Tristan had his head down and his eyes closed. He wasn’t meditating and he wasn’t sleeping. This was just his way of not talking to anybody. Hunter and Gage had gone through the entire place, making sure no one was hidden in a dark corner. He knew this was necessary. He didn’t want to get ambushed by one of Blackthorne’s men. At the same time, he felt an odd sense of betrayal. As if he shouldn’t be letting these strange men go through all of Shae’s house. It was a stupid feeling. He didn’t owe her anything. They’d only known each other for one day. He’d betrayed people he’d known a lot longer and had a lot less guilt over it.
But knowing that didn’t make the nagging sensation of guilt go away.
“You okay, man?” asked Gage.
Tristan didn’t open his eyes. “I’m fine.”
“You know, I had a girlfriend who told me that once. I asked her, everything okay? I got the great ‘I’m fine’ back. Next thing I knew, she was screaming at me for not doing enough, throwing all my shit out her window. So tell me, are you actually fine, or are you just giving me the chick’s version of fine?”
Tristan opened his eyes to glare at Gage. “Do I have a bullet wound in my chest?”
“Not that I can see.”
“Do I have a hole in my head that’s not supposed to be there?”
“Only your mouth.”
“If it doesn’t look like I’m dying and I say I’m fine, I fucking mean I’m fine.”
“Okay. That’s totally believable. If you need me, I’ll be over here, avoiding your grumpy ass,” said Gage.
Tristan couldn’t help himself. The annoyance got the better of him, and he said, “You gonna call Melissa and bitch about me?”
“The fuck did you just say?” Gage had gone utterly still, the tension creeping through his body.
“Oh yeah, that’s right. She won’t take your calls. I wonder what happened there?”
“Nothing,” he said between gritted teeth as he pivoted around to face Tristan. “She’s Slade’s sister. You know I would never be stupid enough to get involved in something like that.”
Something like that.... Interesting choice of words. He was trying to distance himself from her. Tristan had had a suspicion there was something between the two, but hadn’t confirmed it until right now. He decided not to push too much harder. He didn’t want to get into a physical fight; he just wanted Gage to back the fuck off. “Just letting you know that some things are more apparent than you think they are.”
“Well, just so you know—”
Before Gage could finish, Hunter came back into the room. “Stop bickering, ladies. We’ve got company.”
Tristan stood and rolled his neck, preparing himself for whatever was about to happen. He looked out the window at the black sedan that had pulled into the driveway. Three guys got out. A good number. One-to-one ratio. This would be easy to handle.
“How are you planning this?” asked Hunter.
“Hart is going to want us to go by the book as much as possible.”
“There is no book for this,” pointed out Gage.
“You know what I mean. Call the cops so that they start heading over. Report a break-in. If they catch them, Toni might be able to piggyback off their system to get a valid ID on these guys. And that will give us a few minutes to talk to them ourselves.”
A few minutes might be all they needed. The invaders didn’t use the front door. It was broad daylight, but they didn’t seem to care as they snuck around the porch until they reached the back door and looked into the large windows. Tristan and Gage both bent down so the kitchen counter would provide cover while Hunter stood behind the hallway wall. One of the guys worked on picking the locked back door, and Hunter made his move from behind the wall to behind the couch.
If the invaders had been paying any attention, they would’ve seen it, but they didn’t appear to be particularly great at their jobs. With a team of three, there were enough people to pick a lock, watch the interior of the house to see whether any of the homeowners were there, and watch the perimeter to see whether there were any witnesses around. These guys all just stared at the lock picker, willing him to work faster.
Good strategic thinking wasn’t easy to come by. You had to both be born with it and continuously improve upon what you have. It was like a muscle. If it wasn’t used often, you lost it. Tristan heard the bolts spring free, but he held his position for a moment longer. All three guys were outside now. If they sprung too soon, it would be too easy for the intruders to make a run for it. He counted the steps and listened intently until he made sure all three were inside the house. And then they made the mistake of closing the door behind them.
Without any communication, he, Hunter, and Gage moved at the same time. Hunter tackled the first one who came in; one arm wrapped around his back while his other hand grabbed the gun. The other two reached for their weapons but didn’t have time to draw them. Tristan and Gage were both holding their own guns out and ready and stared menacingly at the guys. Upon closer inspection, Tristan realized exactly how young these three were. No wonder they didn’t know what they were doing. He didn’t even know whether they were out of high school yet. “Think hard and fast about your next decision here, guys.” The two standing exchanged a look, but Hunter had the other kid face down on the ground so Tristan couldn’t see his expression. He decided to up the ante a little bit.
“My friend over here,” he motioned his head toward Gage, “is what we like to call a sharpshooter. That means that if either of you makes one move that makes me think, even just for a second, that you might be a threat, he’s going to put a bullet between your eyes. Not your shoulder, not in your gut, not your leg. Right for the head. He never misses, and he never leaves any survivors. So if you think you can take him, you just let me know right now. Otherwise, we have a few questions for you.”
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Once all the perpetrators were on their knees and had their hands held up and placed on the back of their heads, it was time to get started. Tristan looked at his watch. It would only be a few minutes before the police got there. That would be all the time he’d need.
The intimidation act wasn’t Tristan’s favorite thing. It made him feel more like a terrorist than a con artist. But the same thing that made Tristan feel bad about it was what made it effective. This position made the kids think they could be shot in the head at any given time. The little tale he made up on the spot about Gage seemed to keep them well and truly terrified.
“Okay,” he said, taking the lead. “I’m going to ask you a few questions. Every time I think you’re lying to me, you’re going to be punished. Every time I know you’re lying to me, something is going to break. Now, I can break something with my hands. Or I can use a bullet to break bone. It’s my choice, really, and you won’t know which is coming at you until you’re screaming for mercy on the ground. These are your options, and they’re your only options. So you damn well better convince me.” He moved behind one of the guys. They all looked similar. Tristan had an inkling they might be brothers. The youngest barely looked old enough to drive, and the oldest probably wasn’t even in his twenties yet. He definitely wasn’t planning to shoot any of them, but he still wanted them to tell him the truth. He flicked the safety of his gun on before holding it up to the back of one of the kid’s heads. The kid’s arms shook with the effort of holding them up for that long. “Let’s start with you. What’s your name, son?”
“Ummmm...” the kid started in a shaky voice. “Anthony.”
“Well hello there, Anthony. Now, I’m not sure if you know, but this house is owned by a sweet, pretty woman who has basically never done anything wrong in her life.” Tristan saw Gage give him a questioning look, but he didn’t have time to tell Gage where he could stick it. “Now I want you to tell me exactly why you’re here.”
“We... we don’t want to do this. We tried to say no.”
“See, now, I can’t help but realize that’s not an answer.” The kid tensed, and Tristan knew he was preparing himself for a blow. In fact, all the boys tensed. He suddenly got a better read on the situation. Instead of hitting Anthony, he aimed the butt of his gun for the back of one of his brothers’ heads. He measured the blow carefully, so as he brought the butt of the gun down on the brother, it was enough to hurt but was barely a glancing blow. It was enough to make his brother grunt, and Anthony leapt up. Hunter was ready for him, however, and forced him back onto the ground.
“Wait wait wait!” cried Anthony. “I’ll tell you everything. Please, just don’t hurt them anymore.”
Tristan, Hunter, and Gage all exchanged a look. This was not like they’d expected this to go. He broke after one question. Which was good, but also odd. That being said, he wasn’t gonna say no to being told everything. “Start at the beginning.”
“I.... Can I talk to you privately?”
Hunter shook his head, but Tristan was intrigued. He reached down and pulled Anthony up, motioning with his gun where to go. They ended up in an empty room down the hall, and Tristan knocked the door shut. “This had better not be some kind of stupid game,” he warned.
Anthony shook his head fervently. “No, I... I don’t know if you’re going to believe what I’m going to tell you. If you shoot me, I don’t want them to see it.”
Chivalrous. Stupid, but chivalrous. “I don’t have all day.”
“This is my fault. I’ve been bumming cars for about three years now. It’s fine. It’s a life that’s working best for me. But Jimmy, the youngest one, my brother, he’s different. Smarter. He’s supposed to go places. But I guess for some stupid reason he decided to follow in my footsteps. Got picked up by the cops during his first job a few nights back. This cop, though, is really weird about it. Told him he’d wipe the slate clean if we did this one thing.”
“Break in here and kill someone?” accused Tristan.
Anthony’s eyes widened, and he shook his head frantically. “No. God, no. Nothing like that. He told us just to throw a brick through the window. Just a warning or something. Nothing but a brick. Just a fucking brick. It’s an easy one. You know, no choice really there. We did it, and thought it was over. Except this morning at like three o’clock, we got some angry call from the dirty cop telling us that we’re not done yet. That we have more debt to pay. He told us he would book us all on major assault charges if we didn’t come here and scare the shit out of whoever lived here.”
Tristan frowned. “Assault charges? What kind of assault charges?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know if he’s bluffing, or if he was serious. The guy is fucking crazy and I don’t want to take that chance.”
“What’s the name of the detective?”
“Perlman. But you can’t tell him I talked to you. He knows where I live. He knows where we all live. He said after us, he’d come for our mother. The guy doesn’t care, man. I’m telling you, I don’t hurt people. I steal cars. Nice cars rich people have that are fucking insured. I don’t do this stuff. I just want my brother to go to school to have a better life than me.”
Tristan glanced around them. “You can see how none of this is really helping your situation, right?”
“Hey man, I didn’t want this. And I’m being a hundred percent honest with you. I’m sorry. I really am sorry.”
“You’re sorry, but you’d do it again, right?”
“It’s family. Don’t you have a family?” Anthony asked.
Well, that was the wrong fucking question. “No. I don’t have a family. People who do well in this business that you’re so obviously failing at usually don’t have families. We have nothing to lose, and we don’t care about putting a bullet between the eyes of some little petty thief who claims to be innocent.”
Tristan pulled the door open and walked out of the room, not even bothering to threaten the kid any more. Hunter looked at him questioningly as he walked out, and Tristan made a little motion beneath his neck. “I’m calling this off. They’re not going to tell us anything useful.”
Gage and Hunter both relaxed marginally but still were on guard. “You mean they’re useless?” asked Gage.
“I wouldn’t say that.” Tristan took out his phone and glanced through, making sure there were no incriminating messages or contacts. Since pretty much every phone used was a burner phone, it didn’t take long to confirm that it was clear. He then tossed it to Anthony, who caught it. “Okay, kid. Here’s your chance to get out of this in one piece. I want you to call Perlman. Tell him that you came here, you checked the entire place, but it’s clear. There’s a car in the driveway, and all the owner’s stuff is here, but no sign of anyone. You have no idea where she is.”
“That’s it? What if he doesn’t believe me?”
Tristan stared at him, the annoyance obvious. “Look around you, man. She’s not fucking here. You’re not lying. Now make the damn call before I decide there’s really nothing I can do with you.”
The poor kid made the call with trembling hands. Like he thought, Perlman had made the kid memorize the number. Problem was that Perlman was undoubtedly using a burner phone too, so the number wouldn’t be that useful. As it started to ring, Tristan got closer, putting his head awkwardly close until he could hear the ringing on the other end. He didn’t tell Anthony to put it on speakerphone, because he would be able to hear that and get suspicious.
After one ring, Perlman picked up. “Is it done?”
Anthony was quiet for a moment, and Tristan nudged his elbow into the kid’s ribs. “I, ah, yeah. I mean, no. She wasn’t there. We went to the address you gave us and everything. It matched the pictures so we know we’re in the right place. There’s no one here. Like, her car’s here, and it looks like all of her stuff is, but no girl.” Tristan put an approving hand on the kid’s shoulder, and Anthony tensed.
Well, he supposed they weren’t there yet. Perlman, who was ever grateful, cursed on the other end of the phone before he hung up.
“Good job. Now just get the fuck out of here,” said Tristan.
“What about the cops?” asked Hunter.
“Well, they’re already overdue. So the sooner we make ourselves scarce, the better.”
“Hart’s not going to be happy about this,” said Gage.
“Well then, Hart should be here himself.”