CHAPTER 15 - Bryan Trevor #2
I hate having to leave her, but I keep telling myself this is temporary—that soon, very soon, this fortress won't even exist.
The moment I walk through the door, the living room looks like it's been transformed into a CIA command center.
The table that used to sit outside is now in the living room.
It's covered with laptops, and I know they're all hardened against hacking—we only work with professional equipment.
On the screens, I notice real-time tracking and encrypted monitoring software already running.
Beside them, compact surveillance drones with infrared lenses perch like birds of prey.
I walk over, noticing he brought long-range motion sensors, and if I know him at all, the box he's digging through contains the tiny cameras I'll soon plant in the bedroom and every corner of the mansion.
Luke brought exactly what I asked for.
Everything I need to start infiltrating that bastard's empire.
“I see you did your homework,” I say, announcing my presence, even though I know he noticed me the moment my car pulled off the trail.
“When don't I?” he asks smugly, turning to face me.
“The plan was for you to arrive tonight. Why'd you come early?”
“Darius took my place at the Riders' mansion,” he says, referring to one of our trusted guards and the family Luke had been protecting. “I want to focus on helping you, so I'd rather be available full-time.”
“Is this your way of taking an early vacation?” I tease, and he arches an eyebrow. “Or running away from our mother?”
“Neither.” He gestures to the chair as he gets up.
I walk over and sit down. “Lilian's being well taken care of, but she's still at the clinic—the pneumonia nearly killed her,” he says as I settle in, my eyes already scanning the screens with professional focus.
“I just don't want you wading through this filth alone. Besides, I like getting my hands dirty with this kind of thing.”
“I think the right phrase would be: I like killing!”
“You gonna tell me you're not dying to finish off that miserable bastard?”
“I'm going to make him feel the worst kind of pain.” I cross my arms, letting hatred drip from every word.
“I'm going to look Gavin in the eyes and show him I destroyed everything.
He's going to taste his own defeat, choke on his own blood, and when he begs for mercy—” a cruel smile spreads across my lips, “—I'm going to smile and keep going.
I'll only stop when I've sent him straight to hell.”
“I want to be there when the time comes—I need to unleash my hatred for everything he did to you.” He steps closer, placing his hand on my shoulder. “No matter who's with him, we'll destroy them all!”
“I have no doubt about that, but let's get back to what matters right now.” I turn to the screens in front of me. “I have to say, I'm impressed you managed to plant a tracker in the old man's car so easily.”
“The driver's an acquaintance of mine.” That gets my attention. “It was easy to lure him away from the vehicle while Lauren 'accidentally' bumped into Gavin inside the coffee shop.”
It wasn't hard to find out the worm stops by the coffee shop near DarkMed every morning before heading into work. All I needed was a lookout tailing him and a few minutes chatting up the gossipy barista to get that intel.
“Efraín?”
“You know him too?”
“No, but Noah mentioned him,” I reply curtly, because if my brother knows the guy, he's probably not some potbellied old man like I expected. “How well do you know him?”
“Not much. I think I ran into him maybe three times at underground parties,” he explains. I stare at him, waiting for more. “Back when we lived here, he could get weed easily since his mom worked for the sheriff and that worm was a fucking addict.”
“Was?” I raise an eyebrow.
“Died of an overdose a year ago.” He smiles, lighting a cigarette. “Besides the car, I managed to track some of Gavin's contacts,” he says, catching my interest. “He's got a lot of important people on his payroll.”
“Yeah, he's got a lot of influence.” I point at the red dot glowing on the screen. “Find out what he's doing holed up in that mansion all day?”
The property is about ninety miles from here, in an area too remote for someone like him to be hiding out. The owner has so much money and influence he seems more like a state governor than just a retired sheriff.
“Not yet, but they're monthly visits!”
“Interesting,” I murmur, leaning back in the chair, eyes fixed on the dot. “Let's start by digging up everything on this sheriff: family, friends, business dealings—and especially what the owner of a pharmaceutical distribution company is doing there so often.”
“Something tells me this isn't about medicine deliveries, but I'll dig deeper while you tap into the mansion's cameras and go through the reports I send you.”
“Did you give them to Lauren?”
“Yes. She should be able to install them the first night, once everyone's asleep.”
“The house is full of Gavin's cameras, so we need to disable them for a few minutes so Lauren can plant ours.”
“She's fast, so that bastard probably won't even notice his cameras went down for a few minutes in the middle of the night.”
“I've already reached out to some people to find out who's running security at the mansion.”
“Lauren will try to ID them by the equipment, so let's hope they're one of ours.”
“It's still strange that Gavin doesn't have security on the property,” I comment, looking at the other screen—the one showing the fortress blueprint.
“Maybe there's something in that house he doesn't want anyone to see, so the fewer people around, the better for him.”
“That's my main theory.” I point to the screen after a few minutes of silence. “The house has a basement, and we need to check it out. My gut tells me there's something interesting down there.”
“We can talk to Lauren, but before she takes that risk, ask Noah about that area.”
“I'll do exactly that when I see her again.” I turn my attention to my brother. “I got the meeting with Will Maclary,” I tell him, and he raises his eyebrows.
“How did you pull that off without raising suspicion?” he asks, surprised to recognize the name of DakMed's longest-serving employee.
“His wife has cancer, and Gavin is such a son of a bitch that instead of helping, he's making his own employee pay full price for the medication.”
“That doesn't surprise me one bit!”
“I'm meeting the guy at a bar in the next town over. If he has half the information I'm hoping for, he could be our way into the distribution center.”
“Excellent.” Luke leans back in his chair, crossing his arms. “But you've considered it could be a trap, right?”
“Of course.” I smile, as if that weren't obvious. “He has no idea who he's meeting this weekend. He thinks it's a doctor who specializes in innovative therapies.”
“We're going to infiltrate every corner of Gavin's world,” he says with a sadistic smile, and I just nod in confirmation.
I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket, and when I read the message, I stand up.
“I'm heading up to my room. Don't disturb me for the next two hours.”
“Why?” he asks suspiciously.
“Nothing major!”
“Bryan… What are you hiding?” he insists, and I roll my eyes.
“It's just my sign language class, idiot!”
At my words, he lets out a loud, mocking laugh.
“You actually kept that up?” he asks incredulously. I don't understand his surprise—after all, he's the one who got me the teacher. “I thought you'd quit after the first class,” he adds, as if reading my thoughts.
“Have you ever seen me quit something once I've set my mind to it?”
“No, but it's hard to picture you sitting still for hours, learning something just to impress a girl.”
“You know better than anyone she's not just a girl. She. Is. The. Girl!”
“How did you hold onto that love for so many years without letting it go sour?”
“Simple. It's real love, and instead of burying it, I nurtured it all these years.” I lean against the island. “I never wanted to forget her, Luke.”
“I hope when this is all over, you'll be happy.” He gives me a smile, and I know he's hiding something from me. That the question wasn't about me—it was about him. “You deserve a love like that,” he murmurs, and without waiting for a response, he turns and walks to the door.
I let him go because I'm not going to pressure him into telling me anything when I kept my own feelings hidden for years.
I climb the stairs, ready for another class.
Ready to become more of Noah's.
Ready to be closer and closer to being hers again.