When we entered the common area, I saw Korrie awake and nervously pacing. She spun toward us as we filed out.
“We’re going to get them back, baby. I promise you.” I’d kissed her softly and held her tight. I was sick and tired of everything between us being so hard. I pressed a kiss to her temple, then stepped back. “Keep your phone on you. I’ll keep you updated.”
“Angel, maybe we need to call the police,” she said as she clutched the front of my black hoodie.
“No way, not until we’ve exhausted all our efforts. We have better resources than they could ever hope to have anyway,” I insisted. One last kiss, and I stepped back. “I love you.”
“Ready?” Voodoo asked, and I left her behind, hoping I hadn’t lied to her. It was one of the hardest things I’d ever done—make a promise to her I wasn’t sure I could keep.
We loaded up and pulled out of the gate in a caravan. It wasn’t long before we were splitting up.
After a relatively short period of time, we parked the truck a block down from the first set of our assigned coordinates. It was a run-down strip of apartments. Long since abandoned, the windows were boarded up, and it could very well fit the description of Madame Leveaux’s vision.
Unfortunately, after checking every room, we came up with nothing.
Each stop after that turned up the same results. Dead ends and no clues. Same for the other brothers and their locations.
Finally, as it was starting to get dark, we stopped at our last set of coordinates.
It was an old warehouse. A familiar one. The one where the Bloody Scorpions had cornered Voodoo. The possibility that this was the place was definitely a strong one, so we didn’t want to park in the driveway and announce ourselves.
“Let’s do this,” I said as I exited the vehicle and pulled my beanie down over my ears and flipped up my hood. We silently slipped up the street, ducked through a split in the fence, and crept across the open asphalt lot.
As we approached the building, the wind caught something on the ground and blew it slightly. Why I noticed it amongst the dead leaves and debris littering the lot, I couldn’t say. Stooping to pick it up, my heart tripped.
It was a playing card. With a blue fish on it.
“What is it?” Kicker whispered. I held it up, and Voodoo took it from my hand.
“A Go Fish card?” he questioned.
After swallowing the lump in my throat, I nodded. “He was playing it with Lynda when we left for the hospital.”
Chains slipped off his gloves and reached for it. His eyes glazed slightly as he went quiet. Then he blinked a few times and shook his head. “They aren’t here. They were, but they aren’t now.”
“How do you know? We need to check inside, just in case,” I argued.
Chains stared at me, and his brow furrowed as he looked to the ground. “He dropped this when they were loading them up into a second van.”
My chest caved, and I found it hard to catch my breath. When I’d found the card, I’d been terrified, but hopeful. Then with Chains’s announcement, my hope died a painful death. “I need to check,” I said as I closed in on the dented metal door.
“We’re wasting time here,” Chains furiously whispered.
The hasp had been knocked off. From the amount of rust, I imagined it had been that way for a while. Pulling my piece from my holster, I eased the door open. With the door being unsecured, it was possible that there could be other people using the building as a crash pad.
The creaking of the door echoed through the empty building.
One by one, we moved like wraiths into the shadowy building. Spreading out, we checked every corner. Surprisingly, there was no one hiding anywhere, but neither was my son anywhere to be found. Not that I was surprised; Chains had warned me. I’d hoped he was wrong, though.
When we were preparing to leave, Kicker stopped and crouched to the ground. Shining a flashlight to the spot, he took a deep breath and looked up at us.
“Is that blood?” Voodoo asked.
“Looks like it,” Kicker replied as he shined the light around to see how far it went. “It could be old. Could be animal. Who knows? Chains, do you want to try?”
We all knew it could be an ugly experience for him, but if he was willing, it could be helpful.
He nodded and crouched next to Kicker. He shrugged his shoulders a few times, then took a deep breath in preparation before huffing it out. A single finger brushed the blood and he immediately jolted and fell back where he scrambled away from the spot.