Page 68 of Four Daddies & I

I walk over to the coffee machine and pour myself a cup. God bless Mrs Brown for keeping this machine going. I don’t know how many cups I’ve drank in the last three days. I always tell Jasmine that coffee isn’t food, but right now it’s the only thing keeping me going.

I take a sip of my drink and look around at my brothers. Both stare into space lost in their pain. It’s only a matter of time before someone snaps and then all hell will really break loose. My fucking twin isn’t helping matters either.

Four hours have passed since Jason received the video of what we believe is Hudson strangling Jasmine. I wasn’t here at the time but when I finally saw it, I had to walk away and spend half an hour in the sparring room. Every time I punched or kicked the punch bag, I pictured Hudson. It was there that Jason found me and told me Maximus was missing. It seems he took himself off after seeing the video and has yet to return.

As if we don’t have enough to worry about, but now it seems he’s gone off on his own to look for her. We had confirmation that he was at his club where Jasmine was taken two hours ago. He went through the staff records on the system, watched the CCTV then ran to his car and now we have no idea where he is.

“If he got an idea of where she was would he go off to rescue her alone?” Christian asks. I shake my head.

“He might be many things, but reckless when it comes to Jasmines life is not one of them. He would let us know where she was and would take as much backup as possible, that I’m sure of. Especially after what happened with Jason.”

Christian sits on one of the kitchen stools and rubs the bridge of his nose. He looks exhausted, we all are. None of us is getting much sleep, how can we when Jasmine is out there somewhere.

I pull my phone out of my pocket and am just about to try Maximus again when I hear his car pulling into the garage.

“I’m going to kick his ass,” Christian growls jumping to his feet and rushing towards the garage door, Jason and I quick on his tail. Christian reaches him in seconds and has him against the car.

“Where the fuck have you been?”

“I got the fucker who took her!” Maximus yells pushing Christian away from him and walking to the trunk. When he opens it a laugh sounds from Jason because there tied up and gagged is the bouncer Trent. Maximus looks up at me and I see a level of determination on his face it even scares me.

“Help me get him to the basement.”

???

It’s been three hours since Maximus arrived with our new guest but other than beating him nearly to death, we are no closer to finding out who Hudson is working for. Trent has told us everything he knows. It may have taken quite a bit of persuading, but he doesn’t know anything else.

Turns out Trent was paid to get friendly with Maximus. He was to get a job as a bouncer and wait to see if Jasmine had her birthday at one of our venues. It turns out Hudson knows a lot about Jasmine, such as she goes out every year for her birthday and would always end up in a club. Trent had been keeping an eye on the VIP lists on the system after hacking into them and waited for her name or ours to show up. Once he knew where she was going to be he managed to swap with another bouncer to make sure he was there on the night. We already had confirmation that the other bouncer was unaware of the real reason Trent wanted a swap. He had told the guy it was due to his sister being in town and wanting to keep an eye on her and her abusive boyfriend. Our guy fell for it but who can blame him? Everyone who has had any dealings with Trent has told us what a down-to-earth and great guy he is. None of them could believe he had been involved in the kidnapping of our girl.

Trent told us that the another guy drove the car to a woodland area and put Jasmine in the van before getting away from Terry. They drove the van to a farm an hour away and met with Hudson who took it and Jasmine and gave them a car. They got a hefty pay-out for it, all in cash so there is no way to track it.

We asked Trent about the guy who drove the vehicles and all he could tell us was that he had dropped the guy off at the airport and had no idea what his name was or where he was going. Seems he had the common sense to run knowing we would kill him.

“So, it was all for fucking nothing!” Maximus shouts as he punches Trent one more time before storming out of the room.

“It wasn’t for nothing. At least we know he leads to a dead end,” Christian calls after him. But we all know he wasn’t listening. Jason and Christian both turn and look at me. I sigh as I push myself away from the wall I’m leaning against. They know times like this, other than Jasmine, I’m the only one who may be able to make him see sense.

“Let me speak to him.” I walk out of the basement and follow Maximus. I’m just reaching the main staircase when I hear his bedroom door slam shut. I jog up to his room and take a deep breath before entering, not bothering to knock.

“I’m not in the mood, Sean!” he calls from his bathroom as I hear the shower being turned on.

“Well tough you are going to listen,” I reply walking into the bathroom.

“What?” he yells turning to look at me. He’s naked and there’s still blood on his chest and arms from beating Trent.

“Today wasn’t a waste of time. You did more than the rest of us have been able to. Not only did you find out where Trent has been hiding you also managed to rule out that he knew anything else. Sometimes a dead end is good as it lets us focus on the shit that might help.”

“Why did you just sound like shorty when she’s trying to get away with something?” he asks frowning. I can’t help but laugh.

“I think she may have said something along those lines once after failing a test a couple of years ago.”

Maximus rubs his face as he looks at the floor.

“I miss her Sean. I hate knowing that he’s hurting her and there’s nothing we can do.”

“I know. But Jasmine is a hell of a fighter and I know if she gets a chance, she will cause some serious damage.”

“I hope so,” he sighs before looking at the still-running shower. “What time is everyone getting here for this meeting Christian’s called?”

---