Chapter 27

Chapter

Twenty-Seven

U lysses

"I'm a fucking idiot."

"Yeah, you are," Mathias says, looking down as he swirls the dark liquid in a crystal sniffer.

"So are we all," Angel adds taking his hand roll before passing it to Kiyoshi, who looks at me silently for a long moment before taking a long drag before passing it to Mathias. I wave his offering away.

I never come into my father's study. Not once since I came home since giving up my commission. This was his sanctuary. The place he escaped to when Mom's drinking got worse — or so I thought. It wasn't until she died a week ago that I came in here for more than a brief perusal to see all the evidence he'd been gathering on his family and the other prominent families. How they withheld passports of workers forcing them into the tantamount of slavery. How they used children for the sex trade. Dad had been compiling a vast array of evidence and because I never took the reins after he died they were left to go unchecked for more than a decade.

This isn't what my cousin, his best friend, and newfound ally are talking about though. They are talking about how I reacted to Kandie's revelation that she had an abortion when she thought I all but abandoned her. Correction when my mom made us believe we'd abandoned each other in a confused attempt to save me from being a Shelby. I don't need them to tell me. By the time I reach the country club I knew I was on some bullshit. The only reason I didn't leave immediately is because there were so many people who wanted to give their condolences and grieve with me. It's not their fault I didn't have my shit together and pushed away the one person who means more to me than anyone other than the one I buried today.

"Fuck." I think back to the way her luminous eyes looked so bruised when I cut into her by her grandad's ancient truck. The old man was looking like he'd blow my fucking chest open when I got to the country club. The entire Love clan was there for me because of her. Her not showing up was enough for most of them to leave en masse. I fucked up royally.

Thinking it best to let her cool off was the second mistake I made. I should have gone after her. Mathias, Angel, and Kiyoshi following me out the venue was a sign of support. The fact that any of them would leave their wives who are not only her cousins, but best friends is a sign of brotherhood I haven't experienced since my Seal days.

"You think the worst thing is death. No. It's when they leave your ass," Kiyoshi says with a steady gaze on me. "I stood before a fire and her losing everything, promising her they would pay and she walked away. Let this be a lesson to you. Don't fuck around and hurt her again."

"It's probably already too late." For the first time in my life, I have to fight the urge to drink. I told her I didn't want babies with her, for fuck's sake. The way she looked. Grabbing my head I close my eyes remembering the anguish in her eyes right before the dead animal carcass and Nikki's disappearance had us focused on other events. Then to stand so self-righteously in front of her after she stood beside me all week after my mom's death with the news of how she kept us apart fresh on her mind. Was I surprised she sought comfort the only way she could because she knew I was already exhausted and hurting? No. Then I punished her for it. I never should have asked a fucking question I wasn't ready to hear the answer to. She'd been forced into that position because she was young and afraid. Instead of Mom calling or writing me, she chose to keep it a secret. That's all kinds of fucked up. She's not here to answer, and I had no business putting it all on Kandie.

I've just been hitting on all cylinders. "I have to go see her."

"If she shoots or stabs your ass, you can't put her in jail. You're inciting her," Angel says, drinking my father's liquor and smoking weed in my house like I'm not the sheriff.

"Un-huh, just don't leave my house a mess when you leave." Grabbing my keys, I head out without another glance at the men who came to commiserate with me.

Stopping in the kitchen, I grab the box of letters Mom had tucked away in the bottom of Dad's desk. I guess she thought I would use his office more, so she put them in a place where she thought I would find them.

I did most of my work at the sheriff's office. My criminal activities were kept away from both places. Don't shit where you sleep and all that.

I know immediately something's wrong when I get to Kandie's loft. Taking the stairs three at a time, I push the open door wider.

At first, nothing looks awry. Kandie's loft is pristine, as it always is. Her bed made. Maybe she went to the doll house or Mama-Pete's. After what transpired between us, I doubt she thinks I would follow her. She'd be wrong. Not that I can blame her with the way I fucked up things.

Walking deeper into the room, I notice she took up residence in the reading nook. There is a blue covered book using the arm of the chair as a place holder. I pick it up reading the back, it's about a firewoman who mistakenly reads the private journal of a hockey player and romantic shenanigans ensue. The smirk dies on my lips when I see the miniscule listening device adhered to the underside of one of her bookshelves. I pull it off, noticing the cord it's attached to. Following its path with my finger, I find a camera.

He's been watching her. Minutes tick by as I find several more all over the small apartment. He took his time. He must have done it when she was out at the Honey Love Farm.

I feel sick heading to her bathroom. No longer do I think that she came and left. The bathroom tells the story. There's a smattering of blood on the floor. It's like she was fighting for her life. Toiletries are thrown everywhere. The towel rack is all but ripped out of the wall, one side torn out, the other dangling by a prayer. I watch as the towel drops to the floor, the blood soaking through the white terrycloth.

Turning in a slow circle, I catalog everything I see. This is a crime scene. Taking out my phone, I take pictures. Looking down on the floor, I see an impression of a boot print. He must have got blood on him, or hopefully she got some licks in. Knowing my girl, I know she did.

"What's up?" Angel says over the line, picking up as soon as I call.

"Get all your people. Someone took Kandie." As the words leave my mouth, I have to swallow back the sheer terror racing from my gut to throat. I know I sound guttural. I'm shaking with rage. Guilt and regret eat at me like acid.

"On it." Hanging up, I know I won't have to bother telling him to let the other two men know.

Grimacing, I call Pa-Pete.

"Yeah?" comes the deep baritone over the line.

"It's Ulysses." I hear him sigh.

"She's ain't here and if she was, I wouldn't tell your trifling ass no way," he grumbles. "Angel ain't letting your ass come out this way where his family resides," he says with cold finality.

"I know all that, old man. Someone took Kandie. I'm handling it, but I wanted you to hear it from me first." Letting him digest that information, I wait for him to rail at me for not keeping her safe, for being the one who ran her off in the first place.

"Imma send the boys over to help," he says after a moment, only he sounds deadlier than I've ever heard. Everyone knows that Mama-Pete was the strategist when they ran the southern underground, but Pa-Pete was the deadliest and most efficient boss of these parts until they bequeathed the enterprise to Angel.

"Yes, sir," I say, a feeling of relief gathering around me knowing I will have the necessary back-up.

"This ain't no police type of business, son. You handle them like you did those boys that hurt my grandbaby before," he commands, like he's no more retired than Angel is.

"I'm going to lay this motherfucker down," I swear.

"Well, alright then." Ending the call, I step out of the bathroom, my heart feeling like it's been cleaved in two with one of the machetes we use to cut the sugar cane.

Walking back into the loft. I feel the violation of having a stranger watch us all the times we made love. Listening to our conversations meant only for us. The breakfasts in her small kitchen. Her reading in the recliner while I sat sprawled at her feet with one leg draped over my shoulder.

Stalking back over to the pile of listening devices, I crush them in my grip with a promise. "I will find you. You will regret touching what's mine, bitch."

"This is a blow-up of the shoe print. He's going to have bruises not readily explained, possibly around his neck and face. He may even have bite marks. We want to keep this quiet. No one outside of this room and her immediate family knows she's missing. He's going to ask to gauge how much we know. Anyone who asks where she is a suspect — man, woman, I don't care. They could be using anyone to try to get information about her. Outside, everyone's a suspect," I tell the men and women gathered.

"How you know this sick motherfucker ain't going to kill her?" Nebraska seethes, his brother Oz on FaceTime looking on the phone he has.

"He finally has her. He's not going to kill her. He wants to take his time with his prize." I don't say what else he could be possibly doing. I don't let my mind go there. I was already about to implode with the knowledge of what he's already done from the evidence of the savage fight that took place in her loft bathroom.

I don't care what it takes. That motherfucker is going to pay for what he's done. My chest tightens with me, telling her to stay the fuck away from me moments before all this went down. It's obvious from the vomit in her toilet she was getting sick as she was attacked. In that weakened state, I'm surprised she even put up the fight that she did and I'm the prouder of her for it.

"So go on as normal, but be aware?" Nikademus asks looking skeptical.

"Yeah, if they sense we are on to them, they may panic and kill her," Angel answers before I can. Pa-Pete may have confidence in me, but the rest of the Love men don't — not after what went down at the gravesite. A few of them are even eying me crossways, like I'm the prime suspect.

"So what happens when she doesn't open up the bakery? And people start calling around for orders?" Oz asks over the line, still mad that he was told to hang back. If he came here, we agree everyone would know something was up.

"She's back on the Honey Love Farm after breaking up with this motherfucker," Nebraska says, tilting his head in my direction.

I swear every Love male mean mugs me at the same time. I eye everyone, knowing if I don't I'd follow the soon to be kidnapper in the ground.

"She's mine. We're working shit out." Chiseled jaws clench when I don't waver. Low curses are muttered even one or two have to stop others from stepping forward.

I don't waver still. "Anyone coming between us is going to find out real quick. I don't take too kindly to interference."

"And what's that supposed to mean, homeboy?" Oz grates over the line. I can see men shifting in my periphery.

Unclipping my Sig, I let my hand rest on the handle and say with coldness etched in my soul, "I'll kill every motherfucker in here over her ass."

Amidst grunts of approval, I hear someone say, "That's one unhinged ass white boy."

"I am," I toss out, going over to stand with the other new male members of the family.

"What's next?" Mathias asks, having just experienced something very similar, where his wife's life hung in the balance. Time was not on our side.

"My people are running all the CCTVs in the area to see if anything was amiss. Every vehicle anywhere near her bakery will be tagged and surveilled."

"He's going to want to rub it in your face. He won't be able to help himself. He thinks of himself as your competition and in some sick way he feels he's won." Kiyoshi ticks off the characteristics of criminal sociopaths like he has vast knowledge of them.

"As hard as it is right now, we can't do anything but wait until he shows his hand. He will and it will be a mistake." Angel looks at me, understanding better than anyone my frustration. For nearly a year, we both were without our women and now this. I never judged him for his rage when Easy left him and though Kandie and I just had a fight and anguish eating through me like a school of piranha is no different.

"Sheriff," one of the dozen or so Love cousins calls. It's Solomon, one of the firemen. He's barreling my way with a few others and some El Diablos who are following closely behind him.

My lady Kandie wanted you to know it's over. I thought, what better way than to make it plain but to burn your house down with you inside. Too bad you're out looking for someone who couldn't care less about you. Sorry I missed you. Next time.

Best,

Kandielover

He knows we're looking, so the element of surprise is gone. In a way, it's freeing. Now we can have an all out search. Bring the whole community together to rally for her.

Kandie, yes, our Kandie is missing. The person who was harassing her broke into her home after Marlene's funeral and took her. We are asking for everyone's help. Please, if you saw anything, please contact the Sheriff's office. Call in your tips The Shelby County Chronical hotline.

Joi's vast social media reach did the job of getting the word out faster than we expected. We were inundated with so many tips we had to set up a call center in the church, which Assistant Pastor Nathaniel volunteered to spearhead. He was in an accident on his way from the country club, but still managed to show up and volunteer.

"Anything for Kandie and you, Sheriff. You guys do so much for the community and the church. How could we not stand in the gap for y'all?" He patted my shoulder in support before going over to assist an elderly volunteer.

Despite his words of reassurance and that of every volunteer who came up to me to either give condolences for my mom or encouragement for finding Kandie, I knew time was ticking.

Every minute ate at me. Tension rippled through me with every breath I took away from her.