26. Addison
CHAPTER 26
ADDISON
I’d bet my life on it.
“I told you they weren’t coming.”
Gary paces the length of the hidden room in his basement. I spent hours upon hours in this house growing up and never even knew he had a basement, let alone a secret kidnapper’s lair.
“Then you don’t know them very well,” I snarl.
“It’s been hours, Addi,” he reminds me. “If they were coming, they’d have been here by now.”
Gary doesn’t know what I know. Crow had a meeting a few hours away so it’s going to take him time. But he’ll be here. I’d bet my life on it.
You are betting your life on it.
“Years ago, when I had that cage built,” he says, nodding to the steel bars surrounding me. “I really didn’t think I’d ever need it. But I knew I had to have a backup plan, just in case.”
“Back up plan for what?”
Keep him talking.
“Framing a one-percenter club takes planning, precision.” There’s pride in his tone, more pride than I’ve ever heard him muster about a case. “But I wanted money, and they had that in spades from all the drugs and guns they run.” He stops next to the lock and wraps his fingers around two of the bars. “Create problems for the club so they’d have no choice but to seek out someone on the inside. Make myself available to be that someone. Demand money. Create problems, make myself available, demand money. Wash, rinse, repeat. Wash, rinse, repeat. Follow my own checklist and become a rich man. It was easy, Addison,” he says with a sigh. “Until you came along.”
“What did I have to do with any of it?”
“You ask questions, you dig and dig and dig until there’s no dirt left to cover my tracks.”
“In other words, I’m good at my job.” Sarcasm drips from my tone, and I yank against the handcuffs linking me to a bar.
Gary begins to pace again. “It’s ironic really.”
“What is?”
“Your dad tried so hard to keep you out of law enforcement, and the entire time, I played the role of the supportive family friend. Maybe if I hadn’t, you’d have chosen another career path, and I’d be free of all this bullshit.”
“It wouldn’t have mattered if you were supportive or not,” I bite out.
“I guess we’ll never know, will we?”
“Guess not.”
Gary gets quiet but continues to pace. Every few minutes, he slows in front of a bank of monitors and stares at them.
“Well, well, well,” he says sometime later. “I guess you were right.”
“About?”
“We’ve got guests.”
Crow!
“Don’t move, Addi,” he commands cheerfully. “I’ll be right back.”
With that, he closes the door that barricades this room from the rest of the space. Darkness surrounds me, as does an eerie silence. I strain to listen for any sound to indicate that Crow is here for me.
But there’s nothing.
I start pulling on the handcuffs, doing anything I can to loosen them, to get free. I struggle so hard that I feel a thick liquid dribble from my wrists.
The scent of copper fills my nostrils, and for a moment, I worry that I’m losing too much blood. I manage to calm myself down and recognize that my senses are heightened due to my sight being non-existent.
I have no idea how much time passes, but light filters into the space when the door bangs open.
“Addi!”
“Crow!”