Page 99 of The Devils Melody

“Bye bye, birdie.”

34

Kage

THE EXECUTIONER

Neither of us have said a word since we left Wren's apartment, both too blinded by rage to even breathe properly. I can feel it thrumming under my skin like it has a mind of its own and I’m just its vessel. Every nerve ending is screaming for blood.

His blood.

The second we saw Richard's face on the footage, everything clicked into place. He’s been circling her like a fucking vulture for weeks. I don’t know how we didn’t see it. We were so drunk on the bliss of being with Wren and blinded by the jealousy of him continuously popping up like a damn jack-in-the-box to focus on what was clearly right fucking in front of us.

He wasn’t trying to steal her away to keep her to himself because he wanted to be with her. He was trying to trade her into the fucking skin trade like she was nothing but a slab of flesh with a price tag. A goddamn dollar sign he couldn’t wait to cash in.

Just thinking about what he wants to do to her, what those men would do to her, it has me vibrating withanticipation to tear them all apart with my bare hands. Feel their bones crack under my fingers and hear them scream as I carve every ounce of fear into them.

Lennox keeps his eyes on the road, silent but sensing the storm that coils inside of me. He knows me too well. Knows that there’s really no sense in saying anything to me to try and calm me down because it just won’t work. I’m well past the point of being able to think straight.

My phone vibrates once in the center console but I’m too focused on Richard to even think about answering it. It vibrates two more times and I snatch it up to check it in annoyance.

It’s Wren.

Text message.

Missed Call.

Voicemail.

Fuck.

Little Bird: Hey, I know you said to stay put but Retta is still out sick. I’m going to bring her soup and check in on her. I’m calling an Uber there but if it wouldn’t be too much trouble, could you pick me up on your way home?

Checking the time stamp,I see she sent it forty-two minutes ago.

“No,” I hiss, my teeth clenched. “No, no, no…”

I try to call her back, but it goes straight tovoicemail.

FUCK!

Jimmy’s name lights up the screen and I answer it, putting him on speaker.

“Kage—fuck, man. I’ve been calling you for twenty minutes! Where have you been?”

I can feel Nox shift beside me, his hands tightening on the wheel as he listens in on our conversation, eyes flicking between the road and me.

“Jimmy, where’s Wren? Can you check the location on her phone?” I growl, barely being able to keep my shit together.

“Why? What’s?—”

“Can you fucking find it or not?!”

“Y-yeah man, I can, but listen…I called about her coworker, Loretta. She’s been missing for two weeks.”

The words hit me like a fucking shotgun shell straight to the chest. This can’t be happening. Wren just went over there. She said she’s been texting her this whole fucking time.

“Nobody's seen or heard from her, I think the same people that got Chen got to her too.”