I wasn't surprised at Calix calling in reinforcements. If he hadn't done it already, I would have suggested the same thing. There was no way of knowing how long this could take, or even if the guy still had Leith in the city or this state. My gut was telling me that he did. That whoever he was, he was here for one reason and one reason only—because I'd killed Vector and he was going to make me pay for it.
My real concern was why he hadn't come after me directly and why the intel I'd gathered on Vector had made no mention of a relative.
Pax and Arden broke apart and walked over to join us. Arden slipped easily beneath Lex's arm and up against his side like he'd done it a thousand times. Pax pressed against me, and I wrapped an arm around his shoulder, turning my head to press a kiss into his still damp hair.
"We'll keep you updated, okay?"
"And we’ll let you know if we find anything." Pax looked up at me and I pressed a quick kiss to his lips.
Lex and I said our goodbyes and headed toward the garage. Once we made it a ways down the hall, Lex looked over at me.
"You think we'll find the boy alive?"
My first instinct was to say yes because my mind didn't want to consider any other outcome, but I knew that time and statistics weren’t on our side.
"I think it depends on what this asshole is trying to achieve."
"Retaliation for taking out what we have to assume was his brother?"
I nodded. Nothing else made sense, but I wasn't sure why he’d taken Leith. Unless Leith had been an easy grab to use as a source of information. We needed to find Leith as soon as possible. If he was only a source of information, and this guy had gotten what he needed out of him… I didn't like our odds at all.
We'd split up into teams, working our way through the areas of the city that lent themselves to higher crime rates and places where screaming might go ignored or unheard. Lex and Axel were riding with me, while Calix, Cleave, and Riot were on the other side of town. Eben was still holding the fort at the clubhouse, and Holden had made good on his word and had his Devil’s out searching, as well.
We'd been out searching—talking to snitches and canvassing every seedy bar in our section of town—pushing people for answers and getting the word out that the Heretics were looking for this guy.
My phone rang with Pax's name on the screen.
"Hey, Pax," I said, sitting on my bike in an alley that smelled like trash and other rotting things. We’d stepped back out into the humid July air after talking to a bartender that had proven a reliable source of information in the past. "How's it going with the video?"
"I think we found something. We watched the abduction again, and Leith had his phone in his hand when he came outside, but when the guy carried him away the phone wasn't there. So, Vivian had her guys search in front of the apartment and found it off to the side behind the shrubs. She's going to text you a couple addresses Leith Ubered to in the last few weeks. Two of them are apartments that rent month-to-month."
"That's great," I said, nodding at Lex and Axel when they both gave me questioning looks." My phone beeped against my ear and I was sure that it was Vivian with those addresses. "Okay, baby. I think Vivian just sent them through. I need to go."
"Be careful, Mace."
A little smile lit my face at the thought of him being worried about me. "Always, baby. I'll talk to you soon." We hung up and I looked at my companions. "They found Leith's phone and pulled a couple addresses that he's visited in the last few weeks. Apartment buildings."
"Hell yes,” Axel said. "That's a good place to start, anyway."
I agreed and opened my text messages. The addresses were there from Vivian, but I also had one from Calix telling me which one they were headed to and for us to take the other. I pulled it up in Google maps. It wasn't far at all, so I closed my phone, stuck it in my pocket, and cranked the engine over. With any luck, the bastard would've gotten cocky, after being in our city for weeks without us noticing, and was still staying in the same place.
We flew down the street, weaving in and out of the little traffic there was as my blood ran hot in my veins, ready to put an end to this, ready to meet violence with violence and take back what was ours. To meet out the kind of retribution justified by such an insult.
We slowed down as we approached the apartment building, easing our motorcycles into an empty parking place close to the end of the lot. We stepped off and scanned our surroundings. The buildings were two stories, an ugly mustard yellow in the flickering glow of the security light with brown shutters and weeds growing up around the foundation.
Things were mostly quiet, but there was music coming from somewhere, dogs barking, and a group of guys sitting on the set of steps leading up to the building closest to us. I glanced over at Axel and Lex, meeting their eyes and getting a nod from each of them. Talking to those guys was our best bet, but we needed to approach it right as they were likely as territorial of their house as we were of ours.
We walked toward the stairs. The closer we got, the more I realized that these guys weren't as old as I had anticipated. There were five of them, and none of them looked like they could be much over twenty-one. I hoped that worked in our favor, and that they didn't feel like they had something to prove. I also hoped it meant they knew who we were and that we weren’t to be fucked with.
"Evening, gentlemen," I said, infusing my voice with the easy-going tone that led people to believe I was their friendly neighborhood biker.
"Hey, man. What can we do for you?" the guy sitting at the top of the steps asked. He had a patch of acne on his cheek, half covered by wiry scruff, and enough tremble in his voice that I knew he understood exactly who we were.
“You guys look like you keep tabs of the goings on around here. We’re looking for a friend of ours.”
“A friend?” He sounded skeptical and some of the others shifted around like they were uncomfortable. Good. These guys weren’t real thugs and the more intimidated of us they were, the quicker they’d be willing to give us what we wanted so we would leave. It honestly wasn’t hard to be intimidating with Lex and his I will murder you stare on one side and bald, hulking Axel on the other, arms loose and hands flexing like he was one wrong word away from ripping every one of them to shreds. Sticking my hands in my pockets just deep enough that my vest bulged open and gave a glimpse of the glock riding under my arm didn’t hurt either, I imagined.
The leader's eyes slipped down to my gun and quickly back up to my face.
"What friend?"
Holding his gaze, I reached into my back pocket and pulled out the folded picture of the man that took Leith. Cleave had cropped it so you could only see his face and shoulder, but it was clear enough to make an ID.
I held it out to one of the guys closer to me, who took it and passed it back. As the leader was scanning the photo, Axel said, "We’re also looking for this guy." He held out his phone with the screen facing them. It was a picture of Leith sitting on the back of Axel's motorcycle. Immediately, one of the guys eyes widened.
I pounced. "You've seen them?"
The guy nodded, eyes still fixed on Leith’s picture on Axel's phone.