Page 132 of The Deceptions
"Obviously, you weren't alone. Or they posted a picture of the crime scene after they dumped his body." He shakes his head. "Who does that?"
Not us, I can tell you that. We've seen a lot of bodies. Some alive. Mostly dead. Blood. Guts. Chopping arms off? Yup. We've seen it. Not that we wanted to. But in the gang life, that's what it all comes to when you cross the boss. Death. Destruction.
I blow out a breath and force my mind back to the present. I can't allow the images of my past to haunt me any more than they already do. Time to bring my A-game and stuff it all down again. That's what I'm good at, anyway.
"He said his name was Dane, but you should have seen it... It was like the Miles kid all the fucking over again." Miles. That kid from last year who showed up with nothing left in his body on the steps of the administrative building, bleeding out and barely alive. I didn’t know the kid, but I know he went to Greenwood. He was a scholarship student, living in the dorms. But that’s as far as we got on researching him. The cops locked that case up tight, and we haven’t heard a damn thing since, assuming it was handled.
Clearly, we were wrong.
Dane may still have a brain and heart, but the rest of him? Fuck. He was torn up like a butcher took his insides, and then dumped him in the woods to die a slow and miserable death. How the fuck did his body sustain him for that long? Probably some sort of drug.
Poor dude. What a miserable ass way to die.
"And you still haven't heard from Meredith?" JJ asks abruptly, looking up from his computer screen again. When we arrived, he immediately dove into work mode, accessing the camera systems around town, trying to catch anyone who looked suspicious. So far, he hasn't found a damn thing. Now, that's suspicious in my fucking book. You can't just conveniently bypass every single camera in the damn city.
"No," Hux says, shaking his head. "And the problem is only getting worse. It makes me think..." He shakes his head, turningslightly pale. "What if she got caught up in it? What if she's next? He's going to fucking murder me when he finds out." Yes.Hedefinitely will.
I swallow hard at the implications. We hadn't started an alliance with her for very long. She came to us with the information instead of going to the people closest to her. Not that she didn't trust them. But with what she was accusing, she needed people who would take her seriously and not dismiss her claims. She knew they were in too deep with the assholes on her radar and wanted to prove something. But proving that something has resulted in her going missing.
"I haven't been able to find anything on the surveillance videos. Except for your brief meeting with her outside the bar." JJ doesn't bother to look up from his computer this time; he continues tapping and clicking away. Doing God knows what. Whatever it is, I know he's trying to figure out why all this shit is happening and attempting to pinpoint the culprit.
"Yeah?" Hux sighs, plopping onto the bar stool beside me. "After that, she went home. And then... Poof." His fingers run wildly through his hair in frustration. A buzzing comes from his phone, and he frowns. "Franco is on his way."
"Wonderful," I grunt, standing and grabbing a beer from the fridge. If I'm going to face him, I need more liquid of the alcohol variety running through my veins.
"You can't be so sure she actually made it home," JJ says offhandedly. "All surveillance footage around her apartment was looped."
"So, you're saying?" Hux waves a hand.
"We don't speak geek," I quip, leaning on the island with a sigh.
"Meaning, whoever took her knew where to grab her and how. Either in her apartment, where her keys and purse remained. Or, they staged everything and took her."
"The question still stands. Where the fuck is she now?" Hux growls through gritted teeth, heaving a breath. "She was onto something." Yeah, she was.
"Let's discuss it later. It seems our guest has arrived," JJ mumbles, closing his laptop as the front door opens and shuts.
"Boys," Franco says, waltzing into his former home with a soft smile.
Good. That means he's not pissed off at us. If there's one thing I know about that man, it is that he wears his emotions on his sleeve. Something he should learn to control, but never has. In this business, it's imperative to keep your cool and not let the other fucker know what you're about to do. That's what he's taught us all these years, anyway.
Franco saunters into the kitchen, continuing to smile at each of us. There's an easiness about him. Something that disarms people. Well, until they get to know the real him. His dark suit clings to his toned body. Letting me know he came straight from the casino he owns. For a sixty-year-old dude, he's not doing too bad for himself. He's still pulling in the ladies left and right. But discarding them even quicker. He's a playboy.
"Franco," Hux greets, standing from the stool. "What's the word?"
Franco rubs the dark stubble of his chin, looking pensive. "You're in the clear," he says, peering around the room. "I assured them my boys wouldn't have anything to do with that." And just like that, the cops wrote us off like I knew they would after seeing Franco. If I had stayed, they’d have put me in cuffs until Franco got there. The cops aren’t in our pockets. Only Franco’s.
"And what is that, exactly?" I ask, sipping my beer.
Franco's eyes snap to mine. Usually, I'd feel a slight fear creeping down my spine at the sight of him. But not tonight. Notafter seeing that fucker with stitches on his body and dying right before my eyes. Nothing can scare me now.
Well, that's a lie.
There’s a lot in this world that terrifies me. Like losing the family I have. JJ and Hux. They’re my true brothers. Not fucking Wilder. Or Franco. Or anyone else.
"Seems we have someone in our territory stirring up trouble," he says smoothly, running his fingers across his chin. "And have been for some time."
Hux licks his lips. "Like stealing internal organs trouble? Because this isn't the first incident at school."
