Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

Gabe

Getting settled into the safe house took longer than I expected. Once we arrived, got Sebastian set up, and handled the argument around Damien leaving, I had hoped things would quiet down. But, no. We still needed supplies like food, clothes, and all the other odds and ends required for humans to live comfortably. Usually, a proper protection detail would already have this sorted out, but since we'd taken off without permission, the whole thing was a mess.

That is why I usually never acted without a clear plan. Plans kept things from getting messy.

There was no choice. As much as I hated leaving someone under my protection alone, I also didn't feel comfortable sending either Newt or Frankie into town by themselves. They were civilians. If they were attacked, they had no way to defend themselves.

There'd already been too many close calls under my watch. No more.

Unfortunately, I couldn't drive an RV—at least not confidently enough to be certain that I wouldn't tip the clunky thing—so Frankie had driven me into town and dropped me off at the nearest store, after which I'd ordered him to immediately drive back to the safe house. With a couple hours' effort, I managed to pick up all the supplies we'd need for at least a week, and also rented the most nondescript car I could find. The RV was necessary to safely transport Sebastian in his injured state, but it was too noticeable. We needed a better mode of transportation.

As soon as I returned to the safe house, I immediately locked myself in the bathroom.

There wasn't much privacy in a house so small, and both bedrooms were occupied. Sebastian couldn't be moved, and I didn't have the heart to kick Frankie out of the little space he'd carved for himself. Sharing a bedroom with the man was hard enough without intentionally creating animosity between us.

The kitchen and front sitting room were also not private enough for my work, so the bathroom ended up becoming my office. Luckily the house had two bathrooms, so things wouldn't get messy.

Why was everything always a mess?

I perched on the edge of the tub, looking over the files I had stacked on the floor and the laptop that sat open on the sink counter.

Sebastian and Damien were so focused on Russo and the Mariano family, they refused to hear about anything else. However, I had my doubts about their involvement with the pedophile ring. So far, the only connection that we had found between the Mariano family and the pedophile ring was Lorenz Mariano, Russo's brother-in-law. The man was certainly scum, but he wasn't ‘ring leader' material either.

No. Lorenz Mariano was certainly funding this pedophile ring, probably to supply his own desires, but he wasn't the one pulling the strings. Someone else was in charge of this little ring of bottom feeders. Someone powerful enough to accept funding from the Mariano family without crumbling under the pressure of such a dangerous debt.

I wouldn't be able to conduct this investigation on my own. Especially not with the limited resources I currently had. I would need help.

My fingers flew over the keys of my laptop, bringing up a video call with a familiar number.

It picked up almost immediately.

"Gabe. I wondered when you'd be calling me."

Lily Kim's smiling face greeted me through the screen.

"It's a bad situation. Not many people I can trust right now."

As the FBI director's personal secretary, Lily was one of the few people not afraid of the man. According to her, it was hard to be afraid of someone when you knew their every coming and going. She probably knew more about the director's life than even he did. Someone like David Russo would commit genocide to get someone like her on his payroll. The information she knew could topple whole countries.

She was also one of the few people I trusted to help me, even if it meant acting against her own boss.

"This is a secure line, right?" she asked even as her fingers typed at her computer to double check.

I just gave her a look, knowing that would be enough to get my message across.

"Right, right," she waved me off with one hand even as her other kept typing. "This isn't your first rodeo. You know what you're doing."

Her long black hair was twisted up around a jade hair stick that was carved into the shape of a lily, just like her name. Her whole desk had a generally floral theme, from her stationery to the earrings dangling off her ears. It tended to give people the wrong impression of her, that she was some delicate blossom who would wilt at the slightest pressure.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

I'd seen her kill a man with that exact same hair stick before.

"So, Gabe. You're certainly in deep this time. These brothers must have gotten under your skin if you're going this far to protect them."

The woman was far too perceptive. It was a blessing when used to my advantage, but a curse when used against me.

Yes, the Roth brothers had struck a chord with me from the minute I'd first heard their story. Successfully dodging both the mafia and witness protection when they were barely just adults was an impressive feat, and a shame that it was even needed. Witness protection should have lived up to its name and protected them.

Just like it should have done this time. I shouldn't need to run away from my own organization just to keep innocent people safe.

Plus, Sebastian's relationship with the little nurse was so sweet it practically demanded protection.

Then there was the other man. Frankie... I still didn't know what to think of him, but he had given up everything to help his friend without hesitation, and that was an admirable trait.

Overall, they were a group of people worth protecting, and there weren't nearly enough people trying to protect them.

"Hmmm," Lily grinned at me as she tapped a pen against her desk. "You've got your thinking face on. Something interesting about your little lost lambs that you'd like to share?"

"No. And I'm not telling you where I've taken them."

"Probably one of the safe houses, I'm assuming, though I won't bother asking which one. So, what do you need from me?"

Sighing deeply, I leaned back and pinched the bridge of my nose, nearly falling over when I forgot that I was sitting on the edge of the tub and not a chair.

"Right now, I'm acting outside of orders. This would be so much easier if it was a sanctioned mission."

"So, I'm guessing you want to schedule a meeting with the director. See if you can get things sorted with him after your little runaway act." She started scribbling something down in her day planner, which was also decorated in a colorful flower theme.

"Face to face would be best. At a neutral location. I don't think the director is our enemy, but I also don't want him to know where the Roth brothers are until I'm certain that he's on our side."

Or that Damien Roth had already run off on his own to continue waging his one-man war against David Russo.

"Neutral location," Lily nodded. "Already ahead of you. Got the perfect place in mind, and I should be able to open a spot in the director's schedule in two days. Think you can wait until then?"

"It'll have to do. Anything on your end you think I should know about?"

She finished writing and set the day planner back in its designated place on her desk. It was one of the reasons she and I got along so well. We both hated mess.

She then pulled out two files from somewhere beyond the camera's view and held them up so I could see their identical blank covers.

"I've got two things for you. Which would you like first?"