Chapter 22
Elijah
“All right. Got it working. Good as new.”
“Yay! Thank you so much. We can always count on you. Isn’t that right, Abel?”
Abigail is smooshing her face with Abel’s as she’s kissing him all over the face and talking about “genius boy” and “sweetest boy”.
They’re both so great. They deserve better than me.
They deserve better than what I’ve done.
No matter what she says, she can’t forgive me for something I can’t even forgive myself for.
“Alright, hey, I’m going to get out of here for a bit. I’ll be back tonight.”
Abigail’s expression is one I’m all too used to seeing. She’s disappointed. As she should be. I’ve disappointed this woman in every way that matters.
“Eli, you know we love you, right?”
“Yeah. I know. I love you too. It’s just...I’ve got to figure some things out. It’ll get better. I promise.”
“Family dinner tonight, remember?”
“Yeah. I remember.” I’m not sure why they haven’t given up on me. As bad as I want to be the man I was, I’m just not. I never will be again. There’s no undoing the things I’ve done.
“Your phone is on the counter. You got some texts earlier.”
“Got it. Thanks.”
The phone screen shows what I expected. Vaughn texted hours ago. That water heater was a bigger job than I anticipated.
“Hey, do you know any Wilmington’s on this street?”
“Wilmingtons? No. Why?”
“A woman came to the door earlier, looking for a Mrs. Wilmington. I told her she had the wrong house, but I can’t think of anyone in the neighborhood with that name.”
“Oh. Hmmm. No. No one that I can think of.”
“Whoever they are, I feel sorry for Mrs. Wilmington if there’s a Mr. Wilmington. There’s no way that girl doesn’t stop him in his tracks. She’s gorgeous. When she smiled at me, I went a little weak in the knees.”
No. It can’t be. This has to be paranoia. There are tons of beautiful women in this city.
“You catch her name?”
“Uh, no. I guess she didn’t say. She recognized how handsome this little man is, though.
She said his name is strong. That’s right, huh, Abel.
Strong name like daddy.” She’s turned her attention to Abel, and she hasn’t noticed that my face is slack.
“There were two men in the car she got into. I thought that was a bit weird, and she did kind of stumble to the car.”
“Huh. What did uh...what did she look like?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Hot. Great hair. She had this wild, thick, dark hair. Shorter than me. Brown eyes, maybe? She had this amazing tattoo on her shoulder and arm. A panther, flowers, and -”
Don’t say it. Don’t say it. Don’t say it.
“books starting at her shoulder and going down her arm. I’ve always wanted to get a tattoo, but-”
Her words fade out into a soft echo at the back of my mind as I feel the blood drain from my face. My knees feel weak, and I have to lean on the counter. She was here. Vaughn was here. She met my...I’m going to be sick.
I barely make it to the sink before relieving my stomach of its entire contents.
“Eli. Oh my gosh. Are you okay?”
Abbi is holding my hair and rubbing my back. Trying to soothe me. I don’t deserve it. I deserve everything else that’s coming to me, though.
As I pull up in front of Vaughn’s apartment, I’m still not sure what to say.
I’m not even sure I’ll get to say anything to her face.
Likely, I’ll have to scream everything I need her to hear through the locked door.
At least she’s here. Jax and Marshall, too.
All their vehicles are here, plus Vaughn’s bike.
I guess it will be a spectator event when she kicks my ass.
Trudging up the steps to her door, the air feels off.
Midway up the stairs, I stop and take in everything around me.
There’s nothing out of the ordinary. Except.
..there is. Something isn’t right. My strides lengthen and my steps become more hurried the rest of the way to her door.
The door that’s ajar. The frame is cracked, and the door won’t shut all the way because the latch is busted off the frame.
Someone broke in. Was she here when this happened?
Terror grips me as I step across the threshold and grab the blade from my boot. The fear isn’t for myself, but that I’ve failed yet another person in my life. Placed them in danger.
It’s a mess. The coffee table is upended. The TV is on the floor, and there’s a shoe in the dining room. It’s Vaughn’s. My fists clench on their own, and I see red. This feeling is welcome. This is where I thrive. This is what I was built for.
Only a couple of Vaughn’s neighbors have doorbell cameras. The front office of the complex has a decent view of the primary entrance, though, and a broad view of the main parking lot. You have to drive through this area to get to most of the apartments here in Pine Crest.
No one bats an eye when I ask to view their camera history. The tattoos and the height aren’t enough to overcome the dimples. People trust me. They shouldn’t. Vaughn shouldn’t have trusted me either. I shouldn’t have worked so hard to deceive her and make her think she could.
It isn’t necessary to view more cameras after the first two, but I do anyway.
Just to make sure that I miss nothing. There are so many of them that I need several angles to study each one.
Their builds. The way they move. None of their faces are visible.
That’s probably why he thought it was safe to come himself.
Chase. There’s no mistaking the swagger of a man who thinks he’s owed the world.
That night at the bar, I committed his build, the shape of his jaw, the way he moved, to memory.
I shouldn’t have put this off so long. If I had taken care of things before, none of this would be happening now.
Getting everything I needed from my house was even more difficult than I anticipated.
Everyone was there for family dinner, which made it much more difficult to explain the gear and why I couldn’t stay.
My mother had tears in her eyes as Abigail attempted to console her. I’ll explain everything later. After.
Impressive. This place is much nicer in person than it is on the aerial satellite. There’s a large iron gate out front with a security box to put in a code. Inside the gate is a long concrete drive leading up to an elaborate estate. His parents’ money, no doubt.
The Sheridan’s come from a long line of corrupt politicians.
Chase’s father is no different. On his mother’s side is a laundry list of famous defense attorneys, judges, and even a few high-ranking military officials.
Chase undoubtedly hopes for a future in politics.
Unfortunately for Chase, there’ll be no future.
It’s important to know your enemy, and I’ve been gathering information on my enemy for quite some time now.
Vaughn never mentioned it, but she pressed charges on him after he assaulted her in this very house. There was always a chance he might do something stupid to get her to drop those charges. Either way, he was always going to die.
I tap numbers into the screen of my phone before hearing a familiar Appalachian accent. John lives in North Carolina. We’ve been friends since recruit training, and he’s some kind of computer genius. That never was in my wheelhouse.
“Hey. I’m here.”
“Openinggggggggg, now.”
The creaky iron gates separate just as he said they would.
“You still got eyes inside?”
“Yep. And the outside cameras are on a thirty-eight second loop. That’s the best I can do on short notice.”
“That’s more than enough. The numbers inside changed any?”
“Nope. Five outside. Seven in, plus the three hostages upstairs. No cameras in those rooms, so I can’t report much there, but they were alive when they went in.
A bit roughed up, but breathing. Kicking, even.
Same guys from the apartment brought them in.
The guys on the inside showed up later. Except the one. He’s the one giving orders.”
I can’t help but smile at that. Vaughn is a ball of venom, and something about the twins tells me that there’s more to them than unfettered humor. That apartment was a mess. It wasn’t just Vaughn fighting back in there.
“You’ve done me a solid here, Grizzly.”
“Nothing you haven’t done for me many times, Post Man. Give ‘em hell, brother.”
“Always.”
The gate is far enough away from the house that the men outside don’t see it open.
Sneaking up to the house is much easier than it should be.
Three of the guys outside are huddled together, looking at something on one of their phones.
These are not trained professionals. Not the kind Chase should’ve gotten for tonight, anyway.
These are the guys who took Vaughn and the boys.
Chase knows I’m coming. He knew it the moment he took her. Surely, with his connections, he looked into my background. And this is the best he could do? I should be insulted, but I’m too excited to see Paul Walker to be too upset.
Even though I make no attempt to quiet my footsteps, I’m just ten feet away from the huddle before anyone looks up.
That’s a bullet right through the left eye for dipshit number one.
Right eye for dipshit number two, but dipshit number three has the good sense to yell for help and starts to run toward the fountain for cover.
People should be on their way, regardless.
The silencer definitely muffles the sound, but it’s not quiet like the movies make it seem.