Chapter 36
“Got it.” I call out as I force more of the drywall down, pushing myself through the small opening and into the darkness below. “Shit.” I scoff, my feet splashing into just enough water to cover my shoes. Pulling out my phone, using the light.
The voice in my ear directs me as I walk through the tunnel.
“Eli, wait for us,” Z calls through the comms as I come up to the door leading into the building.
Halting in front of the door, I wait.
Their footsteps reach me as I push the door open. The basement’s just as deserted as the one we came from.
“Shit,” I mumble, moving up the staircase to the main floor. Kicking each door as I clear the room before they make it up. “No one.” I shake my head.
“Come on.” Z nods at the stairs. Each taking a floor.
As I rush towards the top floor, I can hear the brothers shouting for Drew, and wood splintering.
When the building falls silent, I know what that means. Opening the last door, revealing yet another empty room.
“She’s not here.” I whisper to myself. Falling backwards against the wall, sliding down until I’m seated on the ground. “Fuck!” I shout, ripping the comms out of my ear and throwing it against the opposite wall. Slamming my head backwards against the wood.
My head sinks into my hands as I think through everything she said. Thinking through everything I heard.
I’ve imagined her face as she’s on the other end, gutting me as I watch the fear in her eyes.
Playing through the entire conversation, the entire walkthrough of her apartment. Nothing stands out.
I’ve known most of these guys for years. I’ve kept a close eye on them because I never trusted them. There has to be something that sticks out.
Glancing up, I see both of them staring back. Their eyes are both wide as they look down at me. Zeke’s hand holding the comms I threw. Noticing the VP patch he’s wearing.
“What’s going on?” Zeke asks.
“I’m thinking.”
“About what?”
“There has to be something, fucking anything that can give me a clue. I’m missing something.”
“Eli, it’s not…” Z trails off because he knows no matter what he’s about to say, it won’t change anything. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Sh, let me just think!”
“This place isn’t helping.” He glares down at me. “Let’s get the hell out of here, and maybe that’ll help.”
“Whatever.” I mumble, pushing myself back up the wall, catching the glance they shoot between one another.
Walking in front of them, I’m almost to the end before I stop.
Both of them moving past me.
“Wait,” I call out, pushing the first door in the hall open and stepping inside.
“What?” They step behind me and pause.
“She was here.” I tell them, noticing something I had overlooked at first, or maybe I hadn’t; maybe I saw it and only made a subconscious note, hoping that it meant she was still here.
“Is that…” Z trails again, stepping past me and picking up the small chunk of red hair lying on the floor. Pulling out a piece of metal and turning it over in his hand. He looks back at us.
“She wore it around her neck.”
“I never saw this.” Z looks at me.
“Is that a fucking tooth?” Zeke asks in disgust.
“She kept it hidden from you.”
“Why?” Z asks me, concerned, looking back over.
“Cause she knew if you saw it, you’d ask questions.”
“Yeah, like whose fucking tooth’s around your neck?” Zeke chimes in.
“Yeah, that.” Nodding my head, agreeing with him. Z tosses it back over to me, and I look down, shaking my head.
“Okay, as much as I know I’m gonna regret this,” Zeke starts again. “I have to ask, why a tooth?”
“Kyle knocked it out.” Z answers for me.
“Yeah.”
“From high school?” Zeke asks.
“Yeah.” I pause, realizing that he doesn’t know. “He’s dead.”
Z starts. “He drugged Drew, Eli found her on his porch, and killed him.”
“What?” Zeke looks at me, both surprised and impressed.
“I forgot I had put it in my pocket. I guess it fell out cause she found it on the floor the next night when I got to her house.”
They both shake their heads.
“She made a joke about cherishing my sacrifice. The next time I saw her, she had arts and crafted that shit into a necklace.” It actually makes me smile as I think about it, the emotions from that taking over the fear. “I’m surprised she still wore it.”
“I’m not.” Zeke mumbles. “It’s creepy, but not surprising.”
“What?”
“Liez told me months ago something was going on with her. She just wasn’t sure what, and well, the timeline matches. I think we all noticed then that she was upset about something.” He pauses, looking at me again. “We just didn’t know that thing was you.”
“Well, she had a few more things going on than that. I mean, I had to talk to her about it even though I swore I’d keep my distance.”
“Like what?” Zeke asks me. Z gives me a look, knowing that he’s aware of what I’m talking about.
“Nah,” I shake my head.
“Wait,” Zeke starts as we start down the staircase. “Is that why you were talking to her at the hospital?”
I can’t help but chuckle. “Yeah. Liv had just let it slip —” abruptly stopping as I realize what I’m about to say.
“Let what slip?” Zeke asks.
“It’s really not my place to tell you.”
“Eli.” Z stops. I don’t even have to look over at him to know he’s staring at me with that disapproving look. I know he’s put together the story. He’s aware what Liv let slip, and he’s telling me now isn’t the time.
“Yeah,” Zeke starts again. “If you know what else was going on with our sister, tell us. I mean, you already had us dispose of someone’s body that you killed because he drugged her.”
“I can’t.”
I’m pushed to the side, slammed into the wall, Zeke glaring down at me. “Why do I feel like you’re trying to save yourself?”
Cutting my eyes at him, “Don’t you think there’re bigger things to deal with, like someone kidnapping your fucking sister?”
“He’s right.” Z pulls his brother backward and turns back toward the door. “We’ll find Drew and then deal with this shit.” I know he means that.
I realize that thinking they’ve moved past what’s going on is a joke. I’m not sure they’ll ever accept it.
* * *
We watch Zeke walk back towards his bike as Z cranks the van.
“Why didn’t you tell him?”
Z clears his throat as he looks over at me and shrugs. “Cause I understand the only reason you told me.”
“What d’you mean?”
“I understood how you were feeling.”
“We were going through something similar.” I say, still not looking at him, realizing that’s why I told him. “We’d both lost something neither one of us thought we wanted.”
He mumbles something out, agreeing with me, before we fall silent again.
“Why’d you seem cooler with this than he does?”
“I’m not.” He glances at me from the corner of his eye before pulling off the side of the street. “He’s still working on his anger shit.”
I say nothing else, just nod my head.
“Like I said. We’ll find her and then deal with our shit.”
“Well, I told her you would kill me.”
My comment takes him by surprise as he laughs out. “Yet, you still went through with it?”
“She’s worth getting murdered for…” barely speaking above a whisper as I look out the window.
“Stop saying shit that makes me like you.”
We pull into the parking lot of Pistons as he nods his head for me to follow. It’s dark inside, but the bikes outside tell me something else is going on.
Opening the door, I follow him down into the basement. I can hear people talking as we make our way to the bottom, and they look at us.
“Everyone here?”
“Waiting on Axe.”
“Holy shit!” I mumble as I see Ace standing on the opposite side of the room. The voice I recognized earlier but couldn’t place now makes sense. “I thought you were dead!”
“What’s he doing here?” Spyder calls out as Ace and I hug it out.
“I get he watched out for you, but he’s still a cop; we can’t fucking trust him.” Is yelled next.
“Shut the fuck up.” Z glares at them. “Ash sent Eli.”
“What?” comes from the back.
“He’s one of us. We’ll explain and do an official vote once we find Drew, but for now…”
His words cause my head to snap in his direction, he refuses to look at me.
“Bullshit!” is called out from the group.
Z says nothing else; he just stares in the direction, and the chatter quiets down.
“It’s true.” Ace calls out.
“What?” Z looks in our direction this time.
“Ash told me he had sent someone undercover to watch over the club. He didn’t tell me who, but it wasn’t hard to figure out. I told you he put me in charge of setting up their accounts.”
Both brothers look over at me with a curious look.
Nodding his head, Z looks away as Zeke walks over to him, telling him something, and he moves up the stairs.
“Is he pissed about it?” Ace leans in, whispering to me.
“I dunno, he found out about it and about Drew and me within like a three-minute window, so...”
He doesn’t say a word, just looks at me with wide-eyes.
“Eli!” I hear Z shout from the staircase as he moves down them. I hesitate before I walk over to them. “You remember anything?”
“I don’t know.” I shake my head, racking my brain trying to think, resorting to talking out loud. “We had a growing number of unsolved cases over the last few years…” trailing off, I look up at them, my eyes widening and my mouth parting slightly.
“What kind of cases?”
“Missing persons.”
I think back, trying to place every time a case would go cold, who was working it, who would be quietly talking in a corner.
“Sherman was also the detective in charge of most of them.”
Z’s nostrils flare.
“You already took care of him. But always the same guys working on them with him. But he’s been dead for over 6 months. Women and girls are still going missing.”
“So he’s not the head of it.”
“No, but he was high enough that you pissed off whoever is.”
Nodding his head, we hear the door at the top of the stairs close.
“Ella?” Z calls out to her. “What are you doing here?”
“She had an idea. And refused to tell me what it was until we were here.” Axe says, glaring over at his wife.
Jag chuckles from behind me.
“First off,” she starts. “I go with you.”
“No.” Axe and Z say in unison.
“Fine, I’ll go by myself.” She stands before all of us.
“Goddamnit.” Axe groans out, looking over at the guys and shrugging his shoulders.