Chapter 8
Slamming the door shut behind me, I toss my keys into the bowl on the table next to the door.
My anger has me tossing them harder than necessary, causing them to fly right out of the bowl and land on the floor.
I don’t even stop to grab them, instead stomping up the stairs and to my room.
If I stop right now, I might very well turn around, and I can’t do that.
I almost made it too. With my hand on the knob, Rick calls my name from down the hall near his study.
So fucking close. I contemplate ignoring him for a moment, but quickly dismiss the thought. He’ll just come after me anyway.
Damn it.
Turning to face him, I find him already headed down the hall toward me.
“Where did she go?” he asks, not needing to specify who, because who the hell else could he be talking about? But I play stupid anyway.
“Who?” I ask, fighting to keep the smirk off my face as his brow furrows in irritation before he reaches up, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“Spencer.” I almost feel bad for fucking with him until I remember all the shit he’s been giving me lately.
“Don’t give me that shit, man. You were the one who told me I should just let her be. If it were up to you, neither of us would know, so why do you care all of the sudden now?” I bite back, my annoyance increasing by the second.
He wants to act like I’m unreasonable? Cool, but he doesn’t get to act all high and mighty just to turn around and ask me for shit.
Rick lets his hand drop to his side, rolling his shoulders back to stand at his full height, and I can feel his eyes bore into me, even with him all the way down the hall. The man is a fucking beast. The only guy I’ve ever seen bigger than him is Kratos, but Rick doesn’t scare me.
“Yes, I did, but since you had to go after her anyway, you might as well give me the information you have so we can all be on the same page,” he says. Any sign of frustration or exhaustion in his tone from a moment ago is gone; back to business.
“She got picked up at the gate. Trent was waiting for her. She said she was going to hang out with Hazel,” I say with a shrug, giving him the only information I have, unwilling to fight with him right now.
I turn away from him and push open my door.
Done with this conversation and, honestly, just done with this night.
I push it closed behind me, hoping he’ll take the hint and leave me alone, but just before the door clicks closed, he stops it. Shoving his foot in its path and causing it to swing back open.
I sigh, not even trying to cover up my annoyance. I pull my shirt over my head and walk to my dresser to grab sweats.
“Do you believe her?” he asks. His voice is quiet, but it easily carries in the silence of the house.
I stop dead, letting my hand hang in the air over the sweats I was about to grab as I attempt to process his question.
Nope. I had to have heard him wrong.
“What?” I question, turning to look at him over my shoulder, where he still stands in the doorway.
“Do you believe her?” He repeats without feeding into my obvious attitude. Turning back to my drawer, I snatch out the first pair of pants without so much as looking at them and head to my bathroom.
I kick off my shoes right outside the door.
“No, I don’t,” I tell him without looking at him.
“I think she’s used to being on her own and is too determined for her own good.
She’s going to get herself hurt or killed.
” Without waiting to hear his response, I go into the bathroom, slamming the door behind me, leaving him alone in my room.
Hopefully, this time, he’ll get the hint and leave me the fuck alone.
After I got out of the shower, Rick was gone. I half expected him to still be here, waiting to ask me more questions.
Flopping down on the bed without even bothering to get under the covers.
All I want to do is fall asleep, and while I’m exhausted, my brain just won’t stop.
I run back through every fucking moment since we found Jade in that hell until now, and for the first time, so much makes sense.
Looking at it now, I can see how she’s been in control.
The signs were there, but I never saw them because I thought she was against us.
Fuck.
Thirty minutes tick by, and I’m no closer to sleep, even after I’ve thought over every detail ten times.
Pushing up off the bed, I grab my phone before heading down to the gym.
I need to sleep, and if that means pushing myself until I collapse, then so be it. I’d do just about anything to stop my fucking brain at this point.
I snag a water bottle from the kitchen on my way and plug my phone into the speakers with my gym playlist blasting before heading to the bench and loading up the plates.
I’m not sure how long I’ve been down here, but after hitting the bench, the free weights, and the bag, sweat drips down my back, and my muscles burn, but still, my brain isn’t any quieter.
“Fuck,” I shout, landing one more hit on the bag, and letting it swing wildly as I step away from it. I unwrap my hands and grab a rag to wipe my face, letting it fall to the ground as I grab my phone and head back upstairs.
I take the stairs two at a time, checking my phone as I go. A message from Zander in our group chat lets us know he won’t be home till closer to midnight.
I’m not surprised. He’s been out most nights trying to get information on the next auction.
Yet another thing we haven’t been able to shut down.
Vengeance may have shut Sin down, but some of their more shady and lucrative dealings are still going strong in the shadows.
We’ve tried a few times in the past to get into the auctions, but we’ve never even gotten close.
Rick is almost positive that an in at the auction would be exactly what we need to shut the last ring down, and because of that, Zander’s thrown himself into finding one
Kratos has been visiting the surrounding areas and talking to other local gangs to see if any of them have information, but so far, it seems to be a bust. Everyone knows about the auction, but they're so well hidden and protected that you only get to go if you’re invited, and invitations seem to be almost made up at this point.
It’s smart as hell to run it like they do, and that only pisses me off more. We just need one slip-up to get in, but no matter whose system I crack or what rich asshole I dig up dirt on, none of it is useful.
At this rate, Jade will end up back in. If we can’t help her shut this shit down from the outside, I know she won’t hesitate, and that just makes us all more desperate, and desperation can do more harm than good.
Zander’s spent a lot of time down in the shed's lower levels this last week, telling Jade he has to work because he doesn’t want her to know we keep hitting dead ends.
Every day that passes pushes him just a bit further, making him more reckless and less able to see reason. His only priority is keeping Jade safe.
Kratos isn’t much better, but instead of pulling people in for info, he’s been all over the place using every connection Vengeance has, but even with all of his connections, he’s gotten nowhere.
Rick’s spent his time digging into every record we have from when Sin was running shit. Looking for anything that points us to who was in charge, higher ranks, the auctions, anything, and while he’s found a few things, all of it leads back to cold trails and more nothing.
It’s driving me crazy. We’ve never hit so many brick walls as we have in this last week.
Stopping in the kitchen to grab a snack, I settle on a banana since it’s on the counter, not bothering to look for anything else. I just need food. I don’t really care what it is at this point.
Rick walks into the kitchen as I toss the peel in the garbage and grab another water. I can feel his eyes on me as I move around the kitchen, but he just stands there.
“What?” I finally ask.
“She isn’t back yet,” he says, looking over to the clock on the wall.
I follow his gaze and see that it’s just after eleven.
She went out to see Hazel around eight, meaning it really hasn’t been that long, but something doesn’t feel right.
It didn’t feel right when she left earlier either, and I realize that’s what has me so worked up.
Yes, I’m upset about our lack of findings, but the feeling gnawing at my subconscious isn’t from that.
Looking back at Rick, I see the concern clear on his face. It’s strange to be able to see anything he’s feeling; he usually does a damn good job at hiding it all behind his mask. Somehow, that only makes the nagging feeling worse.
“Have you reached out to her at all?” I ask, even though I can already guess what his answer will be.
“No,” he says, confirming what I already suspected.
Rick’s been off since we found out Jade and Froggie are one and the same. I’m almost positive he has some kind of feelings for her beyond just wanting to keep her safe for the sake of it. But now that he knows she’s the boss, yeah, I can see how that would fuck with him.
He’s all about order, planning, and hard work. He would never act on any feelings he might have had now. Instead, he’ll treat her like his boss and keep everything professional.
It would be funny if it weren’t so damn sad.
I’ve seen the way she looks at him, and while it might have pissed me off when I thought she was playing us for fools, I can’t deny that in their brief time of getting closer, she was good for him.
She was able to pull him out of his head in a way that sometimes even Zander and I struggle with, and no girl’s ever been able to achieve.
It’s the same reason he hasn’t messaged her to ask where she is or what she’s doing. The same reason he hadn’t gone after her earlier and didn’t want me to, even though he obviously wanted to know where she was going.
Pulling out my phone, I quickly shoot off a text. I don’t have a lot of faith that she’ll answer me, but it’s worth a shot. Dropping my phone on the counter, I collapse onto one of the stools, watching Rick as he stares at my phone as if he can make her answer if he just focuses hard enough.
To my surprise, my phone vibrates a few minutes later. I snatch it up so fast it almost falls from my grasp.
“What did she say?” Rick asks, even before I’ve had time to unlock the damn thing. I shoot him a glare before looking back at my phone. He leans halfway across the counter, looking as if he’s seconds from ripping the phone from my hands if I don’t answer him.
“She said, ‘I’m with Hazel.’” I read her message aloud and then reread it again to myself.
Well, that didn’t tell us shit.
Rick’s hands curl into fists on the counter, and I know without asking that he’s not happy with the answer, either.
Fuck.
Tucking my phone back in my pocket, I head out of the kitchen and into the foyer, bending down to snatch up my keys that had fallen earlier, and head out the door. I can feel Rick behind me, but he doesn’t say anything. I don’t feel much like talking right now, so I don’t bother explaining.
Before I close my car door, Rick reaches out and grabs it. “What are you going to do?” he asks, his face showing how at war he is with himself. He wants to know what’s happening, but he also doesn’t want to go against her.
What an idiot.
“Don’t ask questions you don't want the answer to,” I tell him, clicking my seatbelt on before pulling up the tracking app on my phone. I have a tracker on just about everyone in Vengeance, with the exception of Kratos, who hardly ever has a phone with him, but when he does, I have him too.
Rick looks down at my phone as I pull up Jade's phone ID. Understanding washes over his face, and whether he likes it or not, I see some of the tension leave his body, knowing I’ll find her.
“Let me know what's going on when you know,” he tells me before releasing the door. With a quick nod, I pull the door closed and slam down on the gas, heading down the winding path of trees to the gate.
I should have followed her earlier. I knew she was up to something. I felt it.
My phone pings with her location right before I reach the keypad to the gate, and I stop to see where I’m headed as I let myself out.
My fist connects with the hard plastic of the steering wheel, and I let out a loud groan of frustration. Slamming my thumb on the keypad, I’m flying out of the driveway before the gate is fully open.