Chapter 9
Devlin
The link Aubrey sent to my phone indicated Timothy was less than a mile from us and from the speed the dot was moving, it appeared he was walking.
James was driving and I was sitting in the passenger seat as my brother, Lucian, sat in the back observing.
He had volunteered to come with us, saying ‘He wanted to see the madman in action.’
I had given James a look and he returned it, silently communicating that Lucian was in for a surprise. Where our father, Sergey, was a sadistic asshole who only cared about himself, and liked to use mind games, I was a different kind of crazy.
When I see a threat, my vision grows red and a bloodlust that scared me from time to time overtook me.
I kill without remorse and enjoy the thrill of holding someone’s life in my hands.
I’d used that part of me to grow my empire, and eventually, take my businesses legal and respectable.
Since I’d been with Elise, I’d pushed that part of me deep down, but this fucker helped take her away from me, and all bets were off.
Staring at the app, I remarked, “If he sees me, he’s going to run, and I don’t have many contacts still active to cover us here.”
We were in a little town called Smyrna, on the edge of Nashville, about an hour and a half from Pierce Bluff.
I rarely did any business in this part of the state, respecting an old allegiance with a friend who owned an adult club in downtown Nashville.
His family ran this part of the state, and they were like me. Legal, but morally dark.
“When we find him, roll up on him and I’ll take care of it,” Lucian suggested, then added. “The rest is yours to handle, but you’re in no shape to take someone down.”
James cut his eyes to me before he looked back at the road, showing he agreed with Lucian.
I knew I wasn’t at my best, but with my wife’s life on the line, I would be able to do whatever I had to do to bring her home to me and the boys.
But I needed to be strong when it was time to free my Lamb, so I acquiesced.
“Agreed,” I replied and pointed the next turn out to James as we followed the dot through an older residential neighborhood.
You could tell by the houses it used to be a nice place, but hard times, and probably drugs, seemed to have taken its toll on the residents.
Some of the houses had full fences wrapped around them and they appeared to be well maintained.
Others had old cars and other pieces of junk littering their yards, and still others seemed like they were places for people to score their next fix.
Seeing the decline was normal, unfortunately, for certain parts of the country, and as I pointed the next turn, I remarked, “This is what the Flats looked like when we took it over. At least parts of it did. There were those houses on the back few blocks that never seemed to fold to Marco’s demands, and those were the people who supported my takeover. ”
“They just wanted to live their lives and not have to worry about a shootout killing one of them in their sleep,” James added.
“What you see in this neighborhood was part of the reason we banned human flesh and hardcore drugs from being bought and sold in the Flats. We didn’t want the last few good people to leave, so we ran the bad ones out. ”
“I never asked why you killed Marco,” Lucian said, and I turned to look him straight in the eyes.
“He had someone monitoring Elise, and I discovered him watching her. Something inside me snapped and I slit his throat without thinking.”
Lucian whistled and replied, “You’ll do anything to protect her, won’t you?”
I turned back in my seat and answered, “Of course. She’s my Lamb.” Sitting up straighter in my seat, I spoke to James. “Turn right two blocks down and he should be a few houses up on the right.”
“Stop up here for a minute,” Lucian said, and James pulled over a block before we needed to turn.
Lucian jumped out and grabbed something off the ground before he returned to the van.
Looking in the mirror, he rubbed dirt on his shirt and pants, then ran his hands through his hair, making his normally well-groomed hair messy and unkept.
“I need to fit in if I’m going to get close.
When we turn, stop on the corner and I’ll catch up to him on foot. ”
I want’ sure of the plan, but knew Lucian was deadly in his own rights. He was trained by our father, and the syndicate to be a killer, so I had to trust what he was asking of James.
James gave him a nod and pulled the van away from the curve as I checked the tracker.
Timothy seemed to be walking down the road and as we stopped at the corner, I looked to see that the houses were more rundown and spaced out this far back in the neighborhood.
They looked abandoned, and that meant anyone who was using them wasn’t going to call the cops. Hopefully.
Lucian got out and closed the van door before he glanced at us through the window and took off in a jog down the cracked sidewalk.
We watched as he moved around garbage cans, overgrown yards, and when we seemed to be within a house or two of Timothy, we stopped jogging and said something we couldn’t make out.
Timothy turned and topped as Lucian approached him. He pulled something out of his pocket and showed it to Timothy before he pointed back toward us. Timothy seemed to nod and turned with Lucian to walk back toward us. James turned the van and parked in front of a vacant lot as he said, “Get down.”
I slid down in the seat, hating that I had to hide in order to get this asshole, but when I heard Lucian and another voice approach the side of the van, I knew I was going to have my answers soon.
They climbed inside and were laughing at something as the door closed behind them.
James pulled away from the curb as Lucian said, “I told you they would take us to get it.”
“I wasn’t sure. The sight of a van usually means something bad, but I’m glad you’re on the up and up, man,” I assume Timothy said.
“I appreciate your help, man. We needed some weed, and I told my friend you looked cool,” Lucian replied.
James gave me a subtle nod, and I pushed up into the seat.
Looking out, I saw we were nearing the end of an abandoned cul-de-sac.
James stopped in a dark spot and put the van into park, allowing us privacy.
Perfect. No one around and no one to hear what I’m going to do to this asshole for shooting me.
Turning in my seat, I saw Lucian sitting next to the door and Timothy typing onto his phone without paying attention to his surroundings. He smiled and lifted his head to speak when his eyes connected with mine.
The fear was instant and when he tried to push past Lucian to escape, James spun in his seat and lifted his gun, chambering a round. Lucian grabbed Timothy and wordlessly pushed him against the side of the van.
“Where is my wife and who the fuck paid you to take her and shoot me?” I asked, coldness filling my voice as my eyes adjusted to the dark interior of the van.
“I don’t know where she is,” he pleaded and added, “My job was to keep you distracted while he took her.”
“Who?” I yelled and Timothy retreated against the side of the van.
“He never gave me a name. Just cash to rent the van and for helping him with an errand. I didn’t know what his plan was until he handed me the gun as we walked into the park.
” He looked to Lucian for help as he tried to barter.
“I swear man, I aimed so that I wouldn’t kill you,” he rushed out as Lucian snatched his phone from his hand and broke the device with his two hands.
“I promise. He just needed a distraction to get her.”
“Your promise means absolutely nothing to me.” I returned and asked, “Where is my wife?”
“The guy who paid me didn’t tell me where he was taking her. Once we got away from you, he handed me a fistful of cash and walked away without saying another word.”
“How did he contact you?” Lucian asked as he kept the gun trained on Timothy’s face.
“I got an email last week about renting a truck and picking up something from a storage place in Nashville and to bring it back to Pierce Bluff. When I gave him the truck, he asked if I wanted to make some easy money and I said yes.” His words were coming out fast as he tried to bargain for his life.
But nothing was going to save him. Not until after I got all the information he had.
“So, this man paid you to get a truck and bring something back to Pierce Bluff, and he happened to ask you to help him kidnap my wife while you were at it? Bullshit,” I yelled and pulled the knife from my leg strap and swung it into the backseat, sinking it into his knee.
He screamed out in agony as the blood seeped around the wound. I looked at Lucian and lifted my chin, telling him to move back as I slid through the front seat and down next to Timothy. No one stopped him from screaming, but James pressing the gun against his cheek made him silent instantly.
Lucian was in the last row of seats before the storage area, and he sat with a sick smile on his face as I yanked the knife from Timothy’s knee and wiped it across his chest. I pointed the tip of the ultra-sharp knife at Timothy’s eye, and he pushed back until he was against the metal wall of the van.
“You are going to start from the beginning and you’re going to tell me everything. If I think you’re lying, I will remove a part of you, starting with your fingers.”
He nodded as I started asking questions again. When we got to the part where he and the unknown man took Elise from me, I paused his retelling to speak. “What was he driving? How did he get Elise out of the park?”
“He didn’t have a car, man. He pointed to the path where I could get back to the road and he kept walking into the forest,” he answered.
I looked at James and he furled his brow before setting the gun into his lap and pulling out his phone. Turning my attention back to the sniveling man in front of me, I observed his shaking form with pity. His addiction was obvious to anyone who looked at him.
“So, you just do odd jobs for sketchy people and they pay you?” Lucian asked from the backseat.
Timothy wiped his running nose on his forearm as he responded, “Basically. No one wants to hire an ex-con, so it’s the only way I can make a quick buck.”
“Where did you take the truck with the shipment you brought over?” James asked from the front seat as he typed on his phone.
“I left it at a warehouse on the edge of Portstill the morning that I met up with him.” his eyes grew wide as my face hardened at the mention of what he was involved with.
He was a part of the plan to take Elise from me, and for that, he deserved to suffer.
I grabbed him by the front of his shirt with one hand and used the one holding the knife to open the sliding door to the van.
He tried to struggle, but when he fell to his knees, the pain from his bleeding wound causing him to cry out.
I felt nothing as he tried to reason with me not to kill him, but his words meant nothing to me. All I could see was my Lamb being drugged and carried away by some unknown person who pain him to shot me. And that pissed me off to no end.
Lucian slipped out of the back and sat on the open doorway of the van as I dragged Timothy deeper into the vacant lot, far from prying ears or eyes.
I could be merciful, but I wasn’t feeling particularly generous at the moment. Lifting the knife up to his neck, I released the hold on his shirt and asked him one last question.
“Is there any information you have that will make me spare you your life?” He started to ramble about helping find the man, but that wasn’t what I asked him. “One more time. Is there any information you have that will make me spare you your life?”
Timothy seemed to realize his time was at an end, and he shook his head, lowering his gaze to the ground as he cried like a baby. I’d seen it before, and it never fazed me. People can beg for their lives, but when they know death is coming, the resolve that overtakes them is solemn.
I stepped up to the worthless man and gave him one message to carry into the afterlife. “When you get to hell, tell my father I said hi.”
With that statement, I stepped around him, pulled his head back from the hair, and dragged the knife across his neck.
The blood spray rained down on the dirt below us as the river of red began to flow down his chest, The man fell to his knees, then his face, as the last breath of his life was expelled into the dirt he rested on.
Reaching down, I dragged the bloody knife across his back and slipped it back into the sheath before stepping over him. He wasn’t worth my worry as I returned to the van and an amused Lucian.
He slipped back into the seat as I closed the door and got into the passenger’s seat.
James lifted his gaze from his phone and looked across my body to see Timothy lying dead in the lot.
He sighed heavily as he cranked the van and pulled away from the vacant area, leaving Timothy to be found at some point.
Nothing would point back to us, but I knew he would scrub what he could from any cameras we had control of in the area. He maneuvered the van through the neighborhood as Lucian sat silent in the backseat,
As James pulled onto the interstate a little while later, I had to ask, “Are we any closer to finding her?”
James answered, giving me the first glimpse of hope since the madness started. “Something he said about carrying her into the woods got me thinking, but I don’t want to say anything until I can flesh out my thoughts.”
I nodded, knowing sometimes my chosen brother needed to run everything through scenarios before he would make a call on something. And with my wife’s life on the line, I knew he would give this the most attention he’d ever given anything.
Lucian added, “We need to find the van. Maybe whatever was inside will lead us to the siblings.”
He began typing on his phone as I stared out into the black night. He had men who would help, and I was willing to give everything I owned if someone could return her to me.
The closer to Pierce Bluff, the more I had to think that we’d been on a wild goose chase, hoping the man who shot me had any information that would lead me to Elise.
But he was a dead end, and I felt like she was slipping through my fingers. And the further she slipped, the closer to true madness I got.