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)
“I don’t know.”
I grabbed his hand again and closed my fingers around the next joint, increasing the pressure until the tendon stood out beneath Brenner’s skin. His face went gray, and his feet scraped frantically against the concrete as he tried to pull his arm somewhere it couldn’t go. “That answer buys you nothing. Tell me what you heard.”
“He never used names,” Brenner blurted. “I heard him talking to someone he called ‘the deputy.’ Said he would tell him when she went back to work and which routes the protection teams were using. Then Pike made another call and said the county computer guy claimed her old number was still active but wasn’t reaching her phone anymore.”
“What else?”
“That was it. Pike was pissed because he figured somebody had isolated the number and was monitoring anything sent to it.” Brenner’s voice shook harder when I tightened my grip another fraction. “I swear I never met either one. I don’t know who they are.”
I released his hand because the involuntary reactions underneath the fear told me that part was true. The answer didn’t hand me the identities I wanted. Whether the deputy and the county computer guy were two people or one bastard wearing two sets of credentials remained unanswered.
My phone vibrated against my thigh. I pulled it free and watched the screen for a moment. Then I pressed a couple of buttons before I returned the phone to my pocket and looked back at Brenner without anything in my face or posture revealing what had interrupted me.
“What else did Pike tell you to do?”
“That was everything. Watch the road, identify her routine, and place the tracker.” Brenner’s gaze darted from me to Stryker as if our president might offer better odds. “I didn’t know anybody planned to hurt her.”
“You carried photographs of a woman’s home, job, vehicle, and private routes into roadside brush after somebody had already threatened her.” I leaned forward until the chair creaked beneath the force of Brenner trying to move away. “You knew they wanted access to her. You just decided not asking why made the money clean.”
“I never touched her.”
“You pointed the men hunting her toward the door.” I took his injured hand again and pressed my thumb into the broken joint until his denial collapsed into a strangled cry. “That still counts.”
Brenner began promising access to his business accounts, every file Pike had ever paid him to build, and the locations of two off-site backups he kept in case a client tried refusing payment. I made him repeat the timeline three times, changing the order of the questions and returning without warning to minor details until the story held. He gave us the business account, invoice label, cash-drop location, burner number, dead-mail account, and the list of equipment Pike preferred using when he wanted surveillance separated from his license.
Nothing named the deputy or identified the person using Stowe’s credentials, but it gave us more routes into Pike’s operation without warning him that Brenner had disappeared. It also gave us a live channel, because Pike expected the roadside camera and plate reader to begin producing vehicle data before morning. As far as he would know, the equipment was running, Bex’s routine was being rebuilt, and his disposable installer remained exactly where he had left him.
When I stood, Ghost pushed away from the counter and looked toward Brenner’s mangled hand. “Need anything else from him?”
“Not tonight.” I wiped my palm down the front of Brenner’s shirt before meeting his frightened stare. “Tape the finger, then put him somewhere he won’t be found. If Pike calls, Brenner answers exactly the way I tell him.”
Relief sagged through the installer as though the end of my questions meant he had escaped the worst of the night. I let him believe it for several seconds before bending close. “Then we go through every job you ever handled for Pike. You’d better hope Rebecca Raines is the first woman you helped him stalk.”
The relief disappeared. Ghost’s mouth curved with faint satisfaction as he stepped behind the chair and began cutting Brenner loose from the floor anchors without releasing the restraints around his wrists. Whatever came after we pulled apart his files depended on what was inside them, and Brenner finally looked smart enough to understand that his future had become a matter of how many names we found.
Judge gathered the payment details, burner number, and invoice information while Stryker ordered Nomad and Falcon to maintain their surveillance on Pike without changing a single rotation. Brenner’s disappearance couldn’t alter Pike’s routine or make the men above him wonder whether the roadside job had failed. We needed them comfortable enough to keep calling, paying, and exposing themselves.
“I can steer Raines toward Pike’s business disbursements without giving him any of this.” Judge tapped the invoice details against one gloved palm. “Jeff’s lawful payment, Nina’s footage, and Pike lying during the interview give the sheriff enough to seek outgoing vendor records and subcontractor accounts. Once the order lands, the transfer to Brenner identifies the same man through a trail Raines can document himself.”