Page 26 of Vicious Souls

“A few scrapes and bruises here and there, but otherwise fine,” he informs me.

“That was a pretty brazen attack. You sure it was the Savages?”

“Confirmation via one of the deceased,” he tells me. “He’s been on their payroll for fourteen years.”

“Bodies?”

“Two. Taken care of.”

I pace around the room, the pad of my thumb tapping the pad of my index finger as I delve further into the troubled state I’m in. Something about this doesn’t seem right and I know I’m missing a crucial piece of the puzzle here.

“This have anything to do with you using the police to cut them off a few weeks ago?” Marco asks, giving me an unsure look. My mind wanders back to the night I’d rescued Moneybags from the motorcycle gang, how they’d followed us through the darkened night and we couldn’t shake them until I called in a favor and got the police to pull them over so we could lose them. Something wasn’t gelling. They wouldn’t go to such extraordinary lengths to hit us over something as simple as an incident of road rage. I can’t imagine that they’d be willing to lose any of their men to something so insignificant. I also can’t imagine that their President would sanction such actions over a girl refusing one of their own. No one wants that sort of attention pointing towards them. And no one wants to make an enemy of the Accardis.

“I can’t imagine it would have anything to do with that,” I tell him, confusion clouding my mind.

“Then what do they want?”

“This has to be about the girl. Definitely the girl. But more importantly – how did they find us?”

There is a buzzing at the side of my head, like a gnawing feeling that refuses to die, trying to tell me something. I am definitely missing something, and that something lurks in the back of my mind, a puzzle waiting to be deciphered.

“You sure our team is airtight?” I ask him. Marco I am sure of. There is nothing he wouldn’t do to protect me. Some of the others though, although carefully vetted and working for us only after Marco had run them through rigorous security checks and even stricter training, had not been with us as long. Marco shakes his head vehemently. He would stake his life there wasn’t a leak in our camp.

I walk around the room, then stop, lifting my head and closing my eyes, reviewing everything from the night I first came into contact with the Savages. I had pulled a gun on them, allowing for Moneybags to run and retrieve my car. We’d driven through dark, deserted streets, at breakneck speed, trying to ditch the motorcycles that were on our tail. We’d enlisted the help of the local police to have them sideline them as we made our escape. We’d eventually ditched them and made our way to the cabin. In the morning, my car was gone and so was Moneybags. The car was returned…

I open my eyes suddenly and look down at Marco, my blazing eyes like focused pinpoints cutting through him.

24

DANTE

The car. The car had been wiped clean of any trace it had been handled by anyone else. It was gone for two days. The car… it had to be the car. The Savages owned a string of service stations up and down the freeway – hell, we had even had occasion to use their services at times.

“I want you to take my car,” I say, removing the key from my pocket. “Take it to the empty storage unit.” Marco throws me a puzzled look. “Park it in the garage and check it for a tracking device. If you find one, leave it there. Bring the car back and park it out front where it is now. Take some men with you – I don’t want you at the facility on your own.”

“You think the car has been compromised.”

“I’m almost certain that’s what happened and how they found us. The question now is, why? What do they want?”

* * *

I know evenbefore Marco returns that the car is what led the Savages to us. There is no other possibility. And the look on Marco’s face tells me everything he couldn’t say on the phone. The car has been tampered with, an external tracking device attached. Which means the car and the cabin are now compromised. I can no longer count on using either.

We make plans to move that night, and I thank the heavens for the foresight we’d had to park SUVs in the garage of the house we’d moved to after the raid. The men at the other house have already cleared out, each couple taking a car which they ditch in a random place along the way in case they are being followed, before climbing into new cars and moving on to their new destinations.

Marco drives us out of the garage at midnight, Kingsley sitting beside me, her wrist handcuffed to mine. No chance of escape should things go south, and I don’t want to risk her jumping out of the car when we’re parked at a set of lights.

“This is a little overkill, don’t you think?” she mutters, pulling at the handcuffs. I throw her a sideways glance but remain otherwise quiet. The girl has been nothing but trouble ever since I’ve met her, and I am determined to ditch her ass the first chance I get.

“Tell me what happened the night I ‘saved your life’…” I stress my point to remind her that I’d done her a favor and emphasize that I’d done myself a disservice, “and you took my car and left me stranded at the cabin.”

Moneybags shrinks back in her seat when she understands the murderous look on my face for what it is. She looks almost surprised that I am no longer being remotely civil to her. Almost losing some of your best men can do that to you. She has no idea how quickly I can turn from neutral to murderous; I had hoped she’d never have to see that side of me. I give her a short, angry nod, telling her to speak.

“I drove home.”

“And?”

She looks bewildered, turning in her seat to face me as she wonders what I’m getting at.

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