Chapter 23
Carnage
“We’ve got a possible location on CJ,” Boone tells me while I hover behind him, watching him click away at his keyboard. “Phantom was in the Redlight neighborhood last night and saw a guy who looked like the pics I found online. He watched and tagged his car.”
“Why is CJ important?” I ask. “I only care about Leon.”
Boone grins at me like he knows a secret I don’t. “Remains to be seen, but from everything I’ve dug up about CJ I think he might be supplying more than just drugs, and he seems to be in regular contact with Leon.”
That gets my attention. “How do you know that?”
“Whisper hacked his cell phone after Rue confirmed the connection. He dials a particular number all the time that’s only recently popped up.
We asked the guys to keep an eye out last night—that’s how Phantom got involved—and while no one actually saw Leon, there were discussions about him between CJ and other people. They’re working on something.”
“Ah. So if something goes wrong tonight and Leon isn’t there, we can confirm where CJ is and we’ll likely find Leon.”
“That’s the idea. Whisper also made a good point: If Leon is getting involved with this shamrock gang, CJ might be the link, and it could lead us to more traffickers.” He leans back in his chair. “Whisper already cleared it with Shadow that we can do what we need to if we stumble on a ring.”
“Good.”
“Ghost, Phantom, and Whisper can come with you tonight for backup.”
Nodding, I crack my knuckles. “Leon’s a shifty bastard, so backup is good.”
“We’ve got you, man.”
After talking with Boone, I head up to my bedroom, where Rue is curled up in bed holding his old phone in his hand.
“What are you doing?”
He looks over at me, his face pale and brow creased. “I was thinking maybe he’s tried to get a hold of me again after what happened.”
“Did you turn it on?”
He shakes his head. “I was too nervous.”
“Give it to me.”
He shakes his head again. “I should do it. You have to stop sheltering me from everything.”
“Oh, do I?”
“I need to grow up at some point.”
I walk over and sit perched on the edge of the bed. “There are lots of ways to grow up that don’t involve traumatizing yourself.”
He takes a deep breath then exhales slowly and hands over the phone. “You’re right. Okay.”
I take the phone and keep my eyes fixed on my pretty lover as I press the power button to turn it on. As it flickers back to life, I brace for whatever we might hear.
But there’s nothing. Not a single text message or missed call.
“Nothing.”
Rue looks relieved. “Do you think he’s stopped looking for me, then?”
“No idea, precious. Word around town is that he’s pretty freaked out about what happened when he agreed to meet with me, so he could just be lying low and biding his time or he might have given up.
” I toss the phone onto the bed. “Doesn’t matter though.
I’m gonna find him, and when I do…” I drag my finger across my neck. “Lights out.”
Rue nods, biting his bottom lip as the color returns to his cheeks. “I’m safe.”
“Very.”
I end up falling into bed with him and claiming his gorgeous mouth, filling the time until I have to get up and deal with this Leon mess again with Rue instead. I can only hope my intel was right and he shows up at the warehouse so I can end all this and get back to making my Rue happy.
The warehouse area is pitch black and completely abandoned.
It’s clear no one has been here in a very long time, but it’s an ideal spot for illicit deals.
We arrived an hour early, parking the van behind a building away from the main warehouse, out of sight of anyone approaching.
Now I’m huddled near the warehouse behind a discarded pile of old pallets with Ghost and Phantom flanking me.
Whisper is a short distance away on top of a shipping container, keeping a bird’s eye view.
About forty minutes in, the sound of tires on gravel reaches us and a car approaches with its headlights off.
It pulls to a stop, and when the doors open a man steps out that clearly isn’t Leon.
He’s tall and has bright red hair noticeable even in the dark.
That’s not a natural color at all. No way.
He glances around then waves his hand. A few seconds later, a van pulls up and when the door slides open, three girls are shoved out onto the hard ground. I tense and Ghost whispers, “Fuck.”
Another body is shoved out of the van, this time a man wrapped in ropes. We watch as the redhead pulls a gun out and kneels by the man.
“Where the fuck is Leon?” the man asks, yanking the gag off the other man’s mouth.
“I don’t know. He sent me instead.”
I recognize that voice. “Brooklyn,” I whisper.
“Did he lie?” Phantom asks.
“No clue, but something’s up. He said he was meeting Leon alone.”
“We need to get those girls,” Ghost says. “Before shit goes down.”
Phantom pulls his gun from his chest holster and cocks it. “Let’s do this.”
I raise my hand. “Patience. We need to hear where Leon is and who this cartoon-looking motherfucker is.”
“I don’t like to be fucked around,” the redhead says. “You’ve got to the count of five to tell me where to find Leon or you eat a bullet.”
“Fuck, man,” Brooklyn squeaks as two other men get out of the van, walk over, and pull him up by his tied arms. “I don’t know. He called earlier and told me about a change of plans. He said he wanted to meet me at the house I was sent to and you guys were there instead.”
“Funny, because he told me to meet him here at nine-thirty and didn’t mention that he was sending someone else to my fucking house.”
Even from here, the smell of urine tickles my nose, and I assume Brooklyn has just pissed himself.
“He fucking owes me,” the man yells. “I got these fucking girls for him and I want my goddamn money.”
“He didn’t tell me nothing about girls or money. We just had a deal for some pills, man. I swear.”
“This is a waste of time,” one of the other guys says. “Let’s go. We need to find this Leon asshole.”
The redhead shoves his gun in Brooklyn’s mouth and doesn’t hesitate as he squeezes the trigger. The girls scream in terror and one of the guys shoves them, slapping the loudest one.
“That’s enough of that,” I murmur. “You guys ready?”
“Fuck yeah,” Phantom says.
“You bet,” Ghost adds.
The three of us creep out of the darkness and attack. I already know Whisper will focus on getting the girls to safety, so I close in on the redhead, clothes-lining him and dropping him to the ground.
Straddling his waist, I punch him in the face twice just to get his attention. “Who are you?” I growl.
“Fuck you,” he spits.
The sound of a gun firing pierces the darkness. “You hear that? Your crew is dying tonight. You want to talk?” I shrug. “Or I can just cut your throat. Your choice.”
“You don’t know who you’re fucking with, man.”
“Why don’t you tell me?”
“Leon set this up, didn’t he? That fucker is gonna pay for this.”
“I don’t work with Leon. Who do you work for?”
Suddenly the area is lit up and I can clearly see the man below me. The van’s headlights are on and then I hear the engine roaring, but I can’t worry about who’s behind the wheel right now.
“Tell me,” I growl, grabbing the man by his collar. When he still doesn’t speak, I unsheathe my knife and hold it to his neck, digging the tip in just enough to make my point.
“Okay, okay.” He looks around for a second, then back at me. “I work for Seamus Balfe.”
That’s when I grab his wrist and notice the shamrock tattoo. “You killed one of your own.”
He shakes his head. “No. That guy wasn’t with Seamus. There’s been copycats popping up all over the city. Seamus told us to deal with them when we find them.”
“And Leon?”
“Just a cog in the wheel. He’s been talking a big game about how he can get quality shipments for Seamus. He wants into the crew.”
“Leon wants to work for Seamus?”
“That’s what he’s been saying, but Seamus is suspicious. Leon doesn’t have a good reputation. He’s had three deals fall through recently too. He promised some billionaire that he had a virgin but didn’t produce.”
My skin crawls. “So he’s into human trafficking.”
Redhead shrugs. “Trying to be. So far we haven’t heard of any successful deals.”
“What happened tonight?”
“He called earlier and told us he found three young boys to trade for the three girls we have. He said he had a customer willing to pay big bucks for the girls. Then that other fucker showed up at my house. No way he could have known the address if Leon didn’t give it to him.
He told us he was supposed to meet Leon out here at ten but then Leon called him and sent him to my house instead.
I’m not sure who’s fucking who here, but Seamus is gonna lose his fucking shit. Now he’s got no boys and no money.”
A sense of simmering rage spreads through me the longer this loser talks. He speaks about trading people, kids, like it’s no big deal. It’s gonna feel good to bleed him out.
“I’ve got a message for Seamus.”
The guy has the nerve to roll his eyes. He thinks he’s walking away from this.
“Where can I find him?”
The guy scoffs. “He’d cut off my balls for telling.”
“What if I cut them off for not telling me?”
Fear creeps into his expression and he tenses beneath me. “I’m just a middleman. I’m not in charge of anything.”
“You seem to be calling the shots tonight.” I lift my head. “You hear that? That gurgling sound is one of your guys choking on his own blood as he takes his last breath.”
“I-I’m just following orders.”
“Last time, motherfucker. Where do I find Seamus?”
“Riverton. He has a big-ass house out there and never comes into the city.”
“How many soldiers does he have?”
He shakes his head. “Hundreds. Maybe more. I don’t know.”
“What else besides kids?”
“Adults. Lots of sex workers. Drugs too.”
“You’ve been very helpful.”
“You’re gonna let me go?”
I tut at him. “No. You’re a disgusting piece of shit and we’ll all be better off without you.”
I drag my knife across his neck, then wipe the blade on the dude’s shirt as his blood pools around his head and he gasps and thrashes.
I climb off him and brush the dirt off my jeans, then turn around to see what’s happened while I was focused on this guy.
Whisper is standing next to the van, untying the girls while Ghost and Phantom push bodies out of the way.
The girls are crying, and as I get close, I can see they’re barely in their teens. “Angel Shelter?” I ask Whisper, and he nods.
“Already made the call to give them a heads-up. Did you find out anything?”
I help get the ropes off one girl. “Yeah. It’s a big ring run by someone named Seamus Balfe. Apparently Leon sacrificed Brooklyn in some kind of bait and switch, so either he didn’t trust his deal or something else is going on.”
“Fucking hell. Maybe Boone has more on CJ.”
Agitation seeps through me. “Maybe we need Wraith and Specter on this too. They’re both known for hunting down the difficult ones, and this Leon guy is slippier than he seems.”
“Or maybe we get Rue to take us to the house.”
The idea makes my chest tighten with unease. “Maybe. Fuck.”
Whisper squeezes my shoulder. “We’ll find him.”
“Yeah. Let’s get these girls to safety and get the fuck out of here.”