Deviated

by Schmidt, Esther E.

  Deeds curses and squats down to grab Esmee’s phone, the screen is completely ruined. He presses the button to get the elevator moving to her floor and we impatiently wait until the doors slide open. We rush to her apartment but once inside nothing seems out of place. Deeds steps out into the hallway and knocks on Sona’s door.

  “She’s not there. Sona has a new boyfriend she’s staying with. Esmee talked to her last night, she’s staying with him till Monday.”

  “Fuck,” Deeds snaps. “Why in the hell would she rip out the chip? The one damn time we need it.” He grabs his phone out of his pocket. “Ganza, I need you at Esmee’s apartment. Bring your laptop and keep your mouth shut if you run into Archer, understood? Oh, and there’s blood in the elevator of Esmee’s building, get a sample when you get there.”

  He doesn’t say anything but points in the direction of Esmee’s home. We stalk inside and I check my phone but again there’s nothing, and I now realize Esmee won’t be calling either since she doesn’t have her phone on her.

  “The camera in the hallway, it covers both Esmee and Sona’s door. Does it cover the elevator? Is there one in there?”

  Deeds slowly shakes his head. “None in the elevator. Downstairs in the parking garage is one I think, but I don’t know for sure. That’s why I called in Ganza. He’s the one who helped Abe tweak the security a few months ago when Esmee mentioned there was a glitch in the system.

  He would be able to access the feed of the camera in the hallway and maybe track down an angle of a camera outside of the building to see if we can have a glimpse of who might have taken her. But if someone shoved her into the trunk of a car it would be very hard to catch.”

  My chest tightens and for the first time despair fills me. She’s gone. Someone took her. She could be hurt or worse.

  “Stop right fucking there,” Deeds snaps. “Only her mother might be a tad more badass than Esmee, but that’s only because she put her on this goddamn earth. Esmee is a damn fighter. I know it, because I raised her as one.”

  We stare at each other until my phone starts to ring in my hand. I see my father’s number and answer. “Yes?”

  “Can’t find him. We checked Lex’s house, office, bars where he sometimes hangs out, nothing.”

  I try to think where he could be. We’re friends but not the kind where I know his every damn move.

  But suddenly I remember something he mentioned when we talked about a month ago. “A boat. He owns a boat. Did you check if he’s there?”

  My father repeats my words and I know he’s doing it so either Liam, Jackson, or Ben can run a check to see if it’s in his name to pull up an address.

  “He mentioned it’s a pain in the ass to maintain but an absolute babe magnet. He said he could see it from his apartment.”

  “Got it. We’ll check in later,” my dad grunts and hangs up.

  I start to pace the room and I can feel the annoyance and frustration coming from Deeds but he keeps quiet while we wait. There’s nothing much we can do because running around screaming wouldn’t be helping and there isn’t a lead to go on for us to hunt down Esmee. For now, we need to let my father and his team handle tracking down Lex while we wait.

  Deeds’ phone gives an indication he has a message and he checks before stalking to the door. Ganza strolls inside and the man only lifts his chin at me as he places his laptop on the table.

  “Can you pull up the security feed from the hallway? There isn’t one in the elevator, right? Parking lot? Any out on the street? Esmee is missing and we found her phone cracked in the elevator.”

  Ganza curses and sits down to pull his laptop in front of him to get to work while he mutters, “I had a prospect tag along to get the blood samples I took over to our lab. I made sure he kept his mouth shut and did what I asked.”

  My phone vibrates in my hand and my father’s name flashes on the screen.

  “Yeah?” I answer.

  “We found Lex; he was on the boat like you said. Looks like he and Miles got into a heated fight since the guy is rambling about his brother going nuts and attacking him. Are you coming down here? You can watch in the other room while Jackson is going to have another chat with him.”

  “On my way,” I grunt, hang up and tell Deeds, “I gotta go, they found Lex and I want to be there when Jackson asks him questions about his brother.”

  “Here.” Deeds throws the keys to his SUV at me and I catch them with ease. “Call me the second you find out something. We’ll do the same.”

  I give them a tight nod and jog out the door.

  Chapter Eleven

  ESMEE

  I start to become aware of my body and try to open my eyes. My head is killing me, my throat is dry, and a wave of nausea hits me. Worst hangover ever is what comes to mind before actual images flash through my head of what really happened.

  Instinctively I swing my arms to fight any restraints but there aren’t any until I hear someone grunt, “Calm down or you’re going to hurt me.”

  Hurt me? I’m the one who…wait, what? I blink furiously and finally get to the point where I can take in my surroundings. It looks like my living room and yet it’s all blue and way too colorful and filled with weird stylish furniture.

  I’m staring into gray eyes filled with concern. He looks vaguely familiar but my brain is seriously lacking right now. He grabs a bottle of water and uncaps it for me before gently holding it out for me.

  “I just got back from a three-day run and didn’t expect to find you in the elevator. There was blood and you didn’t respond to anything but did have a solid pulse. I checked you over and instantly noticed the puncture wound in your neck. With you being…and me being…yeah, if I called the cops or your family it might not go over well for either of us, so I figured I’d wait for you to wake up. Want me to call anyone? How are you feeling? Do you know who I am?” he questions, and now I know exactly who he is and I take the bottle from him.

  “Jeremiah Clearingtons, otherwise known as Bat. Wicked Throttle MC, right? Just patched in last month. Great. Just my luck the one biker living in my building is the one to find me. Not to mention you’re not even a part of my father’s MC. Ugh. Did you happen to see anyone leave the elevator before you found me? And for your information, we don’t have any dispute with Wicked Throttle MC. You could have contacted my father yourself or have your pres contact mine. Well, not mine exactly since I’m just the…whatever. I need to make a call.”

  He holds out his phone. “Yeah, I could. But you always seem like you handle everything on your own, and I’ve heard some stories about you. I didn’t want you to get into trouble or hurt since I didn’t know what was going on.”

  I snatch his phone from his hand and mutter, “You’re getting creepy with the whole ‘you seem like you handle everything,’ makes me wonder if you have been stalking me.”

  He actually looks horrified. “No damn way. I’ve been trying to ask the daughter of my president out ever since I laid my eyes on her. I won’t ever look at anyone else. When I rented the apartment, my VP warned me about you. The following day your dad was on my doorstep giving me a rundown, and also told me that if anything ever happened I should act as if you were my old lady. At the time I was a prospect, and I might not have an old lady, but I do know what he meant. It’s also why I didn’t tell anyone you were here and let you sleep off whatever you were injected with because like I mentioned, you always seem to handle everything yourself and if you were mine, I would provide a safe place for you to get back to your old self, so you can handle the shit you’re in by yourself. I’m rambling but the bottom line is that I have no clue what’s going on or what happened in the elevator before I found you. So, I’m sorry if I fucked up, but I ain’t no stalker.”

  “You did good,” I mutter. “And if you need help with getting a date, let me know what I can do for you. Since I know being the MC Princess sucks, and she might need you to step up instead of laying low to pussyfoot around her.”

  Some of
the tension leaves his shoulders and he gives me a goofy grin. “You’d help me?”

  I roll my eyes. “You’d do best to man up, I’ll help you with that part too.”

  It’s cute how he seems to have a crush, and now I apparently have a weak spot for him with the whole protecting and saving me thing he did. I don’t think twice and punch in the first number that comes to mind; my father.

  “Who the fuck is this?” His growl is a warm familiarity I welcome.

  “Hey, Dad,” I sigh and try to sit up but still feel somewhat woozy.

  “Keep your ass on the couch,” Bat snaps as he steadies me.

  “Where are you? Who is there with you? Are you okay?” he fires off question after question.

  “I’m okay. Well, somewhat. Bat, the one from Wicked Throttle MC who lives in my building, helped me and kept me safe when I was attacked in the elevator,” I mutter and clear my throat. I have to take a few breaths to swallow down the nausea hitting me. “Someone injected me with something, and—”

  There’s frantic knocking on the door and my father says through the phone, “Open the door.”

  Bat jogs to the door and has to step back when my father pushes his way inside and heads straight for me. Jeez, how in the hell did he get here so fast? Was he already in the building?

  “Careful,” Bat says. “She just woke up and isn’t steady on her feet yet.”

  My father gives him a glare and pulls me into his arms anyway. “You gave us a scare. And why the fuck did you rip out your chip? We could have found you within seconds. What happened? Can you remember?”

  Okay. We go from caring to anger within a nanosecond.

  “Taking out the chip was necessary,” I simply say, not regretting the action and suddenly everything comes rushing back that happened before the elevator incident. “One moment I was standing in the elevator making small talk with some guy, and the next I feel something being jabbed into my neck and I start to get woozy. I fought back or tried to anyway. Shit. And I know I’m off the case, but if you don’t mind…I have to get back to work.”

  “We found your phone in the elevator, it was completely smashed. Must have happened when you fought back,” my dad muses.

  “I found her in the elevator. I figured I’d bring her somewhere safe and wait for her to wake up and tell me what to do,” Bat says and my father simply nods in understanding.

  Bat holds out a Gatorade for me to take and I do with a grateful smile. Downing half of it in one go, I feel good enough to take a few steps but I have two pair of eyes locked on me.

  “Stop it, I don’t need to be coddled. You,” I point at Bat. “Go shower and find your Princess to tell her straight to her face—no matter who is around—that you want to take her on a date. And you,” I point at my dad. “Where is Cullen? I don’t need to see him right now because I have to pull up some information, but this is going to be bad and I need your help.”

  My dad’s gaze swings Bat’s way. “You have the hots for Zerox’s daughter?” His head tips back and laughter rips out but turns serious the next second. “You do know his old lady knows how to fight, right? It’s gonna be ugly claiming their daughter, but Esmee is right. If you’re all in, go all in and face everything head on.” He puts a hand on Bat’s shoulder and gives it a squeeze. “I’ll put in a good word for you if you need it. Thanks again for making the right choice when it came to the safety of my daughter.”

  I’m still not steady on my feet but I feel the Gatorade is helping me to gain some strength back. My father grabs my elbow and I let him guide me out. I throw another “Thank you,” over my shoulder before we head for my apartment which is a few floors up. I step into the elevator and it makes me slightly cringe at the reminder of what happened and to my satisfaction I see a wet spot on the floor as if it’s been recently cleaned.

  “Blood?” I point at the spot. “Did I manage to hurt him? I felt the impact, jabbed him a few times, but I wasn’t sure if it was enough to hurt him.”

  My father’s voice is filled with pride as he says, “You sure did. Ganza took a sample and cleaned everything up afterward. We’re waiting on the results. I’m also pretty sure it was the reason why he couldn’t take you with him. Being injured, bleeding, and carrying a woman…it complicates things.”

  “Well, first thing we should do is take a sample of Lex Dennetts, Cullen’s superior, because I’m now fairly sure I recognized him when he stuck the needle into my neck,” I growl, now vividly remembering everything and realize he looked familiar because I checked out everyone Cullen worked with and who was connected to his personal life.

  “I’m pretty sure it will match because he has a twin we labeled as a suspect,” my dad says and it makes me falter and come to a complete stop right in front of my door.

  “You have got to be kidding me,” I grunt. “Do we have more intel? And how did you come to this conclusion? Wait, Ganza is here? What happened during the time I was out?”

  Ganza opens the door for us and once inside I spin around and cross my arms in front of my chest and wait for an explanation.

  Ganza smirks and mutters, “I’m very happy to see you weren’t kidnapped by the bad guy. I always knew you weren’t the cliché type.”

  “Shut the fuck up, Ganza. Someone took her down by shoving a needle in her neck, squirting fuck knows what inside her veins. We were lucky enough Bat found her and brought her to his place to keep her safe until she woke up.”

  “Thank fuck for Bat, one of the good guys,” Ganza grunts.

  “Obviously, otherwise I wouldn’t have allowed him to live near her,” my father mutters underneath his breath.

  Ganza leans in and softens his voice. “Nice to have you back, Princess.”

  He shoots me a wink and heads for my dinner table where two laptops are flashing. He takes a seat and his fingers start to rattle on one of the keyboards.

  “Your—” The corner of my father’s mouth twitches as he thinks over what to say. “Cullen called me after you two went head to head after Archer’s visit. Which caused him to knock over the whiteboard and it made papers pile up so he only saw part of the sketch you guys had. He realized it looked like Lex and caught a breakthrough, but you weren’t there to help him. Archer sliced two of his tires, preventing him from going after you. Cullen couldn’t contact anyone else because of Lex being CIA and suspecting his twin brother is the serial killer, so he called me. I told him to get Cole Security Forces involved, off the books of course. This way we’re sure we have guys experienced and not have eyes on us because Broken Deeds MC is in the spotlight as it is. Cullen gathered a team of his father, Jackson, Benjamin, and Liam. They went after Lex to bring him in and get some more intel about his twin because it’s as if Miles Dennetts fell off the face of the earth after he turned twenty-four. No job, no current address, no nothing.”

  I drain the last of my Gatorade and need to sit my ass down on my couch because I’m still a little woozy in my head. “Well, if you asked me, I’d say Lex killed his brother and is letting him take the fall for his killing escapades. Easy enough to hide behind and it’s actually brilliant since some twins share the exact DNA structure. And I know they are twins, but the one who took me seriously looked like Lex to me. But, yeah, twins, so who knows who is who and doing what.”

  Okay, maybe I’m a lot weirder in my head and it also makes me voice, “Miles might be the one hiding completely. It could be some sort of cover, to use Lex and let him take the fall for his killings instead. Yeah, this whole twin thing is fucked up and they’re both suspects at this point.”

  The whole room turns silent and the both of them are staring, making me uncomfortable.

  “What?” I snap.

  “Pres?” Ganza’s voice slices through the air.

  Deeds shakes his head. “Not your pres anymore, Ganza. But we need to head over to where they’re keeping Lex before they let the fucker walk out.”

  Confusion hits me. “Why would they let him walk? If his twin is in fact ou
r unsub, which I don’t think it is because my money is on Lex…he’s connected either way. They should grill him. Shit. I bet they are pussyfooting around him, aren’t they? Do they even consider him a suspect?”

  The look on both their faces is all telling. I stalk into the kitchen and throw over my shoulder, “We need to head over there, right now. Well, after I’ve made myself a large coffee to go, with loads of caramel because I need the sugar, and then we’re off.”

  “Want me to lend you my phone so you can call your boyfriend?” Ganza snickers.

  I manage to multitask and shoot a glare over my shoulder. “No, you idiot. I can’t call him because then he will know I am with you guys, up and about and talking. I think it’s best not to tell them anything about me yet so he can’t spill anything to Lex. Or did you update him already?”

  My father’s voice comes up from behind me. “No. I ran out when you called and we just got back.”

  I hold the caramel bottle upside down over my takeaway mug and tell him, “Good, then I’m hiding in the trunk and you guys are going to sneak me inside.”

  My dad rolls his eyes and takes away the caramel bottle. “Your teeth are going to fall out,” he grumbles. “You don’t need to hide in the trunk. I’ll shoot Cullen a message to keep Lex in place but I’m sure they have him in a closed interrogation room because the address he gave me where they are is a building I’m familiar with.”

  “We need to be sure he doesn’t see me,” I repeat. “I lashed out at my attacker, needless to say with all the blood I managed to hurt him.” I put the lid on my mug and turn. “Ready when you are.”

  “You sure you’re okay, Princess?” Ganza questions.

  I narrow my eyes at him. “Call me Princess again and I’ll punch you in the damn face.”

  Ganza grins at my father. “She’s okay.”

  I shake my head and stalk into the direction of the door, hearing the both of them follow me out. During the ride to the building where Cullen’s team is holding Lex, I try to go over every detail in my head in an effort to somehow have a solid link to tie Lex to any of the women but nothing stands out.