Hulk
I tore into church as if my ass were on fire. I had to wait a couple of hours for all my brothers to get home from work before we held an emergency church session. I’d sent off the request for one to Agony, along with the reason, as soon as I read the letter.
When Capri wasn’t paying attention, I snapped a picture of it and sent that to Pres and Wire.
However, I now had it in my hands. My brain was working this time.
I handled it with latex gloves and placed it in one of the evidence bags we had left over from the other day.
If there were prints or DNA on it, Wire and the Dark Patriot lab might be able to find it.
I wish they’d had the necklace long enough to determine whether there was any DNA on it other than hers and if the fingerprint had registered in a database.
It had been less than a week, but I was impatient.
Celeste and Capri stayed at the house. However, right before I left, Zari and Aliya came over along with Ransom. They said they’d visit with them for a while. I waited until the last minute to go, so there wasn’t time for talking before church. I wasn’t in the mood for idle chitchat.
While I waited, I spoke to Wire. He informed me that Vanessa hadn’t returned to town. I asked him to get the names and addresses of the girls Capri had been talking to last at the party. Maybe one of them would be helpful, or we could determine if they were involved.
I dropped into my seat in church scowling. The rest of my brothers found their seats. The pre-meeting chatter was minimal. My foul mood contaminated the whole room. Once they were all where they needed to be, Agony got the ball rolling.
“Our brother Hulk has the floor. Hulk, you’re on,” was all he said.
His mouth was set in a grim line. Rising to my feet, I held up the bag with the letter in it.
“Celeste and Capri went by their apartment today to pick up their mail while they were running errands. They didn’t open any of it until they got home.
Capri did the honors, and this is what she had to fucking read.
” Turning it so I could read it to them, I almost could do it from memory. It was burned into my brain.
“Hello, my beautiful whore. I bet you thought you’d gotten away from me and could go on with your life and forget me.
Well, that’s not going to happen. I’ve waited too long for you, Capri.
I’m not letting you go after one taste. You were so sweet, so delicious.
And the fact that you saved yourself for me made our first time together even sweeter.
“However, what won’t do is you keeping yourself hidden from me.
You’ve been gone enough. Come home! Don’t think you can hide from me.
I’ll find you. And when I do, you’ll be severely punished.
You will be in my hands again. Except next time, I won’t have to give you up within hours.
You’ll be mine forever, my personal pet.
I’ll keep you chained to me. And whenever I want to play with you, I will.
Don’t deny that you don’t want the same.
I know you do. We’re meant to be together, sweet Capri, forever.
Until next time, dream of me, my love. XX, Your Owner. ”
The explosion of swearing and the fists slamming onto the table were deafening.
The fury on the faces surrounding me said it all.
They wanted whoever wrote this to suffer long and hard before finally being sent to his maker.
My hands shook as I held the letter. I dropped it on the table, then slid it to my right, past Knight, to rest in front of Wire. He took it.
It took a few minutes for the roar to die down. When it did, Dare spoke first. “How is Capri doing? Celeste? What can we do for them, other than find and punish this motherfucker as quickly as humanly possible?” His voice rumbled with his anger.
“Capri is shaken and scared. Celeste was shaken, but that changed to fury in moments. I came home to find them huddled together, crying at the island. Capri has been doing so well here. She has slept through the night and not woken up with nightmares. I bet that won’t be the case tonight. ” I snapped.
“Christ, she had to be the one to read it. Fuck. Okay, the urgency level just spiked on this one. It’s clear from what this sicko wrote that he’s targeted her.
It wasn’t a mere crime of opportunity at the party.
And he’s been watching her home to know that they haven’t been there for several days,” Agony stated.
“And it’s destabilizing him. He’s demanding she return and threatening what he’ll do to her if she doesn’t. To me, it sounds like he can’t function without seeing her. This might be what we need,” Wire said quietly.
“What the hell do you mean?” I asked gruffly.
“After only a handful of days of not seeing her, he felt compelled to reach out to her and make a threat. What will he do if she’s gone for two weeks?
A month? Admittedly, we don’t want it to last for weeks or months, but each day she’s gone, it’ll wear on him.
He’ll want to know she got the letter. And then he’ll wonder, if she read it, why hasn’t she come home?
Or has she not been home to pick it up? Why not?
What if she’s gone forever? His obsessed mind will savage itself, and that means he’ll make mistakes,” Wire explained.
“So what do we do, sit back and wait?” Hazard asked.
“Or stake out their place to see if we can catch him?” Spartan questioned.
“What about the fingerprints and her necklace? Have the Dark Patriots had any hits on those yet?” Mace inquired.
“I have an update on those. After Hulk sent this to me, I called Gabriel at the Patriots. I asked how long they thought it would be before we’d know something one way or the other.
They put a rush on it, but he’s not expecting anything before the end of this week at the earliest. DNA and fingerprints aren’t conveniently stored in a single database.
Even in the prison systems, there are more than one.
I’m not saying it’s not a viable option.
It’s just not a fast one. And this letter will be sent to them as well to check it,” Agony informed us.
My heart sank, but I knew it wasn’t fair to expect it this soon. “We’ll need to send Capri, Celeste, and my prints to them for comparison since we touched the letter.”
“But we might be lucky. It isn’t stamped, which means it didn’t go through the postal system. Way fewer hands have handled it. Do they have an individual mailbox at their apartment door or a community one?” Wire asked.
“A community one at the end of the parking lot. Why?” I queried.
“Do each of their mailboxes have a slot for mail to be put into them, or must the mail person use a key to open them? Is there a larger communal one that has a slot that the mail is put into to be picked up by their mail carrier?” Wire questioned.
I took a moment to recall its appearance from the day I got the mail.
“The big one has a slot, but so does each of the smaller ones. Someone could slip it in themselves or put it in the main one for the mail person to distribute. But if the culprit had direct access, I doubt he’d have it pass through other hands. ”
“Good. So we have a good chance that he is the only one, besides the three of you, to have touched it. And if he licked to seal the envelope, there’ll be DNA on the flap. I’ll send this overnight to the Patriots. I have their special courier’s information,” Wire stated.
“Alright, so all of that aside, what else can we do?” Knight asked.
“Well, I got the names and addresses of the other girls at that party who Capri recalls talking to before waking up in the pool house. The police have questioned them, but they should be questioned the way you want to question the other one. Speaking of Vanessa, she’s still lying low, but she can’t do that forever.
She has a life here. I’ll be alerted the moment she returns home,” Wire promised.
“What about making Capri feel safe? Do we keep her in the compound until further notice? She’s finishing her semester remotely.
But if this lingers into January, a new semester starts.
She may not be able to do her classes online, or at least not all of them.
And even inside the fence, does she feel vulnerable?
We can have a prospect assigned at all times to be outside your house whenever you’re not home if that helps. ” Pope suggested.
“Don’t hate me for saying this, but what if we let her be seen in town?
Wait, hear me out, Hulk, before you tear my head off.
She would be protected. We might lead her rapist here.
If he discovers she’s behind a fence in a fortified compound surrounded by bikers, it would make him crazier,” Twisted said.
“Or better yet, have her seen to be with the brothers closest to her age, as if she’s dating them or they’re courting her.
If he thought she was in danger of someone else having her, it would drive him insane.
Myself, Soren, Thoryn, Spartan, Hazard, and Lethal are the ones closest to her in age,” Guardian proposed.
“If we tried that, it would only be if Capri were one hundred percent behind the idea. And it would be for show only. I’ve noticed some of you eyeing her. She’s not to be messed with,” I warned.
“Hulk, yes, Capri is beautiful and has the attributes that a real woman should have. I won’t lie and say I haven’t checked her out.
But I would never overstep with her. She’s not someone to have a good time with, like those other women who come here.
She’s like your old ladies. However, with that said, if down the road she ever becomes interested in dating, I’ll throw my hat into the ring to be the one she dates if I’m still single.
I get that it might take her years to be at that point, but I need you to know that,” Guardian declared.
Right after his declaration, the same thing came from Spartan, Hazard, and Lethal.
The oldest of them was Hazard at thirty-two, and the youngest was Guardian at twenty-seven.
For those who think an eleven-year age gap is too much, they should check out the age difference for those of us with old ladies.
The closest in age was nine years apart, with the biggest being twelve.
The ladies said the reason was that they matured way faster than we guys did.
None of us could argue with that. It was true.
My visceral response was to threaten them all, telling them never to look at her. I was getting a taste of what it was like to be an uncle or a father. If I were this way with Capri at her age, I wonder what I’d be like if I had a daughter?
“It’s not a horrible idea. I think we should consider it.
The more things we do, the better chance we have of bringing this bastard out of the shadows.
I believe we should do everything we suggested tonight.
It’ll take some coordination. However, first things first, Hulk, you work tonight.
Can someone cover for him? Wire is busy with his research.
I think Hulk should stay home with his ladies tonight,” Agony said.
I didn’t want to go, but I hated to shirk my duties and place the burden on a brother’s shoulders. They worked all day.
“I appreciate the suggestion, but I can go. They were planning a movie night anyway. If someone can check in on them periodically to make sure they don’t feel alone, that’d be good. All of you have worked your eight hours. I need to do mine.”
Several argued, but in the end, it was settled that Wire and I would split it.
I’d take the first part, then he’d finish out the night.
With that figured out, when there were no other questions or recommendations, we were freed.
I had time to go home and tell the women what was up, then I’d head into SS.
Wire would spell me around ten thirty. When we were dismissed, I shook hands and said a hasty thank you, then headed for the house.