by Jessie G
“This was a mistake.” He looked at Bull who was leaning against the wall in silence.
“You opened a can of worms, friend. You can’t put them back in,” Saul said quietly, challenging him when he stood to leave. “Are you really going to walk away without getting your answers?”
“I hadn’t expected this.” Them. Javier.
“No, you probably didn’t, but you’re here now. So, what are you looking for?”
Returning to the coffee table, he confessed, “Terri hurt the man I love too, and I’ve been trying to find the men who helped him do it. Durango’s name came up in the investigation and I’m just trying to find out how deep their connection went.”
“Durango and Terri were business partners.”
“In the drug trade?”
“Among other things.”
“Durango has other interests?” He really needed to stop asking how much worse it could get because the answers just kept coming.
“Human trafficking, forced prostitution.” Saul’s gaze cut to Javier before he asked, “Do you need me to go on?”
“No.” God, no, he most definitely didn’t want Saul to say anything else. More importantly, he didn’t want Javier to have to listen as they discussed it. Alaric saw the pictures from Davin’s attack. He didn’t need the details to know how badly the young man suffered. “How do you know Durango?”
“I was an enforcer in his army.” As Saul answered his questions, he continued a soothing stroke up and down Javier’s back. “You didn’t think a man like that would be easy to stop, did you? You are here because you think you can stop him, right?”
“Right.”
“You can’t.”
“I have to.”
“Why? What’s a drug dealer to you?”
How could he explain his need to make amends? There were people out there, people like Davin and Javier, who had their lives ruined by his brother. He couldn’t not do something to help them or at least, attempt to stop anyone else from suffering the same fate.
“You think you can wipe the slate clean?”
“No, I know I can’t do that. But anyone who suffered because of my brother deserves some sort of justice, don’t they? Terence is dead, now I want everyone involved to pay. Durango, Simon Ferris, Pat Jameson and anyone I don’t already know about.”
“Ferris Wheel? What the hell did that two-bit thug do? He wasn’t in Durango’s crowd.”
“He was one of the men who hurt Davin.”
“I don’t know any Jameson, but I’m assuming he helped Terri hurt your man?” Alaric nodded and Saul said, “Well you’ll have better luck going after those two than Durango. The man has connections everywhere and now that Terri’s dead, he is king of the fucking world. He wasted no time convincing the cartels that he could smoothly transition Terri’s side of the business without a hiccup. He’s gone underground, no one sees him directly. They only deal with his lieutenants.”
“How do you know?”
“My brother.” Saul leaned in and whispered something to Javier when the man tried to shush him. “When we came to this country, our parents struggled hard to provide for us. Durango paid cash. It started out easy enough, pushing pills, doing collections, protecting the supply. We were both big and willing to fight, and Durango decided we needed training. A group of us spent two years in Columbia training with rebels, only three of us returned to Durango alive. My brother is still part of his army.”
“He can’t get out?”
“He won’t get out, Saul corrected. “There is a long list of people who want your revenge.”
“He’s your inside man?”
Javier cut in, “We’re not going to risk a good man’s life so you can clean up your brother’s mess. And before you ask, no, I wasn’t part of his army like Saul. I was Durango’s whore.”
“Javier,” Saul warned.
“You agreed to tell him, so tell him the whole thing! You want to know who your brother was? When Durango took on a new whore, he gave them to Terri to break. I spent six months on that sadistic bastard’s tight leash. That’s who your brother was.”
“Enough, Javier, enough.” Saul gripped his chin and forced his head around, “He’s not the enemy, pequeño. His man was hurt just like you.”
“I’m sorry.” The two words never felt hollower. They couldn’t express the depth of his regret or the anger he felt at everyone who brought them to this moment, himself included. He shouldn’t have come here but leaving wasn’t going to make it better. It wasn’t going to erase the pain in Javier’s eyes, or change what happened to Davin, or turn back the clock so that he could save them both. Alaric looked back at Bull who nodded as if to say, ‘you came here, now finish it,’ and while he wasn’t sure exactly how, he knew he wouldn’t stop until he finished it for them all.
“How did you both get away?”
Saul sighed and for a moment rested his forehead against Javier’s. When he spoke, he continued to look at his man. “The prized whores got bodyguards and I was assigned to be Javi’s. It was the first time I’d been assigned that detail. Until then, I hadn’t even known about that side of his business. My job was to taxi Javi back and forth to his johns and wait outside the door. If a john tried to get more than he paid for, it was my job to stop it. When Javi wasn’t on a call out, it was my job to make sure he didn’t try to escape or kill himself.”
“Durango made you his jailer, his pimp?” Alaric thought he was going to throw up. “What did he have on you?” Because no way would he believe Saul volunteered for the job.
“Durango knew everything about everyone in his employ. He knew where my mother lived and worked and played bridge on Friday nights. He had my brother on his payroll. Javi had a sister that lived with their bastard Uncle. At any given time, Durango could have leveraged one of them against us.”
“You cannot look at Saul like he’s a monster,” Javier cut in. “You can’t understand the world we were trapped in. We learned how to play the game to stay alive.”
“You asked how we got away.” Saul purposely drew his attention back to him. “Javi’s sister was killed in an unrelated bus accident, then my parents died, and the only threat was to my brother. He had stupidly fallen in love with Durango’s niece so he wasn’t going anywhere, but he understood why we couldn’t stay. When Javi and I devised our plan to get out, he helped us do it and stayed, knowing he’d be interrogated mercilessly. I have no idea how he survived, but he waits, biding his time. If anyone has earned the right to kill Durango, it’s him.”
That was debatable, but Alaric didn’t argue. “Let me help you stop him.”
“You’re deluding yourself. You live in your fancy house and drive your fancy car, but you know nothing about what it takes to bring down a man like that!”
“You think being a man of privilege makes me less dangerous?” Alaric could only laugh. “I may not have your street connections, Saul, but I have connections with every government around the world. The work I do will give us the edge you and your brother need to get your revenge, and don’t tell me you don’t want it as badly as he does. You and I, we’re not so different. I would have killed my own brother to avenge Davin and I would have walked away smiling.”
“What we want doesn’t matter. Miguel won’t leave without Marisol.”
“I’ll make you a deal.” Alaric glanced up when Bull came closer. The big man hadn’t made a sound through the whole exchange, but he was listening and Alaric knew he was all in. “I’m going to go after Ferris and Jameson. When you and Miguel are ready to bring down Durango, you call me directly. Day or night. You let me help you.”
“No one blames you for what Terri did.” Javier, who’d been spitting venom in his direction, spoke softly. “Each man makes his own choices. You have nothing to atone for.”
“Maybe not in your eyes, Javier, but I still have to do something.” Anything to wipe the terror from Javier’s eyes. “Saul, give me your word and I’ll back off until you say otherwise. I
f not, I’ll find a way to do it on my own and we both know I’d be flying blind with no way to protect the people you’d want me to keep safe.”
“Is that a deal or a threat, Alaric Bennett?”
“It’s a deal. I have no desire to hurt either of you or the people that matter to you.”
Bull spoke then. “I wouldn’t have introduced you if I didn’t think you could trust him, Saul.”
That had both Alaric and Saul looking at him, and Saul sighed. “Let me guess. You want in on this little joint venture.”
“Yes, and you know I have the military connections to help you get the job done. Just say the word.”
Javier laughed softly. “Where the hell did all these friends come from, Saul?”
“Honestly, pequeño, I don’t fucking know, and I don’t fucking like it.”
But Alaric could see that he was seriously considering the offer. “Do we have a deal?”
“You love him that much?”
“More than I can ever express.”
“Then we look forward to meeting him.” When Saul offered his hand, Alaric knew this partnership was going to change them all. “You have a deal, my friend.”
Chapter Forty-Four
Davin
“Cray’s in interrogation room two.” Captain James was waiting when he and Sully stepped off the elevator. “He’s screaming police brutality because you wouldn’t let him go to a hospital.”
“It’s not like I blew a hole in his hand.”
“Yeah, it’s not a hole. It’s just a flesh wound.” Sully smiled.
Putting a hand on Davin’s shoulder, James stopped them for a moment. “We’ve got him locked on attempted murder.”
“It’s not enough. We need confirmation that he’s Terence’s partner.” Otherwise, he couldn’t walk away. “Are the CSIs tossing his place?”
“As we speak.” James offered a rare encouraging smile.
“Good.” Shaking off the Captain’s hand, Davin continued moving, one foot in front of the other, only to be brought up short again. Alaric was standing outside interrogation, leaning against the wall as he scrolled through messages on his phone. When he looked up, there was pride and love in his eyes, and it was everything Davin needed to see this through.
“Mr. Bennett.” James treated Davin to his worst side eye, but his tone was downright friendly in comparison to his usual gruffness. “If you promise to behave, you can watch from observation.”
Alaric nodded and straightened. Neither of them had spoken, but they didn’t have to. Being there was enough. With another nod in his direction, Alaric followed the Captain into the adjoining room, and Davin waited until the door closed before he moved. He was ready.
Cray was practically foaming at the mouth when they entered, and the two uniformed officers were forcibly holding him in his seat. As soon as he saw Davin, he roared, “You fucking pig! I will kill you and then I’ll go back and kill that bastard.”
Making a show of it, Davin scratched his ear. “Did that sound like a threat to anyone else?”
“It sure did, sir.” One of the uniforms nodded.
“Assaulting a tourist, attempted murder, and now threatening a police officer?” Sully scoffed. “You’re such an overachiever.”
“And you’re good for nothing, cock sucking pigs!”
“Actually—” Davin mused as he sat, casually leaning back as if he had all the time in the world— “I’m pretty good at that.”
Cray stuttered and took a closer look at him. “Do I know you?”
“Actually, you do. Intimately, some would say. Eight years ago. Hialeah. Ring a bell?”
For a moment he was puzzled, then shocked, and then just flat out amused. “The brother’s whore.”
“You do remember?” Davin put a hand over his heart and whispered, “I’m touched.”
“How could I forget a sweet ass like yours? You were my first.”
“Now, that I find hard to believe. A guy like you always liked it rough.”
“Rough, yeah, a rough tumble was good for a while. But what we did to you was beyond rough.” Cray twisted around and spoke to the two guards. “Did you know your detective was a fag?”
When he got no response, Davin smiled. “They’re more afraid of me than you.”
“Whatever.” Cray glared one more time before facing him again. “Victim to cop. I guess that’s a step up.”
“Is that pride I hear in your voice? Do you think you helped make me this way?”
“Maybe.” Cray frowned and rubbed his hands on the top of the table. “Terence never told me you became a cop.”
“You and your lover have many secrets from each other?”
“Every relationship needs a little mystery.” But Davin could see that Billy was bothered by the omission. “Not that it would have mattered, he’d already gotten what he wanted from you.”
“What was that?”
“To see his brother destroyed.”
“And you were happy to help?”
“That family treated Terence like he was worthless, but the brother was the worst. Always looking down his nose at Terence, acting like he was better. Yes, I was happy to see him suffer.”
He didn’t see any reason to correct Billy’s assessment because he was just parroting Terence’s skewed version of the truth. He just hoped Alaric wasn’t buying into the rhetoric. “And you took it upon yourself to show Terence he wasn’t worthless?”
“Damn right.”
“That must have been something. After all Terence was at the top of the food chain already, he couldn’t have wanted to share control with you.”
“Share it? Please, that boy was putty in my hands. An eager little bottom just like you. All I had to do was show him how good it could be.”
“I guess I can see that. The mounting pressure from the cartels must have been crushing.”
“With great power and all that shit. Nothing came into this city or passed through it without Terri’s approval. But someone always wanted more, wanted a cut that didn’t belong to them.”
Since Terence was dead, getting confirmation of his role only mattered to the overall picture Davin was trying to build, and hopefully, Cray would tell them enough to help drug enforcement build their case against Durango. Knowing that part of his theory was correct gave him the confidence to keep pushing. “But you taught him how to let go?”
“With me, he didn’t have to wear those masks.” Puffed up with pride, Cray declared, “You know I’ll find a way to kill Elias.”
“Before you do that…did you know Terence kept a diary?” Flipping open one of the files he’d carried in, Davin pulled out the entries Juan had printed for him. Now he showed Cray the more amorous ones.
“Today was beyond mere words. K knows me so well, so much better than I know myself.” Davin chuckled as he read. “He touches me like no other. With K there is no yesterday, no tomorrow, just him inside me, surrounding me with his love.”
Cray gathered up the pages as they slid across the table and touched the words reverently. “It was love.”
Never for a second believe that what they had comes close to the love I feel for you. Alaric’s said those words only hours before and Davin let them wash away the disgust he felt as Cray explained his relationship with Terence.
“Or some fucked up version of it.” Davin pulled another entry and read, “We did it! I can’t believe it! She was so pretty, a true Southern Belle, and so easy. Batting her eyelashes, giggling at all my jokes. K promised he’d have her trussed up like a present and he didn’t lie. When I got to the motel, she was naked on the bed, hog tied with just her heels on. He knew how I loved it when they kept their heels on.”
“What the…?” Cray snagged the page as he flicked it across the table.
Davin let him have it and read another. “We did a football player tonight. Poor boy was in the closet and didn’t want the press to get wind of his predilections. Imagine the shakeup in the Dolphins’ locker room if they
found out? Took a few more doses to bring him down and K wasn’t thrilled with hauling his ass alone, but it was so worth it. Oh, he screamed and begged for us to stop, but the little faggot couldn’t stop himself from coming all over the sheets when K rammed his cock down his throat while I fucked his ass. Just remembering the shame and horror on his face when we fucked again later made our orgasms explosive.”
“Where did you get these?” Billy tried to grab the final page from him, but Davin held it out of reach. “Terence didn’t write that. He wouldn’t have!”
“Sure, he would, just like he would take lots and lots of pictures.” Opening the second file, Davin let the pictures rain down on the table and laughed when Cray tried to snatch them up. “I bet he jerked off as he scrolled through the proof of your crimes.”
Cray was breathing hard, his hands grabbing as much as he could reach from where they were cuffed to the table. “He wouldn’t.”
“And yet…” Davin waved a hand over all the evidence. “Did you keep your own score, or did you trust him to do it? He was thorough, listing names and dates and locations—do you even know how many people you hurt?”
He glanced at Sully who was handing him their ace. Juan may have put the information in a neat little spreadsheet, but they got it all from Terence. “He was very proud of your work together and kept a running tally along with all the details of each assault.”
Cray tried to reach for it, but he held back. “I don’t believe you.”
“How else would I have known you’d go after Elias?” Laying the paper flat on top of everything else, he made sure Cray’s eyes were on it. Then Davin waited because he knew, without question, he would want to brag.
“Why wouldn’t he be proud of our work?” Cray finally said. “If not for that bastard Elias, no one would have ever figured out what we were doing.”
“You don’t think so?”
“Terence had a knack for finding the marks with something to lose. Who was married? Who had the killer career? None of them were gonna talk, and if he snapped a few pictures for insurance, even better. We celebrated the milestones, our tenth, our twenty-fifth, and our fiftieth. We have to be over sixty by now.”
