Chapter 45
Chapter Forty-Five
RAFE
T he run up the hill was easy enough. Grant tosses me his keys to unlock the doors while he paces behind me. When I let myself into the house, it’s empty. We both slip inside and shut the door quietly. A normal person would call out to Kit but this isn’t normal. We can hear a movie playing in the next room, a slasher from the sound of it. A woman screams before dramatic music crescendos but when we look into the room there’s no one there. Rumpled blankets and two half empty glasses of wine tell the story that Kit and Alana were here but where the fuck are they now?
Grant taps me on the shoulder. “Panic room? He asks.
It’s a good guess. That is where we told Kit to go if she needed it but something feels off. “If she did, she would have called us.” We clear the first floor of rooms and when there’s no sign of Kit, I know where she went.
“Outside. It’s the only place. Let’s go.”
Grant doesn’t say a word. He just looks out at the deck with a nod and falls into step with me as I head straight for the door. The only way off the deck is taking the stairs that lead down to the backyard. Those stairs are slick in the rain and it’s hard not to think I’ll come to the bottom and find Kit’s crumpled body there.
What if she fell? What if that’s why she and Alana are not here? Maybe Jax and Scott took them to the hospital. It’s about an hour away. It would explain the house and why there’s no one here but when we get to the bottom of the stairs there’s no body or sign of Kit.
There is a light in the distance, though. I squint and raise a hand to try and clear the rain from my eyes. It’s the building the generator is in. The door is open and light spills out into the dark.
Grant and I stare at the light. Something isn’t right.
The intuition that’s kept us both from getting caught is buzzing like a live wire. I know it’s working overtime for him like it is for me. When Grant leaves the path to circle the building, I go with him. We are not fucking taking that front door, not until we know what we’re walking into. This shit smells like a set up.
We move along the front of the building and drop down when windows come into sight. We stop there and I look over the edge to see if I can clock the space but there’s boxes in the way. “You see anything?”
I shake my head. “Too much shit in the way. We have to keep going. Let’s go around the back.”
Grant sets off again. He keeps his body bent low, one hand trailing along the building as he goes. I move with him, careful to keep my eyes on our rear. The fucker who gets the jump on us is going to have to earn it.
When we come to the next window, Grant stops and I look inside. This time I see figures. It’s hard to see from the angle and I can’t see Kit but what I can see is a woman being held by a man, their backs to us and the light glints off something in his hand.
A gun.
That fucker has a gun to her head.
It’s Alana. If it was Kit, I’d lose it.
He jerks Alana and the moment he moves, I realize who it is.
“It’s Jax,” I tell Grant when he looks at me.
“I knew I didn’t like that cunt.”
I nod but don’t say anything else. I’m trying to get a different angle to take in the room. If it’s Jax then Scott has to be close. They wouldn’t do anything without the other. We let the wolves right into the hen house when we let Holly saddle us with the bodyguards. Anger burns hot in me but I tamp it down. I edge closer but there’s no way to get a better look at the room from where we are.
I motion to Grant that we need to move on. I hate leaving the window because even if I can’t see her I know she’s there. Grant looks pissed that we’re leaving the window but nods and continues on down the length of the building. Judging by where the first window was and this one, the next one should give us a better look if there isn’t shit in front of it. I think about the door as we move. It was open–a trap to be sure but if there isn’t another way inside we’ll have to take it to get in. When we get to the next window we catch a break.
I can see Kit.
I can also see Scott’s dumb ass now. He’s yapping and pointing at a chest freezer, but I’m not looking at that, I'm looking at Kit. She looks like she wants to throw up. The chest freezer is open and she can’t look away from whatever is inside. Tears well up in her eyes but she doesn’t let them fall. Kit puts a hand on the edge of the freezer and takes a deep breath but a second later she spins away from it to look at someone. I look with her and see Alexia. What the fuck is the stylist doing here?
The last time I saw her she was talking to Grant about Jane. She looked scared and worried that day but that’s not what I see on her face now. She’s smug. I know that look anywhere. Like she has the moral high ground with what’s going on. None of that makes sense because I can tell she’s with Jax and Scott.
Whatever is happening here she’s on the wrong side but she doesn’t see it that way. She thinks she’s doing the right thing. The sneer she sends to Kit sets me into motion.
“Come on,” I say, motioning for Grant to follow me. We’re going to have to go inside the front door. There's no way around it. I’ve seen enough to understand what’s going on and trap or no trap, the second we set foot inside of the building there’s something they can’t change. When we close the door, they’ll be trapped inside with us, too.