Page 107 of My Temptation

My eyes widened. “Clients?”

“Clients and partners,” Director Reed admitted.

“Just since yesterday?”

“Not exactly.”

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“We’ve been quietly investigating this organization since Daniel Sullivan was killed. They seemed to disband for a while, and then suddenly, we started hearing chatter again. We had information on enough people to start asking questions but not enough to make any charges stick. And to be honest, we wanted the top dog. We knew that had been Sullivan, but someone replaced him, and we couldn’t find out who.” He gestured toward Mila and me. “Until Elite and you two, essentially, became involved. We wouldn’t have gotten to Samson if you hadn’t breached the club. He was never on our radar. Yesterday, we brought in people from our list who had been on our radar, questioned them, and they shared a lot after they knew we had Samson in custody.”

Mila studied Director Reed. “Like what?”

“According to them, Daniel Sullivan was a man of threats. If they crossed him, he cut them out and threatened to expose them if they talked. Samson, on the other hand, was a man of action. He put out hits, and he did that after strike one. He wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty, and he wasn’t afraid to eliminate people. He was by far more dangerous than his half brother.”

“Why are his associates talking?” I asked. “Wouldn’t they want to protect themselves?”

“They are.” Director Reed shrugged. “They were offered a deal in exchange for their information.”

“What deal?”

He shook his head. “Can’t tell you that, and I can already tell that pisses you off, but we need to take this down from the top. Samson’s at the top. We get him, we shut this down.”

“What about the girls who were sold?” Mila asked.

“We already have a task force assigned to locate them.”

Mila dropped her hands to her lap, and we looked toward the head of the table when Jax spoke. “You have enough on Samson?”

Director Reed smiled. “More than enough to prosecute, but we’re not done interviewing yet. We’ll get him on everything we can to be sure he stays put away for the rest of his life.”

“Something still doesn’t make sense to me.” Mila glanced between Jax and the Director. “Why did he give up on Beth so easily? I understand that his goal was to have Max Skinner kill her and then he would have exactly what he wanted but that failed. Why not come after her while we were distracted? He had so much to gain.”

“He would’ve eventually circled back to Beth.” Director Reed glanced at Striker while he spoke. “He was letting the situation here cool off, and then I believe he planned to strike when everyone stopped being so diligent with her security.”

“Jesus.” I ran my hand through my hair. “What keeps someone from picking up where he left off?”

“It’ll be difficult. When Daniel Sullivan was killed, we searched his house from top to bottom but found nothing to indicate what type of business he was running or who he was working with. Even if he hadn’t been killed, we didn’t have much to get him on. Some drug charges and prostitution, but it would’ve been hard to make that stick. Plus, he had loyalty from his team. No one was talking. They respected him and the way he ran his business, as crazy as that sounds. Kevin Samson doesn’t have that same loyalty, but even more than that, he didn’t hide his business shit where it couldn’t be found. Once we could pull a warrant, we found the smoking gun in his house. We have a list that includes every past and present associate. We have dates and times of transactions. We have buyers’ names. We have everything we would’ve needed to put Sullivan away for life but couldn’t find, which means no one can pick up where he left off right now because we have them on our watch list. And they know that. We’ve made it clear that the FBI is in possession of the list.”

“How big was this?” My head snapped toward Striker again.

Director Reed shifted until he could see Striker. “Massive. Bigger than I’ve seen in my career, and from what I’ve heard, one of the biggest the FBI has had in a very long time.”

“It’s over now,” Jax concluded, and all attention shifted to him. “Finally.”

Director Reed nodded. “We owe you and your team.”

“You can repay us by getting the charges to stick.”

“And finding the girls,” Mila added.

“That we can promise.” Director Reed stood, along with Jax and Brody. “I need to get back to DC. We have a lot of work ahead of us.”

Jax and Brody walked out with him, and for a moment, the room was silent until Mila spoke to Kyle. “I can’t believe how quiet you were during that.”

Striker snorted out a laugh, and Kyle grinned. “Had to be. He had information I wanted.”

Her eyebrows rose. “Are you saying Jax doesn’t? You interrupt him constantly.”

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