“No.” My voice cracked. I cleared my throat and tried again. “No, Havoc. He’s not getting away with this, and you’re not going to jail for saving a girl.”
Court began.
* * *
Link
When we were growing up, Naomi went through a stage where she was obsessed with Alice in Wonderland. I never much cared for the movie (especially not after she watched it every day for about three months straight), but holy shit I felt like I was living it now.
Wasp, Booker, Hawk, and I had stumbled into a hole and now we were free-falling, with no clue when we’d reach the bottom. Drugs and guns were just the beginning of the mayor’s operations. Apparently, he was also into sex trafficking.
We’d found a warehouse full of girls, and I still couldn’t fucking believe it. Of all the messed-up shit, sex trafficking?
“This is way above my pay scale,” Wasp said, running a hand through his hair as we leaned against the outside wall of the warehouse.
“He’s got a point,” Hawk said. “We need to call Jaxon and have him send in the feds. This shit goes way deeper than we could have anticipated.”
Jaxon Quinn was the FBI brother to two of the Dogs and he often had the Club’s back when they needed him to.
“I have to find Annabel. I promised Emily I would.”
“We can’t take a chance at them moving these girls,” Booker said.
“I know.” Fuck, I knew. I glanced at my phone and saw it was already eight a.m. No doubt Emily was getting ready for court. I knew I should call her, but what would I say? That I failed? I broke my promise? No. I wasn’t ready to give up yet.
“Maybe the feds will help us speed this up,” Wasp suggested.
“Make the call,” I said, pushing off the wall. “Hawk, Booker, stay here and handle the feds. Wasp, come with me to check out the next warehouse.”
“You sure that’s such a good idea?” Hawk asked.
“No. But I don’t see where I have any other choice.”
“Be careful,” Booker said.
“You too.”
We all shook hands and Wasp and I hurried to our bikes, parked half a block away.
* * *
Emily
I made it through my opening statement, and then the prosecutor went through his long list of witnesses, each painting a starker picture of Havoc than the last. They made him sound like a monster, a rabid beast, who’d walked out of the bar half-cocked and lit, and tried to kill Noah Kinlan, completely unprovoked. Their testimonies had holes big enough to drive a semi-truck through. I wanted to cross-examine the hell out of them, but I needed to pretend I was playing nice with the mayor and buy Link more time. So, I basically bit my lip and sat on my hands while they shredded my client’s character.
After the prosecution’s witnesses, the judge called a short recess. I sat with my small team, feeling like I’d let them all down by going easy on the prosecution’s witnesses. Still no word from Link. I called him, but it went straight to voicemail.
Maybe he’d given up.
I couldn’t help but think of the story he’d told me about passing the Q-Course. Link wouldn’t give up. I didn’t even think he knew what “give up” meant. Something had to be going on. We just needed to hold out a bit longer.
When we were called back into court, I could tell something was up by the look on the judge’s face. She waited until everyone was seated and court was officially in session before nodding to the back of the room.
Four men in suits walked in and headed straight for the mayor. One flashed a badge, then whipped out a set of handcuffs. “Jeffrey Kinlan, Noah Kinlan, you’re both under arrest.”
“What? You can’t do this,” Mayor Kinlan objected. “We haven’t done anything wrong. My son is the victim here.”
“Get up out of the chair,” a second agent said to Noah. “We’ve seen the x-rays. Your legs are just fine.”
