Unhinged (Necessary Evils #1)(66)

Fifteen minutes later, they pulled into Gary’s development. Noah asked the Uber driver to stop a block from the house, choosing to approach on foot. Once he saw the drive was empty, he strode to the front door, key from the other night in hand, unlocking the door and entering like he had a right to be there.

Once inside, he headed directly into Gary’s office, stopping short at the wall of boxes. Moving boxes. Neatly taped and stacked on top of each other in the corners of the rooms. Noah’s heart galloped in his chest. Where the fuck was he going? Did Gary think they were on to him? Had he alerted the others?

Noah shook the thought away. People fucking moved all the time. Maybe he was just being paranoid. He needed to concentrate on the task at hand. He had a job to do. He needed to get that laptop. He weaved his way around the boxes, dropping into Gary’s office chair, relieved to see the key still beneath the tray in the top drawer where Adam had returned it. He put the key in the lock. It gave with a soft click. But when he opened the drawer, it was empty.

Fuck.

Acid sloshed in Noah’s stomach, frustration making his chest tight. He slammed his fist onto the desk, fury and frustration overwhelming his system. Goddamn it. Maybe it was all too late. Maybe the whole thing had already blown up in their faces.

No.

Laptops were portable. He couldn’t imagine that Gary would bring it to the club with him. Not after his backpack was stolen. It had to be there somewhere. Adam kept his laptop on the dining room table. He rose, slipping between the stacks of boxes to the hallway. He tried to keep his search orderly, working room to room. He didn’t check the boxes. He found it hard to believe somebody would pack a laptop away.

Unless he had. Unless he didn’t use it that often. Shit. Was it packed away? Lying at the bottom of one of the many boxes? The laptop certainly wasn’t anywhere obvious. Noah had scoured the rooms. Even Gary’s bedroom. And nothing.

Fuck it.

He went to the kitchen, relieved to see the silverware hadn’t been packed. He grabbed a small paring knife and made his way back to the office. He sliced the first box, lip curling when he saw it was nothing but old file folders and bank statements. He tossed the box aside before moving on to the next. He was done with orderly. Each box that produced nothing was tossed aside until Noah was surrounded by paper and upturned boxes littered the floor.

Noah jumped as his phone started to vibrate in his pocket, his heart rate skyrocketing before he realized what it was. He pulled it free, glancing down at the screen. Adam. He swiped to answer it but froze at the sound of a gun being cocked.

He whipped around to find Gary standing there, a fifty caliber Desert Eagle in his hand. It was huge, so big it made Gary’s hands seem small in comparison. Of course, he’d have a gun that big. So fitting.

Gary sneered. “You always were a little street rat.”

“Hey, Gary,” Noah said, voice coming out chipper with just a hint of fear, even though his heart was in his stomach and blood was whooshing in his ears. “I thought you’d be at the club.”

Gary snorted. “Clearly. Drop the phone and kick it to me.”

He did his best not to lose his composure as he did as Gary asked, watching as the man pocketed his phone. Would Adam come to look for him when he didn’t answer his call? He must have seen Noah’s text, right? Maybe he was already on his way. Noah just had to keep Gary talking long enough for Adam to find him.

“How’d you know I was here?”

“Silent alarm. Rudimentary, but it’s only temporary. After you stole my backpack and then broke into my house, I knew I needed something short term until I move. My new house has a much better, more sophisticated alarm system. Can’t be too careful, right?”

“I guess not,” Noah muttered. If he lived through this, Adam was never going to let him do anything alone ever again.

Gary gestured to his desk chair. “Have a seat.”

Noah was grateful Gary hadn’t put a bullet in his head with that cannon he was holding but couldn’t help but wonder why? He was somehow both terrified and numb at the same time. As if, once more, his brain was trying to keep him removed from how fucked he was. He couldn’t let Gary know. He needed to play it cool until Adam came for him.

If Adam was coming for him.

Please, let Adam be coming for me.

“Sorry about the mess,” Noah quipped, a slow smirk spreading across his face. “I might be a street rat, but you’re kind of a pack rat.”

Gary took two steps into the room, eyes glinting with hatred. “You have always been far more trouble than you were worth.”

Noah leaned forward, resting his forearms on the desk. “Then maybe you and Holt should have left me in Mexico.”

Gary’s eyes widened, mouth opening and closing before he seemed to regain his composure. “How did you figure that out? That’s not even in those records you stole from me. It’s also not on the hard drive you took from the cabin.”

“I submitted my DNA to one of those ancestry sites. You’d be amazed at what you can find on those things. Like the fact Holt wasn’t my dad. Or how I have a whole other family in Texas. A real family. One you deprived me of.”

Gary took his time with that bit of information. “You really are a nosey little bastard. Where’s my backpack? I want it back.”

Noah eased back in the chair, rocking slowly. “What for? Seems like you make plenty of money and you clearly don’t need any more guns. What could possibly be so interesting about that ugly black backpack?” Noah queried.