Page 57

U nlike before, there’s no music blasting when I come downstairs. Mickey isn’t into his usual mind games. The game’s already won.

As I round the entrance into the room, I’m not surprised to see Henry strapped to a table. The amount of blood pouring out of him doesn’t even phase me. Told the boys to keep him alive long enough for me to ask a few questions, but other than that, they had free rein.

Viv has become more than just the neighbor to most of the guys here. She isn’t only my girl but a friend to the rest. And Hounds don’t react well to someone hurting a friend.

“Anything?” I ask Mickey who took charge of this while I was upstairs with my girl.

He rubs his chin and gives me a shrug. “Haven’t really asked any questions, boss.” The boys snicker at that and I too let out a huff of a laugh.

“You working with anyone?” I ask as I look over at Henry, then the tools on the side table. Some have blood on them, others are clean.

“Define work.” He coughs out. He knows he’s going to die. No way around it. Just depends how long it takes.

I walk to the side of the table and skim my hand over the tools, stopping at the acetylene torch. I raise an eyebrow and look at Lucky.

He smirks. “Thought a bit of Viv should be here for this. ”

I grab a tourniquet instead and move toward Henry. With the way we have him tied down, he can’t see what I’m doing, but he can feel me wrapping it around his leg.

“You might have guessed it, but I got my road name for knocking shit down. My friend over there,” I give a chin lift a Mickey and note that Henry follows my line of sight to see who I’m talking about.

“He got his name for his love of Mickey Yurco knives. Always carries about three or four of them on him. Guy’s really nuts for them. ”

At my words, Mickey pulls one from under his belt and twirls it in his fingers for show. I grin as I watch a bead of sweat flow down Henry’s forehead. Guy might be stupid to mess with a Hound’s girl, but the guy ain’t an idiot. He gets what’s coming.

“Going to ask again. Who else was in on it?” I already figured out he worked alone in the stalking of Viv, but not in the trafficking. Once we figured it was him holding my girl, the boys looked deeper. We found things we might have overlooked if not for so many damn coincidences.

He swallows roughly. “Shovel.”

I chance a glance at the boys and noticed this new information wasn’t what anyone expected. Shovel was a victim in this. Wasn’t he?

“And a girl. One that used to hang around her,” Henry chokes out.

I flick my eyes quickly to Mickey. With a flick of the wrist, he stabs Henry once.

Just one time, but in his calf and where it counts.

I loosen the tourniquet and watch the fear in Henry’s eyes as he sees I hold how long this will take.

I can loosen it and let him bleed out from the artery Mickey hit or tighten it and give him longer to live.

It all depends on how I feel. If I like what he says or not.

Lucky is next to cut him. Not in a spot that will have him dying faster, but just enough to cause more blood to flow out of him.

“Who else?”

I count the seconds between the beeps, and then I just count the beeps.

I wait. I’ve got time. All the time. They said it would be bad for Link to wake up early, and I don’t want to mess things up.

I want him fully recovered. No need to rush something and cause more problems for the guy. He’s already been through enough.

The nurse comes in, smiles at me, and goes to the machine. She checks a few things and then says, “He should wake up soon.”

I nod like the nice guy I am, and she leaves. Sure enough, not a full five minutes later, the guy is blinking awake.

I rise from my seat and go to greet him. It’s the least I can do.

“Hey, man, how you feeling?”

He coughs, and I hand him the water cup withthe straw for him to take a few sips before he leans back against the pillows. “Good, Prez. How are things? Did you ever find Menace? She okay?”

“Yeah, man, she’s good. We got to her before he could move her to another location. Guy had her stashed in her own place. He didn’t think we would find her, but someone at the plumbing company goofed, and it was pure luck we found her when we did.”

He coughs again and closes his eyes. “Crazy, man.” I can hear the tiredness in his voice, and I feel for the guy. Doctors said he lost a lot of blood. It’ll take him a while to gain his energy back. “I take it the guy’s dead?”

I nod, not that he can see me. “Yeah. The boys got a bit carried away. Just pissed that it wasn’t me who got to put the bullet between his eyes.”

He nods softly as if he gets it. And why wouldn’t he? Every Hound wants to be the one to end those who’ve wronged someone they care for.

“Thing is….” I look at the machines as they continue to beep away, then back at him. “He did some talking before the boys ended his life.”

His eyes flutter open softly.

“Turns out he wasn’t just Viv’s stalker but also involved with the former VP, Cast Off’s crew. Said he was paid to hunt and deliver the products to someone who would bring them to the auction or just a holding facility. Want to hear the real kicker?”

He swallows and nods.

“That limo driver we let go who we thought wasn’t involved with Viv’s drugging that first night?

Turns out he was involved in the trafficking ring too.

So was the boxer who Viv fought that night.

And the guy who drugged her. Seems every single person who was involved in Cast Off’s crew was all in on Viv getting taken.

They all wanted her, but for different reasons.

Her stalker—his name is Henry, by the way—was part of Mack’s security.

Not that Mack knew. He was pretty pissed when he found out.

Even took the body off our hands and said he had people who would be interested in some of his parts.

Guy wanted his own pound of flesh, it seems.” I laugh at that as I move around the room.

“Well, you see, Henry was the classic stalker type. Fell for Viv’s smile, and that was it for him.

Wanted her and created this whole coupling thing between him and her up in his head.

He was definitely touched in the head.” I hit my temple to drive the point home.

I wish it was something else I was hitting, but I breathe through my issues and continue.

Being mad right now isn’t going to do shit.

“As for the others? Well, they were just meant to get good old Henry back in line. They figured if they took his obsession, then he’d be more willing to start his old job up again.

Apparently, when Cast Off was killed, leadership went out the window.

No one knew who was in charge. Or, more appropriately, everyone wanted to be in charge. ”

I give him a look that has my eyebrow rising and my lips twitching, to which he nods. He gets it. Too many hens in the henhouse.

“So that’s why he killed all of them,” Link says, understanding it quickly. Kid always was able to jump to conclusions. Figuring things out so quickly.

Too quickly.

“Yeah. Looks like it. But….” I let that single word hold in the air between us as I stop moving. Stop almost breathing as I center myself in front of his bed and look him right in the eyes as I speak. “They weren’t the only ones looking to take over.”

I watch his throat constrict and his eyes dart around the room for a second before resting back on me. No one else is here, and nothing’s within reach for him to do anything with. Like protect himself. From me.

“Seems as if there was another group.”

The machines start to beep. I glance at them and see his heart rate is making the lines go up and down like one of those machines that register earthquakes.

I walk back to his side and turn my body to look over his machine.

I never was good with the doctor bit. Always put superglue on a cut and a bandage on something that didn’t seal right away.

Never bothered to learn. Still don’t. But I look over his system of machines to try and understand them and what all the bells and whistles mean as I tell him what else we found.

“Seems the other group was part of the Hounds. Or they were.”

“Who?” he asks. The quake in his voice makes me smile, but I hide it from him as I look over my shoulder at him.

“Shovel. That’s why Henry killed him. He was in it for the money.

He was going to be the new driver. And you remember that vamp who didn’t want to go when I first arrived?

Apparently, she was supposed to be the new spotter.

The one who found the people who would be taken and tell Henry to stalk and bring to Shovel. ”

I turn around to face him, not wanting to miss a single second. I wish I had a camera to watch this on repeat afterward. “But you already knew all that.”

I show him the plug I pulled from the machine.

The one that’s no longer beeping and won’t alert anyone if something were to happen to a patient.

When I figured it out, I was so angry with myself that I didn’t see it.

That I could be fooled. But then a small voice that sounded like Viv’s in my head told me to calm down.

To remove the emotion and think. I did the exact same shit that Bane did.

I got fooled by the shiny things the kid was showing me.

I was missing what he was hiding till it was almost too late.