Part 55 (2/2)
The Captain kept speaking, ”... reporting an elderly man had opened fire on a black sedan.
When units. .h.i.t the scene, the shooter was gone, there was a man down, still alive outside the car and two men dead in the car. Damian h.e.l.ler was one of those men.”
Brock didn't move, didn't speak, didn't even f.u.c.king blink.
”I'm sorry, son, but Tessa O'Hara's phone and purse were found in the back of that sedan.”
Brock closed his eyes.
The Captain kept going. ”Witnesses report she went with the elderly man who was holding her at gunpoint.”
Brock opened his eyes.
The Captain finished, saying quietly, ”The descriptions of the shooter match Josiah Burkett.”
Instantly, he turned on his boot heading for the door.
Nightingale and Chavez were already there, prepared, and if he had any room for anything else in his brain, anything other than his sweet Tess in the hands of a whacked, sick lunatic that he had set on this path to revenge making it him who made his Tess unsafe, he would have cottoned onto why those two were chosen. Not a lot of men could lock Brock down but those two could.
”Lucas, you need to stay calm and listen to me,” Cap ordered urgently.
Brock stopped in front of Nightingale and Chavez.
”Outta my f.u.c.kin' way,” he growled, his eyes moving direct to both of theirs.
They didn't move a muscle. If anything was on his mind other than the putrid garbage that was filling it, he would have seen understanding in their eyes, concern.
But nothing was on his mind but his Tess in the sick, twisted hands of Josiah f.u.c.king Burkett.
”Lucas,” Cap called. ”Son, calm down and listen to me. You don't, we'll lock you down.
And you don't need that, you don't want that, I know you don't. Not now, be smart, turn around and listen to me.”
Brock looked over his shoulder. ”Get them outta my way.”
”We'll find her,” Cap promised.
”When?” Brock asked, turning, ”After he beats the s.h.i.+t outta her? After he plays his sick f.u.c.kin' games with her? Jesus f.u.c.kin' Christ! ” he said the last on a roar. ”She's been through this before.”
”I know, son, listen to ”
Brock turned his back on the Cap and lifted a finger in Nightingale's face, ”I want your brother on this, f.u.c.kin' now. ”
”He is, Slim, I already called him,” Hank said quietly. ”All his boys are on the hunt.”
”Delgado,” Brock snarled, his eyes moving to Chavez, ”he needs to mobilize.”
”That call's been made too,” Eddie told him. ”He's got his team in play.”
Brock glared at them, that bile still eating away at his throat. Visions of Bree in her hospital bed filling his head, visions that morphed into Tess, jaw wired, teeth missing, eyes swollen shut, dark bruises at her neck.
f.u.c.k.
f.u.c.k!
He turned back to the Cap. ”My boys need to be picked up from school. I need to make some calls.”
”You do it from in here,” Cap replied.
Brock shook his head. ”I gotta be out there. I know where he hides. I know where he creeps.”
”You give that info to Jimmy, Hank and Eddie, they'll follow it up.”
”She's my woman, Cap,” Brock reminded him.
”We'll find her,” Cap promised again.
That bile in his throat was swelling, threatening to choke him. ”My job to keep her safe,”
he spoke around the bile, this making his voice thick.
”We'll find her, son,” Cap promised yet again and his eyes went intense. ”Goes against the grain, man like you, I know it. Goes against the grain. But the smartest thing you can do right now is sit your a.s.s down, brief Jimmy, Hank and Eddie so they can work this then call someone to take care 'a your boys. When we get her, you need to have your s.h.i.+t together 'cause she's gonna need you. So, you gotta keep your s.h.i.+t together, Brock, do the smart thing, help us help her.”
After the Captain stopped speaking, Brock ”Slim” Lucas didn't delay.
He walked to the chairs in front of Cap's desk, sat his a.s.s down in one and looked to Jimmy Marker who was seating himself beside him. Then he ran down everything he remembered about Josiah Burkett which was everything he knew about Josiah Burkett. He didn't forget anything. Not anything.
Eddie Chavez left first to disburse the first wave of intel.
Hank Nightingale left second.
Jimmy Marker waited until the end.
Then Brock called his mother to go pick up his boys.
And after that, standing at the window in the Captain's office, eyes staring unseeing outside, that bile still choking him, his brain torturing him, his instincts screaming for him to move, his palms itching, his teeth clenched, it took everything he had to lock himself down and not do, again, what he'd done years ago, something that was wild and stupid and f.u.c.ked up then and something that he could have no way of knowing would put his Tess in jeopardy now and, for the first time in f.u.c.king years, he prayed.
My wild man, he heard her sweet words whisper in his head. My snake charmer.
Brock Lucas closed his eyes and prayed harder.
Chapter Twenty-Two.
<script>