Page 41 of Viper

Irritation fills me. “So you assumed that meant she had been listening in and was following me? Did she call the police? Or did she meet up with anyone after she left?”

“No, she went straight to her car and went home.”

I narrow my eyes at him. “Then you must have a good reason for bringing this to my attention and wasting my valuable time,” I bite out.

He doesn’t cower at my anger, and instead, “There was no one else in the building but the night guard, yourself, and the judge. So she was hiding in that building.”

“Then I suggest you get some better intelligence members, because there was a woman in her office when I left, headphones on, and completely engrossed in her work. I saw her when I left and she never so much as glanced my way. Nor did she leave behind me considering we waited for a good five minutes to trail the Judge home. So, now, I’m going to ask you again why the fuck you’re telling me this?”

“You don’t find it suspicious that a random woman from just down the hall from where you were talking with the Judge leaves the courthouse after you?” Sasha asks evenly.

“I assume you figured out her name and her job?” I demand impatiently. Sasha nods. “And?”

“Her name is Eden Mercer and she’s a court reporter. She works with almost all the judges in the building, but Judge Brown favors her so she tends to be in court with him more often than not.”

Interesting, but not enough to concern me. “And you think she overheard us, despite being down the hall, with headphones and not even noticing me when I left?” I ask him curiously. I lean forward on the desk. “Do you have on camera showing her going into the office and overhearing?”

“No,” he finally admits. “But I have a bad feeling about this, and it doesn’t sit right with me.”

“Then you best find some damn evidence to support it,” I snap. “Don’t bring me shit without something concrete again. I don’t have time for your stupid nonsense.” I dismiss him, and I hear him stalk out, though he does manage to keep from slamming the door behind him.

Sasha is eager to prove himself here, to get the credit he feels he deserves, but all he’s doing is making mistakes and making claims with nothing to support it. A sure sign he has a long way to go before he’ll be ready for that kind of position. Which reminds me, I need to make another call.

The first sound I’m met with is a female scream of terror and pain. “Ah, I assume you are working on getting the information I want,” I say, pleased.

“I’ll give it to her, the bitch held out far longer than I thought,” the voice replies before the the sounds of a bullet echoes through the phone and the screaming ceases. “I finally got the information that you need.”

“Good. And?”

“It is as I suspected. Misha told her the bare minimum,” he replies. “She knew nothing more than he was meeting with someone, and they were planning on working together to run the territory themselves. He refused to tell her to keep her safe so she didn’t have a name or anything else useful.”

Anger burns in my stomach. Of course Misha would plan for this. “And her friend that helped?”

“She knew nothing. I started on her first, and she only knew that the woman contacted her for help, and that her man and his family are trying to make their way to the States to get their grips in. But they tried to align with Misha’s woman, who tried to get information out of Misha for them, but it didn’t work.”

At least there is that. The fucking amount of work to keep this territory out of the clutches of others is pissing me off. “Fine. And the Yakuza?”

“I’m still working on it, but I’m closer than before.”

Again, I bite back my irritation at having to wait, but I reply, “Fine, but I expect a call immediately.” I hang up without another word and then turn to look back at the folders in front of me. I need to find out which biker went in front of the judge and figure out how to use him and his son.

I’ll be patient with the rest, and I’m sure that soon enough I’m going to come out on top, but I am not happy to be kept waiting.

SIXTEEN

VIPER

Asking her to do this might be too much, but they’re right, we have to try.

The tension in the room is high as we listen to the recording that Eden saved on her phone. I had her send it to me this morning, and then permanently delete it just in case someone taps her phone. Cryos hacked her phone to double check that it was completely deleted. I’m glad my brothers thought of it, because it slipped my mind last night.

When the recording is finished, everyone is silent. “Vlad means business if he’s bribing judges,” Timber remarks grimly. “And what do we know about Judge Brown?”

“He’s been a judge for over twenty years, and he’s closing in on retirement. Which is also probably why he was picked. Vlad needs him just long enough to get what he needs, then he’ll work on any other judges to have in his pocket once Brown retires,” Cryos predicts. “And from the look of things, he’s hoping to in the next five years. He’s upped his retirement contributions, and he bought a retirement spot in Martha’s Vineyard.”

I give a low whistle. “How the hell does he make enough to afford something like that?”

“His wife comes from money and she gave it to him to manage,” Cryos answers after a few clicks of the keys on his laptop. He puts some financial statements on the screen for us to see. “She’s a trust fund baby, and she came into the money not long after she turned twenty five. She and the judge were married about five years by then. She was a housewife and stay-at-home mother to their two boys, and left him to handle the money. He invested it and now they have quite a large amount of money sitting in a couple of accounts.”

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