“Honestly, Marcus Angelo and his hotheaded son Switch, approached me years ago when I first took over, before I realized what they were involved in. I’ve been trying to get out from under his thumb for years, but he doesn’t let go very well. Some of his thugs are actually here sniffing around. I’ve got protection, but your crew doesn’t have enough. When you got out of the guns that pissed several people off and they turned their back on your crew. I can offer protection, but it’s got to be under my terms. I’ll let you think it over and call me back. Don’t wait too long, though, or things will get very ugly for you and I’m sure you don’t want anything to happen to that fine Latina ass or the nerd. Quickshift has his own connections and can take care of himself, but that won’t be enough either. This thing is bigger than us separate, but together, we can bring these fuckers down.”
“Why would you help me?” I ask the question rolling around in my head.
“Because I like you and I admire you going somewhat legit. Few people have your vision and I want to help you. I don’t need too, but I want too. There’s a difference,” Diablo’s honesty shocks me.
“Let me think it over and call you back,” I respond.
“Talk it over with Rush. I know he’s next to you. You’re predictable and that’s got to stop. You’ve become too comfortable and everyone knows wherever you are, Rush is with you, since the whole Reiser incident. Can’t say I blame him since Reiser is missing.”
“He isn’t missing. He’s here and working with Switch,” I confess. Diablo release a deep sigh on the other end.
“Do you need protection out there?” he asks.
“No, we have protection covered out here,” I answer looking at Ace. He nods his head and sends a quick text. “Diablo protect my crew out there, please. I don’t care what your terms are. The safety of my crew is number one. Redline is missing already and I don’t want anything to happen to Natalia, Quickshift or Noah. They’re my priority.”
“On it,” Diablo says quickly. “Oh, and Krimson?”
“Yeah?”
“Stay safe. Keep that man of yours safe too. They want him dead. He’s good for you. I can hear it in your voice and seen it when we last talked face to face. I’m sorry for the way things went down before and you have my support. Just help me get out from under these guys and we’ll call ourselves even.”
“Thanks, Diablo. I’ll do everything in my power to get you out from the Corridore Rosso’s.”
“I know you will. That’s why you’re good at what you do and you have my support.”
“Take care, Diablo. We’ll talk soon.” I hang up the phone and my mind is swirling with questions. I don’t see Nolan approach me and I don’t feel his arms around me. I’m numb. Numb to the emotions, numb to the touch, numb to any kind of feelings. This is bad. Really, really bad. At least Diablo will protect my crew except for one and I have to figure out why they want Redline. What is it about him that they need? He has no family ties out here. His father was the leader of his crew years ago and I’ve known him his whole life. Nothing is making sense.
“Ash, did you hear me,” Nolan asks breaking through my thoughts.
“What?”
“What’s going on?” Nolan asks. His voice is my vessel, his body and mind are my harbor. I cling to him and don’t let go.
Mia enters the living room with a bunch of food, but I’m not hungry anymore. She sets it down on the coffee table and sits next to Xavier, making him eat. Christian sits in the overstuffed chair. All eyes are on me as I relay the information I have. I’m so lost and in way over my head. Nolan’s grip on my waist tightens with every word I speak. Ashton looks torn between jumping on the first plane to L.A. and staying here to protect Nolan. Nolan’s team needs him out here, focused, so I send a text to Natalia telling her to call Ashton and ease his mind. Quit playing fucking games with him and get over herself. She likes him and he likes her. His phone lights up and a smile graces his lips as he answers it and heads up the vast staircase to the outside balcony.
“What do we do now?” I ask.
Nolan is the first to answer. He releases my waist and clenches his fists at his sides, something changed, and his voice is deadly when he answers, “We go to The Graveyard and get Izzy back.”
“What’s The Graveyard?” Mia asks, quoting graveyard with her fingers.
“It’s a place where broken ships go to spend their last days,” Christian answer from the chair.
“Why would Izzy be there?” Mia asks.
“There’s a shipment coming in tonight and that’s where Switch and Wrath will be,” Christina responds.
“Ok, but how do you know they’ll have Izzy there? Seems to me, these guys are smart. Why would they take their captive with them to a drop when it’s better to leave her with someone she won’t run away from?” Mia questions.
“What do you mean won’t run away from?” I ask.
Mia rolls her eyes, “Come on, girl. You guys are thinking about this all wrong. Izzy knows who Redline is right?”
“Of course, she does.”
“Then why would they separate them? I’ll guarantee they have them together and have someone ruthless and has no remorse keeping an eye on them. They won’t take her with them because she’s a liability. You’ve got to stop thinking like yourself and think like them.” Mia’s eyes settle on Nolan. “You’ve been on the inside. You know how they work, their actions. Stop thinking like a pansy and think like a gangster. You’re trying to play it safe. Stop it. All you do when you do that is waste time. You saved Izzy last time the psycho took her, channel that guy, go in there and do your fucking thing.” She stands up and paces back and forth from the windows to the sofa and back, wringing her hands in front of her.
I’m shocked. I never thought of it this way.
“She’s right,” Nolan says. “We need to quit being worried what will make me snap. We’ve been on the defense way too long, it’s time to go on the offense and fight fire with fire. Harris, pull up every surveillance footage of the area Izzy and Xavier were in and search for Reiser. Ace, get on the phone and call your guys, have them be on the lookout for this guy,” Nolan shows him a picture of Sean. “And this is what Izzy looks like. Send these to your guys so they know.”
“Show them a picture of Redline, too,” I offer. I send Nolan a picture of Redline and he sends it to Ace.
“On it, I’ll have them report every hour. If they’re still here in the City, we’ll find them.” Ace answers.
“Oh, they’re still here, I doubt they left. They have nowhere to go.”
“Now we’re getting somewhere. What’s left?” I ask.
Ashton comes back in with a small smile gracing his lips. Natalia and he must have worked through some issues. I raise an eyebrow and Ashton stops walking. He gives me a wink. “What did I miss?”
“Mia is one smart lady,” Harris says from his spot at the dining room table, still scanning the footage on the laptop. Mia blushes and sits on Christians lap. He wraps his arms around her and holds her tight, kissing her shoulder.
“X, how long were you alone before we showed up?” Nolan asks him.
Xavier shrugs his shoulders with his head down. He’s torn up about this. He suddenly jumps up from the couch and runs up the stairs as fast as his feet and sore body will take him, Nolan quickly follows. I debate following too but decide against it. They need this time together, best friend with best friend. I turn to Harris when the phone on the table rings. Ashton grabs it, “Yeah,” he barks into the phone. “Send them up.” He hangs up the phone. “Marks and Ramirez are here.”
I pace this time, thinking. “Harris, let’s get a timeline when we think they took Izzy instead of searching through hours of footage. What time did we get to your place, Ace?”
“I’d say around midnight. It took about a half hour to get here from The Circle. So, we left there around eleven thirty.” Ace answers.
“Good, but we had the issue with Nolan and that took about fifteen to t
wenty minutes. So, I’d say we left The Circle around eleven fifteen. How long does it take at a normal pace to walk from The Circle to the apartment we found Xavier in?”
“Around twenty minutes.”
“So, I’ll go back and watch the footage from eleven fifteen last night to one a.m. and run the program Ashton created for face recognition. That’ll speed it up some.” Harris turns back to the laptop and begins typing codes in quickly. His fingers fly over the keyboard, then he sits back. His tattooed arms run through his crew cut hair. I creep up behind him and watch with him, over his shoulder. “Jesus woman. You’ve got to stop being a creepy ninja.” He yells. I can’t help but giggle.
“Sorry, two sets of eyes are better than one. And I wasn’t being quiet, you just weren’t paying attention.”
Harris swings a chair around for me to sit next to him. We watch the footage together, waiting for something to hit. Nolan and Xavier still aren’t back yet and I’m worried. “Hey, Nolan’s got this. It’s what he does.”
“I know, but I still feel helpless. I wish I can do something for him.”
“You are doing everything right, Ashley. Once we find Izzy and Redline, we’re going to make these fuckers pay. Every last one of them. One thing you can’t do is hold Nolan back. If he loses his head, let him. The demon he battles with will take over. There’s no doubt about that. What we need to do is let it. He won’t be able to control it if we hold him back. I’ve been working with him for years and in my personal opinion, if we stop it from surfacing, he’ll never be fully in control. Let him do his thing and trust that we have him.”
“I can’t lose him,” I voice my concern.
“You won’t. It won’t be pretty, but we’ve been with him for years. We’ve got this under control. He thinks his head is fucked up, but it’s not. His instincts will take over and those fuckers will have hell to pay when he gets his hands on them. There will be no stopping him and if you try, it’ll only hurt both of you. He must channel his past and use that to his advantage. Sometimes when the past and present collide, you have to sit back and hang on for the ride if you want the future to work out.” I can feel Harris’s gaze on me and I turn my head to look at him. His black eyes are full of sympathy, but his strong jaw is set hard. I have to trust them to keep Nolan safe. Something that’s hard for me to do. Trust someone I don’t know. Nolan is confident in his team, so it’s time I put my fears aside and have faith in them too.
Chapter 26
Nolan
I follow Xavier up the stairs quickly and find him in the bathroom of one bedroom, throwing up everything he ate. I wait at the open doorway for him to finish. Tears are flowing down his cheeks and snot is running down his nose. He wipes his face with toilet paper and flushes the toilet.
“God, I feel like such a fucking pansy,” Xavier grumbles. He washes his hands and splashes chilly water on his face. “I failed her,” he whispers, resting his hands on the sink and lowers his head.
“X, you didn’t fail her. If anything, this is my fault. I’m the one who should be shouldering the blame, not you.”
“You don’t get it,” he digs his fingers into the marble sink. “I failed to protect her. They just swooped right in and took us and the torture they inflicted on us, I couldn’t stop it. I tried, and I failed.” Xavier takes a deep, shuddering breath and I walk into the bathroom. I lean against the counter, facing him.
“X listen to me.” His eyes finally reach mine and I continue. “This isn’t your fault and you didn’t fail her. If you believe you did, then now is the time to help. We need to get her back and we will. It’s what I do. I’ve been playing this all wrong as Mia said earlier. I was too worried about my past coming back at me, I didn’t see the bigger playing field in front of me. We have The Black Heart Gang on our side. We have Diablo’s crew on our side and if Ace reaches out to others, we have them on our side. The only thing Switch has is his gang. If we all pull together and tear this city up looking for Izzy, we will. I won’t stop until I find her and bring her home safe.” I rest my hand on his shoulder and deliver my next words carefully. “I need your help in doing this. Can you keep it together?”
He nods his head and holds back the tears. “Yes. I can do that.” He hesitates before continuing. “The hardest part is after the first time they took her out of that apartment, she couldn’t make eye contact with me and she stopped talking. I don’t know why. They must have made her do something she feels guilty for.”
“How long ago was this?”
“Just a couple of days ago. It was dark outside and they all left for about three hours. When she came back, there were tears streaming down her face and she wouldn’t stop sobbing. The only thing she kept saying was, I’m sorry. What would she be sorry for?”
My eyes grow wide, my heart is beating hard in my chest and my palms are sweaty. He has no idea they tried to make her kill me. I need to figure out how to say this gently, so he doesn’t go into another tailspin. “I know.”
“What is it? I’ve been wracking my brain trying to figure it out.”
“X, take a seat.” He closes the toilet lid and sits down, watching and waiting. “I know what night you’re talking about because we were there, and I didn’t know it was her until we watched the surveillance videos. There’s no straightforward way to say this.” I pause and look away. This will be hard for him.
“What is it, Nolan?”
Taking a deep breath, I continue, “They made Izzy push me toward an oncoming train. If it wasn’t for Ashton pulling me back at the last second, I would have landed on the tracks and died.”
“Oh fuck!” Xavier spins around, lifts the toilet lid quickly and dry heaves. “This can’t be happening. Why would they do that?” He lost it again. “Why would they make my beautiful girl do something like that?” he wails.
“Because they’re a bunch of twisted fucks who get off on inflicting torture,” I answer, sadly.
Xavier dry heaves one more time and leans against the wall. His spirit is broken, and his soul is torn to shreds. He wraps his arms around his raised knees and rests his head between them. I watch his back shake several times. Taking the spot against the wall next to him, I wait it out, the anger and rage will surface soon and together we will take these fuckers down.
After several minutes of his self-loathing, Xavier raises his head and meets my eyes. “You’re not angry with her, are you?”
“Not at all,” I answer quickly. “There’s no doubt she didn’t have a choice. When we played the surveillance tapes, she looks directly into the camera and mouths the words, I’m sorry, with tears running down her face. I know they didn’t give her a choice because they grabbed her tied hands and yanked her away. It happened so fast, we had no idea what was going on and that Redline was missing. So, no I’m not angry with her. I’m angry with myself for putting her in that situation. She’s a bright light in a dark world and I never wanted any of my past to touch either of you. But, now that it has, I will do everything in my power to get her back safely and bring her back into the light.”
“Nolan, can I ask you a question? You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”
“Fire away.”
“What did these people do to you?”
I was hoping he never asked, but I knew this was coming. “Do you want the gentle version or the hard one?”
“I just want to know why they are out to get you and what they did to you,” Xavier replies.
“There’s a reason you’ve never seen me with my shirt off, no matter how hot it is. I’ve always said I didn’t know how to swim when we’d go to the lake or a pool, but this is the reason why. When I show you this, I don’t want sympathy or anything. I’ve dealt with it and with the help of Ashley, I’ve learned a life lesson.” I take a deep breath and lift my hoodie and t-shirt up over my head. I hear Xavier suck in a deep breath but thankfully, he doesn’t say a word.
“This is what happens when they think you crossed them. I did a job for Switch
and the junkie got the drop on us. After I killed the junkie and burned the crack house down, he decided I didn’t learn my lesson enough and caught me off guard. They strung me up in a basement and tortured me. Let me rephrase that. Switch hung me like a pig in the basement and Wrath did all of these.” I point to each jagged scar marring my chest. “I don’t know how long I was there for. I kept losing consciousness and when she felt I had enough, they threw me in an alley. Thankfully, I regained consciousness long enough to painfully crawl my way to the street. A passerby found me and called nine-one-one. A few months after I recovered, I left.”
“How did you get out?” Xavier asks with a tremble in his voice.
“I want to tell you, but I can’t. It’s my secret I must keep. Not even Ashley knows. Let’s just say I had to bargain with the devil to escape the hell I was in.”
“Do you think…” Xavier swallows hard. “Do you think they’ll do that to Izzy?”
“No,” I answer quickly. “This is a special type of torture the like to inflict upon me. They saved their pent-up anger and aggression for me. That’s why I can’t let them get me. If they do, I’ll be done for. Now we need to play the offense and take these fuckers down.”
“Where do you want to start?”
“Are you sure you’re ready for this? It’s going to get ugly really fast. You’ve never seen the side of me that will come out. It scares me sometimes.” I confess.
“I’m more than ready. I want to get her back quickly. The longer she’s with them, the more they’re in jeopardy.” Xavier answers. “I need a shower. Can you give me twenty?”
“Sure, I have clean clothes for you around here somewhere. I’ll go ask Mia where they are and leave them in the bedroom. You’re safe now X, I promise you. We have a whole team here who will do anything for you, Izzy, Mia, and Ashley. We got this.” I slap him on the back and stand up, putting my t-shirt and hoodie back on. Xavier follows and stretches his arms above his head. He’s going to crash soon from the emotions he’s endured.
Savage Chaos (Racing Dirty Series Book 3) Page 18
