Chapter 14
Denver
Light beyond my closed eyes has me wincing. Colt’s arms are around me, our feet tangled together. The hotel bed is large enough for us to never touch, but Ghost is a cuddler. Who would have thought?
“Brightness,” he mumbles into my neck.
I untangle myself from his arms and grab my phone, blinking through my sleepiness. Axel has texted me.
AXEL: Dad just called. He doesn’t sound like himself. I think something is wrong.
AXEL: He’s been drinking, I think … Denver, I don’t know what to do?
AXEL: He’s at this address. I’m going to him.
I sit up, examining the address he’s sent me. It’s a building on the outskirts of the city.
“What’s wrong?” Colt asks huskily.
“Axel has gone to find his dad. He thinks something is wrong …” My gut twists. This could be Ranger trying to take Axel away from me, or a way to guilt Axel into going back to San Francisco. “Something doesn’t feel right.”
Colt sits up and kisses my shoulder. “Then let’s go find them.”
Colt sends a text to Taf and asks him to follow us to the address. It’s a short drive, the streets relatively quiet because of the snow that’s been falling in heavy drifts since the afternoon. We find a space to park and walk the rest of the way, coming to an unopened office building.
“Why would they be here?” Colt asks, lacing his fingers through mine.
My phone buzzes and I check it.
AXEL: We’re on the third floor. He’s a mess, Denver. I can’t get him to calm down. What do I do?
I call him, shivering against the bitter wind that wraps around us. The phone rings. Once. Twice. Three times. Four …
He answers, but the line is silent.
“Axel?”
The call disconnects.
Fear bolts through me. I go to the glass doors of the building and push—they’re unlocked, and Colt stays close as we step inside.
Taf is behind us, gun out and at his side, his usual light-hearted nature overshadowed by the heavy feeling of …
wrongness. The large, marble lobby is eerily quiet, a dim, green exit light illuminating the space as we take tentative steps forward.
“We should wait,” Colt says. “This could be—”
A door bangs open ahead of us and we both draw our guns. Ranger steps out of the hall and pauses. A frown pinches his brows together.
“Where’s Axel?” he asks.
“Nice try,” Colt says. “What was the plan, Ranger? Get us here to kill us?”
Ranger shifts a murderous look at Colt. “Yes, because I like my odds when there are three guns pointed at me,” he says drily, then looks at me. “Axel texted me. He said you wanted to talk about coming home.” Something softens his features—concern. “He isn’t with you?”
I’ve been around Ranger for close to a decade. He’s lied to me for most of it, about the most abhorrent things, but I can’t decide if this is an act or not. I keep my gun trained on him. “Show me your phone.”
He lets out an impatient exhale, taking his phone out of his suit jacket pocket before crouching and sliding it across the floor to me.
I open his messages, scanning them.
AXEL: Dad, I think Denver is coming to her senses. Can you meet us? She wants to go somewhere Colt won’t know.
Below is the same link to the address Axel sent to me, the time stamp the same as when he texted me.
This could be an act, but … how would Ranger have Axel’s phone to do this? I check previous messages to make sure it isn’t another number saved under Axel’s name, but there are plenty of back and forths, starting with when Axel returned from Australia.
Which means someone else has it.
“Slide me your guns,” I say to Ranger. “Both of them.”
Ranger looks between Colt and me but must weigh up his concern for Axel and his disdain for us and decide he’s more interested in finding his son. He unholsters both guns, skidding them across the floor. I pick up one, and Taf scoops up the other.
“Elevator. Third floor,” I say.
I try to call Axel again, but this time, he doesn’t pick up. The elevator ride is tense, Taf’s gun trained on Ranger’s skull, and I keep my distance, too, but Ranger doesn’t even try to overpower any of us. He keeps flexing his hands, his focus on the elevator doors.
They open onto a large, empty floor that looks under construction.
The floor is bare cement, sawdust scattered from abandoned power tools, wood balanced against walls.
Windows make up the walls, a glittering, snowy city beyond them.
The only completed fixture is what looks like a meeting room at the back, a rectangular-shaped space made up of more glass.
Chairs are pushed to the edges, and a desk is in a far corner.
And on their knees in that room, bound and gagged, are Axel and Alison.
The walls may as well have collapsed in on me. My legs pull me forward and I’m running, Ranger beside me, both of us reaching the glass wall quickly. He pulls at the door, but it doesn’t budge.
I press my hand to the glass. Axel’s nose is bleeding, the silver tape over his mouth dirtied with red. He’s sweating, shirtless, looking exactly as he did when we left him earlier. Alison is still in his shirt, trembling, her mascara smudged beneath her eyes.
“Back up,” Colt says, and I do. He shoots the door hinges. Metal sparks, but the bullet doesn’t make a dent. When that doesn’t work, he and Taf fire at the glass. Spiders of white mar the walls, but they don’t break.
Bulletproof.
Ranger throws his shoulder into the door.
“We’ll get you out,” I say, unsure if they can even hear me. Axel is breathing fast, tears spilling down his cheeks, and he shakes his head. “We will.”
Alison sobs, her eyes pleading with Colt and Taf. Ranger rages at the door, throwing his full weight into it. Colt bolts to the far side of the room, picking up a sledgehammer and returning, his breathing fast as he swings it into the glass. The thud is loud, but the wall holds firm.
Something flashes across my face and Axel shouts into the tape. I look at my chest, where the glimmer of a red dot shines on my jacket before disappearing. It isn’t for me. Not through this glass. Not—
“No!” I scream.
Red blasts through Alison’s forehead. Her skull shatters, and she slumps forward.
Colt and Taf bellow out their despair, but it becomes a muffled, distant sound.
The world slows. A tremble starts in me that has me moving without thinking. I give Ranger back his gun. We all fire at the glass, metal thudding into the impenetrable wall. The clear material becomes infected with off-white as it holds steady, but we don’t stop firing.
Axel is staring at Alison’s body, shaking his head. I run out of bullets and almost throw myself against the glass, screaming into it.
“Please don’t!” I cry out. I don’t know who I’m talking to. I don’t know who is doing this or if they can even hear me. “Please!”
Axel locks his eyes on me. Deep brown eyes so much like Ranger’s. He’s a kid again, the one who needed someone so badly but was ignored. The one who just wanted to be noticed, to be loved, to be remembered. A brother to me. A friend. The only Luxe who loved me right.
A tear falls down his cheek.
Red.
So much red.
Colt pulls me away from the glass and into his arms, but it’s too late.
I’ve already seen.
The image is burned into my mind.
Axel dying.
Axel murdered.
Axel gone.
Somewhere, in the far reaches of my mind, Ranger is roaring. He’s throwing his fists into the glass. Colt is holding me and whispering something. I don’t know what it is. I don’t know what’s happening.
There are other voices. JJ’s and Charlie’s, I think. I’m cold again. Colt is gone.
I’m on my knees. Ranger is on his knees, too, his knuckles cut and bloodied. The glass is coated in red, and he’s staring through it at his son.
His dead son.
Axel.
Our Axel.
My phone is at my knees. It lights up, an unknown number calling.
My hand trembles as I reach out and answer.
It’s a voice I’ve only heard once. A man I’ve only come face to face with a single time.
“Told you you’d pay, cunt.”