Chapter 31
T he girls had gone to bed hours ago. The rest of us were sporadically grouped in the dining room, kitchen, or living room, either working or keeping an eye on Beau. Or, in my case, arguing.
“This should be mine,” I told Briggs, refusing to back down.
He released an irritable sigh before looking up from one of the laptops and setting his cold stare on me. “It shouldn’t,” he said again. “I get that we rarely stay within the law to do what needs to be done, but you’re too emotionally involved in this, so you’re not thinking clearly. You going out and murdering Vance isn’t gonna do anything but land all of us in a lot more trouble.”
Maverick huffed out an amused sound from where he’d been seated in front of a laptop most the night.
Briggs’ glare slowly shifted the twin’s way before snapping back to me. “Besides, that isn’t who we are. We were under orders whenever we carried out hits. We aren’t anymore, which means we’re done with that.”
“So, if this had all happened to Lainey?” I asked, carefully watching his expression.
But it didn’t change as he relented, “If you catch someone trying to take Chloe, do whatever you have to. I won’t blame you because I’d do the same. And I get why you want your piece of Vance, I do. What he did to Chloe and who knows how many other women is...unforgiveable. But I’m not letting you kill him.”
“No, you’ll just have us do it for you,” Maverick said dryly as he tapped on his phone.
“I asked if y’all could stop further retaliation with the Wreckers,” Briggs corrected in a low, dangerous tone.
“We will,” Maverick muttered as he continued typing.
“And I asked y’all to help us find someone,” Rush added.
“Which, we did,” Maverick said in reminder as Rush continued.
“Y’all are the ones who decided to take it a step further.”
Maverick lowered his phone with a sigh and looked between the three of us. “We could always leave,” he said with a shrug as if it wouldn’t bother him either way. “We already found the girl, and she’s headed to a new life, far from here. We could go deliver warnings to the key members and head home, if that’s what you want. But my brother just found the dirty cop, and Kieran’s closing in on that Vance guy.”
Everything seemed to happen all at once and in slow motion after Maverick’s offhanded speech.
My stomach dropped. Briggs straightened, clearly caught off guard, as he said, “Wait...” And Evans appeared out of literally nowhere, sounding momentarily stunned when he murmured, “What was that?”
Maverick’s stare flicked in Evans’ direction before darting back to the three of us, as if asking how he should proceed. But I wasn’t sure Briggs, Rush, or I knew what to say because we hadn’t even known they were going to look for Corporal Evans.
“What’d you mean by that?” Evans demanded, charging closer. “What’d you—my dad?” he ground out. “Your brother found my dad? Why was he looking for him?”
Rush caught Evans when he went for Maverick, locking his hands around Evans’ chest and pulling him back as Evans fought to get to the twin, all while sneering out demands. “What are y’all doing? He wouldn’t—he wouldn’t have been hiding, so why’s your brother looking for him? That’s my dad .”
“That wasn’t—” Briggs began when Rush forced Evans into the living room. “That wasn’t something you ever mentioned.” He scratched at the light beard covering his jaw and cut a menacing look at Maverick. “You need to pull your brother from whatever he’s doing.”
Maverick held Briggs’ stare for long seconds before saying, “ Did . He’s gone.”
A hushed curse bled from Briggs. “Y’all can’t just come here and start killing people—killing cops . And what happened to keeping us updated on everything?” he asked in a threatening tone. “I thought y’all were looking for Vance.”
Maverick tipped his head in denial. “Once the girl was found, I told you they were gonna find and take care of the loose ends. Plural.” He gestured toward the screen of his laptop. “The cop might’ve been working for the Wreckers, but Vance either paid enough or was enough of a Wrecker that the cop worked for him too.”
Briggs stared him down before muttering, “You’re gonna destroy my team before you leave.”
“And we’re gonna save countless women,” Maverick said firmly, unapologetically. “If your team can’t survive this, you should be more worried about their loyalties and priorities. Look,” he went on before Briggs could respond, “I understand it’s hard when it’s family—trust me, I do. But you have no idea what we see and deal with in our lives.”
He waved a hand at his laptop. “We know people like this. We know traffickers in ways I really wish we didn’t. They don’t go away because you stop their operation or get them thrown in prison. They rise back up and start operations somewhere else. So, no, I’m not concerned that we’re taking out key people in a ring. What I’m concerned about is that we only found the one girl.
“You said this Vance guy has one to two women taken a year,” he went on, his head subtly nodding. “That’s a fairly common timeline for trafficking rings—once or twice a year. However, I’ve never known a ring to send just one girl at a time.”
“I’m aware,” Briggs said irritably.
“Then you know the place we found the girl is only a holding area,” Maverick grated. “Which means, even after we go home, leaving this a better place for you, we won’t stop until their entire operation is fully destroyed. But, sure...get mad that we took out a couple traffickers along the way.”
Briggs’ head bobbed in reluctant understanding before he released a strained sigh just as a phone began vibrating in my pocket. “Update on Vance?” he asked as I pulled the phone—Chloe’s—free, my blood going cold when I saw it was a blocked number calling.
“He’s calling,” I said before Maverick could respond, unable to tear my stare from the screen.
“Speaker,” Briggs commanded—as if I hadn’t already known that—at the same time Maverick reminded me, “Kieran’s closing in. Don’t try to get his location, it might make him run.”
“I know,” I irritably told them as I finally tapped the button to answer, my body subtly shaking as a lethal combination of rage and loathing surged through me.
“Owen Vance...” I said in greeting once the call was on speaker.
If he was surprised Chloe wasn’t the one to answer, he didn’t show it, just eased out a condescending laugh. “It has to bother you that she told you my name but never bothered to mention you to me.”
“Hardly,” I told him. “Think it’s actually the other way around. Now, tell me what I can do for you at”—I glanced at the time—“three in the morning.”
“You can return Chloe to me,” he said as if he had all the confidence in the world that I would do exactly that.
“Yeah, I don’t think so,” I mumbled. “Last I heard, she didn’t wanna be anywhere near you.”
Maverick turned his laptop for Briggs and me to see, pointing at a small dot on a map. As soon as I realized what I was seeing, I muted the call in time for Briggs to hiss, “That’s the girls’ house.”
“Which girls?” Maverick quickly demanded.
Briggs and I gestured in the directions of the rooms Lainey and Chloe were sleeping in while saying their names, forcing a fraction of relief to sweep across Maverick’s features.
“They’re here right now,” Maverick stated, only partially making the confirmation sound like a question, “not at their house.”
“Correct,” Briggs answered.
“I’ll let Kieran know, but that’s where your guy is,” Maverick said softly, then nodded toward the phone when Vance started speaking again. “If Vance is still there, Kieran’s in there with him.”
“I find it amusing what women will say to make men come to their rescue, when their situation couldn’t be further from that,” Vance said with a sigh that only hinted at frustration as I unmuted the call. “Deep down, none of us can resist being a white knight, can we?” He breathed out a feigned laugh of wounded understanding. “Your tone and words sound eerily similar—” He hesitated. “Sorry, I didn’t catch your name.”
“I never gave it.”
Amusement and understanding hummed through the call. “Eerily similar,” he repeated, sounding strangely and convincingly sad. “I don’t know what she’s told you, but I can imagine, considering Chloe and I began the same way. I thought I was saving her from an abusive relationship, only to find out it was a game she’d enjoyed playing. But by that time, I was too far gone to care.”
A week ago, I would’ve believed him. Easily.
A few days ago, I might’ve hesitated just because I’d wanted to find something to base my suspicions on when it’d come to Chloe’s mask.
But I didn’t even blink at Vance’s words then. I couldn’t. I had proof of his manipulations from their conversations. I’d witnessed Chloe’s reactions to him that she hadn’t been quick enough to hide. I’d seen and felt her blatant fear and horror when she realized how close she’d come to being taken because of him.
“Nice story,” I said, doubt leaking through my words. “I might’ve considered believing you if you hadn’t tried having Chloe taken for your little trafficking ring.”
Silence settled over the call for a moment before he spoke, his tone no longer trying to sway me to believe anything. “I wouldn’t have had to if she wouldn’t have refused me.”
My brows slammed down as that rage burned hotter. “So, that’s what this is? When women start refusing you, you sell them off?”
A dark laugh sounded. “Just her. Chloe is—well, I’m sure you understand. She’s unique. I didn’t plan on letting her go easily, and I still don’t. I’m a forgiving man and believe in offering many, many chances, mister...”
“Still no,” I told him.
Satisfaction left him on a hum. “Doesn’t matter. Whether you release her to me willingly or not, you and your group of friends will soon?—”
I looked between Asher and Maverick when the obvious sounds of a phone falling filled the speaker. “Soon...” I echoed after a few seconds, drawing out the word and making it sound like a question. “Your threat kinda loses its power when you drop the phone.”
My brow furrowed when the call ended, and my heart beat harder. “Actually, that kinda makes it worse,” I muttered, then focused on Maverick. “Your wife’s watching the cameras here, right?”
He grunted in acknowledgment, drawing the laptop back to him at the same moment his phone buzzed on the table. Scooping it up, he tapped on the screen a couple times before announcing, “Vance has been taken care of.”
Even though the immediate threat to Chloe and other women in the Dallas school district was gone, disappointment unfurled in my chest at the news. I worked my jaw before glancing at Briggs. “Should’ve been mine.”
“Just be glad it’s done,” he mumbled before telling Maverick, “If there are already orders, we need to stop whatever Vance was hinting at.”
“You keep telling me things like this isn’t what we do,” Maverick said as he shut his laptop. “Kieran will make the house look like nothing ever happened, then meet us there. My brother’s already waiting, so let’s head out.”
“Where?” Briggs asked, not moving when Maverick started quickly packing up.
Maverick only paused to give Briggs an exasperated look. “Wrecker’s main base of operations. We’ll draw them there and send your message. If anything was already ordered for tonight, we’ll get it stopped.”
“I’m not leaving my fiancée and niece here unprotected,” Briggs ground out.
At that, Maverick straightened with a clipped sigh. “Do you not trust the rest of your team?” he asked, sounding partly curious, partly aggravated. “It’d be best if the Wreckers saw you with us so they know this is real. So, at the very least, you need to come. If it were me, I’d bring another member of your team with you so the Wreckers don’t think you’re making dealings with mafia families behind your team’s back.” He held out a hand. “Are we good? Or do you wanna question me a dozen more times like I don’t know what I’m doing?”
Maverick started reaching for his backpack again, only to stop. “If I were you, I wouldn’t be so confident in your ability to protect people just because you’re near them ,” he began, his voice softer than before— haunted . His stare flicked between the two of us before he studiously focused on zipping up the bag. “Doesn’t matter what you’ve been through or what you’ve trained for. Kieran’s wife was murdered by another family in front of all of us. My brother’s wife was taken by them right after.”
My head slanted as I imagined the picture he painted, but I just met Briggs’ stare and gave a subtle shake of my head. These ARCK people might be willing and able to do a lot of things we weren’t, but Briggs and I both knew we wouldn’t have let something like that happen.
However, where I knew when to keep my mouth shut around people, Briggs always said what was on his mind, no matter how bold or offensive it was.
I tensed when he told the mafia twin, “That’s the difference between y’all and us...we would’ve prevented that.”