Chapter 23
CHAPTER 23
CHANCE
Tank took the loss of the Linds exactly how I’d expect him to, yet so much worse than I could have fathomed. He shut down completely. It’s as if he was here and not here all at once.
His eyes were open.
He was responding.
But he wasn’t completely on board. He wasn’t completely attuned to everything around us.
It doesn’t help that he’s still recovering. Though I can’t be mad since he’s limited in what he can and can’t do. I had a feeling if he were fully capable, he’d already be out hunting down whoever did this.
“Baby, I need you to try to eat something for me,” I told him as I raised the bowl into his line of sight.
He was on the bed, his back propped up at an angle. The tv played on a low volume across the room, some old black and white film as background noise.
The soup I’d had Jared order for him smelled delicious. I also knew it was one of his favorites. And given my man never turned down a good meal, I knew his emotions were causing this change.
That and the blank stare he wore.
“Baby,” I urged again.
His head swiveled my way, his eyes on me as if they weren’t really seeing me. I hated that he was hurting. If I could take away the pain, I would.
“Why? Why them?”
The rasp in his voice broke my heart. He didn’t deserve to deal with all this. He didn’t deserve losing the only people he considered family.
Even before going out to see them, I knew those two were as close as he allowed himself to get. His mother had been his rock during his younger years. Losing her had changed him greatly.
Losing the Linds would too, only in a different way.
“I’m not sure why he hurt them, baby. It’s not fair. We both know that. I’m sorry you lost them.”
A tear trailed down his cheek. I wiped it away before it could fall, then I leaned forward, pressing my head against his. His eyes closed with the movement.
“No matter what comes next, I’ll be there with you. We’ll take care of their services. They deserve to have a proper send off, right?”
A shift came over him with my words. His eyes flew open as he leaned back.
“We’ll honor them. We have to call Stabler. I don’t want them to just be tossed aside. And call Dallas. He’s my lawyer, remember? He’ll look over any paperwork.”
“I doubt Stabler would do anything like that. Not after finding out there’s a connection.”
“Still,” he said as he reached for his phone on the bedside table.
Once he pulled up the contact, he relaxed again. I grabbed a notebook from the table across the room and sat with it to take any notes.
“Stabler,” the man answered, his voice tense.
“It’s Tank. I’m calling about the Linds.” He paused as his voice broke. “I need to make sure their bodies don’t wind up somewhere they shouldn’t be.”
The other man hummed. “I can have them tagged for you. Are one of your guys going to come grab them? From what I’ve seen, they were a big part of the community here. Several people might want to honor them as well.”
Tank nodded along to the suggestion. “I figured that might be the case. Did you find any information about a lawyer or anything in the house? I’ll need to get their wills over to Dallas. I don’t even know if they have plots or if they wanted to be cremated.”
Panicked eyes met mine. I shook my head, reaching for the phone despite it being on speaker. If there was one thing I could do, it was help plan and organize some things. I’d had plenty of help along the way from Marten, but I was also adept at handling shit when I needed to. I mostly told my father I was helpless so he wouldn’t fire my friend.
Speaking of, I needed to have Jared check on him again. Last update he texted me, Marten was secure in the hospital under observation from the smoke inhalation. I hadn’t been able to go see him. Hopefully things were handled soon because I needed to know he was truly fine.
“Stabler, this is Chance. I’m Tank’s partner. Can you tell me what all you know so far?”
He cleared his throat. “Um, yeah. There was some paperwork from a lawyer in the house. It was tucked away upstairs. Strong, my partner right now, found it when she was looking for anything that might be suspicious. I can get it sent over to Memphis if you want. I don’t have this Dallas guy’s contact info.”
“Send it straight to Tank’s phone please. The others are working on the case. They need to focus. This is personal. I’ll handle it.” Even if I hadn’t known who Dallas was, I would have found out quickly. I wasn’t going to pass something like this off to anyone else.
“Understood,” he replied. “As for the other, I’ll have the bodies tagged with Tank as next of kin. He’ll be able to reach out to the local morgue for next steps after that.”
“Good.” I gave Tank a look. “Do you need to ask Stabler anything else?”
“Not right now.”
His reply was all the other man needed to hear. “You know how to reach me. I’ve got to go now.”
As soon as the call disconnected, he reached for the device again. I held back from giving it up so quickly.
“What do you need it for now? Who else is there to call?”
Tank huffed. “Ricardo, for one. I was supposed to have checked in by now. The confession of my past kind of railroaded everything. Plus, I need to check on my brother. If anything has happened to him too…”
I placed my hand over his. He needed to focus or else he’d panic all over again. With him finally coming back to himself, I didn’t want to risk it.
“Let me call him. You can talk and ask questions. Let me lead for you right now, ok?”
He shook his head. “I’m not weak.”
“No, baby. You’ve never been weak a day in your life. But sometimes you have to let others help. That’s all I want to do.”
His eyes held mine. An eternally long moment passed before he nodded.
“Call him. I need to know. Both of them, please.”
I dialed Ricardo first since I knew he’d likely have good news for us. He answered on the second ring. “What the fuck, dude? Where have you been hiding?”
“At the hospital,” I replied. “And now that we’re back in the office, I’m helping him out. This is Chance.”
“Chance?”
“Yeah, his partner.”
Ricardo laughed. “Tank has a boyfriend? Oh, this is interesting. I can’t wait to hear how this happened.”
“Now isn’t the time, Ricardo. I need to know if you found anything from the search I asked you to run. Anything at all.”
“Ugh! You’re no fun. I guess if you want to talk shop, then we can for now.” He paused, the sound of echoing steps coming across the line.
My guess was he was getting somewhere private. I appreciated him doing so. Especially if he actually had helpful intel.
“To answer your original question, I didn’t find anything. This guy has his shit sealed up tight. Every trail I went down came to a dead end. In some cases, quite literally.”
“What do you mean?” I asked before Tank could.
“I mean the companies and or names listed on the accounts were people long gone. If I had to guess, it’s identity theft level stuff. He’s using people that can’t speak up to complain to funnel his funding. It also means we can’t really pin him down.”
Tank jumped at the news. “Can you send the names you found to Memphis? Maybe there’s an overlap somewhere. We’ve had a few new developments since I first reached out.”
“No shit!” Ricardo said. “You’re in a relationship now. What the hell, man? I figured you’d be single for life.”
“He hasn’t been single for a long, long time, Ricardo. You were all just too oblivious to notice.”
At my words, he started sputtering. I ended the call before he could pry too much. Tank would deal with him when he had more time. For now, I knew it was best to get his brother on the line.
With the way the Linds were killed, it was possible someone could make the connection. Bellport was across the country. Hopefully, we weren’t too late.
“Yes, brother dear?” The sassy voice answered.
Tank sighed deeply. “Oh, thank goodness.”
“What? Why are you acting weird? And where have you been? You ask a favor, then go dark on me. It makes no sense.”
“Bitch at me all you want. It’s good to hear your voice.”
The other man went quiet. I took that as my moment to speak up.
“Hey there, Kendall. It’s me. Chance.”
Since I knew he was aware of my existence, I didn’t have to explain who I was to his brother. Tank made it clear the little shit — his words, not mine — was far too nosy to let our secret relationship be all that secret.
I kind of liked knowing that he knew about me, even when I didn’t know of him. It made things all the more real in a way.
“Ohhhh. Chance is there! Does that mean the team finally knows? I swear, you’ve been hiding him away for ages.” He drawled the last word out slowly.
“I didn’t hide him away. He had a life.”
Kendall laughed. “Yeah, but no one knew you two were together. I found out before they did. Then again, they didn’t know about me either. So many secrets you had, brother.”
“Cut the crap. We’re calling to make sure you’re ok and to check on the search I asked you to run. Can you give me an update?”
“Well, I’m as dandy as can be I guess. It’s a fucking sauna outside, despite the weather supposed to be cooling off. I’ve kept my happy ass inside to avoid melting.”
“And the search,” I pressed.
“The search… well, it wasn’t all that much fun. In fact, it was rather boring. Couldn’t you have given me something harder?”
My jaw dropped. Was he saying he’d found something?
Tank’s expression mirrored my own. It would have been amusing in any other circumstance.
Still, I was grateful his brat of a brother distracted him enough to pull him out of the grief spiral he’d been in. At least his focus was on something else now.
“Tell us,” he demanded. “My other guys found nothing. What do you know?”
Kendall giggled. “You know I’m the best. You just won’t take me on because you’re a doody head.”
“Doody head or not, I need those details. The guy we’re after is hurting people I care about. I’m worried he’ll come after you next.”
“Oh.”
“Exactly. I have to know you’re safe. Maybe I should send one of my guys down there to watch over you.” The last part was said more to himself than either of us. I could tell his brain was running away from the real topic we needed to go over.
Jumping in, I asked, “Can you tell us what’s going on, Kendall? I really would like to help get this guy off our backs.”
“Anything for you two lovebirds.” The sound of a keyboard came over the line. I remembered a time when that sound wasn’t so much a part of my life. Now it seemed like the keys held all the answered I needed. Whether it was Memphis or Kendall, the path had the same result.
It only took him a minute to find whatever he’d been looking for. When his humming cut out, I knew he was getting ready to lay the truth before us.
“Like I said before, this search wasn’t all that hard. The guy has someone good on his payroll, but even they fucked up along the way. The man you’re looking for is living under an alias. He’s also heavily connected to some high up officials. His brother in particular is an issue.”
“Brother?” Tank asked.
“Yeah. Younger than him. Probably has a hero complex too, if I had to guess. Why else would he have a brother who’s a criminal and decide to join the FBI? Maybe he thought he could cover his crimes or something. Who knows? I find it much easier if both siblings are on the wrong side of the law.”
“Wait a second. Go back to that part about being in the FBI. Who is Lune’s brother?”
Kendall sighs. “You two have GOT to keep up. The TLDR of it is that Lune isn’t really Lune. It’s a stage name thing. He’s got a brother in the bureau. He’s on leave right now, however he normally works with a Detective —”
“Stabler,” Tank and I said in unison.
“Wow! That was amazing. Do you have any other party tricks?”
“Get serious, please. What else do you know?”
At his brother’s question, Kendall continued. “Lune, or rather Pratt as he’s legally listed, has a residence right outside of the city. It’s on a huge plot of land that’s supposed to be earmarked for agriculture. There were some shady deals, hence why it’s really a front for his stuffs.”
“Stuffs?” I asked.
“You know. His killing and dealing. The guy basically runs an underground fight club out there. It’s all the rage if his bank account is anything to go by. Man is packing a lot of commas, if you get my drift.”
I shook my head. “You found all this out?”
“Um, yeah. I didn’t make it all up. I’m no storyteller.”
“How?! Memphis couldn’t get it. Ricardo came up short too.” Tank’s incredulous tone didn’t go over well with Kendall.
“Maybe because I really am the best like I’ve told you.” He scoffed. “It’s whatever. I’ll send your precious Memphis the details.”
The call disconnected, leaving Tank and I to stare at one another. Talking with Kendall was like being caught in an unexpected storm. I wasn’t sure where to go or how to recover from the whirlwind.
And I still needed to speak with Dallas. This day kept throwing me curve balls left and right. I hoped the lawyer wasn’t going to be another one.
“I’ve underestimated him,” Tank admitted.
“Sounds like it. How will you make it up to him?”
He shrugged. “I’m not sure, but most importantly, I have to keep him alive.”
“You’re going to send someone?”
“Yeah. I know just the guy to go down there. I’ll owe Rojas some back-up at the Club, but it will be worth it. I trust Frost to take care of him.”
Whatever his plan, I hoped it didn’t upset Kendall even more. If he could find the man they’d been hunting for so long in such a short amount of time, who knew what other kind of damage he could cause?
He was Tank’s brother after all.
Their brand of justice might be genetic.