Chapter 6
Chapter Six
Calder
K eir never texts me. If I text him, he’s the king of one-word responses. Reading through the multiple sentences makes my foot bounce as I swipe my hand through my hair. I’m assuming I understand what he means. The man texts less coherently than my eighty-year-old grandpa.
My eyes have been dry lately, so I’m rocking my massive black-frame glasses. And despite the cluster headache I’m battling, I pull up my system and get to work.
I was surprised when Easton told me not to run any of the standard searches upon hiring Briar. It’s in no way the normal operating procedure for how we hire new employees, but I let it go because he was clearly infatuated with her.
Easton likes mysteries and puzzles.
I figured he didn’t want to know her background, because that would ruin the appeal of uncovering it on his own. Also, just looking at her, I could tell she wasn’t a threat. But maybe she is, and she’s just really good at faking?
Nah, I don’t believe that.
My jaw falls as I hit wall after wall.
Hmm.
The government tried to cover something up, but not much stays hidden from me.
Is there some way they’re investigating us? Not all the contracts we take are legal. Not remotely so.
Giving up isn’t in my default settings, so I try a regular search of Bianca Manzo while my programs work on getting into the government servers.
My jaw practically hits my chest as I lean forward.
Okay, cool overreaction, man.
Only, what I find is mind-blowing.
Briar Maxwell is Bianca Manzo. I don’t have to go past the first few search results to be sure about that. The wavy dark hair, bluish-gray eyes, and plush lips are a match.
Damn.
Uncle Sam did her dirty.
They locked her down in their database but didn’t do anything to scrub her from the rest of the internet. Anyone with facial recognition software could find her in two seconds flat.
Scanning through the information, I learn all about her history. I’m just not sure what I’m supposed to do with it.
Briar hasn’t told us.
I can only assume that means she’d like to leave Bianca in the past. The backdoor program dings, letting me know I’m into the files the government doesn’t want anyone perusing.
And damn, it’s not pretty.
The Manzo family set up their daughter in an arranged marriage with Avan Barrett out of New York.
That guy, I have heard of.
Avan was a slimeball that took the Barrett family fully into the era of omega trafficking. It’s unreal any family would trust their daughter with that kind of human filth. The reality is, they traded her for a family union that would lead to increased power and territory.
They didn’t care if Barrett killed her.
Okay, it’s all speculation on my part after reading through the multitude of reports, but the one from Bianca herself makes my fists clench. The government made her all sorts of promises if she testified, but everyone they wanted locked up was dead, except for her brother, Titus Manzo. Only, she didn’t have anything concrete on him.
They pushed to send her undercover to obtain evidence against him, but she refused, stating he would kill her without a second thought if he caught wind of her working with them .
They gave her a flimsy-as-fuck new identity, didn’t bother to wipe any of her old information, and sent her out in the world to be a sitting duck.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they aren’t waiting for Titus to find her. After all, if he kills his sister, they’ll finally have something to pin on him.
And this is why I refuse to work with the government, even though they’ve offered me ludicrous sums of money to do so.
I’m barely done deep diving into the Manzos when Easton calls me into his office. Not bothering to knock, I let myself in and stomp over to his desk with my laptop in hand.
“We’ve got a problem,” I say, setting the computer down.
It’s not my place to get into Briar’s past, and it’s even more complicated because I don’t know if I should call her Briar or Bianca.
That part, at least, is made easier by the fact she hasn’t told us her story. I’ll continue to call her Briar unless she asks me not to.
“It’s nothing we can’t handle,” Easton says, shrugging. “What I want to know is how you knew to pull the Manzo files. I just spoke to Arden, but by the time I logged in, you were already researching them. Explain that to me.”
Arden runs one of the contract teams. Actually, he and his packmates, Lincoln and Kase, are the only group we trust to clean house when one of our own goes rogue. They’re the exterminators for the mercenaries who cross the line and have to be dealt with; that way, they don’t become a risk to society.
“Did Arden ask you to look into the Manzos?” Easton asks.
“How do you know what I was doing?” I counter as my eyes narrow.
He nods at the third computer on his desk. “I have full access to everything you do.”
Dammit .
That’s right.
I had a small period of hyperfixation when I was convinced Easton would let us have an office pet and got distracted on a few things, but that was months ago.
My fists clench.
Guinea pigs are great companions. He really should have let me have that one concession. We could have had an office mascot if that fucker hadn’t vetoed the idea right out of the gate.
They’re very vocal animals with their grunts and little squeaks. They need to be kept in groups of at least two because they’re social animals, and they often learn their owners’ routines.
Goddammit.
I forgot how furious I was about that.
If I didn’t work so much, I would have adopted my own to keep at home, but the sad reality is, I spend more hours a day here than I do at my apartment. And I didn’t want my grandparents to feel obligated to look after my animals.
“Why were you researching the Manzo family?” Easton’s head tilts.
“Why do you care?”
If anyone is going to blow Briar’s cover, I’d prefer to let Keir do that.
I like her.
She’s pretty, smells nice, and she smiles at me in a way that makes my heart beat funny. I don’t want to spill her secrets and have her end up hating me.
I’m already not on board with Easton putting her off-limits.
He should know better.
The omega builds their pack.
“If you weren’t the best hacker on the East Coast, I would have disposed of you by now,” he says with deadpan delivery.
I snort. “You could try.”
“ Calder, I’m not going to ask again.”
The door to Easton’s office flies open, and my head tilts to see who is barging in. Keir is the only person with enough balls not to knock. I’m not shocked when I spot his big ass. He’s so tall, the top of his head nearly grazes the doorframe.
“Briar bolted.” Keir crosses the room in four long strides. “I don’t know what the fuck even happened.” His head shakes. “I brought her back to the office like she asked. By the time I made it out of the bathroom, she was gone.”
“What do you mean?” Easton snarls, shoving his chair back from his desk.
At the same exact second, Keir asks, “What did you find on Bianca Manzo?”
Both their heads whip in my direction.
“Who is Bianca Manzo in relation to the Manzo family, and why were you looking into her to begin with?” Easton growls.
“Well, I don’t know what she would have to do with whatever you were talking about with Arden, but I was looking into her because—you know what? It might be better if I just show you.” I snag my laptop, wiggle my finger over the trackpad, and pull up the side-by-side I put together of Bianca Manzo and Briar.
Easton stomps around the desk to stand by Keir, and I shove myself out of my chair to show them the images.
“Motherfucker,” Keir whispers. “That dickhead at the diner was right. There’s no mistaking it—that’s Briar.”
“I would have caught it upon her hiring, but you”—I nod at Easton—“told me not to bother with her background check.”
“Moving on,” Easton growls.
“The government did her no favors…” I go on to explain what I found about the massacre that occurred on her wedding day. “The feds seem to think it was the Russians who killed her husband-to-be, but I’ve studied Ivanov,” I say, referencing the head of the family that used to control New York. I guess they do again with the Barretts out of the way. “The massacre at Bianca’s wedding to Avan Barrett didn’t scream Ivanov and the Russians to me.” I shrug. “It wasn’t their style. It was far too clean for that. The entire operation…” I try to find a way to explain it. “I don’t know, but it doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. They didn’t kill Bianca. She was smuggled out by an undercover agent the DEA had in place with the Barrett family.”
“Jesus Christ,” Keir mutters, swiping a hand over his face.
I nod, because after reading the reports, it makes a lot more sense why Briar reacted to the car backfiring the first day she came in. I would be shocked if she doesn’t have some type of PTSD following her wedding. The pictures were gruesome, and I’m mostly desensitized to gore.
“Go on,” Easton grinds out.
“The feds promised her complete immunity and a brand-new life. Only, that fell apart when they realized she knew nothing of value. They put her out with a passable fabricated identity and let her claim a few of the tip rewards to have some cash to start over.” Balancing my laptop on one hand, I use the other to flip over to the crime scene photos. “The guy she was set to marry—Avan—they found his body at the crime scene, but his head was missing. The same for Tomlin Manzo, Bianca’s father. That’s probably why they blamed the Russians. It’s the only thing about the entire operation that screamed mafia kill to me.”
“And if everyone is dead, why is Briar living in fear?” East asks, studying the computer screen.
“Her brother.” I flip the device back around and pull him up. “Titus Manzo was not in attendance. I’m going to guess he wasn’t pleased that his sister spent so much time in federal custody. He might even believe she had something to do with the setup. For the record, I don’t buy that for a second, but if she did, it would have been justified. The world didn’t lose a thing worth missing that night.”
Keir curses under his breath. “She knows someone from her old life spotted her. She’s going to run.”
Easton growls. “That’s not fucking happening. Someone, get Jameson on the phone right fucking now .” The unnatural calmness that takes over on the second sentence sends a shiver down my spine.
This is going to be a shit show.