by Sophia Gray
Pepper barked louder, startling me out of my daydream. I stared at the dog. For once, I could tell that she was as stressed out as I felt myself. “Pepper, it’s going to be okay, we just have to find your mistress, okay?”
Pepper whined again. My stomach twisted into a knot of anxiety. This was a stupid idea; we weren’t going to find Audrey because of her dumb mutt. If I wanted to find her, I was going to have to take action.
“Never mind what I said earlier,” I called up front to the driver. “Take me back to LennoxCo. I need to call on a few friends for some help.”
As the driver turned in the opposite direction, Pepper crawled over me and lay her head in my lap. She looked up at me with big, dopey brown eyes and I felt a sense of calm come over me. I frowned down at the dog.
“Is this why Audrey keeps you around?” I asked as I reached down to scratch her ears. “Do you keep her chilled out?”
Pepper whined in response, closing her eyes and nudging my hand with her big head.
I let my head flop back against the seat as I sighed. “I don’t know what we’re gonna have to do, Pepper, but we’re not letting that asshole take Audrey. You got that?”
Pepper didn’t respond. She closed her eyes and let her head rest in my lap, drooping her body on the floorboards of the car. I looked down at her and shook my head.
“You have it pretty fuckin’ easy, you know that,” I said as I scratched her neck. “If only we could all be so lucky.”
On the inside, thoughts of Audrey were slowly tearing me apart.
Chapter Thirty-Three
When I got back to LennoxCo, I took Pepper inside with me, and we rode the elevator to the executive floor. I got a few strange looks, but not many—CEOs were luckily blessed with being able to get away with almost everything.
In my office, I set a bowl of water and treats down for Pepper. Then I picked up the phone and called Seb.
“I need you in my office right now,” I said sharply.
“Man, I’m not doing any more work right now,” Seb replied. I could hear him swallow over the phone. “I told you, I’m done with that.”
“It’s not about that, asshole, it’s helping me with something else.”
Seb hung up. Five minutes later, he waltzed into my room as though he had a standing invitation.
“What do you need?” Seb flopped down on the black leather couch. Pepper immediately walked over to him and put her big blocky head in his lap. “What’s this, Lennox? A dog? You got a fucking dog?”
“She’s not mine. I’m just taking care of her for a friend right now.”
Seb frowned. He pushed Pepper away and leaned back against the couch. “So, what do you need?”
I sighed and raked a hand through my hair. The lack of sleep and concussion was starting to catch up with me, and I felt achy and sick, like I needed to sleep for hours. “I need help finding Audrey,” I admitted.
“The secretary?” Seb frowned. “I thought that’s why you needed those statements, so you could go to the cops, and they’d take care of it.”
“I handed everything over, but I don’t think it’s going to get taken care of before next week.” Just saying the words aloud made me feel sick and anxious. “The cop, O’Brian, said that it takes a while to process things. And he couldn’t even fucking guarantee me immunity.”
“Shit,” Seb said. He leaned forward, spreading his muscular legs and resting his elbows on the inside of his thighs. “So, what now?”
I shrugged. “I have to find her. And I don’t have much time. I tried looking earlier…” I trailed off, looking at Pepper. She was lying on the floor with her snout covered with her front paws. “But that didn’t help. I couldn’t find her, Seb. I have no idea where that bastard took her.”
Seb shook his head. “Man, just let the cops handle this. You don’t want any more trouble, and neither do I.”
“She’s important to me, Seb,” I snapped. Once I said the words, I realized that they’d been true for a long time. I just hadn’t been willing to acknowledge it until now. “And if I don’t find her, I’m worried that he’s going to kill her or hurt her or do something terrible.”
Seb stared at me. “And you didn’t tell the cops about this?”
I shook my head. “Dude, no, I couldn’t say anything. I didn’t want to implicate her in anything.”
“What could she possibly have done?” Seb laughed. “She’s your secretary, it’s not like she tried to take this guy down or some shit.”
“No, but she scanned through all of our old correspondence, and even though that bastard wrote it in code, I have a feeling she probably figured out some of what he meant.”
“Okay. So where do you want to look?”
I closed my eyes and tilted my head back, trying to think of every nook and cranny Hodges would frequent. “There’s the shoe store downtown, his store. That would be a good place to start. There’s a warehouse attached. I bet she’s probably there.”
“Think about what you’re doing,” Seb urged. “You need to remember that this shit is dangerous, and it’s not like you can just go in there with that dumb mutt and find Audrey. Do you have protection? Do you know how many stooges this guy has hired?”
I shook my head. “No, but I have to try. I have to find her, Seb. I can’t fail. I can’t let him win. Not this time. He ruined me once before, and I won’t let him do it again.” And I won’t let him hurt her, I thought, clenching my fists in frustration. No way, no how.
Seb stood up and wiped his hands on his pants. “Alright, then I’m in.” He grinned at me, and I felt a rush of affection for him, my partner in crime.
“It’s funny,” I said as I stood up and clipped the leash to Pepper’s collar. “We used to party together and cover for each other.”
Seb laughed and punched me in the shoulder. “Remember when you told my girlfriend that I’d gone home sick when I really went home with those strippers?”
I rolled my eyes. “Hard to forget,” I muttered. “We used to be such assholes.”
“Used to be?” Seb stared at me. “Have you completely pussed out? What happened to you, Lennox? You used to be a real man.”
“Life happened,” I replied darkly. “Somewhere along the line, I think my priorities started to change. Now all I care about is my company. I don’t give a shit about partying or fucking strippers anymore.” And Audrey, my mind chimed in, but I didn’t dare say it in front of Seb. She’s important. She’s very, very important.
“You totally pussed out,” Seb repeated. We walked to the elevator bank, Pepper straining at the leash. “I remember you used to be knee-deep in pussy and booze by the time five in the afternoon rolled around. What happened to that guy?” Seb grinned at me, but I didn’t return the smile. “You used to be fun.”
“And then some psycho kidnapped my secretary and ruined my business,” I countered. “And I decided maybe I didn’t give a shit about being crazy anymore.”
“You’re missing out,” Seb said with a grin. “I tell you, you’re gonna miss that life someday. You’re not old yet, man. You’re what, twenty-nine? Thirty? That’s way too young to think about settling down.”
We got into the elevator, and I pressed the button for the first floor. A feeling of dread and anxiety was washing over me, and I realized there was nothing I could do about it. In a way, I felt ashamed. I felt ashamed of myself for acting exactly like Seb for most of my life and not caring what other people thought of me.
Ever since I’d been a kid, hell, ever since Cindy, I’d never let anyone walk all over me again. I’d always thought that I’d done the right thing, the strong thing, the manly thing. But now I was starting to realize that I’d barely done anything at all. I’d been a cad and an asshole to almost every woman I’d ever met. Thinking of all the women I’d fucked and dumped made me want to cringe. I couldn’t believe that I’d ever thought it acceptable to be so damn callous.
“I’ve changed, Seb. And I don’t think I’ll ever go back
to the way I was before.”
Seb grinned again, still unaware of everything rushing around in my head. “You’ll regret it.” He winked. “Just trust me on that.”
I don’t think I will, I thought. I think I just got the wake-up call of a lifetime.
Chapter Thirty-Four
I didn’t have the first idea of where to start looking for weapons. Thankfully, Seb was one step ahead of me.
“Where are we going?” We were in a black car with Pepper, and as far as I could tell, we were driving out of the city. “Indiana?”
Seb shook his head. “Somewhere better. Trust me.”
I shrunk back into the leather seats and watched the scenery pass as the driver cruised down Lakeshore Drive into the southern part of the city. It was a stark change—the magnificent, well-kept architecture of the Loop faded away quickly and was replaced by dilapidated warehouse buildings and veritable shacks on the side of the road. I watched as we passed by increasingly apocalyptic landscape: a field burning off oil, a torn-apart old factory, a lot of ancient-looking abandoned school buses.
“This is too much,” I said, turning to Seb. “How the hell are you even familiar with a place that looks like this?”
Seb had wraparound sunglasses on, and he looked impenetrable. “Does it matter?” He smirked at me over the tops of his shades. “I mean, I don’t really think it does, Enzo. I don’t think you actually give a shit where we’re going, as long as we get the weapons.”
I shrugged. “I don’t want to finance any gang activity,” I said ominously as the car cruised past an old factory covered in spray paint tags and unreadable gang signs. “This is a dangerous part of the city.”
Seb threw his head back and laughed. “You are such a pussy, Lennox,” he said with a scowl. “Where’s this heart coming from? You never cared who buttered your bread before.” He lowered his shades and glanced at me over the tops of the glasses. “I mean, that’s practically how LennoxCo was built. It’s not as though you used to have ethics. Why the change?”
Seb rapped on the partition and instructed the driver to take the next exit, pulling off the highway and onto a little ramshackle road. As the car bounced from fresh pavement to a road covered in potholes, I closed my eyes and wished that nothing would happen. I can’t die right now. Audrey needs me. Please don’t let this be a bad deal, please.
When I opened my eyes, Seb was smirking. “Pussy,” he said again, shaking his head and winking at me.
I rolled my eyes. “You have to admit, Seb, it would defeat the purpose of our coming here if we’re attacked before we even have the chance to get out.”
“Shut up,” Seb said carelessly. “You have the cash?”
I opened my attaché case and peered inside. Before we’d left town, we’d stopped at a bank, and I’d pulled out a few thousand dollars in cash. I pulled out a wad of bills and waved it at Seb’s face.
“Right here,” I said, my tone smug.
Seb craned his neck and looked down into my lap. “That should be enough,” he said. The car was bumping over the road so hard that once or twice, my ass left the seat, and my head slammed against the roof.
Seb rapped on the partition window. “Goddamn it!” he yelled at the driver. “Can’t you drive any slower? We don’t want to bust a fucking tire out here!”
The car slowed, and I settled into my seat, jostling and bouncing along as we drove further and further away from any recognizable civilization.
Finally, the car slowed as we passed a ramshackle house. “Right here.” Seb rapped on the partition with his knuckles, and the driver screeched to a stop. “Come on,” Seb said to me. He jerked his head to the side and climbed out of the back seat of the car.
Outside it was freezing cold, and even windier than it felt in downtown Chicago. I craned my neck and looked up at the darkening sky. “Where the hell are we?” I looked around, trying to get my bearings. We were so far off the highway that I couldn’t even hear the roar of traffic. “What the hell are we doing out here?”
Seb frowned. “What the fuck do you think we’re doing out here, asshole?” He pulled his coat tight around his muscular body and set off for the house. I was surprised—when we walked up, I could tell that it was clearly not in terrible shape. Rather, it was designed to look abandoned, but there was actually a lot of insulation.
“Is this a decoy?” I frowned as Seb knocked on the door.
He shrugged and rolled his eyes. “Who the hell cares? As long as we get what we came here for, I don’t give a shit.”
The door swung open, and a heavyset, middle-aged woman stepped out. Her face was lined with deep creases and her hair, or what was left of it, perched on her skull like cotton fuzz. She stared at Seb, taking in his tailored appearance. She even sniffed the air, and I shuddered as I thought about what she would smell like.
“We’re here for the items. Let us in,” Seb said.
I pulled his arm back. “Hey,” I said in a low voice. “Maybe try not being so rude for once?”
Seb rolled his eyes again, but the woman stepped aside and let us pass.
Inside, I was surprised again. The interior was well-built to keep the cold out, and there was a fire going in one corner. There were two long tables set up, with black duffel bags on the floor. A man smoking a cigarette leaned close to the fire, then threw the butt of his smoke on the floor and crushed it with the heel of his boot.
When he walked over to us, I was startled at the resemblance between him and the older woman who had answered the door. They both had flat blue eyes and dull features, almost like they’d been blurred with the passing of time.
“Hi,” I said, trying to keep my voice strong and confident. “We need to buy some guns.”
The man let out a laugh. “I know what you’re here for, son,” he said, spitting on the floor. He shoved his hands in the pockets of his worn jeans and strutted over to one of the tables. “How much did you bring?”
Seb grabbed the attaché case from my arms and threw it on the table. Wads of cash went flying out. I half expected the old couple to scramble for the bills, but instead, they stared at the money, coolly appraising.
“And what kind of items are we talking about?” The old woman peered into Seb’s face, obviously having taken him for the leader. I didn’t mind. There was something about this old couple that gave me the creeps. For starters, how the hell did they even get out here? We were so far off the grid that I thought I might hear banjos playing in the distance.
“Something semi-automatic.” Seb looked at me. “Lennox, what kind of shit do you need?”
I thought about it. I barely knew anything about guns—I had one in my condo, but I’d rarely used it. When I first bought it, I’d taken it faithfully to the range every other weekend to practice shooting. Ironically, I’d bought it right after my first almost deadly brush with Hodges. After he was arrested and taken down, I’d worried that he’d get out on bail and storm my apartment. Thankfully, he never did. I wondered if I was still a good shot.
“Something small,” I said, being decisive. “It needs to fit in here.” I tapped the right pocket of my overcoat. “We’re going back into the city, and we can’t attract a lot of attention.”
The woman nodded. She took some of the bills out of the case and counted. “We’ll take five,” she said, putting the rest back into the leather fold and handing it over to Seb. “You boys wait here for a minute.”
Seb and I exchanged uneasy glances as she puttered around the cabin. Finally, she pointed to her male companion and had him heft one of the big bags up onto the tables. When I looked at her face, I realized the tip of her tongue was sticking out of her dry lips. I shuddered. It was a powerful visual, if only because it reminded me so much of Audrey.
“This should do it,” the woman said. She dumped the contents of the bag out across the table with a deafening clack bang thump. I gaped at the pile of guns as big as my body. The woman spread them out and began rifling through the collection with a prac
ticed eye. Finally, she held up two small black handguns that looked like something out of a spy movie.
“What are they?” I picked one up and frowned. It was light—I couldn’t believe that it would actually do some kind of damage.
“Does it matter?” The woman cackled as her blue eyes met my own. “They come with two clips of twenty rounds. Does that serve your purpose?”
I punched Seb in the shoulder, and he handed over another stack of bills.
“Give us four clips each,” I said to the woman.
She raised her eyebrows and whistled. “You boys aren’t planning to rob a bank, are you?”
