Page 5 of Echoes of Fear

“They all work for us in some capacity. But, their President, Anthony Taylor, is the one I was talking about,” Steel answers. “He was a detective years back but quit when his partner was killed. He wanted revenge in a way that is frowned upon for those badge wearers.”

“Do you think it’s wise having an ex-detective here or anywhere near our club, considering some of the illegal activity we’re prone to?” I ask.

“We don’t do illegal shit,” Pops answers, taking a swing of the very illegal substance in his jar.

“Pops, you’re drinking the far too potent moonshine that you made illegally in your basement,” I laugh.

“Right you are, my boy,” he smiles, lifting his glass. “Right, you are.”

“I’m sure you’ll find out when you run your searches,” King says. “Taylor and I have worked a few cases together in the past.”

“Cases, as in…cases?”

“As incases,” King nods. “One of them being the hunt, capture, and revenge of the men responsible for his partner’s murder.”

Alrighty then. King used to be a killer for hire, so this Taylor man’s detective past probably isn’t an issue.

“Names?” I ask, heading towards the office.

“Just search Dark Sentinels,” Blaze says. “They try to keep a low profile, so you might not find much on them.”

Smirking, I reach the office and head to my station.

Our office is huge. It has a massively long and extremely heavy table on one side where we sit for our club meetings. It also has Ghost’s desk, two couches, a forty-inch smart TV on one wall, and my setup on the other side of the room.

I have two L-shaped desks with four monitors, two laptops across the entire surface, and a mini fridge off to the side with all of my favorite energy drinks. Plus, the bottles of water that all the men keep sneaking in with the expectation of me drinking them.

Yuck.

It’s cute that Blaze thinks I won’t find much. It’s like he doesn’t know me at all. I switch the club’s security feed from oneof the desktops to the TV so anyone walking in can check it if they need to, and I get to work.

Sophie and Maddy brought me a burger but didn’t bother me otherwise. I spend the next hour looking into our guests.

I found nothing to be too concerned about.

A knock on the door has me looking up into Steel’s concerned face.

“What’s wrong?” I ask.

“Did you eat?” he asks.

“I think so. I’m not sure if I did or not,” I admit. “But the burger is gone, so I assume I did.”

I always forget to eat when I’m deep into my work or in Little Headspace.

“Good. You’ve been in here for four hours now.”

“Really?” I ask, not entirely surprised.

“Listen, little one. We need you out here.”

“Okay,” I shrug. By the time I finish stretching my body, realization hits me.

“Are they here?”

Steel nods hesitantly.

“I can’t go out there, Steel,” I cry. “There’s no way.”