Page 20 of Mia

“What’s up?”

“I need you to look up something for me.”

He got up and migrated to the office space he shared with Jaeda. Since moving on the compound, they had built a bigger space onto her house to serve as the collective office space for both of them since he’d become additional tech support for the family. I could see Jaeda in the background as he set the phone down to get logged in.

“Alright. What do you need?”

“I think I found that JacQues nigga’s house. I remember you said you were having a hard time finding a residence because it wasn’t listed in his name.”

It was as though JacQues didn’t exist. There was no property under his name. Whenever he was followed, he always ended up at a hotel or an apartment building, never a family home.

“What’s the address?”

I rattled off the address from my memory. I could hear him tapping hard on the keyboard and clicking around on the screen. Jaeda rolled into view and smiled at me.

“I see Maddie hasn’t killed you yet.”

I chuckled. “Not yet, sis.”

“How is my sister?”

“She’s herself. Pregnancy cravings got me sent on an ice cream run.”

She gasped. “Oooo… that sounds good. Baby, can you make me a sundae?”

Quaid chuckled. “I got you, love. Just let me finish this up… got it. The house is listed under the name Claude Pujon.”

I thought for a second. “He rearranged some of the letters of his name so it’s not as obvious.”

Quaid snapped his fingers. “You know what, you’re right.” He clicked around for a minute. “Several other properties are listed under that name, most of them in shady areas. My guess is those are probably some of the places he’s housing these people. The name is also linked to a website… looks like they offer a cleaning service. Different packages offer different services… it’s weird.”

“How so?”

“The wording. If you don’t know what you’re looking for, you’d think nothing of it.”

Next to him, Jaeda squinted. “You think he’s using the website to book clients?”

“I’d put money on it.”

DaVinchi shook his head. “That’s damn near genius,” he said. “Who would suspect a cleaning company. Can you look up the customers? If this is what he’s doing, you can bet your ass that this is for the high profile and repeat clients.”

I slapped his chest. “Look at you using that big ass head for something good.”

“Fuck you.”

“That’s actually a good point, Vinchi,” Quaid said. “Give me and Jaeda a few days to look into this and do background checks so we can see who we’re working with.”

“Bet. I appreciate you, man.”

“Ain’t shit. Be safe over there.”

“Always.”

“Love you, Titan,” Jaeda said.

“Love you too, sis.”

“Damn, no love for me?” Vinchi asked, offended.