Chapter 18 Evie
The parking garage was nearly empty, the soft hum of faded fluorescent lights buzzing above me as I pulled into a secluded corner on the third floor.
I listened for any sign of a bike following me, but there was nothing.
This meeting was meant to be a secret, and I didn’t want Aiden involved.
He’d hate it, which was exactly why I hadn’t told him.
If he knew I was meeting with one of the pack’s informants alone, there’d be hell to pay from him and Rook.
But I needed answers, and Aiden couldn’t be looking over my shoulder all the time.
Plus, he should know better than anyone if a man was going to forbid me from doing something, it was going to be the exact thing I would do.
I glanced around, scanning the dark corners of the garage. The informant wasn’t late, but I was already anxious. With the threats and apparent escalation of people coming after us, I knew I had to be alert. I threw my long braid back over my shoulder, trying to look as casual as I could.
It’s not like this was the first time I had met with this informant alone, but there hadn’t been any threats then.
The last time we met months ago, he’d barely told me anything, only hinted he knew more than he let on.
It had pissed me off so bad, I had thrown something at him, and I wasn’t sure if he had forgiven me yet.
This time, I’d made myself more clear—if he wanted to keep getting paid, he needed to give me something useful.
I could easily twist a story to make Rook and Aiden cut him out of our business for good if he didn’t.
He needed to give me something to lead me to Veritas or any sliver of information to help me get closer to understanding what led to my parents’ deaths.
Footsteps echoed in the distance, and I straightened, squaring my shoulders.
I wasn’t exactly nervous about him—more than anything, I was impatient.
The footsteps grew louder, and a figure emerged from the shadows, his face obscured by a baseball cap pulled low over his eyes.
Typical. He was always so over the top with his outfits.
I looked down at my cute, full black outfit finished with a black leather jacket—maybe I wasn’t one to talk.
“Do you actually have something for me this time, or are you here to waste more of my time again?” I asked, already crossing my arms and pushing out a hip.
“Wow. Already catty tonight?” His grin was slow, teasing, and absolutely annoying. “Is it really a waste of time if we’re here together?”
I groaned. God, men were exhausting.
“If you dragged me out here just to flirt, I will kill you.”
He laughed, putting his hands up in mock surrender, but his smile faded as he glanced around the garage for the tenth time. He lowered his voice, stepping closer until I could see the serious change in his expression.
“Relax, Evie. I didn’t risk my neck to ask you out. I actually have something for you—but you’ll want to be careful with it.”
“Yeah, I’ve been hearing that a lot lately,” I snapped, impatience biting at my words.
He pulled a folded piece of paper from his jacket and handed it to me.
My fingers brushed over the cool paper, dread settling in my stomach.
I opened it carefully, already bracing myself for the worst—but it still wasn’t enough.
Because there, among a list of various names, was one that stole the breath from my lungs.
Cameron Fletcher.
Regan’s dad. The man who had murdered my parents. The ghost who still lingered even after we buried him.
“What is this? Why are these names on here?”
His dark eyes steeled, making me feel like I was looking at something way more important than I thought.
“Those are the clients of Veritas,” he said, the words a quiet hiss.
“And a few who I assume to be owners. There isn’t much on it, but I think Veritas was a group with members—these members—who worked together.
And not in a ‘share an office’ type of way.
These were guys doing major business together and most of it was illegal.
They helped each other claw their way to the top and I’m sure they did plenty of sinister deeds for each other.
And if you look through them, you see why I said be careful. Those aren’t guys to be messed with.”
“I mean, they messed with me first, so any retaliation is their problem. Where did you get this?”
“You know I can’t tell you where I find information any more than you can tell me why you are looking into this. But I can tell you this will be all the information I can get from this source, so no promises to what else I can deliver.”
“So, all I get is an old list of names and nothing else? How does that help?”
“You’re looking into things from more than ten years ago, Evie. It’s not like I’m digging up fresh, new information every day. This list is the closest thing I can get to who your parents were working with back then.”
I kept looking down the list of nearly twenty names until two more jumped out at me.
My parents’ names were there, written near the end of the list.
“How do I know who owned it and who was a client?”
He shrugged. “No idea. I didn’t get that far with it.”
“Well, now I’m going to need you to get that far.” I bit down, my teeth gritting together. “I need to know everything I can about Veritas, and how each of these people were involved.”
Another name jumped out, my eyes narrowing. “Cross? He’s involved in this?”
“Ahh, that one I know more about with all the information collecting I do for you guys. Cross was as involved in this as Cameron Fletcher. I believe he was one of the original five who started Veritas. I don’t know what companies he was involved in after, though.
I would imagine he had plenty of ties to them all still. ”
Cross. One of the biggest drug lords in the city, if not the state. The one apparently sending people after us now.
How is everything somehow starting to lead back to Veritas while also having nothing to do with it?
Is it a coincidence since most of the big criminal players were involved in it?
“I need the other company names. His, Cameron’s, any of them. I need to figure out who all worked for companies my parents were involved in.”
“You got it. One more thing,” he started, fidgeting before he continued.
“Veritas. Whatever it was, it wasn’t only a business.
I mean, they seemed to do something but I think it was more the kind of group that once you were in, you were in, and since your parents’ names are on the list, I think they were stuck there.
Veritas seemed to shut down, only to be opened by the same people under different names. ”
“But I need to know why Veritas was started in the first place and what they were doing under the name. I could chase every one of those names that came after, but Veritas is what brought them together first, and I need to know why. I need to know why my parents were involved at all.”
They say no one leaves, but we didn’t ask to come.
The words echoed, twisting my stomach into knots.
Before I could press him further, he took a step back.
“Look, I’ve already spent more time here than I planned.
Just . . . be careful. If I find more, I’ll text you on our burners.
But if you keep pushing outside of our meetings, one of them will notice.
Most of them aren’t dead and some have done worse to get their wealth and power than a few scam businesses and a murder here and there. You don’t want that kind of attention.”
With a final, anxious glance over his shoulder, he disappeared, leaving me in the dim garage with the list and almost none of my questions answered.
I knew my parents were forced to work with Cameron, but was Veritas the reason for that? And if it was, why did they go along with it?
I looked down at the list again, trying to see if any other names stood out to me, but nothing did.
I wanted to know what kept my parents away from home so often and what made them so desperate they worked with Cameron. Why would they go along with these corrupt men when they were good people?
I guess I could say we were criminals. Maybe I didn’t know if the apples had fallen far from the tree.
Some part of me hoped it wasn’t true—that I could hold on to the thought of my parents being good, upstanding people.
I spun and headed for the car, the quiet of the night settling in around me now that I was alone.
Something shifted in the shadows, and then—a hand clamped over my mouth, pressing my head back into the hard wall of someone’s chest. I stifled a scream, digging my nails into his wrist as he yanked me farther into the dark, his other arm wrapping around me like a vise.
My mind snapped into focus, already knowing this wasn’t Aiden or more of his game. His grip was too rough. There was no love or care in how he handled me. This was an attack.
With all my strength, I drove my elbow into his ribs, feeling the sharp exhale against my back as his grip faltered. I spun, eyes narrowed, catching sight of his face before he lunged again, a look of ruthless determination carved into every line.
This time, I was ready. I blocked his punch, twisting his arm enough to make him wince.
He snarled, recovering faster than I expected, and aimed low. I dodged, sweeping my foot behind his ankles and sending him sprawling, his back hitting the concrete with a heavy thud that echoed through the empty garage.
I hoped it would be enough, but he jumped up, pulling out a knife from the pocket of his jeans.
“Seriously,” I said, discreetly pulling my knife from my thigh holster. “You want to have a knife fight?”
“Don’t worry. It won’t hurt long.”
I grinned, moving the knife along my arm as he swung out.
I flipped my grip on the handle, pulling the knife up past my ear before arching down.
It hit his shoulder, the blade sliding in with no resistance, but I knew it wouldn’t be enough.
The blade sunk into his chest, the strange cracking and slicing of skin making me cringe.