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“This the place?” Lincoln asks, turning and staring at me.
I look to him, expressionless.
She’s been gone for eight days.
Eight long, agonizing days.
And I’ve done everything.
I’ve looked everywhere.
I can’t find her.
Bob and Marlene went to the police, but when they asked me, I couldn’t give them any information. If I did, and they found out what I’d been doing, I’d go to prison. If I’m in prison, I can’t get her back.
And I’ll go to the ends of the damned earth to get her back.
We’ve followed up as many leads as we can, but Walter is MIA. We’ve only managed to stumble across someone who is higher up than him, who might just have information. It took a lot of questions, and a lot of bloodied fists to get here, but we’ve managed to make it to a huge fuckin’ house, owned by a man called Benjamin Masters. We succeeded in dragging his name out of someone, after a lot of effort. Well, a lot of beatings.
They say he knows Walter.
They say he might be able to help.
I’m fuckin’ praying he can help, because if he can’t, I don’t know where the fuck else to look.
“Yeah,” I say, my voice empty. “This is it.”
“Let’s go.”
“No,” I say, holding a hand up. “Let me go. The less people they see, the better. You need to be able to take care of Damon and Finn if something goes wrong. If they get both of us, we’re fucked. Let me go in alone.”
Lincoln hesitates, but he knows I’m right, so he nods.
I get out of the car and walk up to the front door of the big house. I bang on it a few times, and nobody answers. I bang a few more times, and finally a young woman answers. She’s in her teens, but where, I can’t quite tell. I can’t pick her age, but she’s got this wild red hair, and she’s absolutely beautiful.
“Ah, hi,” she says, studying me.
“Does Benjamin Masters live here?”
She nods. “Yeah, he does. Is he expecting you?”
“No. But I’m not leaving until I see him. What’s your name?”
“Charlene...”
“Nice to meet you, Charlene. Can you go and get him?”
She hesitates, and a flash of what I could almost be sure is fear passes through her gaze, but she nods and disappears. Ten minutes later she returns with a man. He’s a big guy, and so well dressed you’d never pick him to be so high up in the world that he’s high up in. He looks like a business man, someone who owns his own company and comes home to his rich family.
Not someone who runs some of the best drugs around.
“Do I know you?” he says, his eyes studying me.
“I’m looking for my girlfriend. She was sold by Walter. I was told you might be able to help me.”
The man looks at me, then a slow smile spreads across his face. “Fucked up did you? Walter only takes from those who fuck up.”
“I did, but I’ll do any-fuckin’-thing to get her back. Anything at all. Can you help me, or not?”
He crosses his arms, that grin still on his face, like he’s just struck gold. “I don’t get involved in other people’s business, young man. What Walter does, is up to him. I can promise you, he doesn’t have her anymore. He’s a quick seller, he never leaves a trail. I stay out of his business. We’re not exactly...close. However, I might be able to help you track her down...for a price, of course.”
“What price?” I growl.
“You work for me. I’ve heard about you. What you did for your family. You screwed up, but you’re paying for that right now, I imagine. You’re solid, loyal, there aren’t many of you around.”
“I’m not fuckin’ loyal, did you not hear that I stole from him...”
“And why did you do that?”
I exhale angrily. “To pay my fuckin’ mortgage so my family didn’t sink.”
“As I suspected,” he murmurs, “loyal.”
“Last time I worked for someone, it got my girlfriend taken. I’m not going to rest a single fuckin’ day until I find her. Do you understand me?”
“And believe me, son, you won’t find her without me. The world Walter sells into, it’s deep, and dark, and fuckin’ dangerous. The only way to get into that world, to find your lady, is to work for me. Now, do we have a deal, or not?”
“How the fuck do I know you’re telling me the truth, that you know where to find her?”
“Her name is Ellie, is it not?”
My fists clench, and I bark, “Where the fuck is she? Do you have her?”
“Calm down, boy. No, I do not have her, but I’ve heard whispers of her. You’re either going to make a deal with me, or you’re not. If you don’t, then you can carry on trying to find her on your own, but I promise you that you won’t. If you make a deal with me, I’ll help you as much as I can, but again, I cannot promise you anything. After all, I don’t know where she is, but you’re closer to finding her with me, than with anyone else.”
“What do you want me to do?” I grind out.
“The same thing you were doing for Walter. And, if you show your loyalty to me, you’ll be greatly rewarded. If you betray me, though, know that I’m a far more powerful man, and I will make you wish you were never born.”
I grit my teeth.
I shouldn’t do this, but I know...I fuckin’ know...that I won’t find her unless I do.
Even if I have to work with him just so I can look for information while I’m on the job, at the very least it keeps me in this world.
And it’s in this world I need to be, to get her back.
“Okay,” I grind out. “We have a deal.”
Benjamin extends his hand, a huge grin on his face. He must see something in me that he wants, or he wouldn’t be going to such extremes to get me. Maybe it’s loyalty, maybe it’s because I’m so fuckin’ broken, I don’t care about anything. I only care about her. And I’ll do anything, anything I can, to find her again.
Even if it means working for this monster.
“We have a deal,” he grins. “And you can call me Shanks.”