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

“How nice of you to take my call. You know I didn’t like it much when you refused before,” Drake told him.

Hades rolled his eyes. “I didn’t really fucking care whether you liked it or not. I still don’t.”

Drake chuckled. “Did you like my little surprise this morning?”

Hades’ knuckles whitened as he gripped the cell phone. “I’m going to enjoy killing you and making the world a better place,” he promised.

“You have to catch me first, fool.”

“I really don’t think that’s going to be a problem. The biggest mistake you made was staying here. You’re the fucking fool. You should have stayed as far away from here as you could.”

“Why is that?”

“Because here is where you’re going to get dead.”

“You have to catch me first.”

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

“I wanted to let you know last night was easy. I came in and left and you all didn’t even know I was there.” Drake paused for a moment then added, “I noticed your cop friend found some things that didn’t belong to him. He should really consider giving them back.”

“Fuck you,” Hades spat. “I’m not giving you anything except a bullet between your beady eyes.”

Charlie’s eyes widened as he listened.

The other men looked shocked too.

“You won’t get close enough.”

Hades snickered. “You never know who may be right behind your back. So watch your six, fucker.”

Drake paused. “If you were that close, I’d either be in custody or dead.”

Hades grinned. “Now there’s an idea. Hmm, which one would I like better? That’s a hard fucking question to answer. I’d like to see you pay for your crimes, but on the other hand, like you said earlier, you can only die once, so I like that option.”

“Dream on, big man. I’m smarter than you’ll ever be,” Drake taunted him

“Yeah, I forgot. Because you’re so smart, you spent thirteen years in an institute for the criminally insane? Excuse me while I laugh.”

“You are a bastard.” Drake hung up.

Hades smiled. He must have hit a nerve. Good, this fucker was going down and he didn’t care how.

“What did he have to say this time?” Caden asked.

Hades sat back in his chair. “He said he wanted his stuff back and went on to brag how much smarter he is than the rest of us.”

“What was his reaction when you mentioned Danbury?” Cole asked.

“He was furious. Something about the place makes him batshit crazy.”

“I think we need to find out more about his stay there,” Caden added.

“We need to get his records from Danbury,” Cole commented.

“Yeah, but they’re covered by doctor/patient privileges. We can’t touch them,” Caden told him.

Cole grinned. “You need to know the right judge. I’ll make a phone call.”

Caden frowned as he watched him exit the room.

Charlie looked up from the diary he was reading. “Where does he think he’s going?”

“He thinks he can get Drake’s records from Danbury,” Caden replied.

Charlie frowned. “I’d like to know how he’s going to do that.”

Caden shrugged. “He thinks he can get a judge to release them.”

Hades scoffed. “Judge’s usually are that friendly.”

Charlie thought about that for a minute. “It seems to me I read in one of the files a judge’s niece was one of the victims. Maybe he can. We’ll know when he gets back.”

Cole came back a few minutes later with a smile. “Judge Greg Hawkins said we’ll have the files in two hours.”

Caden glanced over at Charlie. “Maybe he’ll be useful in this investigation yet.”

Charlie grinned. “Maybe he will at that.”

Suddenly there was a disturbance in the main room and the four men went to investigate.

They saw two men arguing with Lucifer.

Frank Cummings and Gary Loren were both talking to the president of the Hell’s Guardian Warriors and neither was making much sense.

Lucifer glanced at Hades and shook his head.

“What’s going on here?” Caden interrupted the two men.

Frank turned to look at Charlie. “I found four of my calves dead and my son is missing.”

Charlie held up his hand. “Let’s take this one problem at a time. Gary, you said something about finding your dog dead and your wife tied up in the barn? What’s this all about?”

“When I got back from feeding my cows this morning, I found my dog sliced to ribbons laid out in front of the barn. I heard a noise inside and when I opened the door, my wife was laid out on the floor, tied up inside the doorway. When I untied her, she was in shock, ranting about being attacked by a demon. What the hell is going on here?” Gary demanded.

“We’re having a problem but we’re trying to get a handle on it. Where’s your wife now?” Charlie asked.

“She’s in the hospital getting checked out. Our oldest daughter is with her and they’re waiting for me to get back.”

“Okay, go back to your family. We’ll send an officer out to your house to make sure he’s not there anymore, and he’ll stay with you until you’re satisfied then he’ll check on you through the rest of the night. If you see anything out of the ordinary, give us a call and we’ll be there as soon as we can. Okay?”

Gary nodded and left.

Charlie turned to Frank. “Now tell me about your son.”

“I was inside the barn this morning when I saw the bus coming down the road. Jim was out in the yard playing with the dog so I yelled at him. I saw him get his backpack and head toward the driveway. I assumed he was on the bus until an hour ago when the school called and asked where he was. I went out to get in my truck and I noticed four of my calves in the driveway. When I went to check on them, I saw all four had their throats cut. There was blood everywhere. I jumped in my truck and came here.”

Charlie sighed. “Okay, this is what I want you to do. I’ll send an officer out to your place to check things out. I don’t think whoever killed your cows is still there, but I need to know for sure. While he’s out there, I need you to check all the places your son hangs out to make sure he’s not skipping school today. Check back here before you go on home. We’ll look for him as well. I’m sure between the two of us, we’ll find him.”

Frank glared at Charlie for a full minute, and he nodded. “Okay, but if you find him, you’ll let me know?”

“We’ll let you know,” Charlie assured him.

Charlie and the others watched as Frank left the building.

Charlie looked at the group. “Why would Drake hit two places so far out of town?”

Hades answered his question, “Typical war maneuver. He’s trying to divide your forces. He wants to get you spread out. Then he can move around without fear of getting caught.”

Caden agreed. “I think you’re right. We may need to call more people in, and stay alert.

Tech handed Lucifer a fax. After he looked at it, he handed it to Cole.

Cole read the pages. “This is the fax from Danbury.”

Hades turned toward Charlie and smiled. “I guess it pays to know the right people. Let’s go have a look at what our dickless sicko was up to, shall we?”

They all went back to the conference room.

Cole passed them some of the pages and everyone sat down to read them.

“This is interesting,” Hades commented.

“What is?” asked Lucifer. He had joined them and was now catching up on the things he’d missed earlier.

“I think I know how Drake perfected his signature. Seems one day, right before lunch, another inmate named Ted Munch broke into line as Drake was getting his sandwich and Ted took it away from him. Drake grabbed the carving knife from the cook and slashed out. The knife hit him in the leg. According to the file, Drake stood transfixed while Ted bled out. It only took a moment because Drake hit his femoral artery When they tossed his room, the guards found the place where he’d been stashing his meds. For over two weeks, he’d been off his medication and no one knew it.”

“What did they do to him?” Charlie asked.

“They put him in isolation for two weeks and took his privileges away for six months. They also made sure he got his meds by tying him down to a chair and force feeding them to him. It seems his doctor knew his weakness of being blindfolded and he used that against Drake every time he took his meds. Once Drake was strapped down the doctor would add the blindfold personally and when Drake objected he was able to get him to swallow his pills.”

“I’d really like to know how after all of that he convinced them to let him out. It doesn’t make any sense,” Caden stated.

“I can answer that question,” Cole told them as he laid a piece of paper on the table.

Hades picked up the paper and read it. When he finished, he threw the paper down on the table.

Charlie frowned and picked it up. He read it with a disgusted look on his face then he passed it along to Lucifer. “What the hell?” Charlie stared at Cole. The paper was a death certificate with Drake’s name on it. “What the hell does this mean?”

“I’m not sure. Let’s finish reading the rest of it,” Cole told them.

They were all a little uneasy as they continued to read.

“Here’s something,” Lucifer spoke up.

“What is it?” Charlie asked

“Drake spent some time in the morgue as a trustee. He helped get the bodies ready for burial. That might have given him what he needed to escape.”

“How do you figure?” Caden asked.

“In order to do anything the right way, Drake would have to research the proper technique. He used his time in the morgue to plan his way out. Danbury buries its dead outside the facility. To get out, Drake had to die, at least on paper,” Lucifer reasoned.

“That makes sense,” Caden agreed.

“So, now what do we do?” Charlie asked.

“We have to stay focused,” Hades advised. “Drake is going to try and cause a panic. He hit two farms this morning, and we’ll probably get more calls as the day goes on. Any patrols going out of here have to be two men. We have to figure out what to tell the people if they ask so we’re not the ones causing them to panic. We don’t want them packing their guns looking for trouble.”

“I’ll get on the phone and call everyone back,” Charlie said.

“Make sure they go out doubled up and have mace. Make sure you tell them to keep the mace on them and not in the car,” Hades told him.

After Charlie left, Lucifer asked, “So how do we find a dead man?”

Hades shrugged. “I don’t know but we have to do something. I can’t sit here on my ass and do nothing.”

Cole agreed. “I know the feeling.”

“What can we do to bring the freak to us?” Hades was thinking out loud. He picked up a pencil and twirled it in his fingers while he was mulling ideas around in his head.

“What if we stop playing his game?” Cole asked.

“How can we stop? Drake would kill again to get us to keep playing,” Caden told him.

“Frank found the boy,” Charlie told them as he returned.

“Where did he find him?” Caden asked.

“His son was at the harbor. He said a man caught up with him right after he got off the bus in the parking lot and told him his Dad was hurt this morning after he left for school. He offered him a ride to the hospital then drove him to the harbor and beat the hell out of him.”

“Are we sure the man was Drake?” Hades asked.

Charlie nodded. “A card, the Ace of Hearts, was found in the boy’s pocket.”

Caden swore. “Where is the boy now?”

“He’s with Frank over at the hospital.” Charlie hesitated, and told them, “Frank might become a problem.”

“What do you mean?” Caden asked.

“He’s blaming us for his son getting beat up. He’s telling anyone who will listen we’re hiding something about what’s going on and people are beginning to listen.”

“Damn,” Hades swore. “Frank is playing right into Drake’s plan.”

“How can we stop him?” Cole asked.

“Charlie, you go to the hospital and pick Frank up,” Lucifer suggested. “Tell him you need him to make a statement. If the boy is okay, bring him along too. Tell anyone who asks that we have things under control and they shouldn’t panic.”

Charlie nodded and left.

Hades looked at the men in the room. “This is only the beginning. This asshole is upping the victims until we all crack.”