“I don’t think so. One of them is a teenager.”
Taylor cursed up a storm on the other end, rapid-fire Irish snarling in my ear. “Son of a bitch! Got it, I’m coming with a crew and two cars. We’ll be there in fifteen, will you be fine until then?”
“I’ll be more than fine,” I promised darkly. “By the way, I broke the gate. You’ll have to pry it open. Bring blankets too. I’ll send them up front to wait for you, call when you get close.”
“Got it. Hey, Lore?”
I waited.
“Fuck him up.”
A beep indicated the line cut off. Turning back to the older woman, I fiddled with the watch until its strap came loose. “Here, take this,” I said. “In ten minutes, head up those stairs and take a left toward the front of the property. I took out all the security. Someone will be waiting up there to get you out of here.”
Laura, the girl, sniffled loudly. “Will you take me home?”
The simple question sent another small fissure cracking through my heart. Moving slow enough to keep from startling her, I dropped to a knee and set a gentle hand on her shaking shoulder. “I promise, I’ll get you home.” Then, I asked the woman, “What’s your name? Any relation to her?”
She shook her head. “Laura was already down here when I came. She said someone snatched her a couple blocks from her school. I work in a strip club called The Skinned Cat. I’m Kim Tanger.”
“I know the place.” I made it my business to know all the clubs and escort services. “Red Riot will take you back to the Masked Merrow for now, and we’ll sort you out in the morning.”
Kim’s eyes widened in recognition. “Red Riot? The gang, you mean? You’re with them?”
Not answering her questions, I instead thrust the watch toward her. “Ten minutes. And whatever you do, don’t come back inside the house.”
With that, I snatched up the backpack, leaving behind the jerky and water, and turned toward the stairs I had glimpsed earlier on the far side of the basement. I trusted Taylor would do everything he could to get those poor souls back where they belonged. For now, Lore Brennan was stepping aside for a darker, more violent creature to settle into these bones.
If I didn’t already have an excuse to murder the bastard with what I found on his computer, I certainly did now.
Chopped Up
Lore
“Hello, Frank.”
“Holy shit!” Frank yelped, his hand halfway stretched toward the kitchen’s light switch and obviously paying noattention as he meandered through the doorway. Not that his house was particularly guarded. More of a sandcastle than a fortress. His security system was so easy to break it was laughable, taking less than five minutes on my laptop to get into his Wi-Fi router and shut everything down. He didn’t even notice me following him from his office into the living room before looping around to cut him off in the kitchen, flicking on lights along the way as he shuffled along in his slippers. For someone who had a couple of innocent women locked in his basement, he was much too relaxed just trudging around like this.
I leaned my hip against the counter close to the door we came from while adjusting the black gloves on my fingers. They were water-resistant and molded to my hands, the best purchase I ever made for my job. Especially with the extra silicone padding on the fingertips that let me use my touchscreens.
Actually, that was a lie. The mask I currently wore with the neon pink lighting inside was the best purchase I made for my job. Especially when sleazebags like Frank recognized it from my cam work. Then they knew exactly who was gunning for their asses.
“Frank, Frank, Frank. You should invest in some better security, given the dirty little secrets you keep.”
“What are you talking about, bitch? How the fuck did you get past the guards?”
“Psh, really? What feckin' guards, Frank? You mean that singular one now dead in the guard booth?” I laughed and crossed my arms. My right hand gripped one of the small flash drives, holding all my incriminating evidence tightly, tucked under my elbow. “Now, I asked you a question. What is the great tech savant Frank DeNiro doing holding his precious info on his home computer with a shitty firewall? Unless… you’re not atech savant? Now, that would be a shame, wouldn’t it? Bad for investors, I’m sure.”
I pulled my hand out to show the thumb drive, and his beady blue eyes zeroed right in on it. His Adam’s apple jumped as he gulped nervously.
“Whatever you think is on there, I assure you it’s nothing. Probably some fucking family pictures from vacation.”
“Huh,” I turned my head as if looking at it anew. “Wouldn’t that be something? Whelp, guess I can just get rid of this then, can’t I?”
Staring him dead in his flabby ballsack of a face while his breaths grew increasingly erratic, I flicked the drive straight into the sink. It fell into the garbage disposal with athunkbefore rattling around inside.
Frank seemed to deflate, slumping against the white door frame in relief. “Goddamn woman, you are going to regret ever setting foot in my house, you dumb bitch!”
My eyes did a heavy roll. Not that he was able to see it, sadly. Otherwise, he’d know how little of a shit I gave in what he threatened. “Can’t you come up with a more creative insult? Also, there were no pictures on that drive. But I can tell you what is on there…” My voice trailed off in a teasing lilt. “For example, all sorts of very illegal pornography and evidence of human and shifter trafficking.”
