Chapter 29
Maverick
Icalled the prospect over to search Larry’s house for the rest of the guns. Dan was a doting older brother to two younger siblings. I figured he’d had plenty of experience seeking lost objects.
And it turned out, I was right. He’d found one gun in a stock pot in a kitchen cabinet, and another on the top shelf of the linen closet.
I cross-referenced the guns Larry bought from me; all of those were accounted for except one.
I sent Dan to check the crawl space, but it wasn’t there either. Oh well, we’d find it eventually.
Based on Kat’s wishes, the guns would be locked up in my shop, waiting to be sold on consignment. Well, except for the one he used on the intruder. That gun no longer existed—it had been dismantled and its pieces scattered in four different locations. Two on Larry’s property and two on ours.
Miss Patsy and Leroy took care of the body like they always did. It was almost time to do a sweep. They were good at eliminating evidence, but pigs didn’t eat everything.
Every few years we had the prospects go through the pen with metal detectors to pick out any leftover evidence like a tooth with a filling or some kind of medical shit.
We took anything that might be body-related on a late night deep-sea fishing trip.
It was a system that worked well. Not that any policeman had ever come searching through the pigs’ shithole, but there was a first time for everything.
“So, what now?” Bear passed me a beer as we stood in Larry’s pristine kitchen and living room.
Baller had ID’d the dead guy as Viktor Romanov, one of the few crew members that stayed out of jail from the Volkovs’ fall. Viktor was the guy in the photos with the drip torch, but he wasn’t the one calling the shots.
“We could wait and see who turns up.” I took a sip. “Someone’s got to come looking for Viktor eventually, and a Reaper can be here to greet him.”
A feral smile crossed Bear’s lips. “And escort them to the shed.”
Not a bad plan, but it was too passive. We’d been waiting long enough. “Do we know where Viktor was staying?” I asked. “Would it be too much to hope his boss is sitting in a hotel room and we can end this now?”
“Baller’s working on it, but my guess is they aren’t that stupid. But you never know. In the meantime—”
The front door crashed open and Larry stomped inside.
“See, you mean old man!” Tracker shouted as he limped behind him. “Your house is right here. I wasn’t keeping you prisoner.”
“That’s what all the kidnappers say when they’ve been caught! You’ve got until I find my gun to get the hell off my land. Otherwise, I’m defending myself by any means necessary!”
Fucking hell. “Larry? What’s going on?”
“Oh, Mav, good to see you. You too, Wolf.”
“Bear.”
Larry shrugged. “Close enough. Maybe y’all can help me out. This man kidnapped me and kept me locked in his house in the burbs.” He shuddered. “But I escaped and forced him to bring me here.”
“Forced him?” I asked, my eyes darting to Tracker.
Larry held up a pocketknife. “Threated to slice his balls off.”
Tracker was recovering from a serious injury, but there was no way Larry’d taken him with a pocketknife.
Tracker held up his hands. “I know I’m useless to the club right now, but playing nursemaid to this crazy guy is cruel and unusual punishment.”
I shook my head. “It’s not punishment. Larry needs protection.”
Tracker raised an eyebrow. “From who? The little green men?”
“Tracker,” I warned.
Larry’s eyes narrowed at Tracker. “I’m just about sick of you. If you’re still out here when I get back…” He took a finger and crossed it over his neck.
“Larry, it’s okay.” I groaned. I’d barely had any sleep and my patience was thin. “We’ll take care of it. We know this guy, he’s a friend. I’m sure this is all a misunderstanding.”
Larry’s mouth dropped. “I didn’t think you’d be in on it, too.”
My heart clinched. Kat warned me Larry wouldn’t take well to sleeping somewhere else, and fuck if she wasn’t spot on. This was my call, my mistake.
Noodle barked, happy to be back home and eager to go on a walk. Larry looked down at her and smiled. “Hey, sweet girl.”
“Why don’t you take her for a walk?” I said slowly. “Bear and I will get rid of this guy for you.”
Larry looked at each of us, then back down to Noodle, who was now dancing around the floor after hearing the word walk.
“I guess. But if he’s still here,” he pointed at Tracker, “I make no promises.”
He walked to the back door and opened it, deftly avoiding Noodle as she shot through the door and onto the path.
I turned back to Tracker.
“What?” He crossed his arms over his chest. “I don’t think the man slept more than an hour.
He paced nonstop. In the guest room, up and down the stairs.
In the living room. It was constant. I heard him talking to people that weren’t there and, for some reason when I went to grab a coffee mug out of the dishwasher, it was full of pillows.
I hate to say it, but Ol’ Larry ain’t right anymore and my house is not old man-proofed. ”
I sighed, turning to Bear. “Change of plans. Larry’s back here. I’ll stay, and we’ll wait and see who shows up. I’ll text for backup if anything happens.”
“Is he on any kind of medication?” Tracker asked. “My gran took something. I don’t know what it was called, but I know it helped. You could always tell when she missed a dose.”
I shrugged. “Kat says they are waiting on an appointment with a neuro something or other, but it’s weeks out.”
Tracker snorted. “Too bad you don’t know someone who could hack into a doctor’s calendar.”
I could have smacked myself on the forehead. I looked at Bear, who nodded.
“I’ll talk to Baller.”
“So, we’re good here? I can take my useless ass back home? Sit on my couch and watch porn all day?”
I shook my head. “What the fuck, Tracker? You were stabbed. They took out your spleen. Then you got an infection. You almost died. No one thinks you’re useless because you need to recover.
Just finish your physical therapy, rest, and soon this will be a distant memory.
Another sexy scar story for the ladies.”
Tracker shook his head. “I gotta take a piss.” He walked into the bathroom and slammed the door.
I had no idea he felt this way. Before the stabbing, he’d bought a little fixer upper in a decent neighborhood.
I thought he’d enjoy the downtime as a chance to settle in.
An image of Tracker sitting on a dusty old couch, all alone in a sad, broken-down house filled my mind.
Of course he couldn’t work on his house.
He was recovering, not on vacation. Fuck. I should have done better by him.
“Bear, have Dan start going over to Tracker’s every day. Give him some excuse, like a form he’s got to fill out for the garage.”
“A form? What kind of form?”
I shrugged. “Fuck if I know. A tax form?”
“A tax form?” Bear laughed. “Since when are we paying taxes?”
I grinned. “Okay fine, not a form. But we need to give him something so it’s not obvious we’re checking on him.”
Bear nodded. “I’ll ask Pixie. She’s always looking for someone to bounce menu ideas off of. Tracker can be her new taste tester.”
That could work. “And I’ll get with Stitch. I do want to move forward with the casino. We can get Tracker involved with the planning on that. He could even visit a few of the places Stitch found and get ideas. We can send the prospect with him, to learn and also to keep an eye on him.”
I took a deep breath, feeling better now that we had a plan in place for our brother. Tracker was a good man, and I hated what he was going through.
Bear’s phone rang, and he pulled it from his back pocket. His brow knitted in confusion. The back door opened and Larry returned with Noodle just as his house phone started ringing.
What the fuck was this? Grand Central Station? Bear hopped up, answering the phone while stepping away from the noise. Larry also answered on about the fifth ring.
“Yello!”
My phone remained silent. I’d checked it a dozen times today, hoping to get a text from Kat.
I hadn’t sent her one either, but why would I?
She made her feelings clear before she went back to her real life.
But I figured she’d at least reach out about her dad.
Unless that’s who he was talking to. I sat up straight and honed in on his side of the conversation.
“Look, lady, I don’t know what in the hell you’re talking about. I didn’t hire a nurse, so there’s no need to apologize for one not showing up. Is this some kind of scam?”
The doorbell rang and Noodle ran to the front door barking. Okay this was getting ridiculous. Larry groaned and handed me the receiver. “You can deal with this shit.” He stomped off toward the front door.
“Hello? What’s this about a nurse?” I asked.
“Oh, thank goodness. As I was trying to explain to Mr. Evans, the contract for the home health aide that was scheduled to arrive today was unfortunately canceled by his daughter’s employer.
But I wanted to let Mr. Evans know about our continuation special, in the event he wanted to reinstate the contract under his name.
The original agreement was twelve hours a day, but we can cut that back if need be. ”
“Well, that was a shit thing for the company to do.” They used the promise of a nurse or whatever the fuck to bribe Kat back to her job, then yanked it away as soon as they got her back. How could she work for people like that?
The woman on the phone coughed uncomfortably. “Well, I don’t know. From my understanding, the contract was on the condition of her returning to work, so when she didn’t return…”
Didn’t return?
Bear returned to the living room carrying two suitcases. Kat’s suitcases. My heart stopped. Had she come back already? But my elation quickly turned to concern when Larry followed behind, white as a ghost.
I hung up the phone. “Bear, why do you have Kat’s luggage?”
He shook his head. “I’m sorry, brother. Ray from the Shore ‘Nuff on forty just dropped these off. Said he found them by the dumpsters when he opened up this morning. Kat had this address on the luggage tags, so he figured he’d return them on his break.”
“This isn’t good.” Larry sat on the couch, clutching his chest. “My girl loves her clothes, especially her shoes. She never would have abandoned them at a gas station.”
“Fuck!” I shouted, feeling completely helpless. The gas station was only twenty minutes from the house. If someone had snatched her there, she’d been gone for, I checked my watch, sixteen hours. My body vibrated with rage as I tried not to think about what could have happened to her in that time.
“There’s more,” Bear said, taking a deep breath.
“That call was from Rowan. After we spoke, he did some more digging. The Alliance is connected to the Bratva back in Russia. The Volkovs borrowed millions from the Alliance to set up their new enterprise. Ivan Volkov is the guy we’re looking for.
He told the Alliance he could set up a new operation in North Carolina. ”
“Ivan?” Larry asked. “You mean the guy who’s been buying my produce?”
I stared at Larry. “Is he Russian?”
He shrugged. “Could be. Never asked. But his money is as good as anyone else’s.
And he’s got loads of it. Kat doesn’t think I know, but he made her an offer on this place.
Bastard left her a card, but I know she didn’t pay it any mind.
Let me see if I can find it.” He pushed up from the couch and started opening drawers in the kitchen.
I turned to Bear. “If he’s been coming here to visit Larry, posing has his friend, he could have easily swiped that spare key and set up trail cameras, too.”
Bear rubbed his hand through his beard. “It fits. According to Rowan, Ivan is out of cash and out of time. Production was supposed to be up and running months ago.”
“But we killed his crew and fucked his plans all to hell.”
Bear nodded. “And it looks like Larry killed his last soldier yesterday, leaving him out of options.”
Larry shouted from the kitchen. “Found it! It says right here, ‘The Alliance, LLC’ and it’s got Ivan’s name and number.”
Finally, the lead we’d be hunting. Now to convene church and get my woman back.