Chapter 19
Seth
I refused to go back to Rhys’s house to locate Regan.
She was out there, and anything we needed to do could be accomplished with the mobile commands we each carried in the back of our vehicles.
Going back without her felt like defeat, so when I insisted we set up somewhere close, I got very little argument.
We played the videos from the inside of the restaurant, but whoever sat down with her kept their face covered enough with the shadows and turning away that getting a good visual of him was proving difficult.
James and I were watching the inside of the restaurant with Caldwell, while Booker was on another system with Lucian, Devlin, and Rhys as they analyzed the exterior cameras and tried lifting prints off the money he used to pay.
We were running in circles, and every so often, I had to step back and exhale the scream that was caught in the back of my throat.
Every possible scenario of what she was going through played through my mind, and with each flash of perceived pain and misery, I felt myself slipping a little further away from reality.
I’d spent my entire life protecting women and children, and dealing with the scum who hurt them. Yet, I was the one who plotted all of this. I set this into play, so it’s all on me.
“The guilt you’re feeling isn’t doing anyone any good,” a voice said behind me, and I spun to see who had approached.
Lucian was standing a few feet away as everyone tried to act like they couldn’t hear what was being said. They were unusually quiet, and that was pissing me off too.
Sighing, I scrubbed my hands down my face as I walked to the curb of the old church we’d parked at. Lucian followed and took a seat next to me as he looked up at the night sky.
“This is all my fault.”
“This is the fault of whoever took her, not you, so stop piling the weight of the world on your shoulders and get your fucking head in the game,” Lucian reasoned.
“It’s not that easy. I mean, think about it and tell me I haven’t damned that beautiful woman to hell over a hunch.”
“What you should be asking is who had the information about her whereabouts tonight and that she would be uncovered, to a degree, for a short period of time.”
I gave him a confused look, and he slapped me on the back and said, “You’re thinking from the heart of a wounded man who’s searching for his woman. What you need to do is attack this situation like the fucking warrior you are and don’t stop until she’s safely back in your arms.”
Looking over at the man who had been one of my best friends for over a decade and knowing what he went through after Rylee was taken again, I knew he was speaking from a place of knowledge.
He was faced with the painful decisions he made in the past, but he made it through, and the only thing I could hope for was Regan to be as strong as I knew she was, and that she’d fight until I could find her.
Because I would find her, and when I got my hands on the man who took her, I was going to pull his stomach out through his throat and shove it up his ass.
Lucian stood and offered me a hand from the curb. With a pull, I stood, and he looked me in the eyes as I started to let the rage overtake the worry. “There you are. Let’s go to war, brother.”
We clasped hands, and he tugged me to him briefly as he slapped me on the back. I went back to the tasks at hand, and at that moment, I appreciated him so much.
Walking back to the cars, I stepped up behind Devlin and started watching the recording from the back of the building. They weren’t great cameras, and advancing them made the recording staticky, so they advanced it as much as they could and were watching in real time as the recording played.
The inside cameras were a bust, so everyone was focusing on the exterior.
“We know she ordered a drink at seven-fourteen, and the computer showed their ticket cashed out at eight-o-three, so I think we need to start looking around the same time,” Rhys remarked, his fists clenching and unclenching as we watched the minutes tick by.
“Sync the cameras. I want to see the back and the inside as close to the same time as we can get with this crappy system,” Devlin stated. “You’d think they’d have better cameras for being so posh.”
Booker paused the outside video as Caldwell advanced the inside until the timer said they were close to the same.
Pressing play, I stepped back and glanced between the two monitors, watching as some unknown asshole sat down with her.
The fear in her eyes was real, even if it wasn’t completely clear, and as she stood up and was led to the rear of the building, I switched to the outside monitor as we waited to see what happened to her.
Someone shoved her outside the door, and she stumbled before he caught her by the arm and pulled her back to him. A moment later, a black Town Car pulled behind the building and the unknown asshole tapped a gun against the back window.
“Pause it,” Rhys yelled and pushed Booker out of the way as he got closer to the monitor. “Lucian, look and tell me I’m going crazy.”
Lucian got closer, and we crowded the monitor as he inspected the frozen image.
He stood up and looked at Rhys. “Motherfucker.” He turned to the rest of us as he said, “Ricardo Pickens is the man who forced Regan out of the restaurant.” Looking directly at his brother and James, he demanded, “Turn your fucking system on and find that asshole. He’s in Atlanta, and I want a net over this whole fucking city until that asshole is standing in front of me, begging for his life. ”
James looked at Devlin and said, “Call Skid and get him and the team on it. Tell him to use every asset we have in the city and I’ll pay the bounty.
Upload all pictures we have of Dick Pickens, including this shitty one, and tell them the system shifts everything it’s working on to search every fucking camera we have.
” He started ticking off his fingers as he listed, “Inside, outside, machines, buildings, vehicles, phones, tablets . . . turn it all on and find him.”
James turned and walked away as he called Skid, the third owner of Callahan Cyber Security and a member of the Death Hounds in Portstill.
His old lady, Grace, was rescued by Rhys a few years ago.
He’s been key in the invention of some of their technology, and hearing that the full force of the most innovative security system in this country was solely focused on finding the man who took Regan gave me a glimmer of hope.
I knew it was already looking for Regan, but finding him may mean finding her.
My heart was hurting as we turned back to the monitor and Booker pressed play.
The back door of the car opened, and Regan pushed away from the open door, her body language saying she was terrified of whoever was inside.
Dick Pickens hit her on the side of the head with his gun, and as we watched him manhandle her into the back of the car, I noticed something.
“Back it up ten seconds,” I demanded, and everyone moved so I could get closer.
When he got it in place, he pressed play and I stared at the monitor.
The man inside the vehicle remained hidden in the shadows, but his hands were in the frame.
There was something on his wrist, and when Booker saw it, he paused the playback as I asked, “Do you see that?”
He nodded and moved closer as he ran his finger over the image a few times.
I’d seen him do similar things in the past. He was putting the image into his mind so he could remove the rough edges.
It was like a puzzle that wasn’t clear until he memorized it.
“Paper,” he said, and a piece suddenly appeared over his shoulder.
He pulled a pen from his shirt and looked at the image while his hand traced it onto the paper.
He lifted it and held it up so everyone could see it. I didn’t recognize it, but when I turned around, I realized Lucian and Devlin were standing like they were looking at a ghost. James stood to the side, and the look of concern on his face was worrying as I asked, “What is it?”
The two brothers looked at each other and the rage that overtook them was unprecedented. “You have to be fucking kidding me,” Lucian yelled as Devlin ran his hands through his hair and turned away from us. “There’s no way he did all this. That crazy motherfucker fucked everyone, didn’t he?”
“Will one of you tell me what the fuck that symbol means, and what the fuck it has to do with my sister’s kidnapping?” Rhys yelled at the brothers as James stepped beside him.
From the outside, it looked like lines were being drawn, and I was clueless as to what the fuck was happening.
And I wasn’t going to let this shit drag on any longer.
They had information, and one way or the other, they were going to give it to me.
If they were too pussy to rescue Regan, then I’d go by myself.
Devlin, pissed-off with his blue eyes ablaze, stormed over to our group and snatched the paper.
Shaking it so everyone could see, he explained with rage seeping into his voice.
“This is the symbol from the old country that identifies the original Syndicate, the one that sent families over to America to establish territory. During the second World War, most of the original families were killed or bankrupt, and the families over here let them suffer. For decades, they refused to send money back, and when the original families pushed, demanding their places here, the new Syndicate sent assassins back home to destroy them all. Sergey was the chosen one from our line and he bragged about killing them all and bathing in their blood. Obviously, he lied, like he did about everything else, and this puts a wrinkle into everything.”
“It puts a wrinkle into absolutely nothing, you stupid asshole. Regan is still out there, and we still have no idea where she is. She’s been gone for,” I looked at my watch, seeing it was almost two in the morning, “six hours, give or take, and I’m going to find her.
Either tell me what I need to know or get the fuck out of my way. ”
“He’s telling you everything he knows, but there is more information. And we need to determine who the fuck this asshole is,” Lucian said as he pointed to the monitor. “Then we need to find my old friend, Dick Pickens. That weaselly fucker has all the information we’re going to need.”
“How can some traitorous, retired FBI agent have any information on the old family?” I barked, and Lucian shook his head.
“He’s not the connection to the old family.
” Devlin stepped closer, his rage burning brightly as he explained.
“He’s the connection to this dead motherfucker who took Regan, and that’s the connection to the old family.
And my guess is Sergey needed some old blood to seal the deal with perspective families and used this as some kind of calling card. ”
“Or this is connected to the last family, the one we could never get a read on.” I gave Lucian a confused look, so he explained.
“Sergey was always making deals to line his pockets or save his ass. I told Rhys years ago when I went undercover that he was keeping someone hidden from the Syndicate, and that was who he was going to use to make a move. I believe that man in the video is the missing person, that link we need to destroy this bullshit once and for all.”
“And how do we find him? Since we’ve done such a great job up until now finding people,” I scoffed, feeling like we’d just taken fifty steps back and were farther from saving Regan than before.
“We start by finding Dick Pickens and torturing his ass until he squeals like the pig he is,” Rhys replied, and I brought my gaze to him.
James was still standing next to his cousin instead of his chosen brother, Devlin, and I feared that until Regan was home safe, the tension between them was going to continue. I wanted to punch someone or scream into the air, but neither would do any good.
The group of us stood in the parking lot, with Booker and Caldwell still perched on the end of the SUVs, watching and waiting for the explosion that felt imminent.
Silence spun around us, and we were helpless to make another move, and for the first time since I had to pick up a weapon to defend my own sister against my father, I looked up and said a silent prayer to the universe, God, Mother Nature, and the Easter bunny, if it would help.
We needed a break, and as I let my thoughts filter from my brain into the ethos, a phone rang from someone’s pocket, and I snapped my gaze to see who was getting a call. James reached into his cargo pants and pulled out his phone.
“It’s Skid,” he said and answered the call. “What did you find? What? Are you fucking kidding me?”
His eyes grew wide as he looked to Rhys then to me before announcing, “She’s at the Death Hounds compound in Portstill. She and another girl walked up a few minutes ago.”
I rushed to him and asked, “Is she okay?”
Everyone looked back and forth as James’s face grew ashen. His worried gaze met mine, and I felt sick as he replied to Skid, “Take care of them. We’ll be there in two hours.”
He disconnected the call and looked between me and Rhys before he said, “She got cut pretty bad, and Doc said she nicked an artery. There was a lot of blood loss, but he’s got her stitched up and they’re already giving her blood and fluids.”
“We need to go. Now,” I yelled.
“There’s a plane waiting at the runway near the compound.
I’ll call them,” Devlin responded as I got into the vehicle with Lucian and he climbed into another vehicle with James and Rhys.
Booker and Caldwell had the car meant for Regan’s .
. . I couldn’t even think about what I’d planned for her after what she’s gone through.
We raced through traffic, dodging the few cars on the surface roads of Atlanta at this time of night as we got closer to the airport.
“She’s alive and safe. You need to stay focused on that,” Lucian counseled as he took a turn a little sharp, and I was afraid we were going onto our side.
“Once I see her with my own eyes, then I’ll believe it. Until then,” I started, only to shake my head and turn my attention out the window.
For the rest of the ride, we didn’t speak, and I appreciated Lucian knowing what I needed at the point. Guilt was consuming me, and once I knew Regan was okay, I’d leave her alone. She was better off without someone like me in her life anyway.
She deserved a good man without blood on his hands to make her happy.
And I swore I’d watch over her and never interfere with her happiness . . . and that would have to be enough.