Page 11 of Homecoming

Of course, it could go the other way as well and he could be hyper vigilant instead. The kinds of people that are informants are either just looking to make some quick money, or they have found themselves stuck in a life that they don’t want and are trying to do something about it. At least those are the ones that I have met.

I scan the building that Rage is on to see if I can find him, but I can’t even see a hint of where he might be, so I know that he has done his job as well as he usually does and has set himself up with a vantage point that is as concealed as mine should be.

Now, it is just a waiting game.

I hate that Alaric is so exposed just standing in the middle of this courtyard and waiting for the informant, especially after what happened before with Blake. It is certainly not a safe position for him.

At least here he has us up in positions that we can watch his back. Hopefully, this meeting will go a lot better than the previous one and we will actually get the information that we need. With any luck, the information that this informant wants to give us is the same that the now very dead one tried to tell us.

The thing with informants is that unless they are your people undercover, you can’t entirely trust that the information they are giving you is accurate and worth it, at least not until you take the time to look into it and see if there is any evidence to back up the informant's claims. They risk their lives by giving information, but they can very easily be playing a double agent and giving us information that Blake or my father wants us to know.

It is a double-edged sword, and we have to be very careful.

Chapter Seven

Atlas

After what seems like far too long of a wait, but probably isn’t, a man with his hood up and his hands in his pockets approaches Alaric from the other direction. I train my weapon on him. I do not like the fact that his hands are in his pockets. I like to be able to see someone's hands in this situation, so that I know for sure that they are empty and that the person is not carrying a weapon.

He could be concealing a weapon easily enough in his hoody pocket, it’s certainly baggy enough. I ready myself to pull the trigger the second that it looks like he has something in his hand that he shouldn’t have. I see Alaric glance at the informant's hands, and I know that he has picked up the risk as well. I can’t hear him from here, I am too far away but he will fill us in when we get back to the car.

My breathing is calm, and my hand is steady on my gun as I watch them closely. I do wish that I had my sniper rifle instead of my handgun, but I don’t tend to bring that with me unless Alaric tells me that I need to.

I know that Rage will be doing the same thing as I am and finding the perfect angle to take the shot if he needs to. Alaric says something to the guy, and takes a step back, his hand moving to his hip where his gun is and his other hand held up in warning. He doesn’t pull out his gun though, he looks like he is just warning him, so I wait.

The informant very slowly removes his hands from his pockets and holds them up, showing that they are both empty and that he is not concealing a weapon. Well, he could still be concealing a weapon on him somewhere, and probably is, I know I would be if I were coming to give a cop inside information. The point is, he isn’t about to shoot Alaric on the spot.

I won’t lower my gun; it wouldn’t be a smart idea to do so, and it could put Alaric at risk.

While I am focused on Alaric, I also make sure that I am paying attention to my own surroundings, and listening for any slight noise or shift in the air that could indicate that I am about to be snuck up on. We didn’t spot anyone when we arrived, and I didn’t spot anyone walking through the building, but this place is enormous, and there is a good chance that we could have missed someone, or someone could have arrived while we were focused on the meeting and Alaric.

Thankfully, there have been no signs of Blake either, which I have mixed feelings about. On the one hand, him not being here means that the informant isn’t going to die and that none of us are going to get caught in the crossfire, or rather just shit because Blake wants us all dead. On the other hand, if he walked into the courtyard now, and made a threatening move, which he would because it’s Blake and that is pretty much the only thing that he knows how to do, then I could take the shot. That may sound harsh; he is my brother; however, after what he has put me through and what he puts others through, I would most likely be saving hundreds of lives by ending him.

I am okay with that, and I am aware that most people in my position wouldn’t be. However, I don’t think that there are many people that will ever be in my position, it’s pretty unique.

These sorts of meetings don’t tend to take very long, but Alaric and the informant have been speaking for quite a while now, and the informant is gesturing wildly. I have no idea what he could be talking about, but Alaric doesn’t look concerned in the slightest, in fact, he looks quite amused and slightly frustrated.

Finally, the conversation seems to wind down. The informant walks off in the direction that he came from, and Alaric stays where he is for a while longer to make sure that he has really gone. When he turns to leave the courtyard area, I finally pull my gun in from the hole in the window and quickly make my way back through the factory that I am in so I can meet him back at the car.

Fortunately, it doesn’t take very long to get back to the car and I don’t run into any trouble on the way. Alaric and Rage arrive at the same time that I do, and I raise my eyebrow in question.

“I will fill you in when we are safely away from here,” Alaric says.

I nod in agreement and pull open the door of the car.

Once we are all seated, we immediately drive off. We have already been here for far longer than is technically safe, and we now need to leave as quickly as possible. Anyone could have spotted us arriving, and then either told Liam or sent someone to lie in wait for us. It is for this reason that we remain on edge until we are heading back in the direction of Blackbreak, although now, we have a six plus hour drive instead of the original shorter drive.

“So, what did he say? He seemed very animated,” I say.

Alaric shakes his head, “Yeah, when Mr R sent me the details, and it mentioned his name, my memory pinged, but I couldn’t figure out for the life of me why. It wasn’t until he started telling me about his cousins, best friends, sisters, husband's aunt, whoever the fuck that is, that I remembered why I tended to avoid any meetings with him.”

I burst out laughing.

“No way,” Rage chuckles, “you mean that some of that conversation that lasted far longer than it should have was because he was giving you gossip about people that you don’t even know?”

Alaric raises one eyebrow looking thoroughly unimpressed as he replies, “The information that he had to give me was that there was some unrest between Liam and Blake. That Blake was taking on some parts of the business, and making decisions that Liam is not happy about. He is using the parts of the business that he has taken over for human trafficking, among other things.”

“We knew about the human trafficking,” I point out. “Blake’s reaction to the first informant saying that he was loyal to Liam makes a bit more sense though. If Blake and Liam are fighting, then Blake would have taken that as an insult.”

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