Page 391 of Sticks and Stones
“His parents created Mercer Enterprises, and they own a few military contractor companies. The most recent is one calledThe BlackStone Group. They are in the business of war, and they tend to send in soldiers to take care of business.”
He was confused.
“Uh, the US government sends in soldiers. Why do we need more soldiers?”
Ethan explained.
“Private ones. Paid ones.”
He lifted a brow.
Well, that sounded ominous, and screamed only one thing.
“Mercenaries?”
He nodded.
Then, Ethan turned his laptop around, and showed his partner. On the screen, there was a news article.
‘Mercer Group denies any illegal maneuvers in the Middle East. It claims The BlackStone Group was only following military orders.’
“Oh, why don’t I like that?” he asked. “Why does that make me twitchy knowing that there are mercenaries playing US soldier in the Middle East?”
Ethan knew.
“Maybe because they are rich, sleezy, and don’t like to play by the rules. They think they’re entitled. It all started to spiral, from my research, when the brother died. James Mercer was the normal one who the family had banked on running the company after graduation. After his death, his brother and sister took over for the company. From all the articles, Julian Mercer is nothing more than a figurehead and playboy,”
Ethan showed him another news article.
‘Julian Mercer takes over as head of Mercer Group, but denies allegations of sexual harassment of employees in his company.’
Gene didn’t like that either. It told him all he had to know about the man, and it also skeeved him out that they were about to walk into his home.
If he was sexually harassing employees, could he be peddling flesh?
“Well, that’s ick. Again, keep that Blackhawk grin in the car, EJ. I’m a man on the edge in this town.”
Yeah, he could see that, and the last thing he wanted to do was push Gene closer to the edge. Javier had done that plenty.
“We’ll be okay,” Ethan promised.
Gene turned off the car, and he wasn’t kidding.
“Please don’t be sexy,” he said.
He would have laughed if the look on Gene’s face wasn’t serious.
“I promise I won’t. You’re driving the bus on this one. I won’t say a word. I’ll profile it, and keep it to myself until we get to the car.”
Okay, that helped.
Getting out, they headed to the front door that was still ornately decorated for Christmas. With the snow falling, it was pretty.
As they reached the door, it was pulled open before they could even knock, and there stood a man. He was in silk pajamas, and he was grinning wickedly with a drink in his hand.
Well, yolo.
It was five o’clock somewhere.
