“This is Christian,” Wolf said.
“I’m calling the police,” Greyson said, pulling his phone from his pocket. Trevor yanked it from his hand.
“I don’t think so,” he said.
“That does it,” Greyson replied, swinging at Trevor with a wild overhand right.
Trevor caught the smaller man’s fist in his left hand and popped him in the nose with the open palm of his right hand. It was not a very hard hit, but hard enough to get his attention. Greyson stepped back and held his nose. Blood was oozing from both nostrils.
“Owww! Dammit!” he screamed. “That really hurt.”
“The good news for you two tick turds, is that we didn’t come here to kick your ass,” Wolf said, “but really, there’s nothing we’d like better. If you force us to, we’d be happy to oblige. Your health insurance is all paid up, I hope?”
“Why are you here, then?” Christian asked, gasping at the blood streaming from his partner’s nose.
“Think back about 15 years ago,” Trevor said. “Does the name Honor Carpenter ring a bell?”
Wolf suppressed a chuckle watching the faces of both men turn white. He thought both of them would shit themselves then and there.
“That lyin’ bitch is crazy,” Christian said.
Wolf popped Christian in the nose with just a little more force than Trevor used on Greyson. Blood gushed out of the man’s nose. Wolf tossed him an oily rag.
“Shit!” Christian screamed, holding his nose.
“That will be enough of that,” Wolf said.
“We’re here to find out why you did it.” Trevor asked, “Why did you rape her?”
Greyson started to open his mouth. Trevor held one finger up, which caused them both to remain silent.
“Before you answer, I want to give you boys a fair warning,” Trevor said.
“Yes,” Wolf added. “You might call this a safety precaution.”
Trevor nodded, “That’s right. You see, we are both Navy SEALS. You know who Navy SEALS are?”
Both men nodded.
“Good,” Trevor continued. “As Navy SEALS we are trained killers but also highly skilled in the arts of interrogation and extracting information.”
“You might say, with our experience, we’re human bullshit detectors,” Wolf said. “So, you only get one chance to tell us the truth.”
“One chance,” Trevor repeated. “Every time you lie, we’re going to break something. We’ll start with a toe, then a finger, then a wrist. After a few lies though, you boys are going to be pretty screwed up, sure enough.”
“You already broke my nose,” Greyson complained.
“That was just to get your attention. No charge. The point is, why put yourself through all of that?” Wolf said. “You tell us what we need to know and we will be out of your hair for good.”
“But if you don’t...” Trevor began.
“It was his idea!” Christian screamed, pointing at Greyson. “He’d been talking about screwing Honor for weeks prior to that day. I can’t tell you how long he’d been fantasizing about her.”
“You poked her right after me,” Greyson retorted. “You were no angel.”
“That’s only because you didn’t want to be the only one to go down for it,” Christian yelled back. “I didn’t want to hurt that girl.”
Christian and Greyson began to yell at each other about the details of the rape. After a couple of minutes passed, Trevor whistled loudly and both men quieted.
Wolf held up a file for both men to see.
“What is that?” Christian asked.
Wolf looked at the file quizzically and then looked back at Christian and smiled, “I don’t know what I’d called it, exactly. Trevor, what would you call it?”
“I’d call it, an incentive plan,” Trevor said.
“Perfect,” Wolf replied. “Yes, it is. It’s an incentive plan.”
“What kind of incentive plan?” Greyson asked.
“You see, as Navy SEALS, we have all manner of resources available to us,” Wolf said. “We have friends in very strategic places.”
“Friends who can gather intel… information,” Trevor added.
“What kind of information?” Christian asked.
“Information like how you two have been cheating on your business taxes for the last five years,” Trevor said.
“You boys have been naughty,” Wolf said. “Why, if the IRS got hold of this information, you’d go to jail for a long time and your business would be shut down.”
“It also seems like the revenue you generated in parts sales far exceeds the inventory you purchase,” Trevor added. “Our intelligence tells us there is only one real way for this to happen. It seems you boys have been getting your parts from buying stolen cars and stripping them down.”
“Even more jail time,” Wolf said.
Christian and Greyson exchanged glances.
“What do you want?” Christian asked.
“Okay, here’s what’s going to happen,” Wolf said. “Tomorrow morning, you boys are going down to the police station to confess. Because Trevor and I are nice, we’re going to cut you a break. We’re going to let this be your idea. You’re going to tell the police that you have been guilt-ridden since the day it happened and you just can’t live with it anymore.”
“Bullshit!” Greyson scoffed. “We’re not going to do that.”
“Oh, yes you are,” Trevor said. “Otherwise, this information goes to the IRS and the police.”
Greyson’s expression turned sour. Wolf thought the man was going to throw up.
“Your choices are simple,” Wolf said. “You can admit to the rape. You were both seventeen at the time. You’d get five years of jail time and probably serve two.”
“Or this information finds its way to the IRS and the police and you can go to jail for twenty years, and your business gets shut down,” Trevor added. “Which would you prefer?”
“We’ll go to the police all right, but we’ll tell them you forced your way in here and threatened us,” Christian said.
“You can do that,” Trevor said. “It would be the word of two shiftless scumbags against the word of two decorated Navy SEALS, but you could try.”
“And for the sake of argument,” Wolf added, “let’s suppose the police made us back off, or even arrested us. That would only make matters much worse for you.”
Greyson and Christian looked at each other and then back at Wolf.
“How?” Greyson asked.
“I’m glad you asked,” Wolf said. “You see, we SEALS are a team. We’re a family. We always have each other’s back. If you were to get us in hot water, all our SEAL friends would take that downright personally. You do know that we specialize in slipping in, taking down the enemy and slipping out without leaving a trace, right?”
Christian raised his hand, “Okay, we get it. We’ll do it.”
Greyson sighed and nodded.
“Do it tomorrow,” Trevor said. “If you boys do this right, you’ll be back on your back looking up to dripping oil pans before you know it. Then you can go about your lives. We’ll be out of your hair forever.”
Greyson and Christian looked at each other and nodded.
“Okay. We’ll do it,” Greyson said.
“Oh, and one last thing,” Trevor added. “Before you go down to the station I want both of you to show up at Honor’s house at 10:00 a.m. Her father will be there with her and so will we. I want you both to apologize.”
“Apologize and turn ourselves in?” Greyson complained.
“Yes, and it has to be sincere,” Wolf added. “You need to make me want to cry. It has to be that convincing.”
“Dammit!” Greyson complained. “Okay.”
Christian nodded, “Okay.”
“Remember,” Trevor said. “This all happens tomorrow.”
Both men nodded.
On the drive home, Wolf asked, “Do you think we did the right thing?”
“Of course,
” Trevor said.
“You think they’ll go through with it?”
“I do. They were scared. The tall one is probably changing his shorts as we speak.”
“I feel good about what we’ve done,” Wolf said. “I mean the whole thing.”
Trevor nodded, “We got rid of ten bad guys, we saved a girl and her father. We’re bringing two rapist scumbags to justice, and I just got engaged.”
“Honor is your fiancée?” Wolf repeated.
Trevor smiled, “It happened last night.”
Wolf punched his buddy in the arm, “You dog! Congratulations.”
“We did do good, didn’t we?”
Wolf nodded, “It’s what we do, my friend. It’s what we do.”
Special Forces: Operation Alpha: Protecting Honor (Kindle Worlds Novella) (Trevor Saunders Series Book 1) Page 8
