Chapter 124: He Believed Her

Leon shrugged. “It’s worth a try, if there is nothing there, there’s nothing there but at least we checked. Besides, it will give us something to do while we wait for some kind of word on Barrett and his son. Other than sitting here waiting for… these stupidi pezzi di merda.”

“Boss,” Click spoke up as he stared at Zeus. “There’s an attic access in my office.”

Zeus shrugged. “Ok, let’s check it out. The worst thing we can find is nothing at all.”

Everyone gathered in Click’s office as Diabolus and Memphis got up on ladders to remove the panels covering the opening leading to the attic.

Memphis stuck his head through the opening and had a look around. Then he turned to look down at Zeus. “This is nothing more than a crawl space with limited room. Not very big at all, so not everyone is going to fit up here.” He looked back into the space and added, “Maybe only two or three men.”

“What do you see up there?” Zeus asked.

Memphis looked down at his brother and said, “Mostly, just insulation between the studs, dust and spider webs.”

Zeus frowned. “That’s all you see?”

Memphis nodded. “I really don’t see anything else.”

“Then it’s a bust.” Zeus growled.

“No, look again, please,” Delaney pleaded.

Zeus shook his head. “There’s nothing there. I’m not sending one of my men to check under the insulation when I know damn well they won’t find anything. It just isn’t worth it. We have a battle to attend at the moment and we don’t have time for this.” He turned, walking out of the room.

The others followed him out.

Diabolus climbed the ladder again and replaced the panels they had just taken down.

Delaney leaned back against the desk feeling disappointed. She knew there was something there even if they didn’t believe her.

Memphis went over to her. “Are you ok baby?” he asked her softly.

Delaney shook her head. “I know there’s something there. I know it in my gut but your brother is just do damned stubborn… he won’t even listen.”

“You want me to go have a little looksee?” Memphis asked her.

She snapped her head up and stared at him. “You would do that for me?”

Memphis shrugged. “Sure, I would. I’m not scared of a little dust, but if a big ole spider comes down, I’m outta there. I hate spiders.” He shivered. “Like they got these slimy looking legs and I swear if one gets into my hair, you might hear me screaming like a girl,” he joked.

Diabolus snorted.

Memphis looked over at him. “And no comments are needed from you Mr. Opinionated.”

Diabolus shrugged. “You mean like when that same thing happened down in the first tunnel we ever discovered?” He looked over at Delaney as he nodded. “He speaks the gospel. He screamed like a girl.” He chuckled.

Delaney laughed now, then she looked back over at Memphis. “Please look? I need to know if there is something under that insulation.” She reached up, grabbed him by the neck, and pulled him down to her level to kiss him deeply.

Memphis kissed her wildly and only paused when he heard Diabolus clear his throat. He broke the kiss and cleared his own throat then gave her an intense look. Turning, he almost ran up the ladder and disappeared into the hole.

Delaney climbed up and peeked inside, watching as Memphis lifted the edge of the several pieces of the insulation to look underneath it. Time after time, he searched under the fluffy itchy insulation and time after time, he shook his head when there was nothing there. As he got closer to the middle of the room though he lifted one corner and just stopped and peered at the area closely. Then he looked back at Delaney and just stared at her. He dropped the piece of insulation and moved. Again, he lifted the insulation and stared for a moment, then dropped it. Next, he went over one row and peeked under the yellow stuff. Finally, he came back to the hole.

Delaney moved off the ladder.

Memphis got on it and climbed down.

Diabolus gasped while staring at him with wide eyes.

Memphis paused at his stare. “What?”

“Dude, there’s— Oh damn!”

Memphis shook his head as Diabolus was staring at his hair. “Man, not a spider! God damnit!” He bent over and shook his hair out.

Diabolus was laughing now.

Memphis slowly rose up to glare at him.

His friend chuckled.

“You fucker,” Memphis growled at him.

Delaney giggled.

Releasing a disgusted breath, Memphis motioned at the panels. “Since you are so damn clever, go up and nail that shut.”

Diabolus kept snickering as he climbed up to do so. He nailed the panels back on and stepped down onto the floor. “So, what did you find, fraidy cat?” He smirked.

“Well, I sure didn't see you crawling around up there, did I.” He scoffed. Turning, Memphis took Delaney’s hand in his and stared at her face as he spoke quietly, “I found about 16 small cases and it wouldn’t surprise me if they all were stuffed with cash. About ten million dollars I’d say.”

“Holy shit!” Diabolus swore softly.

Delaney laughed and clapped. “I swear, sometimes I think men have no common sense!” She grinned at him. “But we found it!”

Diabolus ran his hands over the back of his head and looked over at Memphis then at Delaney. “This is going to make Leon happy. But Zeus is more than sick of all this shit and he will NOT be happy at all.”

Delaney reached up and caught the back of Memphis’ neck. When he turned to her she whispered, “Thank you. Thank you for believing in me when no one else would listen.” She again kissed him hard.

With a low growl in his throat, he wrapped his arms around her.

Diabolus waited and waited. Finally, he’d had enough of this. “We’d better go tell them what we found.” He looked up at the panels and shook his head. “Zeus ain’t gonna believe this.”

The couple broke apart.

Taking a breath, Delaney nodded. “He didn’t believe me.”

Memphis tapped her arm. “Please don’t mention that fact. It won’t help anything, baby. I claim that you were right. So, that is all that you need to think about.”

Diabolus shook his head then turned and walked out of the room.

Delaney and Memphis followed him.

When they joined the rest of the brothers, Leon and his group were gathered around the camera monitor.

“What’s going on?” Diabolus asked.

“We got movement outside the fence.” Zeus growled. “What took you guys so long?”

Delaney came over and she gasped at the picture on the screen. It was her brother Alijala. He was limping and he had something tied around the top of his leg. He also had blood stains on his lower legs. His hair was flying all over the place and he had bruises on his face. He looked terrible but Delaney overlooked that. She searched screen to screen, camera to camera, looking for her father.