Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 61042 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 305(@200wpm)___ 244(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 61042 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 305(@200wpm)___ 244(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
Knight pulled up a video player and clicked the first file. The footage was shaky but clear enough to see Iron and the men with him. The angle was low, the camera obviously hidden somewhere near floor level. The back office of Éclipse filled the screen.
On screen, Iron walked into frame, followed by Carl and two of Iron’s men. I knew what came next, but watching it play out on screen made my stomach churn and I had to swallow back bile.
“That’s Iron,” Knight said, pointing to the screen. “Steel Serpents’ enforcer. Works directly for their president.”
Knuckles nodded once, his eyes never leaving the screen. “Keep going, Knight.”
The footage continued. Iron confronted Carl, accused him of skimming. Carl denied it, his voice high with fear. Then Iron slammed Carl’s face into the desk, once, twice. I flinched with every blow. On the third impact, something gave. Carl slumped to the floor, and the camera caught the moment when Iron realized there was someone else in the room.
“The manager’s dead,” Griffin said. “But Iron knows there’s someone else. Look.” He pointed at the screen. “He sends his guys to clear the building, but he stays in the room. He’s waiting.”
On screen, Iron paced the length of the office, checking his phone, looking at the door. His face was blank, but there was something in the set of his shoulders that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. He wasn’t just angry. He was hunting.
The other men returned with two workers bound with zip ties -- the same two people I’d watched Iron execute against the far wall. The woman tried to speak, her words slurred through what was probably a broken jaw. Then Iron raised his gun and I looked away. I didn’t need to see him kill a second time.
“What about the ledgers?” Knuckles still studied the screen.
Knight opened the file and clicked through several pages. Columns of numbers filled the screen, along with initials, dates, and what looked like business names.
“Those are routes,” Gunnar said, his voice flat. “Transport schedules. And that’s --” He stopped, his jaw locking.
Griffin nodded. “That’s a judge’s name.” The room went still. The dangerous silence of predators who’d just spotted a threat.
“Keep going,” Knuckles said. “I want to see everything.”
Knight scrolled through everything, pausing on each page long enough for Knuckles and Gunnar to read over his shoulder.
“Stop,” Knuckles said suddenly. “Right there.”
Knuckles stared at the screen for a long moment, his face giving away nothing. Then he turned to look at me, his eyes cold. “You understand what you’re looking at?”
I nodded. “It’s a trafficking operation. My sister worked at Éclipse for six weeks. Then she disappeared. The police closed her case two weeks after I reported her missing.”
“They would,” Gunnar said, tapping the screen over an entry name in her file. “Judge Marlin has friends in high places.” The same judge whose name had appeared, next to a five-thousand-dollar payment dated the night Tessa vanished.
Everyone started talking over each other in both anger and disbelief. I watched them from my spot against the wall. Griffin crossed back to where I stood.
“Hey. You OK?” He gave me an assessing look. “You’ve gone kind of pale.”
“Did I make a mistake coming here?”
He gave me a puzzled look. “Veda, no one here is going to hurt you.”
“That’s not what it sounds like.” I nodded toward the group of men where they discussed the situation unfolding in their lap. “They’re planning on killing people.”
“You know who all is in those ledgers. And we’ve barely been looking at all that information for five minutes. Can you honestly tell me you think the people in those documents deserve to live? They might not have been the ones to sell those women or to buy them, but you know as well as I do, they looked the other way. For money.”
“Shouldn’t the justice system…” I trailed off, glancing over his shoulder where the others still gathered around the laptop.
“Right.” He gave me a wry grin. “You see the conundrum.”
“So what are you going to do?”
“I’m asking you to trust me long enough for Knuckles to figure out what we need to do.” His voice was steady. “That’s all. Just long enough to figure out who knew what and who’s going to pay for it.”
One of the men still poring over the computer screen suddenly pointed. “You see that?” He stabbed the computer screen a couple times. “Knuckles, if Tonio or Seth know about this…”
“I know, Gunnar,” Knuckles sounded calm, but the look on his face said he was anything but. Hannah put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed as if in support. “Just because it’s Tonio’s business doesn’t mean he knows what’s going on.”
“Tonio or Seth?” I looked at Griffin in confusion. Griffin’s attention had swung back to Knuckles and Gunnar. “Who’s that?”