One Blood

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Five

Monday

Baton Rouge, LA

 “Give me some good news, Bill,” Randy said, answering his phone. He gave up on his tie momentarily and sat on the edge of the tub inside his suite at the Marriott. He’d been waiting for Bill’s call for over an hour.

“My FBI contacts have located Amir Barber,” Bill replied. “And he is Juanita Simmons’ son.”

Randy slapped his knee with pleasure. Jhonnette Deveaux had turned out to be extremely helpful after all.

“Bulls-eye. He’s the guy. Where is he?”

“We’re triangulating his exact location right now.”

“Excellent work,” Randy replied.

“What are you going do to about Snake Roberts?” Bill asked.

It was a good question. One Randy had given serious thought to over the past eight hours.

“I’ve got Snake covered,” Randy replied. Snake would soon learn the penalty for disloyalty. “Bill, Karen’s fate is in your hands now. Bring my girl home to me.”

“You can count on me, Ran. I’ll keep you posted.”

Randy hung up, splashed his face with water, and finished his tie. He was going to need the power of positive thinking to get through all of this. Since Karen’s kidnapping, he’d just barely managed to keep from unraveling as the kidnappers continued to torture him. They’d sent two more DVDs, each one further documenting Karen’s regression from a healthy teenager to a pale, emaciated zombie.

In the videos, Karen scratched at her arms, lined with the tell-tale marks of heroin use, while talking to herself like a schizophrenic. The look in her eyes was the worst though, like she was losing hope and humanity with each passing day. Randy just wanted her back alive, no matter what the condition. He was terrified of what today might bring if Bill couldn’t find her first.

His cell phone rang again.

Randy stared at the words, UNKNOWN CALLER, staring at him from the display. It was the kidnappers. He could only imagine what they would have to say.

As he flipped open the phone, he was completely unprepared for the word that floated through the telephone receiver.

“Daddy?”