“I’m not going to do this with you. Someone took Arloe, and I plan to kill them. So, either I go alone and make a mess, or he comes and helps me.”
“Killing for the girl now?” He shakes his head. “I didn’t realize how deep your feelings were.”
“Don’t insult me by lying. You knew exactly how I felt. That’s why you made me the one to handle shit with Barron.”
He shrugs. “Sometimes I have to remind you boys who holds the power in this family.”
“Is that it? You fuck with us so we don’t stray? You realize in that process you pit half of us against each other.”
He stands from his seat and steps closer to me, letting his chest brush against mine. It’s an intimidation tactic that would work better if he was taller. As of now, I can see the top of his head, and all it makes me want to do is laugh.
“Hate makes you stronger, Easton. If hating me teaches you anything, I hope it’s to not take anyone’s shit.”
I hunch down so my eyes are level with his. “I don’t and I never will. Now, you can either help me by ordering Jude on what to do or not. Regardless, I’m getting my girl and bringing hell with me.”
Something flashes in his eyes. I’m not sure what it is exactly because I’ve never seen it before, but I don’t question it.
“You remind me of myself when I was younger.” He shakes his head with a grin then turns away from me and toward the door. “Jude!”
After a moment, Jude appears. “What’s up?” He seems light on his feet and relaxed until his eyes catch sight of me. “Really? Are we doing this again?”
“I’m not here to fight, asshole. I need help.” The words sting coming out because I don’t want to ask him for help any more than he probably wants to help me.
“You basically said fuck us and now you want help?” He raises a brow, a smirk hanging from his lips.
“I’m not apologizing if that’s what you want. I mean, I thought about it, but I refuse because I stand by what I said.”
My dad slips out of the room silently, leaving Jude and me to have this discussion alone.
“What is it then?”
“Someone has Arloe, and I need help handling it.”
That piques his interest. “Handling it how?”
“Bloody.”
His lips curl into a smile, showing off all of his perfectly white teeth. “Ah. My favorite kind of solution.” He shoves his hands into his pockets and leans onto the doorjamb. “So, what happened? What kind of situation are we walking into? We can’t go in there guns blazing. We need a plan.”
“Barron. Barron fucking happened. He tried to get someone to come after us, and it backfired. Considering they know who we are.” I pull Barron’s phone from my pocket and show Jude the message. “I’m sure they won’t object to us taking her back.”
He shakes his head. “What a fucking idiot.”
I nod in agreement. “We need to know where they’re keeping her.”
“How are you going to figure out where they are?”
I tip my head toward the kitchen entrance and start walking, urging him to follow me. We make our way down the hall and up the flight of stairs until we’re at Baby’s door. I knock once before opening it. Luckily, no girl is choking over his dick this time, which means he won’t be distracted.
I walk to where he is sitting in his chair and push the headphones off his ears. “We need some help, Baby.”
Chapter Nineteen
Easton
Baby twirls in his chair and smiles when he sees me and Jude behind him. “Aw! Are you two getting along now? How…wholesome.”
Jude scrunches up his face. “Shut the fuck up.”
Baby shakes his head and turns back to me. “How can big daddy Ashton help?”
“First of all, don’t ever refer to yourself as that again. Second of all, can you access the city’s CCTV footage? Like traffic cameras and shit?” I question.
He brings a hand to his chest like someone just shot him. “I’m offended you even have to ask. Of course I can. Dad pays good money for my schooling.”
I roll my eyes and step forward, spinning his chair to face his computer monitors again and point to whatever he’s doing on the screens. “I need you to find her again.”
I can see confusion lace his features out the corner of my eye. “Chick with the nice tits?”
I smack the back of his head. “Arloe. Her name is Arloe.”
He shifts to look behind him and gives Jude a questioning glance, then focuses back on me. “This your girl now or something?”
“She’s always been mine. Just find her.”
“Well, I’m going to need more than her name this time. The city is big, and it would take hours to comb through all the cams. Do you have an address? Last seen location? I need something to work from.”
“She lives in the apartments off South Rendezvous. You know, the ugly ones not too far from Kenley.”
He nods and lets his fingers fly over the keyboard.
I stand quietly next to him as each screen shows numbers and letters, obvious encryption he’s changing to access what we need. Finally, staticky images dance across the screen before they finally switch to all points of south Rendezvous.
“Do you have a time frame so we can narrow it down a bit more?”
“I dropped her off right after midnight and I went back this morning around eight. So, try between twelve-thirty and eight.”
He nods again and continues typing. He speeds up the feed, but all we see are shots of pedestrians zooming across the screen. But finally, I see her.
Instantly, my heart soars knowing she’s alive, but when I see two men gripping her on either side, that leaves me, and rage takes its place.
“Where did they go?” I ask as they disappear from the screen.
Baby hits another button, changing the camera we are looking at. He does this over and over, following the little black car they stuffed Arloe in. Unfortunately, where they parked wasn’t visible on the camera. It focuses more on the street and not alleys.
Finally, he stops the footage, and the only thing in frame is the same black car in front of the run-down motel not far from Arloe’s. It shows them grabbing her and walking up the stairs and pushing her into a room.
“Can you zoom in on that number?” I point to the door they entered on the screen.
More buttons are pushed, then the image is zoomed in. “Two-thirteen.”
I nod and ruffle Baby’s hair. “Thanks. I owe you.”
“And I won’t let you forget it.” He gives me a wink as I turn to Jude.
“You still sure you want to do this, E?”
“Positive.” I exit Baby’s room without another word.
Jude follows me, his footsteps echoing in my ears and bouncing off the floor louder than they really are, but I guess that’s the adrenaline coursing through my veins at the thought of getting Arloe back.
When we make it back downstairs, we pass Alfredo on the way out, and he’s still wearing the same look of concern. I stop and side hug him. “Don’t worry. I’m just going to get my girl.”