Ethan crossed the sharp fragments glistening like diamonds littering the tile before Matt carried Damien over the broken menace.
The thought of losing Kaylee surged through Caden’s blood, pulsing with desperate need. He would kill anyone who threatened her. The crunch underfoot barely registered.
“There’s got to be a deadfall here somewhere.” Just hours before, he’d had Kaylee teetering on the edge of collapse, exhaustion written in every line of her sated body. She’d be running on emotional fumes now when some bastard thought to extinguish the light he held most dear. Fuck if that’s gonna happen.
The shepherd’s quickened snuffling and pulling at his lead jerked Matt along as they followed the blood trail, taking them through an open doorway to the storeroom beyond. Shining tile gave way to old wooden floorboards, weathered from years of scuffing feet. No hollow sounds denoted a hollow area where a deluded crimp could squirrel away unwary captives.
Caden and Ethan visually searched for a hidden doorway while Damien sniffed around the floor. It seemed the trail ended without a clue. Air redolent of rotting vegetation and incense didn’t slow their frantic search.
“I just thought shopping was a good way for her to get out of the house. A small measure of independence.” Caden opened a small door, the interior illuminated with backlighting from behind him. A small mop and bucket, one broom, and various cleaning chemicals, comprised the small space. Efficient movements saw the bucket tossed aside in favor of stomping the floorboards.
“Now’s not the time for a tantrum, dude,” Ethan admonished.
“Shut up and listen for a hollow sound,” Caden retorted as his boots’ thudding echoed in the small space.
Damien stopped at the far corner of the back room, scratching at the floor and whining. “Over here.” Matt pulled the dog back to test the floorboards. “Doesn’t sound any different. Let’s see if these shelves are hiding a door.”
“Look, there’s a slight arc worn in the floorboard.” Caden kneeled and fingered the slightly discolored curve scratched in the wide planks.
“Okay. Somehow these shelves slide out.” Matt pulled on one shelf after another. Nothing budged.
“Maybe a hidden lever?” Ethan nudged his way in and shoved the contents of the upper shelves aside. Glass jars of supplements, plastic tubs of protein pills, and vitamins of various types all clinked together.
Caden started on the bottom shelf, swiping everything to the floor.
“Hey, what the hell, Caden?” Matt, searching through the middle shelves, stepped aside.
“I got it.” Caden shoved on the rough backing, a savage grin curving his lips when rewarded with the screech and release of the hidden entry.
Backlighting marked the front portion of the small cubicle’s interior, four feet square with no shelving, no furniture, and no apparent purpose.
Caden squeezed through and stamped his foot in several places, eliciting a hollowed sound in the center of the space. The floorboards gave slightly with each strike. “This is it, but I don’t see how to open it.”
“No drag marks. The girls were still under their own steam. They’ll have their wits about them. That’s to our advantage.” Ethan’s logical thinking imparted through a clenched jaw characterized strength under pressure.
Caden’s heart seized with the cold surge of terror. He prayed she’d have the strength to fight if and when the opportunity presented itself. His grip on the makeshift doorjamb disengaged with Ethan’s not-so-gentle nudge.
“Here, there’s a perpendicular seam across these boards. See that small hole? Step out so I can see if it—” Ethan knelt and scrabbled at the surface. “Here. Help me get this open, Ca.”
Not waiting for assistance, Ethan struggled to open the trapdoor. A weathered, crude wooden ladder disappeared in the infernal void beneath them, an endless black abyss. “We need light. Caden, grab my bag and see if you can find another flashlight. They must keep some on hand since they’re using this tunnel.”
Figuring the owners had no reason to hide something as innocuous as a flashlight and with none visible in the back storeroom, Caden surged back into the store proper to check under the sales counter.
Several drawers held various notebooks and papers, all slinging forward with the force of his search. “Found some!” Two flashlights gave weight to his words. I’ll grab the bag and vests.” Matt’s duffel would contain first aid supplies and a blanket. Hopefully, they wouldn’t need either.
When he’d returned, Matt was settling Damien around his broad shoulders to descend the ladder. Ethan’s key chain penlight highlighted the bottom from below.
“Thanks. Drop it down, I’ll catch.” Ethan’s disembodied voice drifted up from the new hell.
Caden used one of the flashlights to search below before dropping the duffle to his brother. Liquid chain saws shredding his stomach lining wasn’t a new sensation. His body produced the same mind-numbing anarchy the last time he went in the tunnels. Again, his worn boots spewed forth tendrils of ephemeral roots that corkscrewed into the floorboards and kept him immobile while a whirlwind of turbulence battered his mind.
His brother’s throat clearing snapped him from a remembered horror of crazed rats in a feeding frenzy. A thin film of clammy perspiration covered his body while the buzzing in his ears grew until it overshadowed all but his tunneling vision. Down there. A deep, dark, and dank environment rife with the beady-eyed bastards of his worst nightmares awaited his arrival.
“Caden, hand me the flashlights and coordinate things topside. Matt and I will track from this end.” Ethan’s voice sounded distant, tinny, his face covered in shadows that moved in time with Ethan’s tiny light.
“Fuck you. I’m going after my woman.” Tucking away the emotional baggage, he set one tremulous foot on the top wooden rung. It creaked under his weight.
“There’s the man who can fart Christmas tunes in key.” Matt sniggered.
“I was twelve.” Caden’s descent into hell brought acid to his mouth.
“Still are, with fifteen years of experience.” Matt’s hand on his shoulder when at the bottom of the steps remained tight and communicated more than words could convey. “Let’s go.” He wouldn’t say more.
Damien’s snuffling in the dirt segued into a thin whine of impatience while Caden distributed the flashlights and swallowed his anxiety. The scent of something foul, more than the rodent carcasses forced him to briefly close his eyes. Ciera wasn’t found down here. Yet the smell persisted on micro currents created by the open trapdoor.
Damien whined before pawing the dirt. On closer inspection, a significant size of dark crimson sand and scuffling furrows indicated a fight and bloodshed. The dog’s reaction wasn’t an expected response to finding what he sought. Instead, he sniffed then continued to pull them farther into the tunnel.
“We don’t know it’s one of the girls, Caden.” Ethan’s grip indicated a need for support as well as unleashing anxiety.
If the ground split open and spewed forth a horned demon with a long, forked tail, Caden’s fury would strike it down and send it back. Impotent rage seethed in his soul with no outlet. “Let’s go.” His chest ached in fear for Kaylee’s life. The warp and woof of emotions staggered his mind and step.
The canine led them through sections of the tunnels they’d not marked as kids. Using their old system to leave a trail in the dirt near the wall’s edge at every bifurcation assured a return trip. Occasional, furtive scurrying marked their passage. Ethan kept pace beside him, one hand on his shoulder.
Flashbacks, both of recent events and long ago sifted through Caden’s thoughts. His little pirate was strong, and Lexi had street smarts. A deadly combination. They wouldn’t go easily, and both knew their men would track them to the ends of the earth.
The weight of the air rounded his shoulders, further hindering his ability to breathe and reminiscent of sucking air through his shirt during the fire. Now, instead of heat and smoke obstructing his windpipe, sta
le, moist air might as well have been aspirated through a sponge.
Intermittent chittering took his mind back to when he’d sworn to protect Lexi. Instead, he’d been poisoned and left to a horde of trained, aggressive rats intent on scraping every bit of flesh and muscle from his bones. Those nightmares had decreased since Kaylee entered his realm. In return for restoring his life, he’d failed to protect the woman in his care.
Time stalled in the somber oblivion where three beams of light sliced the air in the hope of finding further visible evidence of a struggle in the underground’s arteries. He breathed a little easier when they came upon one of their old markings. They couldn’t determine exactly where they were, but they had a starting point to draw a mental map.
Checking his watch, Caden realized they’d traveled underground far too long. They should have found some indication of the girls’ state of being. Damien followed his invisible trail but didn’t appear interested in the bloody drops clumping loose dirt.
All three froze when his pirate’s scream echoed through the tunnels. Sheer terror gripped Caden, his stumble-shuffle step ending with a dropped flashlight to brace himself against the wall.
Chapter Thirty
Immediately, Matt gave Damien a “quiet” order, obeyed with a low grumble. The dog’s excited sniffing grew exponentially as did the foul odor.
As much as Caden wanted to bolt forward, Matt’s grip on his arm preceded the whispered words that brought back a small piece of sanity. “That was rage, not pain. She’s alive.”
Douse your light. I’ll use my pen light so we can edge a little closer. Zip your jacket to cover your Kevlar.” Ethan’s low drawl added weight to the plan unfurling.
The air’s salty tang announced their closer proximity to the tunnel’s end, but the scent of death breathed fire and ice through Caden’s veins. Every vile inhalation increased the rage toward anyone who’d kidnap, rape, and sell another human into sexual slavery. His mind couldn’t face an aftermath of Kaylee meeting Ciera’s fate. All light would cease to exist in a world without his pirate.
“What the hell’s wrong with you?” Kaylee’s broken speech hissed through the now-dark tunnel after Matt extinguished his light. Lexi’s condemnation followed in less-than-eloquent epithets.
They inched forward until ambient light slashed across the ground mere yards from their feet.
“What kind of sick bastard does that to a man?” Lexi’s fury lashed out at her kidnapper. “You stabbed him, then forced him through the tunnels before you eviscerated him? Who the fuck does that?”
“The same kind who does it to rich, helpless women. I couldn’t let him stink up the tunnels, now could I? Now that I’ve solved my bitch problem, I might decide to use these passages again.”
The male’s voice held no recognition with Caden, but Ethan grabbed his arm and pulled him close to whisper in his ear.
“I know him. Lucas and I interviewed the prick. That’s Basil, the contractor Ciera fooled around with in the pool house,” Ethan murmured.
Damien pulled forward but dropped his butt to the ground with Matt’s hand signal. “We don’t know how many dipshits are out there. Spreading out is the best chance to take them. Ethan, you stay here with Damien while we assess the situation. You’re the ace in the hole.”
Caden took several slow breaths, listening for any clue to aid his assessment. A false start or wrong move could see either woman dead.
“C’mon bitches, either get in the boat or die with the bloke whose weighted carcass won’t be found after I drag it into the river.”
“How did you come to work with Ciera’s husband? Why didn’t he kill you for touching what he considered his property?” Lexi’s voice didn’t cover the sound of Kaylee retching.
“I was just her supplier, with benefits. When she told me she was going to divorce her husband and clean up her act, well, I had no further use for the rich twat. Dear hubby found out about us ’round the same time, but couldn’t kill me for fear of evidence I’d left behind coming to light. We hatched a plan. Instead of divorce, he got his wife’s money and the knowledge of her complete humiliation. I got money from selling her to upper management after eliminating Vasilisa. Win, win situation with all loopholes closed.”
Kaylee’s enraged gasp followed the sound of flesh striking flesh. “Prick.”
“You think you’re gonna get away with that? Fucking bitch.”
“Ahh,” Kaylee sobbed.
The sound of Kaylee’s thin cry nearly made Caden bolt blindly into the open.
“You, bitch, threw a monkey wrench in the whole works. When you escaped, I had to kill the whore to tie up loose ends, but Conroy wasn’t happy with just his wife’s money. No, he wanted Caden to suffer, too. Hence, you came back into play after he saw you two together at the bank.”
“You missed her, both at the river and Caden’s house.” Steel-edged anger burned in Lexi’s voice.
“I thought the river would drown you when my new partner said he’d shot then sent you overboard. The Asian bungled the house fire, too. If you want something done right...” Basil’s grunt followed Kaylee’s thin mewl.
“Then why kill Ciera’s husband?” Lexi asked.
“Because he was a loose end—just like you. He bitched about not wanting her dead, just out of the way and degraded. Started grumbling about botched deals.”
Hell no. Caden stepped out into the bright light, temporarily blinded to the unfolding scene. To his relief, only one gunman held the women hostage. Basil faced his boat while holding Kaylee tight to his chest, his hand fisted in her hair.
The short, floating dock on which they stood swayed in time with the wavelets’ lazy slide to shore. In front of Kaylee, Lexi assumed a rigid stance, her gaze on the gunman’s face.
A glance to his right revealed Conroy Kirpatzel’s body, partially eviscerated. Blood and bowel contents coated his lower abdomen, having soaked through and stained his rumpled pants. He now collected a long-overdue tariff for dealing out pain and misery.
Recognition lit the contractor’s eyes. “Ah, Caden, now you get to stand by helplessly as you lose a second woman. Or perhaps I should shoot you first.” Basil’s sneer turned sly. “Decisions, decisions.”
“In that case, I better move closer, so you won’t miss. Your aim is probably as inept as the help you hired.” Caden sensed rather than heard Matt exiting the tunnel.
Basil’s eyes widened with recognition. “Hmm, apples in a barrel.”
On the dock, Lexi and Kaylee stood beside a sleek white, fiberglass cruiser with a below-deck compartment, no doubt intended to store the women. If Basil got Kaylee and Lexi on the boat, they’d never be seen again.
“Hmm, I have more than one McAllister to play with. Never shot a cop before. Now I get a cop and a PI. Isn’t this interesting.” The barrel of Basil’s gun weaved a path from one McAllister to the other. “Oh, by the way, I didn’t shoot her at the river. I wouldn’t have missed. And the dead asshole behind you couldn’t flow with the plan. Hence, I spilled his guts literally before he could do it figuratively.” Basil imitated the slicing motion that disemboweled the banker.
Caden kept his gaze trained on the grinning psycho with each step down the sandy incline until reaching the first wooden plank. When the gun’s barrel swung wide in Matt’s direction, a glimpse to the side revealed a steeper sloping ground.
Matt advanced slowly. “So, you’re the brains behind all this? I don’t think so. From what I gather, you piss a bit of your brains away with drugs every day.”
“I’m the new go-between, money for women.”
“How’s that working out for you? You’ve got what, five people killed so far?” Caden taunted. “And how many women have you taken?”
“Ciera and two others were my first acquisitions. Ciera was the cost of changing management. The Asian and his partners were incompetent.” The shark’s smile suggested a fond memory. “I contacted the source and renegotiated our agreement, women instead of drugs. I
’m tired of supplying quick fixes to the rich snobs of Portland. This is much cleaner, not to mention more profitable and fun.”
“But Kaylee threw a glitch in the works when she inadvertently took your employee’s picture. She must have inadvertently gotten a photo of Conroy’s girlfriend.” Caden took another step forward. “You had to have that back to clean up your mess.”
“Huh, the foreign whore wanted to stay stateside, had grown to fancy the banker. To make matters worse, Conroy’s whining grew tiresome.” Basil motioned for Caden to stop. “Then, when your little whore escaped, I decided it was time to change things up.” His gaze flicked between brothers. “Close enough. Can’t miss putting a hole in your heart from here.”
“So where is Conroy’s girlfriend?” Matt redirected the gunman’s attention to himself.
“At the bottom of the river. I didn’t need her anymore.”
No force on Earth could prevent Caden’s feet from moving him forward.
“No, Caden. Stay back.” The pain in Kaylee’s plea ripped through his gut. Twenty yards equaled the interplanetary distance between Earth and the sun with Kaylee being the richest source of electromagnetic energy, her aura emitting the invisible rays that sustained life. His life.
He closed half the distance, close enough to see the beads of sweat on her forehead and tears jeweling her lashes.
The bastard twisted her head until they locked gazes. “My new little whore is right. We don’t want blood spatter on the boat.” To emphasize his authority, he pushed the gun barrel to her temple, causing her to cry out.
Every muscle in Caden’s body locked tight with the icy fist squeezing his lungs. In his peripheral vision, Matt stood five yards back and to the side with hands out in surrender. Caden had wanted to extract as much information as possible to give them time to develop a plan.
Their time was up.
“I do love instant obedience.” He risked a quick glance at Lexi. “Okay, bitch. On the boat you go, but if I hear that motor start, your girlfriend dies along with your friends.”
Bound By Shadows (The McAllister Justice Series Book 2) Page 26