Chapter 30
THIRTY
Tav
A few hours earlier
The beep of the front door jolted me awake.
My hand immediately grazed Con’s side of the bed, finding it cold.
Rubbing my eyes, I rolled onto my back as footsteps pounded down the hallway.
I waited to hear Con greet whoever it was—Nik or Ben as they were the only ones who had the code to his door other than me. But Con’s voice never came.
I sat up with a grunt and hollered down the hall, “Thought you agreed to text before you came over.”
Nik probably just wanted coffee, but his footsteps continued down the hallway, toward the bedroom, which made me frown. He never came in here.
The door flew open, and Nik halted there. His expression made my blood freeze in my veins. It wasn’t the look he’d had when he pulled the gun on me—that had been controlled. Confident. Annoyed but not angry. He’d clocked the knife in my hand and immediately knew he’d come out on top.
But this was not that look. His gaze met mine, and the emotions there were all wrong. His body posture. The throbbing vein in his neck. The white-knuckled grip he had on the doorknob which made his tattoos look even darker.
Dread slithered down my spine like ice water, and I was immediately wide awake. I slid from the bed and stood, not caring that I was naked. “Talk to me.”
Nik’s jaw was tight. “Devlin took Con. We don’t know where.”
Each word was a body blow, and I tightened my core to absorb the hits. But the echo of them spun around the room, returning over and over again to deliver fresh pain. I held myself together just barely, even though all I wanted to do was fall apart.
Nik inhaled sharply. “Get dressed. Ben will be here soon and so will my crew. We have some leads on where he could be.” His eyes softened a fraction. “We’ll find him.”
“Damn right we will.” My voice didn’t sound like my own.
By the time I pulled on a pair of joggers and a sweatshirt and strode into the kitchen, the entire apartment was like war central.
Maps were spread over Con’s island, the same place where he’d bent me over the counter last night and fucked me.
A dozen men were spread out in the space, some cleaning guns on the couch where Con and I watched cooking shows.
Others were on their phones, barking orders at whoever was on the other end.
I met the hard stare of Cameron, the leader of their crew, and he gave me a tight nod that held sympathy I didn’t want to think about.
Ben and Nik stood with their heads bent over a city map. Ben looked up as I entered the kitchen. He reached for me and then seemed to think better of it. He dropped his hands to his sides. He opened his mouth, and I was pretty sure he was going to say sorry or how are you or something equally dumb.
I didn’t want to hear it. None of that mattered. Every conversation needed to be focused on Con. So I cut him off. “Tell me what we know.”
Nik’s head went up, and my tone must have been the right one, because I swore I saw a flash of pride in his eyes. “Conrad left the apartment at 7:12. He was on the phone with me at 7:40 when I heard sounds of a struggle before the phone went dead.”
“Why the fuck did he leave the apartment?” I asked.
He pointed to Conrad’s phone on the counter, the screen cracked. Next to it was a familiar paper bag that made my gut clench. I hung my head as Nik said unnecessarily, “He got cinnamon rolls from the bakery.”
I closed my eyes as dizziness swamped me.
I could feel the phantom swipe of Con’s tongue as he lapped the sticky cinnamon sugar from my chin, all while bitching about how messy I was.
I rubbed at my chest as I fought to maintain my composure.
He’d left for me. He’d made himself vulnerable for me. “So fucking stupid, Con,” I muttered.
When I finally opened my eyes, Ben was watching me, but Nik was pointing to a place on the map, and I squinted at it, but couldn’t make sense of the location right now. “That’s the last place we picked up his signal.”
I frowned “What signal?”
“The tracker on his ring,” Nik said. “He wore it so we’d know where Devlin took him.”
I felt a chill wash over me. “What do you mean so we’d know? Was this planned?”
Nik’s jaw shifted. “Yes and no.”
“What the fuck does that mean?”
“I need you to lock it in and not lose it,” Nik warned
And that pissed me right the fuck off. “I’m not going to lose it, but I need you to start explaining without me pulling the information out of you bit by bit, Nik.”
Ben stepped in, which was probably for the best. “We had a plan in place for Con to bait Devlin into taking him while wearing a tracker ring. Then we’d know where he’d been hiding and take him out for good.
” My heart pounded so loudly in my ears that I had to strain to hear Ben’s voice.
“But this wasn’t the bait. This was too soon. ”
I stared at Nik, because I needed something to focus my anger on. “Are you fucking with me?”
“This wasn’t my idea,” Nik spat. “Don’t look at me like that. I was against it.”
I turned my anger to Ben. “You?”
“Conrad,” Ben said simply. “It was his idea.”
“He wasn’t going to tell you,” Nik said. “But this morning he changed his mind. That’s what we were talking about on the phone. He was going to tell you.” He pointed to the smashed bag of cinnamon rolls. “That was probably his peace offering.”
I couldn’t look at that bag with a dirty boot print on it.
I couldn’t look at Nik. Or Ben. Or any of these men.
I turned and walked to the windows overlooking Detroit and leaned my head on the cool glass there.
I closed my eyes. And I reached inside for the Husk that I knew I could be.
The Husk that had saved me countless times over the past five years.
I couldn’t find that emptiness anymore, but I could coat my new skin that Con had revealed with the old, scarred armor of Husk. I needed it now more than ever.
No one spoke to me as I let the pieces fit into place, as I covered up all the softness that I’d let show over the last few weeks with Con.
When I turned around to face the men in the apartment, I was someone new.
Not Husk. Not Tav. Maybe this was The Gavel, the fighter I could have been if I’d been given the chance.
I strode back to the island and focused on the map, forcing my brain to work logically.
“Show me again where his last signal came from.”
Hours later, my eyeballs felt like they were bleeding out of my skull.
My throat hurt from calling everyone I could think of, though most of my previous contacts with Devlin were either dead or not answering the phone.
All of Soto’s crews were out searching for Con, and Ben had called most of Soto’s escorts to ask if they had heard anything.
We dug into the city’s criminal network with cracked and bleeding nails, and all we had to show for it was nothing.
We’d found the tracker ring on the side of the street, likely tossed from a car window.
Con and Devlin were like mist. As soon as we thought we had a good lead, we’d send a full crew there only for them to come up empty.
I told Nik and Ben that I suspected Con was being held where I’d been kept five years ago for that long tortuous week, but the problem was that I didn’t know where it was.
I’d been unconscious when they dumped me there, and I’d been nearly unconscious and wearing a hood when they drove me away.
I wracked my brain for any clues I could think of, but I’d been too out of it back then to remember anything.
We worked all night. At one point, I passed out with my head on my arms sitting at the kitchen island only to jolt awake with ideas of more locations to search. Ben shoved a protein bar in my hand, and I ate it as I ignored the pain in my gut like my insides were rotting.
By the time the sun rose on the second day of Con missing, my whole body was one exposed, raw nerve. My armor was cracking, but I held it all together with tape and hope.
Ben placed a steaming mug of coffee in front of me.
He didn’t look any better. Dark circles marred the skin under his eyes, and his hair was greasy and disheveled.
Nik was talking to some of his men over by the window, so Ben and I had a moment alone.
He set his mug down on the counter and crossed his arms over his chest. “You’re holding up better than I expected. ”
Around Con I’d been able to feel things.
Let emotions show. Break down. Like when I thought Devlin had my sister.
But that was because Con was safe. There was nothing safe here for me anymore, not this apartment, not these people, not fucking anything.
I wouldn’t feel safe again until Con was back, and then I could break.
I didn’t know how to respond to Ben, so I said nothing.
His fingers twitched. “Devlin won’t kill him. Conrad was sure of it.”
I shook my head. “He can do worse than kill.” I would know. He’d done it to me.
Ben swallowed and looked away with a muttered curse.
“I need to go out there.” My leg shook as I took a sip of the too-hot coffee. It burned all the way down. “I can’t sit in this apartment anymore. I need to be out there searching.”
“And then have Devlin find you too?” Ben shook his head. “Conrad would be furious if I let you get hurt.”
“Yeah?” I snapped and rose to my full height. I had a few inches on Ben, and he swallowed as he looked up at me. “And what if there isn’t enough left of Conrad to even get furious?”
His face paled. “Don’t fucking say that. It’s not going to happen.”
“Of course it’s not,” I growled. “Because I’m going to get out there and fucking find him.”
“Nik!” Ben hollered.
I narrowed my eyes and snarled, “Snitch.”
Nik entered the kitchen, but whatever he planned to say was cut off by a frantic knocking on the front door, followed by muffled yells. He frowned and grabbed his gun before striding down the hallway and peeking through the peephole. His shoulders settled, and he opened the door.
A man wearing a pair of tight jeans and a massive sweatshirt that hung off one shoulder stood in the doorway, a cell phone clutched in his hand. His hair was short with loose waves on top, and his big brown eyes were massive in his pretty face.
“Shane?” Nik ushered him inside and shut the door behind him. “What’s going on?”
But Shane ignored him, his focus immediately on me as he took me in from head to toe before settling on my face. His eyes searched mine, and then his lips parted as he said in a soft voice, “Oh, I get it now.”
He wasn’t physically intimidating, but I didn’t like strange people in Con’s apartment. “Who are you?”
He shook himself, suddenly all business. “I work for Conrad as an escort. I know a lot of people and…” he shook himself and held his phone out to me. “This is for you.”
Nik went to grab the phone, but Shane stepped closer to me. “He’ll only talk to Husk, he said.”
Husk. I snatched the phone and brought it up to my ear. “What?”
A voice I hadn’t expected in a million years greeted me. “Husk?” Casey. He was out of breath, and I could hear street traffic in the background.
“Case,” I murmured, feeling my shoulders sag in relief. I had called him yesterday, but he hadn’t answered. I’d been worried, but it wasn’t unlike him to disappear for weeks at a time.
“Babe.” A horn honked. “Sorry I lost my phone and didn’t know how to get a hold of you.” He blew out a breath that fuzzed the reception. “I think I know where they have that man of yours.”
My brain spun to catch up. I was running on fumes and two hours of sleep. “What? How do you—?”
“I’ll explain later. Look, I don’t know the exact building, but he’s somewhere in one of the abandoned apartment buildings in Harrison.”
There were two ten-story structures that the city had long-since condemned but hadn’t torn down yet. The homeless didn’t even squat there, because there was a rumor that a factory spill had left the area toxic. “Case, I don’t think—”
“Trust me. I listen, Husk. I listen a lot.”
“Okay,” I said. “Thanks, Case.”
“Have Shane let me know when you find him.” When. The phone disconnected, and I stared at it for a minute before handing it back to Shane. Casey had risked his life to make that call. If Devlin or any of his men found out, they’d kill him.
“What’d he say?” Nik asked.
“Condemned Harrison apartments.”
Ben frowned. “We sent a crew there. The stairs have been torn out, so there’s nothing but the ground level, and that was empty.”
I was already pulling on my boots. “I need to go.”
“Who called you?” Ben demanded. “This could be a fucking set up.”
“I trust Casey,” I said simply.
“I trust Casey,” Ben mimicked, and I wanted to punch him. “Well I don’t fucking know Casey, and I don’t trust him.”
I straightened and leaned into Ben, my jaw tight. “I don’t give a fuck if you don’t trust him. And I don’t give a fuck if it’s a setup. In fact, I hope it is. Because then I’ll come face to face with Devlin, and I’ll fucking kill him.”
Ben’s breathing stuttered, and he speared his fingers through his hair as he looked away. “Fuck.”
I braced my hands on my hips. Nik hadn’t said a word since I ended the call, only watched me carefully. “I’m going there,” I said, needing to make it crystal clear. “So give me the car keys and get out of my way.”
Nik remained still as stone, but I could see his gears working behind his eyes. Finally, he gave me a curt nod. “Let’s go.”
I jerked at that. “You’re going too?”
“Can you shoot a gun?” No, no I could not. I’d done a lot for Devlin, but it had always been with my fists or an occasional blade. I rolled my lips between my teeth as Nik snorted. “That’s why I’m going.”
He whistled into the apartment, and Cameron appeared there, a few of his men fanned out behind him. “Follow us. Shoot to kill anyone you don’t recognize.” He turned to me and jingled the keys in his hand. “Let’s go.”