12
SHEP
“JESUS CHRIST.” MY breath left my body like I’d been sucker-punched as I stared wide-eyed at what was inside the storage unit.
This had been a long shot. I hadn’t wanted to get my hopes up even though my gut had told me there was something here, and truth be told, this was a better lead than anything else we’d had, so why not check it out?
But this…
Holy shit. I hadn’t expectedthis.
“What in the demented fuck?” Lachlan said, stepping into the space that wasn’t more than ten feet by ten feet, roughly the size of a one-car garage. Fluorescent lights overhead flickered, one buzzing weakly like it was about to die.
It wasn’t the computer setup against one wall—an already odd choice in a storage unit—that caught and held our attention. It wasn’t even the several feet of rope wound neatly and hanging off the back of the chair that did it, though maybe that was just because Theo wasn’t currently sitting in the chair.
No, the glaring issue was the way every single inch of space on the walls had been covered in photos, printouts, maps, and whiteboards that featured not just Theo’s face…but all of us.
And most predominately? The large image in the center of the others, the one that had strings attached to each of us?
Tyrone Kingston.
All heads pivoted in our leader’s direction, shock written across all my brothers’ faces, the same I could feel on mine. King remained silent, his jaw tightly clenched as he stared at the photos. There were numbers marked on each of us, though they didn’t seem to coordinate with seniority in the group, otherwise King would be number one.
No, that honor had gone to the man standing beside me, the one who could’ve been tied to the lone chair in the unit had I not found him in time. “1” was drawn over his body in red Sharpie.
At least, I thought it was Sharpie. Wouldn’t put it past the fucker to be drawing in blood.
I swallowed hard and found myself reaching for Theo’s hand again, needing to feel him to make sure he was really there. It was obvious he was the first target, but not the last. Not when all of us were marked, and that number two spot was clear as day and reserved…
For me.
I was next.
Theo’s eyes met mine behind the mask, so many unspoken emotions in those blue depths. Worry, anger, determination, revenge. All the same things I was feeling too, though wrath was taking the lead at the moment with every fucked-up thing my gaze caught on.
Lucien let out a low whistle and brushed by me for a closer look, fingering one of the strings that led from King to his own picture, marked “5.” “Clearly someone is a little obsessed.”
“This isn’t obsession,” I snapped. “This is derangement.”
“That too.” Lucien traced the string back to King’s picture. “Looks like he’s saving you for last, King.”
The low, menacing growl that emanated from our leader had goosebumps popping up along my skin. It was rare that any of us saw this side of him—he was perpetually the cool, calm, and collected one. Never one to fly off the handle. Usually weighed every decision carefully…
Though that hadn’t been the case with Theo, had it?
King scanned the room, dark eyes quietly assessing before he issued one firm command: “Search it all.”
Alessio headed straight for the computer, Lucien and Lachlan took video and photos of every inch of the space, while Theo and I broke into the locked filing cabinets. I let him take the lead on that, since I could feel the waves of restlessness rolling off him. He needed something physical to do, and beating the drawers open with a hammer I hadn’t even realized he brought was one way to get out all that energy. Too bad the fucker the unit belonged to hadn’t been here, or we’d all be fighting over who got to tear into him.
Not a word was spoken as we all focused on our tasks, and with every breath the tension in the air grew more taut. My heart was beating an erratic rhythm that felt out of place with my usual composure. Maybe it was because this was personal. The person all this shit belonged to had tried to kill Theo.MyTheo.
Metal scraped against metal as Theo yanked open the first drawer for me and then dropped to his knees to work on the bottom one. I grabbed the first file with gloved hands and flipped through it.
“Libertine members,” I muttered, turning page after page of what seemed to be an unofficial membership roster. We never would’ve shared such a list with our members, so this had been cobbled together—and on our letterhead, no less. “We were right,” I said, holding up the file. “This guy’s a Libertine. He’s got internal memos printed out and has every member in every club accounted for.”
“And photos,” Theo said, rising to his feet with his own stack of findings. “Ofeveryone. Not just the ones on the walls.”
Pulse hammering, I switched files with Theo and flipped through the pictures, some of them glossy and crystal clear, some of them zoomed in and slightly grainy, but all of them candid—and without our knowledge. Theo at a gala smiling with me looking serious and just out of focus behind him. Lachlan talking to Lucien outside Libertine’s discreet entrance. King exiting a black SUV somewhere outside of Manhattan. It went on and on.
