Page 1 of Connected

Chapter 1

There’s a bang followed by a clatter and the thudding sound of splitting wood as Digby’s boot crashes against the door of the tavern.

“Diggs… slow down. Hell… I told you to wait for backup.” Darius makes a grab for him, hauling him back.

“Get the fuck off me… Kat… Zak,” he yells frantically. Worried, he spins, and desperately searches the room, “fuck… where the hell are they?” His chest tightens with nerves and he reaches for his radio, “Alpha 5, do you copy? Bud, do you read me? Are you sure you saw them come in here?”

“Yeah, copy that Diggs. We saw them go in, but they sure as hell didn’t come out. We’re searchin’ the area now.”

From their lofty vantage point high above on the rooftop, Bud and QT visually scour the streets and alleys below, zig-zagging from side to side, as they search for any sign of movement.

“Shit, where the hell are they? We definitely saw them go in; they couldn’t have just disappeared like that.”

QT takes a deep breath to calm an unusual bout of anxiety. The thought of Zak missing makes his heart thud harder and with a hissing growl, the normally ice-cool sniper struggles to control his panic. “Whu-where is Z-ZZ…Zak?”

Bud can hear the anxiety in his stammer and with a tight grip on his shoulder, he reassures him. “Hey QT calm down, we’ll get them back. You just need to hold it together and I promise we’re gonna find them.”

***

Darius takes a deep breath as he stands looking out of the doorway that leads from the back room of the tavern onto a narrow-covered side street. His eyes are drawn to the set of tire tracks that stretch in deep channels along the ground.

“Diggs… Diggs, get your ass out here, now!”

“Hey wassup, man? You got somethin’?” Digby looks at Darius as he gestures to the damp sandy soil and his eyes focus, following the parallel patterns as far as he can see in the fading light. “Fuck! Fuck, fuck… FUCK,” he screams kicking the wall.

Turning around, he picks up Kat’s helmet and radio from the floor and sniffs for her scent. In that instant, as her smell fills his nostrils, it feels like his heart might stop. His chest swells with the pain and he lets out a heart-rending howl then taking another deep breath—he fills his lungs and howls again.

It’s a gut-wrenching—painful sound—like the noise a wounded animal might make and Darius closes his eyes as he blocks it out. Rubbing his hand over his head, he sighs and takes a moment to gather his thoughts.

“Hey, you need to calm the fuck down. We’re going to find them.”

“Calm down? You’re tellin’meto calm down? What the actual fuck?” Digby strides forward and consumed by rage, he jabs a finger in Darius’s face. Then up close, only inches away, he screams, “Who the fuck do you think you are? You’re tellin’ me to calm down, well I can’t. If you hadn’t noticed, I just lost two of the most important people in the world. I know that dirty fuckin’ shifter’s responsible and that alone makes it ten times worse. Darius wake the hell up man, this was Alvarez—he’s the one who took Kat and Zak.”

Shaking his head, he turns back to the small bar area inside and Darius follows him.

“Okay yeah they might be gone for now, but we’re gonna find them and we’re gonna get them back. Diggs, you have my word, we won’t stop until we find them.”

“Yeah right, whatever,” he sneers. Picking up an empty glass that’s been left on the table, he sniffs it. “He was here, I can smell that fuckin shifter’s cologne. You know, I’ve never forgotten its sweet-sickly smell. Arrgh… fuck it!”

Clutching his hands into fisted balls, he steadies his rage, and picking up the abandoned bottle of whiskey he fills an empty glass to the rim—glugging the entire contents in one breath, he refills it again.

“Hey, stop it!” Darius hisses in anger and knocking the glass from Digby’s hand, he grabs him by the throat and pushes him backward. “What the fuck is wrong with you? How the hell will that help anyone?”

“Fuck you… It’ll help me.”

“No. No, you need to focus the hell up. Concentrate on finding them. Digby c’mon man, we need to work out how he got them out.”

“You mean how he got away—like he did the last time? Except… last time, it was night-time and so we know the answer, after all, that’s why they call themnight-shifters, right?” He smirks as he pushes Darius away from him. “He’s a slippery fuckin’ shifter and I hate him so much. What he did—the smell in that room, when we let those people go. That CIA officer. Hell, she didn’t deserve to die like that, and for what? Drugs… Money? You know he’s sick in the head. Alvarez—you know he enjoyed what he did. Dee, we never found him before—not until now. So, what the hell makes you so sure we’ll find them this time?” Digby sneers with a look of contempt, and again he picks up the bottle—swigging directly from it.

“Oh, so what… you don’t think anyone else is hurting? You don’t think this affects anyone else. Maybe you think I don’t want to get them back as much as you?”

“Do you though? Really Dee, do you really wanna get Zak back? Kat yeah… Oh yeah I bet you wanna get her back but Zak, I’m not so sure you’ll be bothered about him.”

“And what the hell is that supposed to mean? Of course, I want to get him back—I want to get them both back. Diggs, they’re my team. Hell, Zak’s my family, and sure, he has his issues, but you know I don’t give a damn about those—I’ve lived with that bullshit for years. We’re still bonded, still a team, andstillfamily. So of course, I wanna get him back.”

“Hey…” Oz cocks an eyebrow as he watches from the doorway. “So, what’s going on?”

“Nothin’,” Digby frowns—still swigging from the bottle.

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