Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-One
EMERSON
The pictures were grainy, but they were more than I’d had. I sat back and scratched my chin.
“So you think they’re holed up in Ludburough?
” I asked Rudy, a man I kept in my pocket for surveillance and special ops projects.
He was ex-military, tough as nails, and an expert at finding people who didn’t want to be found.
Only now admitting I’d been unsuccessful in my hunt, I had asked for his help. Pride was a dangerous thing.
Pack stood behind me, focused on the picture of Henley, the man who had been a thorn in my side for too long.
I’d been hunting the bastards who had escaped my grasp.
When the rumors about the trafficking didn’t disappear, I knew they had set up shop somewhere else in the territory.
But they went underground, too deep for me to find.
The more they smeared my name and had my enemies thinking I had gotten sloppy, the harder I looked.
After the debacle with the Donelli’s, I called Rudy in.
He’d been digging for two months and I’d almost had him call off the hunt.
“Yeah. They’re using the warehouse as a front. I’m sure of it.”
I sat back, flipping the photo on the desk. “We checked that warehouse. Everything checked out as legitimate and we found no trace of them.”
“Because they know how to hide,” said Pack. “We trained them, Cade. They’re shadows, like we trained them to be.”
Like we trained every one of our men. Ghosts to go unseen and do my bidding.
It differentiated me from other families and left them terrified of me.
My men could infiltrate any family and unravel them from the inside.
They were efficient, skilled, and deadly.
And these assholes had taken that gift I’d given them and turned on me.
My fist bunched, my knuckles straining against my skin.
“What’s the second location?” I asked, gnashing my teeth.
Rudy held his phone out. Another picture, this time detailed. A house in the hills, hidden enough to go unnoticed in the dense forest.
“Kingsport, about thirty minutes out from the warehouse.”
I knew Kingsport well. It was where I first planted roots in Seagate before I built enough power to run down the other families and settle south where I now lived.
“What do you want to do, boss?” Pack asked.
I wanted to run them down, destroy them, leave nothing behind to even know they had existed.
“Thank you, Rudy. Keep up the surveillance. We’ll strike soon. I want to know every move they make until then.”
“Got it, Cade.” He put his phone away, adjusting his leather jacket.
Creases forming in his forehead, he said, “They’re running the trafficking from below ground.
There’s no sign of them moving victims in or out.
No meetings, no sign of buyers. It’s like they have tunnels below and we haven’t found where they empty.
If we hadn’t spotted Henley emerging when we never saw him go in, we would have never found them. ”
My jaw ticked. No wonder we hadn’t found them.
If they were running their business underground, it would be impossible to track them.
That it had taken Rudy this long to pin them down told me how entrenched they were.
Henley had been one of my best men, so it made sense. But he’d slipped up and now I had him.
“All the more reason to act swiftly,” said Pack.
I nodded in agreement. “I’ll be in touch with the next step. And I’ll wire your bonus today. I’ll add another for keeping them under your sight until we flush them out.”
With a curt acknowledgment, Rudy left, closing the door behind him.
Rubbing my temples, I said, “I know what you want to do, but we don’t have the men.”
“If you hadn’t killed two the night they brought Ava, we’d have more,” he said.
Drawing my eyes from the door to him, I stood. “Don’t push me, Pack. You know why they needed to die. I don’t accept mistakes.”
“Yet you’re making them, Cade.”
I slammed him against the wall, my gun to his head, but he didn’t flinch. If he had, I would have killed him. No attachments. It was the way I’d lived my life until Ava had stepped into it.
“You won’t do it,” he taunted. “She’s gotten to you.” Punching him, I put my gun away. He rubbed his cheek. “It’s not a bad thing, Cade. Rage has blinded you for years.”
“If you were anyone else, your blood would be staining my floor right now,” I told him.
“I know,” he said, rolling his neck. “Don’t expect me to hold hands with you and spout out some best friend’s shit as we admit our feelings for each other.”
“Fuck off,” I snarled.
Had I gone soft? Pack was the closest thing to a friend, the only one who knew me, yet I’d never admitted we were anything more than boss and second.
Best friend seemed like some wimpy thing my brother would admit.
Something Ava would say. My lips fought my smile.
Just thinking about her brought them too easily.
“What do you want to do, Cade?”
“Don’t get all fucking mushy on me, Pack. Yeah, you’re probably my best friend, if I had one. But don’t let it go to your head.”
I dropped into my seat as he laughed. “That’s not what I meant, boss, but yeah, I’ve been stuck with your ass for too long not to notice, even if you don’t say it.” He gave me a goofy grin.
“Leave,” I said, rubbing my temples. “Just leave and let me think.”
“About how that woman is changing you?”
“She’s not changing me.” But it was a flat out lie because my perspective was shifting with every minute she was in my life.
“Keep telling yourself that. What do you want to do about what Rudy brought us?”
I rested my head on the chair. “I don’t have the men to just go barging in there.” And if Henley had shown himself, he wanted to be seen. He was too smart for it to be a mistake, like I’d originally thought.
“But you will.”
Lifting my head, I looked at him with his crossed arms and menacing stance. “You put this plan in motion for this moment. In three days, Greyson Tides will be here.”
“With Brinks and Raines in tow.” I was sure of it.
“And an army behind them. He’s your chance to finally take these assholes down.”
I scraped my hand through my hair. “How did I get to this point? Relying on my enemy to save my ass.”
He shrugged. “Mistakes you and I can’t take back.
Maybe it’s for the best.” Squinting my eyes, I tried to determine what he meant.
“You’ve been at this a long time, Cade. Carrying this grudge against your brother.
Ruling this territory alone, segregating yourself.
Maybe it’s time you have a queen at your side to help you rule.
And time you bury the grudge with your brother and make him an ally instead of an enemy. ”
“I don’t pay you for your opinions,” I snarled.
“But I give them anyway,” he replied with a wink before walking to the door.
“Pack,” I called to him just as he threw the door open.
“Yeah, boss.” He craned his neck to look back at me.
“I appreciate you hiring new men, but you always run them by me first. I know Ava has had me preoccupied, but go by me before you bring anyone else in. And that guy with the snake tat on his cheek gives Ava the creeps. Keep him on outside duty from now on.”
I’d meant to mention it earlier, but like everything now, my mind wasn’t as hyper-focused as it normally was. Every time the thought occurred, one of Ava had pushed it to the periphery.
The way his brows continued to pinch with every word left me concerned.
“I haven’t hired any new guys. I have candidates, but I’m still running checks on them.”
Standing quickly, I stared at him. “You didn’t hire a guy with a shaved head and a snake tattoo on his cheek? Been here at least a week?”
“No,” he said, the word drawn out as realization struck us both.
“What about the suave looking one? Looks like he could model. Green eyes, blonde hair, has a hole in his hand where I put a knife through it the other day.”
“No.”
“Fuck.” I ran through the office, past him, pulling my gun out. “Check the house and the grounds. I need to check on Ava.” My heart hammered so hard it was like a throbbing pain. Instinct screamed that she wouldn’t be there as I took the stairs two at a time.
The bed was empty, the room silent. I crashed through the bathroom, finding it just as empty.
Running down the stairs, I looked in all the rooms, scanning the beach for her.
Every empty space caused the pain in my chest to swell.
Pack came in the front door as I ran into the foyer, dragging another of my men with him.
“Tell him,” he demanded, shoving him toward me.
“I thought it was you, boss.”
My gun was at his head before he could blink. “Choose your next words wisely.”
His throat bobbed, but he kept his fear in check. It was a requirement of my men. Fear was your death sentence. “Your car left. One of our men was driving. It looked like you were in the back on your phone. The windows are dark, so I just assumed.”
My fist hit his jaw, splitting his lip. “You don’t assume,” I growled. “When did they leave?”
Hesitation told me I wouldn’t like his answer. “A few minutes after your guest.”
“That’s a good twenty minutes,” Pack said.
I roared, slamming the butt of my gun into the man’s head where he collapsed, blood pooling where the force had split his skin.
“Don’t kill him, Cade. We need every body we have if we’re going to find her.”
“I want the roads checked, the airport. Check everywhere.”
“We won’t find them, and you know it.”
I bunched the collar of his shirt in my fists. “I will, and if they hurt her, they’ll find out why I’m considered the most unhinged boss in all the provinces.”
“That’s the man I know. Call your brother, Cade. Get it over with. We need him and his men if we’re going to win this war and get her back.”
Letting him go, I stepped back, my heel hitting the unconscious man.
“I’m going after her.”
“Think about it, Cade. That’s exactly what they want.
This is a trap. Henley wanted us to spot him.
He’s making the plays and if you run after him, you’re playing right into his hands.
” His thought mirrored my own, that Henley had purposely exposed himself.
“They taunted you all this time. Now they’re playing with you, making sure you know they were close enough to kill you.
This is their end game and taking Ava ensures you’ll lose your shit and run to your death and if you don’t, your brother kills you for losing Ava.
A war between the two strongest families. ”
“A war.” I remembered Ava lingering on that word like she was thinking the word meant more.
“Greyson has Brinks and Raines on his side. By default, they have Donelli and Strint. All of whom think I’ve been targeting them.
They kill Ava and guarantee everyone turns on me.
” I calmed my urge to run after her, forcing myself to be strategic.
Henley thought by taking my most important belonging, that I would do exactly what I had intended—go after her without thinking it through.
He knew I ran into danger. That I wasn’t a patient man.
“A war with me as the target. Every family they’ve been taunting and…
shit, deliberately fucking up, so it looks like I’m growing weak.
All of them coming to my door to kill me. ”
I was fucked, as was Ava.
“It’s more likely they’ll sell her,” he said, his tone heavy. “And make it seem like you sold her off.”
The thought gutted me. “Even more reason for everyone to come after me.”
“But there’s one thing they don’t know.”
I met his eyes. “That Greyson Tides is my little brother.” Only my closest, most loyal men knew that truth.
“Call him, tell him the truth. There’s no more game to get him here and talk to him. No more stringing Ava in front of him to control him and force him to cooperate. It’s time to tell him everything.”
“Get out of here and take this guy with you. I want every man we can spare searching the roads for them.” But I knew where they’d taken her.
To the warehouse Rudy had shown me. Sending my men out gave the appearance of desperation and would make Henley believe I was falling into his trap. Rushing to my death.
“And you?”
“Need to make a phone call.”
He dragged the man out, and I paced the floor, feeling helpless again.
They had kidnapped her right under my nose.
Infiltrated my ranks. Arrogant enough to be seen by me.
Playing a game that only I had ever mastered.
A game that was coming to a head. Every part of me wanted to recklessly go after her, to burst into that warehouse and kill everyone in it.
But that’s what they expected me to do, and I’d be dead, leaving Ava to suffer for my impulsiveness.
Then there was the fact that they were using an actual business as a front, which meant the people in that factory could be innocent. It was something they had learned from me. Blend in, hide in the obvious places, be a ghost in a crowd.
I needed to get to her, but for the first time in my life, I needed help in getting what I wanted.
I pulled up my brother’s number, willing to be the one crawling and begging this time if it meant Ava was safe.
Hitting his number, I waited, my throat constricting until he answered, and I said the three words I’d been dreading.
“I’m in trouble.”