“Get dressed and start searching for them. Poseidon followed them for a bit, but he lost them on the freeway.”
“Okay.”
I get dressed and start running facial recognition software, using her new facial structure from a picture I grabbed off one of our cameras. I didn’t get any shots of her when she was in my bed. I wish I had.
When that doesn’t turn up any results, I start running the license plate. I find the truck crossing into Arkansas before I lose it. I track it down again. It’s now parked in a sales lot. I contact the owner, and he says a woman showed up to drop it off for sale. She didn’t purchase a truck from him, but he does have a name and an account where he transferred the money.
I finally have my hacker, and now I’m going to get him. He never fell for my trap, and I know why.
Opening a chat, I send a message to the hacker most of us learned from. He’s been around about ten years longer than me. I remember learning some of his techniques.
Me
What do you know about Maisy and Stormy?
I don’t play around. I get straight to the point.
FuryBC
I don’t know what you’re talking about, Mr. Titan.
Me
Let’s not play games. I need to get my girl back.
FuryBC
Sorry. Can’t help you.
He closes the chat, and I slam my hands down. I need something to prove to him that I know he’s helping the girls, or a way to get him to help me. Storming out of the room, I find Cronus in his office.
“Ready to go question that prick?” I ask him.
He grins wide and stands up. Today he looks like the founder and sitting president of this chapter of the Drago Defiance Motorcycle Club. Like me, he’s in heavy boots, a T-shirt, jeans, and his cut. With Hermes, we head out to our bikes and take the short ride deep into the woods behind our clubhouse, where the Hole is located.
From the outside, it looks like a garage, a place to store extra bikes and other equipment. But looks are deceiving. There are three bay doors that appear to be glass, but when you get close, you can’t see inside, though whoever is inside can see out. The glass is not only one-way, it’s bulletproof.
The first bay opens, and we pull our bikes in. Thanatos, with his close-cropped reddish-blond hair and kind eyes, is deceiving. He fits his name. He’ll torture people until they flatline, then bring them back to do it again. He’s evil, and it’s a good thing he works for us.
“Bought time you all got out from between your girls’ thighs to come down here and question these fuckers.”
Cronus has Thanatos pressed against the wall, his elbow digging into Thanatos’s throat. But the crazy motherfucker just smirks until Cronus pulls away.
“That important, I see.”
“Yeah, fucker. That important,” Cronus growls, and we move as a group toward the heavy metal door.
Thanatos enters the code into the panel and then uses the optical scanner to verify it’s him. The loud clank of heavy locks sliding against metal through the quiet, and the door pops open.
The stench of urine and copper permeates the air as a blast of cool air hits my skin. We descend the metal flight of stairs to the floor below. The door clicks closed behind us, and just like every time, I feel like I’m in a tomb down here. This is the first time I’m not concerned about my conscious. I don’t care if this sends me to hell. Stormy is too important to me.
From the looks of the three bodies, Thanatos has already started having fun. All three hang by the shackles from the ceiling. Javier isn’t just sporting the broken arm he got from Cronus; it appears his legs are cut up. Thanatos really likes his knives. The man I shot has dried blood dripping down his leg with more knife wounds marring his skin. The third guy came here unscathed but isn’t that way now. He looks nearly dead except for the slow rise of his chest.
I need answers to my questions immediately, so I head to the table and grab the metal baseball bat. It’s not my usual tool, but I’m not going to wait. I walk up and swing the bat hard at Diego’s knee. It cracks, the metal vibrating in my hand. I don’t feel any remorse as he screams and bellows.
“Tell me why the Curator wants them,” I demand.
“I’ve been trying to get him to talk all night.” Thanatos chuckles. “Never thought about brute force, though.”