Page 38 of H E R
“Yes, I know, you fucking idiot, but that was a basic search. I need you to give meeverything.”
Jason sighs, and the background noise tells me he’s lifting himself up and out of bed. “You don’t need to get all touchy.” He drags out the last word and I grind my teeth. “I did that, too. It’s on standby, but now that you ask, I’ll send it over.”
“Why the fuck didn’t you send it before?”
“I don’t know, maybe be specific next time?” A familiar tapping tells me he’s on his laptop.
“I also need everything on Noah Allan, and this time, I do meaneverything.”
Jason chuckles darkly. “What happened? You lost your girl?”
I grind my teeth so hard I think my jaw is going to snap. “Just do what I pay you to do.”
He lets out an exasperated sigh. “Noah Allan,” he drags out his name slowly and his breathing hitches. “Well, you aren’t gonna like this.”
Fuck. The precinct doesn’t have an existing file on Noah. Just bullshit gossip between grown men about him being a snitch bitch. Which basically means he stands up to them on occasion. And I gather he works alongside Niki in unveiling the precinct’s corrupt ways. He was born and raised in this county. He’s an only child to Miriam Allan. She works cleaning offices, and she takes a couple of shifts working as a nurse’s assistant at the local hospital. Noah’s father, Alfredo No Last Name, is a joke. He wracked up an obscene amount of debt and wasted away the family earnings in whatever slap house would allow him entry. But other than what is spoken between the fuckers at the station, there is no official file on Noah Allan.
“Your boy Noah hangs out with the Warlocks.”
Your boy.I want to evaporate into practically nothing so I can enter the radio waves as my very own frequency to pass through Jason’s ear canal and blow him up from the inside out for his little joke. But I let it slide because what he foundisinteresting.
“Go on,” I say through clenched teeth.
“The Warlocks tracked Noah down two years ago and they blackmailed him. He’s paying off Alfredo’s debt. He’s now their little bitch—whatever they want, he delivers.”
“Fuck.”
“Yea, he’s dug up graves, delivered fingers to instill fear in those that owe money, collections–”
Jason goes on, but I’m no longer listening. I’m staring at the tiny screen of my cellphone, reviewing the email he sent me regarding Niki. My little fox owns property and three vehicles. I GPS the location of the lot and it’s sixty odd miles out of city limits.
“I want you to send a drone to the farm on Niki’s file,” I interrupt. I’ll deal with Noah later.
“I’ll send you a link to view the live feed.”
I grab my earbuds and plug them in, then grab my laptop, and it flickers to life. Twenty agonizing minutes later, the video feed comes to life. The sun is rising just in time to catch the perfect image of the stretch of land that’s as big as eighteen football fields. I need the drone to keep its distance and it flies over twice, capturing images in its wake. Four structures that appear to be big ass multi-leveled houses, a small body of water that looks more or less like an oversized puddle, a stable and a fucking field of some vegetation. She’s even got horses trotting about.
What the fuck?
“What do we know about this land?”
“Just what I sent over. The alias before hers belonged to her father, Julius Senior. It’s stayed incognito since the Fox’s took ownership, which was when Justice turned two years old. Purchased in cash.”
Julius Senior came from a prestigious family who chucked him when he married Flor during his last year in med school. They met when she’d gone to the free clinic to get checked up. He knew what she did for a living, and it didn’t matter to him. But his family had some serious opinions and ultimatums. They went as far as getting him exiled at every hospital he attempted to get work. The only place they couldn’t touch was a free clinic two counties away where Niki’s trailer home was located. Then one day he was offered a job on the wrong side of town. He sewed up some guys for the worst kind of people.But Julius was a good guy with a conscience, and when he refused to continue to do the work, they came for him. Niki only survived because her mother hid her in a crawlspace; her brother and Jasmin had been at a friend’s house.
I paid the motherfuckers a visit last week, surprised them in the same way they had Niki’s parents. As much as I wanted to take my time with the pair, I didn’t change up the method they bestowed upon the Foxes. I touched their temples to my gun and blew their fucking brains.
They’d been the pawns used to take out a man and his family that had seen too much and was refusing to work for them. I’d gotten enough information from them about who sent them, and that’s all they were good for. I’d send my Niki their fingers if I knew it would give her satisfaction to know that their corpses are now rotting away, but I didn’t think she’d like that very much.
Jason’s voice brings me back. “She got the latest tech in security cameras installed on the outside of the property. It’s double gated, and she’s got motion sensors.”
What are you hiding, fox?
“Damn, your girl has major trust issues.”
A text comes through from the police chief at the station and I thumb the screen.
I tap back a quick response. Carlton wants to talk about his daughters. According to him, the elder one ran off and took his youngest. They’ve been missing for some time and he wants someone assigned to hunting them down immediately. He’s had the local cops comb the city, but he requested someone with moreexperience. I can find them in five clicks, but I prefer to handle that line of work in the customary way. I’m not here to find runaway brats. Detective work is just a cover.