Page 14 of Barrett

“You’re not, but I didn’t expect you to be after watching Barrett storm out. He’s gone, by the way.”

“Jordan?”

“In the hall still on the phone with Barry.”

I nodded. No one would come near us in this building. Jordan was feared. He would only say so much over the phone. Barry was intuitive as hell though. With only a few words, he could get the gist of what Jordan needed.

My heart and mind warred with one another. My heart begged for me to go after Barrett; to take him into my arms and tell him all the amazing things I thought about him. My head told me that was a foolish fucking move, and I deserved more than to be disregarded like nothing I said mattered. Clearly, Barrett didn’t want to share anything with me, not even a cordial conversation. I was nothing more than the hired help for Jordan, as far as he was concerned.

A little voice in my head told me that wasn’t the case. It reminded me of Barrett’s parting words. The logical side of my brain pushed that voice away in favor of self-preservation.

I also had to remember; I wasn’t always nice to Barrett. Most of the time I was a dick, but he seemed to thrive off that side. We both played our roles, and he didn’t want to dive deeper.

Raiden walked around until he stood in front of me. He put his hands on my shoulders and gently squeezed them until my eyes met his. “Jordan’s counting on us to help him with this.” Not Barrett was counting on us. Barrett was counting on Jordan.

“Thanks.” It was what I had to remember. Where we were and who we worked for. My brother knew I needed a slight nudge, nothing more.

At the end of the day, when I was alone in bed, I’d replay what happened and the words Barrett said. Maybe the answer was no more anger.

I’d despised Barrett for so long because of his attitude and the simple fact he was a cop. Like most people, there were many layers to Barrett North. Would he let me fuck him? Absolutely. There was no doubt in my mind. He’d do it without giving me anything else though. He’d close himself off, come, and be done with me. I used to think I wanted that. No longer. I deserved more, and so did he.

No more anger. No more chasing. No more anything. If Barrett wanted to talk to me, he knew how to find me.

“Let’s go,” Jordan barked into the room.

My brother and I followed him to the elevator, where we rode to the lobby. Barrett was nowhere in sight.

Albert stood outside by the Maserati as we exited the building. While Jordan slid into the back seat, Raiden got behind the wheel of the SUV we rode in behind them. We didn’t need direction as to where we were going. We could follow Albert with ease through the city.

It wasn’t surprising when we pulled into the garage beneath Jordan’s building. This was his safe space, where he could do what he wanted inside. No bugs were planted here. The cops had tried every time they searched the building, but we’d always found and flushed the devices. Jordan didn’t last this long on the side of freedom without predicting the moves the cops would make.

We met Barry in a conference room, where he had a map of East Dremest pulled up on the TV screen that hung on the far wall. There were red pins for the areas the men had disappeared from.

“There’s not much to go off of,” Barry said. “No pattern. I did some digging.” He expanded the map to include both sides of the city. “This takes into account the men who disappeared from the other side as well. Lawson?”

“I’m here,” Lawson’s deep rumble came through the speakerphone in the center of the table. “I pulled the police reports and the descriptions of the men who’d been taken. As Barrett said, they lived alone or were unhoused. Each one was taken out of camera range, so no one had eyes on who did this. There isn’t even a suspicious vehicle. It’s a case of stalking. Whoever did this watched their prey until the time was right to make their move on foot.”

“What else?” Jordan asked.

“The men look similar. Shorter, slender, lost in their own worlds. Men who don’t appear to be able to fight well.”

“Ones who could be bound and held against their will easily.”

“I didn’t want to say it.”

“I hate this,” Jordan growled and slammed his fist against the table. He didn’t care about trafficking guns or drugs, but he drew a hard line at people—a mafia boss with some morals. Jordan would do what he could so no one was trafficked in or around the city.

“I’ll keep digging,” Lawson said and hung up.

In all the time I’d worked for Jordan, I hadn’t seen Lawson once. I’d heard he came by on the rare occasion, but neither my brother nor I were with Jordan when it happened. It was usually in the middle of the night when the building was quiet. Lawson could get in and out without too many people seeing him. Even on the video feed, he moved like a ghost through the halls, dodging where the camera would land on him. He probably knew the layout of the building as well as Sheldon did. Lawson’s came from knowledge of the video feed. Sheldon’s was from his restless roaming all hours of the night.

“I’ve sent ten of our guards out onto the streets,” Barry said. “I placed them near clubs, bars, and anywhere these men could be grabbed from. The last man to be taken was in West Dremest on Wednesday, which tells me another one is due to happen tomorrow. They occur every three days.”

“Put ten more out there. We’ll still have enough power in the building. I’ll call my son and fill him in. The more eyes we have on the city, the better.”

7

BARRETT

---