Page 83 of Devour

Tate looks at Fox, then back at the line. “Anything else?”

There’s nothing but silence. The one missing his thumb is barely conscious. The one with the knife wound to his eye is moaning into the floor. The rest have given us what they have. I’d bet on it. We’ve done this enough to know when someone is holding back.

I keep running those names through my head.

Fuck.

Those were the other men at David Carter’s house that night at dinner. I was so focused on Saylor that I never spoke to either of them or their wives. And it makes me wonder how well my father knows them since he and my mother were invited to that little dinner I crashed. Nothing about this sits right. Especially the part where my girl has been living in a house where traffickers come and go.

“Take the computer, the phones, and anything else with data on it,” Tate says to Priest, then turns to face Crew. “I want everything you can pull on Hawthorne and Keller by tomorrow.”

“Already on it,” Crew says without looking up from his phone.

“What about them?” Priest nods at the guards.

Tate faces the men on the floor. “Did you all think these women were here by choice? Were the chains around their ankles your first clue? How many of you fucked them yourselves as part of your employee benefits? Did they willingly spread their legs for you, or did you force them?”

The men look at each other, and the answer is obvious. None of them deny it.

Tate’s lips curl in disgust. “You can buy willing pussy. They’ll even pretend to fight you if you get off on that shit. But you all like to take what you want, don’t you?”

They still don’t say anything and don’t look at Tate either. This is only going to end one fucking way.

“Yeah, I fucking thought so. I have one more question, and then I’ll decide what we do with you.” Tate stuffs his hands in his pockets and paces in front of them before stopping in the center to face them. “Have any of you ever associated with Jenson Donaldson?”

Jenson was his wife’s father. I don’t know everything he did to Reese, but I know enough. We’ve helped Tate hunt down associates of the man, but I thought we’d gotten them all. Then Thorne’s wife was taken, and they knew the trafficking was still going on. Jenson is dead, but if anyone who was associated with him is still alive, Tate will want their head. Plus anyone connected to Jenson would likely lead to the heart of the operation. David Carter never struck me as someone who would be the brains.

One of the men flinches while the rest look confused.

“That one,” Tate says, nodding to Priest. “He’s coming with me, and we’re going to spend some time getting to know each other. Go ahead and put him in the trunk.”

Priest drags him across the floor. Kase appears at the other end of the man to help.

Once they take the man out, Tate pulls out his gun and motions to me. I get mine out too. He points his gun at one of the men, and I point mine at the one next to Tate’s guy.

Tate cocks the weapon. “The rest of you are dead. I’m ready to get home to my wife.”

We execute each of the men and leave them there. Then we grab the computers and everything we need so we can leave. We’ve got a lot to sort out, starting with the names we learned tonight—and whether my father has anything to do with it.

By the time we’re done, the sky is shifting from black to gray, and I’m sure Saylor is wondering where the fuck I am. I pull my phone out for the first time in hours.

Not a single message from her. I growl to myself, pulling up the cameras to our room. The feed loads and our bed is empty. She isn’t there. I don’t see her anywhere in our room. I switch to the bathroom view, and she isn’t there either.

I try her phone. It goes to voicemail. I call again and get the same thing. Then I send a text.

Me: Where the fuck are you, little heathen?

I’m beyond losing my patience, so I pull up the phone tracker to confirm she’s at the mansion. She could’ve gone to watch movies with Kynlee in Justin’s room or something. When I get the app open, I see she’s not there. Her last location is her father’s house.

Why in the fuck is she there? And why didn’t she fucking tell me? I don’t want her anywhere near her father’s house after what we discovered tonight.

I need a shower to wash off the blood from these dumb fucks. Then I’m going to get my girl. And she’s going to beg on her knees for me to forgive her.

CHAPTER 34

AXL

It’s around six-thirty in the morning. I wasn’t about to wait another second to get my girl. The man at David Carter’s gate wasn’t going to let me in, but I told him I was Saylor’s boyfriend and she wanted me to meet her.