by Ali Parker
"D? Where are you?" I'd never felt such a sense of panic as I raced back down the hall toward Demetri.
"Izzy?" He rounded the corner to the hall, and we ran into each other hard. "Dammit."
I flipped on the light and handed him the phone. "They have Freddy. His phone was in the last office tucked under a dirty little mattress. There's blood and tears and piss all over-"
He grabbed me and pulled me tightly against him. "Pull yourself together. He isn't dead, okay?"
"How do you know he's not?" I was screaming, but I couldn't seem to stop.
He moved back and gripped my arms tighter. "Look at me. This isn't you. Stop letting fear tear down who you are. Pull yourself together. Right. Now."
I let his voice permeate the horror racing through my mind. I'd seen my little brother murdered in a million ways, raped and beaten, cut up and thrown in the sea. The visuals were getting more and more violent, growing bigger and bigger until-
"I'm scared," I whispered and glanced around. "I need to find Thomas, D. He can have me and you take Freddy back with you. Get him some help. He's just a baby. He's got something wrong with him." I tapped the side of my head. "Get him some help and I'll take his place."
D pressed his forehead to mine and breathed in deeply. "I'm not letting either of you go, Izabella. I love you both, alright? We'll find Freddy together. I swear it on my mother's grave. We'll find him."
I sunk into his hold, realizing that he wasn't the enemy. The Kallups were. Why had I held back information from Demetri? He's never done anything to hurt me. When had that changed in my own mind?
"I took the key from his office and found a bunch of tapes." I was rambling, I didn't care. I needed to get it out. "He called at Sunday dinner the other day, whispering that he was sorry, but I couldn't get to him. I didn't know where he was, D."
"What did the tapes have on them?" He brushed my hair back and kissed the side of my face as I pressed myself more tightly against him. I'd have crawled up his body and hidden under his shirt if I could figure out how to do it.
"Nothing. Marco said they were filled with nothingness. That was him just now."
He brushed his hand over the back of my hair and kissed the side of my face. "It's gonna be alright. I'm here, okay? There's nothing I wouldn't do for you. Pull yourself together and let's go get Jenny."
"Where is she?" I moved back and sucked in a huge breath.
"She's in the other room." He glanced up at the ceiling. "And what's left of her is hanging from the wall."
Chapter 17
Demetri
I released Izabella and moved back a few steps as I tried to burn the image of Jenny's corpse tied to the hall. I hadn't thrown up since I was a boy, but I was damn close.
"Take the keys and go get back in the car." I pulled the keys from my pocket and handed them to her. Every cell in my body screamed for me to pull her close and tell her how much I loved her. Death had a way of fucking up your plans to remain unattached. "Go. Now."
She nodded and jogged past me, running for the exit as I turned and stepped out into the main part of the warehouse. I waited until she was gone to pull my phone back out. Fury drove through me and I started to shake.
"What you got, D?" Joe's voice was a lighthouse in the midst of my turbulence.
"They tied her to a wall and took pieces of her while she struggled against her bindings." I swallowed hard and turned to face the wall. I pressed my hand against it and closed my eyes. "It's the sickest shit I've ever seen, Joe. This isn't the Kallups. I don't give a shit what anyone says. Those thugs couldn't carve a heart in a tree. Whoever did this knew what they were doing to keep Jenny alive as long as possible."
Bile rose up my throat as my knees grew week. I was grateful for Izabella listening to me for once in her life and leaving the warehouse. There was no way I would let her see me like I was, and yet I wasn't going to be able to hold it in much longer.
"Burn the place. Get out of there and come back to the house. We need to put together a battle plan. Now."
"They're going to go after more of our girls. This wasn't a onetime deal." I swallowed hard and pushed back from the wall to walk toward the exit.
"What makes you say that, boy?" He barked into the phone with such aggression that I flinched. Joe Castaletta was the only fucker that could make me take a step back, and I respected him all the more for it.
"There were pictures of all of the girls, including Madam Gizelle," I took a quick breath as I pushed open the door to the dock, "And Izzy. They had a picture of Izabella, Joe."
"No they didn't."
I stopped just outside the building and glanced over to see her crying in the car. It was so damn rare for her to break down, but she was scared, and she should be. It would seem we all had under estimated the Kallup's involvement with the syndicate from Cali. Those bastards had to be pulling the strings.
"We need to find them here in Chicago and take them out. I don't care if it causes Cooper to reign down hell on us. We're going to destroy the cell he's creating here and then take out every mother fucker from here to the west coast. That's the plan."
"Find the Kallups. Whatever it takes, D. Find them and wipe them out."
"One more thing, boss." I glanced up at the sky, expecting to see the moon and finding nothing but a vast darkness. "They have Freddy."
"What? Did you see him?" The panic in Joe's voice let me know pretty quickly that he could talk a big game, but he loved the kid. On some fucked up level, he still cared for Vivian's bastard son. How could he not? Joe raised him. Hell, we all did.
"No, but Izabella found his phone and evidence that he was there in a small office on the other side of where Jenny was. He's body isn't here, but I would assume by how badly Izzy is shaken up that he's hurt pretty badly."
"Find him."
"And when I do?"
"Did he play a part in Vivian's death, D? I gotta fucking know, man."
"What's Marco saying, Boss? You know that was his to look into."
"Where are the recorded conversations that prove he's innocent or guilty? The ones you mentioned that Thomas Kallup had?"
I couldn't help but glance up at Izabella. Were the tapes she and Marco were hiding really empty, or did they have evidence that their little brother sold out his own for protection?
"I don't fucking know, but when I find Thomas Kallup, I'll be sure to get them for you." I walked toward the car. "I'll be at the house later. I'm going to burn this place to the ground and then tuck Izzy into bed. She's fucked up, Joe."
"Then take care of her." He dropped the call, leaving me alone to figure out how to clean up the mess ahead of us. A weariness that I couldn't have imagined possible washed over me as I reached the car.
I got in and let out a long sigh. "I need to go down to our unit and get some gasoline. I gotta burn this place down. You want me to take you back to the-"
"No. Do what you need to do. I'll help you." She seemed to have pulled herself back together a little, but not much."
"Alright. Let's do this and then I'll go talk to Sandra after I drop you off."
"No. I'll go with you, Demetri." She reached up to turn the air condition on as I started the car.
"Alright. Whatever you want." I grabbed her hand and rested it on my thigh as I turned the car around and drove toward our warehouse. She laid her head back and let out a long painful sounding sigh. I knew how she felt. The night had gone from laid back to massively fucked up in a matter of minutes.
"Wait here. I'll grab the gasoline." I got out of the car and tapped on the window to get her attention. "Lock the doors. Now."
She nodded and locked them as I turned and walked into our unit.
"D?" The sound of Cat's voice surprised me.
"What are you still doing here? I told you to pack up." I stopped beside the office and gave my older sister a hard look. "Why can't you listen for one time in your life?"
"Sorry. I had a lot to do, and I locked up the place." She tapp
ed the pistol that sat on the table beside her. "Besides, I have this little guy here in case someone decides to fuck with me."
"Right." I glanced around, trying to remember why I was there. I needed sleep. Sleep, liquor, food and sex.
"Hey. What's going on with you?" She got up and walked toward me.
"Nothing. I need gasoline. I gotta set fire to the Kallups' unit." I stood in place, but let my eyes move around the room. "They have Freddy."
I hadn't realized how much that scared me until I said it out loud. What if was Drake? I wouldn't stop until the city was burned to the ground for my baby brother. I would do the same for Catherine.
"What? How do you know that?" She reached up and touched the side of my face.
"Izabella found his phone and some other evidence that he's with them. They're of course treating him more like a pet than a human, but that shit is about to end. I'm going after them. All of them."
"Then I'm going with you." She dropped her hand and moved around me. "Come on. Snap the fuck out of it."
My sister rarely cursed. "Momma wouldn't be too thrilled with you using the f-bomb." I smiled as she glanced over her shoulder.
"Shut the fuck up and come on. There's several containers of gasoline over here. Where is Izabella?"
"In the car." I moved up behind my sister and reached for one of the containers. "Get us a pallet jack. These will fit perfectly on it."
"How the hell are you planning on dousing the place in gasoline when these containers are too big to pick up?"
"Roll them around after we open them." I pulled at the first container as Cat left me, cursing more than I'd ever heard come out of her mouth before.
"Here." She pushed the jack up beside me.
"Hold it still while I roll it onto there." I waited for her to lock the thing into place before pushing. It was moving, but not by much. "Fuck."
"Let me help." Izabella moved up beside me and pushed as I bent back down and pushed alongside her. It moved almost with ease.
"Damn, you're strong." I licked my lips and stepped back, letting my eyes run around her face. "And intensely beautiful."
"Don't start this." Cat pushed at my shoulder. "You have low blood sugar and she's in shock. Let's get this done and get both of you back out to Joe's."
"She's right." Izzy moved over toward the second container and pressed her shoulder against it. "Besides, you're not my type anyway. I like guys I can boss around."
I snorted, feeling more normal than I had since we arrived half an hour back. Had the Kallups really been involved with massacring Jenny? Sweet, beautiful little Jenny?
"Stop thinking about it." Cat reached out and brushed her hand by the side of my hair. "I can see your mind spinning."
"I just... Never mind." I glanced over at Izzy. Her dark hair was draped over her shoulders, her upper body completely pressed to the barrel. "Push. Now."
We pushed together and the second container was loaded.
"Let's try to stick to the shadows out here. I don't want anyone to pin this shit on us." Cat glanced between the two of us.
"When did your sister start cursing?" Izabella glanced over at me with her eyebrow cocked.
"No clue." I moved behind the machine and pushed it toward the door. "I don't need help with this, and honestly, I'd rather neither of you got involved. Seriously. Izzy, get in the car. Cat, go home. I'll call you tomorrow."
They tried to fuss at me for a few minutes, but I stood my ground. The explosion was going to be massive. There was no goddamn way I could get myself and both of them out of the way in time. I wasn't chancing anything with the only two women in my life that I loved. It wasn't happening.
*
My ears were still ringing as I left the Castaletta Mansion and drove toward Sandra's place. I should have called and updated them, but I felt it was better to have the conversation in person. Izabella had passed out in the seat next to me by the time I reached Joe's, and I would be lying if I said I didn't feel like a man with his heart on fire as I carried the beautiful girl upstairs and tucked her into bed. It would have felt so good, so right to crawl up behind her and press myself against her as she slept throughout the night, but I still had shit to do.
That and she didn't truly belong to me anymore. No matter how badly I tried to convince myself that she did. She was fucking Eddy for sure and probably Jonathan now too. It was disturbing on multiple levels, but I understood it more than I wanted to admit.
I pulled up in front of Madam Giselle's place and got out of my car.
Edward stood up from a chair on the front porch, surprising me a little.
"What happened?" He walked down the stairs toward me.
"They had her out in the warehouse man."
"Where is she?" He glanced around me. "At the hospital?"
Sandra walked out on to the porch and stopped at the top of the stairs, her eyes wide as she watched me closely. "Where is Jenny, D?"
"She didn't make it, guys. They murdered her." I glance down as Sandra let out a soft cry and turned, running back into the house. We were supposed to be the toughest, meanest mother fuckers in North America and we were on the average day, but humanity shared a common thread that didn't pass any of us by.
Suffering. It was real and aggressive and seemed to be fucking with the Castaletta crew.
"Give me the details, D." Edward put his hands on his hips, but kept his tone even.
"She was tied to a wall and cut up while they took turns fucking her. That's what it looked like from what was left of her." I wiped my hand down my face and turned to look down the street as some little girls played jump-rope, singing loudly. "I don't know what to think. I can't imagine Thomas Kallup having the balls to do something like this. He's a fucker, but I'd never imagined him to be this sick. This demented."
"It has to be Kallup. We identified Derrik, which is one of his brother's, right?"
"He's a cousin, and I'm not ruling anything out. I'm just telling you that Thomas isn't the type of thug to do this. He's power hungry and wants to own something, but mutilation and rape? Naw... I just don't see it."
"So what now?" Eddy pinned me with angry stare as if I was simply going to let Thomas and every other Kallup just walk free based on who I believed them to be.
"We find them. We round them up and fill every one of them with holes."
"I want in."
"Good. You didn't really have a choice." I turned and walked back toward the car. "Take care of Sandra and touch base with me tomorrow."
I didn't wait for an answer because my words weren't a question.
Chapter 18
Marcus Blaine
"You sure this what you want?" Zak glanced over at me and waiting patiently for my response.
"Yeah. It's what I need. It's what she needs." I pulled my bag over my shoulder and walked toward the fancy-ass plane we'd been on a week before when traveling to Chicago. "Stop asking me how I feel about it. I don't want to talk about feelings. You know this shit."
I dropped down in my seat and pulled the blinder up for the window, wanting to feel the sun on my skin as much as I could. Leaving Kate with Jon was the right choice, the only choice for both of us. We would always be close and if he ever hurt her, I'd be back to pick up the pieces of her life and put them back together.
It's simply the way that shit worked.
"It's gonna be weird as fuck starting all over again." Zak's accent would be interesting in the middle of the busy city of Chicago. It wasn't nearly the melting pot that New Orleans was, but either way, he would be with me, and I'd protect him as well as anyone else Demetri put under my watch.
"Yeah, but even though change is painful, it's needed for growth and shit, right?"
"Are you reading books again?" He smiled and leaned his head back, closing his eyes. "To new beginnings."
"And closing the door on the past." I turned my attention toward the window and pursed my lips together tightly. Leaving her behind was the hardest thing I would ever h
ave to do. The goddamn plane needed to take off before I changed my mind. She was my past and my present, and fuck if I didn't think she would always be my future.
Desire raced through me as I thought about the last time we fucked, the memory of giving herself over to me forever to stain my soul.
"Toke up. I wanna play rough."
"Good." She pulled the tainted burn deep into her lungs and pressed the back of her head to the wall as she closed her eyes. I took no time to rip at her clothes, undressing her with precision and gripping her flesh tightly the way she liked it. Such a fucking bad girl. My girl.
"Turn around and lift your ass up a little for me." I bit her ear as she let out a cry and turned around. After hitting the joint once more, she handed to me over her shoulder and pressed her hands to the wall, sliding them up until her breasts were pressed firmly to it.
"God, you're fine, Katie. The hottest woman I've ever seen in my life." I moved up and ran a black silk blindfold over her back, up her spine and over her shoulders. I wrapped it around her head and tied it tightly.
"Do you want Jon with us? He'll be here soon. I'll have him come offer you comfort after I fuck you up good." A dark chuckle left the middle of my chest. I'd share my woman with one man... the man she'd fallen in love with while I wasn't watching.
"No," she whispered and pressed her ass against my stomach, rubbing along the ridges of my zipper. "Shut up making promises and come through on them. Enjoy yourself, Marcus. Never again."
"Idle threats, baby girl." I ran my hands up her tummy and cupped her breasts as my teeth grazed by the back of her shoulder. "Tell me where you want my cock, Kate."
"Inside of me. As far as you can go." She exhaled and pushed back again forcefully.
"Such a good girl, Kate." I kissed her several times and licked down her back and over the curve of her ass before I pressed my mouth to her sweet center, my hands forcing her legs open wider as I sucked hard and played for keeps.
Her moans filled the air as my fingers dug into the back of her thighs, and my own groans skittered across her clit.