Page 42 of Viper

“Then why does he want this bribe money?” I ask, confused.

“Maybe he’s thinking that after he retires as a judge he can go into politics,” Stone suggests. “That’s what most of them end up doing.”

“Possible,” Cryos agrees. “But there’s no sign of him campaigning or getting any money for something like that.”

“Maybe he’s just a greedy son of a bitch,” King suggests. “He’s worried that after he retires, he’s going to have to give up that lifestyle if the money starts to dry up and he’s making sure he doesn’t have to.”

“No, there has to be more to it than that,” Shadow remarks, narrowing his eyes at the screen. “Vlad went to him for this, which means he searched him out and found a weakness to exploit somehow to get him specifically to agree to this. Are we sure he hasn’t gone to any other judges?”

“I’ve looked through all of their financials, and honestly, it wouldn’t surprise me if he did but this is the only conversation caught,” Cryos admits. “We’ve got two with gambling problems and their addictions are getting worse as time goes on, so they’re bleeding cash. And a few have some major debts because they are living beyond their means.”

“So is it likely he won’t actually need Brown and will go with someone else and Brown is just a back-up?” Bullet asks.

“It could be, but since this only just happened last night, I haven’t found the motive yet,” Cryos sighs. “I mean, honestly, at this point, Vlad doesn’t even make sense in some his choices.”

“What about his wife or kids?” Sniper asks. “Maybe he’s found out something about the two of them and is using that to approach the Judge. I mean, gambling and such is definitely a weakness that Vlad would want to exploit, but maybe that’s too noticeable for Vlad. I mean, if he wants to stay off the radar, he would know that if shit hit the fan, they would look at those judges first because they do make the most sense.”

“There’s nothing I can find on the wife and kids. Eldest son is married with a kid of his own and lives in Florida. Works as a lawyer for the Prosecutor’s office. The second son is graduating from Havard, and it looks like he is also going into law. Based on his social media he has a longtime girlfriend, who is also in the law business. But there’s nothing on their records other than a few speeding tickets, which they paid and didn’t cause any trouble over.”

“Surprising for lawyers,” Timber quips.

“Or they knew they wouldn’t win and just didn’t want to fight,” I reason. “And neither of the kids have aspirations of politics or being bigger than their father?”

“There was one post that the eldest son wants to be Attorney General some day, or a Senator, but they are his career aspirations for down the line,” Cryos answers after a moment.

“Something that far out though doesn’t sound like something that Vlad would care about,” Sniper sighs. “And we’re sure that neither son has a record or anything that could connect them to Vlad or his men?”

“Not that I’ve found yet. I’ll keep digging, but they’re both clean. As for the wife,” Cryos continues, “she’s currently mostly involved in some charity work and some society groups. The rest of the time she’s taking trips or pretending to care about some cause and then goes to the spa or shopping or whatever.”

“So probably another dead end,” Torque sighs.

A thought suddenly occurs to me. “Or,” I say slowly, “maybe we’re looking at them too closely. Maybe it’s not them Vlad has something on. Cryos, you said the wife comes from money. Where did that money come from? And who is her family?”

Cryos straightens, and the room fills with tension as we wait for him to look up that information. Finally, after a few minutes, he looks at me wide-eyed. “Son of a bitch,” he says, clicking a few more buttons to show pictures up on the screen. “You’re right. His wife, Ellen, is the daughter of Sal and Marnie Stephenson, who made their money in real estate, but it was Ellen’s grandfather, and Sal’s father, Burton Stephenson, who had his own companies in real estate and some legal arms businesses. But there are articles here that say that the Feds were suspicious of the grandfather.That his business wasn’t all that legitimate and he was selling arms to the bad guys on the side, while trying to be the face of being a good guy. Nothing was ever proven, but he made a fortune far quicker than most would.”

“So we can probably assume the money that Ellen got in her trust isn’t fully legal money, and Vlad knows it,” Bullet summarizes.

“That, and it’s also possible the grandfather worked with Vlad’s predecessor at some point along the way and now Vlad is expecting Judge Brown to take up the mantel. No one would ever think to look that deeply into the wife, and on paper everywhere else, the other judges look like better candidates to accept the bribes, not him,” I finish, straightening in my chair.

“That still doesn’t explain why the Judge would agree,” Medic points out with a frown. “I mean, I would have to assume he wouldn’t know all of that, or would have made sure none of that information was easily found when he went up as a lawyer and then a judge. I mean, The Bar Association does pretty extensive background checks.”

“But they probably wouldn’t have gone that deep into the wife ,” Shadow points out. “I mean, yes, they would have gone through him, but once they looked at her parents and saw they had a legitimate business with no issues, they probably wouldn’t have gone. After all, they see she has money, it can be easily traced, and they’d just leave it at that.”

“And if they could never prove the grandfather did anything illegal, then that would mean they can’t push that point with the judge,” I add. Shadow nods his agreement.

“It could also explain why politics was never the goal,” Torque adds. “It’s just enough to make someone question him on things in politics and could hurt him, but not sink him. And the son is probably thinking—and that’s if he knows about any of it—that in a decade, it won’t matter by that point since it doesn’t affect him directly.”

“I think we need to figure out if Vlad or anyone in Vlad’s immediate circle knew the grandfather,” Bullet tells Cryos. “But as much as we want to know his motivation, at the same time, I think we need to focus on the bigger picture. He’s coming for us, and he’s trying to be clever about it, but we’re in the know this time, and we need to use that to our advantage.”

“And it sounds like he’s going to have the law do his dirty work to get us out of the way,” King adds grimly. “So we basically can guarantee he’s going to have dirty cops pulling us over all the damn time, or trying to invade our businesses.”

“I’m more worried he’s going to use our kids,” I say darkly. “One call to CPS and we’ve got not only the law but child services searching us out.” I look at Shadow. “They will probably leave Macy since your Old Lady is a social worker and they won’t go after Quinn when everyone likes her, but that doesn’t mean shit for me and Archer. Especially since he and I have such a new arrangement and that will be easy for them to go after if they really want to make trouble.”

Shadow’s face goes hard. “If anyone goes after Quinn or Macy, we’re going to have a fucking problem,” he snarls, an edge to his voice that isn’t normally there. I arch a brow at him in question. It’s a bit extreme, even for him. He glances at me and then around the table and sighs. “None of you can say anything, especially to the women, because Quinn’s not ready to share yet, but she’s pregnant.”

Everyone is silent for a moment and then I’m pounding him on the shoulder, huge ass grin on my face. “Congratulations, brother,” I beam. Congratulations and grins fill the room, and some of the tension in Shadow eases and he finally smiles.

“How the hell did you convince Quinn so fast?” King grins. “Last I heard, she told you she wasn’t ready yet.”

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