Page 5 of The Devil’s Escape (The Devil’s Soldiers #7)

CHAPTER FOUR

SHADOW

They have him, and we’re going to find him and bring him back.

“Why can’t you come with us, Daddy?” Macy pouts, looking at me as she stands with her mother just outside of security at the airport.

She’s clutching her favorite stuffed animal, still dressed her in her pajamas, and her hair in a hastily done braid that she insisted I do before we left the house.

My heart aches knowing that I’m sending her away, but it’s for the best.

“I need to fix a few things here and then I’ll come,” I promise her, crouching so we’re face to face. “I need you to be good for your mama, okay? She’s tired of carrying around your siblings.”

“I keep saying she needs to take them out already,” Macy reminds me. “Why would they want to stay in there when they can come out and play with me?”

I can’t help but smile. “Well, I’m afraid that they’re going to be in there awhile longer. They’re not done cooking yet. You should be good for Auntie Peyton, Grandma, and Grandpa, too, okay? They’re really excited to see you.”

Macy nods. “Grandma promised we’d go shopping for new clothes,” she says with a big smile. “But I need some money, Daddy, and I don’t have time to paint any pictures for the uncles.”

“Macy,” Quinn groans.

I chuckle and pull out my wallet. I pull out a twenty and hand it to her. “Will that be enough?” She makes a big deal of inspecting it before she nods and grins at me. “Good. Now you be good and listen to your mama, right, Macy?”

She tucks the bill in the small pocket of her pajama pants and then she throws her arms around my neck, holding me tight. “I’ll miss you, Daddy,” she whispers.

“I’ll miss you too, baby girl,” I tell her, kissing her forehead. “But it won’t be for long, right? Make sure you do a bunch of pictures for me. I need more for the fridge at home.”

She nods, and I hold her tight as I look down at Quinn who looks like she’s on the verge of tears. I move Macy to my hip and wrap my free arm around her, pulling her in tight. “Everything will be fine,” I promise her softly, cupping the back of her head to tilt her head up to look up at me.

“Promise me you’ll be safe,” she whispers, her voice quivering as she tries to hold back her emotions.

“Always, sunshine,” I promise her. I lean down to press a kiss to her lips.

She grips my shirt tightly, not wanting to let go.

When I pull away, I move my hand from her head to her stomach, feeling the movements of the babies under my palm.

It’s a feeling I’ll never get enough of.

“I’ll see you all soon,” I tell her, looking at her with a promise in my eyes.

Quinn nods. “I love you,” she tells me, laying her head on my chest briefly before stepping back. “Alright, Macy, let’s go. Eden, Archer, and Sadie are waiting for us over there.”

Some more hugs and tears from Macy later, along with another kiss from Quinn, they finally head for security.

A heavy weight settles in my chest as I watch them go, but then it instantly lightens slightly when I hear Macy ask Quinn, “Is this like the last time with Auntie Peyton and Grandma and Grampa? Do we have to have toys in our suitcases too? I have this one, but nothing else. Oh no! We forgot the dildo, Mama. We forgot it!”

I start to laugh, unable to help myself.

Quinn shoots daggers at me as she tries to calm Macy down and also tells her to stop asking about that stupid dildo.

God, I might need that bail fund after all if the security guys overheard that.

I turn and head out to where Viper and Bowie are waiting.

Both of them have different expressions.

Bowie looks pained, while Viper looks smug.

Viper snickers. “Sadie didn’t take too kindly to being told that she had to go,” he explains. “Gave our brother here a good knee to the nuts for his trouble before she headed in with Eden and Archer. Think he’s rethinking a few things now.”

“Thought it was your woman who was the ball buster,” Bowie grits out tightly, wincing as he shifts slightly to turn and open the rear passenger door of the SUV.

“The girl spends time at a sex club, and she’s the one in charge,” Viper reminds him pointedly as he gets in the front passenger seat, and I climb in the driver’s seat. “And Eden’s the ass killer, not the ball killer.” He sighs with contentment. “I love that woman.”

“You and your love of crazy women is fucking nuts,” Bowie huffs.

“It keeps life fun,” Viper answers with a shrug. “And speaking of women, what the fuck is going on with you and Sadie?”

Bowie doesn’t answer for a moment. I glance back at him in the rearview mirror and see the pained expression on his face.

He huffs and answers, “It’s complicated. We aren’t really in a serious relationship, more just having a little fun, but the woman is fucking with my head. Makes me want to keep her around, then she does shit to piss me off and I’m ready to walk the hell away and be done, but I keep going back.”

“Welcome to having a woman, brother.” Viper laughs, turning his head to look back at him. “You want to love them and hate them at the same time.”

“Maybe with her away, this will make things easier.” Bowie sighs. “I’ll get over whatever I’m feeling. I don’t want an Old Lady. I’m happy with the way things are.”

I glance at Viper again, and the look on his face tells me he’s thinking the same thing.

Bowie might be saying that, but the tone in his voice is doubtful.

The man is falling for Sadie, and he’s fighting it.

It’s between the two of them, but it seems he’s going to have some decisions to make shortly once we get this whole shit figured out.

Poor bastard.

My phone rings. “On our way back to the clubhouse,” I tell Bullet.

“Hulk and Cobra are missing,” Bullet says grimly, putting me instantly on alert.

Of all things he could have said, I didn’t expect that. My fist clenches as I try to comprehend what he’s just said. “Send us the coordinates,” I tell Bullet. “We’ll go and take a look.”

“Good.” He rambles off the location, and I see Viper already putting it into his phone.

“And Shadow, make sure your eyes are open. I don’t have a good feeling about this.

” There’s a tone to his voice that comes through loud and clear.

He’s got a feeling about something that he doesn’t want to say aloud.

“We’ll let you know what we find,” I tell him before hanging up and hitting the gas to head toward the location.

“Fuck, I don’t have a good feeling about this,” Viper says tightly. “Do you think that the location was wrong?”

“No,” I say with a shake of my head. “Thea knows what she’s doing, and she’s not going to make a mistake on this. She knows how important it is not to make a mistake, especially on this kind of thing.”

“You think Vlad got to them?” Bowie asks.

“It’s the only thing I can think of.”

“Wouldn’t Cryos notice if they were offline?” Viper asks, already pulling out his phone. He dials and Cryos answers on the other end almost immediately. “Where is Hulk’s location showing?”

“It’s showing as still at the location he went to,” Cryos answers. “I already tried calling it and Cobra, but neither are answering.”

“And Cobra’s also showing there?”

“Yes, but it’s a bit further away from Hulk’s. Could mean they’re being held in different places, or maybe they split up and were caught.”

“We’ll find out when we get there,” Viper assures him. “Any cameras or anything on the way that we need to know about? Or any side roads that we can hide the SUV on?”

“Shit, right, forgot you’re not on your bikes.

Let me see what I can find. You’re ten minutes out, and I’ll have something for you in five minutes,” Cryos promises and the line goes dead.

The next five minutes are silent and full of tension until he calls back.

“There’s a side road about half a mile down the road that has thick tree cover.

Viper, I just sent those exact coordinates to you.

Head there, and keep your phones with you so I can track you.

Run into trouble, shoot an SOS to me, and I’ll have Bullet and those around get there as fast as they can. ”

When we finally reach the side road, I turn off the lights before pulling down and parking.

We get out of the SUV and Viper signals for us to look forward.

It’s dark, but I can just make out the reflection of chrome in the underbrush.

We walk forward, and I instantly see Hulk’s bike.

Clearly, they came here to walk in. “I don’t see Cobra’s,” Bowie murmurs, looking around.

I glance at Viper, who frowns at that, but we don’t have time to scout around for the other bike.

It’s here somewhere, but right now we need to find Hulk and Cobra themselves.

“Let’s head that way,” I murmur. “Viper, you good to go north? Bowie, you head east and I’ll go west.” Both of them nod and we set out.

We move through the brush, careful not to step on any sticks or rustle too many leaves. We don’t want to alert anyone that we’re around. Not yet.

I reach the edge of the clearing and stop to listen.

There’s nothing. Not a sound. Not a single rustle of a leaf or someone moving or talking around the area.

Either they are all very good at hiding, or no one is here, and that doesn’t bode well for finding Hulk.

I pull my gun from the small of my back and creep forward, constantly looking around for danger as I take in the door on the side of the mountain, looking for any cameras.

I don’t see any, but that doesn’t mean they’re not there.

I look across and see Bowie and Viper both coming in from their directions, but Viper’s face is grim. “What did you find?” I ask him quietly.

“Found tracks that show something heavy was dragged from there and to another hidden path,” he replies. “And I found blood on the leaves.”

Shit. “Let’s go take a look. Bowie, you good to scout around here for anything else?”

He nods. “No sign of Cobra,” he adds. “I found tracks too, but they look like they circle back here. I’ll follow them and see what I can find.”

We split up, and I follow Viper back to where the trail of blood, drag marks, and some tire marks end. I look around, peering for anything, until I kick something, making me stop. I bend and curse when I realize what it is. I pick it up and show it to Viper. “Hulk’s phone.”

“Fuck,” Viper hisses.

I open it, remembering the password that Hulk told me about once in case I ever needed to access it, and then I search through his messages and pictures.

I stop when I see the picture of the door, and then the video immediately after.

“Shit, look at this.” I quickly tap it, careful to keep the volume low just in case, and it doesn’t take long until the camera closes, but Hulk must have hit the record button, because we hear a blow strike him, a grunt, and then him fall, but it’s the words at the end of the video that have us going still.

“Sorry, brother,” the muffled voice says.

I’m about to curse, but stop when I hear a new voice, this one deeper and with a distinct Russian accent say, “ Consider this the first step to your repayment. ”

Who the fuck is that? Nikolai? Vlad? And what the fuck are they talking about?

“What’s going to happen to him?” another male voice asks, a slight hint of something like guilt in the tone.

“That is not your concern. Now, get out of here before I kill you and be done with it, ” the Russian replies, and then the only thing we can hear is shuffling and an order barked in Russian before the recording is done.

I look at Viper, and the rage on his face matches mine. “We have a fucking traitor,” Viper hisses.

“But who? Cobra? Why?” I wonder. “But I can’t tell if that’s him on the recording or not.”

“Get it to Cryos and tell him to be careful,” Viper orders. “We need to talk to Bullet.”

My phone vibrates and I see Bowie’s name on the screen. “I found Cobra,” he says grimly. “He’s hurt pretty bad, looks like he was jumped.”

“Call Bullet and tell him we need Medic,” I order. “And tell him we found Hulk’s phone. He’s been taken.”

“Fuck. On it.” Then the line goes dead.

I look at Viper and I can see the same question on his face as I’m feeling. Why would they take Hulk and not Cobra? Why were they separated? Something is rotten around here, but we need to focus on getting Hulk back as soon as we can.

“We need to talk to Bullet,” Viper says grimly. “And we need to do it as far away from Arson and the Misfits as possible.” On that, we can agree.

“We need to call Frost. He’s our best tracker, and if anyone can find where Hulk is after this, it’s him.”

“I’ll call him.” Viper nods.

I send the video to Cryos and text Bullet at the same time.

Shadow: Need this analyzed ASAP. Keep it quiet. We have a traitor.

We need to find Hulk, and we need to find him soon. Vlad won’t keep him alive forever. Hulk is one strong son of a bitch, but even he will have limits.

Who dared to call him brother and then feed him to the wolves?