Chapter 2 #2
“The rest of ‘em get moved to Project Dylan’s black site. Off the grid and hidden deep in the heart of one of my ranches in west Texas,” he says, smirking with a hint of pride. “We interrogate them, flip ‘em, and then use their asses to build cases to find others.”
Lex stiffens beside me, knees starting to bounce uncontrollably all over again. I reach over and lay a hand on his thigh. Thankfully, he stills under my touch.
“A few years back, we had some jackasses try to escape,” Tex says, glancing over at Nate. “Zeke decided that we needed a better way to keep them contained.”
Nate nods and takes over. He slides a sheet of paper to us. Some sort of schematic that looks just like the thing on her neck.
“Between Zeke’s knowledge of code and Sabine’s chemical expertise, the two of them created those collars. They’ve got built in GPS, location lock, and—”
“Just fucking spit it out!” Lex barks, his voice sharp enough to cut through steel.
Nate swallows. “Basically, that is a chemical bomb strapped to Bella’s neck.”
Air.
I need fucking air.
“Oh my God,” I whisper, dragging a hand through my hair. “And Luca? H-h-he has the detonator?”
The three of them nod, not a single one of them daring to make eye contact with us.
Lex explodes out of his chair. “FUCK!”
My knees give out the second I stand up. I try to steady myself by resting my hands on the corner of the table, but my legs don’t seem to be getting the message. I fall back into my chair, almost tipping it over backwards.
“Can’t you hack it, Knox?” I ask. “Disable it remotely somehow?”
Knox frowns, his eyes digging into the screen. “Possibly. If I was close enough to it. Even then, I’ll need to call Laing.”
“Laing?” I echo.
“Yeah, Laing. And Sabine.” He peers up from his screen. “If—and this is a big if—if Zeke is helping Luca.”
“He is,” Lex mumbles under his breath, white-knuckling the back of my chair so hard it creaks.
I smack his hand. “Not now, babe.”
“If Zeke is involved in this,” Knox continues. “Then there’s a chance he may have modified the code on her collar. And if he did, I’m going to need some major back up.”
Lex lets out a bitter scoff. “So you need Tattooed-Dragon-Dick? Well isn’t that just perfect.”
“Like it or not,” Knox replies calmly. “Laing’s great with code.”
“And Sabine?” I ask.
“She knows the chemical makeup of those collars better than any of us,” he says. “If any of those chemicals leak or worse… destabilizes, then she’ll be our only shot in saving Bella’s life.”
He pulls out his phone and dials.
“Who are you calling?” Lex asks.
Knox ignores him. “Uh, hey Jack. Look, call us back. We need to talk to you.” He sets his phone back down on the table.
“Let me guess,” Lex grits. “Straight to voicemail?”
Knox nods, the heels of his palms digging into his brow.
Lex’s voice drops. “Damn it! Where the hell is he?”
Nate snatches the laptop from Knox. “None of this makes any sense. His GPS is off on his phone too.”
“Guy’s probably on a call. We can’t sit around and wait for him.” Tex exhales, his back groaning as he stretches it out. “One of you call ‘em in. Not just Laing and Sabine. We need all the Black Books.”
“All of them?” I ask, a pulse of panic tugging at my ribs.
Tex nods. “All seven of them.”
“Seven?” Lex asks with a tilt of his head. “I thought there were only five.” He ticks them off one by one on his fingertips. “Sabine, the cowboy, Khoza, that crazy bastard, O’Malley.” He stops and groans when he gets to the last one. “And Mortal fucking Kombat.”
“There’s two more,” Tex confirms. “Two you haven’t met yet.”
“Technically there are eight if you count Roman’s book,” Knox adds. “Though we never confronted him about it. Nine if you uh… add in the Barinov book your girlfriend hacked last year.” He chuckles from his seat.
Lex smacks him in the back of his head. “Not helping,” he huffs.
Knox shrugs. “Just saying.”
If seven leaders of some of the world’s most dangerous crime families need to be involved, then this just escalated into something massive. And I’m not sure I’m ready for it.
“What about my sister and Haley?” I ask quietly. “Knox, were you with them when you got the call?”
“No,” he sighs. “And thank fuck because I don’t even know what to tell them at this point.”
That hits harder than I expect.
Ellie.
Haley.
How the hell are we supposed to break something like this to them?
“We can’t lie to them,” Nate says with his normal kind of firmness that doesn’t allow any argument. “Your sister is like a human lie detector. She’ll know the second any of our voices shake.”
He’s not wrong. Ellie hears emotion the same way other people hear music.
“So what do we say?” I ask. “What do we tell them?”
“The truth,” Lex grunts. “We tell the girls the truth. Luca and Zeke took—”
“Lex,” Tex warns.
“What?” he spits, the word cutting through the air. “It’s the fucking truth. They deserve to know. They also deserve to know I’m going to gut both of those bastards the second we—”
“Watch it,” Tex growls, pushing up from his seat.
“No you watch it.”
“Here we go again,” I whisper, shaking my head.
Lex side eyes me. “I’m done acting like Zeke is some stand up brother. Face the fucking facts. You can’t expect me to just sit here and tip-toe around reality.”
“Reality?” Tex bites back. “Zeke ever being an enemy to his sister is not reality. It’s you losing it.”
“Damn right I am losing it!” Lex shouts. His voice cracks, raw and too loud for this apartment. “I’m losing my mind without her and you want me to what? Sit here and play make believe about him being a perfect brother? Fuck you man.”
Tex strides forward, closing the gap between them until he’s toe to toe with Lex.
“Try it,” Lex snarls.
“ENOUGH!” Nate roars again. “Both of you sit the fuck down. We are not doing this.”
Tex’s fists are clenched tight. Lex just stands there seething. Tex looks away first, his nostrils flaring with each deep inhale.
I feel it, deep down. The fault line is cracking. This family was once so strong and now it’s ready to rip each other to shreds.
“So, what do we tell them?” I ask again.
No one responds. Knox rubs the back of his neck, not taking his eyes off the screen. Lex’s eyes are still burning a hole at the back of Tex’s head while he stares out at the skyline.
Finally, Nate opens his mouth. “We tell the girls the truth. Bella was taken and we’re going to get her back.”
We all agree.
Nate turns to Lex and Tex. “And both of you need to get your shit together. Right now. I am not losing her because of you two constantly arguing. You got it?”
He meets Lex’s stare dead-on. “And I swear to God if you cannot keep your mouth shut once Laing gets here, you’re out.”
Lex glares at him, that raging fire burning brighter behind his eyes.
Nate doesn’t back down. “I mean it, Lex.”
I stand up, my legs apparently deciding to cooperate. “He’s right babe,” I whisper, taking his hand and lacing our fingers together. “She needs us all.”
A heavy huff breaks from his nose as the fire in his eyes dims to ash. He nods, his tatted, muscular arm hooking over my shoulder to haul me in. I bury my face in the crook of his neck, inhaling leather and spice as the tension bleeds out of him.
“Great, now that we have that handled,” Knox says, closing his laptop. “Someone needs to call the hospital.”
“Why?”Lex asks.
“You guys said Roman saw Luca and recognized him. Let’s pray to God he’s alive, because he might be our only real lead.”