Page 25 of No Mistakes
I shift against the wall, feeling the broken chunks of concrete scratch my skin beneath the shirt.
Axel doesn’t move, not even a flinch as he hears the update. “So he planted her?” He questions.
“Not exactly,” Carter says. “He wanted them to believe it was just a PI gig. Keep it clean, off-grid. They didn’t know it was Marco when they sent her. Turns out he wasn’t as stupid as we thought. He used an alias to book the job.”
I feel the air shift around us, and I see a flicker of anger flash behind Axel’s eyes. Gunnar clears his throat, pushing himself off the wall before stepping forward to stand in line with Carter. “It gets worse. Marco wasn’t acting alone.”
Axel’s gaze slices over. “Name?”
“He didn’t give one,” Carter says. “But he said it was someone close. Someone on the inside was feeding him information for a while, long before Eva came along.”
My stomach turns. I know for a fact we cleaned house twice, making sure we knew everyone’s background. And if anyone new entered, they were swiftly checked and cleared. If there is still a snake among us, they’re smart enough to play dumb.
Carter shifts, dragging my attention back to him. “Chicago is now split between three families. One is running guns out of the West Loop and Little Italy. Another family is in control of the drug routes up north. And Marco’s family?” He takes a moment to pause, like it physically pains him to say it. “He’s running girls. Full-blown sex trafficking ring based out of the South Side.”
Axel’s head drops, as if what he’s hearing can’t be true.
“It doesn’t stop there,” Carter says. “He’s scheduled to have a meeting in Vegas, meeting buyers and distributors in the next week.”
“It’s big. It might be our shot to cut them off at the source. Start taking back control." Gunnar adds.
A low hum fills the back of my head, while something crawls under my skin like static. I know this feeling all too well. I press my spine deeper into the wall, but it doesn’t ground me, not enough, as my vision starts to blur.
The words replay over and over in my head, mixing together.
Betrayal, Vegas, Chicago…Trafficking.
All of a sudden, it’s like all the air in the room has been sucked out, and my body goes cold. My fingers twitch against mybicep, the old urge to dig my nails into my palm creeping up, but I can’t do that here, not now.
I rest my head against the wall, closing my eyes while I focus on my breathing.
In. Out…One. Two. Three.
I feel a faint buzz against my leg as my phone informs me of a message, but I ignore it. The noise of people talking around me slowly comes back into focus, just as I feel it again.
Another short vibration pulses against my leg as if it’s telling me to snap out of this spiral. I reach down, slowly pulling the phone out with shaky fingers.
I stare at the name flashing on my screen as it yanks me out of the concrete haze I was just in.
It shouldn’t affect me this much, but it does.Shealways does.
Mandy.
I take a deep breath, opening the message.
Mandy: I need your help, can I meet you?
I place my phone back into my pocket, making a mental note to reply to her as soon as we’re done here.
Carter paces the room, tossing out ideas like his life depends on it. “If we move on Marco’s Vegas meet, we can cut off his supply, and put pressure on whoever is running the routes in Chicago. The only issue is, we don’t know who his inside source is. We can’t risk showing our hand too early; we need surveillance.”
Control edges through Axel’s tone as his gaze sharpens, “You’re right, we can’t go into this blind. We need to know everylittledetail. Who the other families are, who is working on the inside, where the meeting is taking place, and what time.”
“I’ll get in touch with some of my guys,” Carter says. “There are still a few who owe me.”
Axel gives a small nod of approval. “Fine, but no one outside of this room hears about the Vegas meeting. If anyone from Marco’s side smells us coming, they’ll vanish. They would have heard about his death by now, and we can’t risk it.”
Axel turns towards me. “Ant, you’re with me.”
