“I’ve got a location on the van,” Jay says, turning in his chair. I’ve only just stepped into his office, having just got back from Daya’s house.
A week has passed since I got her out of Luke’s clutches, and since then, she’s been helping out. I put her in charge of researching Rio and Rick while Jay has been focused on tracking down the van. We hit a dead end in Oregon. The vehicle disappeared from cams without a trace, and I’ve been losing my mind since.
She’s been gone for twelve days now, and I’ve felt every fucking second of it.
‘How’d you find it?’
‘Finally got a hit on a satellite image taken yesterday.’
“Walk and talk,” I order, pivoting and walking right back out. “What’s the address?”
He rattles off the address while he scrambles from his chair, followed by a muttered curse, a loud thump, and another colorful word or two.
I glance back to see him struggling to put on a second shoe, hopping on one foot and nearly face-planting into the wall.
Shaking my head, I make my way down the stairs, leaving him to figure out how to be a functioning human again.
By the time I swing open the door to my Mustang, Jay is locking his front door behind him and hurrying to the car.
He lives in a modest home with his younger brother, Cameron, though I’d never know if it wasn’t for the occasional screeches when he yells at whatever game he’s playing. Or whoever he’s playing with.
Jay and Cameron’s parents were drug addicts and skipped out when Jay was sixteen and Cameron seven. Luckily, Jay is an actual genius and managed to keep it a well-kept secret from the state. He’s worked numerous jobs to keep the bills paid and his brother in good health.
Six years later, Jay has legal guardianship of Cameron, and they’re living lavishly. Cameron isn’t aware of what his brother does for work, and right now, he’s too young to care. I think he’s more concerned with not dying in Call of Duty to notice, and Jay is happy to keep it that way.
“I need to call Michael to babysit,” he says, dropping into the passenger seat with a huff. His phone is already out, his thumb flying across the keyboard.
“Dude, he’s thirteen.”
Jay pauses to look at me, a dry look on his face. “Exactly, which means he’s going to be up until six o’clock in the morning with a bag of Doritos in one hand and his dick in the other, running up my credit card with porn.” I tip my head side to side, conceding. “Plus, I don’t feel comfortable leaving him alone,” he finishes quietly.
My gaze flickers to him while I speed out of his driveway. Claire is determined to hurt me, which puts the lives of my employees and their families at risk, too. I make a lot of enemies, and by association, so do my employees. No one goes into this job without knowing this, which is why most of them choose not to have a wife and kids. Obviously, not everyone can or will isolate themselves from loved ones, so providing protection for anyone directly impacted by the organization is essential.
“I get it. I’ll call in a few extra men, too. Nothing will happen to your brother.”
Jay nods, his shoulders relaxing an inch. It’s the same thing I said to Addie, and I failed her.
I slide out a cigarette from my pack and pop it in my mouth.
I won’t fail again.
“This is the location?” I ask, my voice tight. “You’re sure?”
We’re in an awfully shitty part of town in Portland, Oregon. The address Jay directed me to is a three-story brick building that looks like it was built in the 1800s and abandoned before the century turned.
The building is slightly lopsided, the windows are crusty and blackened with grime, and the interior looks to be completely dark.
“This is it,” Jay says quietly. ‘The van is around the corner still.’
“Fuck,” I curse, briefly squeezing the steering wheel until the leather groans.
“Doesn’t look like they’re still here,” I bite out, swinging open the door and stepping out. ‘We’ll check out the van after.’
I slip out my gun from the back of my jeans and approach the door quickly and quietly, keeping my eyes on my surroundings at all times.
“Jay, stay behind me,” I order. He listens without argument, his breathing escalating as I approach the glass door. He doesn’t have any weapons on him, only his laptop. I’m tempted to hand him one, but I’m pretty confident he’d do more damage hitting someone upside the head with his computer rather than firing off a gun he has no idea how to use.
I peer through it, a crease forming between my brows when I see the upheaval. It appears like it was once an administrative office. Cluttered desks fill the space, with random items scattered across the surfaces; toppled over picture frames, pens, and flyaway papers.
My eyes scan the area as well as I can, watching for any movement and listening for any sounds.
When I hear and see nothing, I grab the handle and tug on the door, setting my jaw when I find that it’s open.
Addie isn’t here, but I knew that already. Just as well as I know that something bad happened here.
Quietly, I creep into the building, Jay sticking close behind me. The energy here is stale and heavy, filled with dust and decay.
“What the fuck were they doing taking her here?” Jay whispers, sweeping the room.
I shake my head, incapable of verbally answering when my heart is beating in my throat. But that’s exactly what I’m about to find out.
Not wasting any more time, I rush through the space, checking a few rooms, only to find them empty. In the back is a stairway with a dim light shining from beyond the steps, the only sound a quiet whirring from the light bulb.
Glancing back at Jay, I put my finger to my lips before carefully making my way up the stairs. From the sound of it, there doesn’t appear to be any activity, but if lights are on, I won’t take any risks.
The whirring grows louder as I near the top, and with it comes a wretched smell that burns at my nostrils.
I nearly choke on how rancid it is, and I hear Jay cough from behind me.
Well, fuck. That’s a smell I’m very well acquainted with.
Someone died up here, and I will gladly place a bet that the body is rotting in the same place where they fell.
The landing opens up to a small, dark area with a hallway branching off from it, strands of light stretching from the back of it and toward us. Straight ahead appears to be a second stairwell, leading to the final floor.
Planting myself against the wall, I motion for Jay to follow my lead, then peer around the corner and down the hallway, eyes narrowing when I glimpse an open room with what looks like an IV pole standing in the corner.
I can’t see much else from my vantage point, however, I’m positive there isn’t anyone up here. Not anyone alive, anyway.
“Let’s go,” I whisper, making my way towards the room, gritting my teeth as the smell worsens.
As soon as I breach the entrance, I stop short, causing Jay to collide into my back.
On the floor is a massive pool of dried blood, a dead man lying directly in the middle of it. He’s bloated, well into the process of decomposition.
“Jesus, fuck,” Jay mutters, as we both stare down at the stranger, disgust curling our faces. Dead bodies don’t bother me, but their rot will curdle the strongest stomach.
Immediately, I notice dry bloody footprints leading from the corpse and toward the doorway we’re standing in. Grabbing my phone, I click on the light and follow the footprints down the hallway and toward the second staircase.
“Female,” he says, confirming my thoughts. I get closer, taking care not to step in the blood. “You think they’re Addie’s?”
“Most likely,” I murmur. The prints are tiny and barefoot. Unless they took other females alongside Addie, I doubt they’re anyone else’s.
I sweep the corners of the room, locating several cameras pointing in different directions.
“Cameras,” I call out, stepping around the blood and farther into the room. Those will confirm whose prints they belong to.
My heart pounds as I take in Frankenstein’s lair. Several machines are set up, a long metal table with a copious amount of instruments, and a bed with a blanket laid haphazardly across it.
“He’s been dead for several days,” Jay observes. “Shot in the head. From the back.”
I listen to him prattle on about his death as I scan every inch of the room.
“Let’s follow the footprints,” I mumble, my brow pinched as I try to piece together what could’ve happened.
Following close behind, Jay and I make our way back down the hallway and up the second stairwell. The landing opens directly into a studio apartment. Straight ahead, the entire wall is all glass, giving the room incredible natural light. A massive bed is in the middle of the area to my left with a small kitchenette to the right, dishes still in the sink and now attracting flies.
In the back corner of the apartment is a white tiled partition with a shower stall behind it.
The footprints lead all the way to it, and in the corner is a bloody hospital gown, dried and wrinkled now.
I stare, trying to process what the hell happened.
“Somehow… she was involved with that man’s death. And then it looks like she walked up here and showered,” Jay concludes.
I shake my head, coming to the same conclusion. Fury is seeping into my vision, casting everything in red.
“Either she or someone else shot him from behind,” I surmise. “Most likely someone else if she was covered in his blood and then had to shower it off.”
“You think she was in front of him?” Jay questions curiously.
“Or under him,” I grunt, hands beginning to shake as images of Addie being attacked by the man downstairs flood my head. Whatever he was attempting to do to her, it was bad enough that a human trafficker had to step in and kill him for it.
My hand goes flying into the nearest wall, breaking straight through it. Like a malfunctioning robot, I cock it back and drive it through a second time. And a third, a fourth, a fifth, before Jay’s hands wrap around my arm and using my momentum, yanks me backward. I stumble, and we both come close to falling from the force.
“Snap out of it, dude,” he barks, sweat gathered across his hairline.
I growl and roughly shake my head, like a lion shaking off a hit to the head. My knuckles are split, droplets of blood dribbling on the cement floor.
“We’ll have to clean up any traces of your blood,” he mutters.
“She could’ve been hurt,” I clip, ignoring him. I’m ready to storm back downstairs and beat the shit out of a dead man. Torture him in the worst imaginable ways, despite him not being able to feel a damn thing.
Fuck. So badly, I want to tear through whatever veil separates the dead from the living, reach in, snatch his soul back out, and make him wish he never had one.
Every muscle in my body is locked tight and brimming with tension.
“We’re going to find her.”
“Hack the cameras,” I snap, charging up to the massive window and looking out at the back end of the building. Jay sits on the edge of the bed, briefly looking at it like he’s sitting in a cesspool of DNA, then cracks open his laptop and gets to work.
I peer through the grime and find the black van sitting right at the parking lot exit, abandoned. My fists clench, noting the bashed-in fender and damage to the driver’s side of the vehicle.
I’m two seconds away from losing my shit again and punching the window, so I work to decompress, closing my eyes and cracking my neck.
Keep it together, I chant to myself. Over and over and until I regain control. I’ve seen some fucked-up shit in my life, more than most could handle, yet Addie’s abduction is the worst thing I’ve ever experienced. There is no control anymore. Though with her, there never really fucking was.
I will gladly pour gasoline on everything in my path and set it aflame, if only it leads me back to my mouse.
“Zade, you’re not going to want to see this… but you need to.”
