Savage Rage, page 9
“Where the fuck did you get this?” I demand.
“It was on the desk.” Emmett mutters, still frowning. “I thought Christina is out of the country. Did she leave that note before she left?”
That would be redundant. Why wouldn’t she just fucking call or text? Why leave fucking notes?
“I found out something else as well,” Spider says, rubbing a hand down his face. “I was hoping it was false information but…”
“But what?”
“I triple checked the credibility of the info and…” he trails off again, but I see it on his face.
“No.”
“Kimberly’s coming to Westbrook Blues wasn’t a coincidence, we all know that, but fucking Larry got the idea from—”
“Don’t you dare say it!” I bite out.
“He got the idea from your mother.”
A stunned silence falls over the room at the revelation I won’t fucking believe.
It’s like a smoke screen has been placed and now, my vision is obscured. Nothing makes sense.
“What?” Emmett frowns. “Christina was in contact with Larry?”
“It appears that way.”
“Fuck off.”
“Noah!”
“My mother would never do that!” I snap.
“Then tell me, what’s this charity thing about anyway?” Spider questions. I glance at George then at Emmett. A silent realization passes through the room. “Noah?”
“Before this fucking day, I was sure it’s some fancy ass shit that I need to show my face at, but now…”
“Now what?” Spider presses, concern on his face.
“Now there’s a game at play,” George finishes.
“First those fucking notes show up in each our mailboxes,” Emmett mutters.
“Then David shows up when Christina’s gone,” George mutters.
“Kimberly found three dead cats on the hood of her car and now her sisters were taken and so was she.” I take the note and rip it apart. “This is not just any other game. This is much bigger than that.”
“And the fucking note? What’s that about?”
That’s what I want to know as well.
I fish out my phone in my pocket, my mind racing with all the shit I need to fucking get done.
It all comes down to fucking priorities.
“Do you think this dinner thing is a trap of some sort?”
“You’re damn right it’s a trap,” George mutters. “Question now is—”
“Who is it set for?” I mutter, denial strumming a melody in me—a melody that’s distorted and honestly, it’s freaking me out.
My own mother?
No fucking way.
I dial her number, but I’m immediately sent to voicemail.
“She’s not picking up?” Spider questions with a raised eyebrow.
“Don’t look at me like that. Her battery might be low. You know she never remembers to charge her phone. It fucking happens.”
George and Emmett exchange a look.
“Listen kid,” Spider sighs. “I know you don’t want to hear it right now, but we have to take a few steps back and look at the bigger picture.”
“The only picture I’m concerned with is the one I’m planning to have framed right across the fucking front door!” I seethe.
“What?”
“A family portrait. I’ve seen it and I know exactly how it’ll be set up, too. There’ll be Lolo and Casey with the freaking ponies they’ve been nagging me about.”
“You mean the ones you just dropped a small fortune on?”
“They want fucking ponies; they’ll get fucking ponies.” Deadass. I just don’t know how they’re big sister will take it…
“Unbelievable.”
“Tell me more about this portrait of yours,” Emmett asks calmly.
“You’re encouraging this? At this time?” George demands, looking at Emmett.
“Yes, maybe then he’ll know that his actions will destroy his own fucking future.”
“My actions will ensure my future—our future—because I see those two beautiful girls holding my mom’s hands. Then me and Kimberly at the back. That’s the picture I’m fucking concerned with!”
Not conspiracies that might be true or lies that are now threatening to take everything away from me.
“We need a game plan.” Spider starts pacing then he stops in front of my father. I stare at the unconscious sonofabitch. His face is covered in gauze and bandages. “He needs a real doctor. We need him alive.”
“I got it,” George says. “We don’t know what Rocky over there damaged, so we’ll take him to a hospital.
“Like hell! He goes to the tunnels and if he fucking dies, let him fucking rot in there.”
I want him dead.
I want the son of a bitch to suffer for putting doubt in my head about my own mother and for the way he spoke and talked about Kimberly.
The way he tried to come between us with that crap. He deserves to rot for that alone.
“If I wasn’t clear before I will say this again,” Spider starts. “If this man dies today or later tonight, all hell will break lose and I guarantee you won’t like this.”
“So, what do you expect me to fucking do, Spider? Let him go?” I seethe. “We’re wasting fucking time debating this!”
“Snap out of that anger, Noah. Open your fucking eyes and look around you. How the hell do you think David got access to the estates with all this beefed-up security y’all put in place? Why is your mansion being watched right fucking now?”
“He did mention that.” George speaks up. “Didn’t he say he got in because Christina granted him access?”
“He was lying. Maybe he paid a guard…”
“Paid a guard?” Spider scoffs then shakes his head. “He didn’t have to fucking pay anyone and you fucking know it. He had access.”
“No.” I shake my head, stepping away from them.
I need space. I’m suffocating.
Someone took Kimberly from me.
It’s all too much.
“No way.”
“Think about it.”
“I don’t have to think of anything, Spider!” I snap. “You and flawless liar over there are just trying to push your Phoenix bullshit onto us.”
“No one is pushing anything,” George says smoothly. “David had access to the estates.”
Fuck.
If that’s true, then he had a code. His security access…
I head straight for the fucking doors. I don’t care that I literally loosen one of the double doors as I burst through, I just go down the fucking hallway.
In no time at all, I’m bursting through the security room. The dude my mother’s fucking head of security hired jumps to his feet in a rush.
“Master Montreal.”
“How did David get in?” I demand, my fists already curled and ready to let loose.
“I…”
“How the fuck did David get in these estates?” I ask as calmly as I can. I’m anything but.
“Sir?”
“How did he clear the main gates? Was there a fucking security breach?”
If there was, then the alarms should’ve gone off.
This place should’ve been crawling with security, but now it’s either fucking David had his inside men that he paid to get in or…
The dude scrambles to type something on the controls. The tiny monitors that cover an entire wall are all showing different angles of the mansion both in and out, and yet still no alarms were raised when David magically showed up.
“Answer me, damn it!”
I’m antsy, my heart is fucking racing but most of all, I need to get to Kim right fucking now.
But Spider bringing up David’s access to the estates is not for show. There’s a reason.
“He… there was no breach,” the security dude says nervously. “The system doesn’t fail. It captures everything and if there’s so much as an attempt to breach, everything shuts down for sixty minutes but in this case, everything is normal. There wasn’t a breach, sir.”
“Then how the fuck did he enter?” I demand.
“He entered his access code,” George announces from behind me.
“You just know every fucking thing, don’t you?” I grit out.
“Noah,” the asshole says coolly. “I know you don’t want to face it because you’re fucking stubborn, but clearly there wasn’t a breach. There’s no other way he could’ve entered. He had full fucking access.”
“No! He’s been on the fucking banned list for years now. You must’ve forgotten since you were dead and all, but his fucking access was revoked when he fled the day I found my brother dead in a pool of blood.”
“Here, the cameras from the front gate,” Emmett who I hadn’t even noticed in the room says, pointing at a screen. “He punched in a code. A unique fucking code.”
A heavy silence falls over the fucking room.
See, everyone has their own fucking code to enter the estates. It’s not one size fits fucking all.
“David shouldn’t have a code,” I whisper.
“By the way, how did you know David was here?” Emmett questions, watching me.
“What?”
“You heard me.”
I did, I was just fucking hoping I wouldn’t have to talk about that.
“I got a text.”
“A text?” Spider scoffs. “From whom?”
“Does it fucking matter?”
Silence.
I’m watching the screens.
I see the moment my father’s code is accepted, the smirk on his fucking face when he glances at the fucking cameras—as if he knows I’d be reviewing the tape later.
George is right. David had full access.
“Who texted you, Noah?” Emmett demands, but I ignore him.
Pushing aside the useless jerk who was supposed to be monitoring this shit, I quickly go through the biometric bullshit and scan my codes to gain master control.
If David has full access, then someone gave it to him.
Even his fucking prints and retina scan are in the system. How?
How long has he been planning this but most importantly, who gave that dickhead access?
I go through the logs, feeling George, Emmett and Spider’s attention behind me.
When I finally open the master access logs for the Montreal mansion, the thing in my fucking chest practically drops to the cold, tiled floor.
It’s like having an excruciating out of body experience.
I feel like fucking throwing up as David’s laugh from earlier echoes in my head.
“Is that real?” Emmett mutters
“That can’t be right,” I stutter. Spider comes to stand beside me. “This is wrong.”
But it is correct.
No one chooses the code for you. Everyone selects the one they want, and codes can’t be fucking shared. But for that to happen, someone has to access the logs first.
Even if I gave my code to someone else, they would still need my fingerprints to pass as me.
My vision narrows. The tension in my body triples and worsens.
“Kimmy?” Emmett mutters slowly.
The day she started her fucked up job here, the day she was given full access to the estates is also the fucking day David’s access was activated—through her.
Same time, same fucking date.
“Tell me again,” George starts, his gaze trained directly on me. “Whose girl is the liar, the manipulator and the fucking traitor?”
Silence.
Tick.
Tock.
Kimmy.
“George, shut the fuck up.”
“I mean, we’re all seeing this right?” George demands darkly. His voices low. Calculated. Dangerous. “Kimberly activated David’s access to our home. She’s an outsider and by the fucking way, isn’t she that fucking bastard’s daughter? Isn’t she the fucking off-spring of the man who fucking sodomized and brutally hurt my sister and my mother?”
“For God’s sake, George shut up!” Emmett presses but the tension in the room just keeps mounting. “Why are you doing this?”
If this was back when we were fifteen years old, back when George and I snuck into a seedy ass club and got roaring drunk after just a few drinks, then I would’ve let this pass.
If he was still the asshole that I didn’t mind fucking some random chick with, I’d have chalked his words off as frustration and hurt, but he’s no longer my best friend.
“I’m so fucking tired of carrying the weight and burden of Noah’s insults and distrust and yet, he fucks that bit—”
In the blink of an eye, I have my ex-best friend’s collar in my fist and his head banged up on the stone wall.
“Say that again,” I seethe so low in his ear. This is between him and I. “I fucking want you to say that again. This time with your whole fucking chest. Go on, fucking say it.”
He starts laughing.
I pull him back and punch him, ignoring the way my knuckles are already bruised and bloody.
Hate after all, is hate.
But all he does is laugh.
“Did I fucking push your buttons, Montreal?” George taunts. “Did I insult the mother of your child every chance I got? Oh fuck, that’s more your style.”
“The mother of your child helped secure a fucking date rape drug that was used on an innocent thirteen-year-old girl. I’m sure you remember her.”
“Fuck you!”
“While you ran off and disappeared, guess what was happening, motherfucker? Your mother was dying and your twin sister attempted to kill herself, suffered a loss and she was severely depressed, you asshole! And the one person that was there for her through and through, was Kimberly!”
“She betrayed her! And you saw the way she saved David, now she’s missing? Taken by a fucking van than was just driving around the estates? Yeah sure! You think they’re not working together?” George grits out. “Look at the fucking screen, jerk.”
“You don’t fucking know anything!” I snap. “You weren’t here. She was! You don’t know a damn thing about her so fucking shut up!”
Emmett and Spider stand there, watching.
They know better than to try and separate us. This needs to be done.
“Do us all a favor and crawl back into the muddy hole you were shacked up in, making a baby with your girl. We were stronger without you. Your own sister can’t stand the sight of you, and you have no fucking right to speak on Kimberly because SHE DIDN’T DO THIS!”
It's as I bellow those words that I realize how true they are.
The evidence is damning, hell everything is stacked against my girl, but I know better.
I saw the look of pure, unfiltered pain and fear in her eyes.
More than that, I see her actions from four years ago from a different angle now.
She had no choice but to lie to all of us. She had to spy on us, and do whatever Larry wanted or else…
FUCK.
She told me that I kept on punishing her for something she had no control over.
I hated her for lying to me, for keeping secrets from me but I was the asshole in this story.
And now, Lolo and Casey were indeed taken by a maniac.
Her past was revealed by my fucking father and now, she’s been taken.
“Are you both done? Because if you are, you’ll notice that Kimberly’s security access was used as an excuse to log in and activate David’s credentials.”
That snaps me back to reality.
“What did you just say?”
“See for yourself.”
Common sense filters back in, but there’s no taking back the words that were just spoken. George knows that and so do I.
It is what it is.
“Get the fuck off of me!” He growls.
I push him away, then stare at him, the asshole who knows more about my self-destructive tendencies than anyone else.
“From this fucking day going forth…” I start.
“Noah, no,” Emmett says, trying to step in, but I ignore him, staring at George.
“You and I are done.”
“Noah—”
“Don’t you ever step foot in my fucking home ever again. I also highly suggest that you keep my girl’s name out of your filthy mouth because she is my forever. She is everything and she’s not going anywhere!”
George’s nostrils flare but so do mine.
He’s breathing fast and hard, so am I.
We look like feral, wounded beasts.
“Ditto,” he grits out. “The same fucking shit goes for you too.”
It takes all but a nod from my end. He nods too and with that, he rips off the medical garb and storms out of the room.
“Was that fucking necessary?” Spider questions in that low tone of his.
He watches me silently, but I don’t have time to explain myself or watch after George as if his exits out of my life are something new. They’re not.
He’s been gone before, only now, it’s going to be permanent even though there’s still breath in his fucking lungs. He’s dead to me. For good.
“Noah, what did you do?” Emmett asks quietly.
“I did what needed to be fucking done,” I mutter. I look away and head for the armory at the back of the room.
“What are you doing now?” Emmett asks as he tugs at his hair in frustration. He looks like he’s on the verge of a heart attack and I can’t have that.
“Are you fucking all right?” I ask.
“Oh, don’t start asking me that shit. You just cut ties with George even though he’s one of us.”
“One of you, maybe,” I grit out.
“Well, you’re going to regret that.”
Maybe, but fuck him! Best fucking friends are fucking overrated anyway.
I open the vault and start grabbing a bulletproof vest and a new pair of combat boots, then I put them.
I still have my father’s blood on me but fuck if I care.
I grab a gun. Killing that bitch won’t take much, I can guarantee that.
With that, there’s one more thing I need. I grab my phone and text the one person I know will come through.
When that’s done, I reach into the back of my waistband and pull out a sharp knife, Kimberly’s knife that she held at my father’s throat the day I woke up with my hair dyed fucking green.
