Chapter 36 Brek #2
“They’re in our custody.” He meets Voss’ eyes.
“It’s like you said. They’re clearly guilty, but they haven’t actually hurt anyone.
They enabled the situation, which makes them guilty of a lot of crimes, but…
yeah, I don’t know. They freely answer everything.
They’re helpful when we want information.
Strangely, Malcolm seems to be fond of a couple.
” Rhodes shakes his head. “I don’t know.
This can’t be my choice. If anything, it needs to be Malcolm’s or Brek’s.
They lived through that shit; I didn’t.”
Many eyes turn to me, and my shoulders tense.
Jalon inclines his head. “No need to think about it right now.” He smiles reassuringly at me. “Let’s talk about Malcolm. Seems to me like he’s not ready to go back to his life.”
Rhodes shakes his head. “I think he’s too damaged from this.
” He glances around the table, particularly at my friends and me, before continuing.
“I think he’d make a good employee in the contract department.
He’s already missing from the world, and his eyes have been opened to the darkness that lurks right under our noses. ”
“Thank you for your recommendation. I’ve had the same from Wade and Voss.
Once Malcolm makes his way here, we’ll have a conversation.
” Jalon looks around the table. “Now, the reason I’ve asked everyone here.
In our rush to find Brek, we asked you to help us by using a very sensitive tool, and I’m sure you’re left with a lot of questions considering we haven’t discussed anything since we located Brek. ”
Jessica and Levis are nodding in agreement.
“This conference room in particular is isolated and insulated. We’re in complete privacy. There are a handful of rooms like this within my office building and at the big house. What I’m going to tell you is in complete confidence. I need your agreement on this.”
My friends exchange looks, though Haze, Briar, and Oakley look relatively unconcerned. Unsurprised. They already know what’s about to be shared.
“Yes,” Honey Bee says. “I agree.”
The rest of my friends agree, and when the table looks at me, I agree as well.
“I don’t know how much you’re aware of the circumstances surrounding me taking my sons away from their mother, but the situation at home reached a point where Loren felt the need to protect his brothers from their mother by brandishing a butcher knife and becoming a barrier between them and her.
This is the scene I came home to. I admit that I’d wanted to believe my wife throughout the years we were married when she assured me she loved all our sons the same and that she was treating them well.
At that moment, with my youngest son protecting his older brothers with a knife, I realized how wrong I’d been.
I took my boys away from there and brought them here.
“You’re also aware Loren is a sociopath.
I’m sure that in learning this, you’ve done your research on what that means.
One of the character traits of a sociopath is that they’re prone to violence.
While Loren had never hurt anyone up to that moment I walked in on, I also knew it had likely been a catalyst for more of those moments, and as he got older, he’d likely be less able to control himself in holding back. ”
I’m not the only one who eyes Loren. He doesn’t appear to be listening as he leans back in his seat and absently plays with Oakley’s hair, staring at his father. Or… through his father.
“I needed a safe and constructive outlet for Loren.
Which is why I created the contract department.
The contract department is a leg of our business that is entirely illegal and conducted on the dark web.
All my sons are involved in one way or another.
My brothers are involved. Many of my cousins.
This is a branch of our family business that has always existed.
I simply organized it because I needed to control the environment for Loren to keep him out of jail.
“As you know, the world is filled with ugly people. I’m not going to pretend that we’re vigilantes or superheroes and target the evil that falls through the cracks in the justice system. We work off contracts. Contracts that others take out on other people.”
“You’re no different from the people who took Brek?” Honey Bee asks, horrified.
“Jess,” Myro says, gripping her hand. I can see her struggle not to yank it free. Her eyes are hard on Jalon.
“In a way, no,” Jalon agrees.
“That’s a lie,” Imry says. “We kill bad people. Verifiably bad people.”
“Imry’s right,” Ellory says, leaning forward.
“We have a website on the dark web, just like the one for the services that Brek was caught up in, where people can take out a contract to kill someone. The difference is that we don’t accept all contracts.
We don’t kill someone because they promoted someone else over the person taking out the contract.
We don’t kill someone because their neighbor’s dog shits in their yard.
We accept contracts from victims. Like the stalker who went after Oakley.
Like the cult that had William and thousands of other people.
Like the mafia family that abducted Lorissa when she was pregnant with Axl.
We go through all the contracts.” He looks at Avory and Imry.
“And when we see one that appears legit, we send it to Voss to verify. If it’s legit and the target in the contract is in fact an evil human being who has hurt others unspeakably, Voss gives the go-ahead, and those who do the killing—like Loren—hunt the target.
We are not like the place that took Brek.
We don’t kill indiscriminately. We don’t take contracts simply for monetary gain.
We kill people who have raped, tortured, murdered, assaulted, and otherwise tormented others. ”
Silence fills the room as Ellory’s words hang in the air.
“Welcome to the dark side of the Van Dorens,” Uncle Noaz says quietly.
“I don’t care,” I say after a minute of unsettling silence.
“As someone who was nearly brutally murdered in a way that no one deserves to die, I’m glad there’s someone out there who’s serving karma on those people.
I’ll never unsee the kid I watched being killed horribly.
I’ll never scrub my eyes of the mutilated body I almost fell over.
The person who made that place deserves a really long, painful death.
The people who pay to hunt other humans deserve the same treatment. ”
I’m surprised when Briar nods his agreement.
“Countless infants were literally ripped from their mothers’ bodies, and who the fuck knows what happened to them, but those women were fed to fucking pigs,” he says, shaking his head.
“Yeah, the people involved deserve a death the likes of those they condoned. And before you say anything, we all know that if they were legally convicted of their crimes, the worst they’d do is serve time in prison. That’s not enough.”
“I could have lost my son before he was born,” Voss says quietly. Everyone in the room looks at Axl asleep in his little chair.
“Oakley was nearly dead when I found him being dragged by a rope around his neck through an alley,” Loren says.
I inhale sharply. Tears immediately fall down Honey Bee’s cheeks.
“We’re different, but we’re the same,” Jalon says after a moment passes. “Yes, we kill people illegally. Brutally. But we do so only to those who arguably deserve death. This is the secret that we’ve hidden for more than a decade. And now that secret is yours to keep as well.”
I know my friends and I will keep it. At this point, we’ve all been affected by the darkness that lives within this world. Some as the victims. Some because someone they love deeply has been a victim.
Maybe it’s wrong of me, but I’m thankful that people like the Van Dorens exist and are willing to pull out all the stops to save the innocent. I owe them my life. I’ll happily take their secret to my grave.
Looking down at my hand covered with fabric hiding the constant reminder of what I’d been through, I reach for Voss’ hand. He looks at me, and I smile. “Thanks for being my villain,” I say.
He grins. “Always.”