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

“What victims?” Hope asked him as she came into the room.

Hades threw his cell down on the table. “Drake is changing the rules of the game.”

“What is he doing now?” Hope asked as she sat down in a chair.

“We found out where he’s been staying and confiscated his belongings, so he’s starting the people panic by killing cattle, dogs and beating up teenagers,” Caden told her.

Hope looked furious. “I’m getting real sick of this fiend. Now he’s terrorizing this town. He did it five years ago and he’s doing it again.”

Someone began yelling in the main room.

The men went out.

Hades paused. “Stay here babe, there’s no windows in here. You’ll be safe.”

He followed the men, leaving Hope alone in the room. She thought about the last few days. She stared at the map, the board with pictures of Drake’s victims, all of it. So much had happened and her fear had overwhelmed her, but somehow the fear was waning and anger was taking its place. The more she thought about it, the angrier she became.

Hades’ phone rang. Hope glanced at the door, expecting him to return, but when he hadn’t returned by the fourth ring, she reached out and grabbed the phone. “Hades is unavailable to take your call. Can I take a message?”

“Where is he?” a man asked. “And who the hell are you?”

Hope looked at the phone with a frown. “Who the hell are you?”

“This is Drake. Where is that loser, Hades?”

Hope felt her anger growing. “What do you want?”

“Is this Hope? Well, hello darling. How are you?” Drake chuckled.

“Don’t you dare call me darling, you bastard,” Hope fumed.

Drake chuckled again. “Does this mean you don’t love me anymore?”

Hope forced herself to calm down. “I try not to think about you at all.”

“Why?”

“Because even thinking about you, makes me physically sick.” She wanted him to know she was no longer afraid of him.

“Be careful, Hope. You really don’t want to make me mad. You might not like what I choose to do to you,” Drake warned her. He was quickly losing his humor.

“You know something? When you kidnapped me five years ago, I was afraid you would kill me.”

“Five years ago, I was going to kill you,” Drake interrupted her. “I still am.”

Hope didn’t pay him any attention. “I gave you too much credit. You didn’t kill me because you screwed up and almost got caught. Caden and Charlie found you then and they’ll find you again.”

“Oh, I doubt it. You see I’m one of those annoying people that learn from their mistak—.”

“Actually, you’re not.” Hope interrupted him this time. “You haven’t learned from your mistakes, because you keep making the same one.”

“And which one would that be?” Drake asked.

“You keep thinking we’re afraid of you,” Hope told him calmly.

“You are afraid of me,” Drake told her confidently.

“No, I’m really not.”

“Sure you are. You’re afraid I’m coming to kill you.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. I’m not afraid of you. Not anymore,” Hope told him softly. “Because I realized you aren’t worth the effort anymore. For five years, I gave you too much power over me, and now I’m taking that power back. You are nothing but pathetic little bug that deserves to be squashed. And I know just the exterminator that will do it. Hades.”

Drake was silent for a moment. His rage at her words was explosive. “I’m going to enjoy killing you,” he vowed. “And your biker boyfriend.”

Hope laughed. “I told you I’m not afraid of you anymore and Hades has never been afraid of you.”

“You will be.”

“Hades was right,” she quipped.

“Right about what?” Drake was curious.

“He was right when he called you a fucking coward, because that’s what you are. You’re nothing more than a coward and a freak.”

“Why do you think I’m a freak?” Drake exploded.

“Oh, wow. You are stupid. Only freaks get off on killing women. You can’t get it up otherwise. Freak…just like Hades said. You have to beat up kids to get the town riled up, or threaten a man’s family because we took something away from you for a change. Despicable traits in a man, if you can call yourself a man.”

Drake’s rage seemed to overcome his common sense. “I’m going to enjoy killing you.”

“You keep saying that but I don’t believe you. Maybe I’ll scream it from the rooftops to let the whole world know what and who you are, you bastard. You think you can continue on the reign of fear but we’re going to take that away from you. People are going to know you, the real pathetic, useless man you are. You are going to be hunted down like the animal you are and when they do catch you, you’ll beg for death instead of being on the other side. You’ll know the fear all your victims felt.

“No one is gonna hear anything when you are dead,” Drake growled at her.

Hope chuckled. “Oh, but I’m safe and I am unafraid. I will tell everyone what a dickless, spineless FREAK you are!” Her voice raised to a yell.

Drake swore. “You little bitch, I’m going to enjoy ending your existence.”

“Dream on, you little insect,” Hope was trembling as she carefully put the phone back on the table. She took a deep breath and exhaled. She could feel the sweat popping out on her skin.

“Have you completely lost your mind?” Hades exploded from behind her.

Hope jumped and turned to see Hades and the others behind her. “No, in fact I found my mind finally. I’m sick to death of all this. Of this freak as you called him. I told him so too!”

Hades stared at her, then stalked over to her to look her in the eyes.

Hope stood her ground, ready to argue.

Hades scooped her up and kissed her hard.

Melting into him, her body almost slumped she felt so weakened by his heat and passion.

He pulled his lips from hers. “That’s my girl.” He grinned.

“You aren’t mad at me?” she asked.

He shook his head, then nodded as if he couldn’t make up his mind. “I don’t want you in his line of fire, babe.”

“I already am.”

He sighed. “I’m not letting him near you.”

“Do you know what you’ve done?” Caden asked her.

Hope nodded. “I think I pissed him off worse than you all ever could.”

Hades chuckled.

“Dammit this isn’t funny.” Caden ran his hands through his hair. “You realize you probably pushed him over the edge of reasonable sanity, don’t you?”

“I told him the truth. You don’t know the nightmares I’ve had. Not once or twice but every single night.” Her voice grew louder with every word. “Every time I’d close my eyes to go to sleep, I would see his shadow and those damn black eyes of his. Then when you came over last week and told me he was back, my fear took over and I could barely breathe. My fear of him kept growing every day since then. Until today, when I answered Hades’ phone and heard his voice. My fear melted away and I knew then he didn’t have a hold on me anymore. So I told him that.”

Charlie and Frank walked into the room.

Frank looked like he was ready to fight.

Caden folded his arms over his chest. “I heard you found your boy. How is he?”

Frank bristled. “I’ll tell you how he is, he’s beat to a bloody pulp, that’s how he is. He said some guy waylaid him on his way from the school bus to the school, told him I was hurt, and wanted to give him a ride to the hospital. Then this guy takes him to the harbor and pounds on him. What the hell is going on here?”

“We have a problem right now. I’m sorry your kid got hurt, but if you start causing trouble, there’s going to be a lot more people hurt, maybe even killed,” Hades told him.

“What do you mean, hurt or killed?” Frank asked with a frown as he turned his head to stare at Charlie.

Charlie glanced down at the floor for a minute then looked back at him. “Frank, the guy we’re dealing with doesn’t like to leave any witnesses. Your son is a witness, and he can identify the guy that beat him up.”

Frank paled again. “Oh god, I never thought about that.” He reached out for a chair and sat down. “Can you catch him?” He looked around at everyone.

Charlie nodded. “Yes. But if people get in his way, this will get much worse. So take your family out of town to your sister’s house maybe?”

Frank still looked worried but he believed now. “Okay then, Jim and I will be at my sister’s place. Call me when it’s okay to come back.”

Charlie stared at him. “Frank, remember not a word to anyone. Don’t even tell Jim.”

Frank left to pick up his son.

Charlie turned to look at Hope. “What’s been going on here?”

Hope grimaced. “I screwed up.”

Hades disagreed. “I don’t know about that. I think what you did was force his hand. Now he’ll have to do something to get the upper hand back.”

Charlie looked from one to the other of them. “What are you talking about?”

Caden explained, “Hope took a call from Drake and told him she wasn’t afraid of him anymore and called him a coward and a…” He glanced at Hades. “…freak and I think she pushed the right buttons to really piss him off. Then she told him she was going to tell the whole world about him. Let’s just say he didn’t appreciate it very much.”

Charlie exhaled loudly. “Then we’d better be on our toes and be ready for anything.”

“Let’s run through the worst case scenarios,” Caden suggested. “Maybe then we can figure out what he’ll do.”

Hope sighed. “Well, he said he was going to enjoy killing me and he said you and Charlie were going to be there to watch. I don’t know how he’s going to pull it off, but if he does, I want you to promise me something.” She looked them both right in the eyes. “I want you to promise me if he does somehow manage to get his hands on me again, one of you will be the one to end my life. I don’t want to give him the satisfaction he craves.”

Hades stepped in front of her. “The fuck you say. That is NOT going to happen.”

“Don’t worry, it won’t come to that,” Charlie replied quietly.

Hope shook her head. “I need you guys to promise. I need to hear the words.”

“It won’t come to that. He’s not going to get close to you.” Hades stared at only her as he spoke.

“He was close to all of us last night and we didn’t know it,” Hope reminded him. She shook her head. “If I am going to die, I don’t want it to be by him.”

“If anyone is going to die, I’m voting fucking Drake to top the list,” Hades vowed.

“How do you think he’ll come after her?” Charlie asked.

Hades finally stepped beside Hope and took her hand in hers. “I don’t know but we have to be very careful. With all the extra men in and out of here, something may get overlooked.” He again looked down at Hope. “Maybe we should get a tracking piece, so we know where she is at all times. I know you have one FBI man.” He stared at Cole.

Cole nodded.

“That’s a good idea,” Caden said. “Also, everyone is carrying mace. With Drake’s phobia with blindness, it might come in handy.”

Caden and Charlie left to handle assignments and Cole went to get the tracking unit.

Hades wrapped his arms around Hope.

“I wish Chloe was here. Somehow, I feel safer with her around,” Hope commented quietly.

He smiled. “I think you’re pretty safe here.”

Hope frowned. “Are you forgetting last night? Nobody was safe last night.”

Hades shook his head. “Last night Drake was making a point and we were caught with our pants down. He won’t be so bold again and we won’t be so lacking.”

“But what I said might push him over the edge. He might not care about his own safety.”

Hades shook his head again. “If there’s one thing Drake wants to do, its escape when this is all over. He thinks he’s not going to get caught.”

“Yeah, well he might be right,” Hope surmised.

Hades smiled. “If that’s what you think, you don’t know me very well. He won’t get away this time. You belong to me now and forever. I protect family.”

Cole came back with something resembling a pen. “This is the sending unit and I’ve loaded the software into a laptop computer. This will find you wherever you go.” He handed the pen and a small canister of mace to Hope. “Keep these with you at all times.” He shrugged. “It was all I had with me.”

Hades nodded at him.

Caden came back in the room and told Hades and Cole, “We’ve got the extra men sorted out until this is over. I’ve sent a team out to Gary Loren’s place and I sent another team over to the hospital to check on Frank and his boy. The rest of the teams are going to patrol the woods. Everyone is to check in every hour, and no one is to go off on their own.”

“That should about cover everything,” Hades agreed. He was about to say something else when Luna poked her head in the door.

“Hades, all hell is breaking out.”

“What now?” he asked as she disappeared. “Stay here babe. I will be back.” He kissed Hope on the forehead and left to find out what was going on.

A few minutes later Hades came hurrying back. “I’m going to strangle Frank Cummings.”

“What happened?” Caden asked.

“Frank went to the hospital and removed his kid. The doctor wasn’t ready to let the boy go and Frank told them in no uncertain terms were they going to stay there. His voice was rather loud and when he told the doctor there was a serial killer in town and his son wasn’t going to be another victim, everyone in the emergency room heard him and they told everyone else. Fuck!”

Charlie sighed. “The man shot off his big mouth, dammit!”

“What are we going to do now?” Hope asked.

“Let me talk to my deputy.” Charlie got on his phone and moved over to the table.

Lucifer came in looking pissed. “Whose fucking bright idea was it to tell Frank about this guy?”

Hope shrugged and pointed to Charlie on the phone.

Lucifer gazed at Hades.

He nodded.

Charlie came back over. “The officers showed up and hopefully have the hospital contained. They’re over there trying to calm everyone down. I’m heading over there and try to calm them down. You know how small town people are, they only trust people they know. This is my town and the people here will mind what I say.”

Lucifer glared at him. “Well, Fucking Frank didn’t.”

“Hey now, I tried. I’m going to try to lock this down.” Charlie was shaking his head as he left for the hospital.

“Now what are we going to do?” Hope asked.

“Now we wait.” Hades glanced at the clock on the wall. He frowned. It read four p.m.

Hope followed his glance and was surprised to find it so late. The day had flown by. It would be dark soon and Drake was still out there somewhere. She shivered and thought…only god knows where he was and what he’d do when the sun went down.