CHAPTERTHREE
MALCOLM
I throw myself in my chair and lean back, closing my eyes. My hands are still bloody, and at the moment, I don’t care. Releasing a frustrated breath, I momentarily open my eyelids enough to check the time on my desk. Damn, it’s nearly five in the morning. Having been up all night and not sleeping before that, the stress is starting to weigh me down.
But I refuse to stop. Not until I find Désirée. In order to do that, we’ve got to locate the bastard who took her. No one has been able to find a trace of this, Dimitri Savary. Zip, nothing. It’s like he doesn’t exist. Well, he existed up until he graduated high school, then nothing. No records anywhere. He’s a ghost.
Every night I go out looking for information and have come up with the same thing every time. Most of the scumbags aren’t talking, no matter how much I beat them. The ones who do, their information is worthless. We’re not able to do anything with it. That’s how shitty the information is.
With Désirée missing, Félix upped the security for Madelaine, Corentina, and Olivia.
Granted, Finn has several of his own men watching over Olivia. She’s his wife, and I don’t blame the man for putting nearly a dozen men on her. Not after nearly losing her a while back when his psycho brother nearly drowned her. He’s kept men on her ever since but doubled it after Désirée was kidnapped. Finn, I guess you can say is overcautious especially considering Olivia is pregnant and him having to go between Corpus Christi and New Orleans, handling business. But the man does it because he understands his wife’s need for wanting to stay close to home until they find her sister.
For Corentina, Rémy keeps a close eye on her when she’s working at Diamond Dancer’s. When she’s not on stage, she’s got a man in the back watching her, or she’s in Rémy’s office with him.
The same goes for Madelaine, but fully. If she’s not at Félix’s side, there are men everywhere keeping watch. Unlike Corentina and Olivia, who only know the minimum of the family business, Madelaine knows it all. Félix doesn’t hide anything from her. She’s fucking smart and helps her husband where she can.
The only woman who doesn’t have security is Sabine, and that’s because she refuses to have a man on her. To say she wasn’t happy to hear about Désirée being kidnapped is an understatement. She went ballistic and nearly shot a man with his own gun for trying to get her to calm down.
“Long night?” I peek to find Madelaine standing in the doorway of my office, leaning against the frame.
Blowing out a harsh breath, I shake my head and open my eyes to meet hers fully. “You can say that.”
“Any leads on finding her?” Madelaine asks. Her expression gives away the fact she’s worried about her sister-in-law.
When I first met Madelaine, I didn’t know what to think of her. Well, besides her dad being a piece of shit for offering to trade her for his debt owed. Félix got one look at her and knew he wanted her. Can’t blame him. His wife is beautiful with her fiery red hair and the tattoos she has no problem displaying. Shit, I’ve seen the images she’d had online. Having worked for a company called OneEye. Working for them, she posted images of herself up there in different positions. A lot of them were naked, some of them even with her using toys. Now she still works for them but not in the same way. She recruits for them, if I’m not mistaken. I’m not a hundred percent sure. I know she does the recruiting for Diamond Dancer’s. That’s how we got Corentina.
“Everything we get is worthless. I’m still looking into finding this Dimitri asshole,” I mutter, leaning forward and bracing my elbows on the desk.
“You guys will find her,” she says reassuringly. “Félix asked me to get you. He’s on the phone right now. Might want to wash your hands and change your shirt beforehand.” Madelaine points out the blood on my shirt and knuckles.
“Thanks, I’ll be sure to do that.” I drop my head and wait for Madelaine to step out of my office. Thankfully she closes the door behind her.
I quickly strip out of my shirt and move to the bathroom attached to my office. It’s one of the perks Félix had added to both our offices a while back when we’d remodeled the building after taking Delano out of the picture.
The bathroom is your usual with a shower, toilet, and sink. But it’s decked out with slate walls in the shower stall and a Victorian-style sink. The walls are charred gray, which seems to work with making the space masculine. I didn’t even think that was possible until Madelaine and Corentina pointed it out one day.
I wash my hands clean of blood and lean down to splash water over my face. I meet my gaze in the mirror, seeing I hadn’t slept much in God knows how fucking long it’s been. But until Désirée is found, I won’t.
Straightening, I snatch the hand towel from where it sits next to the sink and dry my face. Tossing it over the faucet, I head back into my office and to one of the oak file cabinets I use for storing extra clothes. I snatch up a black undershirt and red dress shirt. I quickly button up the front and tuck the bottom in my slacks. Walking toward the door, I roll the sleeves up to my elbows. I pull the door open and close it behind me as I step out.
Félix’s office is a few doors down from mine, and I can hear his voice since Madelaine must’ve left it open for me slightly. I push it open the rest of the way and step inside. I find Madelaine sitting at her desk, going through papers. Shifting my gaze from her, I lock eyes with my boss.
“Yeah, Fuse, I know it’s been a fuckin’ month. I don’t need your ass telling me,” Félix snaps, his jaw clenched.
Guess Fuse found out. Not only is Fuse a part of the Inferno’s Clutch MC, he’s also the DeLancy sibling’s cousin on their mother’s side. Normally he doesn’t have shit to do with the family. He definitely didn’t have anything to do with them until something went down with Chains and his ol’ lady. A truce was made between Félix and the club. Then there was the shit that went down with Fuse’s woman being kidnapped.
Since all the shit that went down, we’ve been able to establish a somewhat relationship with the club. But that doesn’t mean we wanted them in on this. It just means more people who want to dish the pain on the men responsible.
“Look, Fuse, I don’t have time for this bullshit. Just give Malcolm or me a call if you hear anything else or see those fuckers again,” Félix states, hanging up the phone without waiting for further response.
I cross my arms and wait silently for my boss to get his anger in check.
“A couple of men from the Inferno’s Clutch MC were at some run-down bar over in Emerald Isle last night, heard rumors,” Félix growls, standing, he rounds the side of his desk, and steps toward his file cabinet and bangs his fist on the top of it.
“Félix,” Madelaine calls his name, moving to his side. “Calm down. It won’t do any good for you to beat the furniture up in here. I’ll just have to order more.”
Félix glares at his wife for a moment before nodding and finishing what he started. “Fuse is pissed we didn’t tell him sooner. Says he could’ve helped. They’ve got enough going on at that club. I refuse to ask them for help. I will not look fucking weak in front of anyone.”