2. Dax
DAX
Mo and his guys showed up just as promised with everything they would need to move all the safes onto the back of a flatbed truck and take them to the main warehouse just outside of downtown LA.
We followed them because I wanted to make sure everything in those safes was still there.
Nothing was kept there that couldn’t be replaced, but some things held sentimental value that I didn’t want to lose on top of everything else.
“How many of these types of buildings do you have, little hellcat?” Eagle asked as we walked into the packing center.
I glanced at him over my shoulder and just winked. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
“That’s why I asked,” he drawled, giving me a disapproving look.
“No one but Wes and I know the answer to that. Seeing how things are going right now, I think I want to keep it that way. It’s not that I don’t trust you guys, but the less information that’s said, the chance of someone overhearing what they shouldn’t is minimal,” I explained, seeing the wounded expression on his face when I denied him.
“I have to think about every move like it can be used against me because it can, faster than you can blink.”
“You think he has people on the inside you don’t know about?” Sprocket questioned.
“Wouldn’t you put people in place to watch the aftereffects of what you’ve done to the newest play toy you hope to destroy?
” I asked in return. “I sure as hell would and plan to once I learn everything there is to know about Marco and his Cartel. First, I need to know just how far ahead of me he truly is since I didn’t even know he existed until that phone call yesterday. ”
“How do you propose to do that?” Wes inquired as he unlocked his safe with his handprint and a twelve-digit code.
I didn’t answer right away since I had a few ideas running around in my head about that very problem.
Instead, I walked over to the massive safe and put in the information and handprint to open it.
The door was so heavy it took me throwing all my body weight into it just to get it to unseal.
Void came up and gave me a dirty look as he made it look easy to open it the rest of the way.
The inside of the safe looked as it should with all our backup guns, fake passports, ammo, and money stash.
Then I opened a small blue box tucked in with the fake papers.
It felt too light and told me what I feared.
Yanking the top of the box off, I looked inside and found nothing but a folded-up piece of paper with writing on it.
It seems that your brother wasn’t wise in who he told his secrets to…
If you want them back, then you’ll have to come get them from me personally.
“That bitch is deader than dead!” I raged, slamming the box to the ground and stomping on it. “I want her motherfucking head on a spike! I should have never let her live when I took out everyone else. That’s a mistake I’ll happily rectify when I get the chance.”
“I’m afraid to ask what was in the box, but I really want to know,” Cognac murmured to one of the guys.
“It might be smart just to let it go for now, man,” Sprocket advised.
How the hell could he have gotten into the safe?
This was one of the best on the market. I had all my safecracker friends try it out, and most of them failed.
Could one of them have turned on me? Is it possible that I’m more out of the loop of what’s happening around me?
No. That wasn’t it. This was all a mind game.
Marco wants me to believe he has me backed into a corner by taking from me the last of what I was holding onto of my past and mundane security.
Fine, he wanted to strip me of my safety and back me into a corner?
Then he was going to see he didn’t know as much as he thought he did.
My pocket started to vibrate, and I pulled out my phone, seeing it was a blocked number. I answered it right away. “Harper?”
“Bitch! You have some explaining to do! What the hell, woman? I leave you on your own, and the entire world goes to shit? Not only did you get shot, but your house also blew up?” my best friend screamed at me.
Shaking my head at how predictable Harper was, I motioned to the guys I was going to head into the office for this conversation.
There was a lot to fill her in on, and I needed to make sure I wasn’t in the open for this.
The office in the building wasn’t at all set up like my main office, but it would work just fine for this conversation, even if the office chair was kind of lumpy.
“It’s so good to hear from you, Harper. The brothers treating you well?
Go anywhere fun? Rumor is they have a house in Bali somewhere, but they could have just been making shit up for all I know.
Those Wright brothers have as many secrets as I do. ”
“Oh, you’re so not getting out of telling me what’s happening with you by distracting me with what’s going on in my life. Believe me when I say it is far less eventful than what you’re going through right now,” she stated.
“That’s your own fault, Harpster. We’ve given you plenty of options of exciting things to do, and you keep saying no,” I heard one of the brothers say in the background.
“I mean, we could do that one thing again. I never get tired of that.” This time, the voice was much closer, and I could hear the intent behind the tone.
“Oh my God. You're fucking them, aren’t you? Holy shit, I didn’t think they had a chance with you,” I said with a laugh.
“No, give me that back. I’m not done talking to her. She hasn’t said a damn thing about what’s going on, Ghost,” Harper snapped as I heard a fight happening over the phone.
Then there was a pause and a moan that made it clear what was happening to distract my bestie. “Hey! If you have sex while I’m still on the phone, I’m not paying for the experience, just so we’re clear,” I yelled into the phone.
“Goddammit, Jaxson, I’m going to talk to my best friend, and there’s nothing you can do about it. If you don’t give me an hour, then I’m cutting you off from shaving duty,” Harper declared.
“You wouldn’t dare!”
“Try me, asshole,” Harper dared.
“Fine, one hour, and I’m setting a timer so you can’t say shit when it’s up.
” Another brief lull of silence, and then the phone was picked up once again.
“Dax, we owe you a favor for giving us the chance to make Harper our woman like we always knew she’d be,” Jaxson said, his voice more serious than I’d ever heard before.
“Well, that’s good because I might have a job for you guys. It’s not gonna be your typical job, but I guarantee it will be fun,” I shared, feeding him the bait to set up my request.
“We’ll talk about that after Harper gets her hour with you. A deal is a deal, after all,” Jaxson reminded me.
“Till later then,” I agreed.
The sound of a door slamming and a huff let me know Harper was finally on her own.
“Dax, I really don’t know if I should kill you myself the next time I see you or hug you for what you’ve put me through these past two weeks.
I still can’t tell if they’re batshit crazy or just lacking in any kind of moral compass. ”
“Isn’t that the same thing?” I questioned.
“You know it’s not because you ride that line as well. Now tell me everything I need to know about what the hell has been going on with you since we left the beach,” she demanded.
“Alright, but I’ll have to talk fast if we only have an hour,” I teased before diving into the whole saga.
I went over how the people who attacked us at the restaurant had another member of the team, who was actually their dad, hunt us to a diner back by the guys’ compound.
I avoided my issues with the guys, feeling the need to stick with what was important.
Right now, we were in a good place, except for Cam.
Next, I covered getting shot and dealing with the recovery, lying about how I was doing, not wanting her to worry when it would all be fine in time.
Then came the hard part when I had to tell her about the FBI and Cam showing up and coming back into my life.
“Wait, I’m sorry, the man you were madly in love with and left without a word when you dropped out of college has secretly been stalking you? Hold on, this means he knew about you being Two Tricks, doesn’t it? Was I the only one close to you who didn’t know?”
I rubbed my forehead, knowing she would bring that issue up again.
“Harper, can you honestly tell me you don’t regret knowing now?
I mean, look what happened to you because of me.
If you’d been involved in this part of my life from the beginning, things could have been so much worse.
Everything I did was to keep you safe and not taint your view of the world and the beauty you see in it. ”
“Look, I get it, I do, but if I’d at least had a clue there was a darker side to your life, I might have been more prepared for all of this. Now I’m tossed into the deep end, and I don’t know who to trust or how I’ll be able to return to normal once this is all over.”
“Babe, I hate to break it to you, but if you’re sleeping with them, there’s no way you’ll ever have a normal life again,” I pointed out. “They don’t give up what they’ve won, ever.”
“Just to be clear, I have not agreed to be their girl. They’re mind-blowing in bed, but there’s only so much you can do when you’re trying to lie low, and their version of a good time is a felony or worse if we get caught,” she expressed with a groan.
“There’s no way we could make this work under normal circumstances. ”
“I wouldn’t be too sure about that. They have their ways of getting people to see reason.
” I chuckled, thinking of my many arguments and negotiations with the brothers.
“It would be a lie if I told you they haven’t talked me into doing some stupid shit in the name of fun, but there’s still quite a bit to deal with before we get to the point you have to deal with that. ”