“I get why you’re pissed,” Anderson supplies, drinking coffee out of a paper cup. “But you put a tracker in his watch. It seems like the mistrust went both ways.”
“I did that with all the guys who were on the team. I’m not letting people into my place without some insurance,” Xavier says, and he’s practically frothing at the mouth. Xavier is super smart, and I know this is more than his lover screwing him over. He prides himself on being the best at what he does. Jamison getting one over on him like this hurts more than anything.
I swat the back of Anderson’s head. “Where’s mine?” I gesture toward the coffee.
“We were going to invite you to come with, but we figured you were visiting Pound Town all night and needed your beauty sleep.”
Lauder almost spits his coffee all over the floor.
“Immature much?” I’m tempted to pour the fucking coffee over his smug head.
“Can we fucking focus?” Xavier snaps as someone raps on the door.
Anderson and Lauder have their guns out in record time, stalking to the door and peering through the peephole. “It’s the Kray Twins,” Lauder says, swinging the door open to let Drew and Charlie in.
“Who the fuck are the Kray Twins?” Anderson asks.
“Ronnie and Reggie Kray were British gangsters who dominated the underworld in London for more than twenty years,” Xavier says, not surprisingly.
“How the fuck do you know everything about everything?” Anderson asks as Lauder shuts the door.
“I had a crush on Tom Hardy in high school. He was in a film about their lives when I was a senior.”
“Legend is one of my favorite movies,” Lauder says. “That’s how I know who they are.”
“Fascinating as this is, can we discuss torture plans for that prick Jamison?” Drew says, blunt as usual.
“I think he’s en route here,” Xavier says, and all our heads lift.
“I’m logged into the tracking software. It shows he left New York seven hours ago, and it looks like he’s heading this way.”
“He’s probably heading to Alessandra,” Charlie says, swiping the second menu from the coffee table.
“The dick had a tracker in my wallet, and it’s possible he’s been following me for weeks. He probably knows what we’ve been doing all along.”
“I hate that we’re two steps behind. We need to get in front of this,” I say.
“I agree,” Drew says. “I know it’s risky as fuck going after Hamilton, but he’s got to be our next priority after we find the money and plug the breach in your system.”
“Let’s deal with one asshole at a time,” Xavier says, and I can see he’s itching for blood. I am too because fuck that asshole for doing this to him.
“If he knows you’re not in Boston like you told him, why didn’t Jamison follow us from New York?” Lauder says.
“He can’t mysteriously disappear from work without giving the game away,” I say. “Especially after my father ripped him a new one for bringing one of the student interns over to the office.”
“We need to look into that,” Xavier says.
“I already checked the guy out. He’s squeaky clean.”
“Ding, ding, ding.” Charlie scrubs a hand over his prickly jawline. “That’s a red flag if ever I heard one.”
“The guy is sixteen, and his parents are from Greece.”
Charlie shrugs. “Age is irrelevant. I’d killed twenty men by the time I was sixteen.”
Anderson, Lauder, and I exchange looks. We knew the guys were involved in heavy shit, but that’s a fuck ton of dead bodies for a teenager.
“Don’t act so surprised,” Drew says. “You know we’re not altar boys.”
“I’m just saying the guy may warrant a second look if he was hanging around Jamison,” Charlie adds.
“Fair point, and I’ll check him out again.”
“After we’ve dealt with Jamison,” Xavier says.
“Agreed. No matter how it has happened, and whether he’s coming here or to Bama, we have an opportunity to deal with the asshole,” Drew says.
“What do you have in mind?” Anderson asks, finishing his coffee and tossing the cup in the trash can under the table.
“I’m ordering food,” Charlie says. “Holler if you want anything.”
We give him our orders, and he puts a call through to room service. We wait for him to finish before resuming our conversation.
Drew clears his throat. “I’m thinking we find someplace near here we can lure him to. Somewhere remote we can do our work undisturbed, but someplace that’s also on the main route, so if he detours to Bama, we can go after him and snatch him. Drag him back to the place and interrogate him.”
“You okay with that?” I ask Xavier.
“As long as I get to slice his dick off and watch him bleed out, I’m good.” I know he’s speaking from a hurtful place, because Xavier is a lover not a killer, but I wonder if he would actually do that. The thought shouldn’t turn me on, but it does. Not sure what that says about me.
“Let’s get to work then,” I say. “We have approximately six hours to catch a snake.”
25
Sawyer
Jamison’s scathing laughter bounces off the walls of the derelict house we located on the outskirts of Knoxville. The nearest neighbor is five miles away, so we have privacy to do what we need to do. Jamison figured it was an ambush at the last moment and took off. We gave chase. Ran his car off the road and dragged him out of his vehicle and into ours. Now we have him stripped to his boxers and strapped to a grimy chair in what used to be the living room. Wallpaper peels off the walls, and the damp, musty smell in the air clings to my clothes and crawls up my nostrils, making me gag.
“Quit laughing, and start talking, fuckface,” Xavier says, kicking the leg of the chair his ex-lover is strapped to.
“Fuck you, asshole.” An ugly sneer rips across his face as he glowers at Xavier. “My bad, I’ve already been subjected to that horror.”
I lunge at him, slamming my fist in his face. Blood spurts, spraying over my black T-shirt, only adding to my rage. “I thought you were smarter than this, but, by all means, keep throwing shade and see how well that ends for you.”
“I am smarter.” He spits blood on the floor. “I’m smarter than all of you dumb fucks combined.”
This time Drew punches him in the face, and bone cracks as his nose breaks. “You’re the one tied to the chair, dumbass.”
Jamison hisses, but he doesn’t cry out. He’s stronger than he led us to believe. “Not for long,” he says, grinning wickedly. I’m glad I asked Diesel to return and run surveillance for us outside. We don’t know if Jamison is working alone or if he has backup on the way. Better to be safe than sorry.
“If you’re waiting for your fuck buddy to show up, you can forget that plan,” Anderson says, removing his cell from the back pocket of his combat pants.
“I know you took Alessandra. If you’ve harmed one hair on her head, I’ll fucking kill you.”