Page 44 of Echoes of Danger

Chapter Fifteen

Reynolds

Exiting the underground hell that King uses toquestionhis victims, I grab the towel King offers and wipe the blood off my face.

“What the hell is it that Mark is hiding?” Ghost asks as he, too, wipes blood from his body. “It can’t be worth his life.”

Shaking my head, I try to get my breathing under control, the coppery scent of blood still clinging to my senses. “He’s hiding something big,” I rasp, my voice rough from hours of interrogation. “Nobody takes that kind of beating and keeps quiet for nothing.”

“Or,” King says, wiping his hands on his jeans. “He’s hiding nothing.”

“You think he’s playing us?” I ask.

“He gave us the location of the USB drive hours ago,” King reminds us. “After what we put him through, there is no way in hell he has anything else to say.”

“So, Paston, not Mark, is playing us,” Ghost says. “You sure?”

“I’d bet my bike on it,” King says. “That asshole just wanted his son to pay for his betrayal, but he didn’t want it done by his hands. Fucking coward.”

“What does that mean for our people?” Ghost asks. “It’s been nearly three days now. If he isn’t expecting an actual response from Mark, then why the hell tell us he was holding Steel and Freckles hostage?”

“To distract us,” I growl, my heart pounding out of my chest. “He wanted us to know that he had them, but he didn’t want us out there looking. Why?”

King crosses his arms, leaning against the wall with a grim expression. “Because he’s got something else in play. Paston’s not the type to just mess with us for fun. There’s always a purpose with crime bosses. If he wanted us to know how to free Steel and Freckles, it’s because he knew it would keep us tied up.”

“Or keep us desperate,” Ghost adds darkly, pacing back and forth. “He wanted us focused on Mark, hoping we’d slip up somewhere else. If he’s playing this big, it’s not just about revenge. It’s about control.”

I clench my fists, fighting the urge to hit something. The image of Freckles and Steel flashes in my mind. Freckles quiet strength. Steel’s unwavering loyalty. Both of them suffering God knows what while we’ve been spinning our wheels. My jaw tightens. “We’ve wasted three damn days. What else has he been doing while we’ve been stuck here playing his game?”

Ghost stops pacing and turns to me, his expression as sharp as a blade. “That’s the real question. Paston didn’t have us on his radar until you guys were hired to keep Mark safe. Could this be about revenge?”

“You don’t get messed up in European Crime shit,” King says. “They’re hard bastards to deal with on their best days. But Paston has an empire the size of Texas. My main question is why he came all the way to the States to deal with this himself instead of sending one of his goons.”

King’s words hang heavy in the air, the weight of them settling in my chest. He’s right. Paston could’ve sent any number of his men to handle this. But he didn’t. He came here himself. That meant something, and whatever it was, it wasn’t good.

“He’s here because it’s personal,” I say, my voice low but sure. “Mark wasn’t just a loose end. He was leverage. And now we’ve got him, which means Paston’s losing control. A guy like him doesn’t let that slide.”

Ghost nods, his lips pressed into a thin line. “But personal enough to come here and risk exposure? It doesn’t add up. Even if the police had his trophy list, that doesn’t mean they could’ve found him any easier. What’s his game?”

King shrugs, his posture deceptively relaxed, but the tension in his voice betrays him. “Maybe Mark’s not the only leverage he’s after. Paston could be using Steel and Freckles to smoke out something or someone he’s been hunting.”

My stomach twists at the thought, a sick mix of dread and fury. “Steel’s been with the club for years. If Paston wanted to take a swing at us, he’d have done it by now. This isn’t about the Obsidians.”

Which can only mean one thing.

“Delphi?” Taylor asks. “What could he possibly want with her?”

The room falls silent, the weight of Taylor’s question sinking in like a lead anchor. It’s the question none of us want to ask, but the answer is staring us dead in the face.

“I don’t know,” I admit, the words tasting bitter. My mind races through the possibilities, none of them good. “But it has to be connected to her past. There’s no other reason he’d target her specifically.”

“Tell us everything you know about her,” Ghost orders.

“Fuck, okay,” I rub my hands down my face trying to focus. “When she was in high school, her principal raped her. She ended up getting pregnant. Her parents told her to abort the baby. From what I could tell, they cared more about her pregnancy than they did the rape itself.”

“Are they still alive?” Taylor asks.

“I don’t know,” I sigh. “She told them she didn’t want to have an abortion, so they kicked her out. I didn’t even think to ask if she lived on the streets after that. I didn’t want to scare her away with my questions.”

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