“What the hell?” Dace blurted, pacing the room. “Did you see that? Ronan and Ryker were flanking him, but who were those other guys? They didn’t look like agents.”
“I counted ten, maybe twelve,” Luke asserted, arms crossed and jaw clenched. “That couldn’t have been easy for Ro and Ry to have him in cuffs like that.”
“Did you catch Carter? Looked like he said, no comment as he looked right into the camera,” Mercy added. “There was something about that look on his face.”
“That’s exactly what he said,” Liam chimed in. “I have the audio. How did the media already know to ask about cartel ties? I think that’s the reason for the look. He wants to tell us something.”
“He’ll contact us when it’s safe for everyone,” Eva reassured. “If there was any question before, there shouldn’t be now. They’re laying blame on Brother’s Keeper. You guys, well, all of us, are going down for everything.”
“What was this explosion to wipe out McKenzie? He destroyed his own house—that’s hardly the whole town,” Eli quipped. “They’re desperate.”
“The bigger question here is, what are they doing in the background while we’re all watching this? This bullshit is just to keep us occupied,” Declan said. “If something’s going down, sure, keep us busy until it’s done. But they’re trying to get rid of us altogether.”
“And who the hell are they?” Dace chided. “We still don’t have names or details. We are still at square one other than knowing it’s coming from DC.”
“Hey guys, you’re going to want to see this,” Liam interrupted, “Sending it to the big screen, hold on…”
“I tried to run the guys who were with Wylie, and this came up,” Liam said as he linked his laptop to the big screen TV so they could all see. “Look familiar?”
“Those are the same guys,” Eva added and went on to ask, “Who is the woman?”
“There isn’t any audio. It’s footage from a story ran just before Wylie’s. They appear to be hired security, maybe? That woman is under their protection because she received death threats and her company was evacuated after a bomb threat,” Liam informed.
“What company? Who is she?” Eva asked.
“That’s Petra Delfonzo, head of Berque Pharmaceuticals,” Dr. Mathers answered. “Look, she has the gold watch on.”
“You mean to tell me this goes down the minute we learn about her and airs just before our brother makes national news for similar crimes? Shit!” Declan hollered. “We need to get to Berque Pharmaceuticals and start asking questions.”
“Let’s go see what the lovely Ms. Delfonzo has that our friends in high places want.” Eli smiled, ready for the hunt. “Or don’t want, as it may be.”
“Here’s more footage of Wylie,” Liam announced.
“Oh, my God.” Eva sniffled, covering her mouth.
Wylie appeared on their screen, sans Ronan and Ryker, but in the custody of the men they’d seen twice now.
“Look at his eyes. He’s gesturing to the men. He’s trying to tell us something. He knows something. Liam, dig deeper on these assholes. Our brother has a clue,” Declan said before dropping his voice to a near whisper when the screen paused on Wylie. “We’re coming for you, baby brother.”
29
The offices of Berque Pharmaceuticals were dark—too dark—and they all knew it. They didn’t expect anyone to be working that late, they’d planned their entrance at that time for a reason, but they also didn’t expect it to be lights out and no security.
“Someone knew we were coming,” Eli said quietly through the comms. “You’d think they would have left a light on.”
“Of course they knew. That’s what this is all about, right?” Dace asked. “They sent the bait. Just make sure we don’t step in the trap.”
“We sat on this building most of today,” Mercy shared. “No feds. Just biz as usual and those thugs we keep seeing.”
“Can we all shut up and focus,” Declan hissed. “Remember that trap Dace said not to step in? You’re going to step in it.”
“We have a team ready to get us out and the jet on standby, big guy,” Eli assured. “We can be out of here in minutes and in the air shortly after.”
Eli had called in the favors he’d mentioned before, and a private jet landed at Wyatt Ranch within hours of said call. They’d made their way to the gulf coast—Corpus Christi, Texas, to be exact—to do some reconnaissance work before paying a visit to Petra Delfonzo and Berque Pharmaceuticals.
“She’s here,” Dace grunted. “I can feel it. This is all too easy.”
“Time to find out if she’s friend or foe,” Declan said. “This is her floor. Executive suite.”
In true tactical fashion, the team breached the executive floor in a stealth-like manner, clearing all offices and conference rooms as they made their way to Petra’s office in the far corner. It was too quiet, eerie, staged. This wasn’t typical. None of it was. Even in the late hours, beyond work, buildings such as this stayed illuminated. This was dark. Completely dark—not a single light, not even the stairwell floodlights were illuminated.
“Door’s already open,” Mercy whispered through the comms. “Going in.”
The men all followed suit, relying on their night vision goggles to take in the space. The empty space. And they heard it. A bullet filling the chamber. They weren’t alone.
“I will shoot you,” a frantic woman spat. “I will shoot all of you. Every last one and people are coming. A lot of people. You’ll never get out of here.”
“I’m going to turn on the light,” Declan announced. “Come out from under the desk, please. We aren’t here to hurt you.”
“Yes, you are. I got the phone call, so I know why you’re here. I’ll kill you all before I let you have it. Not until I get my daughter back.”
“We aren’t here to harm you. Please come out,” he repeated calmly.
“No. I know you want to hurt me!” she yelled. A thump could be heard from under the desk, and then her weapon discharged, causing her to scream.
The team surrounded the desk in seconds and pulled her kicking and screaming from under the desk.
“Gun!” Dace shouted.
“Got it.” Luke put the recovered weapon in the back of his waistband after releasing the clip. “Looks like she shot through her desk and ceiling.”
“I-I didn’t mean to shoot the thing. I don’t like guns. They showed me how to do it, but it was so fast, and I-I guess I didn’t pay enough attention,” the woman rambled as tears stained her face.
“Petra Delfonzo?” Declan asked, though it was obvious it was her.
“I-I meant it. They’re coming. My security detail will be here any minute. You hurt me, and that’s it—they said they’d shoot to kill.”
“We aren’t interested in hurting you,” Dace replied. “We just want to ask you a few questions.”
“Do I need my attorney present? I was told not to speak to anyone without an attorney.”
“Well, I suppose you can make a call if you’d like, but this isn’t a legal issue. We just want to ask you a few questions about the threats you’ve been receiving. Dr. Mathers thought perhaps you were in danger. He seems to be as well.”
“You know Kyle? Did he send you?” Petra asked. “Is he okay?”
“He’s fine and under our protection for the time being,” Declan said.
Petra put her hands over her mouth. “Protection? This is serious then? He’s getting threats?”
“He’s being followed.”
“Followed? Oh, no. Who? Why?”
“That’s what we are trying to find out,” Declan continued. “Thought you could help us piece it together. Maybe your issue is related to his?”
“Anything. Anything at all.” Petra’s tearful demeanor increased to a sob. “They have my daughter. They took her and said if I tell the police, they’ll kill her.”
“Who?” Dace interrupted. “Who took her?”
“I don’t know. That’s
the problem. She was abducted on her way home from school—or that’s what they said. They told me her entire schedule and that they’d been watching her. If I don’t do what they say, I lose her forever. They said they’d…put her on a ship, and I’d never see her again.”
“A ship?” Declan questioned.
“Odd, right?” Petra sat in her nearby chair. “Everything about this is odd. It’s so well planned, they thought of everything. I feel like a prisoner, waiting for them to decide if I live or die.”
“You seem confident they’re men. What can you tell me about them?”
“Not much. Um. I know there’s two, maybe three. Hard to tell. It’s all been over the phone. I had my new security detail try to trace them, but they were burner phones. Said something about bouncing off towers all over the world. It was impossible to locate them.”
“Was there anything distinctive about the way they spoke? A lisp, accent, stutter?”
“Accent,” she quickly fired back. “They were Hispanic accents, and I heard someone speaking Spanish in the background. Like those guys in the movies. The bad guys with drugs and guns…like the mafia.”
“The cartel?” Dace quirked an eyebrow at her odd description.
“Yeah. That. I mean they have the most to gain or lose here.”
It was Declan’s turn to be confused by her logic. “And how’s that?”
“My company has developed a new drug—state of the art—and stands to save a lot of lives. We are in the final stages of pushing it through FDA approval, then it goes to market. The second it’s available to consumers, the cartel is out of business.”
“This is the project Mathers was working on with your team?”
“Yes. Did he tell you about it?” Petra asked.
“No.” Dace thought her interest in Mathers was curious, given the context. “He only referred to it as the project. He wouldn’t say anything else, said we’d need to talk to you.”
“That man is loyal to a fault. I respect that,” she admitted.
“What do the men with accents want with your new drug?” Liam chimed in. “What would a cartel, as you put it, want with pharmaceuticals?”
“Well, it’s what they don’t want. They don’t want it to make it through the FDA, for starters, and have worked hard to create a lot of red tape for us to navigate in Washington DC.”
“The cartel?” Dace laughed. “Fighting the FDA?”
“Oh, yes. They’re more political than you think. They have these politicians in their back pockets. You know, I probably shouldn’t say this, but that senator who was assassinated a while back…I believe it was them. He was an advocate for our product, and they took him out to stop the process altogether. I’m sure of it.”
“Senator Martinez?” Liam tiptoed around the issue, unsure where she was going with this.
“Yes. Kind man. Wanted to help so many people. Such a shame what happened to him. I know nothing was ever said about this in the media, but I’m sure they were behind it somehow.”
“Again,” Declan demanded. “What is it that they don’t want hitting the streets. What is this magical drug that hurts them?”
“Opioid addiction in our country has become a serious epidemic, and numbers grow by the day. It is going to be the number one cause of death in this country soon if we don’t act quickly. Overdose deaths have quadrupled since being tracked and will continue to grow at such a rapid rate if we don’t do something about it soon.”
“Right. Understand.” Declan was starting to lose his patience. “And you are a part of the problem how?”
“I’m not. I’m a part of the solution. Well, my company is. We have developed the first product designed to fight opioid addiction specifically. So many people fall back into their old habits because opioids are that dangerous and easy to get your hands on. This product isn’t just about getting them through detox. It keeps them off the drugs, and if they’re like so many and slip, they’ll fall violently ill. Their body will reject the drugs if they stay on our product. There’s been nothing like it before. This is a product that addicts can really turn to and count on long term, safely.”
“Wow. Pretty incredible. It’s like every drug used to combat addiction rolled into one,” Dace mentioned dryly. There was something about this woman he just didn’t like. She was starting to irritate him, and he couldn’t even explain why.
“It really is. And if we put this out there, we put drug dealers out of business. That puts all of these large-scale crime families who import their narcotics illegally in our country out of business. That’s billions of dollars out of their pocket.”
“And right into yours,” Dace fired back.
“I beg your pardon?” Petra seemed offended. “I may be the majority stockholder in this company and hold the pending patent, but far more people stand to benefit from this more than me. A lot of people will get paid when this thing goes through, true, but this isn’t about the money. We’re talking about saving lives here, not to mention the decrease in crime rates and drug trafficking…it’s a win, win.”
“It certainly sounds like it.” Dace refrained from saying any more when Declan gave him a side-eye glare that meant stand down.
“One more question for you. Who are the men with you on the news?”
“The men? My security detail?” Confusion filled her expression.
“Yes. Who are they?”
“Well, I don’t know their names. They were just hired by my board of directors. Everyone has security at the moment, actually. We take these threats very seriously because we all have families.”
“Right. Like your daughter.” Declan nodded. “Where is your security now?”
“On their way, I suppose. I called for them. I came to the office to pick up a few files I’d left by mistake, and when the lights all went out, and I heard noises, I called them.”
“The lights went out?” Dace asked. “They weren’t out when you got here?”
“No. The lights are always on for security reasons. When I got to my office, they shut off.”
As if on cue, a team of four men entered the room, weapons drawn. None of them were of the twelve they’d seen on TV with Petra Delfonzo.
“Whoa,” Luke uttered, raising his weapon. “Let’s not get crazy. Nobody’s here to hurt anyone.”
“Please, Connor, put your weapons down. They are here to help, not bring harm. They’re friends of Dr. Mathers.”
“Ma’am,” he replied as he stepped in front of Petra with her to his back, “if it’s all the same to you, I don’t know these men, nor are they to be in the building after hours or without a security check.”
“Please.” Petra put her hand on Connor’s arm and gently pressed for him to lower his weapon. “It’s okay. Consider them my personal guests. It’s okay, really.”
Petra’s security gave in to her request and lowered their weapons but continued to guard her.
“Give Kyle my best…” Petra added and dismissed them with a simple nod.
30
“I don’t trust her,” Dace announced. “You realize she never even asked who we were.”
“That’s because she knew who we were,” Declan answered.
Eva chimed in, anxious for answers, “Do you think she’s involved in this? Was it odd that she mentioned the cartel specifically?”
“I’m telling you, she’s involved. She was goading us,” Dace said. “I didn’t walk away with anything specific, just a gut feeling.”
“I wish I could have been there. If she knows you…she knows me too,” Eva acknowledged
“Think about it. She has a big drug hitting the market, and who loves to invest in shit like that? Washington. They rely on people like her to get them elected, and she relies on them to push their drugs through.” Dace went on. “I don’t know how she plays into the other stuff, but she’s not all sunshine and roses over there.”
“Why would anyone take her daughter, though?” Liam asked, pecking away at his keyboard, per usua
l. “Her story adds up in many ways. Her company does hurt the cartel’s biggest source of income. Drug trade. But something was very odd about her.”
Eli stroked his day-old scruff. “I don’t know, mate. It all stinks to high heaven. Those men who showed up at the end played it out like a well-practiced scene. Did anyone else notice that?”
“I also noticed none of them were pictured with her or Wylie. Where were the twelve? She said they were her security detail,” Dace pointed out.
“Any one of the people in this backroom club we kept hearing about could be making a stack of cash of both the drugs and weapons by getting them in the country in the first place.” Declan began to break it down. “Who controls the ports? Who has access and could or would pay someone to look the other way while a ship is offloaded? And who gets these people in office in exchange for favors once they’re there?”
“We know this club isn’t all government. It’s also powerful and influential dignitaries and businessmen and women. It really could be anyone, and we know Big Pharma has deep pockets in Washington. She makes sense in that regard, but the rest doesn’t. Can’t attach her to anything other than cartel at this point, who supposedly have her daughter.”
“A daughter I can’t seem to figure out,” Liam interrupted. “I don’t think the daughter exists. Not a single record, anywhere.”
Brother's Keeper V: Wylie (the complete series BOX SET): NEW RELEASE + Series Box SET included! Page 134
