10. Chapter 10
Chapter 10
Some people create their own storms then get mad when it rains.
“I don’t care what you guys do, I’m not talking,” Johnny growled as Chance dragged him out of the back of the SUV.
There wasn’t much light out in the chilly bayou, but at least there was a full moon and a blanket of stars illuminating them. A few familiar sounds broke through the otherwise quiet night air. An owl hooted softly in the distance as wind rustled through the trees.
Chance grunted under the guy’s weight. “Jesus, lay off the beer.”
“Get bent!”
“Uh-uh. Play nice or I’m dumping you right in there.” Berlin pointed to the swamp behind them where water lapped gently against the marshy shore.
Chance hid a grin at her sweet tone. It was more terrifying than a threatening one and he wasn’t sure why. They’d stopped at her place to grab some stuff, then Chance had driven them a couple hours northwest to an area that had once been a fish camp and place for actual camping until a tornado had come through and destroyed everything years ago. He wasn’t even sure who owned the land, but no one had ever done anything with it. He’d been here a few times with his brother and grandma when he’d been younger and it still looked the same.
“What is this dump?” Johnny rolled up onto his knees, not easy when his ankles and wrists were bound.
“Where you’re going to die if you don’t talk,” Berlin said cheerily as she grabbed her laptop from the front seat.
The light from the SUV put Johnny under a spotlight. “What the hell do you guys want?” he demanded.
“I want to know where my brother is.” Chance kept his tone neutral enough, hoped that Johnny didn’t sense his desperation. Facing the bound man, he crossed his arms over his chest.
Johnny blinked in surprise. “Enzo?”
When Chance had first started doing small jobs for Brody’s gang, he’d asked about Enzo—because his brother had told him he was working with them in New Orleans. Then he’d dropped off the face of the earth. They were the last people to work with his brother and he wanted to know what kind of job Enzo had been doing for them. “Yep.”
Johnny shrugged, but there was a hint of something in his eyes. Fear, maybe. “How the hell should I know?”
Berlin strode up next to Chance, but he gently laid a hand on her arm before she could move closer to Johnny. Even tied up, the man could hurt her and he wasn’t letting her get too close. “Show him from here.”
Sighing, as if he was ridiculous, she turned her laptop around and pressed play in the middle of the screen. Moans filled the air as two naked bodies filled the small screen.
“This is only a taste of what I’ve got on you, and I must say, you’ve been a very busy boy.” She made a tsking sound as she glanced down at the screen. “That’s definitely you, and oh, my, is that…Brody’s sister you’re bending over his couch?” Now she shook her head, her expression mock-sad. “Does he know about you two? Or maybe…” She pulled up another screen, this time with another moaning woman. “What about you two?”
“Man, they’d broken up already!” But Johnny was sweating now, literally. His brow was slick as his breathing kicked up.
“I’ll take that as a no, he doesn’t know about you and his ex-wife. The ex-wife he’s very much still in love with.”
Johnny cleared his throat once, twice. “Fine, he doesn’t know. And it wasn’t like I planned it. It just happened.”
Berlin tilted her head slightly to the side as she watched him. “That seems to be the case with you. Women just fall on your dick, huh?”
“I can’t help it!”
Chance bit back a snort. God, this was better than torture, something he’d been loath to do. To be fair, he’d do whatever it took to find his brother, but he wouldn’t have liked it. But Berlin had found this guy’s weak spot. The woman was incredible and he loved watching her work. He couldn’t help but wonder what would happen after they found Enzo. Would she…be done with him? A weird sensation settled on his chest at the thought, but he ignored it.
“Okay, well that’s a load of crap,” Berlin said. “I don’t care who you screw. But Brody and a few of your biker gang members will. I’ve got more videos of you with some of their old ladies. That’s what you guys call them, right? Want to watch? You’ve been a great source of entertainment the last couple weeks.”
Okay, Chance was officially impressed. He knew she could hack stuff and called herself a PI, but this was top notch work.
“No, no, I don’t want to see anything else. Just tell me what you want. I’ve got some money stashed away. Brody and me both sometimes skim off the top. You can have everything.”
Berlin simply looked at Chance, eyebrows raised.
He nodded at her, then looked at Johnny. His instinct was to crouch down so he was at his level, but he wanted to tower over him. It wasn’t like Johnny needed the reminder of who was in control, but he was getting it anyway.
“Where’s Enzo? I know you know something.”
When Johnny didn’t respond, Berlin pulled up another video, this time of a blonde sitting on Johnny’s face. “Ooh, her husband is kind of a psycho, right? Didn’t he just get out of jail for manslaughter?”
“Jesus, just turn it off.” Johnny shut his eyes, full-on trembling now.
Berlin kept it playing. “Not for nothing, I think you have a problem, man. You might want to get into therapy…if you survive tonight.”
Chance glanced at her, eyebrows raised, and she shrugged.
“He might be a sex addict,” she murmured. “He’s gross but I still feel a little bad for him.”
Chance shook his head. “You hear that? She feels sorry for you. But I don’t. Talk, or she sends out all of these videos en masse. You’ll never be able to set foot in New Orleans again. Hell, all of Louisiana. Maybe even the whole Gulf Coast.”
Chance knew she wouldn’t send any of the videos because it would put the women in the videos in danger with their current partners if they’d cheated. Given the way Johnny’s long-sleeved shirt was damp with his stress sweat, he didn’t know they were bluffing. Because Berlin had already told him she would be scrubbing the videos as soon as they had what they needed.
“Fine, fine,” he rasped out, close to hyperventilating. “Enzo did a few jobs with us, then hooked up with…” He cleared his throat a couple times. “The Acton brothers. They work with the Becerra cartel.”
Oooh, shit. Neither of those names were good. The Becerra cartel was small compared to some of the others, and they were going through “growing pains,” aka killing anyone who got in their way. And the Acton brothers were psychos—according to what he’d heard.
Chance glanced at Berlin, saw that she recognized the cartel name too, if her grim expression was any indication.
“How’d he hook up with them?” Chance asked, focusing on Johnny again.
“Look, if I tell you, Brody’ll kill me.”
“If he finds out you screwed his ex and his sister, he’ll kill you anyway.”
Still breathing hard, Johnny nodded again, though more to himself than Chance. “Look, Brody owed money to the Acton brothers, so he sort of…encouraged Enzo to go work with them. All Enzo had to do was a few runs through Texas and that was it. He was just supposed to drive their product through the state, drop it off to another driver, who’d switch vehicles…you know the deal. He was just a middleman, if that. Nothing more. I’ve done those kinds of runs before and they’re nothing. Once he’d done a few runs, then Brody would be even and Enzo would be…made official with our gang.”
So that was why Brody had lied to Chance. God, Chance wanted to shake Enzo for getting involved with these losers. But maybe if he’d been there more, if he’d been a better brother… Damn it. He might be angry at his brother, but he was furious with Brody. The man had thrown Enzo to the wolves to cover a debt, then when his brother disappeared, he’d just pretended as if he had no idea what happened.
“I’m going to need names of everyone Enzo was involved with and anything else you know.”
Johnny nodded and started rattling off information—and Chance couldn’t help but notice that Berlin was covertly recording his confession. She really was a pro.
When Johnny was done, Chance glanced at Berlin. “We good?”
“You tell me.”
He nodded once, surprised by how much he liked working with her. The only people he’d ever felt at home with were the men he’d fought alongside in his unit. But this, with her…was weirdly nice. And he didn’t want to dwell on it. He knew there couldn’t be anything real with her, anything long-term. But…he really liked her.
“Okay, so I’m going to tell you what’s going to happen next,” Berlin said to Johnny. “We’ve got a full confession from you about what Brody did to Enzo, and a looooot of videos of you. So we’re all going to walk away and never talk about this again. You can tell Brody we beat the shit out of you or tortured you for information on where your stash is, but you never cracked. If you tell him we asked about Enzo…all these videos get released. And then you get dead.”
“My girl’s got a mean streak,” Chance added when Johnny just stared slack-jawed at Berlin. Then Chance looked over at her. “Get in the SUV. I’m going to untie him.”
“Wait, you’re going to leave me out here?” Johnny protested.
“Yep,” Chance said as Berlin shut the back hatch. “It’s a long walk to civilization, which might be a good thing for you. You need time to think about what you’re going to say and it’s going to be a rough hike back. It’ll help sell that we roughed you up.”
“I suggest that once you get back to civilization, you look into therapy,” Berlin called over her shoulder as she slid into the passenger seat. “Seriously, you’re just screwing everything that moves to fill a void in your chest and it’s never going to happen.”
“You’re insane!”
“That might be true, but I’m not the one tied up near a gator-infested swamp.” She gave him a pitying look before she shut the door behind her.
“I’m going to untie you now, and if you try anything stupid, she’ll release those videos in a second. So don’t do anything you’ll regret later,” Chance warned, moving in behind him.
Johnny’s body vibrated with rage, but to Chance’s surprise he didn’t make a move once the ties were cut. So maybe he wasn’t as dumb as Chance had originally thought. And he was also a little disappointed he didn’t get to beat on Johnny.
After he pulled out of what had once been a gravel parking lot but was now mostly grass, Johnny visible in the rearview mirror just standing there, Chance finally allowed himself a sense of relief. “We actually got something from him.”
“Of course we did. Teamwork makes the dream work.”
He snort-laughed, but the tightness that had bound his chest for over a month eased a little. It wasn’t great that Enzo had disappeared while working with the Acton brothers, but…it was a lead. And that was all he could ask for now.
“You think he’ll come after us?”
“No.” Chance shook his head. He planned to follow up with Johnny later to make sure he didn’t. He wasn’t simply letting the asshole go, free to come after Berlin later. “You scared the hell out of him.”
“Yeah I did.” She sounded proud. “You want me to drive, or are you good?”
“Nah, I’m good. I know you hate driving at night anyway. Just lean back and close your eyes.” She had to be exhausted. It was a little after two thirty and they still had a couple hours back to the city.
But she just shook her head and pulled up another screen on her laptop. “No way. I’m going to start digging into the Acton brothers.”
The fact that she was just jumping into this, knowing that it was a lot more dangerous than he’d originally thought… A cartel was involved. And the Acton brothers—a violent group of psychos who weren’t actually brothers at all. “Thank you. But after you get any intel on them, I’m pulling the plug on all this. You’re not—”
“Oh my god, Chance, just stop. I’m helping you. I know you have trust issues but—”
“No, that’s not what this is about.” Though to be fair, he did have trust issues. But less with her than ninety-nine percent of the rest of the world population. “The Becerra cartel is going through some restructuring which means things are violent and unstable in their world. And the Acton brothers have a reputation—and you’re not getting involved with them. We’re not going up against them. No way in hell. Look, I love my brother more than anything, but I’m not putting you in danger. So you can help me with intel, but that’s it. And you’re not going to change my mind.”
“Okay,” she finally said.
He blinked in surprise as he pulled onto the highway. “That’s it?”
“Sure.” She shrugged casually. Way too casually, but she wasn’t arguing with him, so there wasn’t anything he could say. Yet. Because he had a feeling this conversation wasn’t over.
Not by a long shot.