Chapter 14

CHAPTER 14

MINA

"He's not looking so good." Gianni looked sideways at Leon Graves. "I guess hanging from a chain for a week will do that to a guy."

"I guess so," I agreed with no shred of remorse.

Leon was pale, and his wrists chafed from the cuffs around them. Heavy circles surrounded his eyes, and bags hung underneath. He couldn't have had much sleep between the position he was chained in, and the constant barrage of loud, metal music.

He looked all but broken, and the only place Gianni touched him was in his calf. As torture went, it was clearly effective.

"I told you everything I know," Leon said. "Please…" There was no hint of hope in his eyes anymore. Nothing but the desire for all of this to end.

"Martina was a bust." Gianni briefly told Leon about our meeting with her, and about Enzo and Angelina. And the phone call from Kurt. "So you see, we're back at square one. Reuben doesn't like being at square one, Leon. Especially when you were the one who guided us there. We need more information. Better information. Who exactly is this Jase? Who is Hammer?"

"I don't know," Leon whined. "I swear. I've told you everything I can think of. Please…"

"Everything you can think of?" Gianni echoed. "I guess you better think about things you haven't thought of yet. Otherwise, I might have to find some different music to play for you. What about some kid's music?"

"That would be evil," I remarked. "I've heard some of it since… I came home. It would drive anyone crazy."

"Exactly." Gianni grinned. "Can you imagine hearing 'climbing goat, goat, goat,' over and over? Or the next chorus, 'fainting goat, goat, goat.' I guess whoever wrote that has a thing about goats."

"I think they have a thing about earworms," I remarked. "Excuse me if I stick to Bobby Sparkle."

Gianni snapped his fingers. "We could play that and pretend we're at a school disco."

Leon groaned. "You're both out of your fucking minds."

Gianni crouched down in front of him. "That's not a nice thing to say about my woman, Leon."

Leon raised his chin and almost managed to look defiant. "Why don't you go on and kill me then?"

He sucked in a ragged breath and spoke in a hoarse voice. "Kurt enjoyed raping her. I enjoyed watching it. I enjoyed every moment of it. I was hoping he'd let me do it too. I wanted to stick my cock in her mouth and make her suck it."

I pushed down the spike of anxiety at the memories his words evoked.

"I was just about to tell Gianni I thought you'd outlived your usefulness." I stepped closer. "But for that, you can live for a while longer." He deserved to suffer a little more for bringing all of that up. A lot more.

His head flopped back down and he groaned softly. Frustrated that his attempt to provoke us into killing him had failed miserably.

His next words came out in a pleading rush. "Jase's last name is Andrews. Jason Andrews. He was an old friend of Kurt. Hammer's real name is Wade. I heard Kurt call him that once. I don't know what his last name is, I swear. They might be brothers, I don't know."

Gianni glanced over to me questioningly, but I shrugged. Neither name was familiar. Leon might have made them up in the moment, to give us something.

I pulled out my phone and sent off a message to Damon to put his contacts onto finding anyone by those names.

"That wasn't so hard, was it?" Gianni asked. He gave Leon a shove, just enough to force him half a metre sideways, and put more pressure on his wrists.

Leon screamed. "Fucking hell. Please, for fuck's sake, I don't know anything else."

"What about Kurt's addresses in Dusk Bay?" I asked. "You must have some idea. Where were his minions supposed to take me?"

"I don't know." He shook his head and winced.

"I don't believe you," I said. "I might reconsider letting you live for longer if you can give us more."

"On my laptop," he said finally.

"We got it from Clarissa, but haven't been able to get into it yet," Gianni said. "You can imagine what that did to the twins' egos. Especially Parker. He prides himself on that shit."

"I can tell you how to get in," Leon said eagerly. "There's more information on there. Most of it is encrypted. You'll need my help to access it. If you let me go, I can?—"

Gianni said. "Tell us how to get in. If that works, we might decide to go easier on you."

Leon exhaled, long and ragged, but started to explain.

"I'd be impressed if he wasn't a toad," Parker said. He lounged over the kitchen island, Leon's laptop open front of him. "I've never seen encryption like this. He must have developed it himself."

"Is there anything useful on there?" I asked. As far as I could tell, computer code was another language. One the twins were apparently fluent in, but that made little sense to me.

"That depends on your definition of useful," Parker said. "There's a shit load of records of transactions. Money coming in and out, goods being moved around. That should help us find some of the shipments he stole from us. And from the Bell family." He glanced at Hunter, who didn't quite meet his eyes.

"What about addresses?" Damon asked. "In particular, in and around Dusk Bay?"

"Several," Parker replied. "Nothing that stands out."

"Anything near Demons’ Arena?" I asked.

"A couple of them," Parker said. "By the way, no luck on tracing Kurt's phone number." He pulled my phone out of his pocket and handed it to me. "He's a slippery motherfucker."

"Yes, he is." That wasn't news to any of us.

I put my phone away and waved toward the laptop. "Any indication of a connection between Kurt and those addresses?"

"Those addresses being on here suggests there's a connection," Parker said. "There's nothing concrete. Nothing is labelled 'Kurt's main residence,' or 'Kurt's place of business.' You think they would have tried to be more helpful, but apparently not." He flipped the laptop off.

"Send them to me," Damon said. "I'll see what our people can find out."

"Tell them to be on their guard," Reuben said. "There's a good chance Kurt will expect us to check out each location for ourselves. Which is why we won't. We won't walk into any traps."

"Kurt probably gave those addresses to Leon, knowing we might find them," I said.

Reuben was right, that was a trap waiting to happen. And probably the exact reason why Kurt mentioned watching me throw the knife at Carlos. He was hoping to draw us to him. We needed to find a way to turn that back on him.

"He really screwed Leon over," Gianni remarked. He didn't look even slightly sympathetic. "He used him to try to lure Mina, knowing if we got to him first, he could turn it to his advantage. I'd be impressed, if he wasn't such a complete and utter prick."

"Kurt or Leon?" Hunter asked.

"Yes," Gianni replied with a smile.

Hunter grinned. "Both sounds about right."

While Parker continued to go through the laptop, I stepped over to Damon. "Any luck on finding Jason Andrews, or Wade?"

He rolled his lips. "We've discovered Jason Andrews is a very common name, as is Wade. I have my contacts looking for brothers called Jason and Wade, who might work for Kurt. Or be an old friend of his. If they even exist, they'll be found."

"They exist," I said. "Or, they used to."

I'd thought about them often, but I still couldn't clearly picture their faces. Just vague details about their build and hair colour. Their voices were more vivid than their appearances. But I knew if I met them again, I'd know them immediately.

"Either way, we'll find out." He put a reassuring arm around me, his large hand squeezing my shoulder. "We're closer than we were when we just had the nickname, Hammer."

"Yeah, I know we are," I said.

We weren't close enough, but Damon was doing the best he could.

I knew I wasn't alone in my frustration. Kurt had been playing games with us for weeks, and it was getting exhausting. Every time we seemed to be getting somewhere, we took a step back. Or several.

I pictured him laughing at us as he toyed with our strings, like we were his puppets. Tweaking and making us dance to his tunes.

Fuckhead.

I wanted to punch the smug smile off his smug, asshole face. Right before I sliced of his cock and balls and made him eat them. And then?—

"Bingo, motherfucker," Parker said suddenly.

"What is it?" Reuben leaned over his shoulder.

"It's an encrypted conversation between Leon and Kurt," Parker said. "Kurt telling Leon when to arrive in Dusk Bay and where to go. It goes back a lot further than that. There are details of meetings between them, including addresses of the places they met up. Kurt telling Leon who to speak to. A number where he can be reached."

My heart started racing. "Any chance you can trace that number?"

"There's every chance I'm going to try," he agreed. "In the meantime, I'll send all of this to Damon. This could help narrow things down."

"Only if it's legit," Damon said.

"Considering the layers of encryption, we weren't meant to find this," Parker said. "I don't mean to toot my own horn, but someone less skilled than me wouldn't get in." He tapped the tip of his finger on the island, beside the laptop. "We definitely weren't meant to see this. I'd bet my trust fund on it."

"If you lose that bet, I'm not sharing," Hunter told him.

Parker flashed him a grin. "I won't lose." He turned back to the screen. "All of this goes back before Kurt took Mina." He squinted. "By the look of it, Kurt had all of that planned for weeks. Maybe even months." He frowned deeply.

"What is it?" I asked.

"It seems like Leon is the one who found out about your father's attempt to take down the Brantley family. There's messages in here of him telling Kurt all the details. He must have been pleased with himself, because he didn't delete what I’d consider to be fucking damning evidence. Smug prick. He was very sure no one was getting past his encryption. I love being underestimated. Especially when it helps to fuck people over. There's enough chain in here for him to hang himself."

"Yeah," I said vaguely.

I'd known Leon was a snake, but now I knew he was the one who gave Kurt the weapon to get to me. He was as much to blame as Kurt was. They were in all of it together. Right from the start.

"How did Leon find out?" I asked.

"It seems he stumbled upon some transactions that didn't add up. He looked into it and found evidence that pointed straight to Mina's father," Parker said. "I get the impression Leon and Kurt were pretty tight. Assholes of a feather and all that shit. He ran straight to his bestie to spill the tea. And Kurt used that information to his own advantage. Leon gave him an opportunity and he took it. Some close friend Kurt turned out to be. The first chance he got, he threw him right under the bus and into our basement. With friends like him, who needs enemies?" He turned to Hunter and they both shrugged.

"What do you want to do?" Gianni asked me.

I became aware of all of their eyes on me. My tongue slid across my lips. "I think we should let him go. Leon Graves, we should unchain him and let him out."

"Why would we do that?" Reuben asked.

"Because I think he can lead us to Kurt," I said.