On the side of the building the man enters, SynCom is painted in bold black letters. The corners of my mouth turn down. Who the fuck has come to our city and why don’t we know about it?
“The shell company Stalenko Corp used to buy out Nexus Lab,” Fox says. “The one they use to pull all the strings on their drug ring.”
“The chatter in hacker circles on the web about Stalenko’s rumored Russian bratva ties died down after what went down in Ridgeview when you blew the whistle on the whole thing.” Colt pulls an unhappy face. “Question is—what have they been doing since then? My guess is they’re employing someone as good as I am to keep a low profile so there’s no repeat from before.”
“Or someone helped them lick their wounds,” Jude says. “If they couldn’t keep their cash flow going without supply to sell to buyers, someone had to step in.”
“How long have their operations been active here?” Levi asks.
“At least a year,” Maisy says. “That’s how long it’s been since the Nexus Lab CEO—my mom—was sent to jail.”
“Could be as long as a decade, though.” Fox scrubs a hand over his face. “We know they were staging their takeover of the pharmaceutical company back when we were kids and both our parents worked in research. Her mom was willing to take the bribe and accepted the position they wanted to give her.” A conflicted look crosses his face. “Mine…”
Maisy takes his hand. “These people are criminals and killers.”
I almost bark out a cynical laugh because so are we on a good day. “So they thought they could just pick up the pieces and establish the supply for their drug ring here? I don’t think so.”
“Did you bring that flash drive Ethan gave you?” Colt asks.
Fox hands it over. “When we saw him last before all the shit went down he said he was heading back east to follow this trail he first found working undercover in the internal records department to continue his investigation on the corruption. I think he was going after the shell company next to build the story he was working on about others tied to it all—politicians and other businesses. He called it a network.”
“That fits the description of almost every prominent person in this city,” I say.
Jude rubs the back of his neck. “Discovering the twisted secrets of a company owned by a shell as a front for a mafia organization is one thing, but digging deeper to expose them is even more dangerous. The risk doesn’t seem worth whatever national renown he could garner for breaking the story.”
“When we met him he said this was just one piece of his story. He wanted the whole thing.” Maisy casts her worried gaze at the floor. “Is he… Do you think they—?”
“We don’t know,” Levi says. “But it’s likely.”
Despite knowing it’s the most probable outcome, thinking of Rowan finding that truth out sends a slimy lurch through my gut.
It’s the same thing I felt when I discovered what Charlotte had done to herself. I was coming home from campus to surprise her for the weekend. I’m the one that found her. If I can keep Rowan from experiencing that, I’ll do everything in my power to protect her from it.
“Let’s scope this place out tonight,” I say. “We’ll find out who we’re dealing with and find Ethan.”
“Damn, I left all my good stakeout outfits at home since we left on such short notice,” Maisy says.
“You’re not coming,” I say archly.
She gives me a once over and smirks. “Yeah, I am.”
Great. Another one just like Rowan.
I fold my arms. “Then you stay in the car. If I think you’re going to sneak off, I’ll handcuff you so you stay put.”
“Kinky.” Maisy shrugs. “Fox gets final say on whether we invite people to play with us.”
Jude releases a startled laugh and elbows Fox. “I can see why your revenge plan ended up with her stealing your heart instead.”
“Nah.” Maisy wraps her arms around Fox. “He’s my best friend. Our hearts never forgot it.”
Ignoring them while they joke around, I study the information on the screen. “Meet back here by nine.”
I will not have a mob dealing drugs in this city without it going through us first. Drug running is messy and rife with screw ups. It threatens the careful status quo my brothers and I have established. If this Russian bratva group was crippled by what happened in Colorado, they must have friends in high places here. I want to know who is involved.
Later that night, we arrive at the warehouse in two separate blacked out SUVs, parking in a discreet spot. The cliffs at this side of the city curve to follow the coastline, providing a view of Thorne Point’s downtown lit up at night. Sea air whips around us, making the tall trees in the woods behind the buildings at the city limits creak as they sway.
Colt runs a check for any on site security before he gives us the all clear. We gather at the back of one of the cars, decked out in the same gear we used to apprehend the frat boy from campus.
“Surveillance only,” I remind everyone in a muted commanding tone. “No moves until we know who to take out at the knees.”
Jude and Colton grant me twin vicious smiles before Colt unpacks his drones. They’re small and almost undetectable from how silently they fly. Once he’s set up to operate them, he pops open a small case with sets of earbuds. We each grab a pair to keep in contact on the private radio frequency while we look around.
“Take these too.” Colt offers a set of tactical binoculars from the supplies and tech he brought with him to Levi. “I know you like to pretend you’re like the Dark Knight and shit, but Batman still needed gadgets to see at night. No one naturally has night vision.”
Levi rolls his eyes, but accepts the binoculars.
“This looks like even less security than they kept back in Colorado,” Fox says. “Either they feel comfortable out here or they think they have protection.”
“Then we all need to stay alert,” I say.
Before we split up, Colt’s drones take to the air. I nod to Jude and Colton, then head to one side of the warehouse with Levi.
A fence separates the wide parking lot from the jagged edge of the cliffs, but it’s not completely closed off. The windows on the building are smudged and dusty. One of the lights is on inside toward the back.
The place seems deserted and out of use otherwise. Perhaps by design so anyone who might happen to come out here would think nothing of a nondescript run down building at the edge of the city and move along.
“Uh oh.” Colt’s voice is a mumble in my earbud.
My gaze shoots around, but I don’t see anything amiss on this side of the property. “What?”
“I’m by their dumpsters. I found a broken pair of glasses that look like the same ones Hannigan had on in the photos I pulled when I did the initial search on him. He was here.”
I exchange a tense look with Levi.
Plunging my hand into my pocket, I grip Charlotte’s locket. The shape of the heart bites into my palm, making it ache from how hard I clutch it. Shadows cloud my mind, putting me right back to the day I found my sister’s dead body. Taking a jagged breath, I force it all back behind the numbness and anger that fight for dominance every day. Always one or the other. I’ve only felt flashes of something more when I’m distracted by Rowan’s presence.
“You good?” Levi asks.
Instead of answering him, I address Colton. “Any other signs of him? Can you tell if anyone’s inside? They could be keeping him here.”
It’s what we would do if we found someone like Ethan infiltrating our businesses to expose the information he found. If they decided he wasn’t worth keeping alive, well…they picked a prime location. The high cliffs and expansive woods both make it easy to dump a body.
“Give me five to find an entry point. I’m working on the fly here.”
“I could go around front and provide a distraction if anyone’s home,” Jude offers.
“No. I don’t want to tip them off if they’ve been w
atching us without making us aware of them,” I say.
We wait while Colton takes his drones around the building. Unease ties my stomach in knots. I can’t kick the bad feeling.
“No dice on entry, but I got close enough to the windows for a visual.” His sigh makes my shoulders tighten. “If he was here, he’s gone now. There’s some evidence of someone being held in a room on this side. Metal rings are cemented to the wall and a lump that might be a mattress. I doubt the dude left his cracked glasses here on purpose.”
“Right.” Exhaling, I glare at the building.
Fuck. I’m going to have to tell Rowan about this. If I do…
The thought of her face crumbling sends a lance of pain into my heart. I shake my head. Not yet. First I’ll do what I said I would—find him. I won’t give her false hope and stand by while she walks the same dark path I traveled in grief.
Silent and watchful, Levi touches my arm and nods in the direction of the entrance. We slip into the shadows to remain hidden when there’s movement. A group of people spill into the night from the warehouse. We’re too far off to hear their discussion clearly, but their satisfied laughter carries on the wind.
Levi uses the binoculars to get a better vantage point. He stiffens at my side. It never bodes well when he’s taken aback.
I eye him warily. “What is it?”
“Take a closer look at who they’re meeting with.” He hands over the tactical binoculars from Colt’s toy box. “This is bigger than we think, not just seedy criminals looking to put down easy roots.”
I peer through the binoculars and my spine goes rigid after a minute of focusing on the group of men. Swearing under my breath, I rack my brain for what this means.
The two men in expensive wool pea coats are friends of my father’s and Levi’s uncle. They’re known throughout the city as high-profile business men. They shake hands with the other people who came out of the building. One of them is the man who shot our informant at the docks.
This network Ethan Hannigan was investigating for his story must have uncovered more than he bargained for if he saw something—or someone—he shouldn’t have.
“I guess Stalenko Corp was looking for new investors to make up for the losses their operation suffered.” Gritting my teeth, I pass the binoculars back. An idea begins to take shape. “This changes things. Let’s use the upcoming founders gala to see what else we can learn from up close.”
If some of the wealthiest men in Thorne Point are funding a drug ring, I want to know why. More importantly, I want to know what Stalenko is providing in exchange for this deal.
Seventeen
Rowan
In the last few days I haven’t had any other nightmares about Ethan. I hated the one that plagued me before, but my dreams have been the opposite since the night Wren and his friends brought me further into their underworld. When I close my eyes, my head is full of Wren’s rough touch, deep voice, and sensual kisses dominating me in my fantasies.
I’m so hot and bothered every time I wake up from a sexy dream of Wren, my folds are slick when I slip my fingers into my underwear to relieve the ache of wanting him again. He’s kept away, but he answers my texts. This morning I had the lust-fueled idea to send him a photo of myself languid and twisted in my sheets post-orgasm. I’ve never done anything like that before, but he seems to make me more impulsive and wild.
Wren didn’t take the opportunity to play sensual photo tag. The smug bastard only sent a single heart-stopping response: let those thoughts of me tide you over until I get my hands on you, then I’ll wreck you so good your fingers and toys won’t be enough to bring you the same pleasure, kitten.
Even without a photo, I could picture the expression on his face, hear the gravel in his tone, and it left me breathless with my pulse thrumming in my clit.
My cheeks flush as I dart my eyes around to look for my perpetual shadows, hoping my dirty thoughts aren’t written all over my face. For once it seems like they’re not stalking me around campus today. Or if they are, they’re doing so discreetly. Neither Colton or Levi were in my morning lecture and I found myself disappointed—plus missing the amazing coffee they bring. I was forced to settle for suffering through vending machine coffee until I hit up a coffee cart when the professor allowed a fifteen minute break.
It’s odd to go from having their constant company to nothing. I was growing used to their presence. Levi’s surliness has become a comforting steadfast silence and Colton’s outrageous joking is one of the few things to make me smile. I actually miss them—something I never thought possible when I first met the Crowned Crows in their smoky nightclub. My suspicion tweaks at their absence, but I put it from my mind as I head for the student union to grab lunch.
Isla’s new dance classes mean we can’t grab food at the same time. Without Colton and Levi here, I expect to eat alone today if they don’t plan on showing their faces. It’s the first time in the last two weeks I’ve been by myself for most of the day, left alone to my thoughts.
I take out the note I’ve been carrying around with me and smooth my thumb over the creased paper. The most I’ve figured out about the address on South Cove Road is the dock for a holding company. Googling it, another story from the midwest pulled up from last year about the DEA busting a pharmaceutical company for illegal drug distribution. I purse my lips to the side. My spring semester was hectic last year, but I remember Ethan FaceTiming me a few times with the Rocky Mountains in the background.
Tonight. I don’t have work, so I’ll go down to the shipyard to see this through Ethan’s eyes.
While I’m tucking the note back into my bra, a figure in my peripheral vision makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. At first I assume it’s Levi doing that creepy silent stalking thing, but when I turn for a better look, it’s not him.
The man is barrel-chested and older than the college students milling around campus. Sunglasses hide his eyes, but his mouth is pulled into a permanent frown. He casually hovers several feet behind me, checking a map kiosk to play it off like he’s not following me. I’d buy it, except when I move on, he follows once I’m about to pass through the wrought iron gates that connect this section of campus to the central part.
Narrowing my eyes, I pretend I don’t notice to test if he’s really tracking my movements. I fake a stop at a restroom in the student center and pass him waiting at a bulletin board outside the bookstore in the atrium before I leave.
What he wants with me remains a mystery. I don’t know him. The only answer is he might know Ethan, but the possibility winds my stomach in knots. Something is off about this.
Keeping my cool, I act like I have no idea he’s there while my heartbeat thumps erratically. I angle my phone as if the bright sun is making it hard to see the screen. In reality, I’m discreetly taking some photos for Colton. I don’t know if it’ll be enough to identify him, but if anyone can do it, it’s Colton.
Another idea pops in my head. If I have the Crows in my corner, maybe that’s enough to scare this guy into backing the hell off.
I scroll through the limited numbers on my phone, press dial, and sit on a stone bench. The stalker slows to a stop close enough to listen to my call.
“Missed me?” Wren’s tone is amused and sultry when he answers.
I bite my lip, my body responding with a shiver. “You wish, King Crow.” He chuckles knowingly. Glancing over my shoulder, I speak louder. “I was thinking of what to wear to the Crow’s Nest. Colton said there are theme nights. Are we talking like a toga party, or should I shop for some spandex and glow sticks?”
Wren smothers a muffled groan on the phone while the man following me stiffens. This time he looks right at me and my heart lurches. His lip curls, but he backs away. Shit. What would he have done to me if I didn’t show my hand?
The man’s strides are agitated. He shoves a student out of the way when they don’t move from his path. I watch his retreat until he’s gone.
“Rowan?” Wren�
��s tone turns demanding. “You there?”
“Yeah.” I clear my throat. “I thought I saw someone I knew. I’ve gotta go, or I’ll miss my window to get something to eat before my next class.”
“I’d rather be eating you right now,” he rumbles.
A strained laugh escapes me. “So come and catch me again, big guy. You’re the one who’s been too busy. Keep it up and I’ll see if one of your boys will give me what I need.”
This time his dangerous growl is possessive and dark. “Don’t even think about it. I told you, you’re mine.”
“Prove it before I forget,” I tease.
“I intend to.” Wren pauses. “Enjoy your lunch.”
I hang up and hurry to the student union. Evading stalkers cuts into my window to eat. Once I reach the crowded cafeteria, I pull up short.
Wren sits at my usual table attracting a lot of stares. His muscular arms are crossed over his broad chest, stretching the black t-shirt. Those icy blue eyes lock on me and my stomach dips in excitement.
Was he sitting here waiting for me when we were on the phone?
Swallowing, I put my bag down at the table and survey him. He’s dressed down instead of the tailored suits he favors. It doesn’t make him appear any less imposing. I match his stance, standing before him with folded arms.
“What’s the special occasion that the King Crow would deign to walk amongst the rest of us peasants?”
Wren reaches out to grab me by the wrist with a wry curve of his mouth. “Cute.”
Tugging me closer, his other hand threads into my hair, using the leverage to draw me into a deep kiss that leaves me dizzy. It’s over too soon. His gaze takes in my expression and turns arrogant, proud of his effect on me.
I slip free from his grasp to rifle through my bag for my wallet, ignoring the heat tingling my cheeks. “What was that for?”
“So everyone here knows you’re mine.” He comes with me to order food. “Now they know not to touch you.”
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