37. Chapter Thirty-Six
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
ETHAN
“ B oss, we found the group,” Matthias announced as he walked into the room.
Ethan looked up from his computer. Matthias, Ren, and Jason were standing in his office.
“Who are they?” he asked.
Ethan already knew his men had investigated everything. They weren’t dumb and had only found the group. They did their research and found out everything that they could before coming to him.
“They are just a new group. Showed up in the past year. Nothing significant. They are a small group. Like really small,” Ren answered.
“They’re on the west side of town. They have their own house,” Matthias said. “All of them are there now. Just chilling in the house, like they hadn’t threatened you.”
“Anybody on guard?” Ethan asked.
Matthias shook his head. “They are so new they don’t have anybody on guard. They’re all in one room, drinking and watching something on the TV. Anyone could walk in, and they would never know.”
Ethan nodded and looked over at Jason.
“Have the girls given you guys any trouble?” Ethan inquired.
It had been a couple of days, and Jason hadn’t reported anything. Was it going that horribly he couldn’t contact Ethan?
Ethan trusted Jason and knew he could handle himself and everything. But the fact that it had been a couple of days and Jason hadn’t said anything was a little off. Normally, he was great at coming to him with updates.
“Just the usual couple of girls who haven’t been in long. They’ll soon figure out they don’t need to act out,” he replied.
“And you couldn’t have come to me with that information yesterday?”
Ethan knew he was being hard on Jason, but he needed to know what he was going to tell him what he was doing. If that was his update, he could have come yesterday and told Ethan. So why hadn’t he?
Ren’s face was filled with amusement which piqued Ethan’s interest more. What was going on?
“Yeah, Jason tell him why you couldn’t have come yesterday,” Ren chuckled.
Jason glared at Ren before turning to Ethan. He was waiting to see how good the excuse was going to be. Ethan wanted to see if Jason was going to lie.His men knew not to lie to him because he would always find out the truth, and yet, some people still tried.
“I got carried away.”
“Doing what exactly?” Ethan asked.
There was no reason for him to get carried away there. Most of the girls were scared out of their minds and didn’t want anything to do with men. So, what had him occupied that he got carried away?
His cheeks went red. “With one of the women that came in the shipment.”
Ethan’s eyebrows raised. “How?”
He knew he was making Jason uncomfortable, but Ethan didn’t really care right now. He wanted to know how Jason got carried away with one of the women. It was not like him to try anything.
“She knew my sister, and we hit it off. We talked about my her.”
“That’s not the only thing you talked about,” Ren chimed in.
“You were there?” Ethan asked.
“Not the whole time, but toward the end, I was. Our boy has found somebody he is interested in. The girl is interested in him. Pretty, too. If she doesn’t go for him, I might go for her.” There was a slight teasing tone to Ren’s voice. Ethan knew what he was doing, but Jason wasn’t thinking clearly.
“Don’t fucking talk about her like that! She’s a human being! Show her some respect! And you aren’t getting with her! Over my dead body!” Jason roared.
Ethan whistled and shook his head. That was a little more than being interested in someone.
“See, he likes her.” Ren shrugged and laughed .
Ethan chuckled, but Jason was still glaring at Ren.
“Have you put her in a different room?” Ethan asked.
They had this happen before. One of his men had shown interest in a girl who came in through one of their shipments. She felt attached to him, so they put her in another room, a safe room. His man fell in love with the girl.
That was until she killed herself. It was a tragic day. She hadn’t gone to her therapist appointment and so the therapist called him. The guy rushed over and found her hanging from the ceiling. Apparently, she hadn’t been coping well and didn’t think she could do it anymore.
“Not yet. I haven’t asked her if she would like that or not,” Jason replied.
“I know I can’t stop you, and I’m not going to. But just be careful. We don’t know how long she has been trafficked. Just be careful.”
Ethan didn’t want to have to tell his men to be careful about that, but what happened to Bellamy changed things. He had changed. He was now closed off and ruthless.
“I know. You don’t have to preach to me. I was there when Bellamy found her.” Jason waved his hand in the air. “I’m going to check in with her daily because I don’t want that to happen. It’s not going to happen.”
And Ethan hoped it didn’t. He didn’t wish that on anybody.
“Okay, come on. Let’s stop talking about this. We don’t need to get all depressed. So, are we going to go show these men you mean business? To not threaten your girl?” Ren asked .
Ethan closed his computer and stood. “All four of us will go. Should be quick and easy.”
Ethan grabbed the man’s shirt and pulled him closer.
“You’re fucking stupid. Threaten my girl, and you get me. Did you really not think I wasn’t going to come after you?”
“I didn’t! I promise!” He let go of the man’s shirt, letting him fall to the ground. His head bounced against the hard concrete floor.
“Ooops,” Ethan fake gasped. “I should have warned you I was going to let go.”
Matthias chuckled in the background.
“Please, I promise. I didn’t tell him to say that! You have to believe me,” the man pleaded.
“Doesn’t matter.”
“But it does! I would have never threatened your girl! I just wanted to get my hands on some of the girls you bought.”
“And how did you hear about our shipment of girls?”
The man’s eyes went wide, and he started to scooch back.
“Did I say you could move?” Ethan asked as he stepped on one of his ankles. “Who the fuck told you about our shipment of girls?”
“Just word on the street. ”
Ethan knew that was a lie. Anyone who knew about the shipment of girls was in higher ranks in his syndicate. He didn’t just let anyone know that information.
“Who the fuck told you about it?”
“I don’t know! It was some guy in passing. I don’t even think he realized I was in the alleyway.”
He needed to remind his men not to talk about it so openly. Everyone knew who his high-ranking people were and not to mess with them. But dumb fucks like this didn’t think twice about trying to get some skin.
“I’m going to ask a couple of questions. If you answer honestly, I won’t hurt you. If you don’t, well, you’ll find out.”
The man nodded in fear. “I promise I’ll tell the truth.”
If only he knew his answers didn’t matter. No matter what, Ethan was going to hurt him and eventually kill him.
But first, he was going to have some fun.
“How long have you guys been a group?” Ethan asked. “Or were a group since everyone but you is dead.”
Ethan could see the tears forming in the guy’s eyes. They didn’t know what had been coming. They were so relaxed and didn’t have anyone guarding. Anyone could have snuck up and killed all of them with ease. Anyone just so happened to be Ethan and his guys this time.
He applied pressure to the guy’s foot and twisted his own. The man screamed out in pain.
“Please! I haven’t even said anything yet!”
“Exactly. You took too long to answer.”
Did the guy not get it? Answer too slowly, answer in the wrong way, or really do anything, and Ethan was going to hurt him. He didn’t need a reason or an excuse .
This man and his friends had threatened Margery.
Now, he had taken them out.
Nobody threatened his girl and got away with it. Ethan was never going to allow it. If anybody was rude to his girl, he was going to take them out. There would be no guilt because his job was to protect Margery.
And that was what he was doing.
“Please, I’ll tell you! Just stop standing on my leg!” he yelled.
“No can do. Answer in the next three seconds, or I’ll break it.”
“We’ve been a group for two years!”
Ethan scoffed and took his foot off the guy’s leg.
“You know what I hate?” Ethan asked as he bent down in front of the man.
“What?”
“I hate liars.”
The man’s eyes went wide. “I promise, we’ve been a group for two years.’
“Tsk. I was hoping you would say that,” Ethan chuckled. “You know what I do to liars?”
The guy shook his head.
“Torture and kill them.”
His eyes went wide. “I promise I wasn’t lying!
“But I know you are.”
“H-how?”
Ethan scoffed again. “I’ve been in this game longer than you have.”
Before the man could respond, Ethan’s phone went off.
Margery’ s ringtone.
“Looks like my girl just spared you a lot of torture.”
The guy relaxed on the ground and looked relieved. Ethan chuckled. Before the man could do anything, Ethan took his gun out and shot him between the eyes.
“No warning?” Ren chuckled.
“He didn’t deserve one.”