13. Jordan
13
JORDAN
The joy on Hartley’s face had a smile forming on mine. I worried this trip would put him and Vail in a somber mood, but Forest was able to lift it. To watch Hartley and his brother race around the house like they were teenagers, being competitive, I had a bit of worry that Hartley would fall or get hurt, but when I saw how happy he was, the concern melted away.
That was until Hartley unlocked the door to his grandfather’s home and went in first, before Sheldon or Oleander could beat him to it. The moment Hartley stepped over the threshold, the hair on my arms stood up. I pushed past my guards, shoved myself in front of Hartley, and drew my gun, which I’d grabbed before I got out of the SUV. Technically, it was one of Raiden’s guns, but it was in my hand, so I was calling it mine.
“Jordan, what the hell?” Hartley asked, trying to walk around me.
“Shut up,” I growled. Never had I said those words to him, but I couldn’t face a threat with him talking. My focus had to be on the room in front of me. There was someone here. I could feel it.
Without a word, Oleander and Sheldon went to my left as I sidestepped into the living room, bringing Hartley with me, keeping him at my back. Knowing how my other guards operated, Vail and Ava were still safely outside and currently being protected. If there was someone in here, there could be more out there. I wasn’t taking any chances, and they knew not to as well.
“I’m in here,” a muffled voice came from what I assumed was a coat closet.
Sheldon slid into view from the other room, with Oleander behind him. They worked in perfect synchronization. Sheldon opened the door, and Oleander had his gun pointed at it.
“Out,” Oleander barked.
A man of average height with a beard that could use a trim, which matched his unruly deep brown hair, stepped out with his hands in the air. “I mean no harm,” he said. His voice was steady. Not the tiniest bit of a tremble to it.
“If you mean no harm, then you wouldn’t hide in the fucking closet of a home that’s not yours,” I seethed. My eyes went to Sheldon, a warning clear in them as Oleander searched the man for weapons.
“He wasn’t here this morning, sir. Ollie and I swept the home then locked it. We handed the keys to Hartley when we picked you up. There was no sign of anyone ever being here.”
I couldn’t stop from grinding my teeth. Sheldon and Oleander wouldn’t put my men in danger, but this shit was unacceptable. It wasn’t all on them though. Not when none of us got to Hartley before he unlocked the door and stepped inside. Not when I didn’t give the order to have the home swept when we arrived. Or when I didn’t insist on going in first.
Oleander circled the man, his gun on him, while Sheldon came up alongside him.
“Who are you?” Sheldon asked in his calm voice. In this, I’d let him lead because I was a second from blowing this man’s brains out for being here.
“My name is Lane Everhart.” I knew that last name, heard it in my fucking nightmares. Saw imaginary scenarios of that family taking out my small son and me many years ago. But the first name wasn’t the same. Not the one of the man who’d been killed before he could carry out murders in my home.
“Why are you not dead somewhere?” I asked.
“My father is sick. My brother is running the business now. I’ve been on the run for two months.”
“Why?” His family disappeared off the radar. Last I’d heard, they’d fled the country and hadn’t come back since. I had ears on the ground, people who constantly looked for news as well, like Lawson. If he caught any chatter that they were on their way to the U.S., I would have known.
“They’re back in the country. In North Carolina. In this very town. Once you and your partners made the news, my father put a plan into motion with my brother to take you down for destroying all they had.” There was the father and three sons. I’d already had one killed and was damn close to killing this one.
“They should have been dead.”
“Should have but weren’t. We went underground, fled, but they haven’t been able to build back to where they once were, on top of the world with more money than they knew what to do with. Instead, they’re scraping by, only a handful of guards, and barely enough money to get into the U.S. without triggering alarms.”
“And yet here you are.”
“I didn’t stay with them once we arrived,” he said. His hands were still raised, and he stood a considerable distance from me. The farther away, the better. “I ran the moment I could. I knew you had a connection to here and hoped you’d eventually come. When I saw two men around the town who didn’t belong, I knew you were on your way.”
“Why are you here?” I bit out through clenched teeth.
“I have something they want and they’re looking for me. I’ve seen them, but they can’t find me. All my life I’ve been looked over, never considered because I was the youngest. What they did to you, or attempted to do, was wrong.”
“Yet you stayed with them,” Sheldon stated.
“Where else would I go? I had no cash. No possessions. What I had was given to me by them and could just as easily be taken away. I lost what I had when we fled. Returning was my chance to finally get away, to live for myself.”
“What do you have?”
His eyes held mine, dark orbs that begged me to believe him. My gut told me he spoke the truth. “Six point nine million.”
“Bullshit,” Oleander said. “With that kind of money, why are you hiding out here, looking like you haven’t showered in a month?”
“Does the sound count?”
“That explains the smell,” Sheldon muttered.
“The money isn’t here. It’s not like I’m walking around with it in my pocket. It’s in an offshore account. My mom had put it in the account for me when I was younger. She didn’t tell me until we had fled and made me promise not to tell them. My mom lied to my father and said she didn’t know where the money went. For years he spent money hand over fist. Before she took her last breath earlier this year, she begged me never to tell them. To run and go far. She hated the life they led but couldn’t walk away from her sons, no matter how old we were.”
“That’s the real reason you stayed,” Sheldon said. “Sure, you had few options, but you stayed for her.”
Lane glanced away, his eyes on the floor rather than on me or the others in the room.
“They found out.”
He nodded. “I overheard them say they were going to kill me as soon as I told them where it was. They would too. I didn’t doubt it.”
“Why come to me?” I asked. He could have gone to anyone. Changed his name, fled the country again. The world was wide open to someone with that much money. Yet, here he was in Hartley’s childhood home, looking like he really did crawl out of the sound next to the house.
“I don’t want to keep running. I need to be free of them, but don’t know how to do it outside of killing them.”
I scoffed, “When did you assume I would be so fucking charitable to save you from the family that was going to kill me and my son?” In truth, if I could find his father and brother, I’d kill them both, with no other reason than what they conspired to do decades ago. I would have had them killed then, but they disappeared off the fucking planet before I could do anything. Plus, I had Jordan to worry about. He was so young and without a mother.
“I’ll give you the money. All but a mil.”
“You’re going to give me over five million for killing your father and brother? ”
There was zero hesitation when he said, “Yes.”
“Why me?”
“Why not you? After everything… fucking end them. I know where they are, their habits. I can tell you exactly how to get to them.”
“You do it then.”
He shook his head. “I can’t. My mom… She wouldn’t have wanted that. She hated the violence. Hated what he did and didn’t want that for me. The money was for me to get away, not to bloody my hands.”
Jesus. He had fucking morals. I, however, really wanted those fuckers dead.
Before I could answer, Hartley put his hand on my arm to get my attention. I peered over my shoulder at him, my eyebrow raised in question.
“You can’t take his money.”
“Excuse me?”
“It wouldn’t be right.”
“I assure you, I can and will.”
“Just kill them and let him keep it. He didn’t harm your family. He was stuck in a shit situation and wants to be free of it.”
“I’m not the hero in this story. I don’t rescue people who can rescue themfuckingselves. The only reason I’m contemplating this is to witness their fucking blood run like a river and get a hefty payday once it’s done.”
“You’ll have the money as soon as they’re dead,” Lane rushed to say, drawing my attention back to him.
Fuck’s sake. I growled. “I want the money donated to East Dremest, to the foundations and charities within it. I’ll kill your family for it.” Fucking soft. That was what I was, and it made me so goddamn angry .
“Thank you, Jordan,” Hartley whispered.
How could I even get turned on in a situation like this, but here I was, my dick stirring at the thought of the ways Hartley would thank me when we were alone with Vail in the hotel room.
I waved Sheldon and Oleander off. They put their guns down. “One wrong move, and I’ll blow your head off,” Sheldon said.
“I have no plans to hurt anyone. If I wanted to do that, I wouldn’t have hidden and wouldn’t be unarmed.”
“You have a gun somewhere,” I stated. He didn’t have the kind of life he did and not have at least one fucking weapon on him when he ran.
“It’s hidden in brush close by. I knew better than to bring it with me inside. I didn’t want to give you a reason to kill me.”
“I still don’t trust you.”
“I wouldn’t either, if I were you, but I’m telling the truth. With them still alive, they’re not only a threat to me, but to you and your partners. They’ve never forgotten about what happened, about how they were stripped of everything they loved because of the role you played. Your death was all they wanted. You not only lived, but you thrived, as did your son.”