33. Barrett
33
BARRETT
Reghan and Sylvan had left the kitchen after eating, under the guise of Reghan wanting Sylvan to show him something in the house. It wasn’t sly in the least, but it gave me time alone with Noah. The problem was me pushing him to talk. I hated it and didn’t want to. The thought of the other men who could be on their way to be sold was what had me speaking to him. I couldn’t let that happen.
“Noah,” I said gently.
“I know. You want the name.”
I nodded. “You’re here, protected. We won’t let anything happen to you.”
“If I tell you, you’re going to leave me here. After what I’d heard about you and your brother from him, how he said you’re a threat to what he’s doing, I knew you’d be safe.”
“And you knew where I lived.” It wasn’t a question. He ran to my home.
He bit his bottom lip for a moment before saying, “Your name is familiar, as is your job, but you’re safe. You’re not the same as the rest.”
“The man who took you is a relative. A father?”
“No, cousin.”
“Okay. Either he must be in a high-power position, or another family member is, because there are no records of you in the system.”
His eyes widened. “You ran my name?”
“No,” I rushed to say before the panic completely overtook him. “We used someone who could go in undetected. We didn’t even know if this was your real name, but we could run face recognition. See if you’d come up anywhere, even a driver’s license, but nothing.”
Tears welled in his eyes. “They erased me. They took everything from me and now my identity too.” A choked sob rose up his throat. He covered his mouth with his hand. “I hate them. I’m glad I kicked him in the knee before I ran. He was already hurt. I knew if I hit him there, he’d go down.” That explained why the asshole limped.
Leaning forward, I gently put my hand on his arm. “Tell me who they are, and we’ll take care of it.”
“Taking them down won’t be easy.”
“Lucky for me, I have a mafia boss at my back, who knows a fuckton of powerful people, and has enough money to do whatever he wants.”
“They’re going to lie.”
I shrugged. “Wouldn’t be the first time someone did that to me.”
“I don’t want to go against them in court.”
“My brother will.” Even saying it had bile rising in my throat. I didn’t want Marshall anywhere near this, but he would do whatever he had to so the person or people could be brought to justice. I also didn’t think anyone would need a trial once Jordan found out who was doing it.
“My… my cousin’s name is Archie. His… his father is…”
“The chief,” I muttered. It wasn’t that common of a name. Holy fucking shit. “His son’s name is Archie. He has pictures of him on his desk, always saying how proud he is of his son who has a wife and two kids. The perfect life on the outside.”
“He’s sick. He doesn’t think he’s untouchable, just that no one is going to make it out to bring him down. He has a plan in place and an alibi my uncle would be more than willing to help him with. I don’t know for sure he’s involved, but he could be. If he’s not and finds out, he’s going to cover it up. Archie’s going through a divorce. His wife is threatening to take everything from him, including the kids. She has a wealthy family.”
I couldn’t believe this shit, yet at the same time I could. The chief was a raging asshole, who didn’t belong in the role he was in. It wasn’t surprising his son was a piece of shit too. I didn’t give the whole perfect son thing a second thought. Why would I? I didn’t give a fuck about any of them.
“Okay, I’m going to need you to give me as many details as possible. What he looks like now. What he drives, if you can remember the make and model. Anything he said that you can think of that could help.”
Noah started trembling and wrapped his arms around his waist. “I don’t want to go back there. He won’t let me get away a second time.”
“Reghan!” I called, causing Noah to jump. Reghan had to be somewhere close by. I doubted he’d go far.
“Yeah?” he asked, walking into the kitchen.
“Is there a panic room in here or a place where someone could hide and not be detected?”
“Yes.”
“If shit went down, Noah could go in there and be safe where no one could touch him?”
“Absolutely. I’d offer to take you to Jordan’s building, but once whoever this is knows my boss is involved, it will be a reason for them to think up a valid excuse to search his building. It happens more often than we’d like. If they were to find you there it wouldn’t be good.”
“Aren’t there rooms there for the same purposes?” I asked. Reghan’s lips pressed into a thin line. Okay, I was obviously not getting any information about Jordan’s building. Whatever. When I hopefully went to work for him, I would find shit out. I was beyond curious what was in that place that I couldn’t see.
“Noah?” I asked. “Okay?”
“Tell him,” he whispered brokenly. Not only was Noah scared because of what he’d been through at the hands of his cousin, but he had his uncle, who was the damn chief of the East Dremest PD. A powerful man who did a whole hell of a lot without having to answer to many. We had to play this carefully.
I relayed what I’d learned to Reghan so Noah wouldn’t have to say the words again. When I was done, I looked at Noah. He filled in the information I’d asked him for, but not without hesitation. His words shook and his hands were in fists. Tears streamed down his cheeks. This was someone who’d been through hell and continued to live in it.
The more he spoke, the more I thought the chief was involved. Maybe not at first, given how adamant he was that we catch the guy doing this before anyone else could, but with Noah on the loose, my bet was the perfect son would seek his father out for help. A one-man show could only stay that way for so long. Now he had multiple loose ends in Marshall and Noah.
What I wouldn’t give to get the chief out of a job and into prison as my final fuck you before I quit.
Sylvan came in as we were wrapping up our conversation. “Noah, why don’t I show you where the room is, in case you need to go in there. This way you can know what to expect. It’s very high tech and there’s a lot of stuff in it. A TV, food, whatever you could need.” I was grateful Sylvan thought to do that. It would hopefully help calm Noah’s anxiety a little.
Reghan nodded his head toward the back of the house, where we went through a door and out onto the expansive property. Any other time, I’d want to explore and see what was out there. I couldn’t imagine having this kind of land.
With his phone in hand, Reghan called Jordan and put it on speaker.
“What do you have?” Jordan asked instead of saying hello, not that I expected him to.
“A fucking lot,” I told him. “The man who took Noah and Mars is Noah’s cousin. His uncle is the chief of police for East Dremest.”
“That motherfucker,” Jordan growled. “I’m going to disembowel him.”
“Welll,” I dragged out. “What about disemboweling the son and we get the chief behind bars where he belongs?” Prison wasn’t good enough for the asshole who took my brother and the other men. He needed to die.
“Do you have a plan?”
“No, but I’d like them to suffer in different ways. Just imagine the current chief of police locked away in his own damn jail cell. Him going to court to plead his case in front of a judge. He’ll be the criminal, and it will be all over the news. We also need to deep dive into the entire family’s past to see who else could be connected.”
“On it,” I heard Raiden say in the background.
Jordan sighed. “I can’t get involved publicly with the scum ending up behind bars. They’d never believe anything I said, but I can help you.”
“Thank you,” I said to Jordan. I was surprised how easily he agreed to not killing him. Then again, he was going to be able to shed blood with the son.
“Now that we know who we’re looking for, we should be able to find him. He can lead us to the ones he’s captured. Then I’ll kill him.”
“I want a shot at him too,” Reghan spoke up. “Not the killing one but if I could get in on this I’d like to.”
“Fine,” Jordan bit out. “But you both owe me someone else when this is all said and done.”
“A bonus killing?” I chuckled. “Great job on killing this guy, here’s your prize.”
“Exactly,” he said in that calm and deadly tone I’d heard him use before.
Jordan might be sweet as hell to the men he loved and somewhat nice to the people he employed, but there was a killer under that, one who didn’t like to be silenced or have anything taken from him. There was a man in his city about to sell human beings. Jordan, for all his bad, would never stand for it.
“Barrett, this is going to be your test. You’ve done a lot for me in the past, but those weren’t the same as this. Once this is done, there’s no going back.”
I scrubbed my hand over my face. “I’ve already come to terms with it.”
“You can work in other jobs, just not in one that goes against me. Or you can work for me. The choice is yours.” I didn’t need to look at Reghan to know which he’d like me to choose. Working for Jordan wasn’t a safe job. There were dangers in it that were very real, but with that, I’d get to see Reghan more and be able to watch his back, depending on what Jordan would want from me.
Was I throwing myself all in for the man I loved? Absolutely.
Was I going into the unknown with the knowledge it could be a very bad decision? Of course.
Would I still make enough money to cover what I needed to?
“How much would you pay me if I worked for you?”
“Depends on what you’d do, but it will be a minimum of double what you make now. Plus, you’ll have a place to live in my building, so you won’t have to worry about rent.”
“He’ll live with me,” Reghan stated.
That time I did look at him. I found I didn’t mind him answering.
“What about Mars?” I couldn’t forget about my brother.
“He’s been getting along with the others here. I could give him an apartment as well. Hell, I could give him a job. Before you go off that you don’t want your brother doing shit like you do, it wouldn’t be that, for fuck’s sake. All kinds of shit needs to be done around here.”
“You’re a good man, Jordan Altair!” I heard Hartley yell in the background.
Jordan’s answering growl vibrated into the phone, “If I soften any more, I’m not going to be able to intimidate even Tahoe.”
“You don’t now.”
“I swear to fuck, Hart.”
I cleared my throat.
“Fuck’s sake,” Jordan muttered. “I’m sending Kayli and Ollie your way. When they get there, you two get your asses here so we can plan. Hopefully by then Lawson has something for us.” He hung up without saying another word.
I guessed we were heading into the lion’s den before bringing a whole lot of hate onto the asshole who thought it was smart to take innocent men.