Chapter 27

TWENTY-SEVEN

VORTEX

“Why the fuck was Grant even at the casino?” Havoc demands, expression thunderous as we exit the casino. “He’d already touched Seven once!”

The pedestrians around us are either openly staring or pretending not to stare, and several of them hurry out of the way.

“He works there,” I say as calmly as I can manage, but the storm inside of me is swirling, dangerous and threatening to overwhelm me. “No one thought he was going to have the fucking audacity to?—”

My words catch in my throat, and I have to swallow hard to keep myself from losing control.

The urge to text my sister—to make sure that she, at least, is okay—is strong, but that’ll have to wait until we get Seven back.

And we will get Seven back.

It’s just that finding him on the Calamity City strip is going to be challenging, to put it lightly.

I grit my teeth when I see the crowd of people gathered around the front of the Roi de Pique, but that annoyance turns into fear as I see the police cars blocking the street. I shove my way through the crowd, ignoring Havoc as I elbow my way past the onlookers.

Three cars have crashed into each other. The drivers are all yelling at each other.

“You opened the fucking door!” the woman shouts.

The cop is trying to calm her down, but one of the others says, “I told you! It wasn’t fucking me! The kid just ran out!”

Havoc rushes forward without consulting me. “What kid?” he shouts.

I’m right on his heel, barging past several more people.

Seven. It could be Seven. There’s no guaranteeing it, but my gut instinct tells me we need to pause long enough to look into this.

“Sir, if you’ll take a step back,” one of the cops says, casting an irritated look at Havoc. “We’ll be interviewing witnesses shortly.”

“We aren’t witnesses,” I say.

“Then you don’t?—”

I interrupt him, playing the only card I can think of. “That kid is a grown-ass man, and he’s Caleb Spade’s boyfriend.”

Please, please let this be one of the cops on our payroll.

“We’ll need to see the footage from the accident,” I say, as authoritative as I’ve ever been. “Now.”

The cop jumps to attention. After a brief staredown, he grumbles and motions to the cab driver. “Show him the footage from the dashcams.”

The cab driver doesn’t seem to know what to do with that, but he ends up pulling the dashcam footage on his phone.

“Seven!” Havoc pulls the phone out of the driver’s hand and zooms in. “Fuck. That’s Seven. He looks…”

Yeah. I see it too. His expression is listless, numb.

But he had enough in him to run.

“Who’s he with?” I ask, trying to take the phone from Havoc. He sidesteps me, staring down at the footage as another man comes into view.

The Lockwood goon is almost as big as I am, bald and with a furious expression that makes me worry even more for Seven. If he gets his hands on Seven…

He won’t. We won’t let him.

“Where’d this guy go?” I ask sharply, pointing to the phone as Havoc pauses the screen.

“He, ah…” The cab driver looks between me and Havoc. “He ran off after the kid.” He points north. “That direction. I wasn’t really watching after that, though, because someone fucking rear-ended me!” The last few words are directed at one of the other drivers, but I don’t care about their bickering.

“If Seven’s smart, he’s sticking to the crowds,” Havoc says. “He’d know to do that, right?” He looks at the cab driver and says, “I’ll return this later.”

The cab driver gives him a confused look. “What? Return?—”

Havoc jogs off in the direction the cab driver had pointed, the phone with the dashcam footage still in hand.

I mutter a curse under my breath, then turn to the cab driver. “You worry about this fucking mess,” I say, which I know isn’t enough to placate him, but he seems to size up my sheer mass and decides not to argue.

I take off after Havoc, scanning the crowd for either Seven or the big man he’d been with. The latter will stand out, at least, even if Seven won’t.

I really, really fucking hope he’s sticking to the crowd, but I don’t know how long he’ll be able to stay ahead.

“This is pretty much fucking hopeless,” I tell Havoc as I catch up to him. “There’s no way we’re going to find him.” Which is good, because it means the Lockwood’s goon won’t be able to either, but at the same time, fuck .

“You people can track anyone down, right?” Havoc says, his eyes alert. “Fuck. If we were out in the desert, I’d have a chance of tracking him.”

“If he were out in the desert, he could die ,” I snap at him. “Be glad he’s in the city.”

Havoc glares at me. “He could fucking die here, too. Or worse. Who the fuck was the guy with him anyway?”

I grimace. After years with the Spade family, I know the major players in the mafia—local and otherwise. Even though the Lockwoods are based out of New Bristol, their clients are rumored to be among the wealthiest and most elite in the country.

Guess that happens when you’re dealing with kids, a thought that makes bile rise in my throat.

“I don’t know his name,” I tell Havoc. “But he’s a goon for a family out of New Bristol.” I hesitate. There’s not really time to have this discussion, but I need him to understand how serious this situation is. “The Lockwoods. They’re small but powerful human traffickers. Well.” I laugh bitterly. “Sex traffickers. Kids, mostly. They found Seven somehow, and they want him back.”

Havoc lets out a loud curse. “The scars on Seven’s back…”

I nod. “Yeah. They’re probably afraid of what he could tell people. Not to mention?—”

My phone buzzes, this time with a text of a photo and an address. It’s a blurry picture of somebody who looks like Seven.

Courtesy of Grandfather , Caleb had written.

I’m too relieved to worry about the implications of that.

“This way,” I say, picking up the pace. “Caleb sent a lead.”

Havoc follows me, and his aggressive energy has people getting out of our way to avoid us.

We end up at a convenience store. I cautiously look around the parking lot for Seven, but if he was here, he must have left already.

Maybe somebody inside had seen him, though, or maybe there’s more security footage.

“Here? What would he be doing here?” Havoc demands. “He must be heading toward the bus station.”

Madeline had said he hadn’t cashed in his chips, which means he probably didn’t have any cash on him. That doesn’t mean he can’t find a way out, though. Seven is nothing if not resourceful.

“We’ll ask them for the security footage,” I say, heading toward the entrance.

The automatic doors open, and the Lockwood goon steps out.

He steps aside to go around us. He doesn’t know who we are, of course. Maybe we should follow him to see if he has a lead, or?—

Havoc grabs the goon’s shoulder.

The goon tenses, turns, and Havoc punches him in the nose.

Unlike Grant, he doesn’t immediately crumple to the floor. He grunts in pain and stumbles back a few steps, but he stays upright and immediately raises his arms.

“The fuck?” the goon growls, glowering at us.

I would glare at Havoc if I had the time, but I can dress him down later for his lack of impulse control. “Where’s Seven?” I demand.

The goon looks genuinely confused. “Who?”

I grit my teeth. “The kid,” I say. “The one you’re fucking stalking. Where is he?”

Recognition dawns on the goon’s face. “Oh, you mean…” He shakes his head. “The little one will be going home soon. Just back away now, and I won’t leave your bodies to bleed out on this parking lot.”

“This is his home!” Havoc shouts as he rushes forward for another punch.

The goon is ready for it this time, though, and he blocks the punch easily. He follows it with an attack of his own, and Havoc is sent stumbling away.

Someone shouts in the background, but I’m not paying attention to what they’re saying. Chances are, they have their phone out and we’ll have another repeat of the last time Havoc had lost his shit, but it’s not important.

It’s my turn to throw a punch, which the goon doesn’t dodge quite as easily. He still manages, though, and I wonder what the fuck kind of training he has to have. Havoc is pissed off and careless, but I’m experienced—and I’m not used to people being able to sidestep me like this.

While I’ve got him distracted, though, Havoc gets in and kicks the goon in the knee. The guy cries out and buckles forward.

I grab the goon’s arms and wrench them behind his back.

“What the fuck did you do to him?” Havoc demands as he punches the goon in the face again.

“Nothing yet,” the goon sneers, ignoring the blood running down his face.

The words hit me just as hard as Havoc is hitting the guy, and the thought of what he must’ve done to Seven before all this is almost enough to make me lose my cool. It’s all I can do not to release him and pummel him into a bloody pulp myself.

I hold him tighter, willing Havoc to hurt him more.

“The cops are on their way!” I hear, but I don’t care about that either. Let them come. This is our turf, and while the Lockwoods may have influence, they wouldn’t have paid off the Calamity City PD.

At least, I hope they didn’t think that far ahead.

Havoc lays another punch into the goon, and I hear something crack. The goon doesn’t go completely slack, though, so I guess it wasn’t his neck breaking.

“Vortex!” somebody shouts.

I look up to see a familiar face—Mason, one of Caleb’s guards, who I know is part of the Spade Family.

Havoc punches again.

Mason jogs up to us, while some others are fanning out to talk to the bystanders.

“We’ll take it from here,” he says, blocking Havoc’s next punch.

Havoc growls and turns to him. “He hurt Seven!”

I’m trying to clear my head of the haze of red, trying to calm the fuck down. The mention of Seven knocks me back into the present, and I snap, “We need to find Seven. Let Mason drag this prick back to the Roi and deal with the fucking cops. We have more important things to do.”

Havoc lets out a frustrated noise. “Fine! How do we find Seven in this fucking haystack of a city?”

“Caleb’s pulling in favors,” I say. “And?—”

My phone buzzes again, with a new photo and address. If Seven went there on foot, from here, it would have taken him at least fifteen minutes. “Come on. We’re close.”

I’ll catch him.

I’ll save him.

And I sure as fuck won’t let him get hurt again.