Chapter 41
FORTY-ONE
THORNE
I pace the room, checking my watch over and over.
Golden is late. He was supposed to be here an hour ago. Did his father catch him? Did he find out Chance knew his secret and hurt him?
After Chance told me all that he saw, I had him go back and take pictures for me so I could confirm his father really was the motherfucker I’ve been searching for.
Then I instructed him to leave everything just as he found it, shut and lock the door.
He had trouble with that, wanting to rip all the photos off the wall to protect the dignity of the women, but that would have alerted his dad to Chance being on to him.
What are the chances that someone as bright and beautiful as my Golden has a fucking monster for a father?
“Stop pacing,” Knox says in that gentle way of his. “He’ll be here.”
“What if he’s hurt?” I ask, chewing the polish from my nails.
“Then we’ll make his father fucking pay,” Pyro says, watching as I wear a track in the floor.
Orion scoffs. “Aren’t we already doing that?”
Pyro gives him a dry look. “Yeah, doofus, but we’ll, like, make it hurt worse.”
Knox snorts. “Enough, you two. Chance isn’t hurt.”
“He’d fucking better not be,” I growl, cracking my knuckles.
After I got confirmation pics from Chance, I sent them to Bensotti, and he forwarded them to Orion. O cracked into some kind of system and cross-referenced something or another and got back to B, saying that he could almost one hundred percent confirm that Charles is the culprit.
How the hell did he hide that from his family?
Thoughts swirl in my head about the fate of Chance’s mother.
He said she’d stopped drinking and during one of their last phone calls, he’d mentioned that she said she’s seeing things more clearly.
Was she on to her husband? Picking up on his sus-ass habits and did some investigating and got caught?
I fucking hope that’s not the case. It would kill Chance.
After I told my brothers that we had the name and location of the head of the organization, we flew out to Washington state to take him down.
I was surprised when Orion said he was coming, but he’s been a big part of trying to track this fucking guy down.
It’s only right he joins us when we end it all.
Soft knocking sounds and I’m moving before I give my feet the command. Pulling open the door, a sharp exhale leaves me when I lay eyes on Chance.
My arms go around him hard and I hug him close, not wanting to let him go. His good arm comes around me just as tightly.
Tears soak into my shirt as I hold him through his pain. Not only did he just lose his mother, but he found out who his father really is. None of this can be easy for him. If I could take his pain away, I would in a heartbeat.
“Sorry it took so long to get here,” Chance says into my shoulder. “He was actually home and I didn’t want to answer questions about where I was going. I didn’t want to see his face.”
“It’s okay, it’s all okay. I’m here,” I whisper, running my fingers through his hair. “I’m here, Golden. I promise I’ll take care of it.”
Throat clearing behind me has me glaring at Pyro. “You mean we’ll take care of it.”
Chance barks a wet laugh, then wipes his eyes as he turns to Pyro. “I’m Chance.”
Pyro accepts his outstretched hand. “I know. I’m Py.” My brother tips his head to the side, assessing Chance. “You’re both really handsome. Thorne struck gold.”
Chance glances over at me, confusion written all over his face. I roll my eyes and say, “Pyro met Warren yesterday. He’s moved back to the East Coast recently and came to surprise me at my apartment at seven in the damn morning.”
“I think I was the one surprised when I saw the handsome red head. And those freckles.”
I growl and Pyro simply laughs.
Pointing at Orion, I say, “That’s the smart brother, Orion.”
“I thought you were the smart one,” Chance says as he shakes Orion’s hand.
Orion says, “He is, but there are few people on the planet smarter than me. Thorne has his…limitations.”
“Fuck you, dick,” I hiss without heat. Orion and I have had this conversation a lot over the years. He edges me out in his knowledge of tech and hacking, so he automatically believes that makes him smarter.
Pyro gives him a sidelong glance. “Try being humble.”
“Why?” Orion asks in that dry voice of his. “We know it’s true. Me downplaying it won’t make my genius any less of a fact.”
Knox stands up and walks to the center of the room. “Okay, let’s get on topic.” He looks at Chance. “I’m sorry for your loss. This can’t be easy for you.”
“It’s not, but it must be done. Dad is…he’s…”
Sighing, I pull him closer. “We know. We’ll take care of it. But we need information so we can get him.”
“What do you want to know?”
Knox asks, “Is it possible to kill him at your home?”
Chance winces, tears filling his eyes, but they don’t fall. “No. We live in a gated community. Someone will see.”
Orion shakes his head. “We have our ways of getting into places most people can’t.” He opens the laptop that was next to him on one of the beds. “What’s your address? I can pull up a floor plan, and we can start organizing recon.”
Chance rattles off the address, voice shaking. I grip his hand as we come up with a plan.
By the time we’re happy with everything, it’s late into the night and Chance can barely keep his eyes open.
I want to tell him to stay with me, that I’ve missed lying beside him for the past few days, but if this plan is to work, he has to go home and be seen by the guard.
I’ll be without my Firebird and my Golden tonight.
“Tomorrow morning,” Knox says, “we’ll meet at the rendezvous point.”
“Such a nerdy thing to say,” Pyro says, yawning widely.
“As I was saying,” Knox says patiently, “when we meet, we can’t waste time. We have to go in, kill him, and leave without anyone noticing.”
“Of course,” I say. “Chance will play his part.”
I tell Chance he needs to be gone for at least a few hours and people needed to see him wherever he was. Since this is his hometown, he can figure it out.
He nods, blinking slowly. “I’ll be gone. When should I come back home and find him?”
“Four hours after you leave, to be safe,” Knox says.
Chance nods and takes his leave, shoulder slumping and his feet dragging. I can’t wait until this is over so he can come back home where he’s loved and taken care of.
“This fucking house is insane!” Pyro says, looking around at Chance’s home.
It really is, with the marble, crown molding and fucking stained glass. It’s opulence at its finest. This is the way the one percent lives. I’m glad Chance isn’t a product of this bullshit. He’s kindhearted and sweet. Not like anyone that has the world at his feet.
“No, you can’t burn it down,” Knox says before Pyro can ask, a faint smile on his face.
“You’re the worst.” Py pokes his lip out in a pout.
Chance said his father worked from home every Friday morning. He wondered if it was because of what he did with the people his dad trafficked, but I couldn’t be sure.
The plan was for Chance to tell his father he was going to breakfast, then to some park he and his mom used to frequent. It would keep him out of the house for hours since he was still grieving.
This mansion is so large, I don’t think Charles even knows we’re here. We trot up the stairs, following the floor plan Orion found last night.
For someone that is involved in some shady shit, Charles doesn’t have any security cameras anywhere. I thought it strange that he didn’t know Chance had gone looking through his shit until Orion did a scan of their home and found nothing.
Better for us.
I don’t knock when we reach the office door—I just open that motherfucker like I own the place.
Charles doesn’t even look up from the many screens in front of him. “I’ve taught you to knock, Chance. I thought you were off to cry more about your mother.”
I growl and raise my gun, shooting at one of the screens furthest from him. Charles jumps and covers his head. He finally looks up at us, eyes wide in fear. “Who are you?” he demands, voice tight with anger. “Why are you in my home?”
“You have some fucking nerve questioning us, you fucking piece of shit,” I sneer, walking over to him and pressing my gun to his forehead.
“Don’t hurt me,” he cries, raising his hands above his head.
“Is that what those girls said?” Knox asks, his voice harder than I’ve ever heard it. “They begged you not to hurt them and you did it anyway, huh?”
Charles tries to look confused, like he doesn’t know what we’re talking about. “Girls? What girls?”
I smash the butt of my gun into his nose, watching as it explodes. Blood spouts from between his fingers as he holds his injury. Then I press my gun back to his forehead. “Open that closet. Show us that you’re not involved with human fucking trafficking.”
“Uh…” Charles opens and closes his mouth as if he can talk himself out of complying with my orders. I’ve already seen, but I want to see the look on his face that he’s caught. “What closet?”
“I swear to fucking god,” I hiss as I chamber a round. “I will fucking end you.”
“Not yet,” Orion says. “Make him show us. First, though, I want to check his holdings.”
Blustering, Charles tries to push Orion out of the way of his computer, but I drag him from behind the desk and toss him to the floor. Orion takes his occupied seat, and his fingers move fast across the keyboard.
Pulling his foot back, Pyro kicks Charles in the face, making him fall onto his back. “Do you know how much harm you’ve done?” He grabs Charles by the hair and yanks his head back. “How many lives you’ve ruined?”
“I…didn’t…” Charles tries to lie, but we know the truth.
“Take him to the closet,” I say, trying to control my emotions. “Make him see.”
Charles tries to pull away from Pyro, using his bulk to hinder the smaller man. But Knox is there, grabbing him by the back of his shirt and dragging him into the closet.
Once inside, we walk right to the door and I say, “Open it,” pressing the gun to the back of his head.