Page 43 of Avenging Laura

“More than you know. You will never find them all. You will never find all of our assets. You’re not that good. None of you are!” Kathy laughed, shaking her head at the trio.

“Ah, but we have started to dismantle the business, mother dear. See, we’ve found the one in Tampa. We’ve found one in Colorado. The group you were siding with and funding in Arkansas. I’m surprised at you on that one. Especially David. I’m going to have to say that was Maria’s thing. The whole vampirism avenue. All of those have been dismantled. You are trying to rebuild what you have lost and so far, you’re failing. See you guys had a safe haven in Bishop County. David and Maria are on the run now because we’ve dismantled that whole fucking operation. Including the one in Riverdale. The feds are on thetrail as well. We know you have some spies in that office, those are being weeded out as we speak. You are done. Your usefulness for David and Maria is done. Either you’ll be forgotten and allowed to rot, or they will have you taken out because of your knowledge of the business.” Laura smirked at Kathy as she stood up and started to walk out.

“I actually have one question,” Dominick declared, looking over at Kathy. “Maria. Why did you keep her and sell all the others? Why did David choose her instead of a male to be his face?”

“Maria isn’t his daughter. Hell, she’s not even my daughter. He bought her from one of his clients and molded her into what he wanted. She is his pet. So, there was no suspicion on her being in the home from outsiders, it was said she was our daughter. He started fucking her as soon as she turned thirteen. We trained her to do what we wanted her to do. You think she controls David?” Kathy burst into laughter. “David controls that little bitch. He allows her free rein in public. Behind closed doors, she’s a whimpering little kitten begging for her master’s touch. She fucks who he tells her to fuck. Does what he tells her to do. David is a cruel master. You have no idea what that man is capable of.”

“Why does she hate me so much then? It can’t be because of you and David. She doesn’t even like Dominick, but she’s not as cruel to him as she has been to me,” Laura questioned, standing in front of the door.

“Because at one time, when David lost the buyer he had for you, he considered making you one of his slaves. Even when he married you off to that idiot, Jon, David would watch the videos Jon made of you two doing it. He would watch those and get so fucking riled up that Jon was touching you. Even said Jon wasn’t training you right. He would take it out on me or Maria. She hated the fact that David wanted you. Even endured a beating byfucking Jon without David’s permission just so she could say she had something of yours. She will go after your precious husband. She will do everything in her power to get on his cock.” Kathy smirked at Laura, as she turned to look at the two-way mirror, winking.

“Oh, that will never happen. My husband would have no problem putting a bullet in that bitch’s head if she even looked his way.” Laura laughed as she walked out of the room.

When Laura, Dominick, and Shane walked out of the room, they stood just outside the door in a small circle. Not saying a word as they digested what they had just heard in regard to Krieger.

“They never knew Diesel’s background or where she was from, so they never thought to tell Krieger about us. They knew we were focused here. We assumed they left the country. They just left the state,” Laura surmised as her team started to surround them, Highlander at her back.

“Diesel and York interrogated the woman they were with. Turns out she’s part of the ring but she’s more or less one of the patsies they use to run errands. She says Kathy set up the lunch meeting for her to arrange safe passage for her and two other parties. They hadn’t discussed who the two other parties were before Bravo Squad showed up,” Captain Irby advised Laura, Dominick, and Shane.

“Which tells me Deanna and Cyrus are in Bishop County. I say we plaster their faces on the news in both counties. Draw them out. Force Cyrus to make a move.” Laura shrugged, looking at her team and siblings.

“She was really a part of all of those rings?” Shane deflated, looking between Dominick and Laura.

“David runs all of it. The one in Bishop County she was a part of and a couple of others focused here in San Diego and surrounding areas. I don’t think David trusted her enough withthe others. If she had information on the others outside of California, I think they would have taken her with them when they fled, or she would be dead by now. I think this goes way deeper than we realize.”

“You really think she had ties to Krieger and that organization?” Diesel looked at the three siblings in shock.

“David and Maria do. Krieger never considered running for office or anything like that. They liked to control things from the sideline. Kept him out of the spotlight. I think David wanted someone in political offices that he could control. He couldn’t control Jon’s family the way he wanted to. They basically controlled him,” Laura concluded as she thought about things from the past.

“She’s right. David would get angry when Jon’s father and grandfather would remind him who was in charge. It wasn’t him. It would make sense to have Krieger rise up while they built their empire. If he had Krieger in his pocket, was able to control the power that Krieger had, then he would have more power than them and would have been able to use Krieger’s people to take out Jon’s family,” Dominick agreed, realizing where his sister was going with her train of thought.

“Yay! One big happy family!” Diesel squealed, causing everyone to look at her before they burst into laughter.

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

Highlander walked into the conference room to find his wife and the rest of her team were all staring at the two whiteboards they had set up in the room. Laura was standing in front of the board with a marker in her hand looking at what she’d written down on both.

Studying the whiteboard himself, he realized it was a timeline that she had come up with on how everything worked, that she knew of. While he stood there looking at it, one of the others would ask a question that would have them all looking at the board more and other possible questions coming to mind.

This was his wife and her team. Her sisters. While she thought they had abandoned her, they had her back the whole time. They didn’t call or physically check on her. They didn’t knock on the door. But she had never truly been alone. They sat outside watching the house trying to find out who was terrorizing their sister.

They gave her the space she demanded she needed. They thought if they had stepped back, she would have come to her senses sooner. His lass was a stubborn one. That was for sure. They were still kicking themselves for not physically going into the house and forcing her to wake the fuck up.

“What is known about this Deanna Placid?” Sgt. Brocard questioned, looking from the whiteboard to Laura.

“Not much really. She’s from a wealthy family like David and Kathy are. Her father apparently made his living in financing while her mother was a housewife who raised the children. Deanna is one of three it looks like. This is interesting. Looks like she and my incubator went to high school together and were good friends according to the yearbook Tex found,” Laura told her teammates as she looked at a file.

“Did David go to the same high school as they did?” Raso chewed on her lower lip as she tilted her head looking between Laura and the board.

“No. David actually went to a rival school. If I remember correctly, they had the same friends thanks to the fathers all knowing one another. David’s father and Deanna’s father went to basic together in the Marine Corps as a fuck you to their fathers who wanted them to go to work in the factories and stuff. They met in basic and formed a fast friendship and then when they got out went into business together. The rest is history so to speak,” Laura answered Raso as she turned to look at the timeline.

“Doesn’t explain how David’s father got into the whole trafficking thing though,” Diesel said, trying to figure out some of the gaps in the timeline.

“That’s what I’m not understanding too. I know David’s father was a part of it but how he got into it I don’t know. I know Deanna’s father and grandfather came from money, so that could be how it started,” Laura considered as she tried to figure out the same train of thought that Diesel had on the whole thing.

“How about instead of trying to figure that part out, since those men are dead, ye lasses focus on finding Cyrus and taking down David and Maria. If ye can find Cyrus, there is a chance ye can figure out the gaps in those timelines. I would alsobe prepared to accept that there may always be gaps in that timeline because they may not even know.” Highlander made his presence known in the room.

“He’s right. Both sets of parents that got them started are gone. Although it would help to understand Deanna’s place in all this, we need to be prepared to accept we will never have all the key players in this.” Laura sighed heavily as she put the marker on the table.

---