Page 41 of Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

12.

Gage

The Lords hit Smithfield in a precession of pipes and eardrum-shattering rumbles befitting the road royalty that we are. Battle ready and here to conquer. If I hadn’t seen it, been a part of it myself so many times over the years, I’d be standing out on the sidewalk watching the invaders in awe just as so many of the townspeople are now.

I watch for a different reason, to lead them back to Liv’s place. After hiring a restoration company to clean the place up, it was supposed to be a surprise for her. Now it’s headquarters to get her back.

Swear to Christ, if she’s not my Liv when I get her back… If the damage inflicted is more than she can handle so she shuts down again—or worse, needs hospitalization—I’llalwayslove her,alwaystake care of her, but there will be fucking,fucking, hell to pay. My impact’ll reach every corner of this fucking globe. Everywhere a horde exists, I will decimate them. I’ll stalk the stalkers and make them wish they’d never been born. Every man who ever hurt a woman will die by my hands.

The world better hope I get her back intact.

The thing with the guard had been going well. I dropped Liv off and drove back to the hotel we were staying at in Virginia Beach to get some of my paperwork finished and return some calls.

I was maybe an hour deep in work when my phone rang and Smitty’s name popped on the screen.

I answered it.

“Hello?” I called into the line. No response. There was a noise and rustling. “Hello?” I called again. Then the line disconnected.

It fucking disconnected.

A bad feeling stirred in my gut. It could’ve just been a butt dial. But no, that was no butt dial. I left Liv at Smitty’s with that crazy bastard still on the loose. So I grabbed up my keys and raced out of the hotel down to my truck.

The drive took no time. Or maybe it took too much time and I shouted out expletives at the goddamned traffic blocking me in so I couldn’t speed.

“Move the fuck over,” I yelled to the car in front of me. When nothing happened, I honked. “Come on, Grandma. Move.”

Grandma couldn’t hear me yell, but she heard the honking. My great-grandchild graduated from college in the time between clicking on her blinker and merging over into the next lane.

My skin felt tight. I pounded my fists against the steering wheel.Okay, I need to calm thefuck down.

Though, the second grandma cleared my lane I pressed down the gas pedal, breaking away from the rest of the pack.

Mayhem was the only way to describe the scene I rolled up on. Red and blue lights flashing, so many cruisers and officers. Yellow tape kept all the gawkers back. At least one ambulance waited to receive passengers.

God, there was so many cars, I ended up double parking and hopping out and down. “Out of my way.” I shoved past people who didn’t react fast enough.

And I slipped under the tape to two uniforms jogging over to me. “You can’t be here, sir.”

“My girlfriend was working here this morning.”

Aw, fuck. That was when my eyes found the spray of blood and brains along the door. My heart rate quickened and I felt about to puke on my boots. “The girl? What happened to the girl? Is she here? Was she hurt?” Questions ripped from my mouth rapid fire, not giving the officers time to answer any one of them.

So what do they do? Cops began harassing me, pressing me back away from the scene. “You need to calm down,” Twat One said in his big boy authoritative voice. I needed to calm down? No, what I needed were answers about Liv. The pressing turned to shoves.

But thank fuck I saw Drinkswine. “Officer Drinkswine,” I called out and immediately got his attention. He nodded once and walked over to the three of us, taking in the scene. Twat One and Twat Two each got a firm grip on my arms just above my wrists and braced, their palms to my shoulders, holding me to the spot.

“I’ve got him,” Drinkswine directed to the twats.

“What can you tell me?” I asked, serious and shaking off the other two. “Liv?”

Drinkswine gave a slight shake of his head. What the fuck did that mean? Was she dead? Was she gone? Was she the one in police custody? “What the hell does that mean, man?” I barked out.

“We’ve got the video, we’re going over it. But Ms. Baxter was gone and Mr. Longe,Smitty…” He paused. There was something about the way he said the man’s name.Shit.“He’ll be lucky to make it through the night.”

“Shot?”

Again, he shook his head. “Head wound.”

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