Page 8 of Rise By Sin

“Yeah? Well it worked out well for you then, huh?” he threw back angrily, and I reeled back like he’d just slapped me across my face.

“Mace!” Jack snapped.

“Get the fuck out, right now!” I raged as I forced myself to stand and pointed to the door. “This office belongs to my brother and you have no right to be in here. Get out, and stay the hell away from me!”

“I think we should all just try and calm down a bit. We’re all worried and emotions are high. Let’s just chill out and talk rather than shouting at each other,” Jack tried to calm things down, but it was too late. I was pissed as hell with Mason for his cutting comment – not that he’d been wrong.

“Fuck that. You two are still the over grown idiots you’ve always been, and the last thing I need is either of you slowing me down. Go back downstairs and play with whatever Barbie doll is down there panting for you both! That’s what you’re good at, right?”

“Ava!” Jack barked, ending my tirade. I collapsed down into the chair again, my chest heaving with each gasping breath I took. It turned out being pissed and jealous was more than I could handle nowadays. Shame, since that seemed to be all I was good at anymore. “Enough! Mace, go to the precinct and trace Colt’s phone. Find out if he really was in Chicago when he left you that voicemail. I’ll stay here with Ava and go through his shit. Call us if you get anything.”

“Fine, but don’t let her out of your sight. I don’t want her charging off alone and making the whole situation worse,” Mason ordered.

“I’m a fucking detective, asshole! This is what I do!” I roared at him.

“Are you?” That was all he said as he glanced from where I had dropped my walking cane to the floor beside me and back to my face.

“Bastard!” I screamed as I grabbed a paperweight from the desk and threw it at him. It would have hit him square in the chest too if he hadn’t side stepped so fast.

“Mace, stop being a bloody arsehole and go find Colt,” Jack sighed.

I didn’t even see Mason leave the office, but I knew he’d gone when the door slammed closed behind him. I had my head lowered, fighting with everything in me not to let his taunting words hurt me. He was right again, after all. I wasn’t a detective anymore. I wasn’t even a cop. I was no one.

“Ignore him, Ava. He’s just mad because you’re hurt and we didn’t even know. He worries about you. We both do since yousplit. We should have come after you but we knew we had to leave the ball in your court.”

“Whatever. I’ve worked with CPD for years. You think anything he can say is worse then what I’ve already heard?” I tossed back as I lifted my head, my mask of indifference firmly back in place. “Let’s just focus on finding Colt. Do you have any idea what he’s mixed up in?” I asked calmly.

“I have an idea,” Jack said as he leant against the desk right in front of me, resting his butt on the edge and crossing his legs at his ankles before him. “Six months ago we got audited by the I.R.S. Colt wasn’t worried, because everything here, and across his other businesses is legit, but they tied everything up in legal crap, and found a way to freeze all of Colt’s accounts until their investigation was over.”

“Investigation?”

“They linked two of our members with a terrorist group, which was bullshit, by the way, but it was enough to turn the routine audit into an investigation.”

“What happened?” I asked.

“After three months with no access to his accounts Colt started to struggle to balance everything with his other businesses and the new club he’s building downtown. I offered to loan him some money, but instead he offered me an investment opportunity in this place.”

“That’s how you became a part owner,” I concluded, thinking of what Deak had told me before.

“Yeah. I own one quarter of the club and Colt had the money he needed to keep the construction on the new club going. But it wasn’t enough. He needed access to his business accounts to paystaff and keep everything running, and there was no sign of the I.R.S. backing off anytime soon, so Colt mentioned something about borrowing the money he needed. I didn’t know he’d gone through with it, because he never mentioned anything to me, but if he did, it will be a big debt that he owes.”

“Fuck! Who could he have borrowed money from?”

“No idea, but if that guy who turned up at your place works for whoever it is, it can’t be anyone good,” Jack pointed out, and I nodded my agreement.

“You think they could have taken Colt?”

“I don’t think they’d be coming to your place searching for him if they had him. Maybe he’s hiding out somewhere, keeping a low profile? Though that doesn’t make sense either, since the investigation was dropped last week, and all of Colt’s bank accounts released back to him.”

“This makes no sense,” I groaned as I held my pounding head and tried to think straight.

“No, it doesn’t, and it’s not like Colt at all. We need to find out who he borrowed money from. They have to know something about what’s going on here.”

“Yeah,” I nodded as I lifted my head and took a deep breath. “You’re right, Let’s see if there’s anything here about the loan.”

I needed to sleep, preferably after several pain pills and a bottle of Vodka, but it had to wait. If Colt was mixed up with some low life loan shark, I needed to handle it, and fast. I needed to get him back safe.

JACK

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