I sighed and rolled my eyes. "Not you too. Sorry for calling you away from your meeting. I just freaked out a bit." I wasn’t dismissing their concerns as much as I was making out. Scott was being a bit strange but I firmly believed he was just a bit messed up, not a stalker. So the last thing I needed was for all the scary ass motherfuckers in my life to decide Scott was a problem that needed taking care of.
"Good. Fear will keep you alive, kid." He smoothed a hand over his short beard and gave Steele a serious look. "I had Bones and Gregory watching the building. You see them on your way in?"
Steele placed a hand on my hip, possessive bastard. "The new kids? No, we didn't see anyone at all."
Cass nodded, expressionless as ever. "Can't get through to them. Something's going on."
As if on cue, Steele's phone chimed with a new message, and he pulled it from his pocket. "Fuck." He sighed. "Arch found your boys, Cass. Basement."
My brows shot up and my mouth went dry. Somehow, I didn't think he’d found them sleeping on the job or playing poker.
"Wait here, kid," Cass ordered me, then turned to stride toward the stairs.
I snorted a sound of disgust. "Fat fucking chance," I muttered, following as Steele moved out into the hallway to join Cass. Emergency lighting illuminated the common spaces, but it was dim at best.
Steele just shot me a knowing smirk, then pulled a gun from the back of his jeans and handed it to me. "Shoot first, ask questions later, gorgeous."
Cass gave my weapon a curious look as we caught up to him, but he didn't try and send me back into my corner. Instead, he gave an approving nod.
"'Bout fucking time you guys taught her to shoot," he grumbled to Steele as the three of us jogged down the nine flights of stairs—lit by minimal emergency lights—to the basement. "I was wondering if I'd have to do that, as well."
"As well as what?" Steele asked with a hard edge to his voice.
Cass shot him a smug look. As smug as Cass—man of stone—was ever capable of. "I've been teaching the kid to throw a proper punch. Got a lot of aggression to work out, don't ya?" He cast a glance at me, and I just glowered back at him.
"Oh man," Steele replied on a short laugh. "Kody will kill you when he finds out."
Cass just grunted a slightly amused sound. "He can try. Let's not forget who taught that little asshole how to fight in the first damn place."
I was burning to know more about that, but I also recognized it was neither the time nor the place for get-to-know-you chats with Cass.
We descended the rest of the stairs in relative silence, and I was careful to keep my borrowed gun pointed to the floor. One shooting lesson did not make me an automatic badass, but I'd put up a good front if forced to.
When we got to the basement door, Cass and Steele worked together with practiced efficiency, and I was reminded that not so long ago, they'd been on the same side. Not a single word passed between them, but they seemed to understand each other perfectly.
I just hung back, staying out of their way. It seemed like the smartest course of action, considering I was the least capable of our little crew.
"Over here," Kody called out from the near-pitch blackness of the basement. Farther into the area, a flashlight flickered around the walls, and Steele pulled out his phone to use as a light for us.
When we drew closer, I saw what they'd meant about finding Cass's boys.
"Oh fuck," I breathed, swallowing heavily when my bare foot touched sticky, cooling blood. "Are they...?"
"Dead?" Archer finished for me, his voice a cold growl. "Very. Getting your throat slit is one of those things that's hard to survive."
I didn't have the energy to snap back at him. I just stared down at the two dead Reapers and the utterly massive amount of blood soaking this corner of the basement.
My stomach roiled with nausea, and I tried to take a deep breath to calm it down. All I inhaled, though, was the metallic, meaty smell of fresh blood. It made me gag.
"Are we clear down here?" Steele asked, and Archer grunted an affirmation.
"This the work of your stalker, then?" Cass asked, directing the question at me. It wasn't an accusation, just a question.
I pressed a hand to my mouth, trying hard not to breathe any deeper than necessary. "I have no idea," I whispered. "Maybe?"
"Unlikely," Archer offered. "There's no note. No dolls. No gifts. This was more likely an attempt to kill you, Princess."
Kody was messing around with the circuit breaker while Scott held the flashlight for him. A couple of moments later, there was a heavy thunk, and all the halogen lights throughout the basement flickered back to life.
"Bingo," Kody announced, closing the rusty metal door with a slam. "I knew those electrical skills would come in handy one day."
With the light from above illuminating the whole basement, there was no ignoring the two dead Reapers at our feet.
"What's the working theory?" Cass rumbled.
Scott looked so pale he was almost gray, and if the puddle of puke near the circuit box was any indication, he wasn't holding it together well at all.
"Good question," Archer replied, sounding sour as hell. "Why cut the power? How would that lure Madison Kate down here to be killed? Unless he had a sure-fire plan for that."
"Like a friend who wanted to fix the breaker?" Kody suggested, throwing Scott a deliberate side-eye.
Scott paled even further. "Whoa. No. This was... I had nothing to do with this. Besides, there must be loads of other residents in this building! How could anyone know who would come down to check on things?"
"Actually, there's not," Cass mused.
"He's right," Steele commented. "Only about thirty percent of the units are being rented right now. The rest are waiting on renovations after some serious water damage a few months ago. And the few residents who do live here were all at Reaper HQ tonight. That's why Cass left these two to keep watch."
Cass shot him a narrow-eyed glare. "Been keeping tabs on us, Steele?"
He scoffed. "Of course I have."
"Okay, so somehow this bad guy knew that the building was basically empty tonight, then cut the power to... what? I don't get it." I shook my head in confusion, running my fingers through my hair.
"Perimeter alarms," Cass muttered.
Archer sighed. "Cutting the power deactivated the perimeter alarms on Madison Kate's apartment. He wouldn't need to lure her out; he could just break in and kill her right there without alerting anyone."
I wrinkled my nose. "I dunno. That seems like a really weak plan. Why take off after killing these guys? Why even bother with the power at all?"
Kody just shrugged. "It's just a working theory, babe. We will keep investigating. What matters, though, is that he did take off and you're still alive. Right?" He gave me a smile that was probably meant to be encouraging, but I couldn't muster one up in reply. Not with two dead gangsters at my feet.
I heaved a sigh, shaking my head. "Well... now what?"
"Clean up," Cass answered with a grunt. "I'll contact Zane. He'll want to talk to you all."