Chapter 17
Rex
I kicked the door open. The wood cracked, but the sound was lost to the pounding in my ears. Ever since I saw Rahat, on that fucking crate with the noose around her neck, I'd needed to break something, or better yet, someone.
Foley, Adam's partner in crime, was still in the chair.
One eye was already swelling from whatever Andrea had started in the van.
He registered my presence as soon as I entered the room, and his eyes widened.
My vision narrowed to a sharp tunnel where only Foley's throat existed.
I fisted his collar, hauled him upright, and drove him into the wall. His feet cleared the floor by an inch.
My vision clouded, and I felt the tension cording in my neck. "Where is he?" I punctuated my words by slamming him against the wall again.
Foley's breathing made a wet, pathetic rasp.
I couldn't stop thinking about the rope. About the way the fibres must have felt dragging against Rahat's skin. Over and over, I saw her eyes rolling back and the colour leaving her face, as she searched for the air, I couldn't get to her fast enough.
And he helped put her there.
I drove Foley into the wall again as a guttural roar built in my chest. "Where the fuck is Dexter?" I screamed.
"Rex."
Jameson's voice came from somewhere behind me. I didn't turn. I couldn't. My hands were locked and shaking with the effort of not wrapping them around Foley's fucking neck and squeezing until his windpipe gave way.
"Rex," Jameson said again and then rested his hand on my shoulder. "Set him down."
My nostrils flared and my jaw ached from grinding my teeth.
I looked at Foley, his face inches from mine.
I looked at the fear in his eyes. This wasn't me.
I took a few steadying breaths, lowered him to the floor, and stepped back a pace.
But my fists clenched and unclenched at my sides.
I picked up the chair and flung it against the wall while a guttural roar ripped from my throat.
"Where is he?" I asked, my voice quiet and worse for it. "Tell me, or we find out exactly how much of a concussion risk you are."
Gabriel entered the room and shut the door. My hands stayed in fists. The skin over my knuckles pulled so tight it felt like it might split.
Foley sagged against the wall before dropping to the floor. "I don't know." He tried to hold my gaze, but the effort was too much for him. "I'm fucking serious man. He doesn't tell me where he is. He tells me where to be."
"How do you contact him?"
"He contacts me."
"Number?"
"It changes every time." He swallowed hard. "It's always a burner."
Gabriel nodded. This was consistent with what his people had already pulled.
"How long have you worked for him?" Jameson asked. He stood, leaning against the far wall, his jacket off and his arms folded.
Foley's eyes shifted to him. "About eight months."
"Where did you meet?"
"The Mount," he said. "I was finishing a stretch. He had four months left on his. We were on the same wing for a while."
"He talked about her," Foley said. "Your girl." His eyes shifted to me for a second before moving back to Jameson. "That's almost all he talked about."
I locked my feet to the floor and tried not to bunch my fists again for fear he might stop talking.
"He had a name for it. For what she'd done," Foley said. "The Betrayal."
The pounding in my ears increased and my throat went dry. I tried to push down the growl building inside.
Foley continued, "Like it was a title or some fucking noun.
You know, like it meant something." He scoffed and shook his head before dropping his gaze to the floor.
"At first I thought it was just a woman who'd done him wrong.
You know. Typical story. It took me a few weeks to understand what he actually meant. "
"Which was?" Gabriel asked.
"She took something that was his. Deleted a code or some shit.
" Foley looked up at me again. It was the wary look of a man who realised he was facing someone who was barely holding onto his humanity.
"I don't even think it was about the fucking code.
It was the fact that she did it." He paused to clear his throat.
"No one defies Adam. No one walks away from Adam.
She made it look like she had a choice." His jaw tightened.
I stepped forward until my shadow loomed over him. He recoiled as if I'd touched him.
"He said she needed to understand that she didn't. That she's a glitch in the system that needs to be corrected."
A fucking glitch! This wasn't even really about Rahat or some stupid code. It was all about control, and Adam's fucking ego.
"What was the plan?" I asked. "After tonight. What did he tell you?"
"I don't know, man," he shook his head.
I crouched down in front of him.
"Don't you understand? He'll fucking kill me."
"Right now,” Jameson said. “Who scares you more? Him or us?"
Foley’s eyes flashed to mine and he ran a hand over his head. "Ah, fuck man! I don't know shit. The only thing I know for sure is that he won't stop. One way or another, he'll make your girl pay."
I stared at his face. He was telling the truth.
He was fucking terrified, but he was telling the truth.
He had no clue where Adam was. He was also right in saying that Adam wouldn't stop.
He didn't see Rahat as a woman. He saw her as a bug to be deleted.
And if he couldn't get to the code... he'd start deleting the sub files, the things… the people connected to Rahat.
A cold dread spiked in my chest.
"Priya," I said, standing.