Page 64 of Ghost's Obsession

I freeze, waiting with bated breath for him to finish his thought. Siege takes a step closer as well.

Merc keeps his eyes down, like he’s struggling with whether to tell us what he knows or not.

“Before we hit the clinic, Carnage said if things went bad, he’d take her to a place with walls and no windows. Some place that he scouted out weeks ago. He kept talking about it already having food stores. He claimed it was abandoned but that the electricity was still working there.”

“Where was it located? What was it called?” I ask.

“He didn’t say, but one time he called it the Sugar Palace. Said Heather would sweeten up once she saw that hideout.”

My blood runs cold. The Sugar palace. It has to be North Ridge Confections.

We all know that place. Most of the kids in this area went there on field trips as a kid. It’s the only place that could be construed as a sugar palace.

Rigs meets my eyes and he nods once. He remembers too. That’s all I need.

I stand up straight, pull my cut tight across my chest.

“Zen!” Siege barks, his voice echoing through the concrete hall. “Pull every satellite image we’ve got. I want every entry point, back road, sewer line, and shadow near that candy plant mapped as soon as possible.”

Siege turns towards Merc one last time. “You just saved your life.”

Merc doesn’t seem so sure. The expression on his face tells me he’s miserable for having to betray his club leader. The thing is, Joker isn’t losing his mind. He looks strangely blank, likemaybe he wanted to tell us but couldn’t bring himself to betray his leader.

The minute we step out of the room and close the door behind us, Tex runs up to us, looking all kinds of fuckin’ freaked out.

“Heads up Prez. Sons of Rage are headed our way. Rock got wind of what happened to Brittany, and he’s ready to kill whoever the fuck did this to her.”

Siege sighs. “They should have left it to us to handle this situation, now that she’s married to a member of our club.”

Rigs rolls his eyes. “Rock ain’t gonna let anyone mess with his only granddaughter. And Queenie won’t be leaving until Brittany’s well again. They might even want to take her back with them for a while.” Glancing at Siege, Rigs tells him, “Brittany was our responsibility. You’d best put in a call to Rock and make nice. You know Tusk has called them already.”

“How bad were her injuries?” Siege asks Tex.

“Pretty damn bad. Carnage slammed her through a piece of glass. Tore her back completely up. Tusk says it’s going to take dozens of stitches to close.”

Siege curses under his breath, pulls out his phone and strolls away to get some privacy to make the call.

I reach out and grab Tex’s arm, giving him a little jerk. “I’m damn sorry about what happened to Brittany, but I want more information on what happened to Heather. Have any of your cop contacts come through?”

“I’ve pulled in a couple of favors. They plan to review the security footage from the lab and then they’ll know more.”

“Thanks, brother,” I tell him before racing back up to the first floor and straight to Zen’s office. I don’t even knock. I just run through the open door and come to a skidding stop right in front of him.

He’s hunched over a huge screen with several others glowing from along one wall. Maps, overlays, city blueprints. His fingers fly across a split keyboard as he tries to track down the information Siege asked for earlier.

Stepping closer, I look over his shoulder at the information he’s scrolling though. “You got anything yet?”

“With that last bit of information you and Siege got out of Merc, I’m almost there.”

“This all looks like gibberish to me. Please tell me you’ve got something actionable.”

Zen drags one screen wide and taps twice. A candy-colored logo fills the screen along with the company name: North Ridge Confections. The map zooms out to show a chunk of forestland just past county lines.

“I found two possibilities,” he explains. “I was looking for a hideout, this is the one I’d pick. It was abandoned twenty years ago. No power grid. No visible traffic in or out for ages. It fell into receivership after current owner’s grandfather died. It seems he like to keep business properties in his own name.”

He swipes left. “Old inspection reports show it’s got underground storage, solid insulation, and no visible windows from the north side. If I wanted to stash someone and stay off-grid, this is where I’d do it.”

“That sounds like a really good location for a hideout. Unfortunately, part of the intel Merc gave us was that he hadit rigged out like a fucking survivalist’s shelter. Unless he’s managed to hook up an electricity supply, it doesn’t sound like he’d be in an abandoned factory.”

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