by Sadie Jacks
“Get the EMTs up there. Have NTFD get the freight elevators on and moving again.”
“Ryker,” Willow said softly.
I turned to look at her.
Jerrod Wright looked around the room. “It seems your call was a bit more urgent than originally planned.”
I chuckled. “That’s an understatement. Let’s let them get this wrapped up.” I turned to Commander Butthurt. “We’ll be in my office on thirty-seven when you need us.” I motioned for Nik to join us.
As a group, we all turned and left the police to do their policing and clean up. I stepped forward, grabbed Willow’s hand. “You good?” I asked as we walked down the next flight of stairs.
She nodded. “Nik’s pants are trying to cut off the circulation to my legs, but sure. Peachy.”
I leaned down as we hit the landing. “I’ll rub them for you.”
She looked up at me, heat in her eyes. “I’ll hold you to that.”
“Honestly, you two are gross,” Rafe said from two steps away.
Willow lifted a hand, flipped him off. “We just need to find you a lady.”
I snorted. “Or a man. We’re equal opportunity lovers in this family.” I felt his hand land between my shoulder blades. I gripped the railing in case he tried to push me. Big baby.
“No,” Mas said, his single syllable easy to hear this close.
Willow stopped, turned around. “Did you just try to push my fiancé down the stairs of his own building?” She glared up at her youngest brother.
Rafe’s eyes, along with the eyes of the rest of the Amatucci brothers, widened. “Fiancé?” He skimmed his gaze down to her hands. “I don’t see the ring.”
Willow fished around in her robe’s pocket—the one without the gun—and pulled out the antique box. “We have to get it resized. But don’t make me hurt you, Raphael Lorenzo Amatucci.” She stepped up a stair. “Because I will.”
“And I will help her,” Mas added.
Rafe glared at all of us. But I was pretty sure he was planning my death in his mind. And from personal knowledge, the man was a bit sick. “How was I supposed to know?”
“You shouldn’t have tried to do it in the first place. He joked that you’re gay? Who cares? That’s no reason to play around with his life. Not like this.” Willow shook her finger in his face.
His expression morphed into one I didn’t think I’d ever seen on his face. Actual contrition. He looked at me. “Sorry.”
I nodded. “Accepted.”
Willow glared at him one more time. “Find another way to joke.” She stepped back down and, chin held high with righteous indignation, she continued her descent to the next landing.
I punched in the code to let us in the offices. I rushed through the halls. I wasn’t really interested in being spotted on a Friday morning in my jammies and shirtless.
Opening my office door, I stepped through. I hurried to the en suite bathroom and snagged a t-shirt from the small collection of clothes I kept there for emergencies. This definitely qualified as an emergency, in my opinion.
Once we were all in the room, I hit the button to engage privacy mode. I watched Willow’s face as all the different security measures slid into place.
She smiled at me. “Do you have a pair of pants that I could change into?” She rubbed at her legs. “Seriously. Even if I wear yours and you have some jeans or something. Please. My legs are actually aching.” She rubbed at her upper thighs.
I looked at the men behind her. Her sister was smiling.
Willow turned and looked over her shoulder. “What? Can’t the fat girl get some stretchy man-pants?”
With a snarl, I grabbed her chin. “I ever hear you call yourself fat again and we’ll be discussing it. At length.”
She rolled her eyes. “Comparatively speaking, my ass is at least twice the size of Nik’s.”
I shook my head. “Don’t care. You will not talk about yourself like that in my hearing and get away with it. I love your body exactly as it is. You want some other pants, I’ll get you some other pants, but fat your ass is not.” I smacked my mouth to hers.
Pulling away, I shoved her in front of me to the en suite. “Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen. We need to go fix a pants issue.”
“We don’t think you’re fat either, Chase. We’re just surprised that you told Ryker that your legs hurt. But go change, we’ll talk more later,” Tali called.
“See?” I closed the door behind us. Shimmied out of my pants. I grabbed a pair of jeans, slid them on.
Wrestling with the waistband of her borrowed leggings, she glared at me as she hopped and twisted. When she was out of breath, but the pants still hadn’t moved, she raised an eyebrow. “You were saying?”
I bit my lip to keep from laughing. I reached forward, slid my hands against her hips. Dipped my fingers into the plush tissue and eased under the edge of the fabric. I got to my knees as I wrenched and pulled at the fabric. I looked up at her. “Honestly, I think the pants have Kevlar or something in them.”
She glared at me. “Or my ass is f—”
I slapped my hand to her ass in a loud smack of flesh on flesh.
She jolted and glared at me some more. Even as her eyes heated.
My girl. Damn, she’s sexy. “Don’t even think about it.” I glared at her. “Women have a hard enough time with self-image. I won’t help you contribute to yours. Not when I love every single inch of you.”
She put her hands on my shoulders as I tapped her ankles. She didn’t say anything else. I got my sleep pants arranged and had her step into them. They slid up her legs and stuck to them like a second skin.
I was jealous of a pair of pants. “Would you be willing to just wear my clothes all the time?” I asked softly as I slowly got to my feet.
She shook her head. “No. But if seeing me in them puts that look in your eye, I guess I won’t call myself fat anymore.” She pushed up to her toes. “But don’t think you can tell me what to do all the time. I can say and do what I want, Mr. Penn.”
I nodded, leaned down until our noses touched. “I fully agree. The caveat being if it hurts me, you, or our relationship. Then we’ll have a discussion about it.”
She plopped back down to her heels. Nodded. “Agreed. But you don’t get to say bad things about yourself, either.”
My brow furrowed. “Like what?”
“That you’re like your father. That women only wanted you for your money, fame, or body. You don’t get to disparage what I love either.”
A knock sounded. “If you two lovebirds would like to join us, I believe we all have better things to do than hope you’re not currently engaged in coitus,” Turo said.
Willow laughed. “Now I see why she thinks he has a stick up his ass.”
I tipped my head back and laughed as I opened the door.
Chapter 32 – Willow
Turo had a brow raised as we left the bathroom. “A stick up my ass?” he asked softly.
I winced as heat rushed to my cheeks. “You weren’t supposed to hear that.”
He eased forward. He braceleted my wrist with one of his hands. “She believes it though, doesn’t she?”
Over his shoulder, I could see Nik studying us. I could almost hear the questions rolling through her mind. I just hoped she didn’t think he wanted me. I shuddered mentally. Eww.
I pulled my hand away. “Yes,” I said softly. “And if you break her heart, I’ll break your dick off.” I brushed by him and cuddled against Ryker.
Turo turned, a huge smile on his face. “I doubt that. Momma wants me to have many babies.”
I winced. That probably made everything worse. “Well, since they won’t be with me, I guess it won’t matter if they’re adopted or not, huh? Momma and Papa will love any babies. Even adopted ones.”
Turo’s face screwed up in disgust as he jerked back. “Of course not with you.” He gave a full body shiver. He looked at Nik.
She hurried to look away.
I laughed even
as the blow to my ego settled. That was one way to fix the problem.
“As much as I love the insight into the belly of the Amatucci family siblings, I really do have other things on my schedule,” Jerrod said with a droll tone of voice.
I winced. “Sorry. Right.” I cleared my throat. “We have evidence that my parents are involved in human trafficking. That they were personally tied to at least twenty-two victims of Ethan’s. We would like your help to take them down publicly at their gala in three days.”
Ryker snorted. “That’s one way to get the meeting started, cupcake.” He took me to his desk. Sat down in his chair, pulled me into his lap. “But she’s correct. We have the evidence, the full digital footprint. We will give it to you. We just ask that you allow us to –”
“Publicly humiliate upstanding members of our community,” Jerrod finished with his highbrows high.
“They are not upstanding members. What part of human trafficking did you not understand the first time?” I asked. I could feel the heat grow in my belly. If he thought to bulldoze me into thinking differently, then we’d made a serious error in judgment.
He held up a hand. “Let me rephrase: members who have previously shown to be upstanding. If you have evidence to prove otherwise, then I’m more than willing to charge them and prosecute them. I’m not sure blaring their atrocities as a fundraiser gala is really how to go about doing that though.”
I snorted. “Oh, I believe it is. Their public perception is part of the capital on which they trade. The idea that they’re the Chases. Above the actions of mere humans, they are of loftier positions.” I nodded. “They are, but they traded in human flesh to reach those positions. I intend to use the names and faces of their victims to shove them off that pedestal. Let their friends and allies see what bubbles and boils under the surface of their smiles and botoxed faces.”
Jerrod stared at me for a long minute. “You’re serious. You want to crash their part—”
“Nothing so crass as to crash it. We’ve all been formally invited. As we are every year,” Tali said from behind the District Attorney.
He spun to look at her.
“Did you know that each year, they do a little slideshow to highlight their foundation’s generosity? Did you know that some of the victims are such recipients?” She raised one perfectly arched eyebrow.
Jerrod shook his head. Nodded. He blew out a breath. “No, I didn’t know some of the victims were foundation recipients. Yes, I knew they did the slideshow. I’m invited to the gala every year as well.” He swallowed. “You have irrefutable proof that some of the victims were Chase Foundation scholarship recipients?”
Nik stepped forward. “Yes. Four of them. Two from three years ago, one from two years ago, one from last year.”
Jerrod’s face blanched before suffusing with color. “Which victims?”
Nik opened her laptop. Within a couple clicks, she started reading the names. I watched Jerrod’s face as each name landed.
I let out a breath. He was either a very good actor or he hadn’t known any of them. And why would he? He was the District Attorney of the posh town of New Trenadie and surrounding areas.
“What’s your evidence?”
Nico leaned forward. “The information came to us in a legal avenue. It was not disclosed previously because we only recently became aware of the…depth of the information herein.”
Jerrod waved that away. “Unless you obtained it through illegal means, I don’t fucking care where you got it.”
“Then my associate can proceed with immunity?” Nico asked.
Jerrod rolled his eyes. “Yes.”
“Witnessed,” Turo said immediately.
“Witnessed,” Tali said.
The rest of the Amatucci siblings verified their witness.
Jerrod snarled. “Yes, you’re all a bunch of law abiding citizens. Give me the source.”
Nik tried a smile. “I’m sure your techs would have gotten there sooner. I’m just better. And faster. We got the information from Errington’s drives.”
Jerrod looked at Ryker. His face was blank with budding rage. “You told me that information was secure and that it hadn’t been downloaded prior to my tech retrieving it.”
“And it hadn’t,” Ryker said honestly.
Nik cleared her throat. “I did a simultaneous download to one of our secure servers.”
Jerrod pinched the bridge of his nose between two fingers. “Do you realize what you’ve just done? What you’ve admitted to?”
“She has immunity,” Nico said.
Jerrod shot to his feet. “And you might have just put the entire case against Errington in jeopardy! The seventy-three victims…they might lose their justice. Anything you retrieved from those drives is part of my investigation.” Jerrod paced around the room like a hungry caged tiger.
I looked at Ryker, felt the blood drain from my face. I shook my head. No. This couldn’t be happening. Not like this. I couldn’t pick and choose which person to vilify. They were all guilty. They all needed to wear their sins in public.
“Wait,” Ryker said as he gripped my hand. “Technically, those files belonged to Willow. Before we copied them to you. Is that right?”
Jerrod stopped pacing, looked at my man.
Ryker nodded. “Then until the moment we transferred them to you, they were still under her legal right to distribute how she wanted. Yes?”
Jerrod narrowed his eyes. “Was she in the room or in hearing distance when I gave you the order not to touch or transfer the files?” He looked at me. “Willow needs to answer.”
I shook my head. “No.” I wanted to say more, to clarify, but Nico’s glare over Jerrod’s shoulder made me bite my tongue.
Jerrod studied me for a long moment. “I’ll need sworn statements from each of you.” He pushed his hand through his hair. “I’ll need an accounting of what and when and who was where when I gave that order.”
Nik raised her hand. “If we can coordinate call logs, I can give you footage that will guarantee Willow was not there. You can send it through any kind of testing filter you like for alteration.” She raised her right hand as if she were swearing on a stack of bibles with her left.
Jerrod nodded. “That could hold up in court.”
I felt my rib cage relax. “Do you want us to tell you the rest of it, or do you want to take this and travel your own path?” I asked. At this point, I was willing to give up the idea of publicly humiliating my parents at the gala if it meant they would actually pay for their crimes.
Jerrod walked over to Nik. “Do you swear that what you’ve found is available in the records we pulled?”
She nodded firmly. “Yes.”
“Do you swear that you did not break any laws in obtaining the information in your evidence?”
She nodded again. “Yes.”
Jerrod’s shoulder dropped slightly. “Then fine, show me the rest of your evidence.” He plopped down into his seat.
Nik went through the presentation again for the DA. At a couple points, I saw him clench his hands into fists, but he didn’t interrupt her.
“And all of this data was on Errington’s computer?” Jerrod asked after Nik was finished.
Nik nodded. “Yes. I’m sure your techs will get to it eventually. I was actually digging for any more information for Willow. When she was giving us a brief rundown, she mentioned some words that I thought would be good general keywords for a broad search. Assistant, subject, combination, experiment.” She flipped out a finger for each one as she said it.
Jerrod looked at me. “Those were the words you used in your statement.”
I nodded. “Those are the words he consistently used, so they became part of my vernacular. They helped me distance myself from everything.”
Jerrod nodded. “I can understand that.” He turned back to Nik. “And you found all of these girls in his data files?”
Nik snapped. “Do you want to see them? I can outline the steps so we can move on to
a more salient portion of the presentation.” She winced. “Sorry.”
Ryker chuckled. “Nik tends to take it hard when her work or ethic are impugned. If she says she can document each step for you, she can. She’ll probably even give it to you in triplicate if you want.”
Nik’s smile was tight. “Yes. And it saves me from answering the same question asked fourteen different ways to get the same answer.”
Jerrod nodded. “You can present any information you want. I’m the one who has to verify it. I’m the one who can get screwed if you’re wrong or can be proven wrong. I want justice for those girls just as much as anyone else in this room. But this is also my job. Which I take very seriously.”
“We understand. While I would like to show this at the gala, force my parents to acknowledge their atrocities, I’m willing to forego that if it means you can verify the information. The justice for those women and girls and my parents paying for their crimes are more important to me than anything else.”
Jerrod scrubbed a hand over his face. “Give me everything you have. The steps. I’ll get my guys on it.” He looked at me. “If I can verify the information, I’ll let you run your little sting. But I don’t want any bitching if my guys don’t find the same things.” He looked at every single person in the room.
We all nodded.
He stood. “I’ll expect the files and your documentation as so—”
Nik hit a combination of keys on her laptop. “You have it now. We’d always planned to send it to you. We want these monsters caught as much as anyone. More than most, really. We won’t make your job harder. If you need anything, I can give you some professional contacts who can help out. We don’t like each other, so you can be sure that they wouldn’t be helping me or mine.” Nik smiled. “We want the same, Wright. The bad guys to lose and the good guys to win.”
Jerrod nodded and turned to the door.
Ryker popped up. “We’re in privacy mode. I have to let you out.”
Once Jerrod was gone, Ryker closed the door and reengaged the privacy screens. It really was a lot more than just locking the door. If my uneducated eyes were correct, there was even some kind of shield thingy that covered the glass on his floor to ceiling windows.