Chapter 4
Chapter four
Gator
I wanted to lecture Julius on how foolish it was to go after them on his own, but it wasn’t my place, plus I understood why he did it.
“You did what you could, but getting yourself out of there was the smart thing to do. There are cameras out back. I know that because we installed them. We’ll get Jesse to pull up the footage for us, and I’ll send it over to Kat.”
“That poor boy,” Julius said. “It was obvious he’d been drugged. Who knows what they’re going to do to him!”
I wanted to tell him we’d find him and that everything would be okay, but I didn’t like to make promises I wasn’t sure I could keep, so I didn’t. “You did everything you could. Now it’s up to the professionals to find him.”
“I don’t feel like I did anything at all,” he said with a sigh.
Hawk and Andy came back to the table, and Hawk sat down beside Mika and pulled him close. “They were long gone by the time we got there. Wolfe is with Jesse in his office watching the video footage from the alley.”
“You don’t think…” Mika trailed off.
“We don’t know anything yet, Mouse.” Hawk kissed the top of his head.
“Think what?” Julius asked.
“Last spring, Mika had a run-in with some bikers who were working as muscle for a human trafficking ring, but one of the bikers turned state’s evidence for a lower sentence, so they were able to catch the people responsible.
” I didn’t know how much Mika had told Julius or just how close they were, and I didn’t want him to have to air his business here in the club if he didn’t want to.
Julius’s eyes widened, and he turned back to Mika. “That mess with your ex? I thought he was just an abusive asshole?”
Mika nodded. “Oh, he was that, but he was also involved in that whole mess, but like Gator said, one of the guys turned on them, so I thought it was finished.”
“We don’t know that was what was going on here,” I said. “But we’ll give Chance Kelly a call just in case.”
Chance was an FBI agent and a friend of Wolfe’s. He’d been there when we’d taken down the guys last spring.
Wolfe and Jesse came over, and they both took a seat. Wolfe let out a sigh. “We watched the video. We were able to get a face shot of one of the guys and of the back of the car. I couldn’t make out a license plate, though. We might need to expand the coverage in the alley.”
“That’s probably not a bad idea. When we first put it in, we were only worried about the area around the back door, but after this, I can see why having more coverage out there would be useful.” Jesse agreed.
“Do you know the boy?” I asked, and Jesse shook his head.
“I saw him in here earlier, but he isn’t a regular, so I’m not sure what his name is.
He seemed fine when I saw him, but he appeared to be drugged when the guy was shoving him in the car.
” Jesse sounded livid, and I was sure he was.
He’d gone to great pains to make sure this was a safe space for the boys who came to his club, and most likely, he was blaming himself for not protecting this particular boy.
Julius sighed. “I thought so when I saw him in the hallway. He looked confused, like he didn’t know who the guy was or where he was taking him.”
“I called the police, and they’re on their way. We have the whole thing on video, but I’m sure they’ll want to talk to you, Julius.”
“Of course,” Julius said.
I looked at him and was glad to see that he seemed less shook up now that he’d had a minute to catch his breath. I picked up the glass of water Caleb had gone after and handed it to Julius. I motioned for him to drink it. He huffed and rolled his eyes, but downed the water.
“How long will it be before the cops get here?” My guess was that his adrenaline would crash pretty soon, and I really wanted to get him home before that happened.
“They should be here any minute,” Jesse said. “I told the guys at the front to bring them back here when they arrive.”
“Good.” I turned back to Julius. “You didn’t recognize the men?”
“No, I’ve never seen them before. Of course, I haven’t been here in a few months, so they could be new.”
Jesse shook his head. “The guy who led the boy outside was in here tonight. Paid cash for a beer but didn’t hang around to chat. I’d never seen him before that.”
“We’ll get Kat the footage and see if she can get any hits on them,” Wolfe said. “If anyone can ID them, she can.”
Wolfe wasn’t wrong. Kat was the head of the Three Bears tech department, and she was the best there was. We had no idea how she managed to do half the stuff she did, and to be honest, we probably didn’t want to know. There was something to be said for plausible deniability.
A minute later, the bouncer for the club came up with one of the local police officers, Carmine Russo, in tow.
“Here he is, boss,” the bouncer said to Jesse. “Need anything else?”
“No, thanks, Mitch.” Jesse reached out a hand, and Carmine shook it before shifting his attention to everyone at the table.
“So the call said someone was taken?” he asked.
“Right.” I motioned towards Julius. “Julius is the one who saw what happened, but there’s also camera footage for you to look at.”
“Thanks, we’ll get to the footage in a minute,” he said to me, and then smiled at Julius. “I’m sure you are ready to get out of here, so why don’t you tell me what happened.”
Julius ran through the whole thing again. Carmine only interrupted him a couple of times so he could clarify something, so it didn’t take long for him to tell the story.
When he finished, Carmine looked back up at the rest of us. “And no one knows who the boy was?”
“No, we don’t. This is the first time I’ve seen him, and he seemed to be here alone. We have a good look at his face on one of the cameras, though.”
“Okay, Julius. Are you sure you didn’t know them, and they didn’t know you?”
“I’m sure.”
“Alright. That’s all I need from you right now. You’re free to go.” Carmine reached into his pocket and pulled out a card, handing it to Julius. “Call me if you think of anything else.”
“I will.”
“Great. Okay, Jesse, let’s go look at this video.”
“You can come home with us,” Mika said.
“Or with us,” Caleb added.
“Thanks, guys, but I just want to go home to my own bed.” Julius smiled weakly at them and then looked at me. “Not exactly how I thought my night was going to end.”
“There’s always next time.” I picked up his hand and placed a kiss on the back. “I really would feel better if you went and stayed with Mika or Caleb, though.”
“No need. I have a good security system, and I’m sure I’ve never seen them before, so I’ll be fine.”
“I’ll follow you home just to make sure.”
“That really isn’t necessary.”
“Maybe not, but I’ll feel better if I do.”
He shrugged. “Fine, whatever.”
Wolfe looked at me. “I’m going to go see what Jesse and Carmine have found. After you see Julius home, why don’t you check in with Kat and see what she’s found?”
“Sounds good to me.”
I followed Julius out to his car and watched until he got in and buckled his seat belt. “You really don’t have to follow me home. I’ll be fine.”
“I know. Drive safe, and I’ll see you there.
” I closed the door and took in a deep breath.
I really thought we were done with all this mess after Hawk took down Butch, but we didn’t know for sure if the information Snake had given them had been enough for them to take down the whole ring, and I didn’t believe in coincidence.
A few minutes later, we pulled up in front of Julius’s place, and I got out and went over to his car. “Let me go in first and make sure everything is okay.”
“Gator, seriously, I didn’t know those guys at all, which means they didn’t know me. I’ll be fine.”
“Maybe so, but just let me check, okay?”
“Okay, but if you hear someone screaming, don’t let that freak you out. It’s just Trixie.”
My brows furrowed, and I stared down at him. “Trixie?”
“My bird. She’s a little bit dramatic.”
“Hmm. Wonder where she might get that from,” I teased.
“Right? It’s a mystery.”
He opened up the door and took a step back, letting me go in first.
“Come inside, and shut the door behind you, but wait right here until I tell you it’s all clear.”
He nodded, so I flipped on the living room light and took a step when, just as he’d predicted, there was what sounded like a woman’s scream, then, “Intruder. Intruder alert. Intruder.”
“It’s okay, Trix,” Julius called out. “It’s a friend, not an intruder.”
The bird cocked her head to the side and looked at me.
“I’m a bird. Trixie is a bird.”
“She’s going to keep telling you that until you acknowledge that she is indeed a bird.”
I glanced back over my shoulder at him. “Seriously?”
“Seriously.”
“I am a bird. I can fly.” She spread her wings out wide like she was going to take off. The cage she was in was huge, but I didn’t think it was big enough for her to actually fly. I figured I had two choices. I could either ignore the bird or I could go with it.
“Yes, you are a bird. Look at you. Aren’t you a pretty girl?” At least I assumed she was a girl with a name like Trixie.
She fluffed up her feathers and bounced up and down. “Trixie is a pretty girl. Mmmhmm. Pretty, pretty, pretty girl.” She paused, and I thought she was finished but then she added another wolf whistle.
I’d never had a conversation with a bird before, but she was ridiculously easy to understand. My agreeing with her that she was a bird and telling her she was pretty seemed to mollify her enough for me to keep going. “Okay, I’m going to check out the rest of the place.”
“If there was anyone else here, Trixie would tell us, but you go ahead if it makes you feel better.”
And it did make me feel better. The bird had obviously sounded the alert when it saw me, but it was a bird; it wasn’t like it actually understood what it was saying.
I paused and looked at Julius. “Please tell me when you said you had a security system that isn’t what you meant.” I pointed at the bird cage. I hadn’t seen him disarm any alarms when we came in, so I wasn’t sure.
He waggled his phone in the air. “No, I have a legit system. I turned it off in the car before I got out.”
“Good.”
It didn’t take me long to make a quick pass through the place and give him the go-ahead. I didn’t really want to leave him here, but I also wanted to do my part to try to locate the boy who was taken.
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’m good, honest. I mean, this night didn’t quite turn out the way I’d hoped, but there’s always next time, right?” He shrugged like it was no big deal. But it was, and I wanted him to know it.
I stepped up to him and brushed my thumb across his cheek. “Listen here, baby boy. I let you get away before. I don’t plan to make that mistake a second time.”
“But tonight you have a job to do,” he said.
I nodded. “I don’t know how much luck we’ll have finding him, but the police are on it, and we’ll help them in anyway possible.”
He drew in a breath and then let it out slowly. “Okay, you go do what you can.”
“I will.” I walked to the door. “You lock this behind me and don’t open for anyone you don’t know. And turn the alarm back on. The real one. The bird doesn’t count. You hear me?”
He rolled his eyes. “Yes, Daddy. I hear you.”
“Don’t be a brat. I want you safe.” I leaned down and placed a light kiss on his lips. “Call me if you need anything.”
He nodded, and I opened the door to step out when Trixie called out clear as day, “Daddy’s leaving. Bye, bye, Daddy.”
I shot Julius a look, and I could tell he was doing his best to hold in a laugh. I shook my head and left.
I was glad Wolfe had given me something to do.
Carmine had assured us that the police department would do everything they could to find the boy, but that wasn’t good enough.
Whoever these guys were, they snatched that boy right out from under the Three Bears’ eyes.
I mean, we weren’t working and had no idea anything was going on, but still, it didn’t sit well with any of us.
It was close to midnight by the time I got to the office. I stopped in the break room, got a couple of cups of coffee, and went straight to the ops center. Kat was sitting at her computer in her pajamas, hard at work. I stepped up behind her and saw her watching the tapes from inside the club.
She looked back over her shoulder at me, and I held out one of the coffees. “Thanks, Gator.”
“Any luck so far?” I asked.
She shook her head. “Right now, I’m focused on trying to identify the boy. He never once looks at the camera out in the alley. Luckily, he was wearing a sparkly hot pink crop top that stands out even in a crowd.”
She tapped the screen where a small guy in a pink top was standing at the bar. “This is him right here.”
“Okay, that’s progress, right?” I asked.
She nodded. “It is. I’ll find a good frontal shot and then run him through my face recognition software and see what I find. Next, I’m going to see what I can do about the guys in the alley. The camera out there is only so clear because it was dark.”
“Did you find anything on the car?”
“Just a partial plate that matches a bunch of cars across the state. It’ll be useful to confirm things once we have a suspect, though. Wolfe wants me to pass along any information I have to Officer Russo, but I’ll keep you updated, as well.”