It sounds as if Noah is speaking from experience. What have I missed? I’ve known him since I was a teenager, but he’d always been the guy making jokes. I’d assumed he’d led a relatively easy life. But, I notice it now—the hurt, the pain.
But I see something else, too: resolve.
At that moment, the decision I knew I’d make is solidified by his words. So, I stand, finding my own determination under layers and layers of fear. “So then we fight.”
Owen turns out to be a major distraction, so I make a lame excuse about going home and changing my clothes. He begrudgingly drives me back to my apartment and leaves Noah with me as an extra set of eyes.
I station Noah outside my door and get to work.
I pull up the photos I took at Owen’s and put them into a folder labeledEvidence. I compile everything Ella’s boyfriend, Eagan, collected on the companies: rape, human trafficking, and drug cases. Two of the three companies are linked to the black snake crime syndicate, which is the largest worldwide to date. It is so big that it doesn’t seem like their involvement in the two companies is related, but I don’t rule it out. Lastly, I include the verbal testimony from the whistleblower, implicating the third company and linking it to the crime syndicate.
Pulling up Peyton's file, I scan it. There are loose threads that suggest he may have also been involved with, or worked for, the black snake crime syndicate, but there’s no hard evidence.
That can’t be a coincidence.
If Peyton is not the one trying to kill Owen, and Owen didn’t hire him to kill the three CEOs, then who the hell is he working for? Or against?
I scan the evidence over and over again, trying to find some link in all this.
When I come up empty-handed, I call Gray.
“Can you hack Regenerative Industries' main drive and search for the words ‘black snake?’ And if anything comes up, anything at all, I don’t care if it’s a reference to a children's story, can you send it?”
Gray doesn’t say anything right away. “Why is that relevant?”
“Just a hunch that the black snake crime syndicate is somehow involved in all this. I’m trying to figure out the link. Were they were the ones who killed the CEOs, or are they somehow after Owen?”
I know they weren’t involved in the deaths of the CEOs, but I don’t want Gray to know that. Not yet, at least.
“So the poison darts found on Peyton came back negative?” he asks, sounding almost disappointed.
“Haven’t gotten the results, but I’m covering every base.”
“Got it. I’ll see what I can find.”
“Thanks.”
After I hang up the phone with Gray, my phone suddenly beeps with a hundred messages. They’re all from Jax and Evan.
Shit.
I left them at the gala last night without saying anything.
Jax:Where did you go last night?
Evan:YOU LEFT US!
Jax:Please tell us you’re ok
Evan:Maybe she went home with Hot Boss Man….
Jax:Can’t believe you Irish Goodbyed us!
Evan:Perhaps she’s still in bed with Hot Boss Man
Jax:Evan! You aren’t helping!
Evan:*shrugging emoji*
