The bottle of scotch was half as I stood up and put the drill down on the work bench to my left. Blood was seeping from Joe’s body and I looked at my blood stained hands. Nico had left the room when I started on the second kneecap and Basil had left when I started on his ankles.“What did he say?” Basil asked as he walked back into the room and kept his eyes averted from Joe’s body.“Carlson McIntyre Hall,” I said and he looked at me blankly.“I don’t know that name,” he said to me.“I was the target Basil, Felix was an accident,” I said as I sat down on the floor leaning my back against the wall.“I don’t care who the target was, my brother died and even if it was you that had died, Felix would be standing here instead of you,” Basil said angrily.“This is an old family feud, I know the name McIntyre but we thought the family line had ended,” I said to him as I poured water over my hands and washed the blood off.“So now we find this guy and kill him,” Basil said as he looked at Joe’
It was two am and I still couldn’t sleep. I had been rolling around for some time now, the images of Joe’s torture still haunting me. I’d never liked doing it but this time I had to. The betrayal I had felt when he said that name out loud filled me with so much anger that I wanted him to hurt, in that moment I hadn’t felt sorry for using the drill on him, but now, I could hear his screams again and smell his blood.I got up and walked slowly to Megan’s room. Link was still out and Elio was on the floor below us in the guest room. The house was quiet as I opened her bedroom door, the moonlight filtered through her open curtains and I could see her peacefully asleep on her side.I closed the door behind me and climbed in slowly behind her. I moved closer and put my arm around her as I closed my eyes and felt more at peace as I inhaled her scent. Her peaceful heartbeat was calming me.“You’re breaking the rules,” she whispered to me and I smiled with my eyes still closed.“I can’t sleep,
My office wasn’t big enough for all of us to work simultaneously so we switched to the dining room and spread paperwork everywhere. We were all either on the phone, on a laptop or busy reading through old articles.Tank was a good tracker, hacker, whatever you wanted to call him. He found people for a living when he wasn’t active in our little team. Marlo could find an exact location if she had an idea of where to look. So far we hadn’t found much, not even a picture of this supposed Carlson Hall.Elios was talking to people from all over asking questions about the missing children, since I had also agreed to take that assignment on. We were working double time and when Megan came home from work she’d sit and help us sort through stuff.We’d been at it for three days when Lucas’s frame loomed in the doorway of the dining room and everyone just stared at him as he folded his arms across his chest and gave me a look that I knew all too well. It was his ‘what the fuck are you up to’ look
Lucas had left that day with a grim expression on his face, he was never one to shy away from a fight but the threat of one of us dying was enough to keep him in his place, to make him promise me that he would stay put and watch Chase’s back. I wasn’t worried about me, I had my team with me and I had Abeloth. Chase wasn’t weak and he was a great fighter but I would never forgive myself if something happened to him because of me.We were sitting in the dining room and we had learnt some things about the missing children. We had established the points of kidnapping and some sightings that were reported. Tank had tried to follow all those leads and street traffic cameras closest to the kidnapping points. So far we were pretty sure that we had one base of operations. We didn’t want to move too soon but we also didn’t want to wait too long.“We should inform the Elders of your bond acceptance so they can do the ceremony,” Link said as we all took a well deserved break for the night.“The t
Another week went by and Lucas called me every day to find out what progress we’d made. I knew that he was secretly having Timothy do everything that Tank was doing so I had Tank keep an eye on Timothy too.“Little Ryder!” Tank yelled from the dining room and I jumped from my seat behind my desk and literally ran to the dining room.“What did you find?” I asked him as his eyes glistened with happiness.“The house in Broadview has a lot of activity, I think I’ve found the person named Carlson Hall and then also the points of interest that Wentworth supplied have paid off, I’ve been tracking these four men and their vehicles and three more children have been abducted in the last twenty-four hours and we have them on a satellite view, we know where they are keeping the children!” he said excitedly.“Okay keep tabs on Carlson in Broadview, the children are our first priority,” I said and they all nodded.“We should make our preparations and plan to attack the stronghold just before dawn,”
I parked the car at the edge of the scrap yard and relished the quiet of the dark night. I had kissed Megan’s forehead before leaving and she hadn’t even stirred. I could feel the tension flow between all of us as Marlo linked our minds to be able to communicate telepathically with each other.“Move out,” I said after we had checked our weapons for the final time and started towards the highway.We moved single file through the fields surrounding the scrap yard and we crouched down next to the highway as a truck passed by us. We crossed the highway quickly and made it into the cover of the trees as a second truck passed by us.From the edge of the trees there were about four hundred feet of tree foliage that surrounded the building we had marked on the photos. We moved stealthily surrounding the house and moved forward slowly. There were a few lights burning and I had crept up behind a guard that was relieving himself against a tree.I slit his throat quietly and he sagged to the grou
I parked the truck in the street and walked up to the front door and rang the doorbell. I could hear footsteps and then the door opened and Megan’s father, Kurt, stood there looking at me. He was part of my father’s lair, a professor at the university and her mother was a nurse.“Good evening Mr. Greer,” I said and extended my hand.“Evening,” he said without shaking my hand and turned around and left the front door open.“I guess he doesn’t like you for some reason,” Abeloth mused and I grinned.“You think?” I asked as he chuckled.I closed the door behind me and followed him through to the dining room where Megan’s mother, Mary, her sister, Sharice and her father now sat. I kissed the top of Megan’s head as Kurt’s eyes followed me.“Good evening Mrs. Greer, Sharice,” I said and sat down opposite Megan.“I’m so glad you could join us Ryder, please call me Mary,” she said with a genuine smile“Thank you for having me,” I said and returned her smile.Megan was looking intensely at her
At six am I hit the road to Springfield and turned the music up loudly to block out Abeloth’s mutterings about killing Kurt Greer. I drove past the motel where Megan had checked in last night and her car was still in the parking lot. I wanted to pull into the parking lot and talk some sense into her but I had shit to do first.Marlo had given me an amulet like object that I had to leave in Albert’s office for her spell to take effect and Tank had given me a bug to place there as well so we could listen in on any conversations he had after I left.I didn’t take all my weapons just the knives on my arms and one gun in a shoulder holster. This wasn’t an attack, merely a fishing expedition to see how deep this thing ran. We wanted to make sure there was a connection before we hit the house in Broadview.“Hello,” I answered the phone as the radio went silent and the phone connected to the Bluetooth of the truck.“Hey,” Megan said.“How are you?” I asked her for lack of anything better to s