4. Erik

Chapter four

Erik

T here was a saying about making plans and God laughing… well I was the one fucking laughing today. My plan had been a total success. We'd trailed Gorechec after he'd loaded the little princess into his car, staying far enough behind so as not to arouse suspicion. Levy shot a text to Anders, who was waiting up ahead with the spike strip. I'd focused on Gorechec's driver for this, willing him to turn down the road I needed him to go, my chest tightening as I sent out the—not a prayer , because it wasn't fucking God pulling this shit, I knew that for certain. Luck, as usual, was on my side. The front right tire blew, sending the SUV careening out of control. Things went a little bit sideways when it hit the ditch too fast and rolled over twice before coming to a stop on the hood. My luck was far from accurate, or controlled for that matter. So we took a lot of shit like this in stride.

"Oh fuck," I winced and pulled over, barely putting the car in park before I was bolting out the door, sprinting toward the wreck. Jesse had beaten me there, and he was now on his hands and knees as he tried to pry open the back door. I gave it a sharp kick and it popped open, smirking at Jesse as he dove inside. The image of a pocket knife flashed through my mind, and I dug through my pockets, already holding it out when his head popped back out, grabbing for it automatically with one hand. Anders sauntered around the side of the car, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows as he cocked his head, surveying the damage.

"Driver's still alive, so's the cargo," he told me, shoving his hands in his pockets. "No third heartbeat."

I nodded, crouching to see how Jesse was making out inside the vehicle. He was currently sawing through the seatbelt, the girl unconscious next to him. The material finally gave with a loud rip, and Jesse caught her before she hit the ground, pulling her out carefully and laying her in the dirt.

She had a decent gash on her neck where the seatbelt must've dug into her skin, and she'd probably have one hell of a headache when she woke up. I knelt down beside her and pushed her hair out of her face, studying her for a moment. She looked just as I remembered, only a little older, and her hair a lot longer.

"Good job," I signed to Jesse, and he brushed his hands off on his pants, grinning as he held out the knife. I pocketed it, glancing behind me when a small moan emitted from the front seat.

"Anders, take care of it," I said out loud, my hands signing the order unconsciously. "Jesse, get her in the car. We need to get her home before she wakes up." An image of her punching him in the back of the head as they drove home made me smirk, and I nodded. He scooped the girl up carefully into his arms, and fuck she was small. I'd forgotten how short she was compared to her tree of a brother. How they were related at all was beyond me.

Anders stood up and followed after Jesse without a word. I grimaced, ducking down to peer inside the car. "Did you do it?" I shouted after him. He flipped me off as an answer, and I rolled my eyes. Fucking dick .

"Let's get out of here," I muttered, heading back to the car.

I tailed Anders the entire way home, listening to the police scanner to see if the accident had been reported yet. The road wasn't that busy this late at night, so with my luck, it wouldn't be found until the commuters took to the roads later today.

Anders opened the front gates, and I followed him as he drove straight into the garage, closing the doors behind us. We had no neighbors, at least not close enough to see into our yard this late at night, but why tempt fate, when everything had gone perfectly so far?

Jesse popped out of the car, signing at me quickly, his eyes wide. I frowned, trying to follow, and he rolled his eyes, gesturing me over brusquely. I came over and peered into the backseat as the girl stirred, her hands clenching and unclenching in her lap.

"Anders, what's wrong with her?" I frowned, watching her closely.

I heard a heavy sigh, and I turned to glare at him. Now was not the time for his ‘fuck authority' attitude. "She's dreaming, probably," he replied caustically, brushing his hair out of his eyes. His driving glasses made him look like even more of a nerd than he already was, and I smirked at him until he pulled them off, irritated, and shoved them back in his pocket.

"How does it work?" Levy asked, from somewhere behind me. I signed for him so Jesse could follow along, shrugging in response.

"No idea, never seen her do it," I replied, glancing down at the little weapon in the backseat.

"We should take every precaution until we can test it properly. We don't want her catching us off guard," Anders offered, leaning against the car, staring off into the corner of the garage.

"Fine, get the gear and meet us in the basement," I replied, then signed for Jesse to grab her and follow me. I held the door open for him, then slipped past, heading downstairs. We weren't exactly a top-tier operation, so there was no secret interrogation room down here or anything, but we did have a guest room that I'd tricked out as soon as I'd thought up this plan. Jesse followed behind me as I led him into the little bedroom, and he set her down gently on the bed.

Anders joined us a few minutes later, holding up a bag that had me raising my eyebrows.

"What?" he demanded, thrusting it out roughly.

"Nothing, just… why do you have a serial killer bag so handy?" I asked, signing the joke to Jesse before I took the bag.

Jesse sent me an image of Anders in a butcher's apron in a plastic-covered room, and I snorted, meeting his gaze, and nodded.

"Is this really necessary?" Levy asked as I pulled out a length of black rope that was definitely bought at some kind of specialty kink store.

"I'm telling you, we can't take any risks with this one," I replied, handing the rope to Jesse, who stared at it like I'd handed him a snake.

"Oh for fuck's sake," Anders muttered, snatching the rope and walking over to the girl, rolling her onto her side, and tying her hands behind her back using an intricate set of knots. We all stared at him until he was finished, and he huffed out a sigh, brushing past us once more to lean against the wall.

"Right. We'll be addressing that later," I signed, grabbing a blindfold and a gag as well. "This is only until we know how her powers work," I reminded them, wincing at the bound and gagged woman on the bed. It wasn't painting us in the best light, in terms of a first meeting. But she'd understand, I was sure. Eventually. I tried not to think about how fucking sexy her lips looked with the ball gag shoved between them. That was pretty fucked up, even for me.

"When she wakes up, we'll have Anders on standby, and I'll talk to her. First sign that she's got me, he can knock her out," I explained, signing as I spoke. Everyone nodded, and we filed out of the room so I could lock the door behind us. I had a little two-way mirror installed so we could see into the room without having to actually go inside. Now we just had to hope that she wasn't strong enough to reach us through the walls.

I drifted upstairs, heading toward the living room, with the others close at my heel. It was too soon to celebrate just yet, I knew that, but a little victory toast was in order. I grabbed a bottle of scotch off the bar and poured out four measures, handing one to each of them in turn. "This is just the first step," I announced, holding up my glass. "But we did it. We are that much closer to the endgame. We will run this fucking city." I held out my glass, and they mirrored me, grins all around as we drank to our success.

I had big plans for this city, and this was just the beginning. Deposing my father was a start, then restoring the order he'd lost hold of years ago. Cleaning up the nasty elements was the next step—elements that included Douglas and his reign of terror. Jesse and I had no love for bullies, and they would be wiped out under our watch. Next would be my promise to Levy fulfilled. We would clear out the lowest of the lowlifes, and I would make sure that anyone caught buying and selling people would suffer a violent death.

And once we were strong enough, feared enough, we would take on our biggest challenge yet. I'd made Anders a promise years ago, and despite his barbed attitude, I intended to keep it.

I looked around at the three of them, and a frisson of anticipation burned through my spine as I thought about the blond woman downstairs.

The rumors of the tiny creature we'd captured were prolific, almost as bad as her brother. He was the Boogeyman, supposedly able to scare someone to death without even touching them, bringing all your worst nightmares to life. The rumors about his sister were more difficult to parse through. Some people claimed she could kill you with a look, like some kind of snakeless Medusa. Other people called her the Angel of Mercy, and Douglas's victims would spill their secrets to her before she executed them.

Either way, we needed all the firepower we could get, if we were going to take over this fucking city, and she was the key to that plan.