Ice waved Alena and Pierce to the chairs at the front of the table. Pierce would not want his back to the room. That was a sweet kind of triumph, to have the enforcer of the Diamondbacks seated facing them. He didn’t take the chair. He glanced at Absinthe and Ice, realizing neither was going to give up their seat, and he stepped to one side, standing rather than sitting. Ice didn’t like him there when Absinthe was questioning Fred, but he needed to get on with it, and Pierce’s appearance would ensure no one would come near them. In any case, Pierce wouldn’t have a clue what Absinthe was doing.
“Answer Absinthe with the truth, Fred, or you’re going to be hurting,” Ice cautioned. He really didn’t give a flying fuck if Fred hurt himself, but he didn’t like leaving Soleil alone for too long. Lana’s presence might serve to bring more men around. She was beautiful, and any man could easily see that.
Fred dribbled down the front of himself, still coughing up his last drink. “What do you want?” He tried blustering, but it came out scared.
“You contacted someone to tell them Soleil Brodeur had been in the bar and that she was with a member of Torpedo Ink, didn’t you?” Absinthe asked. His voice was pitched low, but it resonated through the brain, almost as if that tone could actually shake the brain.
Fred shook his head, but then clutched it, moaning. “My head hurts. It hurts.”
“It will keep hurting until you tell the truth,” Ice said, sounding bored. He was bored. They’d repeated this exact same scenario a million times. He’d much rather be with his woman, her mouth on him, his hand smacking her ass, sucking on her gorgeous tits. He could slice Fred’s belly open just for forcing him to be away from her.
“Yes. Yes. I called a friend of mine.”
“Who did you call, Fred?” Absinthe asked.
Pierce leaned closer, and Ice clenched his teeth and gave his sister a look of pure reprimand. Alena put a restraining hand on Pierce’s arm, forcing him back.
“Yeger. I called Yeger Kushnir. He knows everybody and he lives in San Francisco. Some people were offering a huge reward just to know where she was.”
“Why didn’t you just call them yourself?” Absinthe asked.
More sweat broke out on Fred’s face and trickled down. Ice could smell the fear. He glanced at Storm with a raised eyebrow.
“I—I didn’t care about the money, but I knew Yeger would.”
Ice expected him to grab his head again, but evidently, he was telling the truth.
Absinthe sighed. “What did you care about, Fred?”
Fred covered his face with his hand, shaking his head, refusing to answer. Immediately he was holding his head, rocking and moaning. Tears began to trickle down his face.
“What could Yeger get for you that Winston, who was offering a huge reward, couldn’t?” Ice said. “You know it’s going to keep hurting and get worse if you don’t answer.”
“He could get me a woman.” Fred choked, and then nearly screamed. A thin trickle of blood slipped from his right ear. His face turned red. “A girl. A little girl,” he corrected. “He’s got connections, and he could get me what I wanted. One I didn’t have to worry about.”
Ice was sick to death of meeting men like Fred. “One he didn’t have to worry about” meant no one was looking for the kid and Fred could do whatever he wanted with her when he was finished with her. He took a deep breath and concentrated on not slitting the man’s belly open. The roar in his ears prevented him from hearing Absinthe’s next soft question. Screams, so many surrounded him until he couldn’t drown them out. Blood. So much. A lake of it on the floor.
“Ice,” Alena whispered his name. “Honey, look at me.”
Her voice, that sweet, sweet voice, meant she was still alive. He hadn’t failed her. He had done things, made decisions based on keeping her alive, and there she was. He lifted his gaze to hers and took a breath. When he did, he took in Fred’s disgusting odor. He’d smelled so many men and women like Fred. Corrupt. Vile. Base. It was all he could do to keep the knife from going in. The temperature in the room had lowered by several degrees. He took a deep breath and let it out, forcing himself under control.
“Yeger gets you the kid in exchange for you giving him the information so he can get the money from Winston?” Absinthe persisted.
Fred started to nod and then stopped abruptly, clearly afraid of lying. “Turns out Yeger knows this Winston. He’s involved with a lot of heavy hitters in San Francisco. One in particular, Yeger wanted an introduction to. He wanted to trade the information. A few days later, he called me and told me they were looking for a couple of shooters to help make sure the woman doesn’t surface. They wanted it permanent.” He looked at Ice. “I said no.”
That had to be true. “Who does Yeger associate with?” Absinthe asked.
Fred shrugged. He was beginning to breathe again, thinking himself safe as long as he answered their questions. Ice could have told him he wasn’t safe in the least. That he wouldn’t live to see the morning sunrise, not after his admission that he was looking for a little girl.
“He’s got a lot of friends. He knows people. Avery Charles. He’s got this job with the cops. Right there every single day. He can tell Yeger if places are going to be raided. Or if evidence is being moved. He’s a good man to know, and Yeger keeps him very happy. Then there’s a couple of cops in Occidental. See, the key, Yeger says, is find out what a man or woman likes and supply it to them. They’ll tell you anything you want to know.”
“Like you do for him?” Absinthe asked.
Fred nodded. “He does that for a lot of people.”
“But not Winston or his friends.”
Fred shook his head. “Winston got introduced into some circle of men who had something big going. They’d covered everything they needed from the judge, attorney, cops, and even someone at a mortuary.” There was a little bit of a sneer when he said the last. “Yeger wanted that kind of coverage, I guess.”
That explained a lot. Yeger was into human trafficking. He didn’t care if they were old or young, male or female, but he did want to be secure—to know even if he was busted, he would get off. Yeger saw an opportunity to use Winston to get to the others in the con ring.
“Do you know the names of Winston’s friends? The ones Yeger wanted to meet?” Absinthe persisted.
Fred shook his head. “He never said.”
“Did you get paid for the information with a girl?”
“Not yet. He said after they took out the woman, he’d bring one to me.” Fred avoided their eyes.
“You mean, after they killed my old lady, they’d bring you a little girl to rape. Isn’t that what you mean?” Ice demanded.