Chapter 29 #2
It was painful listening to Lake organize their help. Every muscle in my body screamed to move. To be in the car driving, hunting Beasty down.
I held Joaquin's face in my hands, touching our foreheads together. He thought he wasn't strong, always saying that Lake and I were the tough ones, but he was too. He just didn’t see it.
"Are you okay?" I asked.
"No,” he rasped.
I pressed a kiss to his forehead and stepped back. "She's going to be okay. She's escaped them once, she can do it again." I paused. "But I fully intend on finding her before then."
Grabbing his hand, I went to Lake while pulling up a map on my phone.
He hung up as we reached him. "They're going to start canvasing the area.
Knock on doors, and look for anything out of the ordinary.
A handful of men will set up blockades." He laughed, shaking his head. “One of them said he’d coordinate with the police. The goddamned police,” he muttered under his breath.
"Give me the keys. I'm driving." I was the best out of all of us. I'd spent more time at the racetracks than all of them combined.
He handed them over without a fight, and we sprinted to the car.
"I'm checking in with all my contacts!" Books called. "Then I'll start searching too!"
"We'll head to the addresses we have for Gio." Parker slapped the back of his hand against Grey's chest. Both men were grim, like they weren't sure this was even worth the effort.
Fuck them.
Beasty was worth everything. I'd walk through hell and spend a thousand lifetimes in that house in West Virginia if it meant saving Beasty. Keeping Beasty.
"I texted you and Jorge the information from Desiree," Kim said as he slammed his door. He swayed as I sped out of the parking lot. "She said not to trust two men named John and Frank, if they're still alive."
Lake cursed, typing on his phone from the passenger seat.
"The cops?" Joaquin leaned between our seats, scouring the road. Good. He could be the eyes while I paid attention to driving.
"We already have enough dirt on them to sink a ship. I'll make sure to let them know that while they set up blockades," Lake murmured.
Dust kicked up behind the car as I drove a circle around this cursed town. I looped around it, then broadened my circle with each lap. The whole time, I kept my mind on what was important.
Getting Beasty back.
If Gio and Adrian broke something in her...It wouldn't matter. We'd put her back together again.
They would also have a permanent residence in our basement.
Joaquin
I bounced my leg uncontrollably. My eyes burned from lack of blinking, but fuck. I didn't want to leave one inch of the road and surrounding area unchecked.
We'd been driving for over three hours with nothing to show for it. We checked every place Beasty had mentioned, which weren’t many.
We knocked down doors to every place that possibly had any connection to Gio and Adrian.
We tried to be methodical about it, working our way in a circle and getting broader and broader.
But we’d found nothing.
My throat was like sandpaper. I needed water, but I couldn't drink it. Beasty probably wasn't getting water, and I couldn't give myself what she wasn't getting.
All our interactions with Gio and Adrian rose to the forefront of my mind. How had we missed it? If they were this fucked up, we should have seen signs.
We did see them to an extent. Lake never liked them. Neither did I.
When they had Beasty and they planned to use her to draw the Pescis out, that was the kicker. Everything from there had gone downhill. Why the fuck hadn't we taken care of them then?
I wanted to shake the seats so fucking bad, get out some of this pent up energy, but I couldn't distract Atlas or Lake. We needed to be at our best to find Beasty.
Lake's phone rang. He picked it up before the first blare finished.
"Did you find something?"
"No," Books said, his voice distraught. "Nothing."
Lake punched the dash. "Fuck!" He punched it two more times and the cheap interior of our very expensive car dented.
"Parker and his guys haven't found anything either. Neither have the Pescis’ men."
Only, they weren't Pescis men anymore. They were ours. What were we supposed to do with that many men?
"We have to consider that they took Beasty somewhere else," Books said slowly, like he was afraid of how that would land.
Lake didn't answer, but all I saw was the basement. How we were chained to the walls like animals. What were the chances that Gio had some secret hideaway like that?
Too high. He probably didn't have it for Beasty, specifically. I could see him taking the Pescis there and delivering his best version of vengeance for the wrongs he felt they'd done to him. The fact remained that there was a very likely chance they had Beasty squirrelled away somewhere close.
Bile crawled up the back of my throat. "You have to pull over. I'm going to be sick." I covered my mouth.
Atlas swerved to the side of the road and I fell out of the backseat, tripping over myself to get as far from the SUV as possible before I lost what little there was in my stomach.
I made it about five feet before I dropped to my hands and knees.
I wasn't the only one who jumped out of the car. Kim bellowed his rage as he hit something. I wiped my mouth while Kim fought against a giant-ass tree.
He punched and kicked it, screaming at it as if it would bring Beasty back. It wouldn't.
"Kim," I croaked. Fuck, my throat was dry. "Stop it. You're not going to do Beasty any good like that."
I sat back on my heels and breathed through my mouth, so I didn't have to smell my sick.
Atlas got out and came directly to me, helping me to my feet. He put me back in the car with terrifying efficiency, and then went for Kim. When we were in the car, he pulled back on the road, like the two of us hadn't just lost it.
"What are we doing now?" I asked, dropping my head back against the headrest. I needed to be watching the road. But I needed a fucking minute because everything in my gut screamed she wasn't here and we wouldn't find her.
"We keep going," Atlas said.
"We're not stopping until we have Beasty back." Kim's top lip curled as his eyes watered.
"We're not giving up. We'll destroy any world without Beasty in it," Lake added.
"Damn right we will." I scooted back up to the center console as Atlas left the small town, heading to the next one.
We would find her. There was no other option, because while Lake was half-right, I knew I couldn't survive in a world without Beasty in it.
Without her, we'd destroy ourselves.