5. Dax #2
“Just tell her, and she’ll come running the second you mention a torture room,” Ghost yelled in the background.
I frowned at hearing his voice. “Was that Ghost, or am I hearing things?”
“I ran into some trouble, and he had the equipment I needed,” Wes explained in a bitter voice.
Laugher burst out as I realized what the fuck happened. “You needed to call him for help, didn’t you?”
“Not going to answer that, shortcake,” Wes grumbled, but the pout in his words told me everything I needed to know.
“Fine, but I can just ask him, and he’ll be happy to tell me,” I pointed out.
“Give me that, you’re taking too long,” Ghost scolded as the sound of the two of them wrestling over the phone was heard. “Dax, you there?”
“Yeah, I’m here,” I answered with a chuckle. “What’s up?”
“Two words,” Ghost said, then paused for effect. “Murder. Room.”
My brows shot up. When he said there was a torture room, I assumed it was a joke just to get me to come up there. “Wait, seriously?”
“Would I lie to you about a murder room?” Ghost shot back.
“No, definitely not,” I agreed. “I’m on my way.”
Hanging up, both Void and Cam looked at me with questioning looks, but I just smiled and lifted a finger asking for a moment as I stuck my head back in the interview room.
“Hey, can you keep an eye on him? The others found a murder room on the top floor. If I feel like it has everything I need, then I’ll finish his interview up there. ”
At my words, Ken’s eyes flicked to me with a mix of frown and worry.
I’d bet my favorite gun that he knew all about the room…
it might even be his. The way he dropped the act made me think of the triplets.
Assassins could be all warm and fuzzy if they needed to get close to a target, lulling you into a false sense of security right before they stabbed your ass.
“Did you want to give us a tour, Ken?” I inquired, catching his gaze once more.
A slight frown tugged at his lips, making me all the more confident he didn’t want me to know about that room.
“Suit yourself, I’ll be back in a bit,” I shared and closed the door. “Ready for an adventure, boys?”
“Little demon, did you really just say murder room?” Void questioned.
I wrapped an arm around his waist and leaned into him as we walked. “Yup.”
“Are you sure those two can handle him?” Cam asked, looking back at the door a moment longer before catching up to us.
Shrugging, I sighed. “This is Tommaso’s problem.
I’m happy to help, but these are his people, and they’re going to need to figure out how to deal with shit like this.
There’s no way that I can teach them everything about running a criminal empire in two or three days.
Worst case, they end up killing him, but if I think he’s who I think he is, then he lets them. ”
“Who, or should I say what, do you think he is?” Void questioned.
“One of their assassins or the man who gets secrets out of people,” I said as we stepped onto the elevator.
Cam hit the button for the top floor, and we were off.
I tried to hide how excited I was about seeing this so-called murder room, but no matter what, I kept bouncing on my heels.
Thankfully, neither of them said anything about it, yet I had a sneaking suspicion they were as interested as I was about this.
Also, who kept something like this on the top floor?
Wasn’t that something that supervillains stored in the basement under the lava waterfall?
The doors opened, and I was out of there like a shot, then came to a screeching halt as I took in the sight before me. “Holy shit,” I blurted. “Was Diego a bigger badass than I realized?”
“No, shortcake, I think he was covering for more than just Marco. Seems he made friends with a few of the big bad boogie men of the criminal world,” Wes shared as he stepped out of an office with his hands in his pockets.
“We were absolutely never meant to find all this stuff. Honestly, it’s a miracle no one has come to destroy all this once they realized Diego was gone. ”
Or had someone? Could it be that Ken was here to make sure this floor and the information it held would never see the light of day?
Things were now falling into place, and it made sense why he showed up in the first place when it would have been smarter for him to flee.
His boss, whoever that might be, doesn’t want us knowing Diego was working with them. Would Marco be mad?
“I wouldn’t be too sure about the assumption that someone hadn’t come to fuck shit up.
I’ve got a guy in the interview room right now who’s more than qualified to fall into that category.
Is there anything important I should look at now before going to the murder room?
” I questioned, knowing once I got sucked into that rabbit hole, it would take way too much work for me to get out of it.
Wes waved for me to follow him, so I did, entering what I’d guess to be Diego’s office.
The place seriously looked like it should be in some futuristic movie with the way everything was made out of glass and seemed incredibly uncomfortable.
I was more impressed that there were no fingerprints littering the surfaces.
“Do you think they have someone who comes in every five minutes and wipes shit down? Like this is crazy,” I mumbled, dragging a finger along the glass top of the desk, but no mark was left behind. “Whoa.”
“Yeah,” Wes commented as he sat in the white leather office chair.
“As I was trying to get into the system, I found they used something I created back in college. The only people who had the code were the FBI headhunter, the CIA, and me. That got me trying to figure out how the fuck they could have it built into theirs. Didn’t take me long to find the answer, but I wanted you to see it for yourself. ”
Glancing at the screen, I found it was emails back and forth between two people.
Diego’s company was looking to hire someone, and this was in response to an inquiry.
Only the person they were talking to had no business talking about this kind of shit.
As far as I knew, they didn’t even know how to connect a printer to a computer, let alone set up a whole-ass security system.
“How?” I demanded.
“Hear me out,” Wes warned. “This is going to sound crazy, but really it’s the only thing that makes any fucking sense.”
Crossing my arms, I leaned on the desk waiting for this amazing answer that would clear up all this.
“Devin married Kimber when we started our first year. Then he went to jail, taking the fall, leaving you to manage his wife since she was pissed at her father. She’d come over on the weekend, drink all our booze, bitch, moan, and complain about her dad.
Sometimes when you were busy, she’d come to my place, knowing I wouldn’t turn her away.
She and my roommate started to have a fling…
” Wes paused, waiting for me to freak out.
I just rolled my eyes. “Do you really think I believe that bitch was loyal to my brother?”
“Assuming and hearing about it are two different things, Dax,” Wes pointed out. “Before I stumbled upon this, I was almost certain that Seth was stealing my ideas, but he had never blatantly used my shit before. What if those two are working together scamming people?”
“You mean before she was with whoever of Marco’s men she’s shacked up with now?
” I questioned. “I mean, it seems like a scheme she’d pull…
nothing is too low, shady, or off-limits to her.
That fucking bitch can make anything work for her.
Now that I think of it, what if she used the meeting with Gabby to get me to admit who Tricks was?
Could she have been working with Marco already? The bastard loves his long games.”
“So you think this system is how she got introduced to all this? I mean, these emails are from five years ago,” Wes said, talking to himself more than anything.
“They would have figured out this was bullshit because whatever he stole, I left glitches and back doors in just for a situation like this. Some of them are still there, which is how I got through, but a fair amount was removed or fixed.”
Letting out a heavy sigh, I shoved away from the desk. “This is just another thing to add to the list of reasons why I’m going to dice my ex-sister-in-law into tiny bits. Was there more to this that I’m not seeing, or can I go see the stabby stab room?”
“Dax, this isn’t just about Kimber or Seth being involved. Marco has been hunting you for a long time,” Wes reasoned, his face full of concern. “Whatever we do going after him, we need to be fucking careful. He knows a shit-ton more about me, and I’m guessing you, than we thought.”
I scrubbed my face with both hands, knowing his warning was logical, but right now, I needed to focus on one thing at a time.
“Keep looking for stuff. If he knows how I like to scratch my ass, then it’s only fair that we return the favor.
Now I’m gonna go look at the torture-murder room then decide if I’m going to invite my new friend up to join me or not.
I have a feeling he’s either with Marco or one of the other fuckers we need to deal with. ”