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

It was late, almost dark when Drake came down off his perch. He had slipped from tree to tree and when he came down, he was nowhere near his original hiding place. He had been studying the layout of the compound all damn day and he knew the perfect place to do what he had to do next.

Knowing he could just walk through the front door, he made his way to the basement door. That would have been suicide. But he had found a way inside. Using the shadows to hide him, he had worked the window open enough to slip his body through and gain entrance. Waiting a moment for his eyes to adjust to the lack of light, he found a place to hide for a few hours.

When he figured it was time he came out of hiding, he made his way up the stairs to the main floor. The door at the top of the stairs opened into a short hall at the back of the clubhouse. Checking out the rooms around him, he found a couple of showers and a gym set up. Then he moved toward the door leading into the main hall.

Drake glanced through the cracked door. Not seeing anyone, he slipped through and made his way to the main room. He slipped down the main hall and headed to the conference room. He knew if Caden and Charlie were any kind of police officers they would set up a timeline of his trail. He needed to know what they knew about him and this was one way of finding that out. He headed for the last light he’d seen go off earlier. Quietly, he reached for the knob and opened the door enough to peek inside. Everyone inside was sleeping, or at least resting.

Caden was sitting in a chair in the corner tipped back against the wall. He had a file on his lap that was spilled all over the floor under his feet. He looked tired and stressed out.

Drake’s eyes moved to Caden’s left and saw Cole, stretched out on one of the couches in the room. He was snoring quietly.

Drake stared at the man for a long moment. He hadn’t seen him for a number of years, not this close up. He often wondered what Cole thought about him, if anyone ever told him he had another brother or had they allowed him to think Ray was his only brother?

He would have to ask him before this was over, maybe he’d asked him just before he killed him. That would be most fitting. After all, Cole should know why he had to die.

But there was one missing. Where was Hope? Drake backed out of the doorway without making a sound. Before he could do anything, he had to find all the players. He closed the door behind him but didn’t latch the catch. He would be back.

He made his way down the hall to the last room. Drake reached for the knob and carefully opened the door a few inches. He saw her immediately. She was laying on the bed and she wasn’t alone. There in bed next to her was one of the bikers he’d seen earlier and he was holding her so close he couldn’t tell where she began and he ended. Drake curled his lips at the sight of them together.

He closed the door quietly. When he heard the latch click shut, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a couple of wooden matches. Shoving them into the lock, he broke off what was left and blew her a kiss through the door.

It would have been so easy to finish what he started five years ago, by killing her right now, but he had other plans for Hope. He wanted to hear her dying screams as he watched the fire he would start taking her life.

He went up and down the hall jamming match sticks into each of the doors. He didn’t even bother to see who was inside. He didn’t need to know. He would take out the whole MC this way and live to fight another day.

He went back down the hall to the conference room. He thought of how easy it would be to leave Caden a nasty surprise, but he wasn’t here for that. He wanted Caden and the others to know he was in charge and what better weapon could he choose for that purpose than to use their own fear against them.

He removed a note he’d written earlier out of his pocket and laid it on top of the pile of police files on the table. He knew to leave a note in the room where they were sleeping, without getting caught, would prove he was still playing the game. He knew the note would drive Caden crazy.

He walked over to where his brother lay sleeping. He knew sooner or later he would have to kill him, but what surprised Drake was his utter lack of feelings on the subject.

Drake was about to leave when he heard a noise from behind him. He froze.

When everything was quiet again, he turned slowly and faced Caden. Breathing a sigh of relief, he noticed he’d turned in his effort to sleep.

Drake left the room before he was discovered. After he closed the door, he reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a small jack-knife. Holding his left palm out, he sliced his skin and waited for a handful of blood to pool in his palm. Then he wiped the blood on the conference room door.

There was still no sign of anyone in the hallway as he made his way back to the basement door. There was a sliver of light coming from underneath the bathroom door, but Drake didn’t wait. He escaped through the basement door and quickly made his way to the freedom of the outside world. As he pulled the window shut behind him, Drake felt good.

He had made his point and in a few hours, Caden and Hades would know it.

~*~

Caden didn’t know exactly what woke him up but as he sat up in the chair, he felt something had happened. Looking toward the window, he noticed dawn was breaking.

In the faint light of a new day, he rubbed his hands over his eyes and wondered what today would bring. Stretching to de-kink his body, Caden glanced around the room. He bent over to pick up the file he’d been reading last night when he’d fallen asleep. Putting the spilled pages back in the folder, he went over to the table to return the file to the others and froze in his tracks.

He found himself looking at the note Drake left for him. The note was written in blood and Caden knew it was Drake’s own blood.

The note read:

Caden,

This is to let you and the others know I can still get to you anytime, anywhere I choose.

Hope’s time is running out and so is yours.

Sleep tight.

Drake

Caden went over to the light switch. He flipped the switch on.

Cole groaned in protest. “Did you have to do that?” He threw the pillow under his head at Caden. “What the hell are you doing? It’s not even light out yet.” He took one look at Caden and stopped the protest. “What’s the matter?”

“We had a visitor last night,” Caden told the other man as he handed him the note.

Cole stared at Caden and asked, “How the hell did he get in here without any of us waking up?”

Caden and Cole both had the same thought.

“Hope.”

Caden ran down the short hall to the bedroom she shared with Hades. He tried to open the door, but the room was locked. Hope cried out from the inside and she began to rattle the door handle. The door was jammed shut. Caden squatted down to see what was wrong and he found the matchsticks Drake shoved in the locking mechanism.

“Caden, what’s going on out there?” Hope called out in a panic. He could hear Hades pounding on the door from the other side.

“Hold on,” he called back. “There’s something shoved in the lock.” Caden finally freed the matchstick and was able to open the door.

Hope fell into his arms and was crying. “What’s going on? Why was the door jammed?” He tried to comfort her but Hades drew her back into his arms glaring at the other man.

“Drake paid us another visit last night,” Caden told them.

“He was here? Where the hell was he?” Hope asked. “Is he still here?”

Caden shook his head.

Hope caught the misery in his eyes and asked. “What did he do?”

Caden paused to look at her and wondered how to tell her. “He came into the room where we slept and left us a note. Probably right after he jammed the lock in here.” He looked up at Hades and told him, “The same room that held all the information we had on him. He knows what we know now.”

Hades growled.

Hope paled. “Oh, my god. I was dozing off and on all night and didn’t hear a thing.”

“Yeah, well don’t feel bad, neither did we. That bastard came into the room and nobody heard a peep. Goddamn him anyway.”

Cole stepped out of the conference room. He looked pale. He nodded at Caden and stepped back inside.

Caden, Hades and Hope followed him.

“Is there a problem?” Caden asked.

Cole nodded toward the door. Caden turned his head and saw the blood. Drake had painted the inside of the door with his blood and he had done it recently enough that the blood wasn’t completely dry yet.

“What does that mean?” Hope asked with a frown.

“It’s Drake’s way of letting us know he was here,” Caden answered. He looked at Cole and asked, “Anything else?”

Cole shook his head. “Nothing is out of place, nothing is missing. There is no other sign he was here.”

“Except for a note with Drake’s signature on it and a blood stained door,” Hades seethed.

Suddenly, they all heard pounding on several of the doors down the hall.

Hades frowned and began going up and down the hall trying the doors. He found the problem and began digging out the broken matches in the keyholes.

He got Lucifer’s door opened first and when he and Jessie came out Lucifer demanded to know what was going on.

“The fucker got in here! That’s what happened.”

“There isn’t going to be enough of Drake left for Dan to scrape off the floor when I get done with him,” Hades swore.

Cole stared at him and looked worried.

Just then, the front door opened and Charlie walked in. Looking around, he noted everyone standing there.

“He got in,” Caden told him.

He stared at Hades and Lucifer. “Then I guess this would be a good time to tell you I think we found where he’s been hiding. Do you remember the old church outside of town?” We went back out there on patrol last night and discovered an old cellar around the back of the place. We wouldn’t have even seen the cellar except the dogs we had with us went crazy when we came close to the entrance. A couple of us went inside and found the place empty, but there was quite a stash of personal items. We’re running the prints now, but we’re pretty sure they belong to Drake. What we found is in the trunk of my car.”

Hades grinned. “Bring it in here and let’s have a look at it.” He glanced over at Lucifer. “Let’s take it into the conference room and have a look at what makes this worm tick.”

Lucifer nodded. “Hell, maybe we’ll find a way to trip him up. I hope he’s out there watching Charlie bringing in his stuff. If he is, it might even up the score.”