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“Go take care of your wife, Brother. Robbie’s here. I need to go.”
“Do you hear me, Zeke?”
I won’t promise that. “Here, talk to mom.” I hand the phone to my mother and walk with Robbie into Jericho’s study.
If Wyatt Hoxton has a brother, it makes sense that he’d have caused the accident and taken Blue. “How the fuck did we miss the fact that the brother exists?”
“Levi Hoxton is Wyatt’s older brother. There’s only about ten months between them.” He takes his laptop out of his briefcase, opens it and turns it to me. The brothers look nearly identical except for one hideous difference. “Wyatt’s been working for the Councilors for a few months. Levi has a record so he’d never have been hired by IVI, but this, the man with the scars on his face, that’s Wyatt. So I’m thinking Levi used Wyatt’s identity to get the job. This is a photo of Wyatt barely four years ago.” He shows me the photo. No scar. The brothers could be twins then. “Both men have the same tattoo, the coda. I’m still digging into the symbolism, but did you know about a family, surname Girard, from IVI’s New England chapter?”
“Why would I care? What does this have to do with finding Blue?”
“All the men of the family had the coda tattooed somewhere on their bodies. I’ll know more soon, but this all has to be connected. Coincidentally, Councilor Augustus came from the New England Chapter.”
“Again, tell me why this is important? Tell me how it’s going to help me find Blue. Someone took her, Levi or Wyatt or whichever brother I didn’t kill.”
He only misses a beat at my casual announcement of murder before continuing.
“Antoine Girard owns property outside of New Orleans city limits. Very private. The only structure that should be on that property is a decrepit, uninhabitable house, but this is a recent satellite image.” He punches something into the keyboard and once again turns the laptop over to me. “See how there are two.” He points to the buildings. The images are taken at night so they’re not very clear but there are definitely two structures, one looking like it should be condemned, the other new. And there’s nothing around for miles.
“Where is it?”
“About forty minutes from here.”
I get to my feet. “That’s where he took her. It has to be.”
“One more thing, Zeke,” Robbie says, following me out where I find my mother has left my phone on the table in the hall. “The timing of that scar is too close to when Blue slipped away after shooting him. I’m thinking it’s a gift form Girard. A punishment. The man at IVI wasn’t Wyatt. It was Levi. If Levi recognized her and called his brother in, it’s personal. These men are killers and Girard is bad news. Do you know what the fuck you’re doing?”
I dig into my pocket and take out the flash drive. “You just figure out what the fuck is on this thing. Whatever it is Girard is willing to kill for it.”
5
BLUE
He is tireless. I don’t have a voice left and even if I did, I couldn’t keep up.
Wyatt Hoxton brings that whip down again and again as I swing from my wrists, swaying this way and that, unable to do more than bury my face in my arms as he lashes me front and back, top to bottom, sparing no part of me. Each stroke burns a line of fire into my skin. He raises his arm strikes again and again, turning an unending circle around me, aiming for my shoulders one moment, my breasts the next, my ass, my thighs. And I give him what he wants. As much as I try not to, I scream until I can’t anymore. Until even my voice fails me as I try to breathe, my heart racing, not sure if its sweat or tears that drench my face.
“That’s it, little bitch, that’s it.” He pauses, the first reprieve. I lost track of the count a while back. He stands grinning, looking me over, my breath comes in pants as the pain settles like a living, throbbing thing, my entire body alive with it.
“Please,” I manage, not sure why.
Wyatt walks a circle around me, and I shudder, whimpering, when he presses his fingers into a particularly tender spot on my back before coming to stand in front of me. He holds up his fingers. They’re bloody. He steps closer and I watch how his lips peel away from his teeth in a sneer as he draws a line from the corner of my mouth to my right ear.
“So I have something to trace. Although my hand is steady, as you know by now,” he says, repeating the action on the other side of my face before gripping his dick with his bloody hand, which is hard now. “First thing’s first though.” He pumps his small, thick penis once, twice, drags his gaze over me. “I prefer them younger but, well, I’ll make do. Tell me should I start with your cunt or your ass?”
“Girard said not to hurt me. I heard him tell you not to hurt me.”
He drags his gaze from between my legs to my face. “You don’t need either of those holes to talk.” He walks behind me and grabs my ass hard, spreading me open. “I think I’ll start with your ass.”
I’m not getting out of here. I know I’m not. Not until he’s ready to take me to Girard. And by then, he and his brother will have broken me in ways I am sure my mind cannot even begin to grasp. I’m fooling myself to think otherwise.
Wren. What will happen to Wren? Will Zeke look after her? Why would he?
Instinct takes over and I kick backward, not caring about consequences, not sure how it could be worse for me at this point.
“Fuck! Mother fucking cunt!”
He releases me, my toes scrambling to make purchase on the dirt floor. I look over my shoulder to find Wyatt bent over, weight on one foot, rubbing his knee.
