33 Damien
The fall weather kicked in with how the rain fell.
It drizzled all around as though it mirrored my inner soul crying with the night sky.
Keeping my hands in my sweatshirt pocket, I already had my hood up to keep the rain off my face and to hide my identity from the cameras that lurked in these parts.
Plenty of people could tap into the live feeds, so I couldn’t let my father know where I visited.
In all honesty, I couldn’t believe where I went.
Castiel wasn’t someone people messed with because of his cruel tendencies, different than the kind my father used.
Kit whispered his name to me with what I needed to do, but I felt the blood in my veins turn to ice.
He was a man people feared for a reason, and I stayed out of his way because I didn’t want to be someone sucked into his vindictive deal makings.
My father used his bar to send one of his guys to be posted at for Kit to follow because he didn’t want the guy going to any of our places for them to catch wind of what my father really did in the city.
I had a feeling Castiel didn’t know his bar had been used as a ploy for my father to run his business through. Not that any of it mattered because what was done had been done, and it s now rested on my shoulders to save Kit.
That’s what gave me the courage to enter the terrifying establishment.
For her, I’d do nearly anything. Now that my mother couldn’t be used against me, it made it easier to choose sides.
I knew what would happen to me when my father found out who it was that freed Kit once again, but it came down to the knowledge that this life wasn’t worth living the way I had to.
I wouldn’t have the opportunity to live it a different way, so if I had to go out, I’d go out in a bang, protecting Kit.
I had only been in here once before as I gripped the handle. It still blew my mind that it held such a futuristic look inside a dingy building. Not many were in here this time of night because I came close to closing in order to keep my business private.
Making my way to the bar, I noticed only one bartender as the others probably were in the back to clean up.
He had boyishly blond hair that stuck up in random spots, appearing more youthful than everyone else here.
His easy smile didn’t fit the world we lived in, so I narrowed my eyes when he came over to ask me what drink I wanted.
“What can I get you this time of night?” He leaned over the bar top to make me feel like he had my undivided attention. Maybe my father could take lessons from him on how to treat a son.
“I’m looking for Castiel.” Even though my insides were gnawing at me in rage and terror, I kept my voice cool and collected as though it didn’t bother me with the name that spilled from my lips.
“Not many brave coming in here and looking for him. You want a drink to go with that? It might help with your nerves.” He tipped his body to lean a little further away from me as though he feared why I might ask for the name I did.
“No,” I replied while lacing my fingers together over the surface. “I know the consequence of what I’m about to ask him.”
The bartender immediately understood what I implied.
He left me alone as the last two stragglers got up to pay their tickets on the other end where he met them.
I didn’t mind he handled business first because it left less room for a witness of my location.
Keeping my head down, I made sure there would be no direct line of sight for my face to miss any cameras in the building.
While it was easier to tap into the outside ones, the ones inside couldn’t be accessed, but I couldn’t chance it with who my father was.
He’d hire a professional or come down here directly to look at the footage if he thought I was betraying him again.
Usually, there was a slight country vibe to the music, but it a jazz song came on. The blues lingered with me because it could be a theme song for where my life was heading by doing this. Kit thought I’d be stupid enough to let her have a favor owed, but I would never do that to her.
The two men made their way back out to me after waiting a few minutes for the others ro leave. I noticed how they murmured back and forth like they couldn’t believe I was here, telling me they knew who I belonged to. That didn’t come as much of a shock because Castiel knew everyone.
“Damien Rios,” he greeted me with my name. “What would bring Saul’s son here?”
“This business is my own, but you’re the only one who can handle it.” I looked up to meet his gaze, telling him I wasn’t afraid.
“And what sort of business are we dabbling in today? Are you looking for someone specific?” It was always eerie to notice the patch over his left eye, but I knew he didn’t wear it to scare people. Around the edges of it, I could see some scars coming from below where it had been removed.
“My father has captured someone, and she tells me you’re the only connection to her empire.
” After I said it, his hackles raised. It was like he knew the name I planned to say before I had to even say it, but that wasn’t going to be the worst for him.
I knew Kit had followed my father’s soldier here for information that Castiel gave.
I’d be banking on the fact that his faulty information wouldn’t cost her after this.
“Who?” Even though he hadn’t treated me too kindly already, I could tell I dealt with someone deadlier now.
“Kit Andrews.” I let her name fall from my lips. “More importantly, you helped get her caught by giving her the faulty information my father let you overhear on purpose.”
“Who the hell do you think you are?” he growled at me, leaning over the bar.
I slammed my palms down on the surface, standing to square up with him. “I’m a man trying to save a woman my father wants to ruin completely! She told me that you were the only one who could let her people know. Is this true or not?”
“How do I know this isn’t a ploy from your father?” Castiel was wise enough to not believe me right away. Even Kit understood that while she’d been diluted by drugs.
Nodding my head, I let my fingers tap them against the surface and lowered my voice. “When Kit gave me your name, she gave me a code word, saying you’d know the truth if I told you.”
“So what’s this code word?” It wasn’t him who asked, but the man standing next to him. His boyish charm left as he crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes on me.
“She told me to tell you tunnel 29. What that means, I don’t know. That’s all she gave me to tell you.” Sitting back down, I let them digest what I had said. It was clear the words triggered something by how their eyes widened slightly when I said it.
“And why are you so keen on helping Kit? What do you get out of this?” Castiel kept firing his questions.
“Believe it or not, I was the one who helped her escape the first time. I don’t have that power in my possession this time.
” Slipping him a folded piece of paper, I had written down my father’s addresses for them find Kit easier.
Circling the one she was at, I knew I needed to list the other compounds to make sure, just in case he moved her.
“This is the address she’s at right now, but I added these ones just in case he moves her before her people come. ”
“Don’t you mean her pack?” the other man asked.
“My father has already figured out she doesn’t belong to anyone. He’s burned the fake bite off her neck and marked her cheek for others to believe she’s a dud. Her people need to know what’s happening to her before my father goes too far.”
Castiel nodded as though he understood. “So you’re saying your father set me up to feed her false information with a favor I owed her?”
That came as a surprise to me because I didn’t know he owed Kit a favor.
It made me want to ask several questions, but I bit my tongue.
“Yes, he knew you would overhear the address, and he wanted to see if she would go to it by coming here. He had secret cameras in the trees and caught her on one of them at the cabin after she killed the man that she’d been hunting to find my father. ”
I could tell that bit of news didn’t sit well with him. Placing his palms on the edge of the surface on his side, he had to think over what he wanted to say to me next. “I’ll make a deal with you, but because my information got her in this pickle, I’ll tell her people for free where she is.”
“How come I feel like there’s a but on that?” I studied his features, but he kept stoic to hide his true emotions.
“Because I’m the deadliest person in the city, and everyone knows it. Kit is the closest thing I consider a friend, so if you want my help to get her back, you’ll owe me a favor.”
“Do you think her friends are unequipped to help?”
He smirked just a little. “I’m not sure you’ve met Anika, but I’d never get on her bad side or bet against her.
What I’m saying is for you specifically.
We all know your father marked you for his pack, so you can’t raise your hand against your Alpha.
If you want me to take out your father’s empire, it’ll cost you a favor. ”
And there it was. The one offer I didn’t know if I could refuse. As much as I hated my father, it was hard to think about letting someone else kill him. Still, Kit would never be able to sleep at night if my father was still alive. “And you have the ability to get ahold of her people?”
“I do,” he answered me.
“Then when you mean my father’s empire, you mean him directly, don’t you?”
“And whatever idiot stands in my way to get to him,” he added. “Your father has now burned my bridge with using my location.”
“So why would it cost me a favor if he’s already crossed you?”
Castiel leaned back down to brace his elbows on the bar top.
“Because I know you’re going to be stepping up in his place to figure out whatever dealings he has going on.
I can hand your father a letter that says I know what he did in my bar, and he’d owe me a favor.
I’d win there too, but I’d rather put my eggs in your basket.
Killing him will be a favor to you for you to make the change you want in the city.
If you begin running his empire, you’ll have the intel that I might need for something coming up, something he’s been hiding. ”
“The one problem with your logic? My father will never give his kingdom to me. He hates the idea of having me as a son, so I can guarantee you it won’t be me he hands the reins over to.”
“I’m willing to bet against that because I know men like your father. He pretends you mean nothing like the rest of his men, but it’ll be in his will. I can almost guarantee it.”
Now it was my turn to process what he said. Mulling it over, I licked the front of my teeth with my tongue. “This favor that I’ll owe you will not come at the cost of the kingdom. If I do get control over it, it’ll stay in my power.”
Castiel was smart because he knew I was being wise with putting conditions on the favor. “I have a feeling your father is in some shady business with some bad people I’ve been looking for. You’ll be my eyes on them if so.”
“Then you have yourself a deal.” Lifting my hand, he met me halfway, and we shook on it. I now owed Castiel a favor, but he’d help me save Kit and destroy my father for it.