Chapter 10
10
ETHAN
“How are the stitches?” Nick asked. I glanced in his direction only to see his eyes were on Striker.
I hadn’t realized Striker had walked in, but I grinned when he slid into his seat across from me and Beth sat beside him. I’d been a part of something I’d never done before, and the adrenaline rush was something I wouldn’t soon forget. Not saying I wanted any of our team to be that close to death again, but the idea that I’d helped find Beth before she suffered more than she already had at Skinner’s hands felt damn good. Looking at them now, both with a little more color than when I’d seen them in the hospital, I felt even better. They survived, and it was all because of this team. I’d never been a part of a team before I joined Elite, so this feeling was new to me, and I loved it.
It was only tainted by my reaction to Mila running into that bunker. I was afraid. Not that I’d admit that to anyone else, but I knew exactly what it was, and I took it out on her. She was doing her job, and she did it well. She probably saved Striker’s life, and I yelled at her. I owed her an apology and intended to give it to her, but she’d been ignoring me. Honestly, it was probably for the best. We needed some time apart, and if acting like an ass helped create that, then it was all for the better.
“Not bad,” Striker replied.
Nick snorted. “Having a live-in nurse is probably helping.”
Chuckles sounded throughout the conference room, but then Beth turned her attention to Mila and smiled. “Thank you.”
I didn’t need to shift my attention to Mila. I could hear the smile in her voice when she replied. “No problem.”
“For what?” Striker glanced between them.
Beth gestured toward her. “Mila cleaned up the blood on the floor of the apartment.”
A shadow passed through Striker’s eyes, and I wasn’t surprised. It would be a long time before he let go of the guilt he felt for Beth being in that kind of danger.
“She also saved your ass in the bunker,” Kyle added.
Striker shifted his attention to Kyle. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Mila got the blood to stop before the EMTs got there.”
Striker’s gaze met Mila’s. “How?”
She smirked and shook her head when Kyle spoke. “She took her shirt off and used it to apply pressure.”
“So did you,” Mila reminded him.
“Yeah, but you and I look a lot different with our shirts off.” He threw his hands behind his head and sat back. “I almost swallowed my damn tongue.”
“Too bad you didn’t,” Jax muttered dryly.
Laughter moved throughout the room, and I glanced at Mila to see her smiling a little more easily than she did only a few months ago. Striker had been hard on her. He wasn’t a man who trusted easily. Combine that with demons that haunted him, and he was sometimes mean to her, but she held on. I had doubts that Mila ever bent to someone else’s will. She’d also earned his trust by helping protect the most important person in his life. Beth.
I shook my head slightly, attempting to clear it, when the memory of Mila walking out of that fucking bunker in jeans and only her sports bra raced through my mind. That combined with the fear I felt when she ran inside had spurred me on to do the one thing I never wanted to do and that was to make her feel like she wasn’t a part of the team. I never wanted to be someone who made her feel the way Striker had, but that was exactly who I was now, and she was proving it by doing her best not to even acknowledge me today.
“Alright, we’re getting off topic.” Jax glared at Kyle. “Like every other fucking time we meet.”
Kyle tipped the chair back on two legs. “Just keepin’ it real, boss.”
“How did you get to us so fast?” Mila once again faced Kyle, but her stare held mine for a moment when she saw mine locked on her. Something that looked a lot like sadness passed through her eyes before she focused on Kyle. “I barely got to Striker before you were behind me.”
“Was already on my way when I got the pic,” Kyle replied.
“You played it smart.” Brody commended the group. “Leaving Ethan outside to wave us in saved us a lot of fucking time getting the EMTs inside.”
And there it was. Proof that she’d done the right thing and I was out of line with my accusations. Although I didn’t need proof. I never doubted she knew what she was doing. She’d been trained for this shit, but that knowledge didn’t stop my fear from taking over.
“Where’re we at with your charges?” Jax asked Brody.
“Your charges?” Striker looked confused, and I realized no one had told him what happened after he was taken away in the ambulance. “What the fuck were you charged with?”
“Assault.” Jax gestured toward the sling on his arm and sat back in his seat.
“Who did you assault?”
“A cop.” Nick answered instead of Brody or Jax.
“Why the hell did you assault a cop?” Striker glanced between them before focusing on Brody once again.
When Brody sighed heavily and looked like he wasn’t going to answer, Mila spoke up. “He was defending you. The cop got in his face, blamed you for the shootings because you rushed in without backup, and Brody told him to shut the hell up.” She chuckled. “The cop did not like that. Words were exchanged, and the next thing we knew, Brody tackled his ass to the ground.”
Beth’s eyes widened. “I can’t believe you did that.”
“Thanks for sharing,” Brody said sarcastically to Mila.
“He was gonna find out anyway. It’s probably all over town by now.” She smiled and sat back. “Especially since you broke the little fucker’s nose.”
I didn’t know how Mila knew that, but I wasn’t surprised she did.
“Jesus,” Striker mumbled, sounding a little frustrated, but I couldn’t contain my grin at Mila’s description of events. I was there when it happened, and it was pretty damn accurate. Although, I had my doubts Brody would’ve backed off had Cam and Nick not intervened.
“That’s what I said.” Jax nodded but then smirked at Striker. “Told him that’s the shit you pull.”
Striker snorted, and it was one of the first times since I started that Striker and Jax shared a moment in which they both agreed. They usually came to a solution from different sides and ended up arguing, but not today. I think they were both happy that everyone made it through that today with only a few injuries.
Striker shifted his attention back to Brody. “You dislocate your shoulder when you hit the ground?”
“Yeah.” Brody sighed. “Talked to Cam this morning. Looks like they’re dropping the charges since both parties swung.”
“Not surprised.” I felt Mila’s stare on my face when I finally spoke. I was often quiet in these meetings. I still felt like I was learning, and a lot of that happened just listening in the meetings. Most of the people in this room had either been in the military or had special training to make them more qualified for these jobs. I didn’t. I came here as a skinny kid just trying to figure out where the hell I belonged and what I was good at. “Cam did not look happy with the cop when he started talking shit.”
“What was his name?” Striker asked.
“Who the fuck cares?” Jax scoffed. “He’s not gonna be there long if he doesn’t start acting like a team player.” He glanced over his shoulder and called out when there was a knock on the door. “Come in.”
Cam walked through the door just as Striker addressed Brody. “How long you in that?”
“Couple of weeks.”
“Alright.” Jax rubbed his hands together. “We’re all here now. Beth, we need to talk to you about what happened after you shot Skinner.”
Beth nodded and faced the head of the table. We knew she’d shot Max Skinner using Striker’s gun, but unfortunately, it had only grazed him, which didn’t slow him down much. “Where would you like me to start?”
Cam settled back in his seat. “How about after you shot him?”
“Okay.” She was silent for only a moment before she began speaking. “Umm…after I shot him, he seemed surprised. I took a step out in front of Striker because I was afraid he might shoot him again. But then Striker groaned, and when I glanced down at him, Max hit me in the temple with something hard. I think it was his gun because it felt really heavy. Then I woke up in that place. I thought it was some type of storm shelter, but you guys keep calling it a bunker, so I guess I was wrong.”
“Skinner’s cousin was preparing for the apocalypse.” Kyle rested his folded hands on his stomach. “That’s how we found you. I went through old social media shit; found he talked a lot about the end of the fucking world and how he would be the lone survivor and finally dug up some old sale papers on the land that bunker is on.”
“But it was beneath the ground.” Beth asked what I thought was a very good question. “How did you find it?”
“Raided his house.” Mila gestured at me, and I knew she would reference the last time we’d been in the cousin’s house. “The first time we did that, we specifically searched Skinner’s things, but this time, we searched the cousin’s stuff and found a map in a tube in the basement rafters. Led us right to you.”
“Where was his cousin?”
Mila smiled, and I watched Jax for any indication he didn’t want Beth to know that Striker had detained Rick Skinner while we searched, but there wasn’t any.
I wasn’t surprised when Striker spoke. “He was there. I got them in. I persuaded him to talk, but Kyle found the information first. We still needed a way to find the bunker. He eventually cooperated and told us where the map was hidden.”
Her eyes widened, and she lowered her voice while staring at Striker. Then she asked the one question that proved she knew him well. “Is he alive?”
We all laughed, and Striker grinned when he replied. “He’s fine. Police picked him up for questioning after we finished, but that’s all.”
She nodded and turned to face Cam again when he spoke, but she visibly relaxed when she saw the grin on his face. “What happened after you woke up?”
“He was on the phone. I pretended to be asleep when he would look back at me for a while because I was trying to get a good look around.” She shrugged. “I have no idea why, but it felt important.”
“Always smart to know your surroundings,” Brody stated.
“Well, one of the times, he caught me. Then he spent a while trying to get me to tell him where the safe deposit box was. I told him I didn’t know what he was talking about, but that seemed to aggravate him. He became, umm…” She hesitated before finishing. “A little more physical then.”
“How?” Jax encouraged her.
“He slapped me, and at one point, he lifted me from the floor by my neck.” I noticed she shifted her body so she wasn’t looking at Striker and we all knew why. This would be hard for him to hear knowing he hadn’t been there to protect her. “Then he called someone again and told him to find Davies.”
“Who’s Davies?”
“Danny’s attorney.”
“He’s dead,” Kyle stated matter-of-factly.
“I told him that, and he didn’t believe me.” She shook her head. “I told him to look up the obituaries on his phone.”
“Did he?” Brody asked.
“Yeah, and when he saw I was right, he got really angry.”
“What did he do?”
She rubbed her temple. “He beat me up a little, I think. I can’t remember the exact order of things, but I know he kicked me in the side.”
Jax sat forward and leaned his elbows on the table. “Then what happened?”
She didn’t speak for a moment, and Jax looked over her head at Striker before giving her his attention again. “I know this is hard, Beth, but it’s important we know.”
“Why?” she asked softly.
“Because Skinner wasn’t the only player,” Cam explained. “There’s another one. The one responsible for poisoning you is still out there.”
Beth nodded. “I think that’s who he was talking to on the phone.”
“Good,” Cam said. “IT has that phone and is unlocking it as we speak.”
“I could’ve done that.” Kyle shrugged. “A hell of a lot faster.”
“And illegally,” Cam reminded him.
Kyle smirked. “I’m still faster.”
Cam exhaled heavily and faced Beth again, but I couldn’t contain my grin. Kyle was not afraid to use his skills or to brag about them. “Can you go on?”
She glanced over her shoulder at Striker before facing Cam again. “He told me I was going to pay for Danny’s lies and forced me to my knees. He said he always made the girls look him in the eye when they paid their dues, and I would too. He also told me that Danny refused to let anyone touch me, which I thought was odd. Then he said he was going to have some fun before he sliced me up. I knew he wasn’t kidding because the girls used to tell me stories about what they heard, and his weapon of choice was usually a knife.”
When he was alive, Daniel Sullivan had a stable of prostitutes that Beth looked after. He controlled them by providing the drugs they were addicted to and somehow convinced Beth to take care of them. Her father had abused her, and after he passed away, Daniel took over. She never felt like she could escape until given an opportunity. Lately, I’d been wondering how Max Skinner became Daniel’s right-hand man, second only to Beth, strangely enough. The more this case unraveled, the more confusing it became.
“He unsnapped and unzipped his jeans, but I kept talking while he did. I told him I’d bite him, and he told me he’d rip my teeth out.” She shrugged. “I had a feeling I wasn’t going to survive and felt like I wanted him to know he wasn’t beating me. I told him Danny was using him as a puppet and pulling the strings even from his grave. Also, I doubted there was any money for him at all, and he was just a lackey like I’d been. He seemed to break after that because he wrapped his hand around my throat and began choking me. I struggled for a moment but then decided I didn’t want my last moments to be lost on him or the last thing I saw to be of a man I hated, so I closed my eyes.” She dropped her head. “I forced my mind to think about good things. I thought I died when I heard my name called out, but when I hit the wall and opened my eyes, Striker was there, and they were fighting.” She leaned against his arm. “It was hard to breathe, and everything was fuzzy, but then Max pulled out his gun and shot.”
Jax sighed when she finished speaking and faced Cam. “We need to find out what safe deposit box he’s talking about, considering we have another player in this game.”
Cam leaned back in his chair. “If this money exists, I think the man who wants it more is still alive.”
Brody shifted his attention toward Beth. “I was hoping you were jerking him around.”
“I wasn’t.” She lifted her shoulders. “I have no idea what he’s talking about. Danny left me the house, which I sold and gave the profits to shelters for abused women and children. The actual money he left me was from our father, according to the will, which is what I’ve been living off for the past four years.”
“Did he leave you any of his own money?” Jax asked.
“I’m not sure. The will stated that the money was to be left to me, but I thought that money was only from our father.”
“Did it say that specifically?”
She rolled her lips together. “I don’t remember, but I have a copy at home.”
“Do you mind if we look at it?” Brody asked.
She shrugged. “No, I don’t mind.”
“Can’t you get it?” Striker asked Kyle.
“Tried.” He looked around me and grinned sheepishly at Beth for prying into her personal information. “Can’t find any trace of it.”
That was odd. Since that will existed, it had to have been filed, which meant Kyle shouldn’t have any problems finding it. The fact that the attorney who wrote the will was dead only added to the mystery. I had a feeling this case was far from over.
“Did the will say why Sullivan left his house to you?” Mila asked.
“No.” Beth frowned. “But I’ve always wondered.”
“It doesn’t add up.” Mila looked around the table. “He treated her terribly for years, used her as an unpaid servant, and then leaves her everything.”
“I agree,” Jax concurred and focused back on Kyle. “You find any records of a safe deposit box in his name?”
“Nope, and I spent most of the day looking.” Kyle set all four chair legs back on the ground. “If there is one, it’s not in North Carolina.”
Striker glanced at Beth. “Did your family ever live anywhere else?”
She looked thoughtful for a moment and then sat up straighter. “When my father was drinking, he sometimes talked about the house he grew up in. I never lived there or even visited. I’m not sure if Danny did, though.”
“Where was it?”
“I don’t remember the town name, but it was odd. I always thought it wouldn’t be a place I’d want to go because it sounded scary. I do remember he said it was in North Dakota.”
Striker’s head snapped up, and the rest of us knew why. “Was it Devil’s Lake?”
“Yeah.” She nodded. “That was it.” She tilted her head to the side. “Wait, how do you know about that place?”
“Because I tracked someone there who had been looking into you.”
“Who was it?”
“The friend of Skinner’s who your brother didn’t like. Kevin Samson.” He looked out around her at Jax and Brody. “I can leave tomorrow.”
“You’re not taking this one,” Brody answered before Jax could, but it was obvious he agreed.
“If there was ever a case I should be taking, it would be this one.”
“You’re not in any physical condition to handle this.” Jax looked at Cam. “We takin’ this one or you?”
“We have no jurisdiction there and no reason to file a warrant. Nothing ties him to the arsenic unless we get something from the cell phone. You work on getting him back to New Hope while I find some fucking evidence to hold him.”
Jax nodded and shifted his attention back to Striker. “We’ll assign it, and you can help guide them from your apartment. Maybe if we’re lucky, he’ll fuck up and put us right where we need to be.”
“I’ve done a hell of a lot more than follow a guy and go to a few banks with a gunshot wound.”
“That was before you had someone worrying about you.” Jax pointed at Beth. “And I can tell from the look on her face that she wouldn’t handle it well if you were tracking in your condition. I also don’t want that shit on me. I haven’t lost a man, and I don’t intend to start.” He smirked. “Even if that man is the biggest pain in the ass I’ve ever worked with.”
“I think he just gave you a compliment.” Kyle laughed. “More than I ever got.”
“And more than you will if you keep stirring the fucking pot. I feel like I’m working with our brother Jake.”
“Now that”—Kyle pointed at him—“was a compliment.”
Jax ran his hands over his face but ignored him and moved on. “I think we should send Mila and Ethan.” I stiffened but tried to conceal it when Jax focused on me before moving back to Striker. “She’s more than able to track, and they’ve already been seen as a couple. Devil’s Lake is a tourist town, so they’ll blend in as being there on vacation. They’re also still new. I think whoever this is will recognize any of us who were around during Sullivan’s takedown. Neither of them were.”
Brody nodded his head. “I agree. Ethan can also set up any equipment Kyle needs back here to keep an eye on shit that’s going on. And Mila, you can keep in contact with Striker since he’s already been there and has the lay of the land.”
“I don’t like this,” Striker grumbled.
Brody lifted his eyebrows. “Next time, don’t get shot, and you can go.”
“When should we leave?” Mila sat forward and leaned her elbows on the table. She seemed unaffected by the new plan, but I wasn’t feeling the same.
Kyle held up his phone. “I’m booking you a room right now at the lakeside resort. You check in tomorrow morning at eleven.”
She glanced at me. “Guess we need to get packed.”
Kyle smirked. “Pack your bathing suits. They have a lot of lake shit to do there.”
Mila pushed to her feet. “We’re there to work.”
“All work and no play.” Kyle tsked. “You’re no fun.”
“We’ll meet here Tuesday morning at eight. Mila and Ethan should have something to report by then.” Brody raised his eyebrows and stared at Striker. “You’re off tomorrow, and Beth already has orders to call me if you give her any shit.” He glanced back and forth between them before settling on Beth. “I’d like to say this is over, but it isn’t. I need you to be more vigilant than ever. We have no idea where Samson is, and until Mila and Ethan locate him, you need to stay put.”
Cam nodded. “I’ll have police on your street until we get some reports back from the team. With any damn luck at all, they’ll find something useful in Devil’s Lake.”
“What if they don’t?” Beth asked.
Cam stood and leaned on his palms. “We’ll get him, Beth. Unlike before, lay low. Unless he had eyes on the bunker, he might not know you made it out alive. Let’s keep him out of the loop as much as possible. It gives us an advantage.”
Cam stood and shifted his attention to Jax after she nodded. “Gave you the lead on this case because you had leeway we didn’t, but you guys are walking a fine line with the department. You shouldn’t have entered that bunker before the police. We have no problem working together when it benefits the community, but if anyone in the department can prove you’re obtaining anything illegally, charges could be brought against you and the company.” Cam crossed his arms over his chest. “We’ll take the back seat for now. We don’t have shit on the guy responsible for the arsenic, and as private investigators, you are legally allowed to follow leads, but if we get anything from the cell phone, you need to back off and let us do our job.”
Jax jerked up his chin, which seemed to satisfy Cam, and he left the room, closing the door behind him.
Looking around, I knew everyone was expecting the lecture I was. Jax didn’t like being reprimanded by his brothers, who were cops, even when they were right. And Cam was right. We shouldn’t have entered that bunker without backup, but knowing everyone in the room as well as I did, I knew without a doubt they’d do it the same way again.
It was a surprise when Jax faced us and gestured back and forth between himself and Brody. “Nice work. We’ve spent years building this team, and it’s one we’re both proud of.”
“And the department?” Kyle asked.
“Just follow the assignments we give. Cam’s right. We do walk a fine line, and we all know that, but they need us. They’ll give us a little more slack than we probably deserve or would get elsewhere, so let’s remember that.”
With a few nods, we all stood, and Mila turned to face Kyle. “Did you book our flights?”
“Yep, your flight leaves tomorrow morning at seven.”
I nodded. “I need to meet with Brody and go over everything I’ll need, so that’ll give me time.”
“Sounds good.” She smiled and took a few steps back. “You picking me up in the morning, or do you want me to drive to the airport?”
“I’ll pick you up, probably around four. It’s a two-hour drive.”
“Okay.” She smiled. “See you in the morning.”
“Yeah,” I agreed, and she turned on her heel, but it wasn’t hard to miss her excitement.
I didn’t share her feelings.
In fact, all I felt was dread.