Making the Rent the Hard Way - 48

 

I left the Lycan Den, heading back to my place. The minute I opened the front door, I knew I'd had a visitor. The lights were on, and there was a note taped to the TV screen. I guess whoever left it figured I couldn't miss it there. It was an address, nothing more—unless you counted the streak of blood along the bottom edge.

I clenched my hands, dead certain the address had something to do with why Luca was missing. I wasn't going to race off half-cocked to his rescue, however. Whoever had him—and I was certain that's what was going on—wouldn't kill him until I arrived. In my heart of hearts, I knew that. It didn't help. I was terrified but still calm enough that my training took over.

Turning on the laptop, I did a search for the address. From what I found, it was a house on the edge of the city. Nothing fancy, if the earth view on the map site was correct, but like the other houses in the area, set off from the street and the neighbors by trees and patches of undeveloped land. I printed out what I'd found then called Rocky.

"I need your… No, I think Luca needs your help."

"Which is it and why? What's going on?"

I told him, then sent him a shot of my place since he'd never been here. He said it would take him a few minutes, so I changed into jeans and a dark sweatshirt while I waited.

He landed in the middle of my living room with Orchid. "She insisted on coming along," he groused, though it was obvious he didn't really mind. A couple of minutes after they got here, Gino and Jack showed up.

"What do we have?" Rocky asked.

"An address, like I told you," I replied. "And pictures of the house."

"Any idea who owns it?" Gino asked.

"Fuck." I turned the laptop on again and did a search. "Okay, we might be in big trouble," I said, bringing up the name of the owner of record.

"That son of a bitch," Rocky muttered. "Guess he didn't learn his lesson the last time."

He was Mr. Bracco. Mr. Selwyn Bracco. No wonder he went by just Mr. Bracco. Selwyn did not fit the big bruiser at all.

"If he's got Luca, I'm killing him with my bare hands." Gino held them up, curled into claws. "If he hurt him, it will be slow and painful."

I knew exactly how he felt.

I brought up the map view of Bracco's house so everyone else could see what we were dealing with.

"We can't teleport into the house," Rocky said. "No visuals. I doubt he's going to let you take a picture to send us, Cade, once you're inside."

"No shit."

"So we play like burglars and break in," Orchid said, "'cause I'm betting there's no doggie door I can get through."

"No, but"—Gino looked at the map view again—"if you were across the street, there"—he pointed to bushes in front of the house in question—"in your fox form, you could see inside when the bastard opens the door for Cade."

She nodded. "That could work."

"We wait a few before we go in," Jack said. "He might, probably will, be expecting Cade to have backup. When we don't show, hopefully he'll figure he was wrong."

"Twenty-to-one he'll have his own bastards there," Gino said.  

"Let me get in touch with a couple of people. If he does have other shifters with him and they're more than we can handle on our own, I'll have some guys ready to join us." Rocky made his calls, then told us things were set. "We should get over there now, Cade." He held out his hand.

"No. I have to drive to Bracco's house," I said. "He'll be watching for me—or have someone else doing that. Without my car, he'll know one of you brought me there."

"Good point. All right, get moving."