Page 135 of Filthy Liar

My eyes closed when the sound of female screams burst from my phone, and my stomach twisted painfully at knowing it was Blake. I couldn’t see her, but I knew it wasn't screams of fear, it was pain.

My phone was pulled from my hand and I snarled, my eyes meeting Zavier’s a second before he glanced down at it to see what I was watching.

“Is that Blake?” Raven asked so quietly I barely heard her.

“And Dante,” I answered, already pulling my keys out of my pocket. “I have to?—”

“I know, go.” Raven stood and kissed me quickly, some of the chaos in my brain fading as she grabbed my chin firmly to make me look at her. “Bring them home. Get backup.”

“You’re not going to fight me on coming?” I asked, and I would’ve been amused if there wasn’t a war going on inside my head. I’d been prepared to lock her in the house and run, but it seemed I didn’t have to.

“I’ll stay with Zav as long as you go to the Thieves.”

Zavier handed my phone back, the video closed. “Go. We’ll call Rory and head to her house to update her.”

I clapped him on the shoulder in thanks and gave Raven one more kiss before practically running out to my car. I pulled up the video once more, my eyes catching on a broken panel on the wall in the background.

It was hard to see much else, but hope filled me as realization set in.

They were being held in the fucking slaughterhouse.Myfucking slaughterhouse.

I started the engine and called Cruz on the handsfree, gunning it out of the driveway and towards Rawson Grove.

“Lavaro—” I didn’t let him finish.

“I’ve found them,” I said in a hurry, smashing through the gears and definitely breaking all the speed limits. “I was sent a video just now, I’m on the way to you.”

“You got a video?”

“Dante’s beat to shit, and I couldn’t see Blake but I could hear her screaming. He’s holding them in my fucking slaughterhouse!” I snapped, the engine roaring as I put my foot down harder.

“I’ve got the video,” he confirmed, and I didn’t ask how. That fucker could hack into anything. “I’ll get Knox to put a team together right now and brief them before you get here.”

“Better be quick, I’ll be there in a minute,” I answered before hanging up, fury mixing with fear at knowing we could be walking in on anything.

Would they beat Dante to death before we got there?

Was Blake naked and bleeding out on the floor?

I never should’ve thought I could live a normal life without risking other people. Getting close to everyone had done nothing but get the people I cared about hurt.

Guilt slammed into me at being thankful it wasn’t Raven, and I pushed my car harder as I flew into Rawson Grove.

This was all my fault.

My tires skidded into the driveway at the compound, cars and chaos everywhere. Knox was barking orders as people piled into a couple of vans, guns and weapons being loaded alongside them.

Stone strolled towards me, a tablet in hand as he started pulling up footage the second I climbed out.

“We’ve got footage of the surrounding areas, but you know there’s not a lot in Riverside where the slaughterhouse is.”

I knew that, it was why I chose to buy it in the first fucking place.

“I’m sensing a but,” I growled, wanting him to hurry up and get on with it so we could go, but not wanting to piss him off so that he called the whole thing off.

“Cruz knows the footage has been tampered with, so we don’t know exactly what we’re in for. It shows them driving into Riverside, but it’s glitchy in some parts that shows bits have been cut out. We’re going to assume it only shows a handful of them, but the tampered parts are likely to have more backup behind them that we can’t see. They’re probably hoping we underestimate them and get overpowered.”

He turned the tablet to show me the footage, frustration filling me at not being able to see Dante or Blake through the tinted windows of the cars.

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