“You gotta be shitting me—never thought I’d hear those words from the Scorpio Stinger stud Mr. Ryder Knox, who said he’d never get enough of eating pussy.”
I chuckled. “That’s still true. I never will get enough, but it has to be Jade’s.”
“Fuck. You’re a goner.”
“Yeah. Happily so. Now let’s get our asses over to Cobra’s office. I wanna see how this plays out.”
Hammer slipped a T-shirt over his head, covering the big tattoo of a skull on his back. He raked his fingers through his hair and slipped on his jeans and black boots. He rolled the sleeves of his T-shirt so that his muscled biceps with full-color tattoos were on display: guns, roses and thorns with drops of blood.
We swung by the kitchen and grabbed three mugs of steaming coffee before I followed him in silence to Cobra’s office. The door was slightly ajar, so we knocked once and walked in. Cobra was on the phone, and by his tone and angry voice, he was not a happy man.
“It's fucking six days now. Six days. Do you know how long that is in the life of a five-year-old? It's fucking forever!” He yelled into the phone, his eyes nearly bugging out of his head. His forehead was covered in a fine mist of sweat, while the veins in his neck bulged out.
He indicated for us to sit, but both Hammer and I preferred to stand while he paced the carpet like a caged lion. He was dressed in military camouflage pants and a black T-shirt with heavy boots. Cobra was preparing for war. Shit was going to happen if somebody didn’t come up with the whereabouts of Jamie soon.
As soon as his conversation ended, he threw his phone down on the desk, and sank into the chair, despondent. “What can I do for you gentlemen this morning?” he growled, his voice filled with sarcasm and rage. Partly he blamed both me and Hammer for not doing our jobs at the time that his boy was snatched. Hell, if I were him, I’d be angry and blame me too.
“Chill, brother, you’re going to have a fucking heart attack if you don’t calm the fuck down,” I said, really concerned that Cobra was going to completely lose it.
“Shut the fuck up, Ryder. Until you’ve lost a child, you have no fucking idea how it feels to be in this position—”
I sucked in a breath, giving him the death stare. “I have and I do.”
Both Cobra and Hammer looked at me with perplexed expressions. “What do you mean?” Hammer asked as he too sank into a chair.
I leaned over the desk, my fists planted on the wooden top, and glared at Cobra. “Jade . . . was pregnant, but between all the bullshit from you and Summers . . .” I nearly choked on my words. “. . . we lost our baby. So don’t you fucking tell me I don’t understand.” Now that I’d started unpacking, I couldn’t stop the flow of words. “And on top of it all, Ratbag died because of me and Jamie was taken on my watch. My fucking watch. So how the fuck do you think I’m feeling right now?” My voice grew louder and louder until I was yelling, all the frustration and anger finally breaking through. I’d tried so hard to stay calm, to be rational, but now I was the one losing it.
“Jesus Christ. Ryder. I had no idea—” Cobra began before I cut him off.
“Exactly. You had no fucking idea. So stop this fucking pity party and let’s find the kid!”
The silence that fell in the room was heavy and thick. I sat in the chair behind me and let out a long, slow breath while rubbing my temples. It was all my fucking fault. All of it.
I was cracking and I didn’t care who knew.
Chapter Sixty-One — Ryder
A sudden calm came over all three of us as Hammer explained to Cobra everything he’d discovered and told me the night before. But this was even more unnerving, the calm before the storm, because I had no idea how this information would help us in our search for Jamie.
Stunned, Cobra just sat there, blinking rapidly while he absorbed and processed what Hammer was telling him. Every now and then he let out a swear word or punched his desk with his fist. “Fucking Demon. The sly fucker,” he said, shaking his head as if he couldn’t believe it.
“Do you think he faked his own death?” I asked.
Hammer nodded.
“But why?”
Cobra shrugged. “Because my twin brother has always been a loser. He’s evil incarnate. And I should fucking know. I shared a womb with him for nine months. Even then he tried to kill me by strangling me with his umbilical cord.”
“Jesus. Is that even possible?” I gasped.
Cobra let out a bitter laugh. “Probably not, but you don’t understand when somebody has a heart that black, everything they touch turns to shit. It's just the way it is. And for fucking years during our childhood, I thought I was just as cursed as he was. Why do you think everyone calls him Demon, for fuck’s sake?”