They didn’t just walk out with arms full of weapons, though. The security cameras had been erased.Why would they do that?I have the passwords to both, but all the footage had already been erased by the time I could check them. There’s a blocker on them that kept me from checking while I was out of the country, but I looked as soon as I was in US airspace, and nothing. It was all gone, and not just for today. The last three days of footage had been deleted.Someone wanted to cover their tracks. But why?
“What’s the move, BB?”
Big Bear.The nickname Eve gave me on day one has a calming effect that I really need in this moment.Evie. My sweet little Evie.Turns out Evie isn’t all that sweet after all, though. She took down two of the bad guys all by herself, from what I hear. That’s not to mention the incident just last month, where she killed a couple of guys in the same house we’re standing in now. There’s still more to Eve’s story, and I’m going to help her uncover it all when she’s ready, but first, we’re going to get back my wife and anyone else these assholes have taken from me.
“We’re going to get some answers out of this guy. Then, we’re going to kill the rest of these bastards. All of them.”
“Sounds like a plan, compadre. Problem is, the hostage doesn’t speak English. We have a pocket translator on the way. In the meantime, what do you need from us?” The biggest guy in the room asks this question. He’s one of the big and bigger duo that’s always with Adam. Cal’s his name.
“Jax says you’re good with computers.”
“That’s like saying Superman fights crime. He’s your guy. You name it. He can do it.” This is big. The deal maker. Cotton. He’s the one who seems to have friends everywhere and can talk his way out of a double homicide without so much as a phone call to his attorney.He’s someone to watch.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. Tell him what you need. He’ll find it.”
“Okay. I need phone records on Ruth and Abigail Washington. John Whitley, too. And locations on them for the past twenty-four hours. If you can scrounge up any security video from either of their places, that could really help. Also, there’s an organization based in Latvia that deals mainly in human trafficking. Some drug running and other crimes here and there, but the bulk of their operation is the skin trade.”
“So, sex trafficking?” Cal asks the question, but everyone is listening for the answer.
Jax and Marshall were already here and getting along with everyone like a house on fire. They’d all met before today, but the twins hadn’t spent much time with any of them other than Eve.
“Anything. They deal in people. I’ve heard them use the phrase ‘procuring talent’.” In my peripheral, I see Adam, Cal, and Cotton all look back and forth between one another. “What? What is that?”
“Maybe nothing, but...” Cal looks back to Cotton for approval before continuing. Cotton nods once. “Paul Hastings. The guy who attacked Eve the night you got home. He had some important friends who were looking for him for a while. Word is, Paul was good at ‘procuring talent’ for them, and they wanted him back.”
They won’t be getting him back.Cal having this information just confirms what I already suspected. These three killed Paul for daring to mess with Eve. I try so hard to dislike Adam, and he just keeps doing okay shit like murdering this guy for fucking with Eve.Damn it.
“I see.” Looking over to Adam as I say the words, I see that Eve’s legs are settled across his lap, and he’s playing with her hair. He looks up at me briefly before barely shrugging one shoulder in a ‘it had to be done’ gesture.This fucker is trying to force me to like him.“Time to meet the unfortunate soul you’ve got chilling on ice.”
Like it was planned before I got here, Adam stands from where he’s seated with Eve. At the exact same time, Cotton is making his way over to them, and he takes the spot that Adam has vacated. Adam and Cal come together in the center of the room and nod their heads down the hall.Did anyone else see that?
Looking around, I confirm that Jax and Marshall saw it and are equally perplexed. They’re the only two guys I’ve ever seen in sync like this. Correction. They’re the only two guys still living that I’ve seen in sync like this. Abel and I were twins in every sense of the word.
They weren’t kidding about having this guy on ice. He’s bound and gagged like a trussed-up turkey. Dude can barely move a pinky, and he’s lying in a large tub filled with ice and water.He’s definitely already been in there too long to leave here with all his appendages intact.
“His body temperature is already critically low. If we want to question him, we’ll have to remove him from the tub first. So far, we’ve been getting him out when his core temp gets below 92 and putting him back in when his lips turn pink.”
Adam says this like we’re talking about when he moves his tomato plants in and out of the sun.
“Huh. Okay. Let’s pull him out.”
Cal is the first to move. He grabs the mostly blue man by the hair and pulls him out of the tub like he weighs no more than a sheet of printer paper.
“It could be helpful to know everyone’s skill set. I know Cal is the tech guy.”
“And the muscle.” Adam doles out information like he’s speaking to a door-to-door vacuum salesman instead of sitting in a room with a half dead man who just yesterday tried to kill him and everyone he cares about.
“Okay. So Cal, you’re the muscle and the hacker. What about Cotton? He any help?” Adam and Cal share a look before Adam speaks again.
“The most help, possibly. Cotton...gets things. Or people. Just...whatever you need, Cotton can get it. He can get people to do things, too. Someone always owes him a favor, and he always has a plan. I guess you’d say he’s the fixer or the brains or something.” Adam explains this like even he doesn’t know what Cotton does, but he knows that Cotton gets things done.
“He can shoot, too. We all can. Not shoot like Adam, but we can aim and pull the trigger.”
“And you? What do you do?”
Adam starts to shake the question off like he doesn’t have a skillset, but Cal chimes in again instead.
