Fate of Blood (Cord & Asher, Book 2)

 

2: Cord

NEVER LET IT be said that I shy away from the darker aspects of my job. Running down code breakers, interrogating prisoners, torturing suspects, hell, even dishing out death and dismemberment–I’m here for it. Even enjoy myself most of the time. But today it’s just tedious.

We’ve been grilling Uno in Dante’s penthouse for the past two hours. This after spending half the day rooting out his hideaway and convincing him he needed to come with me if he wanted to live past sunset. And what have we gotten for our trouble?

A big fat nothing.

“I already told you everything,” he insists after I hit him for the fifth time, nearly knocking him out of the chair where he’s perched.

“Tell it to me again like I’m hearing it for the first time,” Dante insists. “And this time don’t lie.”

“I’m not lying. I told you, I’ve worked for Kusuri for eleven years. I was on the team that developed LTS3.0. There had been rumors that Thalium was trying to take over the company because he wanted the drug. Everyone knew about his reputation.”

“And what is that?” Dante asks.

“He’s ruthless. Once he decides he wants something, he doesn’t let anything get in his way of obtaining it. I didn’t know what he wanted with the drug, but I knew I couldn’t let him have total control of it. That’s why I decided to steal it and come here.”

“Why here?” Dante demands.

“Because this is his base of operations.”

“You didn’t know about me?”

Uno sighs. “Okay, I asked around about who was in charge here. I figured I’d have a better chance of fighting him from the inside.”

“See, here’s the part I’m having a hard time with,” Dante says. “You watched us chasing our tails around because of this Python character when you knew all along who he was and didn’t bother to tell me?”

“I didn’t know,” Uno insists. “Not at first. I didn’t put the Python with Thalium until you told us about him.”

“And why didn’t you say something then? That was over a week ago.”

This is where we get stuck every time. Uno doesn’t have an excuse. At least, not one worth listening to.

I run my hand back through my hair and blow out an exasperated sigh. “Just tell him the fucking truth, okay? I’m tired of hitting you.”

He looks from me to Dante, then nods. “Okay. I didn’t tell you because I was hoping to take him down myself using the drug.”

Dante rolls his eyes and clenches his fists at his side.

“And how were you going to do that?” I ask.

He mumbles something and I grab his chin and force him to look up at me. “What was that?”

“I said I’ve been watching him.”

I glance at Dante, who definitely looks like he wants to hit him now. “You what?” he asks. “Did you say you’ve been watching him?”

“Yes.”

“How? Or more to the point, where?”

“I found his office here in Manhattan.”

What the fuck? Even Elaine hasn’t said anything about finding an office.

“I should kill you,” Dante fumes. “How did you find his office?”

“It’s actually Kusuri’s office in New York.”

“I didn’t know they had one,” I reply.

“It’s just a small distributor,” Uno says. “See, I didn’t actually quit Kusuri. Just took a leave of absence so I still had my badge. I was able to get inside and dig through their files until I found his name.”

Dante’s expression darkens. “You knew all of this and didn’t tell me?”

“I know it was wrong–”

“Wrong?” Dante snaps. “I’ve killed men for less.” He turns away and starts pacing the room. “I swear to fucking god…”

I know if I don’t jump in here Dante is going to take matters into his own hands, and as much as I’m angry about Uno’s betrayal, I can recognize that he has valuable intel we can use.

“Tell me everything you’ve learned since you’ve been here,” I coax. “For instance, if Thalium bought Kusuri, why hasn’t he used the drug against us?”

“For the same reason you didn’t want the raids on the dens to get out. The Black Guild.”

Dante stops his pacing and turns to him. “Explain.”

“Part of the reason Kusuri finally sold out to Thalium is that the Black Guild paid them a visit and warned them about developing LTS3.0. They assured them it would only be used as a last resort for the death squads.”

“You mean to tell me you let me use a drug that the Black Guild had on a watch list?” Dante demands.

“No wonder they showed up,” I mutter.

“I wasn’t sure it would actually work,” Uno insists. “We hadn’t field tested it yet.”

“You told me you had used it,” I reply.

He frowns. “I lied.”

This just keeps getting better and better. If Uno survives the night, it will be a miracle. Before Dante can make good on his threat, I take the diplomatic approach.

“Okay, Uno, tell us everything you’ve learned about Thalium since you’ve been here. And don’t leave anything out this time.”

“Are you going to kill me?” he asks.

I glance over at Dante, who still looks pissed. “I haven’t decided yet,” he growls.

“Just tell the truth,” I say.

 

♦ ♦ ♦

 

We spend the next hour bent over maps on Dante’s laptop until I’m sure I can find Thalium’s office. Uno wants to go with me to confront him, but Dante nixes that idea.

“I still don’t know if I can trust you,” he tells him.

“I brought you LTS3.0. I didn’t have to do that.”

“And you withheld information,” I remind him. Right now I’m on the fence about Uno’s fate. While I can recognize he’s a valuable source of information, especially where the drug is concerned, he did lie about his reasons for coming here and his activities since he’s been here. I know Dante has ordered the death of others for less.

Just when I decide to step away from the debate and let Dante handle it, my phone rings. I dig it out of my pocket, half expecting it to be Asher, but it’s a number I don’t recognize. I consider letting it go to voicemail, but something tells me to answer it.

“Cord?”

I recognize Elaine’s voice, but there’s something panicked about it. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s Asher. He’s been taken.”

I suddenly feel like my body has been cut off from my brain. It takes me a few seconds to remember how to speak. “Taken? By who?”

“We’re not sure, but they were men dressed in black in a black van.”

“Who’s we?”

“Benjimen and me. He saw it happen. Can you get over here as soon as possible?”

Fuck. I told him to stay close to the driver and the asshole let this happen? I clench my fists at my side and blow out an angry breath. “Where are you?”

“At the office right now. We’ll stay here till you get here.”

“I’ll be there as soon as I can.” I hang up and look at Dante, who’s been listening in. “I have to go.”

“What is it?” he asks.

“Asher’s been grabbed.”

“You think it’s the Python?”

He even has to ask? “Who else would it be?”

“Go,” he says. “I can handle this. Call me if you need help.”

I make it to Asher’s office in under twelve minutes, breaking every traffic law on the books. When I step off the elevator, Elaine is waiting for me with the driver Benjimen at her side. He’s not wearing his usual suit, but is dressed for action, and I wonder when he had time to do that, not that I’m particularly concerned about that right now. I have all I can do not to smash my fist into his face.

“Tell me exactly what happened,” I growl at him.

“I was dropping off Asher in front of the building like I always do, but tonight there was a delivery truck parked in front of the door. Asher told me to drive past it and drop him there. I suggested he wait until we get into the garage, but he hates entering the building that way.”

“So what happened?”

“He got out and I was pulling away to go into the garage when I heard brakes squeal. I looked up as two black vans pulled up. A man jumped out of one and walked up behind Asher and grabbed him. He must’ve injected him with something because Asher went down and the guy had to drag him back to the van.”

I can barely hear over the roar of blood in my ears. Before I can register what I’m doing, I grab Benjimen by the collar and throw him against the wall, my fist closing around his throat. Luckily it seems most of the people in Asher’s company have gone home for the day, because my behavior would not be considered appropriate for the office. I have all I can do to grind out my next words.

“What the fuck were you doing besides watching this all go down?”

He rights himself and shakes free of my grasp, glaring daggers at me. “I got out of the car and ran toward them, but they threw him inside the first van and sped off before I could reach them. I ran back to the car to follow them, but the second van was parked across the entrance to the garage. I approached it to get the driver to move and he pulled a gun on me. Unfortunately I was unarmed at the time. I wasn’t expecting a confrontation.”

“Why not? You knew the danger in the city.”

“Asher didn’t want me carrying a gun, though I keep one in the glove box.”

Useless fucker. “So what did you do?”

“The driver of the second van held me there until the first van disappeared then drove off in the opposite direction.”

Logically I know there was nothing he could have done, but I’m not thinking logically right now. This is Asher we’re talking about. My…what? What is he to me? Lover? That seems mild. Reason for living? That sounds closer to the truth, though I would’ve been loath to admit that a month ago. All I do know right now is I will tear this city apart and kill anyone who gets in my way of finding him, including this fucker if he doesn’t provide me with a reason not to in the next two minutes.

“Did you get a tag number or anything else?”

“Yeah. Elaine ran it and we have an address.”

At least it’s something. I look at Elaine. “You ran it?”

She shrugs. “The DMV website is a piece of cake.”

“That doesn’t mean they’re taking him there.”

“Do you know where they would take him?” Benjimen asks me.

I glare at him. He loses Asher and he has the nerve to ask me where they took him? Fucker doesn’t know how close I am to ending him. “No, I don’t. All I have is a couple of possible locations.” I punch the wall in frustration “Fuck.”

“Then let’s go check out the locations you have and go from there,” Benjimen suggests.

I narrow my eyes at him. “You think you’re coming with me?”

“Damn right I am. He was my responsibility. I’m no stranger to hostage situations.”

“Before you go chasing all over town, let me see if I can locate Asher’s phone,” Elaine interrupts.

Okay, that’s a good call. I fight to get my emotions under control. I’m no good to Asher if I’m going off half-cocked at everyone who pisses me off. He told me Benjimen was ex-Special Forces, which means, with the exception of Zeke, he’s probably more useful than any of Dante’s men. I don’t even know which of them I can still trust at this point.

I may be pissed that Benjimen lost Asher in the first place, but as I look him up and down I grudgingly admit he looks fit and able to take on whatever muscle the Python may throw at us. He’s roughly the same height as me and has a hard-edged, no nonsense look about him I never noticed before.

Doesn’t mean I trust him to have my back.

“Still not convinced to take you with me,” I growl at him. “You’re not Clan.”

“That never mattered to Asher.”

He’s right. Asher trusted him with his protection.

And we see how well that turned out.

But the truth is, I need all the help I can get if I’m going to find Asher before Thalium does whatever he’s going to do to him.

I can’t even allow my mind to go there right now. I push the thought aside and focus on the first order of business–finding Asher.

“Fine. But we do this my way.”

“Glad you two worked that out,” Elaine says as she types something into her laptop. The screen changes and a map comes up.

“Hmph,” she muses.

“What?” I prompt.

“They must have turned off his phone. The last location I have is his building.”

“Fuck!” I growl.

Elaine closes her laptop and shoves it in her bag. “You guys go check out the places you have in mind while I head home. I have better equipment there. I’ll text you my address and keep you informed of anything I come up with.”

She steps closer to me and lays her hand on my arm. “We’ll find him, Cord.”

I meet her eyes. “Damn right we will.”

I can’t even allow myself to think about the alternative.

FATE OF BLOOD is available for ebook, paperback, and Kindle Unlimited HERE.

TRIGGER WARNINGS: This book is a dark dual POV romance suitable for readers 18+. Please be mindful of the following triggers: M/M relationships, loads of filthy spice, talk dirty to me, spanking, edging, kidnapping, blood play, unhinged violence, decapitation, amputation, torture, house fire.