Chapter Twenty-Three

Why was the senator here?

That was what Kellum kept thinking as he stared at Durn across the wide oak table.

“What are you doing here?” Kellum glared at the senator.

“I live here. Didn’t your uncle tell you that?” The senator offered him a very calculating smile. “I have people looking for your brothers. It’s only a matter of time before they find them.”

Kellum snorted and fisted his hands on the top of the table. “You’ll never find them. What do you think this is, the eighteenth century?”

Durn chuckled. “Oh, Kellum. Tsk, Tsk. This is the twenty first century and sex trafficking is one of the most lucrative businesses out there.”

“Especially children,” the senator said.

Kellum swallowed down the bile that threatened to rise up and he hoped to god they’d gotten all of that on audio so they could take these two sons of a bitches down.

“Oh, and in case you’re thinking to get one over on me, let me inform you that this isn’t my first rodeo.” Durn waved a hand around the room. Kellum wasn’t sure if he meant the whole estate or just this room, but he stilled and waited.

“Devices are dead in here.”

Okay, so it was just the room. Wait…dead? Shit.

Pegasus hadn’t gotten one god damned word these two sickos had said. He wanted to cry, but he clamped down and glared instead.

“Did you really think I had believed your little display to talk at the country club? I knew you had a recorder on you. Like I said, I’ve had experience.” Durn curled his lip. “You are young, but there’s still time for me to beat your rebellion out of you.”

“Fuck you! You’ll never get me nor my brothers. And as soon as I expose you, you won’t see a penny of my mother’s money.”

“Kellum…” Durn shook his head. “You have nobody. You are nobody. Your only adult living relative is dead. You and your brothers would be destitute if not for me. I own you.”

“We know that you quit working for the general,” Garner added with a sinister laugh. “You’ve got to be running low on money by the state of your accounts.”

So, they hadn’t found his new bank account under his new identity. They also had no idea who he worked for.

Kellum lifted a hand and placed it over his mouth and cast his eyes downward to hide his expression. He hadn’t come in armed because of the metal detector on the doors, but he figured he didn’t need to wait very long for Creed. Once Creed noticed the micro camera wasn’t recording, he wouldn’t waste any time.

Durn and Garner may have avoided the recording and would probably get off Scot-free, but if they thought to keep him here, they were wrong.

He was somebody and he had somebody. In fact, he had several somebodies who would come for him.

“Sir,” one of the guards entered and hurried over to Garner and whispered something into his ear. The senator’s eyes snapped to him as the guard turned to whisper into Durn’s ear.

Kellum smiled slowly.

Garner jerked his phone out and made a call before hurrying from the room.

“Oh, Kellum,” Durn said and shook his head. “What have you done?”

The front gates had been a fucking nightmare to breach the estate, and as Creed ran across the manicured grounds toward the house, his heart pounded.

Several dogs were released and Creed grabbed his secondary weapon that was loaded with rubber bullets to avoid killing the dogs. He shot a few and they yelped and took off running along with the rest. Animal control would round them up afterward.

The rest of Pegasus had split up in pairs and with Owen at his side, Creed kept running.

Bullets peppered the ground.

They had lost communication with Kellum for eight minutes now.

“I’m sure it’s only a glitch,” Owen said as they jumped over a small retaining wall and ducked down. Pinned, they returned gunfire coming from the house.

Two Pegasus operatives came out of the night and converged on the two men firing from the side door of the building. Eagle and Link, Creed could tell by the size difference, leaped at the gunmen and took them down. Within seconds, Creed and Owen were no longer pinned down.

Creed leaped up and sprinted down a narrow walkway that would lead to the back entrance.

“I should have never allowed him to go in alone,” Creed rasped just as he and Owen reached the back door that would take them into the kitchen area.

“Yeah, and if you’d done that, you’d probably lose him.” Owen smirked at Creed’s frowning glance. “He does not like to be ordered around.”

“Caught that, did you?” Creed muttered, then lifted his boot and sent the door splintering. They’d never reinforced the structure of the house. They’d put all their security in the front gate and hired guards and while it had been difficult, Pegasus never failed to accomplish their mission. That, and along with Erebus assassins slinking in the night somewhere on these very grounds, Creed felt confident they’d have Durn behind bars before the night was over.

Parker and Oliver slid in behind them with Stone and Wrath.

Sirens suddenly sounded in the night.

Owen’s eyes widened. “They called the cops.”

“They probably think they’re untouchable.”

“Damn it,” Parker said and pulled out his cell phone. He stepped back outside and Oliver shadowed the former police chief turned Pegasus operative.

Creed didn’t wait and neither did Seven and Hunter. Creed nodded to the bottom area and Hunter gave a thumbs up before sprinting for the wide grand staircase to their left. Seven was on Hunter’s ass as they took the stairs upward.

“Don’t be reckless,” Seven muttered and grabbed hold of Hunter’s vest. His man was fucking good, but way to impulsive for his piece of mind. “I mean it.”

Hunter tossed a wild smile over his shoulder, but gave him a slight smile and a wink. Satisfied, Seven released Hunter’s vest and lifted his Sig Sauer three sixty-five, silently following.

Creed with Owen on his six roamed through each room, opening doors when they were closed. He couldn’t stop his sound of relief mixed with horror when he finally found Kellum. The senator was nowhere to be found, but Durn was standing with his back to the wall. With one arm around Kellum’s neck, the guy had Kellum in front of him with a gun to Kellum’s temple.

He met and held Kellum’s wide blue eyes across the distance. He saw the worry in them, but there wasn’t any fear.

Creed’s gaze softened and he smiled before he stepped through the doorway and entered the room, gun up, one hand cupping beneath the other, his aim locked on Durn.

“Get back or I’ll blow his brains out,” Durn snarled and kept glancing to the open doorway.

Probably waiting for rescue.

That’s not happening, you motherfucker.

Kellum smirked and he held three fingers down in front of him.

Then two fingers.

Then one finger.

When Kellum’s hand fisted, the man dropped like dead weight. Durn’s gun wavered and could no longer keep the barrel at Kellum’s temple. Durn grabbed for Kellum and Creed fired.

The bullet hit Durn in the shoulder of his gun hand and the man screamed in agony. The gun he held dropped to the floor. Launching across the distance, he backhanded the fucker away from Kellum and reached down to lift Kellum up. He pulled the slighter man against his chest and cradled him close while he pressed his ear piece.

“We’ve got Kellum.”

Owen kicked Durn’s gun away. Then he tore off a piece of Durn’s shirt to press against the man’s wound. He forced Durn to hold it there himself and stood over the guy.

Wrath and Stone came hauling ass into the room, followed by Parker and Oliver.

All had guns drawn.

Parker stepped forward. “I can’t get a hold of Chief Dennison.”

Parker met Creed’s eyes over Kellum’s head and Creed’s grip on Kellum tightened.

He knew what Parker’s look meant.