Page 80 of The Keeper

“Until now,” Bear added.

“Why the fuck would a kid with no priors knock off a bakery?” Grey asked, voicing the question on everyone’s mind, mine included. “Why not choose a more obvious location if he was looking for cash? Like a convenience store or a laundromat.”

Carnage ran his knuckles over the bristles of his beard before shaking his head. “Maybe it’s not his first run, and he’s just damn good at covering his tracks?”

“That, or someone else is pullin’ the strings,” Grey finished, pinching his lower lip between his thumb and forefinger, a tell I’d seen at least a thousand times.

“Only one way to find out,” Bear said, cracking his knuckles with a grin. “Got an address in South Dallas…about twenty minutes from here.”

“What the fuck are we waiting for?” I growled, already stripping off my kutte and heading for Carnage’s truck. “Let’s go pay the little shit a visit. He wanted to start a war. We’ll bring it to his motherfucking doorstep.”

Twenty minutes later, we arrived in a neighborhood that had seen better days. It was the kind of place where no one saw shit, and even if they did, they weren’t calling it in.

Carnage killed the engine, and we sat in the darkness, surveying the dilapidated house. Paint hung off the siding in long strips, exposing rotted wood underneath. The yard was overgrown, littered with rusted car parts and broken bottles.

“Nice curb appeal,” Bear muttered dryly from the back seat.

My fingers twitched against my thigh, itching to wrap around someone’s throat. “You sure this is the right place?” I side-eyed thedecrepit structure. The windows were dark, with no signs of life inside.

Carnage double-checked the address on his phone. “This is it.”

“Don’t think I need to remind anyone here how this is gonna go down. In and out through the back door without a trace,” Bear said, giving us the green light.

After slipping on our gloves, we moved stealthily through the shadows, with Carnage leading us in a tight military formation. His Army Ranger background was evident in every calculated step.

He knelt to pick the lock before silently easing the door open. The house was deathly silent, but we kept our weapons raised as we entered. Despite our best efforts to mask our presence, the floorboards creaked beneath our weight.

The stale air reeked of mold and neglect, but as we crept farther into the house, another smell hit me—one that was all too familiar.

“Got a body somewhere in here,” Grey said unnecessarily.

The sickly, sweet stench of death clung to the inside of my nostrils and the back of my throat. My stomach roiled, and I fought the urge to gag as we moved through the darkened house, systematically clearing each room.

We followed the putrid odor to the hallway. With his flashlight and sidearm raised, Carnage nodded. Bear pushed it open, and the full force of decay assaulted us like a physical blow.

My eyes watered, and I swallowed hard against the bile rising in my throat. A body lay on the bed, partially covered.

I approached cautiously, keeping my M17 trained on the ratty comforter as I slowly eased it down with a gloved hand. If the rotting odor hadn’t given it away, the bloated, mottled gray-green skin and vacant eyes staring at nothing would have. Bloody foam leaked from his nose and mouth onto the sheets below.

“Jesus. Fucker’s ripe,” Bear muttered, covering his nose and mouth with his bandana. “How long’s he been here?”

Carnage leaned down to examine the corpse, seemingly the only one of us not affected by the stench. “Based on decomp, I’d say anywhere from three to five days,” he guessed before peering at Isaac’s hands and arms.

“There are no obvious signs of a struggle or defensive wounds.Given the drug paraphernalia on the nightstand and the track marks on his arms, I’m leaning toward overdose for cause of death, but there’s no way to know for sure without an autopsy.”

“So, it’s him?” I asked, my voice muffled behind the crook of my arm.

He nodded grimly. “Matches the photo from his license.”

“Shit,” I growled, resisting the urge to drive my fist through the already crumbling drywall. Our one lead, dead before we could get any solid answers as to whether there was anyone else involved. “There’s got to be something here that’ll tell us if these guys were working alone or not.”

We spread out, meticulously combing through the rest of the house. I took the kitchen, rifling through drawers and cabinets, but nothing jumped out at me. Just overdue bills, dirty dishes, and takeout menus.

I moved on to the living room, methodically searching every nook and cranny for anything that might give us a clue. My frustration mounted with each passing second. This kid had to have left something behind.

“Get Ghost out of the fucking house,” Carnage directed Bear and Grey in a low voice that sent the hairs on the back of my neck up. There was only one reason he’d use that tone.

He’d found something.

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