Chapter 9 - J

I woke to a direct stream of sunlight in my face. Shielding my eyes, I looked around to see that I was in my own room, under the blankets, stripped down and all. The door was open, providing the unusual source of unwelcomed light. I never woke from Sun through my door; it was almost always closed, faced the sunset, and I never slept in that late.

But that means… I turned to my alarm clock, it read 15:48.

Holy s**t. Talk about sleeping in.

I thought back to the night before, trying to recount what I’d done. I remembered…

Nothing.

What the hell? I bolted up. A headache seized me the same moment clenching pain ripped through my stomach. Details suddenly flooded through my mind like half painted pictures.

Ah, there it is. I slowly uncurled to lay slouched against the headboard. I’d gone to the Crown, f****n’ idiot that I was.

Let’s just waltz into the #1 Southgang hotspot as a lone Northgang leader to get shitfaced. Nada de malo en eso, what could possibly go wrong? Right?

Not right.

I was lucky as hell that I had loyal family.

I caught the glimpse of memory at being on a table with a gun in one hand and a broken bottle in the other; nothing but red around me. I was pretty sure I’d been tanked by that point, and that Kyle had already been at my back. I doubted I’d been shooting straight or even at all by then. I’d probably just been the lunatic waving a gun.

Another glimpse, of earlier in the night " or morning I should say, as it had been after midnight by then " was me pulling the bartender halfway over the counter after his threat to stop serving me. Apparently Fred’s was the only place I could drink without being hassled about consuming more than two bottles of tequila and half a pint of rum to myself.

Now that I thought about it, it was very shortly after that that the fight had broken out. 

“Ugh,” I groaned, bringing my hand up to rub my temples.

“Julius?” Lori’s voice drifted in as she pushed the door open a little wider.

“Yeah,” I replied softly, my eyes opening again as the door closed behind her.

“Are you feeling alright?” She asked, sitting beside me on the bed.

“I don’t have enough information to answer that yet,” I responded wearily.

She chuckled a bit but I could sense the concern.

“I’m still breathing of my own freewill, so I’d say I’m alright,” I added.

“Kyle said he laid down three hundred dollars for you the other night. Among other,” she hesitated before settling, “things…” The ‘people’ hung silent in the air.

“I wouldn’t believe everything Kyle says,” I suggested evasively, “Besides, any cash he did lay down probably came out my wallet,” even though I knew it hadn’t. “Nothing to be worried about. Just went for a drink.”

“Uh huh,” she leaned forward, “I know what that means, Julius.”

Ah, damn. I looked up to meet her violet-blue eyes. There was nothing for me to say, she’d caught me and we both knew it.

“I don’t understand why you think you have to hide it from me. Salvo conmigo, Julius. Sano y salvo.”

‘Sano y salvo, hermanito. You’re safe with me,’ Don’s words from over a dozen years before rang like a freight train through my head.

“¿Qué?” I asked quietly, far more vulnerable than I wanted to be.

“It means-”

“I know what it means.”

“I’m not the enemy, Julius. I hate my brother. I would never reveal you to him or his evil henchmen.” Despite the humour in her voice at calling the Kings ‘evil henchmen’, she was sincere. Or at least, she sounded like it. The best agents always did though, didn’t they?

She’s not gonna do that, you idiot. You know full well that she’s no damned double agent, my voice of reason kicked.

Still doesn’t mean she’s a safe bet, my instinct kicked back.

“Don’t tie your loyalties to me just because you hate Dane. I don’t have time for that s**t. I don’t have time for anything right now,” I said flatly as I pushed the blankets back to get up.

She sighed softly, but didn’t push me, and instead switched gears, “No, you don’t have time right now. You’ve been out over a day.”

“What?” I looked up sharply. “I know it’s almost four, but I’d hardly call that a day,” I reasoned casually as I bent down to search through the piles of clothes on my floor to find my phone.

“I wouldn’t either, if it were Sunday.”

“What the f**k do you mean if?” My head jerked up, triggering several spikes of pain that I ignored to stare her down. 

“It’s Monday. You missed a day.”

“It can’t be Monday. Alcohol doesn’t knock me out for that long,” I murmured, turning back as I discarded the second pair of empty jeans.

“Well I guess it does when you couple it with a dose of fentanyl from broken ribs and stitches.”

I stopped, narrowing my eyes as I looked at her again. “Fentanyl?”

“Kyle said I wasn’t allowed to give you codeine and that morphine wouldn’t help.”

I took an experimental deep breath and winced. My ribs were bruised at the very least, but not full on broken. I changed my gaze to take myself in. I had stitches up my left arm and across part of my stomach into my side.

Well would you look at that... I lost myself for a minute in the curiosity of trying to remember when I’d been slashed before the rest of the situation caught up with me again. I snapped to Lori again, “Ty.”

She shook her head, “They found his phone, but he wasn’t there. Kyle said it was one of the places Daniel mentioned to you and Dean. Near the river.”

“F**k,” I threw down the third pair of jeans, my phone in hand, and headed for the door to go find Kyle. I needed status on Ty, NOW.

“Um, pants, Julius?” Lori called with amusement just as I started to pull the bedroom door open.

I looked down. Probably wouldn’t be my finest idea to go down in nothing but ‘tidy-whitey’s’, even though they were just plain black. I slanted my eyes at her, “You did this.”

“Put some clothes on. Dean, AJ, and Niko are downstairs, I’ll see you there in a minute.”

“Why’s Nik here? He been here since Saturday?”

She shrugged, “I’m not sure. I didn’t see him Saturday night/Sunday morning when Kyle brought you back here, but I was gone all of Sunday after that. I only got here an hour ago and everyone was already here. As far as why, Kyle told him to be? From what I understand, Syrah and Kallen took Calvin to visit her family for Christmas, and Kyle doesn’t want him to be alone.”

“No s**t? She actually managed to convince Kal to go?” I couldn’t help my surprise. You’re gettin’ soft in your old age Kallen, I smirked to myself.

She shrugged again, “I guess so. I think she’s still milking the ‘New Mother’ card. None of her family came up when Cal was born, or since as far as I know. I think she’s got a bit to prove going to see her family over Christmas. And you know how she gets when she’s got something to prove,” Lori laughed a little over her last words.

“Don’t I ever,” I mused before letting it go. “Speaking of Christmas though, are you gonna be around next weekend?”

“Are you?” She evaded neutrally.

My shoulders fell as I felt my brows push together, “I don’t know.”

She nodded once, “I don’t know either. I’ll have to make dinner on Christmas Eve and Christmas day at home, but I plan to be away all of Christmas morning. Dane usually sleeps late, so he shouldn’t notice. As long as his food is ready on the table on time and cleaned away when he’s done he doesn’t notice much. I can probably sneak away Friday night as long as I’m back by Saturday afternoon.”

“You play a dangerous game mujer,” I said with grim humour.

She gave a matching smile as she stood up and moved to the door, “Get dressed.” She reached to pull the door open before taking a sniff and turning back, “Actually, have a shower and then get dressed. You smell like the aftermath of a party.”

I twisted my nose up, “Alright, alright.” I headed for the bathroom as she left.

I dived through the shower, grabbed fresh clothes and was still buttoning the shirt coming down the stairs 10 minutes later. Dean saw me before I had the chance to speak.

“Decided to rejoin the land of consciousness eh? ‘Bout f****n’ time.”

I titled my head in silent acceptance as I moved toward the table, “Catch me up.”

 

 

“Son of a kurva…”

C.K. had traced the last signal from Ty’s phone, and it had led them to a warehouse less than a mile up the bank of Wapiti River. The same one Danny had pointed us to. They’d had to lay down three Dragons, but didn’t come back with much to show for it; pieces of his cell phone and the sight of blood.

A lot of blood.

“What about Raid?” I asked, drumming my fingers across my thigh.

“Gregg took him. Said it didn’t seem serious but wanted to keep him for observation. Kyle’s there. He’s supposed to call when we get the green light.”

“He’s been unconscious the whole time?”

“No, he was awake yesterday. Gregg was just worried about his brain leaking out his ears so he wouldn’t release him.”

“Was he coherent?”

“More than Saturday. Danny managed to talk to him. As long as his concussed little mind remembers the conversation, I think we’ve got an in.”

I nodded. I wasn’t about to press for details like, ‘So, did he say anything else about my real name or the life that I tried to make disappear?’

AJ took the silence as chance to speak up, “Julius, if I do recall, you forbade me from coming to South side with you because you were concerned about my temper. Correct?”

I rolled my eyes up before rolling my head towards AJ, “Don’t start with me. I admit, I should have seen it coming. But I’m not sorry for sendin’ you to C.K.”

He glared at me but didn’t push the matter, instead he redirected back to the task at hand, “So what are we doing? Waiting around for Ty to waltz his way back f*****g home? What’s the new plan?”

“I’ll call Kyle. Did you scout the other addresses Danny gave us?”

Dean nodded, “We did. Except Scott’s ‘cause we still can’t get near it. There’s not gang activity as far as we can tell, nothing to suggest a captive. Most of them were in town too, and you know Ty would scream bloody f****n’ murder if he thought someone could hear him, so I doubt he’s in city limits without us knowin’ about it. Obviously he was at the warehouse, we missed him by hours though. Blood was cold and coagulated, but not dry.”

I nodded thoughtfully as I stood up. On cold concrete with such low humidity the blood would thicken and dry out way faster than it would coming from the wound. If it hadn’t been dry when they got there it could have been barely hours that we’d missed him by.

“Mierda… Alright. Thanks Dean,” I said, soberly but grateful.

“Hey, one more thing. We checked out Brayden’s place, Brayden Cox, and I’d a sworn the place was for sale.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean no cars, no people, no tracks, not even f****n’ lights on. The house is f****n’ deserted but Hollier swears up and down that it’s the right place. Said he’s never seen it so quiet his whole life.”

“Weird. No way can that be good news. Where is Hollier anyway?”

“Kyle.”

“Alright, I’m callin’.”

 

After a short phone conversation, Kyle was bringing both Raid and Daniel back to my place. Apparently Raid’s memory was working fine, but he wasn’t so keen on helping us out now that his mind was back together. I figured that was okay. I didn’t mind a challenge.

In the meantime, Dean and I struck up a game of cards while Niko nodded in and out. AJ was with Lori in the living room, after he’d called C.K. for what Dean claimed was the hundredth time. According to Dean, AJ had been checking in every couple hours since giving both Ty’s and Raid’s phone number to C.K., hoping to get the logs from Brayden’s to track down other members that could be guarding Ty. C.K. may have been a cop, but his talent damn sure hadn’t started there. If I had to trust technology to find my boy, I was damn glad to have C.K. behind it.

“How’s he doing?” I murmured to Dean over the table. Nik was out again, sitting on my right.

Dean eyed me over his cards, “Which one?” His eyes flicked from the living room to Nik to far right before coming back to me.

I sighed, tossing two cards, “Who should I be worried about?”

“Other than your missin’ man? No one. Don’t f****n’ worry about everyone’s issues right now. They’ll deal. AJ’s holdin’. His coping ritual’s become Cam. It’s probably got C.K. ready to pull his hair out but AJ’s doin’ alright with it.”

I nodded. I knew where Dean was coming from, but I couldn’t single-mind myself that way. I needed to constantly have a 360 view, otherwise I was a blundering idiot and a walking target. “Can’t put blinders on Dean, you know that. I got my priorities in order. Now what’s Nik’s deal? And is there anything or one I need to watch?”

Dean dropped two of his own cards and cut the deck for me, “Fine. I don’t know what’s up with Nik. Kyle said he hasn’t been sleeping, if you wanna guess what that means,” he shot me a pointed look as I flipped the top card.

I did not want to guess what that meant, I knew. If he wasn’t sleeping the reason was nightmares, but the question was why. Nik wasn’t any different from the rest of us - me, Ty, Kyle, Dean - we all got nightmares, night terrors, whatever you wanted to call them, and yeah, they made sleeping pretty damn unappealing. They also didn’t generally come without triggers. Which meant Nik had s**t going on.

“And other than that,” he continued, starting our round and not waiting for my response, “You ought to watch yourself around Kyle. He’s ready to take you into the ring.”

And the fun and games continue. Dios mío, why can’t it ever be one problem at a time?

“He won’t. He wouldn’t f**k over Ty just to be pissy with me.”

“Yeah, ‘cause you would totally leave it alone if you thought Jim wasn’t running right.”

I looked up, “You think I’m running crooked?”

He threw his cards down, and fought to keep his voice low, “Julius, I don’t know how you’re running. I’m not questioning, but I’m f*****g concerned. Obviously you don’t owe me an explanation, but Jesus Christ we’ve been friends a long f****n’ time for you to be holding out now.”

F**k.

I watched him for a long minute before leaning forward on the table, speaking in barely a whisper, “You’re right. I don’t owe you an explanation.”

His eyes flared with anger as less desirable emotions started to bleed in, but he didn’t make a move, physically or verbally.

“But I am holding out. On everyone. The same way you hold out. No one here knows where you come from, and no one here knows where I come from, and I really want to keep it that way. So you better let me know if that’s gonna be a problem right f****n’ now.”

He held my hard gaze with one of his own for a long time before the anger simmered, “You know where I come from. Why the double standard?”

“Because I got you off the street, not the other way around.

“Look, if we get through this whole f****n’ deal, and get Ty back and my life doesn’t f*****g unravel in the process, I’ll explain everything. But right now, first thing first, I gotta apologize to you. Saturday night you weren’t outta line. I was outta my mind.”

I watched the gears work for only a second before he spoke, “Julio.”

I bowed my head slightly to break eye contact, “Revela Dueño Cruz,” I finished in less than a whisper.

“Jesus f*****g Christ. You serious?”

I nodded slowly.

“You’ve lied to me for 10 f*****g years about who you are? Your name, on your f*****g drivers licence, is a lie? What the f**k else is a lie? You gonna f****n’ tell me you’re a f****n’ deep cover agent next? None of this is f****n’ real? Or are you a serious gangster, just pretending that you aren’t a drug guy while you’re really snortin’ half a bundle every other f****n weekend? F****n’ Christ Jules what the f**k?”

“Watch it Keith. The me you know is no different than it was 10 minutes ago, or last week, or 5 or 10 years ago. I never lied to you about who I am. I only didn’t tell you who I was. Nothing has changed. I didn’t sprout a second head, I just have some deep buried history.”

He watched me for a long time, drumming his fingers on the table. Debating, I assumed, whether he wanted to lay me out or walk away.

In the end he didn’t do either one.

“You should have told me. Straight up. You’ve known me for years JULIO, and I just f****n’ met you.”

I shook my head, “Please, for God sake do not start calling me Julio.”

“One on one, I’m gonna call you whatever the f**k I like for a while.” He challenged me without moving an inch, and I didn’t call him on it. 

I sighed, “Are we on the same team to get Ty back or not?”

“I dunno Jules, are we? ‘Cause the only team I’ve been on since this s**t happened is the ‘get him back whatever the cost’ team. From where I’m sitting, you’re the one that’s been on their own f****n’ agenda.”

I gritted my teeth. I liked Dean. We’d been friends a long time, and he was my 2IC Right hand. But he was walking on a pretty fine line. I had one cardinal rule above all others, and it was respect. I had dumped a lot on Dean’s head and yanked the rug out from under him, he was entitled to gouge me. But still, fine line. If he kept it up I was going to have to do something about it, especially with other members around.

“Shot fired and received,” I glared at him wearily over the rim of my glasses. “I’m sorry Keith. I might a made some mistakes, but I can’t change ‘em. Either we do this together, compañeros de armas, or we aren’t going to do it all. No more secrets from me, lo juro.”

After a moment he gave a short nod, “Compañeros de armas. No more secrets, Julius,” he pointed a warning finger at me seriously.

I nodded with a tilt of my head, and he took it as my word.

He gave a half smile, but more importantly his eyes softened and the anger dissipated. He slammed a hand down on the table to pick up the cards when Niko catapulted awake.

“Prosti! Pozhaluysta, ne bol'no... mne...” He faltered as his eyes flicked between us with recognition. “Sorry,” he murmured, looking down as his cheeks flushed.

Prosti. I'm sorry.  Pozhaluysta. Please. Ne bol'no mne. Don’t hurt me.

“Nichego,” I said softly.

He looked at me uncertainly, but didn’t speak.

“Didn’t mean to startle you,” Dean added as he picked up the cards and re-dealt.

Nik kept his head down, “It’s fine,” he said quietly.

“Ne vri,” I chided. “Chto proiskhodit, Niko?”

Don’t lie. What’s going on Niko?

Dean didn’t speak Russian, and neither did AJ or Lori, even though they were too far to hear. Niko knew the only members other than himself that spoke Russian were me, Kyle, and Ty. And Trix sometimes tried. Kyle had picked up on some of it from Niko living with him, but he and I had both taken language courses at the college, and between the two of us and Nik, Ty had made up his mind to start speaking it too. Trix on the other hand was mostly just interested in the swear words.

“Nichego. Glupyye mechty,” he tried to casually shrug as he still refused to look up.

Nothing. Stupid dreams.

“Mechta ili koshmar vospominaniy?” I prodded softly.

Dreams or nightmare memories?

He flushed, but finally looked at me, “I chto? Vy nichego ne mozhete sdelat'.”

So what? You can’t do anything.

I looked at him pointedly, “Maybe not, but vy ne dolzhny stradat' v odinochku, Niko. Dva delayet legche, chem odin.”

You don’t have to suffer alone. Two makes lighter than one.

He shot me a look but didn’t argue.

“Znayet li Kayl?”

Does Kyle know?

He shrugged, “Not really.”

I rolled my eyes, “Tell him.”

He looked at me caustically, “Sí señor.”

I glared back, but in humour not hate, “No ser un listillo.”

“Whatever,” he muttered, rolling his eyes to look back at the floor.

 

Dean and I got through only one game before the crew from Gregg’s clinic showed up. I smirked when I heard the soft clink of metal, and walked over to the stairs to watch the parade come through the door.

Kyle came through first, looking ready to kill the first person to look at him sideways. Then Raid was led in, handcuffed and blindfolded, by none other than our resident police officer, Cam Kennedy Aereson - who looked both annoyed and amused.

“Evening Constable. I see you volunteered your time and service to our cause.”

“Mmm. Yes, because I have nothing better to do than look out for you crazy fuckers.” He looked at me pointedly but there was a small smile. He nodded to Raid and gave him a light shove forward, “Where do you want him Jules?”

I grinned, “Take him downstairs. Ky knows which room.”

The three of them filed down the stairs, and finally Daniel came through on crutches, looking a little unsure and wildly stressed out.

I watched him close the door with a push of one crutch and waited for his eyes to meet mine. He looked almost sick. I watched him with creased brow until he finally spoke.

“We got problems.”

“Tell me somethin’ I don’t know,” I replied, coming down the stairs.

“Cox is heading Ty. This is personal, not just business.”

“What the f**k do you mean by that?”

“You know how as leader, you generally delegate? Cox never heads people. He almost always used Scott, or Raid, or me before I left. There’s about 5 people he trusts to run ops, but he never involves himself unless he really wants to personally f**k you up. Ty’s in serious f****n’ trouble.”

“Whoa. Raid told you this? How do you know he’s not f*****g with you?”

He shook his head, “Raid can do a lot of s**t, but he can’t lie to me without my knowing it. I’ve known him since fifth grade, and I know when he’s lying and when he’s telling the truth. He’s not lying. He doesn’t know what Cox wants, except that Brayden seems to think you and The Saints are running drug & gun, and he wants it for himself. Obviously, he also wants you, head on a silver platter is probably preferable, but Raid says that’s all he knows about why Ty was taken. I buy it. I don’t buy that it’s the whole story, but I believe that’s all he knows. Cox does a lot of s**t, and most members don’t even know what he’s doing, forget his motives.”

I processed what he was telling me. Cox was personal with Ty, but what the hell for? He had no reason to be. Ty wasn’t an LT or 2IC. As far as I knew Ty hadn’t ever seriously fucked with the Dragons, so Brayden shouldn’t have been out with a grudge. And drug and gun running? Good f****n’ grief. If Ty had been doing that s**t I’d have stripped his bike and sold it for parts. I didn’t tolerate drugs. Guns I could let slide, after all we were in a dangerous business, but drugs didn’t have a place.

Members that had or developed a drug problem had to make an effort to clean up or had to leave. I wouldn’t f**k around with that. It was a steadfast rule. Too many of us had seen the scariest and most unpredictable sides of people that hard drugs could bring out.

Besides, the cachorros needed rules. Since any given member was already breaking two or three laws at minimum at any given time, I didn’t think there was any reason to go and add drugs into the equation.

“Why the f**k would Brayden Cox think I’m running drugs? Guns, fine. I’ve been known to. But not drugs. I mean, I know I don’t do lunch dates with the guy or anything but he does know where I stand there. Every gang in this city knows that we don’t f**k around in the street market. What the f**k snapped in his head?”

Danny shook his head, “No idea. But he’s hell bent on it. You might want to start thinking about skimming your members to see if anyone could be drawing heat on you.”

I looked at him sharply, and he raised his hands, leaning down on his crutches.

“I’m not layin’ blame. I’m just saying, double checking is never a bad idea. Like if you ever had an issue with someone trying it before, maybe they tried it again. I don’t know. Maybe it’s got nothing to do with you guys. Maybe there’s just some doof runnin’ around North side with his business and you guys are getting’ heat for it.

“Either way, Brayden’s made it your problem. And even if Ty doesn’t know a damn thing about it, he’s in the middle. You might want to figure out what the f**k you’re actually up against here.”

“Don’t tell me how to run my s**t Hollier. You might’a been LT as a Dragon but you do not have rank here. So don’t try to pull it. Your help to find Ty is appreciated, but it doesn’t give you a f****n’ pedestal. Are we clear, traidor?”

He stiffened and took a half step back, not breaking eye contact, “Yeah. Crystal.”

“Bien.” I turned to head down the second flight of stairs to the basement.

“But Julius, you ought to know something. Brayden is big into instant punishment. You lip off, he puts a bullet through your teeth; he suspects hidden betrayal, and he’ll put one through your heart. Ty broke Brayden’s ankle, and wasn’t killed on site. That’s un-f*****g-heard of. Not a good sign.”

I turned back. He looked a little sick again.

“Ty’s really fucked. As long as Brayden has him, he’s going to be inching closer as closer to that line. So you’ve got anything I can give to get him back, just tell me when you want me. Otherwise I’ll be mute in the f****n’ corner for ya,” his voice got bitter but didn’t sound like it was meant to guilt.

He only held my gaze a few more second before he started up the stairs.

“You really hate that guy, don’t you?” I asked as he got onto the third step.

He whipped back, almost losing balance on one leg. I guessed that he would have fallen if not for the crutches. His breath had laboured and his eyes glittered with rage. His voice was low and full of malice when he spoke, “You don’t know the half of it.”

“Apparently not. Here I thought trying to kill you would have been reason enough. Except, you asked for that, didn’t you?”

“Don’t patronize me, Julius.”

“Hmm…”

He rolled his eyes, leaning back heavily against the wall, “What do you want from me, Julius? I can’t magically make Ty appear. Do you want me to help or do you want me to leave? I’ll do either. Or do you just want a bullet through my head? I’ve been waiting for my luck to run out, and if this is it, that’s fine, but could you clue a guy in?”

I watched him. He looked exhausted. I could only imagine the wars that went on inside his head. Leaving a gang was one thing, turning around and helping a rival gang pierce through into your old one was something entirely different.

But it’s always more complicated than that, isn’t it?

I wondered how similar Brayden and Dane were is running their organizations. I knew that Dane was well known for flying into temper tantrums and shooting any members unlucky enough to be in the room.

Lori had a regular supply of downright horror stories of all the things he’d done. Apparently his entire house was white, yellow, and gold; and Lori learned the same way I did that blood is a b***h to get out of whites.

When she had first come into our world she’d been horrified at a ton of the things that the Saints members did, expecting them to be shot. She’d also damn near blown a fuse at coming in to see me sitting on the floor with my computer. I actually thought I’d caused her to have a stroke at first, since Dane apparently wouldn’t even walk on the floor without indoor shoes on, much less sit on it.

I knew that Brayden was twisted, crazy; sick in the mind. But smart there too. I hadn’t known though that Brayden had been so violent to his own people. I supposed that it shouldn’t have surprised me, but still it did. I’d thought Brayden was too smart to be a lunatic. But I was starting to think it was the other way around.

“Alright, go upstairs. Hang out. I’ll come talk to you when we’re done with that a*****e downstairs.”

He nodded stiffly, but the anger was gone. We both turned to go our separate directions, though I waited to watch him go up another couple steps.

I met C.K. at the top of the stairs.

“I left the cuffs on him. They’re my spare set, so they aren’t terribly nice on the wrists,” he grinned at me as he handed over a key. “I still need them back when you’re done though.”

“You don’t wanna stick around and watch the fun?”

 “Julius, I might be a little shady for you guys, but I’m still an Officer. I’m in uniform for god sake, and I’m only answering a ‘domestic dispute’. Whatever you do to that poor b*****d, I don’t wanna know. Capisce?”

“Capisco. What shift are you anyway?”

He gave me a weary look, “The long one. Call me if you want him booked, otherwise I don’t want to hear about him. And I haven’t forgotten Ty either. I didn’t list him as Missing Persons but there’s a few of us on look out.”

He reached into his pocket, withdrawing a cellphone to hold out to me, “I’ve got all the numbers from bozo’s phone flagged, so I know what’s going in and out. Brayden Cox just gave the guy and ultimatum, you might wanna leave it in Danny’s hands; he’s been my com. Otherwise, just a waiting game on my side.”

I nodded, taking the phone, “Thanks Cam, appreciate it.”

“Yep. Just do me a favour and don’t murder that guy I left in the basement. I don’t need that coming back to me.”

I gave a two fingered solute, “Sir, yes sir.”

He rolled his eyes as he walked across the entryway to the door, “Watch it Diano, I could send you off for the rest of your natural life if you ever really pissed me off.” He opened the door, giving me a brief pointed glare, “Recuerda eso.” With that he was gone.

Ah, such a good cop. Send me to prison, not a morgue. Un verdadero amigo. Little does he know…

No time for that muchacho, leave the past alone. You’ve got a man to find.

I turned back to the main floor and whistled sharply. Danny spun in confusion at the top of the stairs, questioning confusion across his face.

I waved the phone between my thumb and middle finger, giving him time to get in position to catch it at my toss. “Read through that. Apparently there’s a situation.”

He nodded, and I turned to continue down the stairs.

As I descended, every step felt like trying to walk on shale. The ground kept shifting and sliding underneath me. Physically I knew it was solid, but mentally, emotionally, it was anything but.

Truth be told, the last thing I wanted to do was go in that room with Dean or Kyle and have Raid spill out my entire life. I was almost horrified just thinking about it. Not that it was likely, but I wasn’t stupid enough not to believe it was possible. All the guy probably knew was my name. That wasn’t so bad. I could explain that without laying out all my cards.

But Julio, what if he knows it all?

¡Cállate! Cállate la puta arriba! Shut the f**k up!

“Jules, you doin’ this or not?”

I jumped. For the first time in my life I hadn’t heard Dean come up behind me. I hadn’t realized that I’d stopped walking, and was now leaning against the wall at the foot of the stairs.

“Yeah,” I responded, dropping my hands. “I’m looking forward to his resistant cooperation,” I grinned.

Dean returned it but only half. He still thought he didn’t know who I was. And in all honesty, he was right to think so.

“Come on, let’s go see what this carbón has to say,” I pushed off and headed down the hall.

Inside I was screaming, laughing, and shaking my head, F**k Ty. You’re the one missing, but why do I feel like it’s my head on the guillotine?

Author's Note

Really long, I know. Will probably shuffle some of it around to another chapter or cut out completely; but would like opinions on what you would like to stay or go!