Chapter 4

Sky

4

As soon as Monday morning comes around, everything shifts into first gear. Someone picked up on Ariana's absence at one point yesterday, and now the whole media is sizzling with questions and breaking news reports.

The mayor's daughter has gone missing, and nobody knows where she is. Raylan, Kendric, and I sit in my office, watching the news, each of us holding a cup of hot coffee and taking long, tremendously satisfying sips as the shitshow unravels before our eyes.

Downstairs, the clubhouse is running smoothly. Breakfast hours are usually calmer, but we do get the regulars alongside some of our members coming in. The coffee machine is working hard; I can hear it from up here.

"Everton PD found Ariana David's phone inside her apartment," a news presenter says, continuing with her report regarding the mysterious disappearance. "Friends describe her as bubbly and sweet …"

Kendric snorts out a chuckle. "That is until you get a couple of beers into her, and then she becomes practically unhinged."

"Hey, have some sympathy," Raylan says and shoots Kendric a warm smile. "The girl is terrified. She's coping the best way that she can."

"I'm more amused by these so-called friends they keep interviewing," I say, my eyes never leaving the screen. "This is a circus."

"I wonder what her father is going to say," Kendric says. "He's holding a press conference in a few minutes, right?"

I nod once. "I do feel sorry for the guy, to be honest."

"You're the one who wanted us to do this," Raylan says, exhaling sharply. "I was against it from the get-go. Make up your mind, Sky."

"We had no other choice," I insist. "It doesn't mean I have to like it."

"Maybe it'll get the bastard to do what we need him to do," Kendric says. "We've been struggling for too long, and I don't see a better way out of what he was about to throw our way. She's his daughter, after all."

As a general rule, we don't kidnap innocent women. We've done worse for less, but there are lines that even we don't cross. This is one of them, yet we did it anyway. We had no choice. The task force that the mayor was putting together would only distract the public further from the real issues of Everton City.

Henry David needs to get his priorities straight, and if this is how we're going to help him do it, then so be it. We've let him and the press throw mud at us for too long without the slightest hint of retaliation. It's time for the bastard to pay his dues.

"There's nothing tracing back to us," I assure my friends. We've been through thick and thin together. The Steel Knights is our family, and I'll be damned if I'll let anybody take it away. We still have so much work to do. "It'll be a while before we reach out to Henry," I remind them. "He needs to sit with this for a while. He needs to feel the raw fear."

The anchor says, "And now, we go live to Mayor David's first press conference since the news first broke about his daughter's disappearance," pulling us back into a story of our own making.

Henry David appears on the screen, cameras clicking and flashing like crazy. He looks well rested, his dark blue suit tailored to fit his tall, square frame. His hair is perfectly styled, his face clean-shaven, his hands calmly resting on the lectern as he prepares to give his statement to the press.

The mere sight of this man incenses me, but I take another sip of my coffee and watch in silence.

"Good morning," Henry David says. His voice is annoying, flat, and even-toned. The only thing that betrays his true emotional state is the flicker of concern in his eyes. "We have yet to find my daughter at this point. We are obviously concerned, and I intend to make full use of the city's resources in order to find her. My daughter would never simply run off. Something happened. Someone took her. Unfortunately, I am inclined to blame myself …"

"As you should," Raylan mutters.

"My office has made plenty of enemies. I wouldn't even know where to begin. But rest assured, I will find Ariana. I will bring her back home safely. I've already lost her mother, my wife, my soulmate. I can't bear to lose my daughter, too."

Deep down, I'm disgusted, not only with Henry David but also with myself. Though I know Raylan is right—it's all on Henry. What is happening is his fault, and I'm sure he knows it, just as I'm sure that there will be cops coming around here soon enough.

The mayor has one thing right—his office has made a lot of enemies, and we're counted among them. His cronies and his minions in uniform won't get much out of us, however. And they certainly won't find Ariana here either.

We know the law, we know our rights, and we know how to play our cards right. It's thanks to people like Henry David that we had to do such things. I only hope that it will get the desired results. Our souls should not burn in hell for nothing.

The news cycle continues with photos from Ariana's social media profile. They're trying to paint the prettiest picture that they can, trying to humanize her, yet even I can tell that they don't have that much to go on. We did our research before we started watching her. I know about her mother and the somewhat suspicious circumstances surrounding her death. I also know that Ariana seems to have very little in common with her father, and their relationship is strained.

"Do you think she knows?" Kendric asks.

"Knows what?"

"About the mayor's extracurricular activities."

Raylan raises a curious eyebrow. "She strikes me as rather indifferent to the guy, but then again, they don't have the tightest bond either."

"She's nothing like him," I blurt out. "She's a bookworm. I don't even know what she's doing working for scum like Estes in the first place."

"Well, she did get a degree in design," Raylan replies.

"And she could've used her daddy's money and connections to open her own jewelry shop," I retort. "Instead, she's selling Estes' blood diamonds."

Kendric gives me a hard look. "How innocent can she be, though?"

"I'm not sure it matters at this point. She's our leverage. That's all we need to know," I say.

Raylan can't help but scoff. "She's feisty, let me tell you. You can call her a bookworm if you want, Sky, but the three of us already know that Ariana is something else entirely."

That she absolutely is.

None of us expected Ariana David to be so appealing. She's so different from her father. He's the charmer, the politician with just enough of a sociopathic streak to help him navigate and get rich off the political landscape. The man's hands are filthy, yet the whole state adores him. He's deep in the worst kind of pockets, and someday, we're going to bring him down. Ariana is an innocent—a pure fucking innocent.

She pays for her rental apartment. She works a decent day job. She barely has any friends and spends most of her time at home reading. There are bookshelves in her living room loaded with books. She likes to paint. She likes French press coffee. And she does design her own jewelry, but she hasn't exactly pushed those ideas anywhere, not even to Thierry Estes.

Then again, that French prick is a notorious thief. I think Ariana knows he'd just steal her designs and call them his own. He's good friends with the mayor, though. So, where does she fit in? What is her position in all of this? Kendric asked a very good question—how much does Ariana really know about her father?

"It's time to take things to the next level," I tell the guys. "We need to turn the heat up a notch or two."

Raylan and Kendric agree.

An hour later, we're around the corner from the mayor's residence. The whole block is swarming with cops who have created a protective perimeter around his mansion in order to keep the reporters away. Ariana's apartment is considered a crime scene now. We can't go anywhere near there for the time being, but out here, we simply become part of the swelling crowd.

We're all wearing sweatpants and hoodies because Steel Knights gear would make us stand out like a sore thumb. We don't need that kind of attention, especially not when we know our names and pictures are on a list of the mayor's enemies on a corkboard in the sheriff's office.

"How's it looking?" I ask Kendric.

He's done a quick sweep of the area. "Mostly neighbors and concerned citizens," he says in a low voice. "Cops are out on patrol, but they're not interacting with the people much."

"The mayor's inside, keeping busy," Raylan replies. "Their focus is on him, anyway."

"Which means we can send the kid in, right?" I look at Kendric, and he gives me a slight nod. "Where is he, by the way?"

"He's in position. Waiting."

We planned this carefully. We paid a kid via a third party who couldn't be traced back to us. And as I look to our right, I see him moving through the crowd. Slowly but surely, he approaches the yellow line that the police set up in order to protect the mansion's perimeter.

I'm relieved to see him dressed like he was asked: jeans, a red hoodie, and a white ballcap. I'm even more relieved to see him carrying the envelope that he was instructed to bring over.

His lips move as he reaches out to one of the cops on duty. I can't hear him over the sea of murmurs around us, but I do know what he's telling the officer.

"Excuse me, sir, I was told to give you this."

The cop frowns as he glances down at the envelope. "What is that? Who gave it to you?"

"A gentleman with white hair and a brown coat, sir."

"What's in it?"

"I don't know," the kid says.

The police officer looks around, his curiosity piqued. Raylan, Kendric, and I remain cool, our gazes wandering in the same restless manner as those around us. Soon enough, I see the envelope going into the mansion while the kid is asked to stay by the yellow line. They leave a junior officer there with him, just in case he thinks of bolting. But the kid wasn't instructed to bolt. Oh, no, he's got red herrings to feed these fuckers.

And so, it begins.

The cat and mouse chase we never wanted to get into.

It could not be avoided. We tried. But the Black Hand insisted.