Chapter Sixteen
At night, Jace and Axel’s mega-club, Crossroads, was a wonderland of colorful laser lights and patrons dressed up in their party best, but pre-opening on a post-Thanksgiving Saturday night with the fluorescents buzzing overhead it was kind of depressing. Trevor ambled toward the main staircase that led to the VIP balconies and the private stairwell to the main offices one more floor up. From their third-story view, Jace and Axel’s offices offered an unfettered view of the dance floor below. What they couldn’t see of the other, more unique sections of the bar through their one-way mirrored glass, they watched via the vast number of security monitors mounted opposite their desks.
Despite the West Coast edge of the bars and dance floor in the middle, it was the specialty areas orbiting the perimeter that gave Crossroads its cool factor. The difference that kept people coming back long after the grand opening curiosity had worn off. The club was exactly what it was named for—top to bottom opulence with a place to blow off steam for everyone. A pub complete with rich dark wood furnishings for the older crowd and businessmen. A chrome and mirrored hangout for the more technically inclined. A coffee shop corner with all the trendy quirks you’d expect to find in a Seattle hole-in-the-wall, and a dive bar for the bikers. Everyone was included.
And Jace and Axel ruled it all.
Splaying his hand against the biometric palm scanner, Trevor waited for Knox’s digital security wonder to do its thing and flip the locks. Only a handful of people had access to Jace and Axel’s inner sanctum, and Trevor could count on one hand how many times they’d met there for Haven business, but given its central location and the fact that Knox had upended everyone’s Saturday schedule with urgent business, today it was the Haven hubbub.
The lock disengaged just as Knox, Danny and Beckett’s low voices sounded at the top of the VIP stairs.
Trevor held the door open and waited. Knox and Beck both had matching scowls on their faces, which wasn’t much of a surprise for Knox. He practically always sported a frown while untangling whatever his cyber challenge of the day was, but Beckett seldom let any emotion show. Danny strolled beside them, not nearly as tense as his counterparts, but wary all the same.
“Who crawled up your ass sideways?” Trevor said once they stalked into talking distance.
Beckett motioned Trevor through the door with a jerk of his chin. “No one you’re gonna like. Everyone else here?”
Well, fuck. And it’d been a damned good day so far too, even if he’d had to sneak out of Natalie’s apartment at the ass crack of dawn before her kid could bust in her room and find him wrapped up tight with his momma. Trevor took the black carpeted stairs two at a time. “Just got here, but I saw Zeke’s ride out front and Jace and Axel’s out back.”
Sure enough, Axel’s gruff voice sounded from the conference room that bridged his and Jace’s private offices. The second Trevor stepped into view, whatever story he’d been sharing with Jace and Zeke died on his tongue. He sat up taller in his chair at one end of the table, eyes rooted on Trevor while Beckett, Knox, and Danny filtered in behind him.
Definitely not good. “Starting to get the feeling I’m the only brother who doesn’t know what’s got us all in one room.”
“That was my call,” Axel said. “Couldn’t risk you goin’ off half-cocked before we had a plan.”
“Half-cocked about what?”
Knox slid into one of the oversized leather chairs on the far side of the twelve-foot conference table and braced his elbows on top of it. “We’ve got a problem.”
Sensing he was about ten seconds from needing to pace, Trevor kept his feet and wrapped his hands around the back of one chair. “I gathered that looking at Beckett’s face. You wanna get to the point?”
“I got a contact early this morning from a skip tracer friend of mine. She’s good. New to this area, but good. She got a lead on a guy willing to pay big money for a deep dive into your background. And by deep dive, I mean the client’s after dirt.”
That no-good bullying son of a bitch. No wonder Axel had waited to tell him until he’d gotten here. “Wyatt Jordan.”
“Yep,” Knox said.
At the opposite end of the table, Jace anchored one boot-shod foot on his knee. “She take the gig?”
“Not yet. She stalled and told him she’d think about it, then ran it past me. Frankly, we’re damned lucky she gave us the courtesy. I only know her through online contacts, but she’s got a rep for being thorough.”
“You got a way you think we should play it?” Axel said.
“I think we want to keep control,” Knox said. “Offer to double Wyatt’s payment in exchange for feeding him what we want him to know.”
Danny slouched lower in his chair beside Zeke and splayed his knees wide. “Yeah, but will she play along? Who’s to say she won’t play both sides?”
Knox grinned. “She can’t play both sides if I get dirt on her. Trust me, if we go this route, I’ll find what we need to keep her neutralized.”
It was a smart move. Anyone with a mind to digging into brotherhood business was worth knowing more about, but right now Trevor needed something more immediate. Namely something that kept Natalie’s ex out of their hair and left Natalie the fuck alone. “So what do we do about Wyatt?”
“I say we keep moving forward with our plan,” Axel said. “Draw the bawbag out. If he’s a past buyer, odds are good he’ll want in again. When he does, we’ll set him up to take a fall and get him out of everyone’s hair once and for all. Trevor’s woman included.”
“So long as we don’t expose Trevor in the process.” Zeke focused on Trevor. “If he’s digging like it sounds he is, you need to keep your tracks covered. Hell, we need to keep Doc Stinson covered. If this shit blows back on him, a lot of sick people are gonna lose options they wouldn’t have otherwise.”
“I’ll get a tail on him,” Beckett said. “See if we can’t get a bead on his mobile while we’re at it. I wanna track this middleman down, too. Any chance he’d spill info to his clients?”
“Not sure what he’d spill,” Trevor said. “I’m a ghost to him as much as he is to me. All he knows is the product’s flown in.”
“If he’s shared that info to his clients, the leap for Wyatt to tie things to your business isn’t a huge one. Only a handful of full-service charter companies in Dallas.”
Knox huffed out a haggard breath and dragged one hand through his hair. “I’ll dig deeper and look for ties between his bank accounts and your earlier hauls.”
“What about the latest run?” Danny sat up taller in his chair and looked dead-on at Trevor. “You get a date set?”
“Not yet. I need overseas passengers and there’s no one on the books. If I go without bodies on board, I won’t have the right alibi.”
“It can’t just be anyone on board,” Zeke said. “Not for this trip. You already put the word out product’s coming, right?”
“Yeah, about a month ago.”
Zeke narrowed his eyes. “Now Wyatt’s getting nosy and driving Levi past the same airfield your planes are stored at. You gotta assume that means he’s looking for a way to set you up. Best way to counter that is with clients on board with serious clout. Hard to dig too deep if the questions being asked build a political shit storm.”
Trevor scoffed and straightened from where he’d leaned his elbows into the chair back. “Clout’s not gonna cover things if the DEA’s waiting when I touch down.”
“That’s nothing. We just offload the product before you land.” Beckett turned his attention to Jace. “You’ve got connections through your investments and the charity groups. Any heavy hitters who might need a trip for the holidays? Maybe someone we could snag with an incentive and an interim stop on the East Coast?”
Jace frowned and scratched his chin. “I’ll dig around. Viv’s gotten tight with Evelyn Frank, and Evelyn’s tied to everyone. If any socialites are planning overseas vacations, she’d know about it.”
“What about your inside gal?” Zeke said. “Gia game for helping us get in with the good doctor?”
Beckett’s chuckle was coated with pure deviant pleasure. “She’s all over it. Said she’s got a few government contacts she can leverage if he bites and we want to stage a sting to take him down. Wouldn’t have a single tie to us if we work through her.”
Jace sat up on the edge of his chair and tucked a fresh toothpick in his mouth. “So, Gia’s in, Knox handles his skip tracer, and I get Viv scrounging for passengers with big bank accounts and heavy stroke. Sounds like we’ve got a solid plan, assuming everyone’s on board.”
Axel was the first to speak, his voice on par with a growl. “The bloody bastard sealed his fate the second he started nosin’ in our business. I vote we take him down.”
“Agreed,” Jace fired back.
Danny and Beckett answered at the same time.
“Yep.”
“Me too.”
Knox grinned in a way that said he couldn’t wait to get back to his computer and dig in. “It’s a no-brainer in my book.”
“You know I’m in,” Zeke said. “Gets a double win for us. Wyatt out of our hair and Natalie something tangible to sue for full custody.”
Yeah, it did. And seeing how frazzled she was this morning, keeping her chin up even though she struggled with the fact that her kid was headed to that asshole for another week, only made him twice as eager for leverage.
Jace nailed Trevor with a pointed stare, the intensity behind his dark eyes shaking loose another chunk of the resistance he’d fought so hard to keep in place. “Think it’s down to you, brother. We’ve got your back, but it’s your ass hangin’ in the wind, so you make the call.”
It was more than just his ass. It was Natalie’s, Levi’s, and their whole damned future. He might not be worthy of happily ever afters with a woman like Natalie, but she was his right now, and he’d be damned if he didn’t take the chance to make her life better while he had it. “I say we take the bastard down.”