Out Of The Shadows (HADES) (Whiskey Bend MC Series, Book #4)

Later that morning at breakfast, Lucifer was handed a report from Geno. Geno had reluctantly delivered it then hurried out like his ass had been on fire.

Lucifer read it and swore out loud. Getting to his feet, he called out for Church. Every single man stood and followed his to the end of the hall. Hades motioned for Charlie, Caden and Cole to follow them.

Everyone took a chair at the huge table and finally Lucifer stood at one end and addressed the entire group. Holding up his hand, silence settled over the group. “Geno was able to hack into through the seal on Drake’s juvenile record. All it said was he went to Danbury at the age of twelve because he killed his grandfather and almost killed his grandmother and father. Testimony from the survivor’s claim he killed because his Grandfather found him right after he’d killed the family dog.” He paused and was looking for something then continued, “Grandma and Dad came in and he beat them so bad they needed to be hospitalized for several weeks.”

“Were there any other family members there?” Caden asked.

“Yeah, there was a twin brother Raymond. Mom was at work.”

“What happened after Drake was in Danbury?”

“The family moved away and no one knows where they are,” Geno spoke up.

“So maybe the reason Drake’s moving around so much is the fact he’s looking for his family,” Caden pondered.

“Yeah and maybe he found them at one point and he enjoys killing,” Cole speculated bitterly. “But he will kill to protect himself.” Cole turned to Lucifer. “Tell your men to be careful on their patrols. He’s feeling cornered and he will strike out. He can’t leave the area until Caden, Charlie and Hope are dead. He wouldn’t be able to leave and come back to finish this. He’s been here too long already.”

“How do you figure that?” Lucifer asked.

“The key to his success so far is the fact that he moves in, does his killing and then he leaves before anyone knows he’s been there. That hasn’t happened here. He’s almost been caught at least twice now and every moment he stays here is one moment closer for him to get caught. He’s been wounded twice now and he’s still here. He won’t leave until he gets what he wants and right now, he needs to kill at least three people he thinks are his enemies. He doesn’t know everyone in this room knows his deepest, darkest secrets.”

They all heard a gasp and turned to find Hope standing in the doorway. How long she’s been standing there was anybody’s guess. Hope raised her hands to cover her mouth in horror. “Oh my god,” she whispered.

Hades got up and moved over to her quickly. Gathering her in his arms, he moved her away from the door. “Babe, you shouldn’t be here.”

She looked up at him with tears in her eyes. “He’s right though isn’t he? Drake is losing his edge and will come for us.”

Hades closed his eyes then snapped them open again. The look he gave her frightened her in its intensity. “Yeah, he’s coming for you but I’ll be damned if he’ll get anywhere near you. You belong to me now and forever.”

Hope looked stunned.

He walked her to the door then out to the hall. He dialed a number. “Please come and get Hope?”

Hope blinked her eyes. “What are you doing?”

“We have four brothers protecting the women and kids. You are going to be safe with them.”

“B-but…”

He shook his head and tugged her close. “I am going to catch this killer. I don’t care if he’s arrested or dead. He will not get to you. I need to know you are safe, okay?”

Hope sniffled through her tears. “Okay.”

Lucifer’s woman, Jesse came up the hallway. “Hey. Hope, you can help with the kids, okay? We’re playing board games.”

“Alright.” Hope glanced at Hades, then followed Jesse down the hall.

Hades let out a sigh of relief then went back into the meeting room.

“We can add two more victims to the killer’s resume,” Charlie told the group. “That’s part of what I came here to tell you. He killed Talbot and his wife Josi Ryan late last night. Talbot lives just on the other side of the bluff, he’s a crotchety old man and doesn’t like trespassers, but we found them early this morning. Their handyman called it in when he found them tied to kitchen chairs. Drake slit his throat.” Charlie shook his head and growled, “He’s really beginning to piss me off.”

Hades snapped his head around to glare at Caden. “That’s it.” He all but shouted. “That’s what he wants.”

Caden frowned. “What?”

Hades paced the floor. “Don’t you see? He wants you both so rattled that you make mistakes. His game is to torture you by killing those close to you, and finally he’ll come for both of you. He wants the two of you begging to die to assuage your guilt.”

“What would we feel guilty about?” Caden questioned.

“The guilt you’ll feel from being moments too late to save them,” Hades said quietly, realizing what kind of game Drake was playing.

The room grew quiet as the implication sank in.

Caden pursed his lips to stop himself from swearing.

Apparently, it was Lucifer’s turn to throw something. He picked up an empty cup and threw it against the wall. Shattering glass fell to the floor. No one said a word.

The phone rang. Charlie picked up the receiver. “Boone.”

The caller was Dan Clark. “Charlie, we have a problem here.”

Charlie switched the call to speaker phone. “What kind of problem?”

Dan hesitated and then told him, “I was taking pictures of the victims and noticed something odd about the wound patterns.”

“What do you mean odd?”

“It’s like they are mirror images. One was cut from the right, the other from the left. I thought we were only looking for one guy?” Dan questioned.

Charlie was silent for a moment then asked, “Are you sure about this?”

“Well, no, I mean I can’t be absolutely sure until the autopsy. But from the pattern of the cuts it looks like two different knifes were used.”

“How soon can you know for sure?”

“Give me two hours and I can tell you more,” Dan assured him.

“Call me back in two hours.” Charlie hung up the phone then turned to Cole. “Has Drake ever worked with anyone before?”

“Not that I know of.”

Charlie raised an eyebrow and told the group, “You all heard it. Dan thinks there were two different knives used to kill Talbot and Josi.”

“If that’s the case, what do we do now?” Caden finally asked.

“We’ll know more when he calls me back. Right now, we need to decide how to proceed from here on what we’ve got.”

“We need to get him to play our game,” Hades suggested.

“I want to catch this bastard, not play games with him,” Caden retorted angrily.

“But the way to get to him is to play games. It’s just like warfare. He thinks he has you figured out. He thinks he knows what makes you tick and he’s using it against you.”

“And you know this how?” Caden stared at him.

Hades glanced at him with a frown. “I’ve been up against his kind before, only it wasn’t here in this country. I was a specialist in a past life. I know him better than you do.”

Hade’s cell phone suddenly rang. He flipped it open and heard Drake’s voice. He handed the phone to Charlie.

Charlie answered, “Sheriff Boone speaking, can I help you?”

Drake didn’t say anything for a moment then said, “I want to speak to Hades.”

“Yeah, well, he’s busy at the moment. Can I help you?”

“What is he doing that’s more important than talking to me?” Drake demanded to know.

“Scratching his ass,” Charlie told him.

“Excuse me?” Drake asked.

“You asked what he was doing, so I told you.”

“I want to talk to him,” Drake demanded.

“Did you ever think that maybe he doesn’t want to speak to you?”

“Why wouldn’t he?”

“Why would he?”

“I want to talk to Hades. He is the one who fucked this whole thing up for me! Get him on the phone now,” Drake demanded roughly.

Charlie handed the phone to Hades.

Hades refused to take it. He wanted to see what Drake would do if he refused to speak to him.

“Sorry, he just left the room.” He smiled as he told Drake.

“Where did he go?” Drake asked.

“I don’t know,” Charlie said patiently, knowing his answer would anger Drake.

“Well, find him!” Drake ordered angrily.

“Tell you what, why don’t you wait a few minutes and call back?” He offered. “I’m sure he’ll talk to you then.”

“I demand to speak with him now!” Drake shouted.

Charlie shrugged his shoulders and hit the end button on the phone.

Caden and Cole smiled.

He handed the phone back to Hades. “So, how pissed do you think that made him?” he asked.

“We’ll find out,” Hades said wryly. He didn’t bother to put the phone away, but waited for the phone to ring again. It didn’t take long for Drake to call back and when he did, Hades handed the phone to Charlie again.

“Boone,” he answered.

“Get him on the phone and don’t screw around this time,” he demanded.

Charlie glanced at Hades and made a face. He didn’t think it was a very good idea to piss off a serial killer. He silently handed the phone to Hades.

“What the hell do you want?” Hades asked briskly.

“What the hell do you think you were doing?” Drake snapped.

“I had to piss, do you mind?”

“If you ever do that to me again—”

“You’ll do what? Never talk to me again. I hate to tell you, but that would only make my day better.” He paused to make his point then added. “Did you call us to gloat or did you actually have something to tell us?”

Drake chuckled.

“You can’t hide forever. I may not find you today, but when I do, you’ll be the one begging for mercy,” Hades snapped

Drake laughed out loud. “If you get nothing else out of this game of ours, I have given you the taste for death.”

“You’re right. I have a taste for your death. I’m not a cop you dumbass. I do not care about the rules. And I’ve killed better than you before. So is that all you called to say? How fucking clever you are?”

“Don’t tell me you’re tiring of the game already? We have so much to do yet.”

“No I’m getting tired of your voice, going on and on.” Hades hung up on him again. He looked over at Charlie and Caden. “I fucking hate that bastard.”

Lucifer laughed. “Well, I think you gained your objective there, God of Hellfire. You just pissed off a serial killer. Now what?”

“We need to find out more about this cretin. Let’s go over the rest of these files and see if we can determine if there’s a pattern to him.”

“I want to warn you some of these stories aren’t very pretty,” Caden said as he went over to the pile of files on the table.

“We aren’t looking for pretty. We’ve all seen ugly, believe me. We already know what he does isn’t pretty. We have to find a way to predict his next move,” Hades said.

Lucifer shook his head. “Yeah alright, you cops look over the files.” He snickered as he looked at Hades. “And military trackers. Me and the brothers are going to start searching under every rock, bush and cave in the area. Maybe we can flush him out, take him out of his comfort zone.”

Caden looked over the group of men waiting for their leader. “You guys take care of yourselves and each other.”

Lucifer gave him a cold grin. “Don’t you worry about us, you should be worried about Drake fucking Tourmel.”

One by one, the men filed out of the room.

They all busied themselves reading files.

Hades suggested that each of them would read everything. More than one person might catch something someone else missed.

An hour later, they were interrupted by Charlie’s deputy Dan Clark. He stopped inside the doorway. “You know, if you answered your phone, I wouldn’t have to interrupt my work to let you know what I found out.” His voice held a twinge of sarcasm.

Charlie glanced up at him. “Sorry about that but we’re busy here trying to stop a madman. What did you find out?”

“I found I was right,” Dan told the group. “There were two knives used on Josi and Talbot. One of our killers is left-handed.”

“Damn it all to hell,” Caden swore. “Who could the other one be?”

“I’ve never known him to work with anyone else,” Cole said. “Most serial killers work alone. None of the files even hints there’s a second killer.”

Charlie spoke to Dan, “Thanks, we’ll let you get back to work. If you find anything else, let us know.”

Dan nodded and left.

“Now what?” Charlie asked.

Hades thought about the new development for a minute. “We have to finish these files. We need to know as much about Drake as we can. If we can figure out his next move, we’ll be ahead of the game he’s playing and figure out who the second person is. It would have to be someone he can control. Otherwise, he’s not in charge and he has to be in charge. Let’s get back to the files.”

It was dark outside when they finished studying the reports on the serial killer. Hades even reread the files from five years ago. As he turned the last page, he sat and thought for a moment about what he’d read. Then he grabbed a legal pad and began to write notes. By the time he was done, the others had finished reading as well.

“Okay, the nutcase is actually quite clever, isn’t he?” Hades asked the others.

Charlie frowned. “I wouldn’t say that,” he protested.

Hades held up his hand. “The fact he’s gotten away with his crimes for eleven years, tells me he’s clever enough to get away with murder in several states. I mean he hasn’t been caught yet. You cops haven’t caught him or even come close.”

“You sound as if you admire him.” Caden stared at him.

He shook his head. “I despise his actions but that ego is gonna trip his ass up for sure. I plan to use that against him. He has to win and I am going to push that to make him fuck up.”

“How is that possible?” Cole asked.

Hades glanced through his notes and finally found what he wanted. “The one thing I think makes sense is that he’s stalks his victims. I don’t think he goes out and grabs anyone off the street. I think he’s been here for a while and he’s picked out more than one victim.”

“What makes you think that?” Cole asked.

“He likes to watch people. Hell, he’s been watching us for days. He has been stalking his victims and all we have to do is figure out who his next victim is.”

“Supposing you’re right, how the hell are we supposed to know who his next victim is?” Charlie wondered out loud.

Hades shrugged. “I don’t know.”