Page 27 of Breaking Conviction
“We’ll do everything in our power to keep you and Thea safe. I promise. There’s no way in hell I’d let anything happen to you two.”
Naomi’s intense firelight eyes bore into his a minute longer before she slowly pulled her hand from his grasp and turned to face Nora. Wes had almost forgotten they’d even had an audience.
“Okay, yeah, I’ll do whatever I can to help. Ellie has been good to me, and… hell, I can’t believe I’ve played a part in this for so long.” Her voice cracked again, but she cleared her throat. “I’ll do anything to make that right and anything to make sure no one needs our services at Sasha Saves.”
Our.
Apparently, she was already feeling like she was a part of their team, or at least the Sasha Saves team. And from the way Nora and Ellie have talked about her, she fit right in. She was a natural at talking to survivors. Unfortunately, he only needed one guess as to how she knew the right things to say.
Not that Wes had personally experienced her compassionate nature. He loved her fiery side, but only got glimpses of her sweet and calm nature. And that was only ever directed at others. The glimpses alone were enough to take his breath away, though. He wished she felt comfortable enough to give him both sides, but he could tell she was holding back for some reason.
“Okay great, let’s get started.” Nora nodded toward the screen. “Superman, the floor is yours.”
A thrill of excitement at finally finding answers shocked through him. This was one of the things he was good at, identifying the puppet masters controlling the arms and legs below.
Wes pulled up the list and one by one they painstakingly went through it, matching each attendee with online searches, newspaper articles, high school yearbooks and websites, and hell, even hacking into government servers. Wes pulled up the variety of information, Naomi studied it and provided any personal knowledge she knew, and Nora inputted the data in a master spreadsheet.
It wasn’t the most exciting task Wes had ever performed at BlackStone, but having Naomi beside him kicked his adrenaline to the same level he sustained during missions. He had to try his best not to talk too fast or ask too many questions, or reiterate facts they already knew, but eventually they got through a good portion of the list.
“Okay, next on the list: Mitchell Strickland.” Nora gagged after saying the bastard’s name.
“Ugh,” Naomi’s eyes were on Strickland on the screen and her expression mirrored Nora’s. “I can’tstandthat guy. He’s so freakin’ creepy.”
“Our prosecutor contact, Assistant District Attorney Marco Aguilar received his invite from him.” Wes supplied.
“I haven’t been a fan since CTI was in that lawsuit.” Naomi scrunched her nose in disgust. “He was one of the jerks who was on the other side. I’m one thousand percent sure he’s a big reason the company was screwed over. Gail doesn’t like him either, but somehow he has enough clout to makeusthrow his damn party every year.”
Wes’s ears perked up at that and he resisted meeting Nora’s eye. “Strickland’s the slimiest man in Ashland County, and the slipperiest. We haven’t been able to find out much about him. All we know is that he has a brother that’s somehow involved with the trafficking.”
He didn’t mention that the reason they know even that much is because of one of Strickland’s partners, Andrew Wilton Ascot III. Ascot had a son who’d unwillingly played a part in Ellie’s kidnapping a year ago. He’d redeemed himself though by throwing himself in front of a bullet to save a BlackStone agent. His dying words had been that Strickland had a brother.
It hadn’t sounded like a riddle at the time, and it shouldn’t have been. Family trees were usually easy to scrounge up. But it annoyed the hell out of Wes that he hadn’t figured out who Strickland’s brother was. By all intents and purposes, he was an only child.
“I don’t know too much about him, either.” She recited everything she knew and Nora studiously took notes. Unfortunately, Naomi had been correct. There wasn’t much more she could add that they didn’t already know.
They moved on down the list to a few more, filtering through the ones that seemed of no consequence—
“Wait!” Naomi’s soft hand grabbed onto his forearm and he didn’t move a muscle, afraid she’d realize she was touching him of her own volition. “That picture... it says his name is Benjamin Johnson on my list, but the picture you’ve pulled up...”
“Yeah?” Wes asked, his eyes narrowed.
“That ain’t Benjamin Johnson, that’s Nikolai Rusnak, Dmitri Rusnak’s son. Last year he was the one who brought me a last-minute guest list…” She turned her head slowly toward Wes. “One with only two names. I don’t remember the names, but I remember being ticked off I had to add just two more people to the guest list the day of.”
Her words hung in the air like a cloud on the brink of a downpour.
“Do you havethatlist?” Wes ventured.
Naomi winced. “No. I got so irritated I remember throwing it away outta spite.”
Nora glanced at Wes while she typed. “I don’t know about you Superman, but I think that tidbit of information is worth facing Jason and Devil’s wrath. We should ask Ellie if she remembers him at all.”
Wes’s lips tightened and he nodded his head once. Ellie and Sasha had been invited to go to the party by someone at a college fair at their high school. She hadn’t been able to remember his name, but maybe seeing his face would trigger a memory. They’d just have to figure out how to ask her without Jason and Devil finding out first.
They continued down the list with relatively little new information, and when they finished, they all leaned back in their rolling chairs.
Wes felt accomplished that they’d finally gotten through the whole task, but Naomi was biting the inside of her lip with her eyes narrowed.
“What is it?” Wes asked.
