Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 67553 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 338(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67553 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 338(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
“I’m not the one that looks like he’s just been freshly fucked…” I pointed out.
“I made a mistake,” he grumbled.
Alexi was always making mistakes when it came to Kira.
But that was neither here nor there.
“What about Cayden?” I asked. “Did you see him?”
“When I got to his place, the entire thing was locked down tight. Not a single soul in sight,” he reported. “Do you want a suggestion?”
“Sure,” I answered.
“Call the meet with the Seven,” he suggested. “Something is seriously hinky right now, and the fact that Cayden was gone means bad things. Him not being there, being visible…shit’s gonna hit the fan really fuckin’ fast.”
“The Seven” as he called it was a group of seven men. All of them were masterminds of the criminal underworld. We all also had drawn a sort of truce, as you could call it.
All of us—or more accurately our families—had been feuding since before we’d been born.
Turns out, all of our parents had passed within about four years of each other, and we’d found ourselves with a brand new dilemma on our hands.
Did we continue a feud between us that was going to continue to kill our people? Or did we find a way to create a truce? One that would ensure that we always could count on each other, even if it was one of those truces that was shaky at best.
Cayden and I had gone into this with a solid front.
We had each other’s backs. Always.
But if he was missing, and he wasn’t anywhere to be found, the others needed to know.
That, and they might have an idea that could help us identify what, exactly, had killed my men and taken Cayden into hiding.
At least, I hoped he was in hiding.
“I’m already waiting for the conference call to come through,” I said. “I had a feeling your news would be weak at best.”
Alexi shrugged. “I gotta get home to my kid. If you need me, call me.”
I jerked my chin up at him, and he’d just closed the door to my office when my computer beeped, indicating an incoming call.
Thankful that Lev was able to help set up this system for me—although I was great with computers, I didn’t have the patience for the tediousness of it—and I pressed Answer on the screen.
I was the last to arrive, by the looks of it.
Split into six sections, every one of the Seven filled the screen except for Cayden.
In the top right box there was Romeo Rossi. Middle top was Santiago Navarro. Top left was me. Bottom left was Milo Grey. Bottom middle was Broderick Morrison. Bottom right was Campbell Reid.
“Gentlemen.” I nodded at the screen. “It’s good to see you.”
“Good to see you, too,” a few answered, while others like Broderick and Santiago were silent.
“What’s the reason for the meeting?” Campbell asked, his eyes tired.
Campbell Reid was a police officer. A dirty one, but still a police officer.
He was called out at all hours of the night in order to hit up crime scenes. It also didn’t help that he was in LA and they had a lot of fuckin’ call outs and crimes being committed.
“Cayden is missing,” I said. “I had three men go missing at the docks in Houston. I talked to Cayden last week about them, and he seemed fine with me being there and investigating. This week, he’s gone missing.”
“Gone missing, or gone into hiding?” Broderick asked in his light Scottish brogue.
“I can’t tell,” I admitted. “Alexi was down there for going on ten days and found nothing. He also admitted that the crime in Houston has gone rampant without someone to run the ship and keep them in line.”
“The kind of rampant crime that’s going to draw attention?” Romeo asked.
“The kind that will draw attention,” I confirmed. “I am going to go down there tomorrow morning and have a look around. See what I can find. In the meantime, I wanted to know if any of you have heard anything that has happened. Romeo, you went down to Houston a few weeks ago, correct?”
“Yes, for a wedding,” Romeo confirmed. “My sister married a cop down there.”
I grimaced.
That sounded fucking awful.
“Why’d you let her do that?” Milo questioned.
My sentiments exactly.
“Because my sister did it without my knowing six months ago in Vegas. She’s pregnant with his child now, and they wanted a family event.” He paused. “Plus, I felt a bit better about it all knowing that her new husband was on Cayden’s payroll.” His eyes narrowed. “I’ll call them, find out what’s going on from their end, see if he’s heard from him.”
“Appreciated,” I said. “Has anyone else been having issues?”
“None.” Milo paused. “Which, come to think about it, is quite weird. I always have issues.”
“Same,” Broderick confirmed. “It’s almost like whatever is happening is spreading all over. I haven’t had a single problem with anything in I would say at least a month.”