Page 39 of Medusa's Revenge

Chapter Thirty-Five

Medusa

Noah pulls me tighter to him as I fall asleep. We spend the rest of the night having families come over for lockdown early. With the cops planting bugs in here, we figure it’d be best to do it now.

“Medusa!” The door flies open banging against the wall and I wake up grabbing the gun under my pillow pointing it at the intruder, but Noah beat me to it. He’s already drawing down with the gun Derby gave him.

“Joker!” He bellows in his sleepy husky voice that gives me the feels in my stomach. “What the fuck?” He puts the safety back onthe gun and puts it on his lap. “I almost didn’t wait to see who you were and shot you.”

“Rude!” Joker feigns outrage. “I found Tommy.” I feel my eyebrows reach my hairline as my eyes bug out of my eyes. “Get dressed and come to my office please.” I forgot I’m naked and the sheets are around my waist. I nod. “Sorry for bursting in.” She closes the door and knocks on the other doors of the officers.

“Let’s get dressed.” Noah tells me. I open my mouth to stop him, but he leans over me. “I won’t be in the meeting, but I’m going with you to take this man down. We will get Michelle back and deprogram her from whatever they did to her. I promise to stand beside you, not sit at home waiting for you to get home.” I want to argue with him, but I know TJ and Smitty will be with us as well. I swallow hard, trying to keep the emotions down. We both dress quickly and walk out. TJ and Smitty are sitting there at a table. They stare at the coffee cups in their hands. They are not morning people. Noah walks to them as I head to Joker’s office.

“They went to Church because everyone is awake. Someone threatened to shoot Joker.” Noah holds his hands up. TJ shakes his head. “DaVinci was not happy with the early morning knocking. Her vocabulary is quite colorful for a lady.” Smitty snorts. I kiss Noah before walking into the room. There’s a big screen on the wall and I realize Joker has the projection screen to show us her laptop.

“Good morning everyone.” I smile at DaVinci, who is throwing daggers at everyone with her eyes while she sips her coffee. “DaVinci, I heard your vocabulary made TJ blush.” My comment made everyone laugh.

“I’m sorry that your brother is a delicate flower.” She retorts as she smiles into her coffee mug.

“What do we have?” I ask.

“Sorry for the rude awakening. I know it’s two in the morning and we only had a few hours sleep, but this couldn’t wait. I took Medusa and Noah’s suggestion about looking at Michelle’s contacts. I figured out who everyone was expect for three. Now the three are burners, I focused on one at a time and their locations where the cell phone was pinging. I found out this number is Lucas a.k.a. Luca because he was at the body shop TJ’s and his own most of the time plus the college as well as Michelle’s new home. This number is Tommy. I figured it out because I focused on the time Michelle went “missing” and it was the only one besides Michelle’s to ping there. The third one, I would assume is Luka’s mom because they were all at a restaurant the night of the doorbell camera.”

“This great, and also scary that you can do that.” Bubbles pipes up. “So, do we know where Michelle is?”

“Wait, are we still assuming that Tommy and Luka kidnapped Michelle or she’s working with them?” Tripline speaks up and voices the question I’m too afraid to ask.

“We won’t know until we get there. I’m hoping they brainwashed her and we can fix what they did.” Bubbles speaks up. “She is family. I don’t want to jump to conclusions. If we get there and she has a gun in her hand trying to kill us, then she’s an enemy.” Bubbles stares at me for confirmation. I nod. There are some gasps around the room but I can’t hand hold them as my heart beats faster knowing I put a shoot to kill order on my sister if she tries to kill us. I’m going to need to talk to TJ.

“I think I know why they want the auto body shop so bad or rather the land.” Joker cuts through my thoughts. I sit up straighter in my chair. “The records indicate he used to own a lot of the land around where the building stood. The old man who owned it was someone respected in the old days, Smitty’s old boss. When he died and we bought the building, Tommy didn’tknow until Luka came to town. I found some old emails to the realtor before he was killed in that car accident.”

“The land around it must be where the bodies are laid to rest or he has something there he wants and can’t get it because we own the land.” I say out loud as I process the information. Joker nods.

“Now Luka and Tommy spend a lot of time in this warehouse. It’s about five miles from town. Tommy’s phone pinged there about two hours ago. He’s not there now. He’s here.” It’s a neighborhood not far from my house. I stand to walk to the map. I point to where my street is and then to his house.

“He’s been that close to me and I didn’t know?” My tone is one of disbelief. How did I not know this? I passed his house every day and never saw him. I bet he saw me. “When do you plan on attacking?” I look at Tripline.

“I need some time to get bombs made to make sure we have enough ammo and guns. Why don’t we hit them tonight? Since we’ve only had a few hours asleep, I don’t think we’d be any good.”

“Does that work for everyone?” I ask and they all nod. “Okay. We go about our day like normal. But the curfew is six. We sleep, then midnight we get up and head to cause some mayhem.”

Chapter Thirty-Six

Noah

Smitty and I get back to the compound with some of the officers. We were allowed to head out to the range to do more target practice for myself. Smitty is happy with my skills.

“If things are on lockdown, how were we able to leave?” I ask Smitty as I hold the door open for him.

“Because I allowed it.” Amelia smiles at me. I pull her into a kiss.

“I love when you give me orders.” I growl into her ear making her blush. She pushes on my chest and I hiss out in pain. She freezes. “It’s okay. I’m a little sore today. I’ve been movingaround a lot these last two days. I had been laying around in a hospital bed. It’s going to hurt as it heals.” Amelia steps back away from me. The sadness on her face breaks my heart. “Amelia, please.” I hold out my hand to her and she shakes her head. She turns to walk away from me and I follow after her. “You can’t run from me.” The women watch us as they’re going over the loads of guns on different tables. I want to stop to check them out but keep moving to talk to Amelia. She goes into her office and before she can slam the door in my face, my boot stops it. I push through the door. I slam the door, making her jump.

“Get out.” She whispers.

“No. We need to talk about this and do it now.” I stand in front of her as she was trying to keep her back to me. “I don’t blame you or TJ for these injuries.” I lift her chin with my pointer finger so she’s looking right into my eyes so she knows I’m telling the truth. “Look at my eyes, Amelia. I’m glad it was me and not TJ or Derby. TJ was in the bay earlier that day. He’d be dead. Derby was with him too. I was working on my law degree transfer when they were there and I made the decision to stay in case someone stopped by for something. I’d do it again. I hate that you’re carrying this guilt around. Tommy, Luka, and Richie Jr. are to blame for these injuries. Do you not want me anymore? Do my burns and scars disgust you?”

“You know I want you and find you attractive. I’ve never wanted someone more than I want you. Every time you groan or hiss in pain, the guilt keeps coming back.” Amelia’s voice breaks. I pull her into my arms holding her tight ignoring the pain of my skin stretching.

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