Leroy’s eyes light up. “Well done.” He stands up and grabs the list. “We’ll find it, Callisto,” he promises. He’s halfway to picking up the phone when he pauses. “I’m sorry to hear about Zack.”
“Thanks.” Maybe it’s strange that I’m barely worried about the unruly alpha, but I know from experience the big guy can handlehimself. Especially now that he knows self-defense is okay. I felt a dark, simmering intensity the day he rejected me, something that goes beyond the power of regular humans. Now that he has direct orders from his omega not to get hurt again, and a cellmate to watch his back, my fears have cooled. Zack won’t get caught twice.
Determination to shut Ray’s options down replaces the fear. Red’s saying she’ll camp in front of the prison and Al’s doing what he can inside the walls, so all that’s left is for me to track down the bastard’s slush fund. He dared to threaten my omega, so I’ll destroy his world.
“Let me help with the hunt,” I say.
Leroy looks me up and down. “Thinking of switching careers?”
“No. I . . . I just can’t let him get away with this. Putting him in prison wasn’t enough.”
He smirks. “Well, who am I to turn down an alpha with so much determination in his eyes? And you’ve already got the necessary clearance.” He lifts the list and flaps it. “Let’s go see what the task force makes of this.”
The agents take to my list like hounds with a fresh blood scent in their noses. Each name on the list gets a team of two or three agents to track, and the special taskforce room whiteboard fills with connections drawn between acquaintances. Within a matter of hours, we have subpoenas for bank accounts and surveillance orders for the homes of the men involved in attacking Zack. The frenzy settles into a quiet hunt punctured by clicking keyboards and the occasional phone call.
I go back over my court case notes, looking for financial leads common to the convicted workers from the trafficking hub. Somewhere we missed a link.
“Got a recent ten-grand deposit over here,” one analyst calls. “Made by a company called Rigton Limited in two separate payments.”
My pulse races. I’ve heard that name before. “What services do they offer?” I ask, striding over to the analyst and leaning on his chair.
The man frowns and pulls up the company’s registration number, quoting from the listed details. “Innovation in food transport services.” He leans forward and highlights a row with the mouse. “But according to this, they ceased trading two years ago.”
“Trading name?” I ask, chewing on my lip.
“Hm. It’s listed asGrab.”
I straighten and click my fingers. “The food delivery company.”
“Ah!” The analyst’s partner brightens. “I remember. They were like AlphaDash, home delivering from restaurants and such. Heard the name but forgot all about them.”
The first agent picks up a stress ball and molds it in his bony fingers. “So, how’s a dead company issuing payments?”
I cock my head. “If it went into receivership, it could take that long to dissolve assets and pay creditors.”
“You deal in commerce law?” his partner asks.
“No. Not much. More of a family interest.”
The analyst’s elbow flashes out to dig into his colleague’s ribs. “He’s a Wren, dummy.”
I smile wryly at the look of wonder that blooms on his face.
He shunts glasses up onto the top of his head. “Shit! How did I not put two and two together?”
The analyst rolls his eyes and goes back to his screen. “So much for best and brightest,” he mutters.
I slide my laptop over to look up the company, but it has no record of going under.
“Weird,” the analyst and I say at the same time.
He sighs and flexes his hand around the computer mouse. “I’m afraid we’ll have to pass this one over to the financial crimes team. But they’re terribly slow.”
Zack can’t afford slow. His broken ribs might get him a week or two’s reprieve, but who’s to say Ray can’t touch him in the hospital?
An idea takes root in my mind. “Can I reach out to someone I know to ask about this company, if I don’t mention the details of the case? Someone who’s a wizard at digging through company information?”
The agents share a glance. “Yeah, so long as you don’t mention why. You got a specialist on standby or what?”
