19. Chapter 19
Chapter 19
Joker
The last month has flown by. Days trying to track down the mystery woman, news reports of kids in other parts of the state suffering the same or a worse fate than Jimmy at the football game. Nights spent wrapped up in Ginny. And no, they aren’t all naked nights as much as I wish they were. I’m in an actual relationship. Dates, flowers for her, Chinese takeout on the couch watching shows. She got me to watch Bridgerton , and I got her to watch Game of Thrones. I thought that was a pretty fair trade. And I’ll never admit it to anyone, but I enjoyed both shows.
I haven’t seen her this weekend or been able to talk to her much, and I feel like I’m missing a limb. We had a family we needed to get out of an emergency situation, and the crew that usually helps with that was already on another job, so I got called in to assist. It’s always hard to help someone leave the only life they’ve known for years, but when there are kids involved, it hits so much harder. I can’t help but imagine that could have been me had my birth parents not fucked up when they did. I don’t remember much about them, only that it wasn’t good.
This weekend’s family was a mom and her young son. The mom stayed because she didn’t think there was a way for her to get out. Until the fucker hurt her son. That’s when she called us. The look on the little boy’s face when we entered the house and started packing everything up is one I’ll never forget. He wasn’t sure if he should be happy we were there or terrified we were going to hurt him more. I took it upon myself to talk to the boy. To let him know we were helpers and we were going to make sure no one could ever hurt him again. We brought them to Briar Mountain and set them up in a temporary apartment while we wait for new documents to come through.
This morning, we’re having a recap meeting and catching up on everything else going on with the company. And just like always, I’m the first one in the conference room. It’s at the community center that Daniel’s parents own. They offer a ton of services to the community here, and his wife, Victoria, runs that side of it. When Daniel came back and started ANON Security, he didn’t want to be far from Vic, so his main office is here and we use the conference room when needed. There’s another small office in Rock Hill, but everyone loves it here, so this is where we meet.
I’m scrolling through emails when Nate walks in.
“Sup?” Nate asks, sitting down across from me with a stupid grin on his face. Here we go. “So, I hear a certain doc saw you a few weeks ago.”
“You heard, huh?” I ask, not looking up from my phone. “Is that because she sent out a group text or something?”
“What? No. She’d never do that.” He scoffs.
Just FYI, she would totally fucking do that.
“I ran into her in the hallway one day and she said next time I see you to ask how your girl is doing. That’s all.”
“Did she, now?”
“Yeah, said her friend, The Prof, knows a friend of hers?”
“Okay,” I respond, acting bored with the conversation.
“So, you know, I put a little two and two together—”
“Did you come up with four?”
“No, I came up with Virginia Mills.”
“Huh. Interesting. How did you do that?”
“Well, first of all, she said you were with a fucking goddess—her words, not mine,” he adds quickly when I glare at him. “The Prof said she’s met her before and that Sandy knew her, too. Which means she’d been to Briar Mountain before.”
“A lot of people stop through Briar Mountain, genius.”
“But how many of them know Trish?”
“Don’t know, you’d have to ask Trish.”
“Would you spill the fucking beans already?” he demands, getting irritated with me. And that’s why he’s so easy to fuck with.
“What’s going on here?” Grady asks, walking in with a cup of coffee and grabbing an empty seat.
“Nothing,” Nate and I reply at the same time, staring at each other.
“I call bullshit on that. Did you tell him about Doc’s text?”
See, told you she’d fucking do that.
Nate balls up a piece of paper and throws it at Grady, who laughs. “It’s not our business, man. Shouldn’t grill the guy on his personal life unless you’re ready for us to grill you.”
“This is why you’re my favorite.” I point to Grady, who shrugs. He thinks he’s everyone’s favorite.
“Are you happy?” Nate asks me, a genuine look of interest on his face.
“Very much so,” I confirm.
“Happy you finally got the girl, fucker.”
I tip my chin at him and stand to refill my coffee. “Anyone seen Daniel or Aiden yet today?”
“Not yet. Oh, and Doc wanted us to make sure you haven’t fucked anything up yet.” Grady grins.
“I haven’t fucked shit up.”
“And you better not,” Daniel says, walking into the room with Aiden. “I don’t want to hear about it if and when you do.”
“Who the fuck are you going to hear it from?” I ask.
“My wife. Her sister.”
“Which sister?” Grady asks.
“Does it matter?”
We laugh at that. Because it really doesn’t matter. If one sister is involved, all four of the Thorpe sisters are involved.
“So that means we’ve already covered the top of the agenda today? Clarified that Joker got the girl and they are happy? He’s all loved up and wetting his dick?”
“We hadn’t gotten that far.” Nate cringes at the words Daniel used.
“And we don’t fucking need to. My dick isn’t your issue. None of you need to worry about my fucking dick. Wouldn’t tell you ,” I say, pointing to Daniel, “anyway.”
“Why not?” he asks, offended.
“Because you’re her brother’s friend.”
“So are you.”
“Except I’m not going to leave this room and call him up and tell him every word of this conversation, like two old ladies gossiping.”
“Fine. We can talk about Ginny later.”
“No, we can’t.”
I think the subject is closed until I hear it. Giggling. Female giggling outside the conference room door.
“Your wife is standing outside listening, isn’t she?” I ask Daniel, who has the good sense to look at least a little embarrassed.
“Hi, Victoria!” I call out toward the door.
“Hi, Joker.” She smiles as she pops her face around the door frame. “Tell Ginny I said hi.”
“I’ll be sure to do that.” I smile at her. She’s really hard to be mad at.
She pulls the door closed to the room and I look at the guys sitting around the table.
“Can we talk business now? I have plans and don’t want to be here looking at you fuckers all day.”
Daniel nods and pulls out a sheet of paper with his notes on it. “Let’s talk about our mystery woman first.”
“Do we have to?” Nate asks.
“I think so.”
“Is there something new?” I ask.
“We know that she’s been traveling between Diamond Cove, Briar Mountain, Rockton, and Boulder Canyon.”
“Well, we established she has a house in Rockton, so that would make sense. Do we know what she’s doing when she’s at the other places?”
“That’s the thing. We don’t have a fucking clue.”
“Isn’t there someone on her?”
“Yeah, but it’s like she’s always one step ahead. They follow her to a building and she never comes out, but her car’s location changes an hour later and she’s got ten minutes on us.”
“What are we thinking?”
“I’m thinking it’s really fucking convenient that within a week of her visiting Diamond Cove a kid on their basketball team dropped mid-game like the kid in Boulder Canyon with the same shit in his system. And a kid in Rock Hill died this weekend of a suspected overdose. We’re waiting on the autopsy report for him. And my brother-in-law was bitching last week about the drug issues happening on campus needing EMS to respond. The timeline for all of it was shortly after she had paid each place a visit.”
“So you think she’s the delivery girl?” Grady asks, taking notes.
“Why would a delivery girl have a past that we can’t find?”
“That’s your job to figure out,” Daniel growls, pointing at Nate and me.
“Who’s on her now?” I ask, ready to take my own notes.
“Jones has been trailing her for months, and since we aren’t following your girl’s guy anymore, Smith has been assisting.”
I snarl at the reminder of Keith. I can’t help it.
“Do you still think they’re clean?” I have to ask.
“Yes,” he says, no doubt in his tone. If Daniel trusts them, I trust them. I nod my acceptance.
“Can we put more guys on her?” Aiden asks.
“I don’t know. We can’t prove she’s actually doing anything. Can’t prove that she’s hurt anyone.”
“That we know of,” Grady adds.
“We have other jobs we need to worry about. We’ll keep Jones and Smith on her for now and hope she fucks up somewhere.”
My mind is still thinking about the woman and what her role is with all these kids when Daniel brings up the cabin.
“We’ve got two families we need to move. One needs the cabin, and we’ll bring the other one here.”
“How serious we talking?” I ask, all business.
“The first family, the one going to the cabin with you, should be an in and out job. Husband is going on a buddy trip and he won’t do anything to them before he goes. The other family is going to require as much brute manpower as we have. Might also require your, um, skills.” He looks at me.
I might know my way around computers, but I’m an expert marksman and trained sniper. None of us like to think we might need those skills on any of our jobs, but when we know it’s going to be more like a smash and grab and hope we can get them out without anyone being hurt, they call me in to slow the abuser.
“That one is delicate. It’s a seventeen- and fifteen-year-old. Both girls. Father called us because he can’t get them. Stepfather beat the shit out of the oldest last time he went to the house. Mom is covering for the asshole and told the cops she’s a liar with behavior issues.”
“Fuck,” Grady hisses.
“We’re working with James Covey and an associate of his to get paperwork for both jobs. The father wants to disappear with his girls and the other family needs everything.”
I smirk at the associate Daniel is referring to, knowing it’s Ginny’s dad.
We discuss the details and split up the teams. Daniel also tells us about a few bodyguard jobs coming up. One is in Boulder Canyon with a baseball player in a high-profile gig.
“We need to figure out who the woman is and how she stays ahead of us. We need to assign teams, and we need to keep our noses clean.” Daniel taps on the table. This is how he ends all of our meetings. “And if that’s all, ladies, I’ll be taking my lovely wife to lunch.”
Daniel leaves the room and we all pack up our shit. Nate stops me before I can leave.
“We need her DNA.”
I know he’s talking about our lady.
“How the fuck do we do that?”
“I think we need to talk to your buddy, Ranger. See if he’s still in with the people who run the Mexican place in Rock Hill. We know she’s still frequenting and if she meets up with Keith there at any point, they might be able to help. Maybe we can get his, too, and see if there’s anything out there about him. I don’t like either one of them.”
I raise my brow. He knows how I feel about Keith.
“Just ask him. If she’s on to us, maybe he’s been removed from the equation long enough she won’t suspect him.”
I text Ranger about his plans and finish packing my stuff.
“What’s the rush?” Nate asks as we leave the room.
“I got a girl to go see.” I grin at him.
“Go get ’em, Tiger,” he laughs.
I flip him off and head to the exit, waving at the receptionist, Delia, on my way out. Time to finally go see my girl.