Page 36 of Wrath

“Fuck.”

“Exactly.” Bruton looked up at Javier. “You’ve made quite a name for yourself. It’s rather sad to see you in such a state.”

“This isn’t over. They’re going to come for you.”

“I certainly hope so.” Bruton turned to me and held out his hand. “Do you mind?”

I wasn’t sure what he was asking until his eyes fell on the scalpel. I nodded, then placed it in his palm. He clutched the end, then drug it along Javier’s throat. As Javier choked and gasped, Bruton smirked and said, “Let them come. Let them all come, and like you, they’ll see that no one gets the best of me.No one.”

Bruton stood there and watched as Javier took his last breath.

Once he was certain that it was over, he walked back over to Cotton and said, “I apologize for the inconvenience, but I assure you. I will take care of the Demarco brothers.”

“We will take care of themtogether.”

“Oh, no. That’s not necessary. I’m the one who had the ties with them, and ...”

“We have our own reasons for wanting to put an end to them.”

I wasn’t surprised that Cotton volunteered our help. It wasn’t that long ago that his adopted daughter, Lauren, had been taken by one of Robert Demarco’s men, and her life was at risk over a journal that belonged to Demarco. It was through that journal that we discovered his involvement with a sex trafficking ring that he was running through Port Angeles.

We’d dealt with him and the man who’d kidnapped Lauren, and we thought that was the end of it. Needless to say, none of us were happy that the brothers had come to take over the business, but they would soon learn that was a mistake—a mistake that would cost them not only their business but their lives.

Cotton called in the others and caught them up to speed on everything we’d learned. As soon as Prez finished telling them about Antonio and Miguel, Big and Bones immediately pulled out their laptops and got to work on tracking them down. They hadn’t been at it long when Bones announced, “Fuck. They’re gone.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Cotton leaned over to look at Bones’ computer screen. “Where did they go?”

“They took their private jet back to Mexico.”

“Fuck.”

Savage turned to look at his father as he told him, “They must’ve realized something was up when they didn’t hear back from Javier.”

“You’re probably right.” Cotton let out a stream of curses as he ran his hand over his goatee. “So, now what?”

“We wait,” I answered. “And we use the time to our advantage. Find out everything we can about these assholes and take them down the second they return.”

“Sounds like a good plan to me.” Savage turned to Cotton as he asked, “What about the journal Lauren had? Any idea where it ended up?”

“I gave it to MJ’s father. I figured he’d get it into the right hands.”

“Damn.”

Bones cleared his throat, then announced, “I made a copy.”

“What? When did you do that?”

“Before you handed it over to MJ’s dad. I’m not sure why I did it. I just thought we should have a copy, so I put it with the Demarco files in the workroom.”

“Well, I’ll be damned. You came through for us again.” Savage sounded hopeful as he asked, “You think there’s anything in there that might help us get these assholes?”

“If there is, I’ll find it.”

“Then, get on it and let us know what you find,” Cotton ordered.

“You got it, Prez.”

Bones got up and walked out of the conference room, leaving the rest of us to start piecing together our plan to take down the Demarco brothers. It didn’t go as well as I’d hoped. We didn’t know much about either of them—just what Bruton had given, but that wasn’t much.

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