Page 72 of Hush (Fighting Fate)

“Motherfucker! It’s gotta be that fucking little cocksucker, Aaron. I’m going to fucking kill him.”

TJ sighed. “Bring the pizzas back here. I’ll see what I can find out from Ken.”

The line disconnected in my ear and I turned to follow Davo out to where he was already climbing into the car. I didn’t even glance at Kate as I passed. I just said two words.

“Twenty minutes.”

Twenty-six minutes later, I pulled up at the apartment Kate used as our rendezvous point and strode for the door.

I was lucky TJ actually let me leave on my own, but he obviously saw how fucking livid I was and begrudgingly let me go. The fact that TJ had been angling for some payback on Aaron since his little attempted robbery thing might’ve help a little too.

I’d barely waited for the door to open a crack before I was pushing inside. “What the fuck happened?!” I demanded.

I spun to see her closing the door. Her expression was bleak. She opened her mouth to speak, but it was another voice that answered behind me. A male voice.

“We don’t know.”

I turned to see Zac coming in from the kitchen. “What do you mean, you don’t know? Did you even know she was missing?!”

Zac went to sit on the arm of the sofa and Kate moved to stand beside him. She shook her head. “No,” she said quietly. “It wasn’t reported.”

Moving in a useless circle, I pressed my fingers into my skull. “Un-fucking-real. What the fuck was Leah doing?! She should’ve been watching her! I told her she was a target!”

Kate bit her lip nervously and Zac sighed. “All detail was pulled from the girl.”

I stared at him blankly for a heartbeat. “What?! Why the fuck would Walt take detail off her? I wouldn’t have demanded he put someone on her if I didn’t think she was in danger!”

Kate gave me an awkward look. “Leah convinced him the girl didn’t need it…”

I glared at her. “Leah convinced him? Leah fucking convinced him?! Are you fucking serious right now? We’ve got the biggest fucking deal about to go down in less than forty-eight fucking hours and instead of being back at the fucking Den under practical lockdown to ensure the deal fucking goes ahead, I’m out here doing your fucking job, looking for someone who was supposed to be under our protection! Un-fucking-believable! I swear to god, if one fucking hair is even ripped from Kaeli’s body, I’m going to fucking bring down the biggest fucking headache on everyone who helped put her there!”

With that, I stormed for the door.

“Noah, wait!”

I paused, hand on the doorknob, and turned my head to Kate.

“Everything will be set up for the bust. Just do what you need to do to keep any suspicion from you. And…I’m sorry about the girl. We’ll get everyone out there looking for her. I promise.”

I growled. “Don’t fucking bother. I’ll find her myself.”

Throwing the door open, I marched outside and slammed it after me.

Chapter 47

Kaeli

I was in hell.

Absolute freaking hell.

I never thought I had claustrophobia, but it certainly freaking felt like it, being locked up in such a confined space with a person I loathed.

The storage unit was dark and dank, and smelt like mold and piss. As I gathered from my first fleeting glance at the shit hole, it had a shitty old double mattress lying on the floor in one corner, a black, wooden chair that looked like it was from the eighteen hundreds, against the wall, and there was a small square table near the door. Surprisingly, it also had a plumbed in toilet, which of course was the source of the piss smell.

Aaron had lit an old lantern not long after we’d arrived, bringing all its shitty glory to light, and then, after he’d made sure I didn’t have my cell on me, he’d demanded I sit down on the bed.

We’d sort of fallen into a kind of routine after that. I sat on the mattress as far away from him as possible, refusing to speak to him, and he sat on the chair or paced the small space, refusing to speak to me. Sometimes I slept, and sometimes, when he felt like sleeping, he’d make me sit in the ancient chair, gagged and tied.

---