by Nolon King
No Stopping
No Justice Series: Book 5
Nolon King
David Wright
Copyright © 2020 by Sterling & Stone
All rights reserved.
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Contents
Prologue - Victor Forbes
Chapter 1 - Jasper Parish
Chapter 2 - Mallory Black
Chapter 3 - Mallory Black
Chapter 4 - Victor Forbes
Chapter 5 - Jasper Parish
Chapter 6 - Mallory Black
Chapter 7 - Jasper Parish
Chapter 8 - Mallory Black
Chapter 9 - Jasper Parish
Chapter 10 - Mallory Black
Chapter 11 - Spider
Chapter 12 - Jasper Parish
Chapter 13 - Mallory Black
Chapter 14 - Mallory Black
Chapter 15 - Spider
Chapter 16 - Victor Forbes
Chapter 17 - Jasper Parish
Chapter 18 - Mallory Black
Chapter 19 - Jasper Parish
Chapter 20 - Mallory Black
Chapter 21 - Jasper Parish
Chapter 22 - Mallory Black
Chapter 23 - Victor Forbes
Chapter 24 - Spider
Chapter 25 - Jasper Parish
Chapter 26 - Mallory Black
Chapter 27 - Spider
Chapter 28 - Victor Forbes
Chapter 29 - Mallory Black
Chapter 30 - Spider
Chapter 31 - Jasper Parish
Chapter 32 - Mallory Black
Chapter 33 - Jasper Parish
Chapter 34 - Mallory Black
Chapter 35 - Spider
Chapter 36 - Jasper Parish
Chapter 37 - Jasper Parish
Chapter 38 - Mallory Black
Chapter 39 - Victor Forbes
Chapter 40 - Jasper Parish
Epilogue 1
Epilogue 2
The story continues…
A Note From The Authors
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About the Authors
Prologue - Victor Forbes
A soft ping on his phone woke Victor Forbes — a very specific alarm.
Someone’s inside.
He reached under his pillow for his pistol, pointed it at his bedroom door. Waited.
Is this him?
Has he finally come for me?
Silence in his oceanfront penthouse apartment, except for the usual AC and humming electronics. But he knew the sounds of his place, same as his body’s rhythms. Something was off.
He steadied his aim.
A soft knock made him flinch. If not for his extensive training, he would’ve pulled the trigger for sure. Instead, he focused his breathing, slow and steady even as his heart hammered hard in his chest.
“Don’t shoot,” said a man’s familiar voice. “It’s me.”
The last voice he wanted to hear, other than the black man who’d done so much damage down in Mexico and threatened BlackBriar’s operations.
Petr Sokolov, also known as The Raven — the notorious hit man employed by his boss.
It’s worse than I thought if they’re sending him.
He steadied his uncertain hand on the pistol. Could he really take out The Raven?
“If I wanted you dead, I wouldn’t have knocked, nor allowed your alarm to trigger. The boss wants to speak to you.”
His boss, Boris Molchalin, of MK LTD, the multinational company that owned BlackBriar.
“Come in,” Victor said, still aiming at the door as it opened.
The Raven was in his late forties. Tall, intense dark eyes, broad shoulders, and graying hair. He was dressed in a heavy black trench coat, hands raised to prove he wasn’t armed — not that he couldn’t reach inside his coat in a blink.
Still, Victor felt foolish holding his pistol on the man, so he set it on his nightstand and stood, vulnerable in his silk boxers and nothing else.
The Raven reached into his coat.
Victor felt uneasy around the Russian but tried to mask his fear with a casual expression. He managed not to flinch.
The Raven pulled out a phone, dialed, then spoke in Russian.
Victor could understand a few words here and there, but not enough to know what the man was saying. He managed to take the cell with a steady hand. “Hello, Mr. Molchalin.”
“Hello, Victor. What news have you about our little problem?”
Victor didn’t have to be cautious with his words as the call was surely encrypted. Men like Molchalin never took chances. But Victor rarely felt comfortable enough to speak too openly on a phone.
He swallowed and got on with it. “We’ve not identified the man or located the item yet.”
“What about the police, the woman he went there to save?”
“I’ve got eyes on her in case they make contact.”
“Good. We don’t have much time to retrieve the package or prevent the damage if you can’t find and disable the website. You need to be more … proactive.”
“You suggesting I … pick her up?”
“You know her, yes. Get her to tell you. If not, then yes, find this man by any means necessary.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And what about the feds? Are they done with their questions?”
“Yes. I answered everything, assured them Anderson was acting alone. But they’ve been snooping around, anyway.”
“That is why you need to lay low. I’m placing you on administrative leave for the moment. Susan O’Connell will be acting CEO until your return.”
“Susan?” Victor hated the idea of that bitch taking his place. “That’ll only look more suspicious if BlackBriar’s CEO suddenly steps aside.”
“They’ll understand. You’re in mourning.”
“Mourning?”
“Yes, your mother passed in her sleep tonight.”
“What?” A chill ran through Victor as he met The Raven’s eyes. “You fucker.”
The Raven already had his pistol aimed at Victor. “Don’t be stupid, not while you’ve still got a sister,” he said with slow shake of his head.
“My sincerest apologies for your loss, Mr. Forbes,” said Molchalin. “She went peacefully, if that’s any consolation.”
“How?” His voice cracked, struggling with the new reality that his mother was dead. He hadn’t visited in months. She’d left messages on his machine last weekend asking when he was going to call, asking if he was okay. His poor, sweet mother who’d never hurt anyone. Ever. He’d ignored her calls, figuring he’d get back to her once this shit was behind him.
But now she was gone for good.
And while the man sitting across from Victor was directly responsible, and his boss on the other line was the one who surely issued the order, he knew the truth even as it settled like silt in his gut.
This was all his fault.
“You now understand how urgent this matter is?” Molchalin asked. “You must contain this.”
“Yes, sir,” Victor said through clenched teeth and the first hiccup of a coming sob.
How the hell could he keep Voluptatem from getting out? And once it did, how many politicians, celebrities, and wealthy men would fall?
The only thing Victor knew for
sure was men like Boris Molchalin, even if he was somehow linked to the pedophile ring, would escape into anonymity. They had wealth and secret networks in place, designed to leave justice in the dark.
But he had no such escape hatch. For Victor, it was silence this scandal or die.
He hung up the phone.
The Russian said, “Grab some clothes. You’ll be staying with us for a while.”
“What? For how long?”
“Until this is over. Is there a problem? Should I call Mr. Molchalin back?”
“No,” Victor said, throat full of bile. “No problem at all.”
Chapter 1 - Jasper Parish
Jasper adjusted his ski mask as he lurked in the woods surrounding the remote lake house. He watched in the dark and waited for the lights to finally go out.
His target was a man named Joseph Bremmer. A criminal, yes, but not the sort who normally wound up on Jasper’s radar. Jasper hunted murderers and rapists. But Bremmer was a white-collar criminal — an accountant and money launderer working for Victor Forbes, using his cryptocurrency ATMs to clean cash for criminals.
So far as Jasper was aware, Victor hadn’t yet fallen under suspicion for BlackBriar’s role in either the kidnappings of Jessi Price and Mallory Black, nor for the company’s role in breaking Paul Dodd out of prison or for anything to do with Madam Pandora’s pedophile palace in Mexico. Outside of Anders Martin’s involvement, the pedophile network was barely a blip on American news, believed to be a mostly Mexican and South American crime ring. If the FBI had tied BlackBriar to Jessi Price or Mallory’s abduction, they had yet to act on it.
That didn’t mean they weren’t investigating behind the scenes. And Victor was surely eliminating any and all evidence tying him or BlackBriar to the crimes.
Jasper was certain Victor Forbes was involved, but he couldn’t go after him yet. He was likely being monitored by FBI agents. But he was also surrounded by his paramilitary guards, and Jasper wasn’t in the condition to take them down.
The Feds could take him in. Jasper didn’t need vengeance on the man, so long as he paid a fair price for his crimes. But until Spider decrypted the drive Paul Dodd said could expose the entire network — and found evidence they could either hand to the Feds, release to the media, or use for his personal hit list — Jasper was content to clip Victor’s wings so the asshole couldn’t easily escape.
That meant pursuing his money man.
Jasper’s daughter appeared beside him in her pink ski mask and purple hoodie.
“We’re not killing him, right?” Jordyn looked at her father’s holstered gun.
Jasper sighed. “I already said not if I can help it.”
“Don’t sigh. I just want to make sure we’re on the same page.”
“I thought you were going to wait in the car? Didn’t you say you wanted to catch up on your reading?”
“Someone needs to look after you.”
“He’s an accountant. I’m not worried.”
“All the same, you’re still recovering from your wounds.”
“I’m good.”
“Doesn’t hurt to have back-up.” Jasper could tell she was smiling wide under her mask. “Besides, you need my skills.”
“I’ve been sitting on the house for hours. Nobody has come in or out. I think he’s alone.”
“Thinking isn’t the same as knowing.” Jordyn echoed something he used to say a few years ago when she started becoming a moody teenager who thought she knew everything.
Jasper rolled his eyes then moved toward the house, stopping at a side door leading to the garage. The best place to enter and least likely for him to encounter anyone.
He’d already cased the place to make sure there wasn’t an alarm. Bremmer’s house in Jacksonville was outfitted with the best in home security, but his lake house in the panhandle was not.
He turned to Jordyn, waiting for her psychic magic.
“Yes?” she teased.
“Is there anybody else in there?”
Jordyn closed her eyes, focusing. Then she touched the door. “Weird.”
“What?”
“I’m not getting anything. At all.”
Her gift didn’t always come on demand.
“No worries.” Jasper started picking the lock.
“I don’t think you should go in there.”
“Why?” Still picking.
“I … just have a bad feeling.”
Jasper looked at her and calmly said, “We’ll be fine.” He opened the door.
Jordyn followed him into the garage. They circled the Cadillac SUV, making their way to the door leading into the house.
On the other side, Jasper also felt something was wrong.
The house wasn’t quiet. Music played over the sound system, classical music he vaguely recognized. Yet the house felt still, like death waiting to step on the scale.
He swept the bottom floor, gun drawn, finding nothing but a plate on the coffee table in front of the couch with an uneaten sandwich and an empty wine glass beside it but no bottle. The TV was on, tuned to the classical music station.
Jasper turned to Jordyn, signaling her to stay back as he headed upstairs.
His daughter nodded.
He took the stairs softly, an uneasiness tightening his shoulders. The steps led to a hall with four closed doors.
His gloved hand turned the knob of the first door to his left. A bathroom.
Bremmer was in the bathtub, a washcloth over his eyes.
Jasper’s heart skipped a beat, believing for a moment that the man in the bathtub was dead.
But then he moved, pulling the washcloth away from his face with widening eyes.
The man looked like he might scream, but stopped when he saw the pistol aimed at his forehead.
“Shh,” Jasper said.
The man nodded, terror turning his pasty face even whiter.
“Is anyone else here?” Jasper asked.
“No.” He shook his head and reached down to cover his crotch. “What do you want?”
“Victor Forbes’s Pentz. I want you to transfer it to me,” Jasper said, referring to his cryptocurrency stash. Once he had the untraceable money in his account, Victor could no longer access the funds or use them to escape justice.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Jasper shook his head. “I’m only going to warn you once, Mr. Bremmer. You think I showed up here without doing my due diligence? I value time far too much to waste any of mine, let alone yours. Lying to me is always a mistake. Now, I’ll ask you one more time, and please don’t insult me with—”
“I swear, I don’t—”
Jasper fired a suppressed warning shot into the tub, the bullet tearing through its fiberglass bottom.
Bremmer screamed, looked down to make sure he wasn’t hurt, then immediately appeared to get the message. Something about his expression bothered Jasper, but then the man spoke.
“He’ll kill me if I do that.”
Jasper waved his weapon. “Better to worry about the man not here or the man who is here? The man with a gun aimed at your head?”
He stared at Jasper, wheels clearly turning in his head, seeking a way to stall or deny him.
Jasper took deliberate aim at his crotch. “Should I fire another shot?”
“No, I’ll do it,” he practically whimpered, pointing at the sink where his iPhone was sitting. “I need you to hand me my phone.”
Jasper scooped it up, but stopped short of handing it over. “Try calling for help and you’re dead.”
He nodded. Jasper gave him the phone.
“He’s going to kill me, then you,” Bremmer said.
“Then take enough to get yourself out of town.”
“Really?” He looked at Jasper, confused.
“I’m not here to get you killed. I just want to clip his wings. You know the shit he’s into?”
“What do you mean?” Bremmer shook his head. “No, never mind. I don’t want to kno
w.”
“Yeah, maybe not,” Jasper said.
“There’s just over a half-million Pentz in here. How much should I take for myself?”
Jasper shrugged. “How much will you need?”
“Maybe fifty?”
Another shrug. “It’s all yours.”
Bremmer seemed surprised by his nonchalance. “Okay, where am I sending this?”
Jasper gave him his info, then he checked the Pentz account on his phone to confirm that the money went through. “Now hand me your phone. I’ll leave it in your mailbox on the way out.”
Bremmer handed it over, then two things happened at once.
His eyes widened with the sound of a door opening.
Jasper spun around with his gun at the ready. Nearly fired, but stopped as his attention fell to the small boy, about ten-years-old or so.
Water sloshed behind him. Jasper turned to find Bremmer leaping at him, blade in hand.
Where it had come from, Jasper wasn’t sure. He barely dodged it by falling back into the boy.
Bremmer screamed and lunged.
Jasper had nowhere to go. Nothing he could do beyond allowing his instincts to kick in.
He fired five shots until Bremmer stopped his attack.
“Daddy!” the boy screamed.
Jasper wheeled toward the child as he raced toward the stairs.
Fuck!
He ran in pursuit.
“What happened?” Jordyn shouted from downstairs.
“Get him!” Jasper yelled.
Too late, the boy had run out the front door and into the night.