He shrugged, his eyes wet and dilated as he looked over my shoulder then back at me. “Zeus and Danner sent me to tell ya that they got enough. They’re waitin’ for ya at the police station and I’m supposed to give you a ride.”
“Oh.” I looked down at my phone, at the text conversation with “My Guardian Monster” and pressed the Home screen to close it. “Cool, let’s go.”
He nodded as he led the way down the hall and opened the door for me. It disconcerted me enough to turn to look at him as I past and caught his pale brown eyes. Something jolted free from the back of my mind, something that had lain buried in my traumatized consciousness from the night of the incident at Zeus’s cabin. The night Mute died.
The night I’d looked into a pair of pale brown eyes and saw the evil intention to kill.
I saw the same thing now as I past him when he didn’t think I’d be looking, his eyes hard with purpose and his mouth twisted with malicious pleasure.
Fear catapulted through me as I froze. “I think I’ll just double check—”
“Fuck, what gave me away?” he asked with a nervous laugh then shoved me out the half open door. “I’ve gotten so good at hidin’.”
When I gained my footing, I turned to run only to be caught by Ace Munford who laughed into my hair as he held me against his chest and placed a foul-smelling wad of fabric over my nose and mouth.
“If only you’d come with us in the first place, maybe yer friend wouldn’ta died.”
I tried to pry my mouth away from his hold but blackness edged my vision until that was all I could see.
Zeus.
The door of McClellan’s splintered against the wall as I threw it open and stormed inside with Bat at my back. Warren was still sittin’ in the booth, his smug motherfuckin’ smile frozen on his face as he saw me comin’ for him.
He held up his hands like that would make a fuckin’ difference.
I hauled him over the wooden table and then slammed his back against it, my hand at his throat. “Where the fuck is Lou?”
His throat worked against my hand. “Bathroom.”
“She isn’t in the fuckin’ bathroom you, piece of shit.” I leaned on his neck harder and looked back at Bat and Nova who’d joined us.
Nova shook his head. “Not there, Prez. Fresh tire marks on the street out back. Someone took ’er for fuckin’ sure.”
I could feel Warren’s pulse beat hard under my grip. It called to me like a fuckin’ song. If I put just a little more pressure right there—he choked—for a little longer, he’d be dead.
Fuck but I wanted to kill him.
“Garro,” Danner called from the gapin’ front door. “Put him down.”
I ignored him.
“You want to take one more breath, it better be to tell me where my goddamn woman is,” I growled into Warren’s face.
The fucker started crying.
Pathetic.
“Garro, I mean it. Put the man down,” Danner tried again, from closer this time.
Bat stepped in front of him when he tried to get into my space and held up a hand. “Hold the fuck up.”
“Nova, get this fuck somewhere private,” I ordered and then gave into my impulse to squeeze the breath outta ’im.
Warren was passed out in thirty seconds under my hand. I wanted it to be longer. I wanted the fucker to never wake the fuck up.
But I needed to know what he knew so I could get my fuckin’ wife back.
“Not letting you go with him, Garro. You’ve got to know that,” Danner said.
I waited ’til Nova slung the cunt over his shoulder then led the way out of the bar, aware of the eyes of Entrance at my back. There’d be gossip and news reports. The big bad Fallen had assaulted a teacher at the local watering hole.
I’d make sure there were bigger stories to break before the day was fuckin’ done.
Axe-Man and Buck were already waitin’ on their bikes in the lot and Curtains was pullin’ up with one of the club trucks to transport Warren.
We passed the surveillance van where I’d been sittin’ with Danner and Gibson when we’d seen Lou go to the bathroom and not fuckin’ come back for ten minutes. I’d torn outta there the second it was obvious she wasn’t coming back, clocking Gibson in the temple when he’d tried to stop me. Bet he was still in there passed the fuck out.
A hand closed over my arm from behind me and Danner said, “Zeus, stop and think about this for a fuckin’ minute.”
The van dented with a metallic groan as I threw Danner into the side of it with my arm at his throat and yelled, “You fuckin’ swore you had this shit on fuckin’ lock down, motherfucker.”