Chapter 3
There were advantages to working with Thario, but those advantages had put Brent at risk. He’d almost lost everything because that bastard had started looking in the wrong direction.
The setup had made sense two years ago. Brent had befriended Thario almost two years ago, growing closer every week, trying to work his way into the inner sanctum. Cracking Thario was difficult.
The first chip at the outer shell had come when he’d followed Thario to a conference. Luckily for Brent, he’d been able to convince the guy he was for real. Then they started working together to take down traffickers.
He had only been working with Thario to keep an eye on the guy, but getting rid of other traffickers had helped his bottom line. Brent had been able to put together a high-class business, delivering exactly what his customers wanted when they wanted it.
Brent used what he learned from Thario to escape detection. It was funny to him that Thario had welcomed him in, not looking deep enough to discover the subterfuge.
Brent had peddled flesh, shipping young girls and boys to Asia and South America, deepening connections without fear, because he knew how traffickers were being tracked and trapped. He learned enough to hide the evidence of his own networks, forcing the focus on others.
It was too bad Peter had to be sacrificed, but someone had to give for Brent’s way of life to continue. Peter had to have known that at some point, he would be sacrificed. He wasn’t as crucial to the business.
Leaving Peter’s car in Thario’s driveway may have been risky, but he needed the police to tie Peter to the scene, not him. With both Peter and Thario dead, Brent could continue his work.
It pissed him off that Thario had tried to ruin him. He’d had a handle on everything until a few weeks ago. That was when Calla had tried to escape, and he’d had to take care of things, so he didn’t have as much time to spend watching and redirecting Thario.
It wasn’t just her fault, though. It was Thario’s fault, too. Both of them were fucking wimps. He wished he could have fought Thario to determine the winner, but killing Thario had to be enough.
The police might come looking for him, but he’d planned for this.
Not this exactly, but something like this, and was ready to run.
They would escape to another state and stay there until the situation calmed.
Once the police gave up and stopped chasing him, he could return to his life and build his empire.