by Jayne Blue
“He’s the only one that had access to all our run away files; he’s the one who told the foster families and us they were runaways. He’s been framing all these cases so no one would come looking.” I said but could hardly believe it.
“But Alexis is from Flint. How is he connected to that?” Sawyer asked.
“Norm Northcut is my lead in connecting with every county in the state. He does the paperwork, he interacts with placement families.”
“He’s in a position to acquire inventory. He has to be searching for a specific case.” Sawyer’s words were dark and scary. Inventory.
We looked at the girls we knew about and there were some common threads. All were 12 or 13, skinny, no siblings, and each of their files was marked runaway.
“What if none of these girls were runaways?” I said it and instantly I had a sick feeling in my stomach.
“Cassidy, can you step out a minute?” Sawyer said and she gave him a questioning look.
I did not know what he had in mind but I followed his lead.
“Check on Alexis maybe?” I chimed in. I had a sense that where Sawyer and I were headed, we did not want a trail.
“I’m in this, you don’t have to protect me,” she said.
“Cassidy I strongly suspect I’m going to have to break some rules. I very much understand that I could be fired for it. I will not let you be fired for anything I do. You are at the beginning of this career and have a lot of good to do yet. Plus if I am fired, I want to know you are still here. The kids need someone like you and me to protect them.”
The reality of what I might do next was thick in the air between us. Cassidy took it in. Then she nodded.
“I trust you and Sawyer. I know you will do what is right for the kids. Good luck.”
Cassidy stepped out and Sawyer looked at me.
“Can you open Norm’s personnel file,” Sawyer asked.
“Yes.”
“I’m going to need a few things and sharing them if he’s not the guy, probably means you’re violating nine kinds of government rules.”
“We’re trying to save these girls. I don’t give a damn anymore about the rules.”
“That’s my girl; you’re an outlaw just like me.” I got a little thrill when Sawyer said it. Damnit. It was the first time he had shown any of the old Sawyer to me. He had been hard and distant since I had barged into his office at The Wolf Den.
I opened the personnel file and pulled up Norm’s information.
“Here it is. What do you need?”
Sawyer was on his phone.
“Hi, Raleigh. Yeah, one more project. Do you have their payroll? Okay, what do you need, Social Security number?”
I gave Sawyer the number. He relayed it to the person on the other end of the phone.
“And then internet signatures. Can you tell by that?”
He paused and I looked at Norm’s file again. He had been in the department as long as I had. At almost every turn, he applied for the same promotions that I had. At every instance, I had moved ahead and he had stayed one step behind.
I still could not believe he would be the one putting these kids at risk.
“Okay, my friend Raleigh is checking for us. If they’re paying your Norm Northcut, she’ll find it.”
“How?”
“Raleigh is a hacker and she’s more familiar with the Bratva, especially how they operate in Michigan than anyone on the planet.”
“Okay then so how long?”
“She’s going to call in an hour.”
The more I thought of it, the more I knew it had to be true. There was an insider, under my nose, helping, profiting, and putting these girls at risk. I started to shake.
“What is it?” Sawyer came around to my side of the desk. I felt dizzy as if I might faint, or throw up, or kill someone myself.
“It’s my fault. This is my fault. If Norm did this, it’s my fault for not seeing it.” I was overcome. Sawyer kneeled down in front of me.
“No, no it’s not. Not in any way. If there is a rat in your office, we are getting him out now. This is not your fault. You’re fixing it not causing it.” I felt tears stream down my face.
I did not want to melt down in front of Sawyer but that was exactly what was happening. Sawyer lifted me off the chair and into his arms.
“Shh. Shhh.” Sawyer’s lips found mine. I felt an electric current from my lips to the center of my body.
It was an accelerant. I wanted to devour him, I was on fire. He matched my intense need. I had spent a lifetime without him. Then I found him and lost him again. I could not take it. My body and his were supposed to be close, my soul and his.
I felt his hands roam up and down my back to my breasts. I could not get close enough. We were speeding toward something and for a brief moment, I did not care that I would be the one to crash into the wall. I knew it was true. I could not guard my feelings with him anymore.
“Stop, no,” I said. It came out as a whisper.
Sawyer put his forehead to mine. We both were breathing heavy, flushed, close to ripping each other’s close off, or heads off in a fight. Every emotion I had bubbled over and I struggled to contain it.
In my office in the middle of a crisis, I was ready to give myself over to an outlaw who had stolen my heart and soul. I had to know. Was this sex to him? A challenge? Had he moved on as easily as it seemed? I didn’t deserve that.
“I’m going to put it out there Sawyer McCall. I love you.”
Sawyer put his hands on both sides of my head. He paused.
He did not love me. He had already gotten rid of me once and here I was, ready to let him do it again. I had to tell him. At least, I had said it.
“I shouldn’t have said that I know. I’m in the midst of humiliating myself here.” I pulled back a step but he held me close. His non-answer was killing me. I had been a fool.
“I knew I wanted you the moment I saw you. I love you the moment you smiled at me over that plate of lasagna. I would have died for you from then on and it was really more of a smirk and probably the pasta talking.” I cry slash snort combination escaped my lips and I punched him with both fists on his shoulders.
“Why did you push me away?”
“When those bullets sprayed in my club the idea that you were there, that I could lose you to something like that, I couldn’t take it.”
Sawyer squeezed his eyes shut as if to block out something he saw that I was not.
“Sawyer, I need you to promise me not to do that again.”
“Why?”
“Because we’re going to be together now and I need to rely on that. I didn’t know I did but I do.”
“I’m about to lead the M.C. into some dark places. Violent work. I cannot take it if any of that spills on to you. I thought we might be done with that at the M.C. but there is always going to be violence. Danger.”
“I don’t care. We’re going to be together and you’re going to shut up about it.”
He laughed. It was a start.
“Always the boss.”
“Look who’s talking.”
Sawyer’s phone buzzed. I stepped back and put myself back together. My life included a lot of clothes rearranging when Sawyer was near me.
I listened as Sawyer took the call.
“You’re sure? Thank you. It’s a big help. I promise not to bother you for at least 24 hours. Tell Mace thank you for sharing your brilliant brain with me.”
I knew what he was going to say before he said it.
“There is a quite lot of money going into your Norm’s bank account from sources Raleigh can trace from what she knows of the Russian accounts.”
I felt sick. My mission was to find every single file he touched, every girl he put at risk.
I looked at Sawyer.
“Whatever we need to do to stop them, I’m in. Whatever you’ve got planned for the M.C...”
“We’re going to fake out Norm Northcut.” I had no idea what he meant and didn’t c
are. I would do anything to stop him.
Chapter Eighteen
Sawyer
Everyone in the M.C. had a role to play. Including Victor. He was stationed outside of the Craddock Flynn Manse.
“I need all of them to stay here. Do you understand me?” I was giving Craddock Flynn orders.
“No one’s going anywhere tonight Sawyer.” Flynn’s house was big, he’d installed security, thanks to now being a celebrity he needed it, and I knew without a doubt he would rip the head off of anyone who tried to get to Cassidy or Bess.
“I appreciate it, Craddock.” Bess caught me at the front door as I was ready to leave.
“Leaving without saying goodbye.”
“No, I thought we did a pretty good job of that this afternoon.” Bess had visited me at the M.C. and brought me lunch. When we were alone, we couldn’t keep our hands off each other. I didn’t know where we were going but she insisted we go there together.
I wouldn’t make a commitment until this war was won or lost.
If it was lost there wouldn’t be much to decide. She didn’t want to talk about that part so we didn’t.
We kissed again and she squeezed me tightly in her arms. She smelled so good.
“Okay, don’t make me vomit.” Alexis had become part of Bess’s family of late and I didn’t want my heart to admit it but mine too. She was good with Henry, she read the same books as Bess, and when it came time to getting her a foster placement, Bess kept finding reasons not to.
Cassidy was mildly frustrated with that part of the process, but for me, knowing they were all buttoned up here was good. I needed all my focus on making this work.
I had Victor, who was fully recovered at last check up, on patrol outside but he was the only member of the M.C. I could spare. It turned out he was made of iron under his soft outer coating.
Everyone else had a part in bringing down the Russians and it was going down tonight.
I left them in the house the lights in the windows fading in the rearview of my bike. It was time to go to war.
Step one was Dusty’s role.
Thanks to Bess, Norm Northcut thought a girl named Corie Pendry had just run away from her foster family.
As far as Norm knew Corie was from another county, out on her own, and ready to roam.
Bess had set up a perfect sting and for this part brought in her friend Detective Murray.
Murray knew this part of the plan and this part only.
Murray and Bess set up the files of the at-risk orphan, Corie Pendry. Corie Pendry for our sting purposes was actually Dusty.
Dusty, tiny, and young looking, got rid of her eyeliner and leather and played her part to perfection.
Norm Northcut believed that a troubled young girl was struggling with her foster family. And she was hanging out, alone, at the Grand City Mall. His extensive contact with the families of just the girls who fit the profile he was looking for made it easy for him to discover their patterns. Just like he knew when Alexis was allowed to hang out at the mall he’d figured out when our fake teen was there too.
The foster families thought they were checking in with Norm, the friendly and helpful man from social services. Instead, they were unwittingly giving Norm Northcut a map to their kids. It the kids weren’t getting along with the parents? So much the better for Norm.
It didn’t take long to get Norm to take the bait.
With Cassidy, Detective Murray and Dusty in place Norm Northcut revealed his role in sending dozens of kids into slavery. All he ever had to do was make a few phone calls.
He tracked “Corie,” he informed his Bratva contact, Georgie, that “Corie” was alone, afraid, and ready to be snatched. After he had done that we looked at his accounts, they surged with tidy little five-thousand dollar deposits.
Murray didn’t need much more than that to know we were on to something. The same surge occurred right before Alexis went missing, Kirstin, and DeAndra.
Dusty aka Corie was a sitting duck for Georgie. And it played out exactly like it did with Alexis. Except this time instead of injecting an unsuspecting teen, Georgie had the little badass that was Dusty. She yelled immediately, she also wore a wire, it was smooth as silk.
Police arrested Georgie and rounded up the unsuspecting Norm Northcut shortly after. The whole operation took two hours.
With Norm and Georgie out of the picture, it was time to go deeper into the operations. The part of the plan that happened at night.
As darkness fell, the next part of the plan would be much more dangerous.
The next part of the operation had nothing to do with the police. We didn’t ask Murray for help and we didn’t expect the police to be involved. To wipe out the operation we needed it to be clean, quick, and outside of the law. Though Bess didn’t know the details, she knew what happened when warrants and judges got into the mix. The Russians would scatter and the operations would continue.
We’d figured out where Georgie was supposed to take his new acquisition. Dusty and I drove the maroon car. We’d snuck it out when the cops were busy with Norm and Georgie.
They’d be able to impound it after we didn’t need anymore. Let Murray scratch his head over that later.
We needed the car. I was now Georgie as far the Russians were concerned.
The Bratva relied on a drugged out teen as Georgie’s normal cargo.
Georgie’s normal meet up was at the truck stop. He was supposed to connect with a truck and the new girl he’d acquired would be added to whatever else they had in that same shipment.
Yeah, shipment sounded weird but that’s what these girls were to them. That’s why it was good that our plan was to eliminate each link in the chain they’d made through Grand City.
“You okay with this part?” I asked Dusty as we got closer. She was going to have to play like she was doped up.
“Yep,” the girls that were being kidnapped were 13, Dusty was 22, but she looked about sixteen right now. Hopefully, they wouldn’t get close enough to figure it out.
“Okay, start acting drugged up Corie.”
“No problem Georgie.”
The handoff of girls happened from car to truck off the highway exit, far enough off, that it was in a wooded area. Alexis had described what she could remember and we were about to find out how much that really was.
The van came off the highway and rolled onward to the wooded meetup area. Georgie was a blocky bald man. I was about the same height but had more hair than I knew what to do with.
I solved that problem in the dark with a ski cap. In the dark and from far away they wouldn’t realize until it was too late.
A small white truck rolled up and killed its lights. I kept my headlights on. Hopefully, the lights would also make it more difficult to see me.
I lifted Dusty out of the back and hauled her over my shoulder. Thanks to Alexis I knew how Georgie normally did it. She remembered being thrown around like a sack of potatoes.
“Oof,” said Dusty as I adjusted her weight.
“Shh.” I walked toward the truck and someone got out of the passenger side. We figured two in front and a cab or probably six maybe twelve girls in the back.
The man who was in the passenger seat got out and I walked forward. He’d take Dusty and load her in back.
As he got close I saw a movement in the bush, it was what I needed. I was about to hand Dusty over. As Dusty’s weight shifted from me to him, my hands were free, and his were busy, I shot him in the gut. She knew it was coming.
Dusty leaped free of the melee and I finished him with a bullet to the head.
The next risk was the driver. If he’d had time to alert anyone else. I looked up and saw Steel and Ridge doing their job. The driver was down, dead. They’d finished him almost in the same instant that I’d killed the passenger.
We had two dead Russians and hopefully it would be easy to deal with the girls in the back of the truck. We needed them out, and fast, but we knew they’d be in no state to help themse
lves.
Ridge and Steel opened the back and a pop of light hit us all.
No one had figured there’d be a third man in the back with the girls but there was. And he came out shooting. Steel charged him and knocked the gun from his hand. Then nearly knocked his jaw from his face.
Ridge dispatched the third Russian, it was significantly more bloody than we’d intended.
“Steel? You okay?” Dusty ran to him.
“Fine, it’s nothing.” I hoped it was true.
Then we had a moment to look inside the van. At first, it looked empty, that we’d cleared the shooter out but we had missed the girls we were supposed to be saving.
And then I saw it. Pale arms, legs, hair in tumbles. The “cargo” was towards the front huddled together and away from the doors. I hoisted Dusty up and walked in behind her.
For the next step we relied on a few friends outside the M.C. We’d invested in their business and they were happy to return the favor. A flash of headlights came around the corner and it was our signal that new transport had arrived.
StrongArm Movers pulled up in a truck that looked completely different than the non-descript one the Russians were using to haul human cargo.
StrongArm Movers were a traditional moving company but they had a mission. The movers were all badass athletes. The company was founded by a former Marine and some of my MMA fighters had moved on to work for him after their careers were over.
The main qualification for the job was complete strength and total sensitivity.
They were strong as hell. But what made them different than any movers I ever met was their mission. If a woman was in a domestic abuse situation and needed to get out StrongArm would show up in a hurry and free of charge to help her safely flee.
Joe Stachek, the marine, ran the company. He also went on a lot of runs since they were still building the business.
When I told him what I needed, he didn’t hesitate. I gave him enough of the details but not too much. He also only brought himself and one guy. He knew how to get this story right on his part of the mission.
His crew was used to being sensitive in bad situations.
We needed the girls out of harm’s way for the next step in the plan.
