Page 40 of Reaper's Rage

“But you didn’t. You can’t change the past, Reaper, but there is nothing stopping you from using this to take down Trask. You have Smoke, Byte, Maestro and Spark. They can help you access the laptop. They can help you find the other man. Hell, they may even find the girl.” Ashlyn says. “Trask needs to pay for what he’s done, and he might help us identify who bought me.”

I suck in a breath. “You’re right. He worked with Renee, so he likely knew most of her customers.” I give her a kiss. “TST.” I mumble.

“What?” Ashlyn asks, her forehead wrinkling in confusion.

“Smoke found an account of Renee’s that was listed as TST. The Spades - Trask. I bet that’s what it stands for. On the video, Trask mentioned transporting other girls that Renee drugged. He was her deliver guy.” I snag her around the middle so I can lift us both up off the bed. After shoving Wylan’s gun into my nightstand, I take Ashlyn’s hand. “I have to talk to Spark and Smoke. They can hack the laptop and they need to watch the video Wylan took. Come on, baby.”

I drag her out to the common room and hand her over to Alisa and Desdemona. “Get something to eat, babe, and get some rest. Regardless of what we find tonight, tomorrow is your birthday and I’m going to make it one you’ll never forget.” I plant a hard kiss on her lips before I head to find Spark.

“I have something you and Smoke need to see right away.” I tell him. He nods at me before downing his beer.

“Let’s go to my office and we’ll patch Smoke in.” Spark says.

“Holy shit, where did you find this?” Smoke asks after he, Spark and Maestro finish watching the video.

I give them a rundown of how I found the video in the duffle bag. “I have the gun Wylan had with him that night. It’s unregistered. I don’t know why he didn’t use it.”

“Once the bullets started flying at him, he probably panicked.” Smoke says.

“Yeah, like I did.” I admit, still unable to shake how poorly I handled the situation.

“Fuck that.” Spark says. “I was here that night when you arrived. It was the first time you were ever in a gunfight, the first time someone shot at you. Stop beating yourself up. You distracted the shooter long enough to get you both to safety. Sometimes that’s all you can manage.”

“Reaper, knock it off. If you were in the same position today, you’d handle it differently. Look back on everything you’ve learned since that night and recognize the situation for what it was. Fucked up. So stop and let’s get to work. Because I have news. I think this asshole with Trask is the guy who bought Ashlyn.”

This grabs my attention and I force all feelings of guilt and inadequacy back down. I may have to deal with them later, but right now, my feelings aren’t important. Ashlyn is where my focus needs to be now.

“No fucking way.” I blurt out. “Are you certain?”

“Fairly certain. Here, look at these images and compare them to the asshole in the video.” Smoke says just as two photos show up on the screen in Spark’s office. One is the shot of a man standing in front of a crowd of people sitting in the audience. In the video, he’s dressed down in khakis and a sport shirt while in the photo, he’s wearing a suit and tie with his hair slicked back. While it looks like him, it’s the second photo that leaves no doubt. Not only does he look more like the guy in the video, but he’s standing in front of the house that haunts my dreams. He’s standing in front of the same door that Wylan exited as he ran for his life.

“Fuck, that’s him. That’s the house, too.” I tell my brothers.

“That is Theodore Jordan. The so-called minister who started God’s Chosen Disciples. We found out more about him. He’s the son of a prostitute who died of a drug overdose when he was thirteen. A preacher took him in. But not just any preacher. This preacher, who is the minister of Pious Life Church, already had a son a few years younger than Teddy. His name was Ron Chaney. We called him Nerd.”

“Son of a bitch.” I whisper as everything comes full circle. The asshole who raped and murdered five women before we took him down knows the asshole who is after my woman. What a fucking small world.

“Nerd’s the one who attacked Tamara before she moved here?” Spark asks me and I nod.

“Yeah. He’s the one who also raped Caitlin and kidnapped Tally.” I explain. “He’s dead, but fuck, now we’re dealing with his foster brother?”

“Shield said we needed to watch Nerd’s father, said the man was a real bastard with backward and dangerous views about women.” Smoke says.

“Do we have eyes on Jordan?” I ask.

“You bet. Izzy and Cole are taking turns watching him.” Smoke says.

“What about the Spades? Anyone have eyes on Trask?” I ask. “Fuck, we need more prospects.”

Smoke laughs. “Yeah, I can’t believe we only had three of you at one time.”

“We were the best.” I say, rubbing my nails against my kutte, causing both Smoke and Spark to snort.

“We have eyes on Deion and Trask.” Smoke says. “Some buddies of Simon are thinking of prospecting. Grimm figured we’d use them to help keep watch on the Spades.”

“I might know of a way to get more information.” I muse. “Killian Stokes is Deion’s cousin, and I’m still friendly with him. He isn’t part of the gang, but he is their money guy. Killian cleans money better than anybody, and Deion relies heavily on him. He might know if Deion was getting money from Renee.”

“Would he tell you?” Spark asks with some doubt.

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