Sleeping With the Enemy

Chapter Forty Three- Brandon/Sadie

Brandon

"Fuck!" I bellowed, boiling over with frustration and anger and an unfamiliar feeling of helplessness. I slammed the butt of my gun into a window of the house we were standing in, sending glass cascading down around my feet. My throat got tight with emotion, desperately reaching for my next move. This was the third place we'd searched and I was no closer to finding Sadie. Each one of Herrera's properties had been completely scrubbed and he basically had us running in circles wasting precious time that Sadie and our child didn't have.

Herrera had proved to be every bit as conniving as we thought, and then some. He was quick and efficient, and hadn't left a single trace behind. He didn't want to be found, which was terrifying. If he was just using her as bait, to get to me, he wouldn't have been so thorough. He'd want to leave me some kind of clue to find him. This read much different. Like his only intention was to hurt us, and then disappear into thin air. If that was the case, I may already be too late.

I couldn't let myself go there though. There had to be something I was missing. There had to be something that would lead me to them and help me save Sadie.

"Brandon, why don't we go back to the warehouse and regroup a little bit? Maybe Jav has found something else." Alex offered, looking back at me cautiously.

"I don't have time to regroup." I snarled, narrowing my eyes at him. "Who knows what that bastard is putting her through right now."

"Alex is right, Brandon." My dad said. "We can't just keep ransacking random buildings. It does us no good unless we've got something concrete. Herrera is smart, we're not just going to stumble across her. You know that's true."

As much as I hated to admit it, they were right. I had to be smart about this, and right now, that meant heading back to the warehouse and doing some research so we didn't waste any more time.

I nodded, wiping at the sweat on my forehead. I was trying my hardest to maintain my composure but truly, I was coming apart at the seams. I didn't even recognize this version of myself. This uptight, irrational, and compulsive version who was putting everyone around me in danger with my blind rage. I had to refocus myself somehow.

We headed out of the house, not even bothering to close the door behind. We had torn the place apart and if he came back, it would be clear we'd been here. A woman was standing in her front lawn, pretending to water her flowers, but I could tell she was eyeing us suspiciously.

"You looking for the owner?" She asked, both her tone and her body language tense.

"Yes." I appraoched her slowly. "Do you know where we can find him?"

She shook her head. "He left in the middle of the night a week or so ago with his things. I remember because the kid that was helping him move had a miserably loud truck. Damn thing woke me up, and I couldn't fall back asleep."

I paused for a minute, absorbing her observation. Why did that....

Jesus Christ. The revelation hit me like a brick wall. Why hadn't I seen it?

"Dante." My voice was hoarse as I turned abruptly towards my father and Alex. "It's Dante."

Alex clenched his jaw. "Do you remember the color of the truck, ma'am?"

She shrugged. "A dark color. Maybe blue or black? But I do remember the giant cloud of black smoke it kicked back on my house when they took off." She rolled her eyes dramatically, turning her attention back to her garden.

"That motherfucker." Ro hissed, running his fingers through his hair.

It had to be Dante. He had one of those loud and obnoxious muscle trucks that he was always flaunting around. And with the way he'd been acting lately, it fit. I just had never expected him to turn on us like that. He wasn't just one of my men, he was a friend, and he knew how much Sadie meant to me. I was livid, thinking of the way she would have been so relieved to see him, only to find out he was in on the whole thing.