THE BRAVO BOYS - SNAKE EATER [book three]

Chapter THIRTY NINE

Logan Nash

"Please! Please, I don't know where Hendrix Quinn is, I swear!!"
Leaning against the brick wall outside the Specter black site safehouse, I jiggle the wireless earphone in my left ear, listening intently to the goings on inside that I had been excluded from.. "Please! My dad still controls my bank accounts, he’s the decision maker.. He’s head of the board for fucks sake!" Tyler Bennings begs his captors for a reprieve and I shudder at the sickening sound of his torture..

It's inhuman, even for a piece of shit like Tyler, to be subjected to whatever it is they’re doing in there to make him scream the way he does..
I can hardly stomach it.. Not because I give a fuck about the guy.. But because everything Shelby is doing now, was done to me and I hate the parallels it forces me to draw..

This is why I don't work with Feds and Mercs.. Their 'by any means necessary' approach will always lead to suffering.. And even in my darkest hour, at the height of vengeance, I’d never wanted to hurt anybody.. Sure I’d targeted Blackstar, messed with their market value and stolen their money.. But I’d never had the desire to resort to violence as a means of problem solving.. Besides, it simply doesn't work.. All it does is perpetual the cycle of hurt and bullshit that spins this world around..

Still, I am forced to consider what I might become capable of if somebody tore my family apart the way Shelby's suffered through.. I would have done anything for Dixie and I’d do even worse to protect Dallas.. Now it seems I would do anything to protect Shelby too..

Maybe I would become the very thing I hate if backed into a corner..
Maybe I only hate the thought so much because deep down, I know that is who I really am..
I am not better than the people I’ve judged so harshly..

Obviously it was unethical of me to tap Shelby's phone so I could listen in on her date with Tyler, but after hearing her conversation with my niece, I don't regret it..

She had been there for Dallas with the kind of maternal patience I could never give her..
And now I know that she thinks about me.. Whatever the fuck that means..
I can't help but hold out some hope that she might change her mind and give me a chance..
I have never given away so many tiny pieces of myself and now the accumulation of my sacrifices has become a blind devotion that I can't ignore..

I might be the worst thing to happen to her.. But she's the best thing that ever happened to me..

When the door of the safehouse swings open, I tense with guilt as Lincoln Slater emerges.. "Oh, shit, I didn't think you'd stick around... You got everything you need, man?" Lincoln wanders over to join me, flipping up the collar of his sports coat to stave off the cold.. He wears that same, impossible to hate, grin that I've come to know as genuine..

He's just a nice guy..

Fuck..

"Yeah.." I mutter, pulling the headphones from my ears and tucking them into my pocket, disguising the evidence of my eavesdropping.. "I got it.."

"Well– Shelby's almost done in there..”Lincoln hitches a thumb in the direction of the door as he takes a lean beside me.. “I guess Tyler doesn't know much about much.."

"Right.." I nod slowly, resisting the urge to grind my teeth.. I've never been much of a conversationalist and even less so while my mood is at an all time low.. "I could'a told ya'll that.. There was nothing on his cell to suggest he's anything more than an entitled trust fund baby.. Tyler is just Blackstar puppet.."

"You got all that off his phone?" Linc scratches his head in bewilderment..

"I got everything.." I shrug.. "Emails, schedule, contacts, private messages.. He doesn't know shit.."