Chapter 20 #2
“Yeah, but it seems he didn’t really want to be saved. Or need to be saved. Harmony and Damien saw him out to lunch today with one of the guys from the break-in. The same one who broke into her apartment,” Rhett shared.
“What the fuck?” Austin breathed.
“We’re waiting for Marcus to get the footage from the restaurant so we can find out who he is,” Montgomery said.
“They’re brothers,” Marcus said from behind them.
“Brothers?” Montgomery asked. “I thought Grant Pickens didn’t have any family.”
“He doesn’t, but his real name isn’t Grant Pickens,” Marcus added. “His name is Stuart Smith. His brother is Kiernan Smith. That’s who he was having lunch with today, and who broke into Harmony’s apartment.”
“And who kidnapped her,” Damien said.
“That’s what I would assume,” Marcus said.
“We have the footage. It looks like he’s not alone, but he’s the only one we can see,” Rhett said.
“That’s not good. We have to find her. Now,” Marcus growled.
“We know. But it’s been five seconds since we learned their names. We don’t know anything about them.”
“They’re killers. They’re tying up loose ends,” Marcus said.
“What the hell does that mean?”
“It means Harmony was right about there being three of them. The one we took into custody is dead. He had his jaw and hands broken less than forty-eight hours after we got him. He died before he was able to tell us anything about who did that or about the break-in.”
“What?” Damien barked. “Why the hell didn’t we know that?”
Marcus slid a look to Montgomery. “I knew. I didn’t think it was something important to share. Marcus said it looked like a turf war between the gangs inside,” Montgomery said.
“What does it look like now?” Damien snapped.
“Look, I get it,” Montgomery said.
“Do you, boss? Because I fucking love this woman, and she’s in the hands of a murderer because we didn’t know how fucking bad all this was, and now you’re telling me you knew?” Damien got up in Montgomery’s face.
“Step back, Joseph,” Montgomery said in a low voice that offered no room for negotiation.
Damien took a step back.
“We will find her. What about the third guy?” Montgomery asked Marcus.
Marcus shook his head. “We found him this morning. Didn’t know who he was, but he was found in the same park as the woman who followed Harmony. Looked like a robbery gone wrong. No wallet or anything. He was cellmates with our first dead guy. Both of them used to work with Kiernan Smith.”
“They’re a step ahead of us,” Damien breathed.
“Then we better start fucking running,” Rhett said.
Harmony’s ears were ringing. The sound was loud and drowned out everything else. She tried to move, wondering what was going on, and felt a tug on her wrists.
Her eyes flipped open and found Grant Pickens smiling at her.
“Welcome back, Ms. Gibbs,” he said with a smirk. “Glad you could join us.”
Harmony tugged at the ropes that held her wrists together. They were behind her and tight. Tight enough that if she pulled too hard, she would likely dislocate her shoulders.
“You’re not going to be able to pull out of those. Not that it’s going to matter.”
“What do you want?” she asked, hating how small and scared her voice sounded.
Grant Pickens shrugged. “I don’t really want anything right now. What I wanted was for you to keep your fucking mouth shut. I gave you plenty of money, but you couldn’t do that, could you?”
“Why would I keep my mouth shut about someone breaking into your building?”
Grant Pickens laughed. “Still playing dumb, huh? We both know you’re far too smart for that, Ms. Gibbs. You are working on your Ph.D. People don’t go that far in their education if they aren’t capable of doing the work.”
“And people don’t stage a break-in to their own building unless they have something major to hide.”
His punch was quick and unexpected. Her head snapped back, something cracking from the blow.
Harmony tasted blood, then felt the sudden gush as her broken nose erupted. She spit out the blood and pressed her lips together to stop the blood from getting in her mouth.
“Yes, well, none of that matters now. If you’d come clean when we first met, maybe we could have avoided all of this drama. Instead, you’ve cost me a buyer and a clean escape.”
“Oops, sorry,” she said with no sympathy for the son-of-a-bitch who was holding her hostage.
“You’re going to be sorry. For a few minutes. Then you’ll be dead.”
Fear washed over Harmony in a rush. She figured he wasn’t going to just let her walk away, but she hadn’t processed that far.
“Not so bold now, are you?” He grabbed her hair and yanked her head back, forcing her mouth open.
Blood filled the back of her throat. It was going to make her sick if she swallowed too much. She closed her mouth and let it well up inside, then spit it in his face.
“You fucking bitch!” Grant Pickens shouted, shoving at her as he wiped a hand over his face.
Her chair tipped to the side, dangerously close to falling over. Harmony tried to lean the other way, but the chair jerked, then fell hard onto the dirt floor. Her head hit the dirt, making her ears ring again.
“What did you do?” another voice asked.
“She fucking spit on me. I can’t go anywhere like this. Fucking whore probably has some disease.”
Hands gripped her shoulders for a second, but she fought it. “I’m trying to help you,” the man said.
Harmony didn’t know why he would help her, but she did what she could to not work against him.
He positioned himself at her head and picked up the chair, and Harmony.
She looked at him, then realized who he was. “You broke into my apartment.”
His face fell, like he was ashamed he invaded her personal space.
“What fucking good does it do to pick her up? She’s going to be dead soon anyway,” Grant Pickens snapped.
“Why do we have to kill her?”
“Because she knows who we are.”
“You said we’re going to be gone. We’re going to meet the buyer, get across the border, and disappear. It doesn’t matter if she knows who we are or not. She doesn’t know anything about Africa, and she doesn’t know anything about what we’re doing.”
“Africa?” Harmony breathed.
“Tell her everything, why don’t you? What the hell is wrong with you?”
Grant Pickens was clearly the head asshole, but the other man was an unknown. Could he be someone who could help her? Maybe he would set her free. Maybe he would…
The cocking of a gun drew Harmony’s attention to Grant Pickens.
“Who are you working for?” Grant Pickens asked.
“Working for? My college, that’s it.”
“Do you really think I’m going to believe that? You were in Africa, and then you were watching my building? Who hired you to follow me?”
“No one hired me for anything. I have no idea what you’re talking about. I was in Africa for a research trip, and I was getting coffee when you staged a break-in at your own company. I don’t know anything.”
“But you know about my brother. Who else did you tell about him?” Grant Pickens asked.
“Brother?” Harmony gasped. She looked between the two men and saw the similarities and differences at once. She knew they were related, but brothers was not what she would have guessed. Not when one was light and the other dark. One was tall, the other much shorter. One stocky, the other lean.
“Yeah, my baby brother. Who can’t seem to shut his fucking mouth. Who knows about him?”
Harmony shook her head. “No one.”
Grant Pickens’ smile was evil and confident. “You’re not such a good liar, Ms. Gibbs.”
“I didn’t know he was your brother. How could I have told anyone?”
Grant Pickens threw his head back and laughed. “Oh, you stupid, stupid bitch. No one is going to figure out that we’re brothers. But if anyone knows he was one of the men who broke into my building, they could trace all this back to me. So who knows he broke into your apartment?”
Harmony shook her head, regretting the move when her head and nose throbbed, the pain blinding her. “No one knows.”
Grant Pickens snorted and took two steps toward her. Slow steps. He lifted the gun and pointed it at her thigh. “See, I know you’re lying because you weren’t home when he was at your apartment. The only way you know he was the one who broke in is if there was a video.”
Harmony realized what he was asking. She tried to come up with a lie, but before she could, Grant Pickens shot her in the leg. She screamed, the pain worse than anything she’d ever felt in her life.
“I don’t take well to liars,” Grant Pickens growled. “Now, I’ll ask again, who did you tell?”
“Rose Protection Agency and the police.”
“Fuck,” Grant Pickens breathed. “You just had to get them involved.”
“We got the answer. Let’s go,” his brother said, tugging at Grant Pickens’ arm.
Grant Pickens shrugged him off. “They know who you are.”
“Then we need to leave. The sooner we’re gone, the less likely they’ll find us. Let’s go, brother.”
“It sounds to me like we need to give them a reason to let us go.” Grant Pickens lifted the gun to Harmony’s chest and smiled. “Let’s see how badly they want to save you.”
He pulled the trigger.