… Hudson. It’s terrible.
” Rosa let out a sob that had my chest squeezing tight.
I turned to look at War. His eyes were on me, and I could see the devastation in them.
I didn’t know what Rosa had told him, but from the way she was crying now and War’s reaction, it was something I didn’t want to hear.
“She’s not here, just Connor,” her voice cracked.
“She has to be on the compound,” I half yelled. I had to grip the side of the door as Ballistic took a corner without slowing.
“We searched everywhere. Then Kansas checked all the cameras. There was only one vehicle that left after you and the others, and we could see on the camera there were only two people inside.”
“Who?”
“Lily and Omen.”
“They were in the house with her and Connor?” I guessed.
“Yes. I left them to go over to sort some mess out at the bar. Lily called to say they needed me, then her and Omen went back to the house. By the time I got back…” she trailed off.
“Thanks Rosa, go be with the others, okay? We’ll be there soon.”
Ballistic looked at me, sensing that his wife was not coping. He looked as if he wanted to snatch the phone, but he focused back on the road and getting us home as quickly as possible. I hung up and called Dirt, looking back at War. His face was hard now, but he was still watching me.
Dirt answered, and I asked what the hell was going on.
“It looks like Lily and Omen took her in the trunk. No one thought to stop and check. They said they were going home. But we’ve been round there, and the house is empty.”
“Why would they do this?”
“I don’t know,” Dirt said in a low voice. I could tell he was fuming over this. “But they did it, it’s the only plausible explanation. Plus Connor.”
“How bad?” I asked, needing to know.
“They’ve taken him to the hospital, but I don’t know if he’s gonna make it, Hustle. I’m sorry man, I know what he means to you and War, but he’s been stabbed multiple times. He’s lost a lot of blood. Medic couldn’t do anything for him.”
I closed my eyes, squeezing them tight at the thought of what had happened to one of my best friends.
But he was in the best place now, only the doctors could help him.
All we could do was hope he pulled through.
Waverley was still in danger and my vision was turning red at the thought of Omen and Lily and what they had done to her and where she was now.
“Kansas is looking into Lily and Omen. Trying to figure out who they are. Because they sure as fuck are not Devil’s.”
“This whole thing was a diversion, wasn’t it?” I muttered. More to myself than to Dirt. “The problem was, they were already on the inside. We would never be able to stop them from taking her.”
But why had they taken so long if they could take her all along?
Dirt didn’t answer. I hung up saying nothing else, then looked back at Warren.
He was staring through the window, the streetlights illuminating his hard features every ten seconds.
I wanted to tell him not to worry, that Connor would be okay, but from what Dirt said, it didn’t seem likely.
All I could do was tell Ballistic to go faster, but that was not enough.
We were driving towards something I had no way of fixing.