“That’s my girl.” Pride swells in me. The men are taking steps away from her now. The dockmaster, Donavon, pulls Charlotte toward him. He’s a pig, but the rest of the men are backing away.
The idea of him touching her pisses me off, but I’m thankful that he’s keeping the hounds at bay as he leads her into his office. I’m in the dark now, because there’s no camera in the office.
I pound my fist against the desk and sigh as I turn the computer off. I pick up a picture of Charlotte and stroke her black, shining hair.Stunning. In all my thirty-three years there has never been one so unknowingly beautiful. Those innocent eyes stare back at me as I get a whiff of rot Fuck, I forgot about the dead body.
“Shit.”Torrez, my partner in catching the Powers brothers, should have seen this coming. The idea of her living on while my little bird was with those bastards didn’t sit well with me, so I ended the bitch. With one last look at the photo of my little bird, I sigh and stand up. Begrudgingly, I make my way over to the closet I put Torrez in for safekeeping.
“Torrez, you dumb bitch, you’d be alive right now if you had been loyal to me. But no, you had to choose Ayres, didn’t you? Well, fuck you, I got the last laugh.”
I strip her of her uniform and look at her body. She’s still a great piece of ass. Her dusky nipples frozen in hard pebbles and a perfectly clean pussy.Shaved?I do a double take.
The memory of her being a good fuck runs through me. I shake my head to clear the ideas running through my brain. My cock pulsates, but I feel gross. For fuck’s sake, she’s dead. I can’t fuck a dead person.
Right?
The car isn’t moving fast enoughfrom our bar, P3. We made a quick stop there to confirm that the place hadn’t been hit. We got the docks under control after the mayhem, and then made a straight shot to our closest bar. It was a mistake. I can feel it.
“Dammit.” I pound my fist on my knee. “Something is wrong with Hypnos.” My gut never lies, and it’s in fucking knots right now. Hypnos hasn’t returned a single phone call in almost two hours. He can’t stand not answering his damn phone. It’s like an obsession to see how fast he can answer.
Ayres snorts and smirks at me. His green eyes twinkle with mischief. “I’m sure he’s busy fucking Charlotte. You know he’s got a massive soft spot for her.”
Don’t we all?Yeah, we haven’t been nice to her, but she’s wearing us down. Fuck, I can still feel the tingling sensation when she kissed me. This is not the time to be getting hard. First thing is to get home and find out why Hypnos thinks it’s appropriate to ignore my calls.
Ayres laughs again, and I want to take a swing at him. “Floor it, Ayres.” He’s always cracking jokes at the most inappropriate of times. My teeth clench as I try not to think too much into Hypnos’s silence. Maybe I am overreacting, but I can’t shake this feeling that I’m justified in my worry.
My irritation is growing by the second as Ayres turns on the music. He likes rap music and contemporary pop. I don’t understand that damn mix. I’m a sucker for hard rock. Classic rock is the best. But any rock will do. I turn off the music. This whole day is getting on my nerves. Running around this city, chasing distraction after distraction, and resolving absolutely nothing. I feel like I’m chasing my own damn ass.
“Keep your hands on the wheel and drive.”
“Touchy mother fucker,” Ayres smarts off about how I’m acting, and I smack the back of his head. He laughs. Always, with the damn laugh. Sometimes I wonder if he can be serious about anything.
“Come on man, you know we all can’t stand to be away from Charlotte. He’s over there bending her over the couch. Or it’s possible that he has her against a wall, fucking her with that Prince Albert piercing, making her feel it every time he thrusts deep inside of her.”
“Shut up and get us to the house.” I grit my teeth, trying hard not to think about what’s happening. Or get a hard-on from thinking about Charlotte and Hypnos getting it on.Do not think about it.I growl in frustration. The need to be home rings within my bones. I’ve never felt this out of control.
We make it back to the house, and the guards aren’t out front. The black iron gate is wide open. My hands twitch with anger.What the fuck?
“Son of a bitch!” Ayres floors the gas as I pull my gun and check the chamber. As we come to a screeching halt, I notice the door. It’s wide open.
“What the fuck?”
Ayres is out of the vehicle faster than I am. His baseball bat at the ready. “Guess Hypnos isn’t fucking around with Charlotte.”
“You think?” God, I wish he would fucking take things serious. Just once. “Take the garage, Ayres. I’ll go through the front.”
I take the safety off my gun and make my way through the door. The hinges don’t seem to be broken, and there’s no wooden debris. I look around to see if I can see any signs of a gunfight. Not a single shell casing or bullet hole to be seen. Yet, the house is a total wreck. There is water running everywhere. Plaster from the walls litter the area. I look at the stairs and water rushes down them in a steady stream.
“Mother fucker.” I can hear Ayres coming through the side door from the garage. He cusses as he gets to the sink in the kitchen. He tries to turn the water off, but it’s a lost cause. The water seems to gush even more now that he’s fiddled with it.
“Turn it off, Ayres.”
“Dude, what the fuck does it look like I’m trying to do?” He growls at me and turns both knobs to the right. The water spews, so he turns it to the left. It doesn’t stop the spewing, but it slows down.
“Fuck,” I mutter in frustration. “Someone’s messed with the water system to the point we can’t stop it.”
“Do you think it’s the same person who messed with the docks?”
I look at Ayres and nod. For once, he doesn’t make a wisecrack about pipes and them being faulty. “Yeah, I imagine it is. This fucker is one step ahead of us, but we’re going to catch them.”
