Echo Lane. They told stories about the place when Dakota was in high school, stories of girls who went there looking for drugs and never came back out. People would later claim to see these girls hooking on street corners, another person sucked into the game. Dakota had never believed them. They always involved a friend’s cousin’s brother’s ex-girlfriend; they were too far removed to be real. But Echo Lane itself, that was a real place, a bad place.
In high school they used to drive past it. They would skirt past the edges of the dangerous neighborhood, seeing how close they could get, what they could see, what stories they could bring home. They had been spoiled tourists, ogling at the poverty that existed alongside their mansions, golf courses, and stables. It had been tasteless, but as teenagers they hadn’t known better.
Even in her charity work, Dakota had little to do with Echo Lane. The people there considered themselves past hope. It’s the saddest thing in the world, Dakota thought, when there isn’t even the hope that you might make it out. That was where Dakota was going, to Echo Lane, alone.
Was this incredibly stupid? Maybe, Dakota figured, but it was the fastest way to end all of this. If all the Soul Stealers cared about was money, then giving them a lot of it should convince them. But she knew what she was doing wasn’t right. The Soul Stealers were bad and she was going to give them a lot of money to fund their bad deeds. Was that fair, the cost of her and her father’s life against what this money could give the Stealers? Maybe they weren’t all bad. Maybe they could be like Scarred Angels and go straight.
In the end, Dakota had weighed the negatives and the positives. The Stealers had kidnapped Joey to turn Scarred Angels against the Kanes. If not sorted out soon, this could cause a gang war. There would be casualties, jail time, innocent people would get hurt. Funding the Soul Stealers might give them more money to buy guns and drugs, or it could be money they used to go straight. Either way, she could trade it for Joey and get the name of who was paying them to attack her family.
She hadn’t heard from Adam, but she didn’t expect to. He would never choose a client over the club. No matter how much he liked that client or how good the sex was, he would never put her before them. Adam Kane was kind and good, but before all of that, he was loyal. He owed everything in his life to Scarred Angels. Those men were his brothers and he would wage a war for them, a war that could see Adam as a prime target.
That was the other reason she was driving her car farther and farther from the center of the city. Adam wouldn’t just be involved in the war; he would be a general. In a fight of gang versus gang, it would be the leaders who would be the most vulnerable. The Soul Stealers would want to cripple Scarred Angels quickly; the best way to do that would be to take out their leader and their heart: Adam Mendel. If this money could save Adam, there was no limit to what Dakota would have spent.
The streets around her were getting worse. There was trash piled up on the corners and few lights on the houses. Men and women sat idling on stoops, flares of light going up in front of their faces as they lit up whatever they were smoking. The streetlights were weak, and every other one was either out or broken, some still lying in the street where they had fallen. Dakota slowed as the potholes in the damaged street grew worse and worse. Echo Lane, how the wealthy of the city had tossed it aside, claimed it a lost cause. There were still people living here, people who needed help, but would never get it.
Was giving this money to the Soul Stealers the right thing to do? What would happen to this neighborhood if they were given all this money? Would it just make the place worse? Would it increase the violence and the drugs? Dakota had always thought she knew what the right thing to do was. Charity was good for all, except when it wasn’t, when it went to the wrong people, when it only made things worse.
I won’t forget, she thought to herself. Whatever money she gave to the Soul Stealers, she would give three times as much to this neighborhood. She could come here every day and make sure the money went where it should. She would make it better. And hopefully this would end the war before it began. Adam wouldn’t have to trade Dakota and her father in for Joey. If she did this, he wouldn’t have to make that choice.
She wished Adam were there with her. Not that he would have let her go, he would have forbidden it, and Dakota understood why. Echo Lane made The Black Mark look like a Hilton. It was beyond dangerous. In Echo Lane, Dakota couldn’t be sure the cops would come if she called them. No, Adam would have convinced her to stay home. He would have put her in his house, set the alarms and the locks, and he would have gone. Dakota could have stayed safe. She would be curled up, eyes stuck on her phone, waiting desperately for him to call.
Adam would have known how to handle the Soul Stealers; he would have all of Scarred Angels behind him. He would never go alone; he wouldn’t have to. Dakota was envious of the brotherhood that Scarred Angels shared. She was an only child, and while she had many friends, she hadn’t bothered to ask any of them to come; she knew none of them would. They talked about being best friends for life, but none of them would have traveled into this lion’s den with her.
She wiped an errant tear away. Don’t be sad; be angry! She counseled herself. The Soul Stealers had done something that was equal parts genius and foolish. In kidnapping Joey they had driven a wedge between the Kanes and their protector employees. It was an undefeatable wedge. No amount of money would have convinced Scarred Angels that losing one of their brothers was worth it. No amount of money could make things okay between Scarred Angels and the Kanes. But they had also made a lifelong and dangerous enemy. Scarred Angels might have been working hard to go straight, but that transition hadn’t made them weak, or easily pressured. When pushed, they would still push back.
No amount of money could repair the rift created by the Soul Stealers, the rift that had separated the Kanes and Scarred Angels. But money could do one thing in this scenario. It could get Joey back and maybe, just maybe, it could reveal the identity of their erstwhile killer. However much the attacker was paying the Soul Stealers, Dakota would double it. And all she needed was the name.
She had her sale’s pitch ready to go. The Soul Stealers were paid a certain sum of money to kill her and her father. Killing the two of them, no doubt, involved a lot of work, time, and money. There had been plans, necessary to avoid arrest after, transportation, whatever. Dakota, for her part, would pay them double and all she would need was the name of who had paid them. That’s it just a name, twice as much money, and all they would have to do is speak. From there, the money would be theirs free and clear.
She hadn’t brought the money with her; she knew better. That morning she had gone to several banks and within a few hours she had one million dollars in a red duffle bag. The money, in cash, was in a storage locker at the airport. Dakota had a time stamped photo of the money. She would show them the picture and then, when she had what she needed, she would give them the pass code and the Soul Stealers could open the locker and get the money. Once she had her information, and confirmed it was the correct name, she would give them another million the same way and they would part ways. If it were more than two million, then so be it. There was no amount of money she wouldn’t pay for her family's safety.