Page 5 of Fear the Reapers

He groaned. “Just do me a favour. Don’t come in hot.” I opened my mouth to counter, but he cut me off as he kept going. “I know what you’re going to say. Just find another reason to be here that’s plausible. They’re all more closed lipped than normal.”

I nodded my agreement as the door of my room was flung open with a loud creak. I met Brax's eyes, which were filled with a stormy intensity, and held up my hand.

“Hear this. If we find out any of your guys had anything to do with what happened to her, either before, during or after the fact, there won’t be enough of them left to identify when we’re done with them.” Then, before Lark could respond, I ended the call and redirected my attention to Brax. “What have you found?” I asked him.

“Dick all.”

I shook my head in disgust. With all the connections we had, we should have had something.

Brax trudged over to the chair in the corner of the room, and with a heavy sigh, collapsed into it. “I’m going with you guys.”

“That’s not a good idea,” I said.

We were cautious to not be seen in public with him.

“I can’t just sit here and do nothing.”

“You’re not doing nothing. You’re doing exactly what she would have wanted,” I said. “Staying out of trouble.”

Harleigh would murder us both if he lost his job or got killed while we tried to find her. Even though the Crows had been silent in their retaliation against Brax, we all knew they would never forget the cold reality that he was part of the reason their president was in prison.

“Why haven’t we found anything?” he asked. “It’s like she just vanished.”

“And I don’t need to tell you what that means.”

We all knew what it fucking meant. With each second that passed, the bleakness of our chances of finding her alive and unharmed became more and more palpable.

Brax ran his hand through his hair. “Why didn’t I just fuckin’ question Loraine on my own?”

“I doubt that would have worked either. She used to be as quiet as a mouse, but something’s changed since the last time she was here. It’s like she’s grown a backbone.”

“She clammed up when she saw us, but kept answering in circles. We finally got her to admit that she knew who Harleigh was, but by that time, we knew our line of questioning wouldn’t go anywhere.”

“When we went there, she was gone.”

He sighed. “She ran because she knew you guys would be the next to knock on her door.”

“She’s probably gone into hiding, which is why we’re trying to use our connections. We’re hoping we can find something in River City.” Since we couldn’t find Loraine, we had to redirect our attentions to where Dirk had gone.

“Call me the moment you find something.”

“We will.”

Brax pushed up from the chair and made to leave, but paused at the door, a note of plea in his voice that was so unlike his usual bite. "Find her Hunter. And call me the second you know something."

The door slammed behind him. I exhaled a deep breath, trying to calm the anger thrashing in my stomach. I couldn't get it out of my head — what they might be doing to her, what I might not be able to save her from.

"Fuck!" I yelled. A swell of anger heated my blood—molten rage—and I slammed my fist hard into the wall, breaking through the drywall.

Whoever had her, was fucking dead. But if they hurt her. One goddamned hair on her perfect fucking head. I would make them hurt so bad that by the time I was done with them, they’d be begging for death.

ChapterFour

HARLEIGH

I was backin the trunk. Four pairs of hands firmly held me in place and the cold sting of the needle entered my arm, causing me to gasp. The drug had an almost immediate effect the warmth of it spreading throughout my body. I had only ever taken marijuana recreationally, so I was completely unprepared for the strange sensation suddenly coursing through me.

What the fuck did they just shoot me up with?

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