Chapter 2
Atlas
I put the last nail in the drywall and my phone rings, I take my phone out and look at the screen and it’s Doone my contact at the DEA. “What’s up Doone?” I ask when I answer the call.
“We got a lead on another one, the same M.O. as all the others.”
“Where?” I ask.
“I just texted you the address along with the pictures.”
“Thanks, Doone”, I say and hang up the phone. Doone and I worked together at the Drug Enforcement Agency aka D.E.A after I left the service with an honorable discharge. I gave twenty years to the Navy as a Navy Seal, Seal Team Six, the most elite seal team in the Navy. I finally quit the DEA and came over to the family business to work. Everything I have done since I was ten years old has been to fulfill the promise I made the night my world changed. The night that still haunts me to this day.
“Is everything ok?” Aryan asks.
“Yeah, I just got to run an errand when we get done here.”
He just looks at me for a second then turns and walks off. I know I am no longer keeping my extracurricular activities hidden as well as I used to but I refuse to let them know what I have going on. I will not lose my brothers as I make good on my promise. So if they are hurt by my excluding them I don’t care, I’d rather have them mad at me than dead.
We move onto the next house and continue this until the sun has gone down and we are working under the lights set up for night work. Savvy had lunch delivered to the site for us but we worked that off almost immediately and I’m hungry as a savage. We order food for delivery and head home.
Everyone goes to their wing of the house when we get home to shower and change before we eat dinner. Dinner is a lively event as usual with all of us around the table talking shit and just enjoying being together. It wasn’t always this way. My brothers and I had a long hard road but we got through it and I will always be grateful especially to Joshua. The way he held all of us together and gave his love and support is what got me through the trauma, depression, suicide thoughts, and suicide attempts, but mostly through my rage. He reached me when no one else could.
I look up and see Savvy is watching me and I drop my eyes back to the table before she can read anything in them. It seems like Savannah has adopted Joshua’s talent for knowing when I am trying to hide shit. We finish eating, clean up the kitchen and head off to do whatever we do for each of us to unwind.
I head back to my rooms and bide my time, while I am waiting I go to my hidden closet, put the code in, and when it slides open see the guns hanging neatly on the walls. I am good with guns but I am better with knives. I grab my matching HK45’s, 479 Karambit, and my glock perfection blade, and head out to the address Doone gave me.
* * *
I drag myself back into the house without any of my brothers seeing me. I close my bedroom door and start to pull off my shirt and spin around when I hear Joshua’s voice, he is the only person who can sneak up on me.
“Where have you been Atlas?” he asks me.
“Nowhere” I reply as I peel the shirt from my body and place it in a bag, I’ll burn this whole outfit later.
“You may be able to lie and hide from our other brothers but not me. I know you’ve been hunting for years, you’ve kept it well hidden from everyone but me. But now you’re not hiding it as well as you used to.”
I just turn and look at him, I am not ready to have this conversation with Joshua or anyone else so I don’t say anything. He takes a deep breath as he stands to his feet.
“I have been waiting for you to let me help you with this but I can see you are not ready yet. Just promise me one thing,” he says.
“What’s that?” I ask warily.
“That before you get in over your head you come to me and let me help you.” he requests of me.
Had he asked me this two years ago I would’ve made that promise, but not now, not after he found Savvy. So instead of making a promise I know I won’t keep, I turn around, walk into my bathroom and close the door on any further conversation.
I hear him come closer to the door and say “this conversation is not over” a few seconds later I hear my bedroom door close. I finish stripping and step into the shower to wash all the grime and blood off. As I stand under the spray of water I think about how much closer I am to my ultimate goal. Every time I catch one they give up another one and eventually I am going to get to who I really want. Although feeling my glock perfection blade hit bone was very gratifying and knowing another one of the people who destroyed my whole world was gone. I wish I could’ve taken more time with him but appearances must be kept, I left no trace of me or of him. Ten years as a Navy Seal has taught me how to move without a trace.
I know my brothers and parents think we followed Josh’s footsteps by going into the armed forces too but my reasons were purely selfish. I wanted the training and I got it. I entered one of the hardest training programs in the world to become a SEAL and I accomplished my goal and superseded it by joining the elite Navy Six Team. After I left the service I got a job with the DEA. This gave me the access I needed to research just where to start my hunt. Being a part of a Federal Program allowed me to look nationwide and make contacts with people outside of the US. But the rules began to get in the way of what I needed to do so I left. Luckily for me, I made a few key attachments with people who still assist me, no questions asked.
My brother Jabarri is a genius with all things computer-related and I have learned a few things from him. But my main target has been harder to get information on than I originally thought. No matter, if he is at the top of the totem pole I intend to keep chopping that mother fucker down until the top comes to me.