Page 85 of Alfie: Part Two

Or you can at least try to appear inconspicuous. Don’t raise any red flags or get the attention of the cops, moron.

“Fuck.” I took another drag from my smoke and slowed down a little.

A little.

“Help me!”

My vision blurred, and it took all my strength not to push it past seventy, which was already too fast.

I tried to think about West, too, and the kids, but my mind was flooded with Mom’s nightmares. Now I knew what she relived every night when she went to bed. Now I knew what’dhappened in the nineteen minutes she’d been brutally beaten—and someone had filmed it. Nineteen minutes of kicks and punches to her body. She’d been dragged down an alley, thrown around, and abused till she’d coughed up blood.

Colby and Eric had found all the videos. Not just the “free previews” either. All of it.

Now they’d start tracking down the seventy-four buyers.

I was going after the, uh…the creators.

I checked the rearview and threw the smoke out the window.

My phone rang, and I let it go to voice mail again.

Once I got off 309, I managed to pay more attention. I’d never actually been to the locations we had up here before, but I had to assume I was going to the house at the end of a very long dirt road where nobody could hear you scream.

Chase and whatever Mikey was involved had been cleared to leave, so I only had to worry about Bran. He was on guard duty until tomorrow when Kellan and I were originally supposed to come.

Nobody’s cover had been blown. No faces, nothing connecting the Sons to whatever was going on, and the police had no idea that the two missing persons in Pennsport were also the main suspects in Mom’s assault. They hadn’t puzzled those pieces together yet. Aside from one Detective Reid Hanna, who preferred it when we settled assault cases for them.

When I’d forced Colby to show me the video, the worst part hadn’t been hearing her beg for someone to save her. It was the sounds I couldn’t even begin to describe. Toward the end of the video, when she was gasping for air, that sheer desperation in every wheezing sound, the choking up…

And finally, a low, throaty chuckle from a man who was breathless.

He’d never chuckle again.

I finally reached the dirt road, and I looked around before I turned.

Trees still lined the road, like the main street, but all the leaves had fallen, allowing me to see the vast fields beyond.

I passed the first house and then the second. Half a minute later, the third house.

After that, I checked the distance. We had to be far enough away for gunshots to go off without raising suspicion. Then again, that would be too merciful. When I was done making them suffer, the quietest way to let them go was by strangling them.

That could be fun.

The seconds ticked by in the dead winter landscape of grays and browns, and— “What the…” I stepped on the brake and sucked in a breath. Someone had rolled out one of those strips of tire shredders right in front of me, and I swerved to the left, almost ending up in the ditch. “What the fuck!” I yelled. I slammed my hands on the wheel before I opened the door. Holy fuck, it was Finn stepping out of the thicket on the right side of the road. Parka, gloves, beanie, definitely his beard and his steely gray eyes.

My heart raced as I hurried out of the car.

“What’re you doing, man?! What the fuck!”

He strode toward me, jaw set. “You left the city in a hurry, so I figured you might need to be stopped in a similar fashion. You were supposed to come up tomorrow with Kellan. What’s the plan here, Alfie?”

The plan? Was he fucking serious?

“I’m gonna kill them,” I spat out. I flinched forward, ready to push past him. “What did you think? Get outta my way.”

He planted a hand on my chest and shoved me back, his eyes flashing with barely contained fury. “You stand the fuck down, cousin. Right now, you have two brain cells battling for thirdplace. You ain’t gonna do shit until you can think straight. Get back in thefuckingcar, you hear me?”

My chest heaved, and I glared at him. He stood between me and that house, and I had to?—

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