Page 61 of Legends Luke

“All you have to do is call, brother. I’ll fill Jackson and Easton in. Hey, Luke?”

“Yeah?” Luke responded absently, his mind already preoccupied with this new intel.

“We’re happy for you. Melody’s nice. Pretty too. I hope it works out for you.”

“Thanks. Me too.”

Ending the call, Luke sped up to reach his home in record time. He booted up his laptop and found the file Ben forwarded to him. Though the town of Stickwood wasn’t much larger than Fire Creek, the town did have high-end neighborhoods that were home to professionals earning six-figure incomes. What the crew hadn’t counted on was the homeowner investing in an expensive security system complete with high-resolution video and audio.

Playing the video, he could see the crew making their way inside what seemed like an empty house. Luke’s brow furrowed when he realized no alarm sounded when they came inside. Five crew members were standing at various heights. They were dressed in black with masks obscuring their faces. One stood out from the rest as the obvious leader. Luke listened to him bark out orders to the others. Not only were they robbing the place of its easy-to-carry items, like electronics, jewelry, clothes, and paintings, but they were trashing things along the way. Cutting through the furniture’s upholstery, turning over plants, ripping down curtains — senseless activity that was their way of making a point. They wanted anything that would give them easy money, but they wanted to show how little respect they had for the wealthy.

He watched through the video several times — he lost count of exactly how many. Each time, he focused on the leader and his interaction with one of the others, a female who couldn’t hide her attributes under her baggy clothes. The leader barely let her out of his sight. He barked orders at her, and she blindly followed. Hermovements were reluctant as if she didn’t want to be there, and she only took or damaged what the leader commanded her to.

At one point she refused to deface a painting that was too large for them to take. The leader backslapped her, knocking her to the floor. He jerked her to her feet, screamed in her face about showing her loyalty to him, and slapped her again. His grip on her arm kept her from falling the second time, but her head jerked back sharply.

Luke backed the video up a few seconds and froze the frame. He enlarged the image as much as he dared without pixelating it beyond recognition. The sleeve of the leader’s shirt rose as he lifted his arm to slap her. Luke noted the black ink on the man’s wrist. The thick black swirl snaked up to disappear under his sleeve, but it was distinctive enough to jog Luke’s memory. He pulled up a separate file, one containing documentation from his background search into Blake Drummond. When he found the image he was looking for, he did a split screen and narrowed his eyes.

The tribal artwork on the leader’s wrist matched the image of the tattoo recorded in Drummond’s file after his last arrest.

“Gotcha, you son of a bitch,” Luke muttered, firing a group text off to his brothers.

I need backup. I’m going back to Drummond’s house. Who’s in?

He got instant responses, but he chose Easton to be the one to meet him since he had been there before. Luke packed up his laptop and headed out the door.

As he turned his truck toward Drummond’s house, his gut churned. He should take his findings to the police. It was enough forthem to investigate. With a lead like this, they could bring the crew down. The Legends didn’t take jobs out of the police’s hands. They didn’t circumvent the law; they were an extension of it. But Luke needed to see for himself if Drummond had Erin with him. The kid was just a teenager with poor judgment. She didn’t deserve to be caught up in Drummond’s game.

He parked on the street across from Drummond’s house. He beat Easton there, so he decided to wait. As much as he wanted to confront the asshole, he knew better than to do it without back-up. It would be a mistake to underestimate him since he had evidence of Drummond’s violent behavior.

The first time he was here, everything was quiet, the neighborhood serene. Today, something was happening. A couple of teenagers walked around the yard, occasionally tossing a football, but the way they remained watchful struck Luke as odd. One of them locked eyes with him and immediately turned to run inside. The teen left the door wide open in his wake, and from Luke's vantage point, he saw four kids, all different ages, shuffling back and forth, carrying bags, suitcases, and backpacks to a different part of the house he couldn’t see.

Drummond appeared in the doorway, his lookout at his side pointing in Luke’s direction. His eyes narrowed as Drummond marched in his direction, his flunkies flanking him but keeping a couple of steps back. Easton wasn’t here yet, but Luke had his gun at his hip.

Luke had to admit that Drummond had balls when he stopped atthe side of the truck, close enough for Luke to reach out and strangle him. He didn’t seem afraid or intimidated, his brown eyes devoid of any emotion.

“I didn’t expect to see you again. Is there something more I can do for you?” Drummond’s voice was light, almost friendly, but Luke wasn’t fooled.

“You can tell Erin to come out here and let me take her home. Her family’s looking for her.”

Drummond looked at his two flunkies, who smirked like they thought Luke’s request was funny. They didn’t look older than sixteen, but they had an edge to their demeanor. Luke had seen it before. They’d seen tough times that probably groomed them to fall under Drummond’s lead.

“Erin is not here. Last time I saw her, she was with you and the nosy woman who works with her mother. Maybe her family should look at your house instead of sending you to mine.”

Luke scowled. “I know all about you, Drummond. No use in playing games with me.”

Drummond crossed his arms over his chest. “I know all about you too, Mr. Meade. Ex-military. Mechanic. Murderer father. Drug addict mother. Seems to me you have no right to judge me or my friends.”

Luke hid his surprise at knowing Drummond ran a background check on him. It was a smart move, one he didn’t think Drummond had the resources to do.

“Yourfriendsshould be in school instead of hanging out with scum like you.”

“They can learn more from me than from their teachers. You understand what it’s like, having learned from someone like English Barlowe.”

Luke’s hand flexed, but that was the only sign of the rage he felt. “You shouldn’t talk about things you don’t understand, little man.”

“And you shouldn’t interfere in things you don’t understand, Mr. Meade. It’s in your best interest to leave me and my friends alone. We mean you no harm, but if you can’t mind your own business, I can’t make the same promise to those closest to you. Your sister-in-law is certainly a beautiful woman, and that baby of hers is a really cute one. Of course, there’s also the paralegal. I forget her name, but from what I hear, you know her really well.”

“Your intel on me has some holes if you think you can make threats toward my family and friends. I’m not the one wanted by the police.” Luke’s tone was hard as steel, but he kept his countenance calm.

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