Thom immediately backpedaled, as she suspected he would. “No, no, Brooke. I’m not saying that at all. We have every confidence in your ability to adhere to our timeline, and you have been more than agreeable to work with throughout this entire process. However, while looking at some long-term goals, a few things occurred to us that we would like to discuss with you.”
Brooke glanced at Blake, who was looking at her with a frown on her face. “Because I had not anticipated having to meet with Reflex or Gene prior to the presentation of the final artwork for Cask & Canvas, I have meetings on my schedule for early this week with other clients of mine that I simply cannot miss or postpone. That would be rude and extremely unprofessional. The earliest I can come to Gene’s microbrewery to meet with you would be midweek.
“Perhaps sending me an email with your anticipated meeting talking points would be a good way to avoid any unnecessary delays. That way, if I can understand exactly what you are looking for from me, we can adjust the timeline with minimum impact to the project.”
“That’s acceptable. Shall we say four o’clock on Wednesday afternoon?
“Four o’clock will work. If nothing else needs to be discussed right now, I will see you then.”
After Brooke hung up, she flopped back onto the bed and blew out a deep breath. “What in thehellare those cretins up to now?” She frowned, thinking. “Since, unbeknownst to them, I am quite aware they have no intention of actually using the label artwork for Cask & Canvas, what is the motivation here? And why do I get the distinct impression Gene will not be in attendance at this meeting?
“I can’tnotgo, Blake.” Her voice was unhappy. “There’s no good reason for me to refuse to meet with them, even thoughthis is highly irregular. Jack is paranoid enough as it is, and I don’t want to trigger him in any way.”
Blake, still sitting up, was busy texting. “I just let the management team know what happened. One of the things we need to talk about tomorrow morning in our meeting is how we can cover you without tipping off Reflex that you have suspicions that something is amiss. Thefuckyou’re going in there alone, though, with only you and those four there. I realize the microbrewery staff will be around, but that’s not good enough. We have to find a way to discreetly have one of ours all but on top of you.
“You don’t need to come to the APS management meeting since we’ll only be dissecting what’s happened and trying to make sense of it, although that will probably change as soon as we come to some decisions. We will get to the bottom of this one way or another, baby. We may not know everything they have up their sleeve yet, but you can bet it won’t remain a secret for long.”
?ω?ω?ω?
“Both Riles and I have mentioned Infinity Security several times in the past. APS has never had the opportunity to work with them directly before, because they are based in Tallahassee and we seldom go beyond the seven-county area of Tampa Bay,” Bryn began after Blake had finished with her Reflex update. “Infinity is also much smaller than APS, but don’t let their size fool you. Shaelyn and Dani Forrester, the co-owners, are two of thesharpestprotection and security agents we have ever met. All five of their primary operatives—including Shaelyn and Dani, who are sisters—are top-notch. Riles and I met the sisters and their primary team face-to-face a few years ago when we went toTallahassee on a security-related matter that didn’t involve the rest of our management team.”
“They are the kind of women you want at your back when shit is going down,” Riley added. “Their reputation in North Florida is no different than ours is here. Their clientele is extremely loyal and their standing in their community unmatched.” The corners of her mouth lifted. “What’s extremely interesting is that all five of their primary operatives arefemmes.” The eyebrows of the Seven hit the tops of their hairlines as they stared at the twins, astonished.
“What’s even more awesome is that Infinity Security is a Black- and women-owned business. Because Bryn and I are half-Puerto Rican, Dani and I had a very enlightening conversation when we met them about marginalized communities and how organizations like APS and Infinity can better protect them. That’s a conversation for another time, however.”
“Five Kelly-type badasses—just like Piper and Sabine, too—in North Florida,” muttered Jaime before she burst out laughing. “Fan-fucking-tastic. Please tell me we are going to get the opportunity to meet these women in the future.”
“Sooner than you think,broki,” Bryn told her. “Ironically, Shaelyn called me yesterday. One of her primary operatives has been chasing a man named Rob Vonn for the past few months. Vonn not only fleeced one of the agent’s clients and stole every red cent she had—completely cleaning her out—he hijacked her mother’s remains from the funeral home where they had been taken and trafficked them on the open market.” The room went wired as scary energy filled it.
“His last known location was in the Tampa Bay area,” continued Bryn. “Shaelyn filled me in on what was going on with India’s case, then asked if we had heard anything about body trafficking in the area, trying to draw a bead on this asshole. After we had talked it through and put two and two together—”
Blake’s sunlit green eyes were filled with malice. “You figured out one of the motherfuckers from Reflex was behind it.”
“Bingo. Shaelyn and I came to the conclusion this ‘Rob Vonn’ also operates under the aliases Robert Hoyt and Rob Kilgore.” Bryn was grim, looking at the eight unhappy faces staring back at her. “Shaelyn, Dani, and India Lunastar—the operative in charge of the case—will be here at the APS complex later this morning. Apparently, India’s client lost about $750k in the grift. There has been no sign of the other Reflex partners, however.”
Trill was typing furiously on her laptop. “As we have already surmised, Kilgore is making his own plays and cutting his partners out. And Drew? Looks like body brokering maybe wasn’t completely out of the realm of possibility after all, not if Kilgore has his own set-up going.”
“Yeah, but—” Drew was considering everything they had just learned. “I still don’t feel Kilgore is that deep into it. From everything we’ve seen, he just doesn’t have the contacts or the know-how to make a go of it at this point. We’ve already agreed he’s not a stupid man.”
“Honestly, I can’t disagree with you, cuz.” Trill’s fingers were still flying over her keyboard. “The body selling most likely happens when opportunity presents itself within his other scams. He maywantto become a regular player, considering how lucrative that market is, but he has a long way to go before he is in any kind of position to make bank.”
Making notes on her phone, Bryn said, “We’ll discuss it with Infinity when they get here. I truly doubt India hasn’t figured out Rob Vonn’s other aliases or doesn’t know he has additional partners. No Infinity operative would ever miss that. The craft microbrewery embezzlement and money laundering schemes in our area are out of their territory, however, and wouldn’t have been their focus.”
“Maybe—” Blake stopped, drumming her fingers on the table.
“Maybe what,broki?” prompted Riley.
Blake shook her head. “Never mind, at least for now. I’m having a thought, but I really won’t know if it’s viable or not until after we meet with Infinity. My top priority at the moment is making sure Brooke has the protection she needs when she meets with those bastards midweek. Reflex calling a meeting the way they did, especially when we know their interest in the label art for Cask & Canvas is essentially bullshit? No fucking way I’m liking this.”
Jaime’s eyes were cold. “We’ll make sure your woman is covered, Blake, even if we need to schedule some kind of random delivery that gets one of our people into the brewery. No matter what, she won’t be alone. In the meantime, let’s see what Infinity has to say. Like all of us, I have a huge feeling a bunch of shit is getting ready to explode.”
Chapter 16
“Rob Vonn has apparently worked this scam on more than one occasion,” said India Lunastar of Infinity Security as she was filling APS in on the particulars of her investigation. She, Shaelyn Forrester, and Dani Forrester were sitting in the largest APS conference room later that day. In addition to the core management team, Kelly Armstrong and Piper Haines were also there, all of them listening closely as India had taken them through the details of the scam that had cost her client three-quarters of a million dollars.
“Our intel has pointed to Vonn operating in Portland, Dallas, and Minneapolis within the last three years,” Shaelyn told them. “His latest victim lives in Tallahassee, which is why she came to us. Marion’s money comes from an almost $2M jackpot she won at the Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood several years back during a vacation.”
Kennedy snorted. “Don’t tell me. She’s older, probably lived a modest, very quiet lifestyle before she became wealthy, and Vonn showed up out of the blue to wine and dine her because she was too naive to know better.”
