Rusty stumbling drunk and passing out in bed. Skylar leaving in the morning. Two figures in hooded jackets entering the room. One hits Rusty in the head with something, a big flashlight maybe, or a pipe, it was hard to tell. They look in the bag on the nightstand and pick it up. Taking it, they both leave the room. A moment later, one of them comes back in and stabs the dagger into Rusty’s chest. As the man turns, he practically looks right at the camera.
Shades froze the video and turned to Ghost. “You recognize him?”
“Nope.”
Shades played the rest.
Skylar comes back in, dropping the coffee, she slowly approaches the bed, obviously shaking.
“Fuck,” Ghost murmured. “This is hard to watch. It’s like watching her whole world fall apart.”
They watched the rest of the video.
The DKs coming in, the paramedics and police arriving, them taking Rusty out.
“Wait a minute. Back up.”
Ghost backed the video up.
“If the guy’s dead, why didn’t they pull the sheet over his head?”
“You’re right. Check out the IV. Last I heard they don’t hook up an IV to a dead guy.”
“Fuck. He wasn’t dead.”
“At least not then.”
“And maybe not now.”
Twenty minutes later, Ghost and Shades quietly approached the DK clubhouse, staying out of sight. They crouched behind some bushes.
“What’s the plan here?” Ghost asked.
“I go in and I get her,” Shades replied, studying the clubhouse, a rundown warehouse in a sketchy side of town.
“You can’t go in there alone,” Ghost protested. “Wait for the guys. They’re not that far out.”
“I need to get to her. I need her to know I’m here. I just need to get inside, Ghost.”
“Yeah, that’s half the battle. Of course it’s the getting out part that’s the really dangerous bloody part.”
“If I don’t come out, if we don’t come out…call the brothers and light this motherfucking place up.”
“Shades, Christ, you don’t know what you’re up against.”
“I am getting her back, if it’s my last fucking act on this earth.”
“Shades—”
“No matter how this ends, it ends today.” He stood and began walking toward the gate. He wasn’t waiting. Not one more minute. Not another minute of knowing Skylar was trapped inside with those monsters. Not another minute of wondering what she’d already endured because Shades hadn’t fucking dealt with the fucking DKs weeks ago. Going in with an army took too long. He couldn’t wait.
Ghost pulled his cell out and punched in some numbers, muttering, “Jesus H Christ. You stubborn motherfucker.”
****
Rusty stared down at Skylar. “Your life means something to me, Skylar. But if I don’t start getting the truth, that’s gonna cease to be the case.”
She’d given up trying to convince him and stubbornly stayed mute.