Shakedown

by Vale, Lani Lynn

  That made me feel… right.

  Like for the first time in my life, I had someone that I could trust without any worry that they’d betray me, forget me, hurt me, or downright disappoint me.

  Belle was… mine.

  Lynn on the screen started to get angry. His eyes were now narrowed, and his fists were clenched.

  The governor sat back in his chair, a smarmy smile on his face that I wanted to knock off with my fists, and the knowledge on his face that he was untouchable.

  Well, he wasn’t untouchable.

  If we took him out, his operation probably wouldn’t die. But the ease of access would.

  If nothing else, we could start here and finish elsewhere.

  I had a feeling, based on the tightness of Lynn’s jaw, that he realized it, too.

  The governor, seeing that look on Lynn’s face, leaned forward and pressed a button that Lynn couldn’t see—though Lynn could tell that he’d pressed the button. We knew it was there before he’d even gone in—but I could from my vantage point.

  That’s when I started to move.

  Yes, Lynn could handle himself.

  But I didn’t see a reason for him to if I was here to help.

  The pounding in my head intensified as I started to move toward the house.

  I pulled out my phone, made one single phone call, then shoved it back into my pocket.

  Without knocking—because why the fuck would I—I entered the residence and walked to where I knew Lynn and the governor to be.

  Just before arriving, the answer to the governor’s prayers—at least he thought they were the answer—rounded the corner on the opposite side of the hallway.

  I withdrew my weapon and shot twice.

  One to the chest of the first man that I could see. And one to the side of the neck of the second.

  Two shots. Two kills.

  Thank God for silencers.

  The door to the governor’s office was shut.

  Despite the silencer, when I opened it, both men were already on their feet, having heard the commotion outside the door.

  Lynn looked at me with annoyance.

  “Yes, I know you could’ve handled it,” I grumbled. “But I was tired of sitting in the fucking van.”

  “Who are you, and why are you in my house?” the governor asked in a high-pitched, squeaky voice.

  Hell, from the videos, he looked like he’d have a deep voice.

  Not one of a girl.

  I narrowed my eyes at him.

  “Why the fuck do you traffic children and sell them to people that are near the border?” I countered. “If you answer me, I’ll answer you.”

  Lynn had been beating around the bush when it came to his questions.

  Well, I wasn’t Lynn.

  I was a bulldozer, and I was tired of the fucking games.

  “I-I don’t,” the governor lied.

  I rolled my eyes. “Don’t fuckin’ joke. Everything on this computer right here tells me otherwise.” I paused. “Why would you sign your initials to each check off? I mean, if you were wanting to be completely anonymous, you wouldn’t use your brother to do your dirty work so your manicure doesn’t get messed up. And you wouldn’t have initialed your own damn initials each time that you did your ‘quality control checks.’”

  The governor’s mouth fell open.

  I smiled at the look on his face.

  “Gotcha,” I said to him. “Now, it’s in your best interest to tell me what’s going on. My fucking head hurts and I don’t have all day.”

  Sander Bryan all but gulped.

  “I…” He hesitated, his eyes going to the door where I’d come through not even moments before.

  “They’re probably dead,” Lynn answered the question in Sander’s eyes. “Bruno is sharp. He wouldn’t have come in here without first clearing the rest of the house.”

  Well, I hadn’t done that.

  But mostly because I knew exactly how many people were in the house. Hunt had been able to ascertain that within the first few seconds of hacking into Bryan’s system.

  But still. Semantics.

  “I-I…” Bryan stuttered.

  “Listen,” I brought the gun up to my temple and pressed the cool metal against the throbbing beat that felt like it was slowly breaking through the skin. “I don’t have all day.”

  “My brother did it all!” Bryan admitted quickly. “I had nothing to do with it but funding it.”

  “Nothing to do with it but funding it.” I shook my head, causing sparks to shoot up the length of my spine. “You don’t count that as having something to do with it?”

  “I don’t know what’s being transferred. I thought it better not to know,” he lied.

  I scoffed loudly. “You’re full of fuckin’ shit.”

  “I’m not…” he tried to lie again, but I aimed the gun at him.

  “Tell me all of it.”

  The door opened that was at the side of the room, and I pulled my spare pistol out of the small of my back, whipping it in the direction of the opening door.

  “Malcolm…” Sander Bryan started.

  Malcolm took one look at both of us just as Lynn’s bullet pierced his chest.

  Malcolm went down like a sack of grain.

  I turned back in time to see Sander Bryan try to reach for his panic button again.

  “Won’t do you any good,” I said. “It was disconnected from authorities the moment our computer guy hacked into your system. Now, you literally have a minute and thirty seconds to tell me everything, or I’ll make sure that you wish you had.”

  The guy’s mouth went stubbornly closed.

  I narrowed my eyes. “There are worse things than death.”

  The governor’s eyes narrowed as he tried to call my bluff.

  “Have you ever been to a prison, Governor?” I asked curiously.

  The governor narrowed his eyes, refusing to answer.

  “I’m going to assume not,” I said. “And, let’s just say, you get to federal prison—because that’s where you’ll end up. You are involved in human trafficking of minors. That’s a serious offense. You’ll get lifetime sentences. I’m talking, you’ll never see the other side of the prison yard fence again. You’ll be there until you die. Hopefully of old age after every inmate in there has his turn with you.”

  The governor blinked at that.

  “Prisoners don’t take kindly to people that hurt children,” Lynn mused quietly as he leaned back in his seat, his forty caliber Glock on his knee, his finger resting along the length of the barrel. “You’ll get in there, the inmates will find out what you did, and then you’ll never have a moment’s peace. You’ll live the rest of your life being tortured. If you’re lucky, during one of those torture sessions, you’ll die. Most likely, they’ll stop before you do because they don’t want you to die before they’ve had their chance to achieve justice for the children that you’ve hurt.”

  “You don’t have anything. I was careful,” he snarled.

  He was right, technically.

  Without a blatant confession, and with what little evidence we had of his involvement, he likely would get out with a slap on the wrist thanks to his status in the government.

  Which fuckin’ sucked because if anyone deserved to go to prison, it was this guy.

  “Maybe. Maybe not. You willing to bet your ass on that?” I asked curiously.

  The man narrowed his eyes, looking like he was murdering me in his head.

  Something creaked behind me, and I stiffened, experienced a blacking-out sensation for a few seconds, just as Bryan’s eyes lit with hope.

  “He shot my guards!” the governor cried out, his eyes aimed at something I couldn’t see.

  I looked over at the cop that I knew wouldn’t be able to ignore this, then pulled the trigger just before I promptly passed the fuck out.

  CHAPTER 24

  I wish being a bitch paid the bills.

  -Belle’s secret thoughts

  BELLE<
br />
  I knew the moment that the phone rang in my hand that something was wrong.

  I didn’t have to hear the words out of my father’s mouth to confirm it.

  I’d felt it for the last hour. Something that wasn’t quite ‘right.’

  Like something big had happened, and I was sitting on my ass waiting for the other shoe to drop. Or for someone to call me and tell me that they’d wound up getting my man hurt. Or even worse, killed.

  And now my father was calling to confirm it.

  If it would’ve been okay, Bruno would be calling me right now.

  Not my father.

  I hit the green button on my phone, then placed it to my ear without saying hello.

  “Baby,” my dad said. “You need to meet us at the hospital.”

  My family, which were joking around and having a good ol’ time, were no longer having a good ol’ time.

  They saw the moment that the words registered on my face and then went silent.

  They stayed that way all the way to the hospital.

  The first person I saw, Trick, was the one to explain.

  “We think that he had something go wrong with his head,” Trick explained. “Lynn said that right before he passed out, he clutched it like something had happened. The doctors are working on him now.”

  I nodded woodenly and made my way farther into the hospital, coming to a small room to the side of the waiting room that the entire group had taken over.

  Angel made his way inside right behind me, and the entire group of men—all of the Souls Chapel Revenants MC—came to a complete standstill. No words were said. No glances were exchanged. They all just stopped talking at once, as if they knew what they were talking about couldn’t be overheard by a cop.

  “Out, Angel. Boys,” my dad said. “For now. When we figure it out, we’ll let you come in.”

  Angel rolled his eyes. “There’s only so much that I can ignore, Nico.”

  But he left anyway, leaving me to be inside the room with the men that were Bruno’s family.

  “Tell me what’s going on,” I ordered the moment they were gone.

  I felt Trick close the door behind me, and then I watched as he came around me and took a seat at the table.

  The rest did the same, leaving me a spot next to my dad.

  I didn’t take it, though.

  Couldn’t.

  Wouldn’t.

  That was Bruno’s spot. Not mine.

  “Tell me,” I pleaded. “Please.”

  Lynn then went on to explain everything, allowing Hunt to fill in the blanks here and there until I had the full picture.

  “What did you find at the locations that you went to?” I asked, feeling my heart pound.

  Bruno and I had spoken about the increase of children going missing in the area.

  Had they found the source?

  Hunt’s face went solid.

  “At our location, a bunch of nothing,” Hunt grumbled. “We found that the actual hotshotting supplies were stored at that one. At the other location…”

  Suddenly Hunt had pulled up his computer, something I noticed he was rarely ever without, and spun it around so I could see.

  I wasn’t sure if any of the others had seen what he was about to show me, but still the men reacted to what they were seeing just like I did.

  Kids. In cages.

  A lot of them.

  “They took over an old pound,” Hunt said through clenched teeth. “They used the cages to hold them. It was… bad.”

  I could see it was bad.

  My heart hurt just from the empty cages. I couldn’t imagine what it would do to my heart to see them utilized in their intended disgusting ways.

  “Overall, we were able to get six children out,” Sin explained. “Trouper is still there, watching and making sure everything smooths out and goes the way it should be going. Making sure there aren’t any crooked cops withholding evidence.”

  “I have a live feed going on social media.” Hunt grinned wickedly. “Everything that was found was aired live. There’s no way that they’re going to get out of this.”

  “Except for the governor,” Lynn grumbled. “Wish Bruno would’ve killed him.”

  “He didn’t?” I asked.

  Lynn shook his head. “No. Shot him in the spine. Likely, he’ll be paralyzed from the arms down. Won’t be able to even wipe his own ass.”

  That was too good for him.

  After seeing those cages… I wanted to torture him.

  I wanted to try out every torture technique that I’d ever read or heard about and do it on him for the rest of his life.

  He deserved nothing less.

  A man that did that to children was the lowest kind of low.

  “What now?” I asked.

  “Now, we try to find other ways to tie the governor to the crime.” Hunt shoved his hands through his hair, and it was then I realized why it was sticking up the way it was. “I mean, everything that I’ve found is circumstantial. The brother lived on the property and did all the dirty work for them. All the shithead has to do is say that it was all his brother’s files, and that he had nothing to do with it, and he’ll walk off free.”

  “Which is why Bruno shot him.” Lynn sighed.

  I swallowed past a lump in my throat.

  Bruno.

  Was he going to be okay?

  My question was answered not even thirty seconds later when Angel pushed into the room with a haggard-looking doctor in tow.

  He looked like one of the surgeons that I’d seen on the billboard outside.

  “He made it this far,” was the first thing the doctor said to us all. “He had a brain bleed. It was very severe. We don’t know if he’ll make it. Or if he’ll have any cognitive deficits in his brain. When I say it was bad, I mean it was very bad. He’s lucky to even be alive right now. I’ve seen some with brain bleeds much less severe die right there in the field. That he made it to us, alive, is a signature of his strength but…” The doctor shook his head. “It’s going to be a rocky road until we get him out of the woods.”

  I didn’t like the doctor’s answer at all.

  “I don’t honestly know how he was standing for as long as he was.” The doctor shook his head. “He’s very lucky to be alive.”

  I felt sick to my stomach.

  “Can I see him?” I asked.

  The doctor frowned. “I mean, in the ICU, you’re allowed one person. But with him having a guard…”

  “That guard doesn’t affect her getting to see him,” Angel interjected. “If he’s allowed to have visitors, then we’re fine with him getting one.”

  The doctor nodded then, looking unaffected by the fact that he’d saved a man that’d supposedly attempted to murder the governor.

  Which had me curious.

  “Why are you so willing to help my man when he hurt the governor?” I wondered aloud.

  The doctor’s eyes flashed. “I’m a professional. I work on everyone.”

  That was totally a lie.

  I made eye contact with my dad, who understood instantly. “Angel, can you run and fetch me a water or something?”

  Angel sighed loudly. “Sure.”

  That ‘sure’ was enough to have me laughing under my breath as he all but stomped from the room, knowing why he was sent away.

  “Y’all are the ones that found the children, right?” he asked the moment that Angel had the door firmly shut behind him.

  “Yes,” Lynn answered simply.

  “My nephew was taken a year ago from my sister in the grocery parking lot. We’ve searched everywhere and haven’t been able to find him. Hired every single private detective that’s supposedly ‘the best’ with no luck.” He looked green for a second. “I’m really fucking pissed that the governor played a part in this. He may not be related to my nephew being stolen, but he may be. And to know that all of those children were locked up in cages with plans to ship them out of here… I’m fucking pissed. And I wanted to do wha
t I could for the man that tried to stop the person responsible.”

  Lynn sat forward, resting his hands on his knees. “How do you know that the governor is responsible?”

  The doctor walked toward the door. “I’ve had feelings about people before that are always spot on. And the governor was always one of those men that made me feel like he was shady. The promises. The lies. The deceit. I read the news report put out by his campaign. And I don’t feel like it was genuine at all. His brother being in it? He was in it. No doubt about it.”

  Without another word, the doctor left.

  “If anything else, the suspicion is there,” Zach said the moment the door closed. “It won’t help Bruno, but I think that it’ll help get the governor what he deserves in the long run.”

  “Agreed.”

  But my thoughts were still on ‘it won’t help Bruno.’

  • • •

  Three weeks later

  He had a brain bleed. It was very severe. We don’t know if he’ll make it. Or if he’ll have any cognitive deficits in his brain. When I say it was bad, I mean it was very bad. He’s lucky to even be alive right now. I’ve seen some with brain bleeds much less severe die right there in the field. That he made it to us, alive, is a signature of his strength but…

  “You don’t have to wait for me.”

  I looked at the man that had done something illegal, knowing full well that he wouldn’t be getting out of it. Knowing that, if he did what he did, he wouldn’t be able to tell them it was an accident, or it wasn’t him, or some excuse that wouldn’t have him going where he’s going. Yet he’d done it anyway.

  He’d taken himself away from me.

  I didn’t know whether I was extremely mad at him for doing what he’d done and leaving me behind, or proud of him for making sure that the man doing the ugly things to all those kids was exposed for the disgusting person he was.

  “I’ll wait,” I told him.

  I was mad. Not stupid.

  Somehow, I would find a way out for him.

  Somehow, some way, I would see him in the interim.

  The last few weeks, with him in the hospital recovering from a brain bleed, had been the happiest of my life.