Chapter 9
CHAPTER NINE
SIRE
Opening the door at the bottom of the stairs to my penthouse, I step back, shocked to find Axel and Loch waiting for me.
“Hey, man.” I give Loch a quick hug and back slap. “Didn’t expect to see you so soon.”
He cups my shoulder. “Came home early for the initiation. Got some errands to run and … um … some shit to take care of.”
My youngest brother gives me a knowing look. He matches my height and build, but my baby brother is anything but. His job has put more brawn on him—his job and love.
I’ve never seen Loch so happy and healthy. The shit he has to take care of is that he’s in love with Alena Allen, Nash’s daughter, even though Nash is going to fucking kill him when he finds out.
Nash told Loch to protect Alena, to be her colleague and secret bodyguard. With the evil circles we run in, more like with the vile fucks we kill, Axel ordered it, too.
Alena has no idea who we are and the danger she’s in.
But Nash and Axel sure as hell didn’t expect Loch to fall in love with her, and all the kinky shit Loch and Alena are into.
Yeah, I know about that, too.
I’m the oldest—the pastor. My brothers confide in me about everything, and I keep their secrets. You’d think I’d be against keeping them, but I have my own.
Axel explains, “I told him to meet us here because we’re going to need him.”
“Need him for what?”
“I’ll need Loch to hold you back when I tell you what I found out about Wren.”
Cue my pulse skyrocketing, red rage starting to bleed over my eyes. “What about Wren?”
Sympathy bends Axel’s face. “Man, I don’t know how she made it this far and can still smile like an angel.”
Axel sees it too; the light that sparkles off of Wren like goddamn glitter in the darkest world. I’m drawn to it. I’m starting to fear ever losing it.
“Just tell him.” Loch sounds sympathetic, too.
Fury burns through my constricting throat, worry biting at my eyes. “Tell me what about Wren?”
“I got a copy of her child services file,” Axel explains. “You’re right. She’s from Tennessee and was bounced from home to home. As a baby, it was because she cried. Her foster parents said she wouldn’t sleep and wanted to be held too much.”
Oh fuck. The biting at my eyes gets worse.
“As a little girl,” Axel swallows, “some foster parents said she was weird or mentally ill. That she’d smile and talk to God or the sky and butterflies like they could hear her.”
Yep, my eyes start leaking.
Axel grabs my arm. “Her file said there’s no evidence of abuse.
Not the worst kind, but it’s like no one ever wanted her.
In some placements, they didn’t keep her a week before they wanted her to leave.
They told her she was too different. She didn’t fit in.
Fuck,” he seethes, “who would do that to a kid?”
Through clenched teeth and blurred vision, I demand, “Tell me about her second-to-last placement.”
“She was placed with some family in Maryville, Tennessee. Nothing bad’s on the record, but for some reason, Wren was moved and placed with Nannette Banks in Happy Valley, Tennessee, until she was eighteen.”
Happy Valley? I suspect it didn’t end that way for Wren.
“Those places are idyllic but remote as hell,” Loch adds.
“Why does that matter?”
I can’t think clearly. I can’t reason. I just see Wren as a little girl who needed to be held and loved. She wanted a family, but she was rejected from home to home, and made to feel bad that she believed in God.
And now, God, I want to burn the fucking world down for her.
“Because,” Loch answers, “that’s what makes those places perfect for drug trafficking. Rough terrain. Remote. Low population. You can get away with murder on those mountains. I would know.”
“I think that’s what happened.” Axel won’t let go of my arm, and I don’t want him to. He’s right. Someone needs to hold me back.
“I have a new paralegal: Ruby,” he adds.
“She’s smart as hell with good instincts.
She obtained Wren’s DCS file but dug a little deeper.
She found out that one month before Wren turned eighteen, Nannette Banks died from a stroke, and she had left her home to Wren.
But eight months later, Wren’s home was the site of the largest meth bust in the county.
Two days after the bust, it went up in flames. ”
“Who was busted?” I rage.
“Not Wren,” Axel huffs like the wicked side of him is amused. “Three men were taken into custody. One was an unidentified minor. He was released, but the other two died hours after their arrest.” Axel smirks. “They had been poisoned and—”
“And the ringleader remains at large somewhere in those mountains,” Loch adds.
Now, my brain is working.
Now, I can see it.
Meth? Death and drug trafficking? Not Wren. Fire, poisoning, and vengeance? Oh, my Iron Angel.
I reason aloud, “Somehow those bastards turned Wren’s home into a meth lab, but she fought back. They underestimated her. She probably collected enough evidence to turn them in, but she poisoned them to be sure they wouldn’t be a threat, and then she set their operation on fire.”
Axel grins, impressed. “Like a fucking queen, she did.”
“And that’s why you’re here, right?” I turn to Loch. “Thank fuck you didn’t join the Marines, because I need a forest ranger who can help me hunt that ringleader down.”
Loch nods. “We will.”
“That ringleader?” Axel pulls away like I’m about to blow. “The one who probably sold Wren into that trafficking ring?”
“You mean the man whose head I’ll take?”
“Yeah,” Axel answers. “He’s Nannette Banks’s son.”