“Yo, Linds,” I say, flicking my chin at her. “Has anyone seen Wyn this morning?”
She glances up quickly, her eyes wide like she wasn’t expecting to be called out. “Oh, uh, no, I don’t think so. Everything okay?”
I point at the others in the room. “Grab a few people and head over to Wyn’s place. I need her back here.”
“Uh, okay.”
I hold out my hand. “Give me your phone.”
Lindsay walks over and hands it to me. I program my phone number into her phone, then text her Wyn’s address. I hand it back to her. “Text methe secondyou have eyes on her.”
“O-okay.”
I don’t even wait to see who Lindsay chooses to go with her, because I’m already halfway down the hallway. As I move toward the kitchen, the faint sound of anguished groans echo off the wood-paneled walls, drifting up from the belly of the house.
I clench my jaw, the promise of violence making my mouth water. No one is in the kitchen, and I quickly unlock the basement door and then shut it behind me. The groans are louder now, punctuated by a slew of curses.
When I get to the basement Panic Room, Jackson is standing to the side, arms crossed over his chest as he watches Christian throw a punch at a guy tied to a chair.
I step deeper into the room. “Is this the guy?” I say, flicking my chin at the dude in the chair. Blood gushes from his face and his hands are zip-tied behind him. He looks up at me through two swollen eyes.
Damn.Even if I had seen this guy around, I wouldn’t recognize him now.
Christian steps back and glances at me, re-rolling up his shirtsleeves with bloody hands. “Yup, that’s our guy. August Pendleton from Smoke and Ash.”
“Shadowand Ash,” the guy corrects through gritted teeth, the words barely understandable. His face is pretty busted, so his jaw is probably broken.
I nod, folding my arms over my chest. “What have you managed to get out of him, so far?”
Christian blows out a breath and shakes his head. “The fact that it’sShadowand Ash, and notSmokeand Ash,” he jokes.
I stare at my brother flatly. “Seriously? All this and you still haven’t gotten anything out of him?”
Christian shrugs one shoulder. “He’s annoyingly tight-lipped.”
My gaze falls to the guy, who’s scowling at us. He’s muscular, heavily tattooed, wearing a leather jacket with a thick chain link necklace wrapped around his neck twice and secured with a small silver padlock.
I get close to him, bending so my face is at his level. “Why the fuck did you show up as a witness in my cousin’s case?”
And I don’t believe for a second that this guy actually witnessed my cousin’s death. That shit was all over the news—Gabriel’s mom made sure of that—so why not come forward right after it happened? Why wait months?
Plus, according to Ash, August and his Shadow and Ash buddies have some kind of vendetta against the Burning Crown. Am I supposed to believe all that is a coincidence?
Yeah, fuck that.
August glares at me, then spits in my direction, that shit nearly hitting my boot. Raising my fist, I punch him in the jaw, his head whipping to the side sharply. That sickening crack of bone feeds something inside my soul and I smile.
“See?” Christian says. “This asshole is annoying as fuck. He spit on Jackson’s arm earlier.”
My gaze moves to Jackson, and I notice his hands are clean, but his knuckles are raw, which explains why this dude’s face looks like it had a date with a meat cleaver. Jackson spends more time than the rest of us in the basement gym. If you’re smart, you never want to fuck with Jackson.
I push out a breath. I don’t have time for this shit. Even as I stand here, thoughts of Wyn circle inside my head. Where is she? What the fuck was she thinking last night? Because, at the end of the day, she’s my consort now and her ass belongs to me. Running from me isn’t an option.
I address the guy in the chair. “Okay, fine. You won’t tell us what you saw, or why you’re involved in my cousin’s case. Then tell me this, why is Shadow and Ash trying to fuck with the Burning Crown?”
I mean, damn. We’ve gone, what, one-hundred-plus years of not knowing who these guys are? I’d like to keep it that way.
The guy tilts his head back and laughs, blood coating his teeth, making him look demonic. He chuckles and when he speaks, his words are muffled and slurred. “You fucking assholes. You think you can do whatever the fuck you want, and it’s never going to catch up with you.”