Loud, jarring, eardrum-bruising music roars through the muggy basement. I’m still soaked from the rain. I’m tempted to suck the water from the part of my shirt that I can reach with my mouth while I have the chance, but the gag prevents it. As bad as I want to cry, I don’t want to help them dehydrate me even quicker.
Ben doesn’t realize something very important. A person can change a lot in two months, especially when their life depends on it. He’s going to have one hell of a time breaking me.
Chapter 18
DREX
The table hits the ground as I flip it over, and I throw a chair across the room that Axle narrowly dodges.
“Fucking find her! They had to have passed store cameras. Fucking traffic cameras. Something, damn it! They didn’t just disappear!”
Rush walks in with bloody hands and he shakes his head at my silent question. It’s all I can do to keep from going downstairs and blowing the Hell Breather’s head off.
“He’s Benny’s right hand man and he doesn’t know shit about this. If he knew, he would have talked,” Rush tells me. “What do you want me to do with him? I can’t just let him go back to Benny like that until we know for sure what’s going on. It’s just going to stir shit.”
“We shouldn’t have snatched him up. It was rash and fucking stupid,” Axle growls.
“Rash and fucking stupid is taking Eve! She’s been missing for three days, Axle. Three fucking days. Imagine what those sick bastards are doing to her and tell me I’m being rash and stupid.”
His jaw tightens and he looks over at Rush.
“Let me have some time with him.”
“You think you’re going to get more out of him than I did?” Rush asks, lifting an eyebrow.
“You’re not as motivated as I am. I don’t want her going through what I think she’s going through,” he says quietly.
No one speaks as he walks out, but the second he’s gone, I smash my fist into the wall, feeling my knuckles split on impact.
“I’ll fucking get him to talk,” I growl, turning toward the door, but Dash, Snake, and Rush all block me.
“Hell nah,” Rush says, shaking his head. “We already discussed this, D. You’ll kill him. We need him alive. There’s going to be enough hell to pay for this. Dad is doing all he can to keep this shit from Herrin.”
“Fuck Pop,” I snap.
“You can say that now, but when Herrin locks you up and lets his boys take turns whipping you back into line, you’ll regret it. Let’s keep this shit quiet for now,” Dash interjects. “Eve needs you to keep your fucking head on right now.”
Eve needs me.
I sent her out there to be safe from all this shit. I did everything I possibly could to keep her safe. And somehow that fucking weasel still got his hands on her.
The door blows open, and I turn just as Sarah walks in. The fuck is she doing here?
“Find anything?” Snake asks her as she pulls out a laptop from her backpack.
My eyes cut to him but he doesn’t meet my gaze.
“It was raining too hard to find anything on traffic cams or surveillance footage, since we don’t know what vehicle took her or which direction they went. We don’t even have an exact timeframe of the crash, since Drake is in and out of consciousness right now and unable to say much more than ‘that fucker’ when he is awake. Blame the painkillers and surgeries. But I think I found something.”
I move behind her, having no fucking clue how she even knows what’s going on, but right now I don’t give a damn.
“Someone had to have scoped her out and learned her routine to know she was going to and from the shop with Drake. After the attack on Drex’s house, Drake severed all ties to the Hell Breathers.”
She pulls up a picture of a familiar face on the screen. “This is Larry Monroe a.k.a. The Dragon. He was nearly beat to death by Benny after he allegedly stole drugs from—”
“We know,” Snake, Rush, and I all say in unison, even though mine is more of a growl.
“Sheesh. Sorry. Anyway, he was hanging out outside of Fuck Me Ink for the past three days. I spotted him on film, but he hasn’t been on any of the appointment lists I’ve gone through.”
“Why the hell didn’t someone notice him?” I snap.
“He never pulled up when someone was outside. He only sat out there when he saw the security was inside. You can see right through the windows when Drake has the blinds up,” Sarah explains. “And it’s not like he was obvious about it. Drake’s place is right next door to a few other businesses. He just sat at the corner and made it look like he was waiting for someone. And he drove a different vehicle every day.”