My trembling fingers hovered over it for a while before I finally had the courage to tap it.
And what I saw made my stomach drop into my throbbing toes.
“Oh my God,” I said breathlessly.
The logo. It was on the side of that vehicle.
I knew who that car belonged to.
When the video was over, Ghost reached out and closed the laptop. “Have you ever seen those vehicles before?”
I scoffed as I looked over at the masked man. “That particular car belongs to one of our biggest clients. I see those cars all the time.”
Ranger, the man with the laptop, spoke. “How do you know it belongs to your client?”
I looked over at the bearded man with long hair. “Inside of some contracts for some of our bigger clients, my firm makes them put the logo on specific parts of the car. Sort of an, ‘I scratch your back, you scratch mine’ sort of deal. It’s one of their advertisement clauses, but most clients just choose to purchase a new vehicle instead of using one of the ones they already own. Wherever the logo is, that designates how high on the list the client is.”
“You mean, how much money they spend with the firm,” Ghost said.
My attention returned to him. “Yeah. And that logo? Emblazoned that big on the side like that? We’ve only got one client with a vehicle like that.”
“What about if the logo is on the gas tank lid?” Ghost asked.
I furrowed my brow. “Why?”
“Because the car that was tailing you that I tracked? That’s where the logo was.”
I swallowed thickly. “There are a few clients with that particular logo location. It’s the first tiered step for those logos. We’ve got a few clients who get in at the bottom-most price.”
Ranger held up his free hand. “Sorry, I just… this all sounds a bit… I don’t know. Weird?”
Ghost turned his head to look at the man, but I just sighed. “I know how it sounds. But it’s something the firm has always done. I’ve worked with them for years now, I’ve dealt with a lot of creation and dissolution of these contracts.”
Ranger tilted his head. “So they can be dissolved as well.”
I paused, realizing how damning this next thing I’d say would seem. “Yes. And when a contract is dissolved, so is the vehicle.”
That brought Ghost’s face back to mine. “They get rid of the vehicles if the client stops being a high-profile client?”
My eyes darted around a bit, not really focusing on anything. “Like I said, it’s always been that way since I was hired. But I… it never… I don’t know, the clients would have to sign off on the…”
My mind swirled with everything and nothing. It was only the clearing of a throat that pulled my attention back to Ranger before he spoke.
“And you’re certain of all this?” he asked. “You can pinpoint the exact client that owns the vehicle with the logo on the side?”
I nodded. “I’m the one that helps draw up the contracts. All of them. I’m absolutely sure of it. We’ve only got one client with us that pays into the firm on that kind of a level. But I figured that all of this was just for advertisement purposes. You know, ‘drive a car around with my logo on it and I’ll give you a discount,’ or something like that. I mean, that would make sense as to why they destroy the cars. You don’t preserve a billboard you intend to take down and rebrand, right?”
“It’s a fair assumption,” Ghost said.
I knew he was just placating me. I felt the tears slipping down my cheeks that outed the guilt I felt festering deep inside of a heart that had been crushed long ago.
“Obviously, not a right one,” I whispered softly.
“I’ll go tell Cap everything,” Ranger said as he plucked his laptop off my lap.
Ghost spoke, his gaze never leaving me. “Tell him no questions tonight. She can speak more on it tomorrow.”
I just shrugged slowly. “I-I-I mean, if he needs?—”
