Page 141 of Deadfall

“North had to cut Emersyn on the face—” The information was delivered factually, but it still was jarring to hear. “Later that night, a man named Albatron shot her—we all thought she was dead.”

Nyx apparently couldn’t go on, his eyes were black pits, the color completely blown out.

“North is going to be wrecked over the fact he hasn’t been looking for her all this time,” Atlas said. “He’s been focused on revenge—if he’d known Emersyn was still alive—” Atlas shook his head, the despair heavy on his face. “I want him to have hope but at the same time, if she turns up dead—he’ll have lost her again—for the third time. That–that does something to a man, I think.”

I nodded grimly. “Well, my team is at your disposal. We’ll do whatever we need to do.”

“I think you might want to take point on this,” Nyx said.

Atlas agreed. “You know the lay of the land, and North will want someone who’s familiar with the territory.”

I gripped the counter. This was going to be personal. Unlike my team, these men didn’t know what I’d gone through. They didn’t know what it would cost me to relive the same hope, the same blind resolve. But, I couldn’t say no. If there was even a small chance of reuniting Emersyn with North, there wasn’t a question about whether or not I’d take it.

I’d take it every single fucking time.

65

GABRIEL

“Tell me where she is!” North demanded viciously.

The man tied to the chair in front of him cowered back as far as the binding would allow—which wasn’t far. We’d just hit a warehouse, but it was obvious we’d been too late—again.

“I don’t know,” he stammered, the fear so potent I could smell it from where I stood.

North’s gun went off as he shot the man in the knee. He let out a wail of pain. I saw Kyllion and Seven take a step toward North at the same time North’s two men—Nyx and Atlas—took steps toward my men. I gave Kyllion the signal to step down. Theron North was a lot of things—brutal and dangerous for sure—but instinctively, I knew he wouldn’t do anything rash to jeopardize this.

“Wrong answer,” North snarled. “Again—where is this girl?”

“I—I don’t—know,” the man whined. “She—we distribute to—to several—”

The gun went off again. A bullet through the man’s other knee this time. I sighed, the exhale got lost in the keening cry of the man who now had no kneecaps. I pulled out my pack of cigarettes, and listened to the second man make the mistake of calling North’s attention.

The look on North’s face when he turned to him was feral and dark. I lit the cigarette and took a deep drag, trying to come down from the adrenaline that coursed through my body.

After initially meeting North, we’d parted ways to cover more ground. He went after some of Palmero's businesses and when that didn’t turn up anything, he’d decided to head to the Warren and befriend Mahoney personally—I mean the balls on this man.

Meanwhile, I’d continued to run intel and attempted to trace Emersyn’s path through the network. We’d done a few raids, but this one was the first that had been close—really close. I heard the names Quarry and Palmero, before a slap echoed through the space as North backhanded the guy across the face with his gun. North stepped back, breathing hard to calm himself and took in his surroundings before his sharp eyes settled on me.

“You finished?” I asked.

“Who’s Quarry?” He demanded.

I took a last drag and then dropped the cigarette and stomped it out.

“Middleman.” I signaled to Kyllion and Seven and they faded into the shadows. “Let me wrap up here and we’ll regroup at the house and plan next steps. My recovery and clean-up crew are already en route.”

I turned to leave and chatter came over my comms.

“Recovery is here,” Kyllion reported.

“Have them wait a minute,” I answered. “Seven—”

“Yeah, G?”

“Find anything?”

“Nothing yet—few drawings I can have our analyst look at.”