Had Nate been this demented before? He’d been scary in a grabby way, in the kind of unnerving way where you were certain he saw you as an object to undress and use. Her gut had always put Ford as the one who would stab and slice. Nate’s gleeful tone, though, crawled beneath Callie’s skin until she thought her muscles would all lock.
“Torturing a priest. Really? I know rising to Heaven was off the table for you, but you planning to bypass purgatory and just burn for millennia?”
“I’ve got souls now, bitch. I can kill and maim to my heart’s delight and the Big Man still has to let me in with open arms.”
The fuck he did.
“Why a priest?” Would avoiding Henry’s name make a difference at this point?
“Other than he’s your boyfriend’s brother? He could let me have access to souls. I know it. He refused, and now you’re going to have to do.”
Another wet smack rang from Nate’s end.
“What do you want?” Desperation leaked into her words.
“Souls. You’re going to bring me a dozen souls today, and I’ll let you have the padre back.”
“That’s a lot of souls…”
“Bullshit. You’ve got them, and you’re going to keep bringing me souls every week or I can pay another visit to your brother at work or maybe put a hit on that giant asshole you like to screw. Deliver for me, or I’ll cut away what you love. You hear me, Callie girl?”
She fucking heard him. This couldn’t be happening, but she heard every syllable sliding from his forked tongue.
“Yeah.” If rage could be packed into four little letters, her reply would have combusted.
“I’ll text you an address. I expect my souls by six tonight or I find out how much pain a priest can take before he curses his maker.”
The call died, and so did a piece of Callie.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Every bit of guilt gristle Callie had packed to her ribs in the last fifteen years sloughed from the bone and turned on her organs until spikes skewered her insides.
“We can’t wait to go to the warehouse.” Her voice was shaking, but even she didn’t know if it was from fury or fear. Her hands fluttered. Should she put the souls away? Should she find the car keys and haul ass over there now? They couldn’t let Nate have Henry. Whatever it took, she was getting him back.
Derek wrapped his hands around hers, and he brought them to his chest. The heavy battering ram heartbeat beneath focused her. It was his brother this time, and yet he was here comforting her. She pressed herself closer and let him wrap his arms around her. He squeezed tighter than he ever had before, and she didn’t make a noise. The hitch in his breathing made it clear he needed this, and if that meant she skipped a little oxygen, so be it. She nuzzled closer and kissed the cotton covering his heart.
Steel scraped over steel when he spoke. “Killing that fucker is priority number one.”
Callie escaped his grasp, but left her hand on his chest. “Saving Henry is the top priority.”
He huffed.
“If Nate dies in the process, I’m not stopping you. But speaking from experience, you want to put Henry first here.” Being the voice of reason was weird. Having experience in this kind of shit was weirder.
“So,” Beck dragged the word out until they cared he was in the room. “Nate’s definitely behind Anonymous Souls. Figures.”
“We’ll shut that shit down today.” Derek’s eyes narrowed.
The hate was for the man who held his brother captive, but Beck still dropped his gaze. “If Nate wants souls, luring you two out of here makes this place prime pickings. Now, I know you have to save that priest—not saying you shouldn’t—but can we have a plan?”
“There’s not time for a plan. We need to get over there now.” Strategy would have been fucking nice, but that shit didn’t matter when family was on the line. Derek was family, and apparently that meant Henry was, too.
“We can’t go in until we know what we’re walking into.” Molasses could have poured faster than Derek’s admission.
“Fine,” Callie said. “What do we need to figure out, because if we wait until the pickup time he’ll be ready for us and might move the warehouse?”
Her phone buzzed, and she showed the guys the display with the cross streets for the drop-off.
“Ten minutes from the warehouse,” Beck said.
Derek’s breathing was steadier now. “If he knew about Henry, he’s been watching us. He probably still has a lookout on the shop.”
“How do we get rid of eyes on this place?” Beck asked. “It ain’t easy to get here without being seen.”
Getting rid of people was do-able. “We give them business,” Callie said.
“You can’t give them souls,” Beck said.
“Cash comes first for Nate. He’ll do whatever it takes to get a buck in his pocket. We need to draw his guy away from here.”
Beck cocked his head to the side. “You want to bribe them, but not with souls?”
Derek followed her, though. He knew Callie better than most anyone these days. “No, she wants to keep them so busy they don’t have time to watch us.”
“Exactly. Do you have enough people on the streets who we could have order soul delivery from Anonymous Souls? If we pick drop sites that are far from downtown and the warehouse, we should be able to draw everyone away.”
“My woman’s brain is fucking perfect.” Derek’s gloating was fleeting.
Beck nodded. “We can make sure enough people use burners to make it happen.”
“How much time do you need to get it done?”
Beck was already typing like a madman. “I’ll have them all over town in thirty minutes.”
Callie tugged Derek toward the corner of the room. “As soon as his guys say they’ve got Anonymous’s dealers en route, I want to go to
