Page 277 of Forged in the Fire
I had to take action.
Frantic, I began to fly through all the documents. Comparing them against other reports.
Desperate to find a connection.
A clue.
A way to fix this betrayal.
I kept clicking through the documents, comparing addresses and numbers to Google searches.
Mentally checking off each one as a job done.
There were two addresses in different files that had been sent earlier this week. I looked them up, and neither of them had numbers beside them.
I could only deduce that these were unfinished jobs. Their slaughters yet to come.
Yet I kept searching, somehow knowing they weren’t where Dereck would be. That I was missing something.
I heaved out when I finally found one from five years ago. An address in Northern California.
Next to it was a dash withFailedwritten behind it.
I remembered what Silas had admitted that night.
“With the help of your brother, I’m finally going to get revenge for my mother’s death.”
Silas was returning to a failed mission.
My heart sprinted. An army of horses’ hooves walloping in my chest.
I could barely type the address into my phone, and I squinted at the screen when the only thing I saw was a massive gate.
I put it on satellite mode and zoomed out, and my insides flipped when I saw it was some sort of compound in the middle of the woods.
Remote and isolated.
Dereck would be there.
I knew he would.
I jumped from the office chair, the wheels sending it flying back. My breaths were basically hyperventilations as dizziness spun my mind in a thousand directions.
How the hell was I going to get out of here?
There were at least six men standing guard along the front wall. No question, there were more along the perimeter.
And Kai…
Agony panged my heart. How could I just leave him? My love for the child full and complete.
I couldn’t contemplate that right then. My only concern in this moment had to be saving my brother.
I grabbed my purse and slung it over my shoulder, tucked my phone into it, then slipped out into the vacant shop.
The bays were open, though it was empty. No sound of machinery or jesting voices. No question, they were trying to make it look like it was business as usual if someone were to drive by.
It only condensed the quiet that echoed like an omen.
