I swallow the bile as I take him in, but I don’t feel any remorse. With shaky hands, I shove the tire iron back in my pocket and stumble across the room. I make my way down the hall, careful not to touch anything. I tug my sleeve down over my hand and open the first door I get to. Looks like it might be the parents’ room. I check it anyway and hurry on when I find it empty. The bathroom is next. That one is empty too, which leaves me with the last door at the end of the hall.
I ease it open with trepidation. It’s dark inside. The blinds are drawn, making it impossible to see beyond the edge of the bedframe.
“Theo?”
There is nothing but silence for a moment before I hear a whimper. I flip the light, but nothing happens. I pull out my phone and activate the flashlight. I shine it around the room, not that there is anything to see but the bed. I move around it and gasp when I see Theo hidden behind it, curled up on the floor, battered and bruised.
“Mom?” he whispers. His swollen eyes are preventing him from seeing me clearly.
I drop down beside him and gently stroke the hair away from his face, feeling tears slip over my cheeks. “No, baby, it’s Delphi.” I don’t have the heart to tell him she’s not here.
“Mom.” He grasps my hand with a surprisingly strong grip, as his body is racked with shivers.
I lie down beside him and keep my hand tight around his as his head rolls to lean against my shoulder. “I’ve got you now. Everything’s going to be okay,” I soothe as I send up a silent prayer for Con to hurry.
Chapter Twenty-Six
KRUGER
I shakehands with the client and wait for him to climb into his car before turning to Nathan. “What do you think?”
“I think Jack Davis is a lying piece of shit.”
“Yeah, that was my take too. He says all the right things, but everything that comes out of his mouth is just a little off.”
“So, what do you want to do here? He obviously wants us to find his wife, though the reason why is bullshit.”
“Obviously. I still want to find the wife, offer her help pro bono if she needs it, and warn her this motherfucker is looking for her.”
“I think he was banking on you not giving a shit about anything but the money he’s offering. You’re a biker, after all. You don’t have morals.”
“Yeah, the cut makes people think I’m an asshole.”
“I don’t have the heart to tell them, you being an asshole has nothing to do with the cut.”
“You’re hilarious.”
“I know.”
“Anyway, I know a security firm out in Tempest that deals with this kind of thing. Might tag them in on this because, with the guy being a lawyer, and the connections he has, we need to keep everything on the up and up.”
“It’s the only reason why I agreed to take the meeting. I was also curious about how he heard of us. We’re a small unit in bumfuck nowhere. I get that we draw business from all the local towns and smaller cities, but he’s coming to us from another state. We’re good, but he could have found a security company closer who would work just as well. Plus, we lean toward protection and cybersecurity. It’s not often we’re tagged with tracking someone down, let alone retrieving them, but he spoke with a certainty that we’d done it before.”
“And that’s not something we advertise. Someone told him.”
“Exactly. Again, nothing outright for me to say is wrong, and yet it all feels off.”
“You recognize him from anywhere? There is something about him that seems familiar, but I know I haven’t met him before.”
“Might have been on the news, depending on how high-profile his cases are. I’ll do some digging on this guy. See if we can find anything useful.”
“Tomorrow. I’m gonna head home. You should do the same.”
Nathan salutes me. “Aye, Aye, Captain.”
I shake my head as he walks to his car. It’s a fifty-fifty shot whether he goes home or back to the office.
I head to my bike, pulling out my cellphone to turn the ringer back on, cursing when I see a few missed calls, one of them being Delphi’s.
