10. Chapter 10
“Are you okay?” Sid asked after our silent car ride back to his farm home. He pulled into the garage, and we both got out.
I shook my head finally. “Not really. What if I don’t come back to him?”
Sid unlocked the front door, and we stepped inside. “You will.”
“How can you say that?”
“I’ll make sure of it.”
“Jesus… Why, Sid? Why are you going out of your fucking way for me, someone you haven’t known since we were kids?”
He turned to face me with broad arms folded on his chest. “I already told you why.”
“Yes, you told me why. Still… you’re a damn killer. Killers don’t have empathy. Killers don’t care about the people they once knew way back when they were boys. Killers…”
I sighed and rubbed my face as the emotion kept a stranglehold on me, unable to shake the fear of leaving Owen behind. Maybe if I hadn’t lost my husband, it wouldn’t have been so bad. Owen was in good hands, and I had plans for someone to take care of him should I die, but still… If I do get killed, would he ever be safe?
Sid grabbed me by my shoulders and shoved me against the front door. It brought me back to that day in high school when he pushed me against the lockers. This time, he didn’t smell like fabric softener, but a richness like amber and whiskey poured off him. It was as masculine as he was. Shit, I hated how my body responded to him, even back then.
“This killer does. Granted, I don’t care about many people, but I was forced into a world I didn’t fucking ask for, and if I had chosen that other path, I would’ve been killed. Yes, I stayed on as a killer. It’s all I fucking know, Boy Scout. But I don’t kill indiscriminately, and killing isn’t my main job. Some in my family kill and don’t care. Some of them don’t know the meaning of remorse, but I promise you, they, too, were made that way. They didn’t choose this life. No one is born to be an assassin. My working partner and friend doesn’t care as long as we’re paid, and as long as no children are involved. His lover, who also works with us, is a literal psychopath. The word empathy doesn’t exist in his vocabulary, nor does it in my apprentice. As someone who jointly owns our organization, I get to pick and choose what assignment I take, especially for my specialty, dealing in politics. My actions could affect this country.”
“But…”
“No more buts. I made a choice. This isn’t just for you, Dalton, but for me. I owe this to myself, too. It gives me a chance to right some wrongs from when I was young… not just toward you, but toward all those I hurt because I was suffering. I may be a killer, but I’m not a fucking monster who cares about nothing. Now, stop asking me why and accept my damn help.”
My body sagged, and I nodded. “Okay.”
Sid’s frown turned into a smirk. “Obedient. I like it.”
“And you just had to ruin it.”
He stood straight and shrugged. “What can I say? It’s part of my charm.”
“I think you just like shoving me against things.”
Sid threw back his head and laughed. “You got me all figured out, Boy Scout. Yes, it’s a lot of fun to see how you react to me.”
My face burned as he walked off toward a door right past the kitchen. “It’s time I went through your evidence. And I need to give you access to the security and weapons rooms.”
Sid punched in a few codes on the pad and pressed his thumb to it as it scanned his prints. He set up my thumb and made me recite the code several times, and then we headed downstairs to the basement .
“This functions as a panic room, too. If we’re attacked, we can come down here, load up on weapons, or whatever we need to do to protect ourselves, and they won’t be able to reach us.”
We stepped up to a second door at the bottom of the steps. This one was metal and fireproof. After entering another code and using his thumbprint, we stepped inside a finished and furnished basement with several rooms. The main room had a small living room and kitchen, along with a bedroom and a full bath. And there was a storage room full of food and water.
“Expecting the apocalypse?” I asked, only half joking.
“I expect anything. That’s why you’re safe here.”
Sid opened another door, and we stepped into a cold room filled with computers, servers, and several monitors that showed the surrounding land around his house.
He pulled a chair over next to the one in front of a computer so we could both sit.
I glanced at the photograph sitting there. It was so odd to see something personal in a place Sid never came to. I lifted the framed image and looked at it. Sid stood smiling with his arm slung over a teen boy with dirty blond hair. The boy was unsmiling and stiff, but he was leaning into Sid with… affection. It was so difficult to tell. They both wore martial arts gis and looked like they had just wrapped up some sparring.
“Who’s this?”
Sid took the picture from me. “I’ll tell you, but you better take it to your grave.”
“I will.”
“This is my apprentice.”
“You… teach this boy to kill? ”
Sid glanced at me with an unreadable face. “Your soap box is getting tall, Dalt. He was already a killer before he reached me. I either took him in or let him die. He killed someone close to him, and rightfully so, but she was connected to some important people.”
“She?”
He nodded. “His mother was an abusive piece of shit. His father was useless. I took him in when he was fifteen, and he’s been with me for nearly three years. I’ve been his mentor and a father figure. Easton is… special, and I’ll leave it at that.”
Sid put the picture back down and held out his hand. “Give me the USB,” he said.
“How do you know I brought it with me?”
He gave me a deadpan look, but I was more focused on the blueness of his eyes.
I sighed, dug into the pocket of my jeans, pulled out one of two USBs that I held as evidence, and placed it on his palm. The other was stashed elsewhere.
Sid plugged it into a USB port.
“It all started with that video,” I explained.
He nodded. “You said someone sent this to you?”
“Yes.”
“You don’t know who?”
“No, and there’s someone who’s watching over me, but I have no idea who. At first, I assumed it was you when I saw you sitting on my car outside the bank.”
He looked at me with furrowed brows. “It wasn’t me. At least we know you have an ally and someone who doesn’t want to be known.”
I nodded. “My suspicions are the person who sent me the video and who warned me are one and the same.”
“You could be right. They were probably there that night, too.”
“Security detail for the Speaker, possibly?”
He pondered for a moment before shrugging. “Maybe. But why reach out to you personally? Do you know anyone on his detail? Why not send the video to the Department of Justice?”
“I don’t know anyone. But they must have known something I didn’t. The DOJ can’t be trusted. I’m proof of that.”
“Then why didn’t they warn you not to turn anything in to the DOJ that tossed you into this mess in the first place? Okay, so we can rule out the security detail. The person is someone familiar to you and trusts you to send the evidence on to the right people.”
I sighed, racking my brain about who could’ve been there that night that I knew personally, but I came up blank. “I know a lot of people in the government. It’s hard to say.”
Sid pressed play, folded his arms, and leaned into me. We sat close, our shoulders touching like he was drawn to me and hadn’t realized he was doing it. My breath caught for a moment, but I didn’t move.
My eyes reluctantly moved to the monitor to experience the horror about to unfold once again. No matter how many times I watched that video, it still made me sick. I’d lost count of how many times I’d seen it. I recalled every movement, reaction, and tear shed… Even worse, the video had sound.
Jonathan Rush, Speaker of the House and third in line to the Presidency of the United States, stood tall at six feet six inches but was lean like a runner. He was handsome at sixty-two years old with salt-and-pepper hair. He was alone in a private room, sipping a drink from a crystal tumbler, sitting in a large cushioned chair, and waiting as he scrolled on his phone.
Fuck, I wanted to close my eyes to the coming violence, but I had every single detail that was about to unfold memorized.
“Why record this?” he asked. “Why risk it?”
“I’m not sure. Maybe he wanted a video to watch again. Or perhaps he didn’t know he was being recorded.”
“Wouldn’t the security detail make sure to sweep the room?”
“If it was the Secret Service, then yes. But the Speaker doesn’t get a team of service members. Then again, it could very well be someone on his detail who knows.”
“So, he has to hire them?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
“Security is hit or miss, depending on their quality and professionalism. They could’ve missed it.”
Someone knocked on the door and came inside. He looked like a bodyguard, gripping the girl’s arm tightly. The girl's face winced, and her large, dark brown eyes were wide and terrified.
“What about this young girl in the video? Who is she?” he asked.
“All I have is her escort name, Ruby Tuesday. She was part of the escort service that night, but she’s a minor and clearly trafficked. Escort is a nice way of putting it because we know they’re not that. They probably trafficked her from the border, with promises of money and freedom in the United States, if only she does a little work for them. ”
Sid sighed. “If she came up from Central America with no family or connections, it would be easy to make promises to her and could easily isolate her. Girls like her have no power.”
According to the details I’d gathered on the dark web, Ruby was a slight sixteen-year-old girl, but she looked twelve. Rush clearly liked them young. She was wearing a red, see-through lingerie nightgown that hid nothing. Her skin was tawny, and her nearly black hair was sleek and long.
My stomach roiled, knowing what was about to happen.
The Speaker stood, walked over to the girl, and gripped her chin, forcing her to look up at him. She was well under a foot shorter than him. He exuded power over her through intimidation. He wanted her to cower before him. It was purely a power play and a show of dominance. Sex was an afterthought to men like this.
Rush looked at the guard and nodded. The man left the Speaker and Ruby alone when she started to cry and speak in rushed Spanish.
That angered him, and he backhanded her.
She dropped to the ground, but he roughly lifted her, ripped her clothes off, and shoved her to the bed face down.
After telling her not to move, he removed his clothes and shoved her face into the pillow with two hands as he raped her, the bedroom filled with grunts and slurs directed at her.
No, this wasn’t about sex or to scratch an itch. What he did was about punishment for being who she was.
My mind kept screaming and trying to gasp for air for her as she thrashed, clawing at the covers, trying to sit up so she could take a gasp of oxygen. Rush was out of his mind with his head tossed back, not paying attention to her desperate attempts at staying alive.
I closed my eyes the second I knew her body would still. She’d make one last futile attempt before she would stop moving forever.
I rarely dealt with this sort of crime. It was usually white-collar crimes, not rape and murder, although there was some rape done by politicians, along with spousal abuse. Usually, it was prostitution, bribes, and such.
When Rush finished, he rolled the girl’s limp body over to find her staring wide-eyed at nothingness. His hands went directly to his head, gripping his hair as he slowly backed away.
“ No, no, no… Fuck, fuck, fuck ,” he chanted over and over.
I rubbed my eyes, my contacts feeling dry despite the moistness trying to gather there.
Sid hit pause. “Wow, what a colossal prick. How could he possibly not know he was hurting and killing her? It was obvious she was struggling to breathe.”
“Drunk? Drugs? Un-fucking-caring? Who knows?! He’s only panicking because he’s worried about getting caught, not out of any sense of remorse.”
“If I were hired to take him out, I wouldn’t hesitate.”
“Can you?” I blurted before I could take it back.
Sid narrowed his denim eyes at me. “You don’t have enough funds in your moral bank account, Boy Scout.”
“I… I know. I just…”
“You’re angry because this shit ruined your life, and that she had to die. I get it. Let’s figure this out first before we jump on the murder bandwagon. ”
I huffed, unsure of why I was getting mad. I understood enough that Sid was trying to protect me, even from myself. Still…
“You’re a killer. Who the fuck cares what I think about Rush dying?”
He gave me a hard stare that shut me up. “We’ll talk about this later.”
Sid pressed play so we could watch the cover-up unfold.
Speaker Rush opened the door and called out to his men, who quickly came in, checking on the girl’s pulse and vitals, but they shook their heads.
“ Goddammit! She wasn’t supposed to die! Fix it! ”
Soon, his advisor came in, scanned the area, and talked to Rush, taking notes. He was thin, shorter than Rush, with thick dark, neatly cropped, blond hair. “ I’ll take care of everything. ”
“ Just don’t tell me the details. ”
The younger man nodded and walked out while his goons carried Ruby out of the room.
Soon, the camera went static, and Sid looked at me. “I’m assuming the person who sent you this removed the evidence before the advisor absconded with it?”
I shook my head. “They would’ve been caught, right? I mean, they would’ve hunted down whoever removed the evidence.”
Sid shook his head. “Not if it’s digital. They could’ve simply made a copy.”
“True, but would they have had time? Unless they were watching the entire time while recording.”
“Frame job?” he asked me.
“No idea, but I don’t think so. Besides, how would they know the girl would die? ”
“Maybe they were just trying to nail him for sex trafficking, and that shit show fell into their lap.”
“Perhaps.”
For the next hour, Sid read through all my evidence of all those involved, from those who were bribed and paid off to whoever helped cover it up. However, we still didn’t have any names, only aliases.
“Did you know Jonathan Rush and Wesley Mardsen, Deputy Chief and Director, are close friends over at the DOJ? I keep tabs on all the higher-ups in our government.”
I leaned forward, placed my face in my hands, and nodded. “I did, and thought… ‘ Gee, wouldn’t he like to know his good friend is a criminal and murderer ?’ Yeah, that went over well.”
Sid patted my back and chuckled before gently gripping my shoulder. “Don’t beat yourself up. You always see the good in people, even the bad ones. I know this from experience.”
“I’m not na?ve, Sid. I don’t see the good in everyone, but this is literally Mardsen’s fucking job!”
“Can I send this to my guy? He’ll be able to dig even deeper than you. Once we have a clear picture of who’s all involved, we can then make plans on how we want to proceed.”
I jumped up and shook my head. “No! This needs to be done by the book. I want to see that prick, Rush, behind bars. If you get some hacker on this, we won’t be able to use the evidence. The lawyers will claim the evidence had been tampered with.”
Sid stood with me and frowned. “How do you think this is going to play out, Dalt? They have enough money to grease important hands. They have friends in very high places. No doubt if Rush is buddy-buddy with Mardsen, then he’s got friends in other judiciary branches. Sure, maybe he’ll be thoroughly investigated, but he’s a wealthy man and has the backing of other wealthy men and politicians. I’ve been doing this job long enough to know that Rush will get off scot-free. Then you’ll be devastated when nothing happens. But that’s not the worst of it. They’ll make you the scapegoat, and they’ll make you pay. They will ruin you and your son—if they don’t kill you first. These people are already hunting you, so you know what they’re capable of and willing to do to protect their interests.”
I suddenly felt cold, knowing Sid was right, but we had to do something. I wanted Rush to pay.
Sid gently pinched my chin, making me look at him. Why did I let him? “You just told me not a couple of minutes ago you wanted me to take Rush out. Make up your mind, Boy Scout. Now, I could take him out, but sometimes, there are worse things than death. Before I make any decisions, I want every single detail, or as much as I can get. That means I need to send everything to my guy. Can we agree on at least that much?”
I nodded and licked my lips. Sid’s sight pinged straight to my mouth before looking back into my eyes. He moved his face closer, and for a second, I assumed he planned to kiss me again, but he let go of my chin and backed off.
“Let’s get some guns picked out for you,” he said before walking away, leaving me frustrated and confused.