SWNOVELS Fear The Reapers: Chapter 40
Before we could even think of storming into Maria’s Cantina, we needed to come up with a plan. Who knew how many men they had inside, and while we had our own crews, it could take hours if not days to assemble them and we were quickly running out of time.
As Ezra drove his G-Wagon down the streets of downtown Caspian, Atlas gave Melanie a call, trying to see if Tristan could hack into her device and pinpoint her location. We didn’t think she would give herself away, but we figured the longer he could keep her talking, the more time Tris would have.
Out of nowhere, Atlas broke off the call.
“What the fuck, man?” Tristan snapped, shutting his laptop. “I d… didn’t fucking get it.”
“There’s no need.” Atlas said, stiffly putting his phone away. “I know exactly where she is. Mel wants me to meet her for lunch.”
“That makes no sense.” I said with a scowl. “Why would she agree to meet you if she has Stevie being tortured somewhere?”
“Maybe it’s to cover her ass.” Ezra quipped, following the navigation to the new address Atlas entered.
“Yeah,” Atlas said, running his hands through his hair, “maybe…”
◆◆◆
We arrived at Bastian’s Bistro a few minutes later and found Melanie outside in their patio section, enjoying the sunshine.
“Atlas,” Melanie crooned, pressing her lips to each of his cheeks. “It’s so good to see you. I didn’t realize you were going to be bringing guests.” She said pointedly as she stared at the rest of us. “I would’ve asked for a bigger table.”
“Unfortunately, this is not a friendly visit.” Ezra growled, bending down to get in her face. “We know you’ve taken Stevie. Now tell us where the fuck she is and we may let you live.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She said, shaking her head as her eyes darted to Atlas. “Sure, she pissed me off and I may have made some threats out of anger, but I’d never do anything to incite a war between our families. You aren’t the only ones who’ve lost people they loved to violence.”
Mel was talking about Sebastian Dallas. Her highschool sweetheart and the man everyone knew would’ve been her first choice for a husband. He came from The Distefano crime family and when news spread around town about him and Mel; it was his own family that killed him off. At least, that was the rumor. One day he simply vanished. Melanie mourned his loss for years. She even had this place built in remembrance of him.
“The voicemail mentioned Maria’s Cantina.” Atlas spat through gritted teeth. “That’s one of your family’s places.”
“Maria’s is getting a total renovation right now.” She said, grimacing as she took a sip of her spritzer. “None of my family’s men have been there in weeks.”
“Take us then.” Tristan demanded, pulling her chair out. “S… so we can see the truth for ourselves.”
◆◆◆
As we stepped through the doors of Maria’s Cantina, we could see that at least part of what she was saying was true. The entire place was empty, with a bunch of construction supplies and white tarps hanging throughout it.
“I told you no one was here.” She huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. “Now will you please let me move on with my day? I don’t know where your girl went, but she didn’t come here.”
A flash of blue out of the corner of my eye caught my attention and on a hunch, I ran after it. If the place was empty, there shouldn’t have been any movement. Maybe Mel was lying, maybe I was just imagining things, but I followed the path I saw it take and ran.
“Cyrus, where are you going?” Atlas called out, as the four of them chased after me. “She isn’t here, we have to keep moving.”
I turned a blind corner and froze, paralyzed at the sight in front of me.
“Jessie,” I breathed, feeling the others run off behind me. “what the fuck are you doing here?”
“I didn’t mean to.” She cried, throwing herself to her knees. “Well, I mean, I meant to, but it wasn’t my fault. You guys were changing. Forgetting about the promise you made to me. I had to stop her. I had to destroy her before she destroyed everything.”
“Where is she?” Atlas hissed, clenching his jaw as rage vibrated beneath his skin
“There.” She said, as she pointed to an innocuous door down the hall. “She’s probably dead by now. And if she isn’t, she’ll wish she were.”
Atlas bolted, with Ezra and Tristan running a split second behind him.
“Mel,” I asked, fighting my instinct to run after them, “can you hold her here while we-”
“Are you kidding me?” She said cutting me off, slipping the small gun from the holster on her thigh and leveling on Jessie. “Go! This bitch almost cost me everything. I’m not letting her get away.”