Page 80 of Breaking Conviction
Wes dug his hand into Ascot’s shoulder and met his eyes. Even though they were widened with fear, there was still a hint of defiant arrogance swimming in the rheumy blue-black depths.
That was why he’d refused to apologize for what he’d done to Ascot. Although losing his cool on a mission was worthy of an apology, Ascot sure as fuck wasn’t. Wes put his teammates in danger by letting his emotions get the best of him. Now that he was in control again, they needed answers from the man who still somehow thought he pulled the strings.
“Tell me, Ascot, why do you think once he finds you thatwe’llbe done for… and you won’t be? Hm?”
Wes had a suspicion and he wanted to test the theory. The man had been in hiding for two weeks. Did he even know he was in danger on all fronts? Men like Ascot rarely fought the good fight, crumpling like a wet paper towel at the first sign of a threat. He had to believe either there was someone scarier than BlackStone or…
“Is it because you think he’llprotectyou?” A flicker of satisfaction flashed across Ascot’s eyes. “Fuck, it is, isn’t it?”
“What makes you so special?” Hawk asked in his deep voice. “Why would he protect you and not the others?”
Confusion wrinkled Ascot’s sweaty brow. “The others? Wh-what do you mean?”
“Rusnak and Strickland,” Wes answered with a shrug of his shoulder as he took a step back to stand in line with Hawk and Devil. “They weren’t important enough to save. Why are you?”
Ascot shook his head violently. “No… Nonono. What do you mean? What’s happened to them?”
Wes scoffed. “You really don’t know, do you? How the fuck don’t you know? Have you been hiding in a damn cave?”
“I-I’ve been without internet access in a shithole on the edge of town. Afraid to have people find out my whereabouts. M-my bodyguards haven’t said anything. Wh-what’s going on?”
Devil snorted. “You went through all those precautions, and got caught at a strip club? What an idiot.”
Ascot’s face reddened as he demanded again. “What’s going on?”
Wes stomped his heel down hard on Ascot’s foot and the man cursed a grunt. “I’ll tell you because I want to. Not because you have the audacity to think you wield any power here while you’re cuffed to a chair, got it?” At Ascot’s slight nod, Wes continued. “Dmitri Rusnak and Mitchell Strickland are dead.”
Ascot’s eyes widened again. “Dead?How?”
Hawk answered. “Rusnak, bullet to the brain. Found in a river. Autopsy was performed on Strickland. Full results will be ready in a few weeks, but preliminary findings are that he suffered an ill-timed heart attack.”
“But we both know how convenient that is.” Wes offered with a nonchalant shrug, even while Ascot began to pant heavily.
“Strickland, too? If he’d go after his own brother…”
Wes’s senses perked up and he resisted looking at his teammates as he spoke. “Who? Who is Mitchell Strickland’s brother?”
Ascot muttered, his eyes wide in shock with a far-off look. “Half… very scandalous. Strickland’s father couldn’t have it in the press, so he paid the whore enough money to stay away. Now neither of them claim the other, but I never thought… I never thought he’dkillStrickland.”
“Who, Ascot?” Wes asked. “Who wouldn’t kill Strickland?”
Whatever trance he’d been faded away as he blinked rapidly and shot a look of desperation at Wes. “I-I’ll tell you everything. You just have to protect me from him.”
“We can’t promise to protect you from anybody if we don’t know who it is.” Hawk reasoned, but Wes felt the anticipation pulsing from his teammates.
Ascot’s jowls trembled with another frantic head shake. “That’s last. I’ll tell you everything. But I won’t tell you that until you secure me safe passage out of Ashland County. No, thecountry.”
Wes waited as Hawk eyed their prisoner, no doubt weighing all the options. His forearms were crossed over his torso and his other elbow was propped up as he traced his lips in thought. There was no way they’d let him go, but Hawk was surely thinking of a solution.
“Deal.” —Ascot blew out a heavy breath— “But if we feel like you’re lying to us we’ll come after you ourselves, got it?”
Ascot nodded so hard Wes was surprised the man’s head didn’t fall off.
All their questions came to the forefront of his mind and he sorted through them one by one, trying to find out which would be the most important.
“What isalea iacta est?” Wes asked, referencing something Ellie had said she’d heard one of the traffickers, Vlad, say when she’d been captured.
Ascot laughed. “Really? That’s what you want to know? You have me at your disposal and that’s all you want?”
