by Axl Goode
“That’s very interesting. You mean to tell me that you and Frederickson are both doing things because of blackmail and threat?”
“I don’t know if Frederickson is or not but I don’t believe he is the one controlling everything. We were put in contact through this mutual person with the purpose to solve a problem. We don’t discuss our motives. We know if we tried to team up, it would just end up frying both of us. I was told to work with Frederickson in whatever way was needed until instructed to do otherwise.”
“Hmmm. This has been illuminating. I expect you to keep this meeting between the two of us. I am going to do whatever research I can to see if I can find some answers. I don’t want to jeopardize your family so keep doing what you were. Thank you for being honest with me,” Zane said, standing.
He had figured out what he had come for. He now knew there was something much bigger than Frederickson or Cormack going on. It didn’t sound like it would be easy to solve but at least he knew he was on the right track.
He assured Cormack he would be in touch before easing back into the shadows. Making his way back through the gate, he glanced back making sure no one was following. He turned off the electronic signal interrupter as he walked from the yard back onto the sidewalk. Feeling the wind whip across his face, he noticed how cold it had gotten outside. It had to be in the thirties.
Reaching his truck, he climbed in and cranked the huge engine to turn the heat on. Brenley didn’t have a strange look on her face like the last time he had gotten in. She had given him with the most sexual look he had ever seen. It had instantly caused his cock to throb and then she put it aside and started fixing her hair. This time looking at her, all he saw was relief in her eyes. She must have been truly worried about him while he was gone.
Flashing her a smile, he didn’t want to worry her with the news he had just received. He was still processing all that it meant and what to do about it. He told her that everything went as planned and they had an interesting conversation. Rather than choosing to divulge everything at that moment, he said he would tell her later but wanted to make it back to the lodge and eat first.
He was glad she didn’t protest. They were going to need an entirely new line of attack, and he wanted to have a plan in mind before he told Brenley everything. He didn’t want her to worry that some anonymous person was after her and there was nothing she could do. It was always easier when you had a target and although he was only formulating a plan to identify a target it was better than nothing.
Looking over at her, he wished for the millionth time that he could just tell her why he was holding back. She sat there looking like a princess in his front seat and he couldn’t even find the words to somehow tell her what was going on. He was dying to show her affection, but after getting to know her more he couldn’t shake the feeling that she was too pure for someone like him.
She was like a drug to him. Every time he started trying to tell her he was holding back because he wanted her to be sure she wanted him, she somehow caused his resolve to falter. He swore she could tell and would look at him with her ice-blue eyes all the way to his soul and he would lose focus.
They made it back to Zane’s lodge in good time. They had gotten some much-needed information tonight, making it well worth the risk they taken in going out. Brenley heated up some leftovers for dinner before joining Zane to eat on the couch in the living room. Eating in silence, Zane could tell Brenley was waiting patiently to find out what Cormack said.
After finishing dinner, Zane pulled two mugs out of the cabinet and made homemade hot chocolate. Joining Brenley in the living room, he handed her a cup of deliciousness. He decided he might as well go ahead and tell her before she lost all her patience.
“Cormack confirmed my suspicions that there is a third player involved.”
“What do you mean a ‘third player’?” she asked, sounding confused.
“I started getting this feeling that Cormack didn’t seem like the type of person to try to sabotage your life just for money. I just didn’t get that vibe from him. He has a family and kids that he is clearly very involved with. Something just seemed off so I asked him about it. There is someone else pulling the strings behind him and Frederickson. Cormack is contacted anonymously to carry out jobs and if he doesn’t his family is at risk. I think that’s why whoever is behind all this recruited him because they knew he would do anything for his family.”
“Whoa. You’re serious? You don’t think he was lying just to cover himself?”
“No. You should have seen his face. He was telling the truth. He was scared to death of this person.”
“What does this mean? We already know where Frederickson’s illegal funds are coming from. Shouldn’t we take this to the police at this point?”
“No, they would still charge both of us for the evidence planted in our places. We want to completely clear our names. Plus we know the company that the money is being funneled through but we don’t know where that money is coming from. That’s where I got suspicious. What if there is a person behind that company supplying all this money and controlling Frederickson and Cormack.”
Seeing the consternation building on her face, Zane moved closer, putting a hand on Brenley’s thigh to calm her. “Wait. Just listen before you interrupt me. If there is a person behind this and we go to the police too early, we risk that person following up and eliminating us if we spend time in a cell. Someone is blackmailing a police officer and mayor. That’s not easy to do. Both of those people would have tried their hardest to discover who this person is.
“Whoever our mystery person is, they’re very thorough. I tried to track Frederickson’s prepaid phone tonight and I got nothing. You’ve been around me long enough now to know how good I am with technology. That’s not easy to do either. We have to find a way to identify whoever is on the other end of that phone if we want to clear our names. If we can, I think we’ll find all the evidence we need to clear both of us. We would also be helping other people out that are being subjugated by this person.”
Zane took a breath. This was getting intense. It had seemed fun at first. He knew he could find whatever the mayor was hiding, given enough time. This new person presented a much bigger problem. There was hardly any evidence to go on and they were a shadow. They were also extremely competent.
Looking at Brenley, she had the happiest sad face he had ever seen. Her eyes were filled with tears but they also said she was happy about something as well. Moving closer, he settled his large hand on the side of her face, softly running his thumb back and forth over her delicate skin.
“I’m sorry you got mixed up in all this. This is all so confusing and terrible. I don’t know what to do or how I ended up here myself. I wish I had just ignored that stupid note I received in my office,” she blurted out, tears now flowing freely from her eyes. Zane could tell she was upset and just needed a shoulder to cry on for a minute.
“Don’t be sorry. It’s given us the opportunity to really get to know each other. I’m very glad for that opportunity,” he said with a slight smile.
“I am too. But it’s not going to be worth it if we both end up in jail! This seems to get more and more impossible each day.”
“That’s not true and you know it. We have way more information than we did at the start. We are much better off now than we were. I told you I wouldn’t let anything happen to you, didn’t I?”
“Yes. I’m just scared and getting emotional, I guess.”
“It’s okay. I’ll protect you. Don’t worry a bit,” he said as he wrapped his arms around her, letting her bury her head in his chest. He finally could let out a smile now that she wasn’t looking. She had the cutest face when she got upset. It was the most adorable thing he had ever seen. She transformed from being the tough girl she always tried to show into a vulnerable and caring person.
That was one reason he was so attracted to her. She had a tough act but deep down he could tell that if she lowered her walls for him,
she would be solid gold. She would love him like no other girl ever had. She would be the complete package that he had been searching for. Holding her against his chest, he hoped his intuition was right. He had almost driven himself insane holding back from her sexually but in that time he had solidified their connection. He made it safe for her to be herself and totally comfortable around him.
The sexual tension had taken care of itself naturally. They had become magnetized toward each other. He could tell she felt the same way he did. Knowing this made his insides stir and his cock start to throb. She wanted him. He couldn’t wait to take her and make her all his.
Chapter Fourteen
Frederickson was staying at his penthouse suite downtown when he received a call from Brenley Meyers. Relaxing in his favorite chair and watching TV, his phone rang from a number he didn’t recognize. He normally wouldn’t answer unknown numbers but he did anyway this time.
The instant he heard Brenley’s voice on the other line he knew who it was. He had no choice but to play innocent over the phone. She could be recording him, trying to see if he would incriminate himself. Doing the best he could, he tried to play like he was her friend. As a polished politician he had become more than proficient at lying. It rolled off his tongue with ease. Sounding completely sincere and not meaning a word of it.
She had threatened that she knew his secret and that he tried to have her kidnapped. Even though he knew it to be true, he deftly denied it, proposing they meet so he could maybe help her. She had seemed distraught, almost as if she were in a bad situation when she called him. She had hung up immediately after telling him she would call him the next day.
This was the biggest lead they had on her since she disappeared with Zane Anthony. No amount of looking for either of them had turned anything up. He was resigned that maybe something happened to them after a few weeks without so much as a trace. This phone call had broken that silence. His contact would want to know about it. He didn’t know how to trace the phone she used but he hoped the messenger would be able to.
Pulling out the prepaid phone he used only for calling the one number plugged into the address book, he pressed dial. The other end of the line answered with the typical electronic-sounding voice employed to mask the person using it.
“This better be important.”
“Brenley Meyers just called me.”
“What was the number of the phone she used?”
After reading the number off his other phone, he decided to press for information. “She said she had figured out my secret. What if she has actually found out what we’re doing?”
“Then I suggest you find her before she makes that information public. There are no links to me but I can’t imagine too many people will be happy to hear what you’ve been up to.”
“She said she will call me tomorrow to set up a meeting to work something out. Could we find a solution to this problem without her getting hurt?”
“She knows too much. We can’t have any loose ends. Go to the meeting if she sets one up. I’ll make sure the rest is taken care of.”
Click.
That was the end of the conversation. Frederickson always hated talking to the person on the other end of the line. They were all business without an ounce of sympathy. At this point he didn’t have an option on what to do. He never thought it would come to something like this but he had worked too hard in his life to see it all flushed away.
He needed to find a solution to the problem. He had Cormack to work with, which was a big resource but he knew the man was in the same boat. Well not exactly, he had the feeling Cormack did what he did more grudgingly. At this point Frederickson was all but complicit with managing illegal funds.
He had worked to make sure police were more lax in certain areas of the town as well. Even if he didn’t have direct control over this, he had been key in preventing the police from raiding certain known houses of prostitution. He knew that whoever was on the other end of the line controlled vast networks. They had to be in charge of all the major drug organizations as well as the rings of prostitution and human trafficking.
He hated being part of organizations like those but at the same time, once he started getting cuts of the profits, he became much more okay with it. This entire situation had caused him so much distress over the last few weeks he wanted it to be over with. He had avoided contact with Laura in the event someone was spying on him.
He hadn’t gotten to see her in almost a month. It was killing him. His relationship with his wife was totally celibate at this point. He wasn’t sure how she managed but didn’t care. She did what he needed her to do and that worked for him. He thought about calling Laura to see if she could meet but decided against it. Too much was at risk here. He needed to play it clean until Zane and Brenley were taken care of.
* * * * *
The next day Zane and Brenley went through their normal morning ritual of fixing breakfast together before starting work. However, rather than head directly to work, they decided on a new strategy. They needed to figure out who the mystery person was. The best way to do that was going to be to trace the money coming into the fake company Frederickson had set up.
After a review of the financials they had some idea of what was going on. Money was transferred in to the business account every day from multiple third-party accounts. Zane did a few quick hacks to check those accounts. They were all from other companies. Someone had been very thorough in covering their tracks.
What was interesting was that the deposits were made into those companies almost daily at varying random locations. If they could figure out who was making those deposits they could potentially trace that person back to the source. It was the best lead they had. Working out a tracking algorithm, Zane quickly made a formula to calculate the probability of someone using each bank.
He then hacked into the security system so he could review the camera for the time the previous deposits had been made. They were able to see the make and model of the cars being used to deposit the money. Zane decided to not waste time running the tags, since he figured they would be fake. Instead, he made a plan to see if they could actually catch someone making a deposit. He wanted to follow them back to wherever their base of operations was.
Brenley also had told Frederickson she would call him back that day. She wasn’t sure why she had said that but she had just gone with her gut. Zane was against it. They had figured out what they were looking for and had a solid plan for how they needed to move forward. There was no reason to complicate the situation further by adding another variable to it.
By the time they finished everything, they estimated there should be just enough time to drive to a bank and watch for a vehicle. There was no sure guarantee of success but it was the best lead they had so far. Gathering up all the equipment they might need, they headed toward a location in the northeast part of the city.
Reaching the bank, they pulled into the adjacent parking lot of a strip mall. From there it was only a waiting game. They talked about what could be the reason behind all this. Brenley had packed them a late lunch, knowing they would be hungry by the time they made it there. They ate sandwiches and chips while discussing the possibilities.
The thing that didn’t make sense was if the money was illegal, they thought the person controlling it would want to keep it a secret. The last thing someone would want to do is alert the government about having large sums of money unaccounted for. Especially with taxes, it didn’t make any sense. There must be some very creative accounting going on to cover all of it up.
The flip side to all that was even if someone was injecting illegal money into the system, how did they plan on getting it out with a profit? Taxes would probably take thirty percent so they would need to maintain a pretty sustainable profit to make it worth it.
That’s where they decided Brenley must have come in. Her portfolio was abnormally lucrative. She had a very natural intuition about the market and had given her clients astronomical ret
urns for the last several years. With the way she compounded money through the year it would actually make it worth it for someone to invest with her, even after taxes.
The other thing they thought about was someone was evolving from lower crime to higher crime. Whoever this person was now had the means and desire to not only control and manipulate people but also had the funds to actually control their environment. This person controlled a vast empire of people doing their bidding.
Sitting in the truck, they talked for almost two hours, laughing and joking with each other. Brenley thought it was strange that they were there to track someone to clear their names for some made-up crime but she was having a better time than she had in years. The last several years had been rough with her being more and more introverted. She had good friends but somehow never let herself go.
Now, sitting in the truck with Zane, she felt freer than she had in years. The last several weeks had solidified their friendship. It also showed her how much she had been missing in life. It opened a longing in her soul for that hole to be filled. Zane played with her, teased her but also nurtured her feelings. He was upfront with her when she needed it but also a shoulder to cry on when she needed that too.
She decided tonight was the night. She was going to get Zane to talk to her about why he had been holding back. At this point, she got wet just thinking about him at all. The anticipation she had was beyond immense. She didn’t care about foreplay at all. She just wanted Zane inside her. She couldn’t go another day without having him as hers.
