Chapter 12
Chapter twelve
Julius
I woke up the next morning expecting Gator to have snuck away during the night, but to my surprise, he was right there sprawled out beside me. I wasn’t sure what time it was, but I could tell from the light streaming in the bedroom window that it was later than I normally slept.
Gator didn’t strike me as the type to sleep in, so if he was still out, he must really need the rest. Either that or I really wore him out last night.
I was going to feel it for days, so maybe that was it.
I moved slowly towards the edge of the bed, trying my best not to wake him, but I didn’t even make it to the edge before an arm shot out and a hand closed around my wrist.
“Where are you going, baby boy?”
God, his morning voice was gravely and sexy as hell.
“It’s time for me to get up. I was trying not to wake you.”
“What time is it?”
I reached for my phone and flipped it over to check. “Wow, it’s almost eight. I have to get moving. I can’t believe Trixie let us sleep.”
He stretched, and the sheet slid down, showing off his stunning body.
Man, it’s a shame I had to work today because I would love to crawl back in that bed with him.
We hadn’t talked about what last night meant, if it meant anything at all.
He’d called me his and talked like it did, but people said a lot of things in the dark that they didn’t mean during the light of day.
That was a lesson I’d learned the hard way.
“Check on the bird and then come back to bed.”
“I can’t. I have to get ready for work. Did you decide who was going with me today?”
He wrinkled his brow. “I am.”
“When you sent me upstairs yesterday, you said either you would or you would send someone else, so I wasn’t sure.”
“Jules, come here.” He held out his hand, and I looked at it for a second before giving in and letting him pull me back to him. “Listen to me. I was being foolish yesterday. I had this idea that what mattered was keeping you safe, and to do that, I had to keep my distance.”
“And that was being foolish?”
He reached up behind my head and wrapped his fingers in my curls, pulling my mouth to his.
He kissed me and then pulled back. “Very foolish. So, I’ll be the one going with you to work or anywhere else you need to go.
Nobody would take care of you as good as I will, baby boy.
You’re mine, and I don’t plan on letting anyone hurt you. ”
“I’m yours until you get tired of me. Everyone always does.”
“Well, I’m not everyone, and I’m not going anywhere. I’ll just have to keep telling you that until you believe me.
I wasn’t sure what to say to that, so I went the safe route and simply nodded before getting to my feet. “I really have to get up if I’m going to make it to work on time, and if you are going with me, you should probably go up to your place to shower and get a change of clothes.”
“I could, or we could shower together. Got to do our part to save the planet, you know.”
“If I get in that shower with you, there’s no way we’ll be leaving anytime soon, and you know it.” I pulled on a pair of sweatpants and started for the door.
“Fine,” he grumbled. “I’ll go up to my place then.”
I paused in the doorway and looked back over my shoulder. “Don’t worry, Daddy, I’ll make it up to you later.”
As soon as I walked into the room, Trixie perked up.
“Bow chicka wow wow. Walk of shame. Ju Ju got some.”
“It’s not a walk of shame when it’s in my apartment,” I murmured to myself because the last thing I wanted to do this morning was argue with a bird about my sex life.
“Did she say what I think she just said?” Gator said from behind me.
She let out a shrill whistle and fluffed up her feathers before saying. “Daddy’s up.”
“Morning, pretty girl,” he cooed at her, and she preened.
“Trixie is a pretty girl.”
I shook my head. “Silly bird. Come on, let’s get you out for a while so you can stretch your wings.”
I opened the door and put my hand in. She stepped off her perch onto my wrist.
“Going up. Going up.” She spread her wings wide as I lifted her to the top of the cage.
“Does she always say that when you take her out?” he asked.
“She does. Normally, it makes sense because I can barely reach the top of her enclosure, so she really is going up, but this cage isn’t as high.”
He studied her for a minute. “Is she okay in a cage that size?”
“For short amounts of time, yes, but not really. If we don’t figure this out soon, I’ll have to do something different. For now, I’m just trying to give her as much time out of the cage as possible.”
“You can’t just leave her out?”
“No,” I said with a laugh. “Trixie’s a genius with wings and no impulse control. Leaving her out alone is like opening the front door for a toddler and hoping they don’t go play in the street.”
“So not a good idea then?”
“Not even a little. I don’t even leave her out unsupervised at my house. I’d have to remodel the whole damn place to make it safe for her to roam. And even then, she’d probably find a way to set it on fire.”
“Gotcha. I’m going to head up and take a quick shower. I want to check in with Kat before we leave, so meet me down on the eighth floor when you’re ready to go.” He gave me a quick kiss and then left the apartment.
Gator
I made short work of a shower and hurried down to the ops center. It was still early, but I knew Kat would already be there. What I didn’t expect was to find Chance sitting at the computers with her, and if the look on his face was any indication, he was less than thrilled about what she’d found.
“Hey, Gator. I was just about to call you. I was hoping you would have time to stop by before you and Julius left this morning.” Kat motioned at the monitor in front of her. “I have news for you.”
I looked at Chance. “I take it it isn’t the good kind.”
He shook his head. “Not even close.”
“So remember the car that tailed Julius? It was registered to a shell company—Marawood Holdings. Nothing on the surface, just a PO box and a business license out of Nevada. But I dug deeper.”
“Of course you did.” I knew if anyone could find out who was behind the company, it would be Kat.
Her fingers flew across the keyboard, and two different pictures came up on the screen.
“This is Merrick Sloan.” She pointed at a slick-looking businessman in the first picture.
“He’s a piece of work. He owns Sloan Capital, a venture capital firm.
They’re known for buying out small mom-and-pop businesses, stripping them bare, and selling what’s left.
He’s loaded, ruthless, and known for doing whatever it takes to get the deal closed. ”
“Okay, so how does that connect to the car that tailed Julius?”
“I’m getting there. Marawood was formed three years ago using a corporate formation service out of Vegas.
Same agent’s been used for thousands of companies—completely clean.
But here’s the thing. That agent also registered another company five years ago.
Sin City investment group, which just happened to be folded into Sloan Capital two years later during a quiet restructuring deal.
And guess what?” She went back to work on the keyboard and her second monitor flared to life, showing line after line of data.
“Same virtual office address. Same tax filing schedule. Same damn CPA.”
“So Marawood Holdings and Sloan Capitol are connected?” I asked, trying to follow her.
“Oh, I’m saying more than that. The bank account that pays the insurance on that sedan?
It’s a corporate account out of the Caymans.
But the routing goes through a domestic subsidiary of Red Coral Trust, which is one of Sloan Capital’s known financial entities.
Shell inside a shell. Like a Russian nesting doll of bullshit. ”
“So what you’re saying is Sloan Capital is financing the guys who trailed Julius.”
“What I’m saying is Marawood Holdings is Merrick Sloan,” Kat said confidently.
Chance leaned forward in his seat and looked closer at the screen. “Merrick Sloan has been our top suspect in this trafficking ring for years. We were never able to find an actual connection, but I knew it was him.”
“I sent the screenshots and the paperwork trail to your office, Chance.”
“Thanks, Kat. I don’t know for sure if it’ll be enough to get a warrant or not. Sloan has a lot of powerful friends, but it’s enough for me to keep digging.”
“That’s him. That’s the guy who took the boy from the club,” Julius said from behind us. “The one I saw at the wedding.”
I turned to see him standing there staring at the monitor with the two photos still up on on it.
“Which one?” Chance asked.
“The one right there on the right.” He pointed at the one that wasn’t Merrick Sloan. “I’ve never seen the guy in the photo on the left before.”
I reached for him and pulled him to my side. I wished I could protect him from all this, but unfortunately, by trying to do the right thing that night, he’d landed right in the middle of it.
Kat nodded. “That’s Wade Roarke. We identified him using the photos we got from the wedding guests. He works for Pinnacle Logistics, which… wait for it… is owned by Marawood Holdings.”
“Which is really Merrick Sloan,” Chance said.
“Right.”
I pointed to the picture on the screen of Merrick Sloan. “So, Sloan pays Marawood. Marawood owns Pinnacle. Pinnacle pays the guys who kidnap people from clubs.”
“Exactly,” Kat agreed. “But Sloan’s name is nowhere near it unless you know where to look.”
“So this whole thing wasn’t a random kidnapping; it really is part of a bigger thing,” Julius said.
“I’m afraid so. When we broke up that ring earlier in the year, I’d hoped we would be able to follow it all the way up, but unfortunately, the guys we caught were too low on the chain to point a finger at Sloan.”
“So what now?” I asked.
“I’ll send a team to Wade Roark’s address to see if we can pick him up. If we can get him, he could lead us to Merrick Sloan.”
“And to the boy he kidnapped,” Julius pointed out.
“Of course,” Chance said, but Julius gave him a look like he wasn’t sure he believed him.
“We’re going to do everything we can to find him.
” I reached for Julius’s hand. Seeing the man get snatched right in front of him and not being able to stop it had been hard on Julius, and he felt responsible for the young man.
Chance, on the other hand, was looking at the bigger picture and was mostly worried about catching the big fish because he felt that would save more people overall.
“I know you will. I just can’t believe this is happening here in Vesper.”
That made me think of what Diego said the other day about small towns being the worst, but before I could say anything, Chance spoke up.
“Sadly, people like this often prey on small towns and cities because the people who live there feel more secure, so their guards are down. Not only that, but they have smaller police forces and less resources.”
“But knowing this ties into your larger case changes things, right?” Kat asked.
“Oh yeah. I’ll be meeting with local law enforcement, and we’ll be working together on it officially now.”
“Good deal.” I clasped Chance on the shoulder. “Carmine is a good guy, but this is over his head.” I turned to Julius. “You ready to get to work?”
He took a deep breath but nodded his head. “I am.”
“Good work, Kat. We’ll be at Julius’s salon this morning, but keep me updated if you get any news.”
I did feel better knowing that Chance was going to be involved in the investigation, and I got where he was coming from, but Julius was my only concern, and knowing that this was part of a larger trafficking case only heightened my concern for him.
Men like Merrick Sloan had a lot to lose, and they didn’t care who they hurt or how badly.