Page 40 of Bones

My face hurts, as does my head. The pain is excruciating, and I know this will happen again and again. Whatever fight I had is gone. I crawl into the cage and he locks me in. Now I’m waiting, hoping that I’ll die. I have no doubt my father will follow through on his threats to kill me, but it won’t be anytime soon. He’ll use me, and abuse me as much as he can, before I breathe my last breath.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

BONES

Listening to my father for two hours was difficult. He even sounds weak. However, it was business as usual for him. He is exhausted, but he won’t slow down until he’s dead. I feel like a horrible son for thinking I hope it’s sooner rather than later. I’ll miss him terribly, but I hate knowing he’s in so much pain. He’ll be informing my mother and brothers later today. My poor mom is going to be devastated.

I head downstairs to find my wife, with the plan to lose myself in her. She somehow makes everything feel manageable. When I make it to the large living room I spot her shoes on the floor, but she’s not in sight. I check the kitchen and she’s not there either.

“Athena,” I call out, but there’s no response.

After going upstairs and checking the bedroom, I begin to worry. Where the fuck is she? I head to my office to look at the security cameras. My entire property is fitted with, not only cameras everywhere, but motion detectors. If she is in this house, I will find her.

I pull up the live feed on every single camera, one at a time, before I finally admit to myself that she’s not here. She left me. Everything was so great today and still, the first time I left her alone, she ran.

Sitting in my office chair, I watch the video of the living room camera that goes to the front door. Not long after my meeting would have started I spot Jimmy walking into my house, which is odd, because my staff are not allowed in my house without me giving them permission. There’s no fucking way I would have when I wasn’t around. I did when she was chained in the basement, only because somebody had to be there to give her the food she refused. Afew moments later another man comes in, but I don’t recognize him. Why the fuck is he in my house? He speaks to Athena. I click on another camera, after making note of the time. I need to see her face. When I do, my blood turns to ice. I may not know who this man is, but my Butterfly does. Pure terror shows on her face. I intentionally have no sound on these devices, because if the feds come with a warrant, the things they’d hear could land me in prison for the rest of my life, and likely all the men in our family as well. Right now, I regret that, as I watch my wife get to her feet. She goes to put her shoes on, but the older man says something to her and she walks toward him. He grabs her by the back of her neck, squeezing hard, and I see fucking red. They walk out and I switch to the outside camera. She glances back at the house, and it looks like she’s staring straight into my soul. The anguish on her face is not something I’ll soon forget. It’s going to haunt me.

She turns away, and gets into the white vehicle that has farm use plates on it. The man hands Jimmy a stack of cash, and gets in and drives away with my wife inside.

Picking up my whiskey decanter, I throw it across the room and it shatters near my desk, but I ignore it.

“Fuck!”

Whoever this asshole is, he has my wife, and that means he’s a fucking dead man. And Jimmy is involved, obviously. He took money from the old man, so clearly he was paid off. That’s the very reason I’ll begin with him.Wherever you are, Butterfly. I’ll find you.If I have to kill a billion men in the process, I don’t mind. He took the one thing that is most precious to me, and for that he will fucking suffer.

I run a hand through my hair as I call each of my brothers, ordering them to get to the warehouse immediately. “Why the warehouse?” Kage was the first, but not the last, to ask. Normally I’d take Jimmy to the basement to question him, but the thought ofgoing down there with so many memories of my wife, is more than I can bear. Fuck. I miss her.

Walking outside, I find Jimmy standing near the guard station with Eduardo. I call Stephen to take over their post, while I question both of them. While I didn’t see Eduardo on the video like I did Jimmy, those two are thick as thieves, and if one is involved the other one probably is too.

“Hand me your weapons.”

This is a skill I learned from my father. Always appear composed. Never let them see you break. Right now it’s a struggle, but I still pull it off.

They exchange worried glances, before Jimmy says, “Boss. What’s going on?”

Some people would say I’m crazy to approach two armed men like this. I am carrying, I always am, but my gun is not in my hand. As my dad would say, ‘there’s more than one way to skin a cat.’ I don’t need a weapon to kill either of them, and it would be stupid for them to pull a gun on me. They both know me well, and are aware that I could have them screaming in pain from the floor, long before they managed to fire a shot. They both hand me their .45s, and I tuck them both into the back of my waistband. There are other weapons in the guard shack, but they normally only wear one in their holsters.

“Come on. We’re going to have a chat. Warehouse. You’ll both walk in front of me, so I can keep my eyes on you.” Eduardo looks at me with fear. He has only just figured out they are in very big trouble. Maybe he is innocent, because Jimmy reeked of guilt the moment I approached them. Time will tell, I suppose.

Once we get to the large warehouse, I nod to Eduardo. “Go on. You know the code. I have trusted you for how long?”

He enters the code, and answers me, “Twenty-two years, Boss. And before that I worked for your father.”

We all walk inside and they turn to me, waiting for an order.

“Down to your underwear.”

Jimmy stares at me like I’ve lost my mind. “What?”

“Strip now. I don’t feel like patting you down, to be sure you don’t have any other weapons hidden.”

Eduardo is the first to comply, probably because he has known me the longest. He knows if someone refuses an order, how that turns out for them. Not well. I expect my men to do as they’re told, no matter what. I pay them well. They are treated with respect. I’ve written checks to Eduardo’s daughter’s private school since she was six years old. That wasn’t part of his pay, it was extra, because I don’t want my men to struggle financially. People who fail to make ends meet do stupid fucking things. This is my way of preventing that. My foot soldiers never worry about that shit. They know if they come to me with a problem, I’ll find a way to fix it. I’m a good boss. Yet when someone fucks with myself, or my family, that all evaporates in the blink of an eye. They will be treated in a hostile manner like any other enemy.

“Kneel.”

Both men get to their knees, both of them wearing a fearful expression.

“Jimmy, let’s start with you. I have reviewed the camera footage from earlier today. I want to know who the fuck the man was that you let into my house. The same one who handed you a stack of cash. And WHERE THE FUCK IS MY WIFE?”

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