Delta_Ricochet

by Cristin Harber

  “Get him on the phone. Now,” Jared snapped, and Parker brought him on speaker with a quick button punch.

  Javier answered on the first ring. “Hey—”

  “Where’s Adelia?” Jared snapped.

  “Javier,” Parker said in a way that might get him to share. Boss Man wasn’t a calming voice when he looked ready to hunt and kill Deacon Lanes. “Have you checked in with Adelia lately?”

  “What do you consider lately?” Javier asked.

  “How the hell do you think I want you to define it?” Jared boomed. “When did you talk to her last?”

  “Is she okay? Did she get back to Colin?”

  Parker dropped his head back and then pulled up what they knew about Deacon. Their intel didn’t show any interaction in Mayhem with Adelia. Seven, yes. Victoria, yes, but not in person. Could Adelia have known who Deacon had been? Would she have run from Colin because of him?

  “Why did she leave him?” Jared asked.

  “Eh,” Javier’s voice softened protectively. “She’s tired and growing paranoid.”

  Jared’s brow furrowed. “That’s what she told you?”

  Parker didn’t know much about Adelia but that didn’t sound like the woman he’d met.

  “She thinks there is someone in addition to Mayhem tailing her,” Javier admitted.

  Jared leaned toward the phone console. “Who?”

  Javier’s pause couldn’t have been more than a fraction of a breath, but Jared boomed the question again, slamming his fist onto a table.

  The only answer that Parker could assume Jared had was Deacon.

  “Sorry,” Javier said. “I don’t know. It’s crazy talk. This stress is getting to her.”

  Parker rubbed his temples.

  “Tell me what she said,” Jared whispered.

  This was one of the times that Boss Man’s emotions could be mapped by the reverse of her volume. The quieter he became, the more concerned or angry he might be. Whatever he felt, Parker thought a whispering Jared was far scarier than when he pounded the table.

  “Adelia thinks that someone we work with is after her.” Javier’s sadness was palpable. “She couldn’t explain if that meant a client or a contractor, or hell, a government. If there was truth behind it… I told her to get off the phone, that they could find her. She needed to get back to Colin.” He cleared his throat. “But if there wasn’t, Colin could help her find… help.”

  Jared rubbed his temples. “We’ll find her.”

  “Are we talking about Adelia as a job?” Javier asked with a slice of soft hope. “I know this isn’t a democracy, and a lot of good has come out of Mayhem, but I’m about done with Titan’s arrangement with them. With all due respect.”

  Parker could see what Javier couldn’t. Boss Man was blaming himself for wherever Adelia was, why ever Colin had been shot, and everything they didn’t know.

  “Thanks, Javier.” Jared signaled to end the call and then sat back, calling Thelma over. The sweet old dog moved to his boots and stayed where he could pet her head until he gave her two quick pets, sending her back to bed. “Give me an update on Lenora.”

  “Let me see what’s new.” Maybe where she’d been or cases she’d represented. Tracking her by cell phone could be problematic. The woman kept new burner phones piled in her office. Parker was equally impressed by and suspicious of her. “Don’t expect too much. She covers her ass like a pro.”

  Still, he ran her name in every way he knew how—and came up empty of anything they didn’t already know. Lenora had been everywhere a lawyer should go. Courthouses. Federal and state. Parker scrolled and stopped. Twice, she’d gone to federal lock-up. Honing his attention there, he cross-referenced gang members affiliated with Mayhem.

  Cullen Blackburn—Released

  Parker’s fingers froze. He didn’t know what was going on now, but Cullen released from federal prison was big news, and it was early. Way too early. This had happened before when he’d wiggled his way out before on a deal. But Cullen did what he couldn’t help doing, and the feds yanked him back inside.

  Was this the same deal? Where the hell was Cullen, and who knew? Everyone should know because that was major news, but this was recent and intentionally kept quiet.

  Parker cleared his throat, stealing Jared’s attention back to the screen and nodded to the highlighted name and information.

  Jared’s lips parted, slack before his dark eyes narrowed. “This can’t be coincidence, but how is any of it related?”

  Parker had exactly zero answers.

  “Get Lenora on the phone.”

  Parker was already dialing her office number, expecting it to re-route him to wherever she might be or voicemail to pick up, but she answered.

  “Now you people are interested in chatting?” Lenora clucked. “I can’t imagine what it took for you to call.”

  The tension in the office was high, and the smart-ass routine wasn’t going to help. Parker waited for the volcano behind him to explode.

  “Start talking,” Jared whispered.

  “Where should I start?”

  “Mayhem’s hit on Adelia.”

  “That seems like the most self-explanatory part.”

  Parker could hear Jared seethe and decided it an appropriate time to interject. “Lenora, hey. Parker here.”

  “The Boss Man and The Genius, and both of you haven’t put this together?”

  Parker knew Boss Man wouldn’t take the bait and wondered if Jared would simply eat Lenora alive or play nice.

  “Why is it,” Jared started slowly. “That you don’t share details, that Adelia wouldn’t be specific, and that Mayhem’s bitching about their banking issues like I’m supposed to give a damn.” He paused. “You’ve got a smart mouth for someone who doesn’t want to break her precious biker code. So, give me a fuckin’ break. She’s not our girl.”

  Lenora faltered for only a second. “Colin might disagree.”

  “You haven’t wised up enough to see that you’ve caused your own problems.” The corner of Jared’s eyes tightened. “After I saw your guy, I don’t care anymore.”

  “My guy? Who?” She clucked. “I have a whole club of guys.”

  “Deacon Lanes? On his way to…” Jared rolled his hand, and Parker pulled up their drive history, pulling the map out of scale. “New York?”

  “Deacon Lanes?” Lenora’s sarcastic amusement crashed. “He’s dead.”

  “And I know about Cullen Blackburn. How much of your BS do you expect me to believe before you stop yammering about what we should know and explain details that will save her life?”

  She muttered, and Parker shook his head, mouthing to Jared that he didn’t get that.

  “Spit it out, Lenora,” Jared said. “I’ve had it with Mayhem.”

  “I said.” Lenora took a long breath and held it before she let it out. “That son of a bitch is a dead man walking.”

  “Which one?” Parker asked.

  “Does it matter.”

  Jared dropped back into a chair. “Mayhem’s banking problems—they’re not really Adelia’s? Deacon set her up?”

  And maybe Lenora, too, by the sound of it. Parker started a search of possible Cullen and Deacon connections but came up empty since Cullen should have been in prison and Deacon should have been dead.

  “No, they’re really hers. At least some of them are.”

  Jared shook his head. “We can’t help. Good luck—or sorry about your loss.”

  “Screw you, Westin.”

  “God damn it.” Jared smacked his fists together. “Do you hear yourself? This is your fucking kid, Lenora. Drop your pride, your oath, and do something to save her.”

  Parker’s heart pounded and broke that she’d give up.

  “I already did,” Lenora whispered. “I tried.” She cleared her throat. “Why do you think Cullen is out? If he could reason with Hawke… I put my ass on the line and told him I’d help make amends with Seven. I—” She paused “—don’t know what else to do.
”

  “You have to trust us,” Parker offered as quietly. “They’re going to kill her. No one wants to. No one even knows why. Everyone’s protecting everyone. And your rules will ruin you.”

  Lenora didn’t disagree.

  Jared put his head in his hand like he didn’t think what they said mattered. Lenora had been too deep in the Mayhem would to see a way for an outsider to help.

  “What the hell did she do that’s such a secret?” Boss Man finally asked.

  She quietly sniffled. “You’re not lying about Deacon?”

  “Not lying,” Jared confirmed. “But should it even matter?”

  Lenora pulled a breath that echoed around the room. “Adelia built a funnel with Mayhem’s gun sales to make mid-level purchases from human traffickers. It was much like a Ponzi scheme because she always continued, and the money was never really put back, just moved from one account to the next, one transaction to another.”

  “What?” Creases formed on Jared’s forehead. “That makes no sense.”

  Parker scowled, confused.

  “She saved them. Bought people and set them free.” She sighed, laughing sadly. “God, she pulled off an enormous operation across the country, using money she didn’t have, and a group of women who never uttered a word about it.”

  Adelia was a hero. “Why are you hiding this?”

  “It takes a lot of old ladies lying to their husbands for years to pull off this fete and more money than you can imagine that she didn’t have permission to use.”

  “Still,” Parker added, unbelieving that was worth dying over.

  “The Mayhem you know is all right but that’s not how every chapter, and not everyone is lucky enough to have strong women and men to make sure a group of women caught lying won’t feel their wrath.”

  The Mayhem was a gang. Parker couldn’t forget that when they only saw the shinier side of the club.

  “Hawke found other problems with the accounts that I still don’t understand,” Lenora continued. “Though in the last ten minutes, I might understand more than I did before. Tex killed Ethan because he’s the one who turned Adelia in to the leadership and asked for her execution. Rules… I haven’t seen or heard from him either. He’s probably dead too.” Lenora’s voice shook. “Look, Adelia’s a dead. Now or later, she’s a woman who hasn’t met her maker yet.”

  “She’s not,” Jared rebutted. “We can talk to Hawke—”

  “No. There are consequences, and she’s always known.”

  “Where is she, Lenora?” Jared asked.

  “She has an expiration date and can’t save any more women. What do you think she’ll do before Mayhem gets her?”

  “Damn it! Enough with the riddles.”

  “She’s monster hunting,” Lenora said, exasperated.

  Parker tried to picture what Adelia had been doing. “She’d go after the traffickers?”

  “Like a vigilante? Then why hasn’t she?” Jared asked. “She’s hoping for a reprieve from Mayhem and doesn’t want to commit murder.”

  “Monster hunting versus murder,” Lenora said. “I see a difference.”

  “If your final act is to hurt the trafficking system,” Jared offered. “You take out the framework. She’s not done that.”

  “Not yet,” Lenora snipped.

  Parker’s brows lifted, mouthing, “Not yet,” and picked up a pen to fidget with. “Why hasn’t she?” He tapped it on his knee. Still planning, not enough resources or intel, the opportunity had presented itself. “What kind of framework would she know about?”

  Jared shook his head, unsure. They didn’t even know what she had been doing. How the hell would they know how extensive her reach was?

  Lenora hummed. “Think big, my friends.”

  “We are,” Parker snapped.

  “You aren’t. Her target is mind boggling. Not only because of its size but because some ideas have to be discovered to be believable.”

  Big trafficking networks? The biggest ones weren’t based in North America, but there were thousands of small networks around the country. Even today, Delta couldn’t get away from their container ship nightmare from weeks ago. One came into Newark, only to be caught, and the entire crew killed themselves, leaving containers with terrified people.

  How big could Adelia go?

  Javier’s notification pinged on screen. Delta team was in place, and Gloria Astor was on the hotel grounds.

  “We gotta go, Lenora,” Jared interrupted and signaled to Parker.

  He cut the call and switched the central sound into Delta’s feeds for the night’s event.

  “What’s so improbable that it is unimaginable?” Jared asked.

  “That’s not how probability works.”

  Weary-eyed, Jared waved his hand. “Do something mathematical.”

  Delta’s monotone voice played in the background and Parker laughed quietly. He knew what Boss Man meant, but what the shit.

  Parker’s hand hovered over the keyboard, trying to decide what data sets might be of value. Instead, he reversed hacked his answer. Delta was at the Humanitarian dinner. Colin and Deacon appeared to be headed there. Maybe Adelia too? The answer was in New York, and he layered data sets of patterns and recent intel, from the day’s news to the Indian ocean job with ACES.

  After he put in the data and rubbed his eyes, Parker leaned back to check the screen above. One word stood out above the rest. “Boss, we’ve got a problem.”

  Jared glanced over, taking in the word ASTOR, and moving on. “What’s up?”

  “That’s our answer.”

  Jared’s eyes narrowed, and slowly, he went turned back to the screen. “The answer to what question?”

  Parker rolled his lips together, knowing that he’d put in raw data and didn’t expect one clear word to jump so brilliantly. “The question was, ‘who is the monster that Adelia is hunting?’”

  CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

  There was a certain amount of bullshit that Adelia was prepared to pull out of her derriere when she arrived at the Stanley Hotel. But walking into the hotel had been ridiculously easy. Maybe that was why assassination attempts were always made at fancy parties and fundraisers at hotels in real life and the movies.

  Hotel guests milled around her, coming to check in, and heading toward the elevators. Staff directed those with roller bags to the reception area while she ducked to the side, searching for an event listing. It wasn’t her first time in a swanky place like this. Well, maybe just like this since it had the extra cachet of being in New York City.

  She bit her lip and stepped out of the way of two businessmen who never noticed her. That needed to stay her plan—she was inconspicuous and needed to remain that way.

  “Can I help you?”

  So much for the big plan of invisibility. Adelia spun on her flat-heeled boot, toward the gentle voice of an older man. “Um.”

  “You seem turned around.” His hotel uniform was neatly pressed, but it was his ageless eyes that she couldn’t turn away from. All she had to do was politely ask about the evening’s location as though she belonged there and ignore the fact that she looked like a tired ragamuffin.

  His smile calmed her racing heart. She hadn’t noticed its pace until then. “I guess I am.”

  “Where are you going?”

  “I, uh.” I’m here to get the monster. That wouldn’t go over well. “I’m looking for tonight’s event.”

  His gaze carefully flicked away. “You’re working?”

  “Yes,” she said. “Working. But I’m new.”

  His posture relaxed the slightest degree. “Wrong entrance. The east side and the back stairwells are easier to navigate than this.” His hand turned over. “Tell your supervisor you’d never have found it without better information.”

  She winced, hoping that hadn’t opened a new hiccup. “I’ll figure it out.”

  “It happens all the time. HR thinks the supervisor told you. Your supervisor assumed it was covered in the training.”


  Her eyebrows went up. Shit. Trainings. Well, hell.

  “Don’t worry. They never get the trainings scheduled either.” He chuckled. “I didn’t have my first timers training until I’d been on the clock two months.”

  “When was that?”

  “Ten years ago. The kinks work themselves out.” He winked, still laughing, and pointed. “Head that way. Lockers, uniforms, whatever you need for tonight will be there. You’re what? Part-time, server? Bussing?”

  She nodded, having no idea if those would be separate positions here.

  “Dress in black.” His gaze inspected her clothes again. “Like you had tried, but more… fresh, and you’ll be good to go. Report in, because you won’t get a badge before orientation and that’s how you’ll get paid.”

  “That’s important,” she said.

  “And now you’ve had your training.”

  “Thanks.” Her smile was genuine, but guilt surfaced. The old man wanted to help. His eyes were kind, and warmth radiated from him, and here Adelia was, using his information so that she could… Could what? Kill Gloria? Wasn’t that what monster hunters did? They killed predators?

  Why did this feel wrong to use this man? Would he care that he’d played a small role in destroying Gloria? What if Adelia could one day reassure him he’d helped abdicate a malicious person from her throne?

  The old man’s directions were perfect, and she found a narrow hallway bustling with employees readying for their shift. No one cared that she came, lost and unrecognizable, and watched where others got their clothes.

  What if Javier was in the ballroom where Gloria would be honored? What then? Ryder might see her, or any of his teammates. But her heart was stuck on her brother. He wouldn’t understand, and he would try to stop Adelia before she…

  Before she what?

  They always had a plan—and today’s would be to stop her. She was flying on a high, untrained and without a strategy. What the hell was she going to do?

  What would Delta do? They weren’t murderers, but they also didn’t show up to work without their weapons.