Page 49 of Protected
“Understood,” Elder said, shoving his cell into the front pocket of his jeans. “I stopped by because Slick mentioned that you want us to make the trip with you to San Antonio.”
“Yeah, Mando is finally ready to deal. I don’t expect any trouble, but I don’t know the bastard. He’ll only meet in person, and I’m ready to lock him down for a date for our first shipment.”
“Probably a good idea. I heard he was a little cagey.”
Wolf had heard the same thing. He’d been in contact with another gun supplier, but that deal had fallen through. After receiving a tip on a gun trafficker out of San Antonio, Wolf got in touch. It had taken some time to get Armando “Mando” Torres to agree to a meeting. He was overly cautious, which was understandable. Like drug dealers, gun traffickers couldn’t be too careful.
“We’ll head out in a couple of days. Once we’re in Texas, we’ll get more information about where the meetup will be.”
Wolf tossed the towel in the wicker hamper on his way out of the gym. He strolled down the short hallway past a guest bedroom and bathroom until he reached the kitchen.
“Want something to drink?” he asked when he opened the refrigerator and pulled out a pitcher of green smoothie.
Elder leaned his back against the breakfast bar and folded his arms across his broad chest. “Nah, I’m good. I’ll be heading out in a few minutes, but I wanted to tell you the latest on the guy in Atlanta.”
Wolf had been wondering how that was going. Ever since Elder had texted him a copy of the photo, Wolf’s curiosity had increased. He had looked at it a couple of times since then,and each time he’d felt a niggling of something down his spine. The man in the photo felt familiar. Too familiar, and it was unsettling.
“His name is Parker Wilcox. He’s some type of security guard in Atlanta and works for a place called Supreme Security. Looks like he grew up in Chicago. Only child. Parents are dead. No other family. He was a cop—a SWAT officer, to be more specific—and he left that to work at the security firm in Atlanta.”
Wolf started to take another sip of his smoothie but stopped, the straw inches from his mouth. “Are you saying he just up and left Chicago and SWAT to become a lowly security guard?”
“That’s what it looks like, but according to Supreme’s website, they have security guards and security specialists. I’m not really sure which he is.”
Wolf continued drinking his smoothie while listening to Elder explain the difference between the two job titles. He’d never heard of a security specialist, but he liked the concept. If he didn’t have his crew around him, he might consider hiring a couple to have his back. Then again, if the specialists were former law enforcement or whatever, he didn’t need that type of heat watching his back.
“I don’t know, Wolf. This guy’s background all seems a little too…too perfect. I know there’s some good guys out there, but this dude is squeaky-clean. He’s never even had a parking ticket, and everything we dug up on him is, is…”
“Too perfect,” Wolf finished for him. “Yeah, I get it.”
The guy was probably a nobody, but Wolf couldn’t seem to let it go. Occasionally, he got like that, where his gut would tell him to do or not do something. Or to dig deeper in some situations. He’d learned a long time ago not to ignore that feeling.
“I know you haven’t admitted to this, but I know you see what I see when you look at the picture.”
Wolf stiffened. All he’d said the other night was that the guy looked familiar. He hadn’t shared the fact that he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about that photo. Nor had he said that the guy looked a little like his dead son—Junior.
“Even though it’s impossible that it could be—”
“Junior is dead! You know that, so what the fuck are you getting at?”
Elder lifted his hands out in front of him. “Whoa, man. I know that…but what if you have another kid out there?”
Wolf slammed his drink on the counter, glad the glass hadn’t shattered, ignoring the way the liquid spilled onto his hand. “I never cheated on Mina!” he roared. “And I ought to beat your ass for even suggesting it.”
“What aboutbeforeMina? We both know your ass got around. So it’s not out of the question. Especially since this guy is a few years older than what Junior would’ve been today. It’s possible that whoever his mother was, you could’ve known her.”
Wolf remained silent as Elder explained that this Parker guy had been raised by a single mother until he was five. Then he was adopted, and those parents died during a fire while he was away at college.
“What if you have another son out there? Wouldn’t you want to know?”
Wolf mulled over that question, but he didn’t need to know if he had another kid out there. Especially some grown dude. That didn’t stop his curiosity, though.
“Send someone to Atlanta. Hell, they can even go to Supreme and pretend they want to hire the guy for security. I want them to—”
“I’ll go,” Elder volunteered.
“No, you don’t have time. We’ll be in Texas for the next few days, maybe even a week. After that—”
“After that, I’ll head to Atlanta with a couple of guys and dig a little deeper into Parker Wilcox. I just have this feeling…”