Chapter 22

CHAPTER 22

TAKESHI

Every minute that passed without new information was excruciating. I wanted to know where my husband was. I needed to find him.

The longer the day went on, the more I regretted not having some type of tracker on him before now. It seemed like a completely ludicrous idea whenever it was brought up in a discussion before we got married. Memphis had indicated the way our luck had always been with our guys and how people always wanted to take them from us lent to the idea of implanting small devices for the inevitable.

I should have taken his words for the truth that they were. People did always try to take from us. They wanted what we had, wanted to tear us down. They wanted to stop our advances against them.

But they always forgot that good prevailed over evil.

And while we weren't cookie cutter clean in how we handled business; we were definitely the good guys.

I drummed my fingers on the desk as I searched through the paperwork Memphis assigned to me. He was on the computer scanning through various programs while the rest of us were shuffling through different notes and photographs, hoping for any hint of who Mordecai truly was. We were digging through all the Gilded Ones notes we had so far.

Every little crumb of information about them was getting touched again in hopes that we would learn something new this time.

I had no doubt that what we needed was in here, that the clues would be obvious just as soon as we found them. But we had to find them first.

We had to find him.

As frustrated as I was, I remained steady. Each line I scanned and each photo I worked through was another step in the right direction.

I could hear Memphis bitching in the background. He complained about every little thing after realizing something was amiss. Even after Sinclair showed up, he was still upset.

We had suggested that Sinclair shut down early. With the fire at the other cafe and the increase in customers, it wasn't safe for him to keep operating. Not for him, his employees, or even his customers.

Once he knew that, and he heard about Archie being taken, it was a no-brainer for him to close up and come home. Or rather, come to the office.

He and Damari were tucked in a corner looking through their own version of paperwork. They wanted to help. They said they should be useful in some way instead of just sitting around. I knew Damari felt guilty. He didn't say it out loud, but there was a look in his eye that I recognized. It was the same one I wore whenever I couldn't stop Brad from getting to Sinclair, from getting shot.

Their version of paperwork was a lot less gruesome than what we were going through. Some of it I recognized, but quite a bit was stuff that Memphis had ruled out early on. It was then I realized just how much my friend had taken on. There was stuff here that no one should ever have to look at, yet he had filtered through it for us because he didn't want us to have to suffer.

As fate would have it, we wound up having to look anyway.

Still, I could appreciate the kindness he was trying to give us.

I focused back on the page as I attempted to stop letting my mind wander. There was no point in hashing through everyone's feelings or motives. We had a person to find.

Ronan slammed a piece of paper on the main desk. “I’ve got information here that includes chatter about Mordecai.”

Cohen leaned forward. “Okay, and?”

Ronan tapped a finger on it. “There's something about the way they talk about him. Read this.” He handed the paper over, and Cohen read over the documents. Godric leaned over and mimicked his movements. I waited to see what would happen next. My hands itched to grab the paper they were reading to see if I could uncover the clues myself.

Godric scratched his chin. “It's almost like how they would talk about — ”

“A woman, right? That’s the vibe I got. Unless they're all gay. I mean, we're all gay,” Cohen added.

“Bisexual. Don’t forget some of the team still like women. Orion isn’t here, but he’d have said something too.”

Cohen nodded at Ronan’s words. “Oh yeah, absolutely. Sorry for the bi-erasure. Whoops!”

Godric rolled his eyes, but handed the paper back to Ronan, who then handed it to me. I looked over the document, noticing it was a communication transcript from a conversation between two people that had been picked up in association with the guilty ones. From the way they spoke, it did sound as if they were attracted to Mordecai.

I frowned, wondering how this had been missed in the first go around. Memphis spoke up then. “I ruled out a bunch of those transcripts because they were noted as being transcribed by AI software. I questioned the accuracy in them, especially since the people were possibly speaking in another language. These agencies weren't the best at keeping up with the latest technology. Anything said that wasn't in direct context to the mission at the time was disregarded.”

His eyes cut to mine.

“I apologize if my neglect is what led us here.”

I shook my head at him, then typed out a message on my phone and sent it to him. He looked at his computer screen.

‘None of this is your fault as much as it's not Damari’s. There's nothing any of us could have done. Let's just find him and bring him home.’

Ronan called everyone's attention back to him. “If it's true, and Mordecai is not the man that we have a photo of, albeit a horrible one, then who is Mordecai? Because I don't believe this bullshit about them being a ghost. Everyone has a trail, whether it is the most direct path or a diversion.”

His words triggered something in my brain. It was like all I needed to hear was that single word for the pieces to start to come together.

I dug through what I had in front of me until I saw the document I was looking for. I leaned over, handing it to Ronan, along with the original sheet, laying them side by side. He glanced over everything.

I saw the moment it clicked for him, too.

"It is a woman," he said. “And she's been at this for far longer than anyone's giving her credit for.”

The paperwork I found was for a shipping business. It was a company under a family name, a very rich family name. One that we had pushed aside and ignored, ruling it out from the very beginning.

But now that we had some kind of indication that we might have been wrong all along, it makes us double check things. And the name of the family when scrambled, could spell out "Mordecai.” At least the name of the original owner would.

The current owner was one Shelley Mori. Her great-great-grandfather was Cade Mori.

“What kind of fucking bad guy has a name like Shelley? I wonder if she goes by Mordecai to sound more badass,” Cohen joked as he handed the papers off to Godric.

Memphis interrupted. “We didn't even know what her damn name was before now. What matters is if she's the person we need to hunt down and get Archie back from. I can trace Shelley, but I can't do that for the fictional "Mordecai" person.”

I typed out “trace her" in a text and sent it to him. The sound of his keys picked up speed as he went to work.

No one had to speak to know that I was egging him on. Tank had disappeared early on in the investigation. He needed to contact the guy who he was going to get a favor from. I wasn't going to question any of it. His contact would be the thing that would bring my husband home.

At the end of the day, he could be making a deal with the devil for all I cared. So long as it brought back Archie, I’d accept whatever came after.

When Memphis decided to deep dive, he dove. His screen was connected to the main display. We watched as his focus shifted to scanning through everything it could about Shelley Mori. Pictures popped up of her at events with her family. She was a thin woman with long brown hair. Beautiful by most standards, yet there was a hardness in her gaze.

One that spoke to a darkness. A darkness that all of us recognized because we had come up against it more times than we cared to admit.

“She has multiple properties,” Ronan pointed out. “He could be at any one of these.”

Godric grunted. “He wouldn't. She's not foolish enough to put the person she kidnapped somewhere connected to her real name.”

Cohen hummed in a way that didn’t fully agree. “Or maybe she is. I doubt she thought we'd find her real name.”

In the quiet that followed, Memphis lifted his keyboard and slammed it against the wall. The next thing we knew, we were purged into darkness.

A flashlight came on, illuminating his scowling face. We all turned the lights on on our cell phones. Confusion swept through us.

What the fuck was going on?

“We're being watched,” Memphis said. “Everything we've done is being transferred to someone else. Someone likely on Shelley's payroll, if I had to guess. She's been one step ahead of us the entire time.”

The men around the table tensed, losing their cool. It made us wonder just how much of what happened was orchestrated and how much of it was just circumstance.

There was no difference in my mind. We were on Shelley's tail. She knew we would be coming. And there was nothing that would stop us.

The sound of footsteps came from the doorway. Memphis turned his flashlight to the entry, which illuminated Tank.

“What the hell is going on? Why is there no power in here?”

Memphis repeated the information about us being spied on. We watched as Tank's entire body language changed. This was the beast. This was the man who had earned his name.

“If Shelley wants to play a game, then let's play it. We'll hunt her down and slaughter her the way she deserves, the way you could only do with people like her.”

The chill I got from his words fed the anger inside me.

“Any updates on your contact?” Godric asked.

I was thankful he did because I was so caught up in my blood thirst I hadn't thought to ask.

Tank winced. “Yeah, I heard from him. It's going to cost me more than one favor, but it's worth it.”

I nodded, though I doubt he could see me even with the light I had.

“Since it looks like the war room is out, we need to move this. My office is the most secure place in the building.”

We all stood and followed him. Memphis went about checking everything in the room, and when he only found our own security measures, he gave a clipped nod and sat down. Tank leaned back on his desk as ankles crossed.

“We're going to take out Mordecai with a little help, just like we did Ajax. And then there will be only one of these motherfuckers left for us. As soon as it's over, we're reevaluating everything from top to bottom. I don't ever want anything like this to happen again. You are all my family. And the people you love are people that are important to me too.” Tank's eyes met mine. “I’m sorry Archie got caught up in this. We'll get him back, and we'll do everything we can to help him.”

We have no idea what this Shelley person has done. It seemed odd that Tank just went with the flow of Mordecai being a woman. If I was a pessimist, I would suggest that he already knew.

But I didn't see how that was possible, considering if he knew, he would have told Memphis. Those two were thick as thieves. He treated him more like a son than an employee sometimes. Tank was not always the most serious boss, not unless he meant business.

He crossed his arms and then met each one of our gazes with conviction. “From here on out, it's game over. It's time to teach these people what we mean once and for all.”

“And what about all the red tape, boss? Who's going to protect us when the police come knocking and the FBI shows up at our door?” Cohen asked.

"Let them come," Tank said. “They can all sit back and watch as we fix the mess that they've let brew.”

I’ve never been more proud to call him my boss.