Chapter 29
VOSS
Azlan Deth has two male partners and a female partner. I rarely see their girl, but the guys come around the office somewhat frequently. Azlan mostly because he handles contracts with Myro and Loren. He’s picked up a lot more since Loren has maintained that he’s retired.
His two partners are Wade Parker and Isidro Tatum. Wade is quiet, kind of introverted if I had to guess, covered in tats, and built like a house. I often see Isidro with a smile. He’s a very happy person from what I’ve seen.
I don’t generally have a lot of dealings with any of them. My job is verifying contracts. Not giving them or hearing their debrief. We tried that. That’s not my forte.
Which only lends to the fact that what Dad said is right. What my brothers said is right. This isn’t the best job for me. I’m not a killer. Not the likes that are needed for what we’re about to do.
We debated whether we wanted to go in as a client or as the prey. Arguably, going as the client was preferable. We’d be walking into an enormous preserve armed. As the prey, we have no weapons.
I stare at the computer screen. I have the game preserve up on my screen with the overlay of the state-maintained trails outlined. There are three separate areas that are out of range of the trails. My guess is that if that’s where we’re headed, it’ll be in there.
We only get the coordinates once we book the hunting trip. I’d have gone that route except that the next trip they had available for three people was in six weeks. There’s no way in fuck I’m waiting that long.
The plan is somewhat straightforward. Isidro is parading as the driver. He’ll wear a mask, just as the driver always did. He looks enough like the driver with a mask on that I don’t think anyone will question him. There’s a chance that he will be questioned by the truck driver.
That’s another reason we have Isidro with us.
He has a CDL driver’s license. If need be, he’ll take down the truck driver, wait for us to regain consciousness, and then drive the truck along the route we’ve noted.
Our take-down will have to happen in a very different, and potentially more dangerous, series of events.
There’s a greater chance of failure if the truck driver questions. If that’s the case, my brothers and uncles are already en route and will be ready to move in quickly. Better yet, Rhodes and his pack are already wandering the game reserve.
“Your pulse has been quick for hours,” Mark says.
I turn to find Doctor Mark standing at my door. He has a tablet under his arm as he watches me.
“I imagine it is,” I agree.
Let’s be real here. I’m slightly terrified. I’m not a killer. I can plant electronic devices to blow up all of Manhattan, but I do that with a button. Not with my hands.
I’ve been trained with handheld weapons since I was a kid. Just like my brothers and my uncles before me. I know how. When it comes down to it, I’ll manage fine. Just as I had with Lor. Granted, I don’t trust my judgment or my skills, which is why I called in Imry to help me.
I’m relieved that Azlan and Wade are going in with me.
We’re going to be a three-for situation and hope no one questions it.
Azlan doesn’t have the capacity for fear or doubt.
He’s a bulldozer with no brakes. That’s why Wade is joining us, too.
Wade can hold him back when he’s walking into the viper’s nest recklessly and too soon.
In a way, I’m just along for the ride. I need to find Brek. I need to make sure he’s okay. He has to be alive still.
The three of us now have little trackers under our skin, in our wrists. They serve two purposes: GPS coordinates that are relayed to my father, brothers, and uncles, and vitals that will go to Mark. Rhodes also gets our GPS. It’ll send him in the direction he needs to be heading to get close.
As far as hidden weapons, the Shuttled driver states that he only looks for the obvious. It’s not a strip search. Most people aren’t carrying around concealed weapons anyway.
We’ll bring burner phones, and since Isidro is acting as the driver, we’re going to try smuggling them in. I’ll have one strapped to the inside of my thigh. I’ll also have a series of knives strapped to my body.
“Is this going to work?” I ask.
Mark smiles. “I’m a doctor. I can’t answer that.”
I turn back to the computer screen and stare at the game reserve.
This is stupidly reckless. Although given that we’re going in with some weapons, it’s a step up from the crazy that had been Loren, Ellory, and Avory sailing to a remote island completely unarmed and walking straight into the arms of a fucking cult.
“It’ll work,” Mark says after a minute. “I don’t think the entire family would be going along with this if you were walking into a burning building covered in kerosene.”
“I’m wearing flame-retardant clothing as I walk into the burning building, huh?”
“I think they all agree that time is of the essence here. We know what’s going on, and we know we’re out of time. If we had more time, we’d do something different.” He shrugs.
“What kind of place doesn’t have security cameras?” I mutter. My fists clench in frustration. This is the first time we’re going in completely blind. There’s nothing that I can find. No technology at all. No radio interception, no internet feed, no satellite signals.
As it should be as a game preserve. Hell, even the IP address of the website is coming from the Florida Keys.
I’m not sure if that’s actually where the guy is located because I don’t have time to trace all the bounces right now.
I have some people working on it because this guy cannot get away, but I’m risking him vanishing when the alarm goes up in favor of having a chance of finding Brek alive.
“It would have caused some questions if there were signals coming from a large tract of land that is supposed to be untouched by humans,” Mark reasons.
He practically voices exactly what I’d just thought. I know that. It’s the truth. Doesn’t mean it’s any less frustrating.
I look at Mark as Dad steps into my office with Axl in a carrier on his chest. I nearly laugh because it’s completely wild to see Dad with a baby carrier over his suit.
My heart races as I look at my sleeping baby.
“Ready?” Dad asks.
I nod and hit the lock button on my computer. As I approach him, I think about everything that’s locked down, with only me able to get into it. I’m practically crippling half of this company if I die.
The thought makes my steps pause, and I glance back at the computer. Maybe I should at least leave it open for Dad.
“Look at me, son,” Dad says, and I meet his eyes. “You’re coming home. There’s no negotiation in that.”
I almost blurt a whole lot of ‘what ifs,’ but I manage to keep them to myself.
Dad grips the back of my neck. “If I didn’t think you could do this, I wouldn’t let you go.”
“You don’t have a choice.”
“It’s adorable you think that,” he says, smirking.
“There isn’t a system anywhere on this property that I can’t override,” I argue.
His smirk grows. “Voss, I’ve lived a long time without technology running my life.
I haven’t forgotten my roots. Nevertheless, this isn’t a conversation we need to have right now.
You’ll go in, get Brek, and get out. We’ll take care of the rest. Your only job is to rescue your boyfriend and come home to your family. Understand?”
I feel cowardly when my shoulders relax. But I know my strengths. They’re not fighting. I don’t have the stomach for it.
“Yes, and we’ll revisit this ‘not letting me’ topic when I get back.”
Dad smiles. It’s filled with amusement. Somehow, I think he’s right. If Dad wanted to keep any of his kids from doing something, I have a feeling he could manage. He’d probably do so without breaking a sweat.
In a way, Dad might be the most frightening one of us all. Including his sociopathic son.
I rest my hand on Axl’s head and lean over to kiss him. I close my eyes, breathing him in. I’ll be home soon, baby. And I’m bringing Brek back. We’ll be a family, okay?
Perhaps that should be a conversation with Brek before I promise it to my kid, but meh. I’ll take that chance.
Don’t grow too much while I’m gone.
I stand and meet Dad’s eye. There’s no goodbye. Dad doesn’t tell me to be careful or come home. He kisses my cheek and moves aside, allowing me to exit my office. I truly feel like I’m walking into a burning building entirely unprepared.
The Shuttled driver’s car is out front. Azlan, Isidro, and Wade are waiting there.
The plan is simple and straightforward. Azlan, Wade, and I squish into the back.
Isidro will give us a very small dose of chloroform to knock us out when we see the truck pulling in.
Just enough so that we’ll be unconscious during the transfer.
“Got your weapons?” Isidro asks.
I nod. “Yep. You?”
He smirks. “Yes. Take care of my boys, huh?”
I look at Azlan and snort. “Right.”
“In,” Isidro says as he moves behind the wheel. “We want to be early. Not late.”
I climb in, ending up in the middle, squished between two big guys. I’m not a small guy, but between Azlan and Wade, I might as well be twelve. “This is a long ride like this. We can probably stop just before the truck stop and swap out.”
That’s all the convincing Azlan needs. He gets back out of the car and sits in the passenger seat. Isidro grins at me.
“Here we go,” Isidro says.
The truck stop is over an hour away. The truck to hand over cargo is scheduled for almost two hours from now. I settle into the back of the car and watch the trees pass us by while Isidro takes us to the highway.
I can hear Mark’s voice in my head. Your heart rate is elevated, Voss.
It makes me smile in acknowledgement. I’m scared as fuck.
I’m terrified of what I’m going to find when I get there.
Terrified that I’m too late. The likelihood of being too late feels increased because of the double shipment this month.
Sleep evaded me last night. Every time I closed my eyes, all I could imagine was getting there and not finding Brek anywhere. Learning that he was dead, but never finding his body, no matter how much I searched.
Equally bad was getting there and stumbling upon his body right away, only recognizing that it was him by his glasses or the shirt he was wearing the last time I saw him.
Fear makes my hands shake, and I fist them together. My leg bounces because even now, my body can’t sit still.
“Can you do this?” Wade asks.
“Yes,” I answer automatically. The truth is, I don’t have a choice. I have to do this. I need to find Brek, and I can’t wait. No matter what I find, I need to be there to find it.
“I can practically smell your fear,” Azlan says.
His voice is remarkably like Loren’s. The tenor is different, though the somewhat monotone inflection is the same.
It took me years to decide that it was simply devoid of empathy.
You don’t realize that within every conversation, your empathy and compassion are broadcast in your tone.
It changes with each conversation, each sentence, each person.
Azlan’s doesn’t do that. Neither does Loren’s.
“Now that we’re alone, I can confess that my father was right to not let me go alone. I’m probably going to be more of a liability than useful in many scenarios,” I confess.
Azlan snorts. Wade grins.
“We knew that,” Wade says. “As did your father. I’m pretty sure he said those exact words when he approached us with this assignment.”
I glower. Goddamn father. Can’t hide anything from him.
“To be clear, I’m not… scared of the entire situation, but only because my fear of how I’m going to find Brek far outweighs the fear of what we’re walking into.”
“We know,” Wade says. “Did we ever tell you about the time Xan was kidnapped from us? Right in front of our fucking faces.”
I look at him with horror. “No.”
“Mm. More than anything, our fear was of the state in which we’d find her.
If you’d been there observing, you’d have likely noted that we took very little precaution as we stormed in to find her.
It was about getting to her while she was still alive,” Wade says.
“We could have used someone impartial along with us.”
“That’s why you’re here,” I note, nodding.
“Yes. We don’t know Brek. Never heard his name. I couldn’t pick him out of a lineup. We’re here to keep you from walking into a gun range.”
“Well… thanks.”
“He’s sharing our experience with Xan to tell you we understand how you feel,” Isidro says. “No one could have stopped us from going after her. That’s why you’re running in blindly. We get it. We aren’t going to get in your way. We’re just going to clear your path.”
I sigh. “Thank you.”
“I’ll be following the truck,” Isidro says. “At a distance, of course. Out of their mirror. Probably twenty minutes behind them, so there’s no suspicion.”
“What if they go somewhere else?”
“Mm. Your family isn’t the only one who has access to the GPS signals on the three of you.”
“I feel like a damn dog,” Wade mutters.
Isidro laughs. “Well, darling, we’ll let you get on your hands and knees when we get home.” He winks as he looks at Wade in the rearview mirror.
Wade rolls his eyes. “You wish.”
I listen to them bicker good-naturedly and flirt. Their familiarity relaxes me. I stare out the window, listening to them laugh and tease. Azlan remains silent for the most part. Listening. Observing. Occasionally making a mic drop and sending both men into laughter.
So much like Loren.
We stop on the far side of the truck stop, and Azlan climbs into the back with us. Then we park right where the camera showed the car and truck meeting. The place where I found Brek’s phone in the trees. Then we wait.
My pulse increases the longer we sit there. I nearly jump out of my skin when the truck pulls off the highway.
“Ready to take a nap, boys?” Isidro asks, pulling the mask over his face.
Fear grips me as the back of the car fills with chloroform. No matter how stubbornly I fight it, the gas wins, and I sink into darkness.