98
The bottle of scotch was half as I stood up and put the drill down on the work bench to my left. Blood was seeping from Joe’s body and I looked at my blood stained hands. Nico had left the room when I started on the second kneecap and Basil had left when I started on his ankles.
“What did he say?” Basil asked as he walked back into the room and kept his eyes averted from Joe’s body.
“Carlson McIntyre Hall,” I said and he looked at me blankly.
“I don’t know that name,” he said to me.
“I was the target, Basil, Felix was an accident,” I said as I sat down on the floor leaning my back against the wall.
“I don’t care who the target was, my brother died and even if it was you that had died, Felix would be standing here instead of you,” Basil said angrily.
“This was an old family feud, I know the name McIntyre but we thought the family line had ended,” I said to him as I poured water over my hands and washed the blood off.
“So now we find this guy and kill him,” Basil said as he looked at Joe’s body for the first time.
“I already have my team on their way, you don’t have the stomach for this, Basil, you can sit this one out,” I said to him.
“I don’t mind killing the guilty, it’s the torture I can’t stomach,” he said as his eyes found mine.
“It’s not for everyone,” I said to him.
“Shit, Ryder,” he said as he glanced at Joe again.
“Leave his body as is, the news reports of his torture and death will get to the right people, a message of sorts,” I said and Basil nodded.
“I’ll have someone clean up the site and get rid of the tools, but we won’t touch his body,” he said.
“I need to get home,” I said to him as I stood up again.
“Are you okay?” Basil asked me suddenly.
“I’m fine, don’t worry about me, see if your people can find out anything about this Hall guy, I’ll have someone look into him too, I’ll call you in two days when my team’s in place and we’ll talk about a plan,” I said to him.
“I’m sorry you had to do this,” he said to me.
“I’m okay, Basil,” I said to him as I walked out of the building.
I was halfway back to Aurora when I pulled over on the side of the road and vomited twice as images of what I had done stayed in my mind. I didn’t have the stomach for torture either but we needed a name and I got it.
I stopped my truck in front of the garage and made my way inside Lucas’s house and headed up to his office. I found him and Chase as they discussed lair business and Lucas stood up as he frowned at the look on my face.
“Ryder?” he said questioningly.
“This is a nice surprise, bro,” Chase said as he stood up and hugged me.
“You smell like vomit,” he continued as I sat down.
“I need everything you have on the McIntyre family,” I said to Lucas.
“The McIntyre’s? Why?” he asked me.
“I can’t tell you but I need you to trust me,” I said to him.
“You have drops of blood on your face,” Chase remarked as he looked at me intently.
“It’s not mine,” I said as I wiped my face absent mindedly.
“I didn’t think it was,” he said.
“What’s going on, Ryder?” Lucas asked me.
“Are you going to give it to me or not?” I asked him as I stood up again.
“Not until you tell me what the fuck you’re involved in this time,” he said to me.
“The less you know the better,” I said and walked to the door and pulled it open.
“Ryder!” he yelled after me.
“Just forget I asked,” I said and walked into the hall and headed downstairs.
I slammed the door of my truck closed and drove down the driveway and headed home to Princeton. I hit the steering wheel of the truck in frustration. It’s not that I didn’t trust Lucas, I didn’t want him involved in the unauthorized killing of someone else. I’d already killed Joe and soon Wentworth would know that he was dead and that was a whole other can of worms right there.
The sun had set by the time I parked the truck in front of my house and I got the feeling that I was being watched as I climbed out. I took my time in taking my jacket off and I left it hanging over the side of the truck as I turned and caught the vampire by his neck and slammed his body down on the ground next to the truck.
“Motherfu…” he said as I let go of his throat and he got to his feet as I extended my hand and helped him up.
“I’ve told you a million times, Elio, you can’t sneak up on me,” I said as I smiled and we hugged as he chuckled.
“It’s good to see you haven’t forgotten the things you were taught,” he said as he slapped me on the back. I smiled at the familiar sound of his upper class British accent that he somehow never lost while living in the States.
“I’m glad you came, Elio,” I said as we walked towards the front door.
“You know that I’ll always be by your side when you call,” he said as I opened the door and smelled the aroma of dinner.
“Where’s your luggage?” I asked him.
“Already in the spare room, sorry I just chose one since I was the first to arrive, nobody was home so I made myself comfortable,” he said with his cheeky smile.
“And then you hid out in the woods?” I asked him as I laughed.
“Well, I didn’t want to freak out the hot blonde when she arrived home singing at the top of her lungs, I wasn’t sure if my pending arrival was announced or not,” he said.
“Don’t call her hot,” I said as I glared at him and he lifted his hands in front of him in surrender.
“I wasn’t aware she had been claimed, she sports no mark on her neck,” he said as he looked at me.
“It’s complicated,” I said to him and he laughed suddenly.
“Has the great Ryder Grey been tamed and whipped?” he asked me with amusement in his voice.
“Piss off,” I said as he laughed louder.
Link exited the dining room frowning as he heard our voices and stopped short as he looked at the man next to me. Elio was my height, muscled with pitch black hair and golden eyes. He sported tattoos on his arms and his aura was one of ‘don’t fuck with me.’
“Link, come meet Elio,” I said with a smile.
“Hey, Elio, welcome,” Link said with a smile and shook his hand.
“Thank you, Link. Is that your actual name?” Elio asked him with a smile.
“It’s Lincoln, but everyone calls me Link,” he said.
“A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Lincoln,” Elio said.
“Come on let’s go eat,” I said and they followed me into the dining room.
Megan was sitting on the chair next to mine and she smiled when she saw me. I went over to her and kissed the top of her head as Elio stood behind me and Link sat down on the other side leaving the chair next to me empty so that Elio could sit there.
“Megan, this is Elio, a friend of mine, this is Megan, my bonded half,” I introduced them.
“A pleasure, my lady, how do you bear the presence of this ruffian?” he asked as he kissed her hand.
“Oh he’s not all bad,” Megan said with a smile as Elio walked around the table and took his seat on my left.
“How was your day, Megan?” I asked her trying to change the subject.
“Just fine and yours?” she asked me.
“It was okay, nothing special,” I said as Elio choked on his wine and gave me a look.
“I had an interesting conversation with Basil this afternoon,” he said and I gave him a look.
“You know Basil?” Megan asked him.
“We’re sort of related,” Elio said with a shrug.
“Shit Elio, you’re brothers, not sort of related,” I said with a chuckle.
“Yes well, Basil’s always been a bit of a loose cannon,” he said.
“I’m sorry about your brother Felix, Ryder’s told me so much about him that I sometimes feel like I knew him,” Megan said as she looked at Elio.
“Thank you, my lady, your condolences are appreciated,” he said as emotions flitted across his eyes.
“Elio and Felix were twins, also very unheard of in the vampire world,” I said to her.
“Does this mean that you found something?” Link asked me.
“Basil is the investigator of the family and he’s very feared in our circles even though he doesn’t have the stomach to be ruthless like Ryder here, he can kill and he does it very well, but other than that he’s as meek as a little lamb,” Elio said and I smiled.
“While Felix was the disciplined one and worked with a plan, Elio is the real ruthless one of the family despite his nice manners. We’ve always had a plan when it came to this, when we found the ones responsible for Felix’s death, we always knew how it would end,” I said gloomily.
“Nice manners? I have impeccable manners, Mr. Grey, unlike you,” he retorted.
We ate dinner while bickering lightly as Elio regaled Link and Megan with stories of our past, how we met and became friends and how I had been part of their family from the first day Felix had taken me to his house.
“So who else have you called to fill out our little team?” Elio asked me as he twirled the contents of his wine glass before taking a sip.
“You, Tank and Marlo,” I said to him and he grinned suddenly.
“I haven’t seen Tank or Marlo in ages, this is going to be fun,” he said.
“Who’s Tank and Marlo?” Megan asked.
“Some very peculiar friends of ours but the bigger question lurking in my mind is why you two are not yet sharing a room and why you have no mark on your neck, my lady,” Elio said as he turned the conversation towards her.
“Ryder has some things to prove to me,” she said and Elio laughed as I looked away.
“I see, Ryder’s past has finally caught up to him, good on you Megan, keep him on a tight leash,” he said.
“Do you want to sleep outside tonight?” I asked as they both laughed at me.
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