Page 40 of Midnight Revelations

The woman in the cage beside her spoke. “Let me out. Anywhere is better than this place.”

The tension in the room started to ebb, and one by one the women came out. They still eyed us warily as if we were about to attack them, but we had opened the door and offered an alternative to them. Hope may have faded, but it was the last of the emotions that hid deep in our hearts.

I held my hand out to the woman and she grasped my wrist. “They hurt me,” she whispered. “I wanted to die.” Her hair was greasy and stuck to her head, her clothing nothing more than a bra and panties, and I doubt if she’d been fed in days.

“I promise you that we’ll find and punish them.”

“They deserve to die,” she said in a raspy voice. “With a dildo stuck up their ass.” She lowered her gaze rapidly as she straightened.

“I can’t promise the dildo, but I’ll do my best with the other request.”

She lifted her eyes to look at me, before she nodded once and allowed the guard to lead her away.

I worked from the basement up, placing explosive devices in prime locations that would not just damage the property, but completely destroy it so that there was nothing left. Xavier and Jordan moved outside to ensure all the women were safely in the back of the truck. I turned the gas feed to the oven on in the kitchen and stepped outside, carefully closing the back door behind me.

There was no doubt in my head that someone was currently watching us from a remote location. Photographs were ready to be uploaded to social media to prove we were somewhere else at this specific moment in time, our decoys enjoying a night out while we stood here dealing with horror and pain.

Every second filled the house with gas. I joined the others.

“All good?” Jordan asked.

“Yeah, give it a few minutes and I’ll detonate it as we’re leaving.”

He nodded and pulled the shutter down at the back of the truck.

“Straight to the coordinates I sent you,” Jordan said. “No stopping, no diverts. Understand?”

One of his team nodded and two black Range Rovers pulled forward to take their place, one in front and one behind the truck.

“Safe drive,” Xavier said. “We’ll be right behind you.”

We jogged back to our own car and climbed in. From a distance, that house looked like any other in the local area. Homes were like people, they could look normal on the outside and hide evil deep inside far from the eyes of the outside world. I dragged the remote detonation device from my pocket as we drove past the house and pressed the red button.

The sound was deafening, and the propulsion from the blast pushed our car and Jordan struggled to keep us on course. A gas explosion was different to a normal explosion. Instead of a single point of initiation, the gas permeated the building and when it ignited, the blast created an equal structural damage throughout the building. Between all the bombs I’d placed and the gas, there would be nothing left for the forensic examiners to find. Fire tended to destroy evidence when it burned hot enough to consume everything.

“Fucking hell, Ash,” Jordan shouted. “What the fuck did you put into those?”

“Enough to ensure that no one ever tracks any of this shit back to us,” I replied. “What the hell was Dad thinking?”

“It wasn’t just him, Ash,” Xavier replied. “Michael is involved and Matteus happily sanctioned his death. The reason behind that is starting to become very suspicious.”

I hated to agree with him because I wanted to believe that Michael was the same as me, but I was beginning to see a reckless pattern when it came to him. He was happy to destroy the Council and hand over the key players to the police, and now I wanted to know why. The answer could be that it was because he needed rid of it to allow his own criminal career to flourish.

“I doubt Michael will tell us anything, even if we bring him in,” I muttered. “He’s arrogant enough to believe that we won’t touch him.”

“He’s on my radar. The little bastard can’t even take a shit that I won’t know about,” Jordan said over his shoulder.

“Yet he was involved in this without any of our knowledge,” I replied. “Guys, I think there are meetings that we’re being kept out of as senior Council members.”

“Yeah,” Xavier agreed. “There have been a few things that Dad has said that have made me wonder, especially over Cas’ parents. It might be time to keep a closer eye on them.”

Jordan sighed and it sounded like it came from the depths of his soul. “I was hoping this day would never come, but it was the reason I put so many back doors into the computer systems. Give me a few days and I’ll bring it all online.”

Some days he terrified me, other days I was impressed by the foresight that Jordan possessed.

We were just over a mile away from the house when all the emergency vehicles started to fly past us with their sirens wailing and blue lights flashing. It would take a while to get that fire under control, and by then all evidence of what transpired in that house would be gone.

“I have a tail,” Jordan muttered, his eyes reflected in the rear-view mirror as he watched behind us. He pressed a button on the steering wheel to phone the men we were following. “Keep your eyes open. I have a tail. No matter what, they can’t get their hands on what is in that truck, neither can they know where they’re going.”

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