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.My driving leg is still good.And Richard can be backup.”“No,” Thorne said simply, eyes on the photo.The quest for her mother had been his quest, too, and she’d shut him out of it like she’d shut him out of everything.She loved this man, and she’d shut him right out.“Come on, man.Everybody needs backup,” Richard said.“Not everybody,” Thorne growled.Chapter Twenty-oneMiguel knew how to take a hit.It was a skill every good fighter had—the ability to take a hit, to take a fall.Still, the pain of Jerrod’s knuckles slamming into the side of his face was unexpectedly intense.Miguel staggered back, partly from the pain, but mostly to give Jerrod the reaction he craved.It had never been more important to make Jerrod feel like he was in control of things.“Dead?” Jerrod asked.Miguel slowly straightened up, trying to look frightened.Though in truth, he was filled with a kind of angry pleasure.Thorne meant to kill Jerrod.It was just a matter of time, now, and he, Miguel, meant to help him however he could.“Did you see the bodies?” Jerrod asked.“No.”Another punch.Miguel allowed it.He sometimes felt like a sponge, soaking up pain and darkness as a way of protecting his family back home from Jerrod’s wrath.It was too late to check for bodies now.The place was crawling with emergency personnel and fire inspectors.A few of Jerrod’s closest supporters lounged around Jerrod’s living room, watching.Skooge was off somewhere, luckily.Miguel had drilled Skooge what to say—that they’d been out in the parking lot discussing how he should enter the mechanical room when the place blew.Skooge would handle the lie just fine.“You were supposed to send Skooge in to clear.”“It blew before I could.They must’ve broken a gas line.A place like that, it’s full of sparks.”Jerrod grabbed a beer.“They could still be alive.”Miguel stayed silent.Jerrod wouldn’t kill him—the man needed him too much.He had to get through this day, and then another and another.He’d find a way to help Thorne, and someday soon, he’d be free to see his family again.He could live that simple, spare life he craved and never have to hurt anybody again.“Nobody else showed? Not Thorne? Not the Slaters?”“Not that I saw,” Miguel said.“Barbarian and Victor’s girl,” Jerrod said thoughtfully.He made him tell the story again, how Miguel and Skooge had killed the first pirate.He’d gotten into a shootout with Barbarian and Nadia—no, Barbarian and Nadia didn’t know who they were—they’d worn masks, just as Jerrod had instructed.At that point, Barbarian and Nadia had holed up in the mechanical room.Miguel had bolted them in and called Jerrod.And then the place had blown.Jerrod stared into the middle distance.“And you didn’t see Thorne.”“No.And I thought we’d ruled him out,” Miguel said.“Right? The last time the pirates struck?”Jerrod was shaking his head.So he knew Thorne was connected to Nadia and Barbarian.Miguel needed to get to Thorne and warn him—from a burner phone, or better yet, in person.Jerrod sometimes monitored calls.“No bodies, no dead,” Jerrod said.“But I’ve got a few ideas on how to find them.At least Victor’s girl.I know how to find her.”Chapter Twenty-twoThorne stood at his kitchen window holding his phone, listening to the soft murmurs coming from his bedroom.Richard and Nadia were discussing whatever they discussed when they were alone.Richard was protective of her.Thorne liked that.Richard was a good man, much as it pained him to admit it.A better man than he had ever been.That photo of her mother had lit him on fire with a mix of happiness and rage—happiness because Nadia had found her mother, and she might be alive.Rage because of what Victor had done to the woman.He couldn’t blame Nadia for the raids.Hell, he knew what it was like when somebody you loved was at the mercy of evil people.It was a claw lodged in your heart.Which was why he’d be making a call he didn’t want to make.The voice on the other end answered with a name.“Dax.”“It’s Thorne.”“What can I do for you, Thorne?”Thorne knew what kind of man Dax was.Dax collected people; more correctly, he saved them so that he could own them and throw them at his agenda.Thorne didn’t mind—he trusted a man with an agenda far more than one without.Up until now, Thorne hadn’t been in Dax’s debt.Theirs had been an even exchange—Thorne got Jerrod’s identity, and Dax would get the names of corrupt federal officials as soon as Thorne took over Hangman.He’d kept from owing Dax.He’d liked it that way.All that would change now.“I need a favor,” he said.“What?”“I need information on some of the Slaters’ soldiers.Home addresses.Vulnerabilities.I need to have a conversation with one of them.I’ve got three names.”Silence.Then, “What are you trying to do?”“It’s personal.I’ll keep our business out of it.”“If it’s the Slaters, I need to know,” Dax said.“Maybe I can help.”This surprised Thorne, and he even felt a pang of jealousy.“You have people inside the Slaters?”“What do you need?”“You have people inside?”“Small time of the reluctant kind.”Thorne hated the pang of relief that filled him.Like a fucking jealous schoolgirl, wanting to be the only important one inside the Quartet.He went to the kitchen window and looked out at the funeral home.It was for this view that he chose the apartment.To keep his own death in sight.His willingness to die was his greatest power.“I won’t say anything else about who I have.I protect my people, Thorne.”“Of the reluctant kind,” Thorne said.“He can’t do what you do.He certainly can’t call me up.”Thorne sniffed, as though he had no need for Dax’s assurances.“A friend has discovered that a relative is in one of those sweatshops.A woman by the name of Yana.I need to get her out of there.”It took so long for Dax to reply that Thorne thought he’d lost the connection.“And so you become the co-op pirate’s co-op pirate.”Leave it to Dax to fit it all together.“I need to pull this woman out.”“Yana.”“She’d be in her forties.Probably a Russian national.I have a thirty-year-old photo.”Silence.Then, “Email it to me.”Thorne clicked off.Jerrod sometimes talked about what he termed “patsy funnels.” Hangman does a small favor for somebody to get them in Hangman’s debt.Just enough that they don’t really owe Hangman.Just enough for them to say yes.But then Jerrod would set up a circumstance where they would need Hangman—some family member in trouble [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]