Page 15 of Reed

“A strong sedative. Enough to knock her out,” Jessie says.

“Which means that someone had to be watching her. Waiting for her to pass out,” Nick says, pointing to the picture in front of me. The picture I completely forgot about.

“Who is this?” I wish I could reach into it and drag the man out. I don’t care who the fuck he is or what his story is because if he is involved, I will end him in the most painful way possible.

“While watching the security cameras, I noticed this guy parked beside Ali. He pulled in right after her,” Nick says, pulling his laptop closer to him and pressing some keys. The TV anchored to the wall fills with the school’s security feeds. I watch Ali pull in, get out, and pull the boys out of the Jeep. “It was while I was watching this guy that I noticed something funny about the feed.”

“What do you mean funny?” I ask, clenching my fist so hard my nails break the skin of my palm. I’m slowly losing control over myself, and Leon hasn’t even made it here to tell me what the fuck is going on.

“Whoever did this know what they are doing. It looks innocent enough to someone who doesn’t know what they are looking at. But watch the upper right-hand corner of this screen.” Nick does whatever he does with the computer, and the camera he is talking about expands and fills the screen.

I stare so hard that the image becomes blurry. But then I see a bird’s wing coming into frame for a second, disappearing, and coming right back—as if the bird was flying in the same spot. “They looped the feed,” I growl, slamming my fist on the table.

“Yeah, they did. All of a sudden, Ali’s Jeep goes from perfectly fine to destroyed. The guy in the blue car stays there until…” The screens start fast-forwarding. I watch the group of students begin to accumulate. Then we walk on the screen. “Until we start to process the Jeep. But look, when he pulls away,” Nick says, pressing keys again to focus on the single screen, “he snaps pictures of us before pulling out.”

“Okay, so who is this fucker?” I ask, holding up the picture. My hand has tightened around it and is currently crushing the image of the guy I’m going to kill.

“Blaze Clarke,” Nick says. “The guy you had me look into last night. I don’t think he is the ringleader we are looking for, but we need to pay him a visit sooner than later.” The intercom sitting in the middle of the room crackles to life. Everyone’s eyes land on it as we wait for Canon to speak.

“There is a Leon here to see you.” Canon, our enforcer’s voice, comes over the speaker.

“Let him in,” I reply, hitting the button. We sit in silence until Leon comes through the door. He isn’t in his everyday FBI get-up of black dress pants, a white shirt, and a black jacket. Today, he looks like the street thug I met the summer I turned fifteen. His jeans have grease stains and holes all over them. A black T-shirt is stretched across his massive chest, exposing his arms, with tattoos covering every inch of them.

“Boys, it’s been too long,” he says, nodding at the guys and taking the spot next to Jessie. “So tell me how the hell you guys have gotten messed up in this.” Leon doesn’t take his eyes off of me.

“Messed up in what?” Gabe speaks up first.

“Yeah, Leon, messed up in what?” I repeat Gabe’s question, leaning forward and resting my arms on the table. “I’m not telling you anything until you tell me what the fuck you found.” I’m done with all the secrets. Someone is after my girl, and I’m missing fucking pieces of the puzzle. Important pieces.

“Christ, cut the dramatic pissing contest, Reed.” Leon leans forward and pulls an envelope from behind his back. He slaps it down on the table before scooting it toward me. I don’t move to grab it or open the damn thing. I don’t have time to read what’s in there. I want to hear this from the horse’s mouth. “Her name is Sarah Hastings. Her case was one I worked on. Local cops thought it was a home invasion gone wrong. When Sarah was eight, her father, Jacob, was butchered in their home in Chicago. Sarah’s mother was raped before her neck was broken.” Leon’s face turns pale white as if he is reliving all of it.

“Shit,” Jessie says, leaning back in his chair. Nick stares at the table like it holds all the answers to life’s questions. Gabe looks shocked. While I am trying to control my rage. I’ve locked every muscle up to keep me from destroying everything in my sight.

“The FBI had been watching Jacob for six months. He had gotten himself into a bit of a pickle with the Ricci family,” Leon continues.

I know that family name. My bastard father used to do business with the Ricci family until the night I used his own gun to kill him and destroyed his empire. I refused to do business with them, and they have left me alone so far.

“The fucking Italian mafia,” I yell, pounding my hand against the table.

“Yeah. Jacob had made some bad choices in the stock market and didn’t have the assets to cover the loss. So he took out a loan from someone he didn’t know very well. That’s how he got on our radar. We had been watching a local loan shark that was rumored to be working with Aldo Ricci. When Jacob couldn’tpay it back, Aldo offered him a deal. They would forgive his debt if he started working for them. Jacob wasn’t cut out for what they were asking him to do. So we stepped in and offered him another way out, which he took. Only someone found out and ordered the hit.

“The hit was to kill Jacob, only Jacob. Helen, Sarah’s mom, wasn’t supposed to be touched and the kids weren’t even supposed to be at home that night. Aldo wanted them alive for whatever reason. But his men got ahead of themselves. They saw Helen and decided they would torture her as well. When the local police arrived, they found Sarah outside, holding her brother Caleb. They were inches from the house, which was nothing but a burning inferno. She had second-degree burns on the lower half of her legs. From what we could piece together, Caleb lowered Sarah out a second-story window before they found him. She was able to stay alive by hiding somewhere outside.” By the time Leon is done talking, his hands are shaking.

“Was she able to give a description of the men?” Gabe asks. My hands are also shaking uncontrollably. My mind is racing at how scared she must have been. Did she see what the men had done to her family? And the burns on her legs… my stomach turns over at the pain she must have gone through.

“No. She has never said a word about what she saw that night. As far as we know, she has not spoken about that night to this day,” Leon says.

“So the name change?” Jessie asks. Thank god for my men because I can’t get any words pass the lump in my throat.

“We changed her name, and created a story that Sarah, Jacob, and Helen all died in the fire. Caleb was shot before he fell from the window. I kept in contact with her up until two years ago. Sarah was placed in the foster care system here in Missouri. She went through a lot of homes. The families said they couldn’t dealwith her. Their reasons never seemed valid to me. So, I had a yearly check-in with her, but the year she turned eighteen, she missed it. I started looking for her, but it’s like she fell off the face of the earth. Her last foster family said she left in the middle of the night,” Leon says, pushing away from the table. He walks to the small bar cart kept in the corner of the room. He pours himself a shot of whiskey and throws it back.

“How did she elude the FBI for two fucking years?” I ask, each word laced with anger. It was their responsibility to keep her safe, but they failed.

“I have no idea. Ali wasn’t the name we gave her. When I looked that name up, I found the same useless shit you did. When I got the message from Gabe, I asked for a picture of this girl so I could do some digging. When I saw it, I took care of what I was doing and then raced here. I have to talk to her and find out what the hell is going on,” Leon says.

“What was her name?” I ask. I don’t know why I need this information, but I want to know fucking everything about her.

“Sarah Hastings became Kate Cox.”

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