Going over to the crew when all the enemies had vanished, she high-fived everyone, beaming. “You were right. It took me a little bit of time to get my footing in a full-size environment but, once I did, everything felt so natural. Bring on the next group of bad guys!”
To Brooke’s surprise, however, Blake shut the sim down after telling the team and Brooke to take off their earpieces, the underground dystopia dissolving around them. “Combatants, this sim is clear.” The overhead lights flipped on, the large lab back to its plain, non-threatening state.
Blake came out of the control booth and waited for everyone to reach her after the team had collected the weapons and the earpieces to re-store them properly, taking Brooke in her arms. “You did absolutelyamazing, baby, but that was a lot more than I expected for your first time in Utopia. You’re positive you can keep going—Iknowyou—but I promise you it’s easy to overdo it. Trust me, we’ve all been there. Besides, I would much rather we go into the conference room now and discuss what we saw, look at our assessments, and dissect the entire experience.”
“This is the way we keep making ourselves better, Brooke.” Blair followed Brooke and Blake into the control center as the team headed for the conference room. “Already, the crew learned you have the ability to instantly think on your feet, based just on how we saw you perform today. It may not be as fun as kicking the shit out of someone,” Brooke laughed as Blair grinned, “but studying and assessing what you did helps us all to be better.”
“And that, in turn, gives us the ability to adjust our training for APS so our associates become the best they can be,” added Kat. “Welovewhat we do here, little sis. Not only is the APS charter something we fully believe in, the fact that we canplay video gamesto provide a very necessary service for vulnerable women everywhere? You tell me where else in this world something like that would ever be possible.”
As everyone moved into the conference room, Brooke said quietly, “Nowhere else that I know. And you have no idea how grateful I am that APS is at my back as I try to figure out this mess with those bastards at Reflex. If it’s the last thing I ever do,I will make them pay for the pain and suffering they’ve caused, especially for daring to target a breast cancer survivor like Sandy Wheeler.
“I have no idea what the fuck Reflex is up to, although I’m confident APS will figure it out. What Idoknow, however, is they will be lucky to keep their balls attached to their bodies by the time we are done with them. If APS has anything to say about it, that is.
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Drumming her fingers on the table next to her desktop computer in the Recon Room, Trillian Dacanay’s brilliant mind raced as she stared at her 34” LED ultrawide monitor, mentally sifting through the data she had uncovered during her investigation into Reflex.
Fuck. This is unbelievable.
The APS management team had known from the start that Reflex potentially had something else going on behind their embezzlement and money laundering schemes. With what Drew Hollister had observed from the Reflex players in Purgatory over the last year to eighteen months, they were buried up to their earlobes in various scams—not in the least was currency misappropriation and laundering. Because nothing had initially pointed to women specifically being abused or harmed by them, however, Drew had done little more than keep an eye on the partners. Reflex Rebranding did not appear to be anything that should be of major concern to APS and their charter.
But when Brooke Marino had gotten involved with Reflex because they were taking aim at a breast cancer survivor and her husband—for whom Brooke was doing a rebranding project to get them back on track after the husband had neglected his microbrewery to take care of his sick wife—Blake Seiberthad brought Brooke to APS for assistance. Her woman, Blake had flatly informed the management team, was bound and determined to help Gene and Sandy Wheeler before Reflex Rebranding could strip and destroy their microbrewery.
Because Brooke had known the management team since they were all little kids—and the Armstrong Protection Services co-owners had long loved her, just as they had any other little sister in their tribe—APS had offered their help without any hesitation. At first, when Trill and her Geek Crew had looked at the situation with Reflex, it had been clear the four partners were deeply buried in both embezzlement and dirty money laundering schemes.Something else, though, was lurking in the shadows that had the hair on the back of Trill’s neck standing on end, even if she didn’t precisely know what was triggering her gut instinct.
The answer was now staring her right in the face. Trill ran back through her data, triple-checking all the information, before she came to the conclusion there had been no errors made.Fuck, she thought again, dragging a hand through her dark blond fade in aggravation and blowing out a deep breath.This is going to send Brooke right over the edge. Drumming her fingers on the table again, she made a decision and picked up her cell phone. Hitting a speed dial number, she waited until Drew answered the call.
“Cuz? Talk to me.”
“I have answers about Reflex Rebranding and what they were sniffing around behind the scenes, my friend…and you’re not going to fucking like it. Not one goddamn little bit.”
Chapter 13
“Body selling?” Drew stared at Trill incredulously from her seat in Trill’s office in the Recon Room. “Are you shitting me? What in the actualfuck?”
“Not kidding, cuz.” Trill leaned back in her chair, her face grim. “Apparently, dead bodies are ahugecommodity for what are called ‘body brokers.’ I cannot fucking believe everything I’ve found out in the last day or two. The body trade is a virtually unregulated industry in the United States, Drew, but it’s a damned enormous andlucrativeone.
“Don’t get me wrong, though. They’ve been sniffing around but, overall, I don’t really believe Reflex is heavily involved in body or organ trafficking. From what I’ve learned about the industry, the Reflex guys don’t have the setup, they don’t have the know-how, and they sure don’t have the contacts. Embezzlement and money laundering is their game. But that’s not to say Clay Langston or Rob Kilgore didn’t poke around when they saw an opportunity—like when, oh, I don’t know,Sandy Wheelerwas sick and maybe dying of breast cancer—and explored the possibility of trafficking her remains for profit upon her death.”
Drew’s green-hazel eyes were almost black. “Fuck my life. These bastards need to be wiped off the face of this earth because that’s downright gruesome. What kind of sick motherfucker steals a dead body to make money when the family is grieving? Jesus, Blake is going to freak right the hell out over what even thethoughtof that will do to Brooke.”
“Yeah, she is. The good news is that Sandy is cancer-free and regaining her health every day, so she isn’t as much of a concernat the moment. And, from all indications, Reflexisn’tin the body brokering business. They were exploring a one-off opportunity, which no longer exists, even if it did trigger our gut instincts for a while.”
Leaning forward, Drew rested her forearms on her hard, muscled thighs. “I’ll grab Dara—and probably Ari—and the three of us will decide how we want to proceed in Purgatory then. Other than keeping a close eye out in case this body trafficking thing bubbles up—which it doesn’t sound like it will, quite frankly, based on everything you just said—it appears Reflex has nothing concrete going on outside of their embezzlement and money laundering game.”
Trill touched the comm in her ear. “Meeting in ten, everyone. That means Kel and Piper, too. Drew and I have a Reflex update for you, which you’re not exactly going to love, but you need to know about. We’re in the Recon Room and heading to the Bunker now.” A chorus of voices confirmed they would see them there.
“Do I have to kill someone?” Blake’s voice as it came over the comm was unusually forbidding.
Drew and Trill rose, then moved from Trill’s office through the small conference room, heading for the door of the Recon Room. “You are most definitely going to want to, cuz,” Drew told her, touching her own earpiece as she and Trill started walking rapidly toward the Bunker. “But you need to hang on to your shit for now because your woman is going to need you. We’ll explain everything in a minute.”
Trill touched her comm again. “Let’s just say the more we learn about the scum of the world, the more it never ceases to amaze us. I’d tell you to make book on this one, Blake, but I don’t know how you’d even calculate the odds since this bullshit is not to be believed.”
She stopped next to the door of the Bunker as Drew entered the access pin code into the keypad set into the door frame. “All I know is that these motherfuckers won’t see the light of day for a very long time, if we have anything to say about it,” she said as the door opened and they went in. “It’s about time Reflex Rebranding was sent into hell where it belongs.”
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“I really need to stop saying‘There is no fucking way’every time we run into a new situation with the morons of the universe. All they do is say, ‘Hold my beer.’ Goddamn.” Jaime raked a hand through her thick black hair, just as incredulous as Drew had been earlier.
