Chapter 21
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
ANDER
“H ow can the trail just go cold?” I snapped as Cruz showed me footage of Blake’s kidnapper in one angle, but vanished in another. We’d been searching for twenty-four hours now, and I was getting antsy.
He sighed, eyeing me. “Their tech guy has better tech than me, Lavaro.”
“Can’t you make your tech techier then?”
“I’ve been doing upgrades for weeks, dude. I don’t know how they’re doing it, but they keep hacking into my shit and frying things,” he scowled, typing on the keyboard rapidly as codes and footage popped up all over his monitors. “They obviously wanted us to know about taking her, or they would’ve wiped this footage too. Hopefully, that means they want us to find her, right?”
“Or her body,” I grunted, flicking my gaze to Raven, who was sitting at a computer with Penn and Riley. The girls seemed to be searching street cameras manually, which was pointless if Cruz’s targeting system couldn’t find her.
Raven shouldn’t have even been near the damn computer, but she’d insisted on helping. I felt better having her here, this place was as secure as things got, but it also meant she wouldn’t freak out that I was running off to save my ex-girlfriend.
If Blake got hurt because of me, I’d never forgive myself. I had to find her so she could return home to her sister, she was all she had.
My eyes narrowed on Will as he approached the girls. He’d been awfully chatty to Raven today, and Cruz chuckled when he noticed me glaring at him.
“If you’re worried of losing her to Will, you’re not fucking her right.”
“She doesn’t complain.”
“Then stop glaring at him. He’s a flirt, but a harmless one. He knows she’s taken, and he won’t fuck with that.”
“He’s flirting with her?” I demanded, and he raised an eyebrow.
“Didn’t take you to be the insecure type, man. Take it as a compliment. You’ve got a girl that other people want, but no one can have. Let him flirt with her, it’s not like she’ll reciprocate,” he shrugged, turning back to his monitor. “Focus on this shit, Riley would punch him in the mouth for you if he overstepped, and you know it.”
“What if that was your girl he was flirting with?” I grumbled, crossing my arms tightly to avoid walking over there and punching Will in the face.
“He does. All the time. Penn’s too oblivious to even notice, and I also know I fuck my girl right and have nothing to worry about,” he answered, pulling up new footage with a frown. “This has been tampered with for sure. See this tiny snippet?”
He played the video and paused it so I could see what he was talking about. It was Blake being hauled out of the trunk, but the footage was cut at that time to hide it.
“Are they getting sloppy?” I asked, my need to fight Will vanishing.
“Possibly. Or they wanted us to find it. This is an abandoned building that the Psychos own. I highly doubt she’s there, they’ve probably just set up this footage to make us chase our own tails.”
“Worth a look though, right? What if they are just being sloppy and she’s in there? Where is it?” I bit out, pulling my phone out to put it in the system.
“You’re not fucking up my business connections,” he said firmly, lifting his phone to his ear to call someone. “Hey. We’ve found a lead on Blake. I think it’s to make us run in circles and won’t go anywhere, but there’s a tiny part of footage of Blake being dragged into one of your buildings. Are we good to go check it out?”
I didn’t particularly care what they said, I was going regardless.
“Found something?” Raven asked as she appeared beside me, squinting at the screen. “Is that Blake?”
“It is. We’re going to check it out,” I replied as I draped an arm around her shoulders, kissing the top of her head.
“I’m coming too.”
“Raven—”
“No. I’m not taking my eyes off any of you. What if this is a trick?”
“Then I’d rather you stayed here where it’s safe.”
“Oh, so you can go because you’re a guy?” she asked with a glare, and Cruz shot me a look of warning to tread lightly with my answer as he hung up the phone.
“No,” I said carefully. “It’s because I want my precious baby here so I can see her pretty face the moment I get back.”
“This pretty face is coming with you,” she deadpanned, spinning around and pulling away from me as she stalked over to Will to ask him something. He grinned at whatever she said, holding a handgun out for her.
“Whoa, wait,” I barked, darting over and yanking her back by the shirt before she could grab it. “You use our guns. No offense to Will, but you don’t know what crimes that weapon has been part of.”
“You’ll let me come?”
“You want to come?” I asked bluntly, confusion filling her pretty eyes for a second before they went wide as I snagged her wrist and tugged her towards the door.
“You make a mess, you clean it up!” Cruz called without taking his eyes off his computer, Riley laughing as I dragged Raven from the room.
I shot Logan a dirty look as he stood from the couch to follow, and he hesitated before lowering himself back down. Five minutes alone with her was all I needed, he’d have to get over it.
“Where are we going?” she hissed as I headed along the hallway, finding the bathroom and shoving the door open. It thankfully appeared to be empty, so I locked the door and grabbed the back of her neck as I pressed her front to the wall.
“You sass me, you fight me, and you piss me off while making me horny at the same time,” I said sharply, tugging at the back of her pants. “You’re going to shut your mouth and take me. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” she practically squeaked, a strangled cry leaving her as I kept my grip on her neck, pulled my cock out, and pushed inside her tight, wet pussy. “Holy fuck, Ander.”
“Say my name,” I growled, slamming in and out as I fucked her almost through the damn wall. There wasn’t a lot I could control in our lives right now, but I could make sure she knew who was fucking her.
Not Logan. Not Reid. Not Zavier. Me.
“Ander, Ander, Ander.” She was begging, her pussy so damn tight around me that I wasn’t going to last long.
I fucked her until she came, then fucked her right through it until I bottomed out with a grunt, struggling to catch my damn breath as I practically squashed her against the wall as I sagged against her.
“Feel better?” she panted, sarcasm in her tone.
“A little, yeah.”
“Um, is it safe to come out?” a voice called out, my head whipping around to find the source. There was one shower stall closed.
Oops.
“Two seconds,” I replied, pulling out of Raven and fixing her pants before my own. “All good.”
The door opened, and Drake poked his head out, a pissed off Knox behind him.
“Something must be in the air,” Drake joked as he stepped into the main room, taking us in. “You guys have random strikes of horniness in the afternoons too?”
Knox shoved past him and glared at us on his way out of the bathroom, but Drake tilted his head, apparently wanting to talk about it.
“Mr. Grumpy here just needed to let off some steam,” Raven said dryly, and Drake smirked.
“My Mr. Grumpy did too, I get it. At least we’d already finished, or you would’ve cock blocked us.”
Raven snickered then cringed, glancing towards the toilet. “I just gotta?—”
“I’ll leave you guys to it,” he smirked, eyeing me as Raven darted into a cubical to clean up. “You owe her some flowers or something, dude. Not even a warm up?”
“Out, asshole,” I snapped, and he laughed as he headed out the door after Knox.
“I think he’s right. Flowers might be nice,” Raven said as I washed my hands before leaning back against the wall to wait for her.
“You can call my dick flowers, then you can have flowers all the time,” I deadpanned, the toilet flushing two seconds before she walked back out and rolled her eyes at me.
“You’re such a guy.”
“You’re the sex addict.”
“Am not.”
“I woke up to you and Zavier thinking you were being sneaky last night,” I teased as she washed her hands, her lips twitching with a small smile.
“He started it.”
“He finished it too,” I murmured as I stepped closer, dropping a kiss on her shoulder. “You’re okay with us looking for Blake, right?”
She wiped her wet hands on her pants, turning to look up at me. “She was taken because of us. I like Blake, I want to make sure she’s okay. She wasn’t just some girl you dated, Ander. She’s friends with the guys and Riley too.”
“He took her because of me, not you,” I sighed, her hands fisting my shirt as she stood on tiptoe to kiss me softly.
“Let’s go find her so she can go home to her sister. I don’t want that kid back in foster care.”
Now that my emotions were in check a little more, we headed back to the office, finding some of the guys shoving guns and knives into holsters and hidden compartments on their outfits.
“Psychos gave the all clear. They think it's just a mind game too, but can’t hurt to check,” Cruz said as he checked that his gun was loaded before tucking it into the holster.
“You’re coming?” I asked with surprise, knowing he preferred thieving and hacking to the tactical side of things.
“And let you assholes have all the fun? I think not. Drake and Penn can monitor the cameras,” he replied and glanced at Raven. “You still coming?”
I bit my tongue, reaching for my gun off the desk and pausing when she replied.
“I might stay here. You guys can focus better if you’re not watching me.” Relief hit me, and she put her hand on my chest as she kissed me quickly. “Stay safe. Please.”
“I will. You’ll stay here with Drake and Penn?”
“And Riley,” Riley grinned as she popped up behind her. “We’ll behave until you get back. Unless you take too long.”
“You two can’t become besties. I don’t have time for that kind of headache,” I groaned, but I was grateful that they were all getting along.
“Roll out!” Knox barked, apparently in charge of whatever this was, and I gave Raven one last kiss before following the group of guys out, feeling so much better now that I’d blown my load and Raven was staying here where it was safe.
Raven
“Do you prefer to shave or wax? Oh! Do you just trim it?” Penn randomly asked me, and Riley scoffed.
“Slow down, nosey. Raven’s new at flashing her pussy at people, let alone talking about it.”
“Why do you want to know?” I asked with a scowl, keeping my eyes on the computer monitor as we watched the Thieves and Ander exit the Psychos’ building.
No Blake, as expected.
“The girls have been discussing pussy haircuts at the dinner table here, sorry,” Drake said dryly from his desk, my face heating at knowing he was listening.
“I thought it was just guys who asked weird shit. Is this what it’s like to have girlfriends?” I asked, and Penn blinked at me.
“Yes. So, what do you do? I’ve been waxing. It’s a game changer.”
“I just shave. It’s free when you steal the razor,” I grumbled, giving her the side-eye. “Some girls just trim it? I thought you had to get rid of all of it?”
Riley snorted, leaning back in her seat to watch me. “Did your boyfriends tell you that? Throw them in the trash if that’s the case.”
“No. I just thought it was a rule.”
“Trust me, you could grow it out like a full bush and they’d still shove their face in your muff and go to town,” Drake called out, glancing over with a grin.
“You don’t mind it?” I replied, making him shrug.
“I’m used to Knox’s furry nuts in my face. You think I give a shit if Penn wants to grow her bush out?”
Penn giggled, and I scrunched my nose. “You’d think I’d be used to these weird conversations after living with the guys for forever.”
“You get used to it. Especially around Penn, she has no filter,” Riley chuckled, getting to her feet. “I should head home. I’ll let you know if I hear anything, Drake.”
He gave her a thumbs up without looking at her, scanning footage in search of Blake.
I’d really hoped the mafia pricks fucked up and accidentally kept part of that footage in so this was all over, but it seemed they wanted to play mind games.
Was Blake even still alive?
Once Riley was gone, Logan appeared with an amused look on his face. “My pussy pal told me to come and teach you about how good eating furry pussy is.”
“Ugh, please don’t,” I groaned.
“Why not? You get to eat and floss at the same time,” he joked, dropping into Riley’s vacated chair and tugging me onto his lap. “Do what you want with yours, I don’t care.”
“Thanks,” I said dryly, giving him a kiss on the cheek.
“Nothing on Blake yet?”
“Nope. The raid was a bust,” Drake answered, tilting his monitor in our direction. “The system has started flagging some of Stefano’s men in random places like the grocery store, so I don’t know if they’re not hiding anymore, or if it’s part of their mind games.”
“Why are they putting so much energy into chasing Zav?” Penn huffed, standing and stretching her arms above her head.
“That’s what I’d like to know,” Drake replied with a frown, spinning in his chair to face us. “You sure there’s not something small he might have forgotten about?”
“Zav wouldn’t keep secrets,” I bit out sharply, not wanting them to turn on him, but he shook his head.
“I’m not saying that, I just mean has he really dug through his brain to see if there’s something tiny he missed?”
“Considering he didn’t even know he was dealing with the mafia to begin with, I doubt it,” Logan sighed, toying with my hair as I curled into him.
“That’s the thing though. Now that he knows, maybe there’s a small detail that could help us find out the problem. There’s no way Stefano is causing this much of a ruckus and publicly blowing up cars just because he claims Zavier knows something. We’re missing information somehow,” Drake answered, tapping his fingers on the armrest.
“If there was, Stefano would’ve said something,” Logan said as he shook his head.
“That’s what I don’t understand,” Drake hummed as he turned to face his computer again.
Something beeped, and I glanced around for the source.
“It’s Rory,” Penn said, answering my silent question as she pulled up the security cameras outside to show Rory’s car pulling into the driveway.
“I’ll go let her in,” Drake replied, motioning to the screen to tell Penn to keep an eye on it as he left the room. Penn switched chairs and sat at Drake’s desk, my eyes going to the screen to check on Ander.
The cameras were following their cars on the drive back here, and I was glad to see they were fine.
“Any news?” Rory asked as she strolled in behind Drake, her attention already on the screens.
“No Blake,” Penn answered, typing something and bringing up another piece of footage. “The car that she was shoved into was just dumped. The footage around it has been tampered with, but it’s clear they wanted us to see it.”
Rory leaned over the back of the chair to look, the car burning in front of us.
“Hopefully, she’s not still in the trunk,” Rory muttered, my heart sinking.
Would they do that? Let her burn alive?
Logan’s arms tightened around me and he kissed my neck, sensing my panic.
“She’s not in there,” he murmured, glancing at Rory. “Right?”
She winced, not hiding her concern. “To be honest? Maybe. If they’ll blow up a car with Cami inside or burn down your house with people in it, I don’t think trapping someone in the trunk and burning it would faze them.”
Penn sent the location to Cruz to check out since it was on their way, and I felt like I was holding my breath until they arrived.
The car was completely ablaze, fire trucks arriving to put it out. It took forever before Stone called, his voice tight over the speaker.
“There’s a body inside.”
“Is it Blake?” Rory asked, already pulling her phone out to text someone.
“No idea. They’re burned to a crisp. We’ll have to wait for forensics to handle it.”
“I’ll get hold of my contacts to rush the report. I want a team stationed by Kate’s location, just to be safe,” Rory ordered, and Stone didn’t seem bothered by it.
“I’ll get Knox to put a team together today. We’re heading back now, so we’ll talk more soon.”
He hung up without waiting for a reply, and Rory was already leaving the room with her phone pressed to her ear.
“Should I call Ander?” I asked quietly, hoping he was okay.
If that was Blake’s body in the car, had Ander seen it?
“He’ll be here in a minute. He’s with the guys, he’ll be fine,” Logan replied, patting my thigh so I’d stand up. “We’ll go wait in the living room for him though.”
Penn had a call from another one of the Thieves who needed eyes on a job, so we left her and Drake to it as we wandered into the living room where people seemed to be congregating.
Rory was pacing on the phone, quietly snapping orders at someone on the other end of the call. She looked frazzled, which was unusual.
Zavier and Reid were sitting on the couches talking to a few Thieves, but the rest of the compound was quiet.
“I don’t give a fuck, Evans,” Rory hissed, saying something else that I didn’t quite hear before she hung up, growling to herself as she jammed her phone into her pocket. “I fucking hate that motherfucker!”
“Who?” I dared to ask, her knuckles cracking as she clenched her fists.
“Rage fucking Evans. He’s refusing to assist with our current mafia issue.”
“Do you need him to?”
“I have four days for things to go back to normal. Four, Raven,” she bit out. “Give me a cigarette.”
“Uh, I?—”
“Don’t fuck with me right now,” she snapped, and I dug my pack out of my pocket and offered them to her. She did well not to snatch them as she stormed off outside, and I followed her for some stupid reason.
I silently offered her a lighter when she patted her pockets with a snarl, her entire body calming after two drags.
“Why four days?” I asked, lighting my own to smoke with her.
“Ry. He can’t come home to this mess,” she sighed, raking a hand through her long, black hair. “I can’t exactly send him away either. For one, he wouldn’t leave, but secondly, he needs us to help him. He’s fine in rehab, but there’s too many temptations out here. He comes home Thursday, and Tempest gets out the following Monday. I’d intended on taking some time off to stay home with him.”
“You can. We don’t expect you to stick your neck out for us. This is our problem,” I promised, but she shook her head.
“That asshole has targeted you kids for no goddamn reason, and I want to know why. He made it our problem when he started blowing shit up and killing people. No one gets to come into our town and start a war like that.”
Her hand shook with anger as she smoked, and I gave her my pack when she finished it and held her hand out for another one.
Cars started pulling in, a few people eyeing Rory as they walked past us and into the compound. She looked murderous.
Ander climbed out of a car with Cruz and Knox, the three of them speaking in low voices as they came in our direction.
“It’s not her,” Ander said firmly, making Knox grunt.
“How can you tell?”
“I just know. Apart from that, Stefano loves mind games. It’s not her, he just wants us to think it is,” he repeated, his eyes landing on me. He almost looked guilty, and I didn’t want him thinking I was worried about his feelings for her.
Of course he cared if she was killed or not, I wouldn’t hold that against him.
He moved to stand next to me, sliding an arm around my waist to tuck me against his side.
“Now what?”
“We’ll wait for forensics. They’ll call us with the identification when they know,” Knox answered, and Rory nodded.
“I’ve told them to rush it too. There’s nothing else we can do today, so I think everyone should go home, shower, eat something decent, and sleep. I’ll call the moment I hear anything.”
Ander looked ready to protest, but one glare from Rory had him sighing. “Sure.”
“You’ll be useless if you don’t rest and keep your energy up, Lavaro,” she warned, turning to me to hand my lighter and cigarettes back. “Thanks for the smokes.”
“Any time,” I replied, watching her walk inside like she hadn’t been losing her shit a second ago.
“How did you manage to corrupt Rory Donovan? She was smoking?” Cruz teased, making me wince.
“She’s stressing about Ry. We need to end this shit before he comes home.”
“We’re trying,” he said dryly. “Do you guys want to eat something before heading home?”
“Nah, we’ve got it,” Ander answered, motioning to the door. “You can tell the others we’re leaving though, so they’d better hurry up if they’re coming.”
Exhaustion covered his face, and Cruz must have noticed since he just nodded and said goodbye, heading inside to tell the others it was home time.
“You want a bath when we get home? I’ll rub your shoulders,” I offered, a small smile tugging at his lips.
“You can rub my cock with the inside of your pussy.”
“Aw, promise?” I asked, knowing he just wanted a distraction for the night. “Sex marathon?”
“Deal.”