Blackness Takes Over & Blackness Awaits (49 page)

“Did your father say anything to you that you remember?” I load, slide, and fire…center of the bullseye.

“No.” I load, slide, and fire…center of the bullseye.

“Did you get any food or go for milkshakes?” I pause and think. I load, slide, and fire…center of the bullseye.

“We had a nice meal.” I load, slide, and fire…center of the bullseye.

Uncle Mick slides his hand on my shoulder and squeezes tight.

“Good girl, Shannon. Switch targets now.” I nod, load, slide, take aim at the target to the left, and fire…center of the bullseye.

If I wasn’t shooting I’d be crying right now. I don’t want to think about that day. I remember more than I’m telling Uncle Mick, but I don’t want to talk about it. It makes me hurt all over. I can’t remember what happened after I got out of my seat belt. I’ve tried every night before I go to sleep and I can’t remember. Why can’t I just remember?

Holy fucking shit! I told him. I jump up and look straight into Nicky’s sapphire eyes.

“I told him!” I squeal.

“Good girl, Shanny,” Nicky compliments and offers me a big grin. I grin back. Then it drops.

“I still have no fuckin’ clue what that means,” I huff.

“Talk it through with me.”

Kavanagh

O’Sullivan just took a call from Kieran. He ran upstairs and locked himself in the bathroom to take the call. My heart is pounding as I stare at the staircase trying to make O’Sullivan appear with good news.

“How was the gym?” Taylor comes up to me from behind. My whole body goes tense, but I will it to relax. I can do this. I’m the king of bullshitting.

“Fuckin’ needed that release, man. How was the nap?” I ask lightly.

“Needed. I was wiped. Any news from the feds?”

“Nah, just more hurry up and wait. I’m goin’ fuckin’ nuts!” I am going nuts so my tone is genuine, motivation not so much. I sit on the couch and he follows. I really wish one of the guys would come help me out, but I know they’re avoiding Taylor so they don’t fuck up our plan. Who would have thought I would be the calmest of our bunch? I’m not the calmest…I’m focused.

I hear O’Sullivan thunder down the stairs and out to the sunroom where all the other guys are. Taylor turns a questioning brow at him but doesn’t follow.

“What’s that about?” he asks me trying to see O’Sullivan from around the corner.

“No clue,” I lie. That was good news running (like a girl) through the room.

“Haven’t seen Kellerman.” It’s a question not a statement.

“He’s at my brothers’ place. Needed some alone time or some shit.”

“Huh,” he scoffs.

“What?” I ask harshly. Keep it in check Kavanagh.

“Figured he’d cut out on Shannon, just thought he’d last a little longer,” Taylor says in a full of himself smarmy tone. I take multiple deep breaths before I respond. If the guys don’t get in here soon…Taylor’s a dead man. Our plan was to relieve anyone stuck with Taylor after three minutes. They’re not coming to intercede…fuckers.

“He just wanted a few hours on his own to get his shit together. The beat down did a number on him and he doesn’t like feelin’ like he can’t do shit,” I growl.

“He’s a pussy,” Taylor scoffs. “So he got slapped around a little. So what? Put your big girl pants on and find your girlfriend…or soon to be ex.”

I stand up to cave his skull in when Cal and O’Sullivan walk in. Thank FUCK!

I give them a knowing eyebrow raise to indicate I’m hanging on by a thread with this motherfucker.

“You two wanna join us where we don’t have an audience?” Cal asks politely. I haven’t seen his dimples in days and his bright eyes are getting duller by the hour. But right now those fairytale eyes have a sparkle of fury in them that gets me excited.

Taylor stands up and we all silently move into the sunroom where all of our brothers are, except Collin and Hugh. We can’t risk their jobs and they will surely be pissed at us for taking that into consideration.

The chairs and couches in here are yellow and pale green with flowers all over them. We have picked the girliest room in this huge house to hang out in. I’m sure that means something, but I don’t have the time to analyze it. Once the four of us sit down, O’Sullivan starts in.

“I called a guy I know today,” he lies. “A guy that I thought might know something about stuff like this.” O’Sullivan does a good job of convincing Taylor based on his determined attention. “Turns out he does. He knows who has Kid. Now we need to decide what we do with this information.”

“Who has her?” Taylor is out of the blocks quick with his question, almost foaming at the mouth.

“I think we should decide our move first. Do I tell the feds or do we go this alone?”O’Sullivan questions seriously.

“Why wouldn’t we tell the feds?” Finn asks…that was not a real question. They planned this conversation before we got in here. If Taylor wasn’t so intent on the name he’d notice the lies around the room because we’re shit actors. But he doesn’t.

“You see how slow they are with shit. What if they don’t move on this information fast enough and we lose her?” O’Sullivan points out.

“That’s good thinkin’ O’Sullivan,” Taylor interjects. God he really did do this!

O’Sullivan’s eyes flare at the comment, but he reins it in. Aidan is sitting next to me, fuming. His fists are pumping and he’s panting short hard breaths. I turn my gaze to him and give him a look that says “keep it together”. Aidan closes his eyes and tries to meditate himself back to normal (that’s what it looks like anyway).

“All right so we sit tight on the name and wait for my guy to call back. They got a lock on a possible location and are scoutin’ it out right now. We should know soon.” I really wish what O’Sullivan just said was true, but I can see he’s lying and it’s painful for him. If we were really this close to finding Kid we’d all be frantic. Taylor doesn’t notice again.

“That’s good. Maybe we should do some background on the people that have her. Who is it?” Taylor asks too eagerly. O’Sullivan smiles before he answers knowing we’ve got Taylor right where we want him.

“Nick Scarso.”

You know those scenes in movies where everything stops around a person and all you can hear is a ticking clock…that’s me right now. My gaze moves through the room of stopped emotions seeing every eye in the room on Taylor and his reaction is priceless. I can almost hear his brain screaming fuck. His eyes are closed in defeat, his hands show the slightest tremor, his breath is short, and his throat is bobbing trying to swallow the pill we just shoved down it.

Time picks back up and the room remains silent. I slap my hands together loudly causing Taylor to jump and me to chuckle internally.

“Well let’s hope your guy calls soon. I’m ready to get this shit done!” I bellow excitedly.Everyone in the room agrees with similar levels of enthusiasm, not Taylor.

“You good?” I ask Taylor with fake concern in my voice. “You don’t look good.”

“Nah…I’m…I…Just shocked I guess,” he stutters and stumbles over his words.

“It’s good to have connections,” I state suggestively, but he doesn’t pick it up. He’s dazed and confused and trying to formulate a plan. I figured he’d have his phone out texting Mancini or Scarso or something, but he’s just sitting here like an idiot.

Finn sneaks out of the room and I block Taylor’s view, not knowing what Finn is doing. I’m sure it’s something he doesn’t want Taylor to see. A few minutes later Finn comes back and offers O’Sullivan a chin lift indicating success with his plan. Taylor’s wheels are still spinning until he abruptly stands up.

“Gotta take a piss,” he says absently and leaves the room. I want to follow him but that would be super fucking weird so I stay where I am. Once Taylor’s gone a few minutes we huddle.

“What’s the fuckin’ plan?” I ask enthusiastically.

“Kieran’s idea. Lie and tell Taylor we know who has Kid and hope he leads us to her. Finn put a tracker on Adam’s car so we can follow him,” O’Sullivan explains.

“How do you know he’ll take Adam’s car?” I ask hoping they have planned this shit out.

“Only one pair of keys by the door. He’ll take ’em,” Finn responds knowingly. He pulls his phone out and messes with it then holds the screen so we can all see it. A little blinking light on a map. It’s moving.

“Time to move out ladies,” Cal commands. We all rush to the front door. It’s after midnight so the house is pretty empty now that the feds have taken over. We make a clean getaway. All of us pile into my dad’s S-Class and Aidan’s G-Wagon like we did earlier. I get Aidan on the handsfree and we pull out of the driveway.

“He’s headed West on Half Day Road,” Finn’s voice filters through the speakers. I race in his given direction.

“What about Kieran and Kellerman?” I ask the car.

“They’re on conference too,” Aidan informs me.

“We’re rollin’ your direction,” Kieran’s voice comes through. “Got three guys and some firepower with us. You guys dodge the feds and cops okay?”

“Yeah the house was pretty empty actually,” O’Sullivan informs him.

“Good.”

We ride in silence for a while before Finn’s voice breaks the silence. “We’re about seven miles behind Taylor. He’s on Illinois twenty-two now.” I punch the gas a little harder. I don’t want to be that far behind him. I know we need distance so he doesn’t make us, but I want to be close. The silence resumes…we’re coming Kid.

Kellerman

Kieran’s plan is working like magic. His guys that are following us are three rough, hard, ex-cons that are packing enough heat to make Kid jealous. This is going to be…intense. Kieran’s almost giddy at the idea of exacting revenge on Kid’s part. I’m fucking terrified that we’re driving into an ambush and Kid won’t be there. We left Canaryville as soon as we filled O’Sullivan in so according to Kieran we should be intersecting the guys in about fifteen minutes if Taylor stays on his current route.

Since we have no idea where Taylor’s going we could be on the road for hours or he could stop before we catch up. I’m hoping for the former so we can be there to stop whatever he’s planning.

“I’m headin’ North on fifty-nine,” Kieran informs the guys on our extended conference call.

“Taylor just turned onto North Old McHenry Road. We’re headed to the country,” Finn’s voice comes through the car. I really wish I knew Chicago. I’m lost and have no clue where we’re going or if we’re close to the guys at all. Kieran’s GPS isn’t helping me, but I can tell he’s happy with the development.

“We’ll intersect with you guys in ten minutes tops. Let’s hope he’s movin’ out further. Less witnesses,” Kieran says followed by an evil cackle. He’s bloodthirsty for sure.

For the most part we’re riding in silence other than to get or give updates. The silence is edgy. I’m trying to keep as calm as I can, but I can feel the adrenaline kicking up a gear every mile we turn. Kieran’s flying down the highway with a car full of guns and ammo. I’m a little nervous what will happen if we get pulled over, but I don’t ask him to slow down. I want him to speed up.

“We’re on North Rand Road. Where’s he at?” Kieran asks as he smashes the throttle a little harder.

“Hang on,” Finn responds. Kieran grumbles as we wait. “He’s on Rand now too. Where’re you at?” Adrenaline is screaming through me now!

“Cuba Road.”

“He’s about five miles ahead of you and we’re about five out from him. We should meet up soon.”

Five miles. Five minutes away from him. This is really fucking happening. I close my eyes and will this car to move faster…take me to Kid.