going to die here,” I whisper out loud. At first it’s as if Brass doesn’t hear what I said, but slowly it dawns on him and a thin smile curls his lips up in the most sickening way.
“Yes, yes you are. And you deserve it.”
Marcus
I have to force myself to watch. Every whimper that’s uttered from her lips, the quick and stuttered intakes of her breath, and the cries of pain she can’t hold back no matter how hard she tries—all of it shreds me.
I tell myself not to look away, and it takes everything in me to stand perfectly still as I do. The projection screen fills the back wall of the hotel room. When the screen pauses, her eyes scrunched and her head ripped back by a man in a mask, I realize my blunt nails have dug into my skin to the point of drawing blood.
“The cell consists of four walls that have deteriorated. One of Brass’s men was spotted in Saint Peters, and another has family only a mile away …” Riggins has a habit of thinking out loud. Once a young man hell-bent on justice, he grew to play a part of my Army. I was young and reckless when I had him kill his sister’s ex. It was easy to do. I simply gave a boy a gun at the perfect time. That time happened to be right when his sister’s ex was walking to his car parked in the back of an alley after his shift had ended. He would get away with it easily. I forgot, though … I forgot that killing someone, being the reason they’ve died, changes a man.
He was an innocent who tried to kill himself after he’d taken justice into his own hands. The attempt left a hole in his head, a scar on his face and turned him into a man who had no purpose. I needed to take care of him after destroying the life he once had. So I gave him a place in a world he could never leave. Charlie Riggins and so many others are my Army, and this is all they know.
The blue dry erase marker he’s holding screeches as he sketches a triangle on the whiteboard. The computer screen he resides in doesn’t have a camera on my end. I’m able to see him and anyone else I deem fit to be a part of this planning. For now, though, it’s just us. “The map has three points and somewhere within this region, there’s a bunker or a basement … something that’s been added to over time, it looks like.”
Riggins comments, “The additional stone appears to be the same as before. Could be historical.”
“It could be the stone from a masonry.” The thought leaves me, spoken aloud but not with conscious consent. My focus is solely on Delilah and the pain that etches across her face when Brass tells her that it’s because of me he was released.
That’s the moment she broke down. That pain that touched every inch of her being is felt inside me as well. Regret consumes me and I’d let it devour me if I didn’t know she’s still alive.
I can still save her and then I’ll explain. I needed him for one more play. He was a pawn, but I made the mistake of not realizing she’d entered the game.
“Masonry … one of …” The sound of papers rustling comes through the speakers on the laptop as Riggins searches for something. The wheels to his desk chair roll him smoothly across the screen to a computer station. The rapid tapping of keys brings down the video of Delilah and replaces it with files upon files as Riggins searches for the connection.
My head hangs low and I can barely swallow the guilt that’s thick on the back of my tongue.
“Someone’s father or uncle. I remember seeing one of his associates has a masonry.”
There’s the connection. Reynolds and Brass are in this together and they’ll die together.
“Bring up the video again.” I give him the command but Riggins continues to guess, putting the pieces together the best way he knows how. I need to see her face. I need to see her again.
“Where did I see it …” he muses as I struggle to keep myself upright. “The factory maybe? And he’s using the same three men who were in on the abduction of the girls.” My frustration can’t be seen as I lean against the desk to