Page 11 of Black Hearts
It wasn’t like I was close to all of my adopted brothers. Whether it was through shared blood or not, even the Scotts themselves weren’t buddy-buddy with each and every one of their siblings. There were just too damn many.
Rave was pretty sane on the Scott scale of psycho, but then again, that wasn’t saying much. He had a thing for smoking and a love of tattoos—again, not something that separated him from a lot of us.
Hell, I wasn’t sure he would pick up. He owed me no answer, and yet without him, the others and I would be in the dark until we did our own stakeout on Fred’s house. We couldn’t just barge in; we had to go at this smart.
But that was a problem for future us. Right now, we needed to focus on getting out of this house and getting on the road. Getting in contact with Rave and having him watch over the house in our stead would be a plus, and my metaphorical fingers were crossed as I listened to the ringing of his phone on the other line.
I swore to God, Rave waited until the last possible second to pick up the phone. “Hey, man,” he said once he picked it up. “Why the hell you calling me?” Blunt and straight to the point, he almost sounded grumpy.
“Where are you?”
“Uh, I’m missing the reason why that’s any of your fucking business, Jax. I don’t answer to you. There’s only one brother I answer to, and it ain’t you—”
“Our father is here, and he forced Markus to hand over the girl I love,” I cut in, wanting to punch the nearest wall. “Her name is Juliet Osborne. You know her. You fucking watched me bring her in. I know you were scoping out Fred.”
“For Markus, who’s apparently been a naughty boy when it comes to this Juliet. Look, I don’t need the whole picture, just tell me why you’re calling.”
“If you’re still in the area, I need you to watch the Osborne house. I don’t know how long ago they left here, but I’m assuming it wasn’t that long. I need you to watch and make sure nothing goes wrong until we get there.”
Rave was silent for a few moments. “What makes you think he’ll come back home with her? What if he takes her and runs somewhere else?”
That possibility had occurred to me, but deep down, a killer who’d murdered as many girls as he had definitely had a system, and going on the run wasn’t his M.O. “He’ll bring her back to the house. It’s where he killed her mother. It’s his safe place. It’s got too many memories.”
“Serial killers are creatures of habit.” He paused. “Fine, I’ll go back to the Osborne house and keep watch, but if Markus asks—or our father—I’ll tell them both I had nothing to do with this. Don’t want to piss off either of the big guys.”
“Thank you.”
Rave didn’t say anything to that; he simply hung up the phone, and I didn’t wait a second longer. I hurried out of the room, grabbing what I needed from the house. I met Will and Bennet in the garage, both of them already waiting for me by the time I got there.
“Did you see him?” Will asked. “Your father?”
It still felt weird to call Johnathan Scott my father, since the man hadn’t raised me at all, but legally, he was my adopted father. I shook my head no. “I didn’t stay around long enough to find out. I don’t think he’ll be wanting a family reunion.” I went to grab the keys to my car. Really, that was our only saving grace; our father wasn’t the kind of man who cared about his children in a fatherly sense. We were more like worker bees to him than children.
And love? The man didn’t know what the hell love was, which was why he would never understand the reason behind this rogue mission.
“Fuck him,” Will muttered.
“And fuck Markus,” Bennet hissed out.
I rolled my eyes. How on earth I’d gotten stuck with these two was beyond me. Will, who’d touched Juliet while she slept, and Bennet, who’d freaking kidnapped her. Neither of them were good men… but I supposed I wasn’t good, either. There were no heroes in this estate. The closest I supposed would be Theo, and even he carried a darkness in him, evident by how he’d nearly choked Will out in the basement.
God, that felt like ages ago, but in reality, it hadn’t been too long. Juliet had seen and done a lot of things since then: Hillcrest, getting kidnapped, almost raped by Lincoln, and now taken away by her father. Things seriously couldn’t calm down for her, or for us. It must be an unwritten rule.
We got in the car. I drove us out of the garage, to the front gate, and away from the estate without any of us saying another word. It was only when the large, impressive estate loomed in the rearview mirror that I mentioned Rave to the others and how he would be watching for us. We did stop at an ATM, each of us pulling out as much cash as we could on our cards; having a hefty stash was smart. Theo was right.
I’d be damned if I went back into that house only to hand her over to our father. Hell, I’d be damned if I ever handed her over to anybody ever again. I was done playing soldier. If I had to choose between life as a Scott and life as a nameless no one with Juliet by my side, I’d choose the latter.
She’d be safer out of that house, anyway, and as for Markus—after what he did, he sure as shit didn’t deserve her.
As I drove, we discussed what the plan would be. Bennet, typical Bennet, wanted to barge into the Osborne house and grab her right away. Will took on more of a cautious approach, which I could appreciate, wanting to scope out the property and Fred’s routine with Rave before making any rash decisions.
“I think,” I started after hearing them both out, “I like Will’s idea better.” That caused Bennet to groan and glower. “If we barge in, he might resort to drastic measures, and even though we’re fast and outnumber Fred, there’s no telling what he’ll do. He might have a gun. He might use it on Juliet.”
Bennet let out a sound that told me he was annoyed. Annoyed, but reserved. He knew I was right. We couldn’t just barge into the house without thinking, without coming up with a plan for every scenario we might encounter.
Will spoke, “Do you really think he’d kill his own daughter?” He sat in the passenger seat beside me, his top half turned toward me, waiting.
“He already killed his wife,” I said, glancing at him. “And all those girls—girls who look remarkably like Juliet. She might’ve been relatively safe there before, but after everything… I don’t know if Fred will be the same man she knew him as before.”
