Page 29 of Trust in the Fallen

CHAPTERTWENTY-EIGHT

WYATT

After I got over the initial shock of waking up and Leighton being gone, we jumped into action like we never have before. The business we’re in means we have to be ready for anything all the time, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen Elias work with such purpose.

He’s been on the phone with Bishop for the last half hour learning everything there is to know about Leighton, her family, and that asshole who cheated on her.

It’s a hard pill to swallow that she would choose to go back to him rather than stay with us, but there has to be a reason for it, and we’re going to work out what that reason is.

We were able to get some basic information pretty easily. Her full name. Address. Where she went to college and what she majored in. But everything else has been buried a little deeper than you would expect.

From that though, I’ve been able to track her and confirm she’s at a house on the Upper East Side that appears to be in both hers and Jason’s name. The confirmation that she is in fact with him stings, but at least we know where she is. Whether she’s safe might be another story altogether.

“Bishop said there’s a convenience store up the street from the house that might have cameras. Can you try to hack into them?” Elias asks, barely pulling the phone away from his ear to speak to me.

I nod and quickly move through the motions. This comes as naturally to me as breathing does. It’s one of the reasons the SEALs have routinely begged me to come back over the last ten years, but they wouldn’t be asking if they knew what I did with my skills since I was honorably discharged.

How we started working with the Legion is still a mystery to me, a marriage of convenience for both parties that just made sense, but it comes with its own set of unique challenges.

Crew and Elias went to school together, grew up together through circumstances I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy, and when we were discharged and bought the club Crew reached out with an offer we couldn’t refuse. Without it we would have had to align ourselves with one of the five families, something neither of us was all that keen to do, and all we did in return was allow meetings to be held at the club, and help the Legion when they needed some extra hands.

Killing people comes almost as naturally to me as hacking does, so I have no problems helping them clean up the odd mess.

I find the cameras easily enough, making my way through the convenience store’s shoddy firewall without a hitch, but the camera quality is going to be a problem. Some of these businesses needed to join us in the twenty-first century. But I guess it’s a nice neighborhood, on a quiet street, there’s probably not all that much crime to worry about.

I run through the tape from the last few hours, looking at anyone who came or went in the time since Leighton left, which according to our own cameras was about three hours ago now.

A cab pulls into the frame, and I move closer to the screen to get a better look, not that that’s going to help the camera quality improve. But even with that, I can tell the woman in the feed is our girl. She looks up at the house, hesitating to approach the front steps.

I’m relieved to see she didn’t try to put those heels back on before she left, but the idea of her walking around the city of New York in bare feet makes me want to take her to a doctor for every shot they can think of. I take a deep breath and stamp down the protective urges that flare to life when I think of Leighton and watch as she carefully pulls herself up the steps.

I can’t see her facial expressions, but it’s obvious each time she puts weight on her ankle that she’s still in pain, and I make a note to myself to add to her punishment for hurting herself more.

The door flings open before she can reach it, and a second later she’s yanked through the door so quickly she stumbles into her asshole ex.

How dare he handle her like that? Especially after how he hurt her last night. If I didn’t already have plans to kill this cunt slowly, I’d be making those plans right about now.

“I got her.” I force the words out and turn my laptop around for Elias to watch what I just did.

“This motherfucker needs to die,” he growls, and I swear I hear Bishop laugh on the other end of the line. In the time we’ve known him, Crew’s son has never seen either of us like this about a woman, so I’m certain he’s finding it fucking hilarious.

Elias stops what he’s doing and listens intently to what Bishop is telling him before rubbing his face with his free hand. “Fuck.”

“What?”

“Can you send me what you’ve found so far?” Elias says into the phone before listening for a few seconds and continuing. “Thanks, Bishop. I appreciate your help.”

He ends the call and falls into the seat beside me, his head in his hands. It’s not often I’ve seen my best friend seem so…defeated, and I don’t like the look on him at all.

“Are you going to tell me what he found?” I ask impatiently.

Elias looks up and sighs. “Leighton is Police Commissioner Chalmers’s daughter. And Jason is the son of Governor Collins. From what Bishop can gather, their whole relationship has been orchestrated by their parents, and it doesn’t look like she’s ever been given much of a choice in the matter.”

I open my mouth but snap it shut again. What the fuck am I meant to say? It won’t be as easy as getting her back and away from an abusive fiancé, not when people like Chalmers and Collins are involved. As crooked as they come. People look down on the Legion, but they’re the ones who keep order to the city, something the men in question should be doing instead of encouraging rebellion within the families and starting wars, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There are rumors the two of them have been working on a side project of sorts. Legion have kept trafficking out of the city for the last ten years, but in recent times there have been moves against them. Back door deals that could see its return.

I wonder if my angel knows the sorts of things her father and almost father-in-law are involved in. And how far from the tree does the apple fall? How involved with this shit is Jason?

There is one thing I’m sure of though.

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