CHAPTER 4
KANE
I tensed and moved my hand towards the gun at my hip, as the front door of the penthouse apartment, at the Lyle building, opened. I knew it could only be Jordan or Asher. I had secured the entire building myself so we were the only ones who could enter or exit, but I was tense and feeling jittery.
“Just me, brother,” Asher spoke up as he walked in and looked to where my hand rested over my gun.
“Sorry.” I moved my hand and winced when Zara started yelling from where I had her cuffed to a chair in one of the bedrooms.
“We’re all on edge right now,” Asher told me. “You got her?” he nodded to where the screeching was coming from.
“Yeah, and she was screeching and yelling like that the whole fucking way here,” I ground out. “Adam?”
“He’s holding on. He survived the surgery and they’ve moved him to intensive care. Jordan wasn’t doing well, but he told me to get back here and find Addy and Eli.”
“Fuck!” It had been a rocky road for me since Addy came into all of our lives. I had fucked things up at first. Then, when I finally got my head out of my ass and agreed to give things a go with this weird relationship, that she not only wanted but seemed to need, I found something I hadn’t even realized I needed. I found my family. I had family of course. I had my sister, plus Ash and Eli had taken me in too, but I had never felt completely comfortable before Addy. I’d held myself back and allowed my demons to stop me. But Addy had changed everything, and in recent weeks as she, Jordan, Adam, and I all worked at this complicated thing building between us all, I had found myself not just willing to keep trying, but starting to enjoy being together. Adam, Jordan, and I had formed this kind of brotherly bond, centered around the woman we all loved, and it just seemed to be working. I had begun to feel a part of something real and strong. I had begun to feel that they were my family. Now it had all been blown apart.
Addy was gone. Adam was fucking lucky to be alive and able to keep fighting, and Jordan was broken. Jesus, I was pretty fucking broken too. Addy had been taken by the sick psychos who had already almost destroyed her, and I had zero leads to follow in order to get her back.
“Did Zara say anything?” Asher asked. “Other than profanity?” he added when Zara started spewing threats at us through the walls.
“Not yet. I thought it might be better if you were there. Her obsession with you might get her to open up,” I explained. If that didn’t work? Well then, Zara was going to see a much more menacing side of me. There was nothing I wouldn’t do to get Addy back. Eli too. He and Asher had done so much for me and I cared a lot about the pair of them.
“Anything from Harris and the guys?” Asher asked hopefully.
“Nothing yet, but Aleks is good. If there’s anything to find, he’ll dig it up.”
“How did I let this happen?” Asher growled as he seemed to just crumble before me. He dropped to his haunches and wrapped both of his hands around the back of his head. “They have not just Addy this time, but Eli too, and I let it fucking happen,” he repeated more brokenly.
“This isn’t on you, Asher. I brought Leo in. I was the idiot who trusted him.”
“We have to get them back, Kane.” He looked up at me and I saw the moisture in his eyes. He looked way too pale and his eyes were filled with fear and pain that I wasn’t sure I had ever seen before. He had tried hard to stay strong since we drove through the gates of the house and found Adam looking dead already on the steps, and he had done a pretty great job of it, but now he was struggling.
“We will. I have the registration of the van that left our property and I called in a favor with a guy I know. He’s going to scour traffic cameras for the direction the van headed. Aleks, Harris, and the guys are working on it too, as are the FBI, and we have Zara to question. We’re doing all we can and we will get them both back,” I told him with certainty. I would never stop until I had Addy back in my arms once again.
Asher nodded and rose to his feet with a huge exhale. He pulled at his shirt to straighten it, then turned towards where all of the bitching and shrill screams were coming from.
“Let’s find out what this poisonous bitch knows,” he told me. I followed behind him to the room I had tied Zara up in.
When we walked in Zara was tied to the dining chair I had dragged into the room. She was dressed in the workout gear she had answered her apartment door wearing, but she looked completely feral now. Her hair was wild around her face, and the look on that face was filled with rage, and some fear.
“Let me go, right now you bastards! This is kidnapping! You can’t do this! I’ll call the police and have the both of you arrested!” she screamed the second she saw us walk in, maintaining her brave front, but I saw the fear in her eyes and the way her hands trembled. She was scared. Good.
“I think we’ll be the ones calling the police, Zara,” Asher told her as he moved so he stood directly opposite her. He folded his arms across his chest and stood looking a little menacing.
“Good. Call them now and tell them how this over grown piece of shit manhandled me from my home into his car, then dragged me up here and tied me to a fucking chair!” she hissed as she nodded toward me.
“It’s over, Zara. You can drop the bullshit act. Addy remembered my father calling you while she was held captive. We know you were involved in everything he was up to,” Asher told her plainly.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said, all anger gone and a mask of mock innocence across her face.
“Yes you do, and if you don’t want to tell Asher, then you’ll be dealing with me. Either way, you will tell us everything you know,” I said coldly as I moved closer and closer until I was just inches from her, looming over her and terrifying her, if the way she paled was anything to go by.
“Asher, you can’t do this. You can’t allow him to…”
“I suggest you start speaking then. One of the monsters my father worked with now has both of my siblings. Believe me when I tell you there is nothing I will not do, and no line I will not cross to get them back, starting with you,” Asher told her with a snarl.
“I don’t know anything. I just…I helped Mr. Lyle with some logistics. I knew he was up to something illegal, but I never knew what exactly it was. I swear Asher. I barely know anything!” she cried as it all came tumbling from her. I didn’t miss the way she kept a wary eye on where I still loomed over her.
“Logistics?” Asher repeated.
“Yeah. He…he asked me to do things…like handle contracts for properties in Nevada. There were some off books payments he asked me to make and I…I did some research for him sometimes. That’s all. I swear. I had no idea what he was mixed up in until it hit the news last week.”
“What did he have you research?” I growled.
“People. He sent me names and asked me to dig into them. He had this guy who worked for him…Grady…that was his name. He’d get me background checks on people and he f-found information Mr. Lyle requested. I dealt with him a few times.”
“I want all of the names you looked into, and I want a way to contact this Grady,” Asher demanded, and Zara instantly nodded eagerly.
“Who else was working with Lyle? Did he run all of this alone?” I barked, making her jolt in fear.
“I…I don’t know. He said someone was messing with him, and he…he asked me to look into a few people last year, but he never mentioned a partner. That’s all I know. He barely told me anything and I didn’t really care as long as he paid me the extra cash he promised. I swear that’s it.”
Asher’s cell ringing paused whatever else he was about to ask as he hurried to pull it from the pocket of his trousers.
“Harris,” he told me when I looked to him. “Get the names from her and anything else she knows.”
I nodded and watched him exit the room, praying Harris and his team had found us something more solid to work with. Whoever held Addy and Eli had already had them for over twenty four hours. I couldn’t even allow myself to think what could have happened to them in that time. We had to find them before it was too late.
***
“Anything from Harris?” I asked the second I stepped into the living room where Asher was pacing as he looked at something on his cell.
“Maybe. Aleks was able to track the van through AMPR cameras. It was headed for the private airfield I use. A flight left from there around the same time, a private jet headed for Vegas,” Asher explained. “They’re trying to access security feeds at the airport right now, but I’ve arranged my jet to take me to Vegas tonight. If that’s where Eli and Addy are, I want to be close.”
“I got the names from Zara. I’m pretty sure she really has told us everything she knows. She’s too terrified of me to hold anything back.”
“Fine. I’ll call my guy at the FBI, and have them come to pick her up. I’m sure they’ll be interested to know what she has to say too. Any names stand out?” he asked.
“Not to me.” I handed him my cell phone on which I had made a list of the names Zara had given me. They were all men, but I didn’t recognize any of them.
“Motherfucker!” Asher hissed after a moment of staring at the list.
“What?”
“Maxwell Kline. He was the fucking attorney I sent to help Addy before we met her, when she was in police custody in Vegas. He was recommended to me by Dartford. Fuck, I’m such an idiot!” he growled as he handed me back my cell.
“Dartford? One of the guys that Addy recognized in your office that day? One of your father’s friends?” I questioned.
“Yes. That’s why he was running it out of Vegas. He was working with fucking Max!” Asher said as he pulled out his own cell and started calling someone. “He had to be the one working with my father. I thought it odd that he kept in contact with Addy after we left Vegas. He was trying to keep track of her.”
“He’s the one who took them?” I asked as I tried to catch up.
“Harris. I have a name. Maxwell Kline. He’s a criminal attorney out of Vegas. I’m sure he’s behind this. Get me everything you can,” Asher barked into his phone. “Yeah, thanks. I’m headed to Vegas tonight so send me anything you find.” Asher wrapped up the call and turned to me.
“What now?” I asked.
“Get your shit. We’re going to Vegas. Time to end this once and for all, and bring Addy and Eli home.”
“Good. I’ll call Jordan and let him know what’s going on. Call the Feds to come and collect that,” I told him as I nodded to the room Zara now sat quietly in. “And Ash,” I called as he started to walk away. He stopped and turned to me. “Make sure you take a shower and get changed. Addy and Eli will both freak out if they see you looking like you do right now.”
“Fuck you,” Asher huffed as he turned away and headed for his room. I didn’t even know if he had clothes left there, since we were supposed to have moved out of this building by the coming weekend, ready for the new owners, but I was sure he’d find something.
“We’re coming for you, angel,” I whispered as I paused and just allowed myself to breathe. We knew who had taken Addy and Eli now. It was only a matter of time until we found where they were being held and got them both back. I was determined I would not leave Navada without Addy at my side and Eli at Asher’s.