Snake Eater - THE BRAVO BOYS [book three]

Chapter FORTY EIGHT

Shelby Quinn

-KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK-

My clenched first pounds an angry beat against the hardwood door.. I knock so furiously that I can feel a bruise forming, but my state of panic far outweighs any concern for my wellbeing as I call out in seeking desperation.. "LOGAN!" Time is running out to find Hendrix and my plan to extract the information needed from Tyler, while somewhat successful, has led me so far astray from the person I always thought I was.. Violence and vengeance has become my only means of keeping my head above water for so long that I find I am lacking an alternative solution.. Short of storming Blackstar with a semiautomatic to shove down Wyatt's throat and corrupting my soul, I don't know how I'm supposed to get my father back before it's too late.. I have become the monster I never thought I could be, a tormentor, an executioner.. But now, in this hour of desperation, I need somebody to bring me back into the light.. I need a voice of reason to keep me from doing something utterly insane..

I need Logan..

"LOGAN! HEY, ARE YOU IN THERE?" Choking on a frantic breath, I holler his name in hopes of rousing him.. Hell, I'll wake the whole apartment complex if I have to! Lives are at stake and I will not be defeated by Blackstar once again.. Wyatt Bennings had taken enough from me, down in the dungeons of that rebel fighter camp in Strysakstan.. He stole my faith in humanity.. He decimated my hope.. He extinguished my will to live.. But now I see clearly, I am finally taking back control and I won't allow him to take my father too..

"Good lord! You're louder'n a hootin' bandicoot caught in a huntin' trap!" The door jerks open to reveal a grumpy Dallas, with her hair tied up in a messy bun and her cell phone glued to her left hand.. She stands there all squinty-eyed in her pink pyjamas, gaping at me with a look of utter disbelief.. "Shelby? What in the tarnation is going on?"

I can barely contain my anxious energy, struggling to muster the self control I once possessed.. Before the war.. Before my imprisonment.. "Where is he?" Messy panic spills from my mouth as I brush past her to glance around the apartment living area.. My stomach sinks to form a miserable knot when I don't see him and I realise that he isn't home.. "I need to talk to Logan and he isn't answering his phone.."

"Whoa! You seem pissed!" The sleepy school-girl scratches her neck in confusion, yawing with the stretch of her arms above her head before blinking at me as if I were an escaped mental patient.. "Heavens to Betsy, what did my uncle do this time? Oh my god, he didn't cheat on you, did he? Cus I'll run that boy over with a baler if he went and did something so dumb-"

"No- what are you talking about?" I mutter, wrangling in my irritation as I stalk around in search of any trace that Logan may have left behind that would tell me where to find him.. "Dallas, this is important! I need to know where he went."

"He went to the office! Sheesh!" She swats a dainty hand at me as she wanders over to collapse on the sofa and scroll her phone screen.. "The alarms went off because Kalliope forgot her keys or something-"

"Alarm?" My heart skips in suspicion.. Just the mere mention of an alarm triggers warning bells in my brain.. "What alarm?"

"The one for the Alpha building! Keep up!" Dallas exclaims in breathy frustration, as if I were ruining her pleasant evening with my manic insanity.. Logan has kept this sweet girl insulated from harm and danger for so long that she doesn't seem to process my fear.. Through the innocent lens of her eyes, there is only happiness and joy and it breaks my heart to think of all the ways the world might try to crush her.. All I want is to protect her, to shield her from the pain of existence.. But I know I can't.. "For real, you're being super intense right now.. Chill out, he'll be home any minute!"