Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 63763 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 319(@200wpm)___ 255(@250wpm)___ 213(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63763 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 319(@200wpm)___ 255(@250wpm)___ 213(@300wpm)
The building waited in one of the most remote corners of Black Crowns land, tucked beyond a dry wash where the compound’s ordinary traffic never traveled. From outside, it resembled an old utility structure abandoned years ago, but the interior had reinforced walls, soundproofing, steel restraints, medical supplies, a floor drain, and no windows to tell the man inside how long he’d been there.
Nomad’s truck and three bikes sat beneath the overhang when I arrived. I entered through the side door and found Stryker near the rear wall, Hawkeye beside him with his arms crossed, while Judge stood at a steel table arranging photographs and equipment into separate rows. Ghost leaned against the far counter looking almost bored, though his dark eyes tracked every movement made by the man secured to the chair in the center of the room.
Lyle Brenner had blood drying beneath his nose and dirt ground into one side of his face from the moment Falcon put him onto the roadside. His right wrist was fastened to the chair arm, while the left remained free enough to fool him into believing cooperation might improve his position. The cellular trail camera, portable plate reader, fresh magnetic tracker, and printed photographs of Bex’s vehicle and former routes sat on the table in front of him, making denial a waste of breath he attempted anyway.
“I install surveillance equipment,” Brenner insisted when I entered, his voice hoarse but still carrying enough attitude to prove the brothers hadn’t done more than secure him. “That shit’s mine, and I was on public land. You have no right to hold me.”
Stryker’s gaze met mine. “Spent the last twenty minutes hiding behind ignorance. Claims he doesn’t know why the fuck he’s here.”
“He knows.” I looked at Brenner, watching fear spread across his face as he finally recognized me. “He just hasn’t decided the truth scares him less than I do.”
I shrugged my cut off my shoulders, then pulled my shirt over my head, not wanting to get any blood on it.
Recognition entered Brenner’s face when he spotted my tattoos, followed by the kind of fear men usually experienced once they understood the quiet man studying them wasn’t only the computer specialist they’d expected. I took the chair across from him, rested both forearms on my thighs, and held his eyes until his restless movement stopped.
“Darren Pike hired you,” I stated.
“Don’t know anybody by that name.”
“That excuse is about to get expensive.” I nodded toward Judge, who slid a photograph of Pike’s Yukon beside the equipment case. “He met you at a gas station this afternoon, handed you that case, and sent you east toward my road. You were caught hiding equipment aimed at the only approach to my house with my woman’s vehicle information in your pocket.”
Brenner licked his lower lip and shifted against the restraints. “Some guy hired me through a burner. Never gave me a name.”
I caught his free hand before he could jerk it away, flattened it against the chair arm, and separated his smallest finger from the others. “You get one lie without paying for it. You already used yours.”
“Wait—”
I bent the finger backward until the joint snapped, and his scream struck the soundproofed walls hard enough to come back at him. He bucked against the chair while I kept his wrist pinned, watching sweat break across his forehead as fear finally replaced the calculation in his eyes. The sound gave the rage under my skin somewhere to go, and I let myself enjoy the instant Brenner understood that I had no problem taking him apart one piece at a time.
“Darren Pike hired you,” I repeated.
“Yes,” Brenner gasped, cradling his injured hand against his stomach when I released him. “Pike hired me.”
“What did he order?”
“He wanted the trail camera and reader covering that road. Said he needed to know which vehicles went in and out, which one carried Rebecca Raines, who drove her, and whether security stayed with her every time.” His words accelerated when my hand returned to the chair arm. “Then I was supposed to rebuild her routine and put the magnetic tracker on her SUV the next time it appeared somewhere public.”
I wanted Brenner’s hand ruined badly enough that he could never install another device, but he was bought by Pike, who was the road to the person above him. I needed every name attached to the other end first.
“How much?”
“Two thousand through my business when I took the job and three more in cash after the tracker went live.” Brenner swallowed, breathing through his open mouth while he held the broken finger tight against his chest. “The transfer said roadside-camera maintenance. Pike hires me for divorce cases and insurance work sometimes, but this was the first time he gave me route maps and all that other shit.”
“Who gave Pike the information?”