Moving quickly once they’d disappeared into the kitchen, I slipped out the front door and hurried down the stairs, leaving the path that led to gates that would be closed and disappearing into a thicket of trees instead, determined to climb over the fence at a less obvious point. What I would do once I was out I hadn’t yet considered.
“Thank you, Caroline,” Syn said before hanging up.
“What is it?”
“She’s seen the paper. Caroline found it on the tray one of the girls delivered with her breakfast.”
“Shit.”
“We’ll get it cleared up when we’re back.”
“Is she in the house? Did she actually obey?”
“No, of course not. But I don’t think either of us expected her to do as she was told, did we?”
Gabriel smiled and glanced over at his brother. “What would be the fun in that?”
“Thomas will keep an eye on her but I’m not worried she’ll get far. She has no shoes and the grounds are secure.”
“You ready for this meeting?” Gabriel asked, pulling into the parking lot of a strip mall about two hours from their home.
“I’m ready to put this behind us.”
“Think he knew about Eva being on the truck — or was he expecting a dozen girls?” Gabriel asked, killing the engine.
“I have a feeling Eva was a last minute addition.”
Gabriel’s phone beeped with a new message. He looked at the sender’s name. It was their informant. He opened the email:
In case there is any doubt who put her on that truck:
Attached to it was a file that he downloaded and opened. It was the copy of an insurance policy taken out several months earlier. Although the copy wasn’t the best quality, it clearly showed that it was a life insurance policy for Evangeline Webb for an absurd amount of money. The beneficiary was Arthur Gallaston.
Then: The plan was never to sell her. She wouldn’t make it that far.
Attached, was a voice recording but they didn’t have a chance to listen to that before the man they were meeting pulled up in a large SUV with heavily tinted windows. Two armed men filed out of it. Syn and Gabriel stepped out of their truck, moved toward the back of the SUV, and climbed in through the open back door. The stale scent of cigar smoke permeated the vehicle and clung to the man inside: Javier Alvarez, the liaison who arranged all the work for the brothers.#p#分页标题#e#
In his mid-fifties, Javier Alvarez was a formidable man. They’d first met him shortly after Laney had overdosed, and when she had been pronounced brain-dead, they’d met him again. He had turned up at their door with a proposition for the brothers. Appealing to their grief, and even more so to their rage, he had offered vengeance against the very people whom both Gabriel and Syn held responsible for what happened to their little sister. It was an offer neither could refuse.
“I heard I’m missing a girl,” Alvarez said, his voice raspy from years of smoking.
“We’re keeping one this time, Alvarez,” Syn said. Fuck, the man knew everything.
“Anyone I should know about?” Alvarez asked, something about the way he said it suggesting he already knew.
“No,” Gabriel answered, his tone leaving no room for questions.
Alvarez held Gabriel’s gaze, but what was inside his eyes was unreadable. Gabriel didn’t falter though. He’d decided to keep Eva. That was all there was to it.
Syn held out an envelope. “Thirteen girls worth.”
But Alvarez’s attention remained on Gabriel.
“Look the other way, Alvarez. We’ve done it for you plenty of times,” Gabriel said. He wasn’t one to use threats but neither he nor Syn were above doing whatever they had to do.
“You know Gallaston’s fiancée went missing,” Alvarez said, taking the envelope.
“Heard about that,” Syn replied, keeping his gaze level with Alvarez. “When are you picking up the girls?” he asked, wanting to change the subject.
This was probably one of the most complex and dirty operations the government claimed to know nothing about, but when a shipment like this was intercepted, although Alvarez, Gabriel and Syn all knew the risks involved to the girls, they knew the gamble was worth it. Syn and Gabriel would announce the auction. Remy would arrange for some of the dirtiest men and women in the business to attend, and once they made a purchase, that money was delivered to Alvarez who still managed to turn a profit while collecting enough resources to free the girls and arrest those involved.
Well, arrest the ones they didn’t kill, that is.
These were corrupt men and women, drug lords and murderers themselves. Neither Syn nor Gabriel liked to put the women in their paths, but they’d come to accept that sometimes, collateral damage was unavoidable. Normally, Alvarez was able to make his move within a month of the auction — but it was sometimes longer. In the few years they’d been doing this, they’d lost three girls total — and rid the world of twenty-eight of the most unscrupulous criminals in the country. He hoped today’s exchange would save twelve more women and return them to their lives while allowing Alvarez and his men to take another dozen scumbags out of circulation. Unfortunately, there was no way of knowing the exact outcome until the next delivery.