Chapter 11
Chapter eleven
Crowe
When I walked into Wolfe’s office, he was on the phone talking to someone.
I started to back out to give him privacy, but he motioned for me to take a seat.
Hawk was leaning against the far wall with his arms crossed, and Gator was in the chair across from Wolfe, both of them looking like they’d slept in their clothes, which they probably had.
I took the other chair and stretched my legs out.
“You both look terrible,” I said, keeping my voice low.
“You’re welcome,” Hawk said flatly. “We hadn’t planned on staying, remember?”
I shrugged. “Yeah, sorry about that.” I wasn’t, and we both knew it, but what else was I supposed to say?
“Your cabin is awesome, by the way.” Gator leaned back in his chair and shook his head like he was still thinking about it. “I mean it. That drive in, the trees, the way the light comes through in the morning. I’d love to go there sometime under better circumstances.”
“It is a nice place,” Hawk agreed.
“It’s peaceful,” Gator said. “I kept thinking Julius would love it up there.” He paused. “Julius and the giant claw-foot tub would be something to see.”
I smiled. “My grandfather built the place. Back before the state park expanded around it, the land wasn’t worth much, and nobody wanted it.
He wanted somewhere he could go and not see or hear another human being for a week.
” I thought about him. He was a big, quiet man, more comfortable with a fishing rod than with conversation.
He and I had that in common. “He built most of it by hand. It took him two summers.”
“The workmanship is amazing. You can tell he put his heart into it,” Hawk said.
“He did. Now it’s just me and Wyatt,” I said.
Wolfe hung up the phone. “Sorry, I had to take that call.”
“No problem.” I looked at Hawk and Gator, ready to get this started. “How are our guests in the woodshed?”
Gator reached for his coffee on the desk and took a drink before answering me. “The one you shot is fine. Shoulder wound, clean through. He’ll live.” He set the cup back. “The other one has a headache, but he was talking by the time we left him with the agents Chance sent our way.”
“Talking willingly?”
Hawk made a sound that wasn’t quite a laugh. “Define willingly.”
I didn’t push it. We had our methods, and they weren’t pretty, but we didn’t cross lines we couldn’t come back from. Whatever they’d done had been enough to get answers without becoming something we weren’t. “What did you get?”
Wolfe picked up a folder and opened it. “The man who hired them is called Gregor Valen. Mid-level guy. He moves money and people for someone with a lot more resources than he’ll ever have.
He’s loyal the way people are loyal when they’re more afraid of their employer than they are of anything we might do to them.
” He paused. “Which tells you something about the employer.”
“He gave you Valen willingly?” I asked.
“He gave us Valen once he understood his options,” Hawk said. “Which were limited.”
Wolfe turned the folder toward me, and I looked at the photo Kat had pulled. Gregor Valen. Mid-forties, heavy through the shoulders, and with a hard face that gave nothing away.
“And Valen leads back to?” I asked.
“Anton Corvane,” Wolfe said. “It took Kat most of the night, but she got there. Old money. Political connections that go back two generations. He operates through layers. Shell companies, contractors, intermediaries, but the thread is there if you pull it hard enough.”
“He’s from Selvaris?” I asked.
“That’s where the money originates, yes.
He’s based there. He’s untouchable there, and he knows it.
” Wolfe closed the folder. “Chance Kelly asked around for us, and he’s on the feds’ radar.
Nothing anyone’s been able to move on so far.
Which is why Corvane is comfortable enough to be sending people after Noah without much concern about who notices. ”
“He’s comfortable,” I said, “because he’s never had to be uncomfortable.”
“That’s about the size of it.”
Wolfe paused, laced his fingers together on the desk, and looked at me directly. The look that meant something was coming, that he’d already decided how to say.
“You drove Noah back yourself,” he said.
I met his eyes. “I did.”
“I sent Hawk and Gator up there to bring him.”
“I know you did.” I kept my voice level. “And I appreciated it. But I wasn’t handing him off to anyone else, so I drove him back.” I let a beat pass. “I’m on vacation, Wolfe. My time is my own.”
Hawk made a sound that he immediately converted into a cough.
Wolfe looked at me for a long moment, then let out a breath through his nose. “Crowe. I wasn’t saying anything. I’m not criticizing you.”
“Sounded like you were about to.” I was sitting in a room with two guys who’d fallen for the man they were protecting, so while it might not be the smartest thing, it wasn’t like they could say much.
“I was about to say that it tells me something useful about where things stand, so I know how to plan. I’m not saying it’s ideal, but I get it. He’s important to you. You just need to make sure your head stays in the game.”
I held his gaze for another second, then nodded once.
“Plus, he trusts you,” Wolfe continued. “That matters.” He picked up his pen and turned it between two fingers. “So. That leads to the big question. Where do we go from here?”
He looked at me like he thought I had the answer. I didn’t, but I’d been thinking about options for days now.
“We can’t keep him here indefinitely,” I said. “He won’t want that, and it’s not a solution. Unfortunately, whatever Corvane paid for Noah, it was enough that he isn’t willing to walk away. Either that, or his pride won’t let him take a loss. But either way, he isn’t going to stop.”
“Agreed,” Wolfe said.
“So we need to give him a reason to stop. Or we need to take away his ability to try.” I paused. “The second one is preferable but harder.”
“Chance can’t move on Corvane without something solid,” Hawk said. “The man is insulated. Everything Kat found is circumstantial enough that a good lawyer will take it apart in forty minutes.”
“Then we need something that isn’t circumstantial.
” I thought about Noah in the apartment upstairs.
The way he’d slept through the night curled up against my side.
“We also need to make sure Noah can still live his life. He has an event coming up. A fundraiser for the Freedom Forward Gala. He’s speaking at it. He’s not going to miss it.”
Gator looked up. “Damn, a public event.”
“I know.”
“With a man actively trying to get to him,” Gator added, just to be thorough.
“I know,” I said again. “But it’s important to him. He agreed to speak before any of this happened. It’s a fundraiser for trafficking victims. It matters to him to do something. Not just to survive it. To do something.”
Nobody said anything for a moment.
“We can make it work,” Hawk said finally. “It’ll take planning.”
“It’ll take more than that,” Wolfe said. “We’ll need eyes on the venue well in advance. Guest list, security layout, exit points. If Corvane or Valen has any idea Noah is planning to attend a public event of that profile, they may see it as an opportunity.”
I wasn’t sure how this was all going to play out, but I knew something had to give.
“Noah spending the rest of his life hiding isn’t a solution, and neither is letting Corvane get his hands on him.
So we need a plan.” I looked at the closed folder on the desk.
“Corvane thinks he’s untouchable. People like that get comfortable. Comfortable people make mistakes.”
Wolfe was quiet for a long moment. Then he nodded slowly.
“All right. We keep Noah here until we have a better picture of what Corvane’s next move might be.
Kat will keep monitoring them, and we’ll plan for the Gala as an active operation, not just a security detail.
” He looked at Hawk and Gator. “We’ll need to put together a team. ”
“I’ll do that,” Hawk said.
“I’ll call Chance, as well,” Wolfe said. “I want to know what he has on Corvane before we do anything else. If they’re already working an angle, I don’t want to screw it up. Who knows, they may fix our problem for us.”
“Wouldn’t that be nice?”
“It would.” Wolfe agreed. “But I wouldn’t count on it, anyway, that’s it for today. I’ll let you all know if I hear anything helpful.”
I pushed to my feet. There was a place one floor up I wanted to be.
“I’ll be upstairs,” I said.
“Of course you will,” Hawk said pleasantly.
I didn’t dignify that. I was almost to the door when Wolfe spoke again. “Crowe.”
I turned.
He looked at me across the office, and there was nothing in his expression but something quiet and direct. “I’m glad you were close enough to get to him.”
I held his gaze for a moment. “So am I,” I said, and left.