Underground Legends: The Hunt

Chapter 17 - Saint

Saint Botero - (Male P.O.V)

October 20, 2074

The guy hauled ass down the hallway, knocking over three of the mannequins lining the narrow passage. A sharp gasp sounded behind me as one after the other crashed to the floor. But I didn't stop. I merely leaped over each, determined to catch this guy.

Just as I cleared them, he burst through the white double doors at the end. The exit, according to the neon red sign above it.

Shit!

I drew my gun and ran for the door, managing to slip out before it could close. Squinting through the sunlight, I spotted him halfway down the alley. He was getting farther and farther away with each step. And I couldn't have that. I picked up my pace, pumping my legs harder and faster until they ate up the distance.

Once beside him, I rammed my shoulder into his with only a fraction of my strength. But it was enough to send his lanky frame flying into the wall. An agonizing groan burst past his lips, and his legs buckled a bit as he crashed into the bricks.

Feeling no sympathy for the bastard, I flipped him over to see his face. My brow furrowed as I took him in.

Now that I was seeing him up close, he looked young. Way younger than I previously presumed. Especially with the pimples scattered across his light brown cheeks and the few scraggly hairs poking from his chin.

But there was only one way to be sure, and I had a gut feeling I wouldn't like the answer.

The sheer terror reflected in his wide-blown eyes made me move back a bit.

"How old are you?" I questioned, slowly enunciating each word.

He swiped his arm across his cheek, smearing the blood from his fresh abrasion onto his white sleeve. "Sixteen."

A freaking teenager?!

I inwardly cursed and tucked my gun into my waistband.

"What's your name?"

"Darius."

"Darius, what?"

"Atkinson," he mumbled, looking out toward the alley entrance at the cars whizzing past.

"Well, Darius, why were you pretending to work there and sneaking pictures?"

"I wasn't."

"Then what were you doing then?" For a second, I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that this was all just a misunderstanding.

"Browsing." He smartly replied.

I smacked him on the side of his head, and the crooked grin on his face fell at once.

"Give me the phone," I ordered, holding out my hand.

With a roll of his eyes, he dug the device from his pocket and slapped it into my awaiting palm.

After pulling up his photos, I strolled through them. There were hundreds of images, but only the recent thirty or so captured my interest. They started from when we entered the shop up until discovering him. And all of them featured one person. Abella.

"Why did you take these?" I ground out through clenched teeth.

His eyes flicked toward the right, revealing his next move before he could act. And as soon as he made a break for the alley entrance, I grabbed his arm and slammed him back against the wall. His being a kid was forgotten at that moment. A dumb kid, but a kid nonetheless. All that mattered was getting answers.

"Uh-uh," I slanted my arm across his heaving chest, pinning him to the wall while holding his phone close to his face. "You're not going anywhere until you tell me why you took these."

He jutted out his chin and met my gaze in a show of defiance. At the impressionable age of sixteen, he probably thought he was honorable by not snitching. If I wanted to get any answers, I needed another tactic. And fast.

I moved back and took a deep calming breath. Confused by my actions, he kept completely still and just watched me.

Movement in my peripheral sparked an idea. I looked toward the back door at Jill. She stood halfway in the doorway, watching us with her phone to her ear.

"Darius imma give you ten seconds to tell me the truth or..." I jerked my head in Jill's direction. "I'll turn you over to the cops and let them deal with you."

Fear worked on most people unless they were too crazy to care. And it seemed this time was no exception.

He swallowed a few times as his eyes darted back and forth between us. It was clear he was weighing his options. He just needed one final push.

"Eight," I said, purposely skipping numbers.

His eyes widened in shock at the low number, but he kept quiet.

"Si-"

"Alright. Alright." He relented, holding his hands up in surrender. "A guy pulled up to me in a town car and paid me three hundred dollars to take pictures of her."

"Who did?"

He pushed off the wall and tried to iron out the creases in his button-down shirt with his hands. "I don't know his name."

"Tell me what he looked like."

"He was a big guy with a combover." He held his arms out in front of him, a few inches away from his stomach.

"Was he white? Black? Or..."

"White."

That description didn't fit Luther, but I couldn't completely rule him out. He could still have a connection to this guy. It could even be one of his goons. If not, then that left the killers.

Either way, we needed to get this sick prick off the streets and behind bars, especially if he was using kids to do his dirty work.

"What did he say to you when he approached you?"

"He asked me if I wanted to make some money. And I told him yeah." He chuckled and lazily shrugged one shoulder. "I figured it was easy money, so I would be stupid not to do it."

"There's no such thing as easy money!"

Softly sighing, I rubbed my hand down my face.

That kind of mentality would only earn him a one-way ticket to prison. Or worse.

"How-how were you supposed to get him the pictures?"

He dug into his pocket, pulling out a small photo with creased edges. "He gave me this photo of her with a phone number on the back. I'm supposed to send them to it."

I took it from him, briefly glancing at the picture before pocketing it. "Did he say anything else?"

"No. That's it, I swear."

"Alright, I believe you." I laid my hand on his shoulder and leveled my gaze with his. "But I'm going to need you to provide a more detailed description of this guy to a forensic artist."

"Okay, but..." He looked at Jill before whispering, "Am I going to get in trouble for this? Because my dad will kill me if I do."

I chuckled shortly. "We'll see... We'll see."

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Thank you for reading!❤

9-22-22