Chapter Nine

Cash

I t's not that we can't access the money if we want to. We can. It's still our money. It's just that we pretty much handed over the reins to Jensen once we realized what he was capable of, and I wasn't the only one who realized that my money was far safer in his hands than it was in mine. Atlas was even more adamant that Jensen kept it safe and didn't want any of his, choosing just to let Jensen grow it instead, so that's the reason why if Atlas wanted to get to his money, he'd have to go through Jensen because Atlas has absolutely no idea how to access his accounts.

"Put some of mine in there as well," I reply, knowing that if I say anything else, it's just going to make Jensen uncomfortable. I don't know why since it's a pretty fucking extraordinary talent to have, but that's the way he feels, and the last thing I want to do is to make him feel uncomfortable.

"I take it you found something?" Trick asks as soon as he's within hearing distance.

"Do you want to talk here?" I ask seriously, knowing that the conversation is probably going to be a long one since we need to discuss the plan as well.

Trick looks around the parking lot before shaking his head, "No. We can go back to mine; Mom and Dad are working late tonight anyway, so they won't be there or question why we're back early."

I nod as he unlocks the truck, and we all get in.

"Alright, what happened?" Luc asks as soon as we've pulled out of the school gates.

I need to ask a slightly awkward question, and before Jensen can say anything, I turn to Luc and ask, "Are we certain that your father isn't involved?"

Luc isn't offended by my question at all and shakes his head, "I'm sure he's been out of commission since his accident, and yesterday at dinner, the guy said, 'As you are aware, you are no longer involved with shipping the drugs.' So he hasn't been involved for a while."

"Good," I nod, "let us know if you hear anything that changes that."

Luc nods, "Of course."

Jensen and I explain the situation and everything that Rachel told us. Their reaction to hearing that it was a guy from Tomlinson who gave the girls the drugs is as explosive as ours was, except they don't have to hide their anger like we did in front of Rachel.

"What the fuck!" Riot growls, "They aren't supposed to sell anything on our side."

"What the hell is someone from Tomlinson doing at one of our parties anyway?" Trick asks.

"Do we know who threw the party?" Luc asks.

I shake my head, "I have no idea. There were several going on last night, and I don't know which one was the one that the girls were at."

"Message Trev and see if he knows," Trick suggests.

I pull out my phone and send a quick message, instantly receiving a reply, gotta love him for that, "He said it was Knox's, by the lake."

"Oh, okay, yeah, I know the place." Trick replies.

"I know Knox," Jensen adds and shakes his head, "he won't know what was going on. He throws the parties, invites everyone around, and then disappears up to his loft at the house and locks everyone out."

"That's weird," Rafe signs, "he doesn't join in the parties at all?"

Jensen shrugs, "He'll come down and have a few drinks, maybe talk to a few people, but he quickly disappears again. He lost his whole family in a house fire a couple of years ago. He's a few years older than us and was old enough to get emancipated. He managed to keep hold of the lake house that also belonged to his family and did not go into care. I think he just doesn't like the silence. The fire was arson, and before the cops could locate the guy they suspected, they found him shot in one of his barns. There was a suicide note that matched his handwriting exactly and everything that they needed to write it off as suicide."

"Well fuck, that's rough," I mutter.

Jensen's eyes darken, "Yeah, even though they had all of that evidence, they were still looking at Knox for a while, but no one could put him at the scene or figure out how he would have known that he was the guy that deliberately set the fire."

"Oh really," I ask, intrigued because going after someone who murdered your family and returning the favor definitely sounds like something that we'd do.

"Yeah, I've spoken to him a couple of times; he's a good guy; he'd be good to hang out with if he let anyone close. He's got this air of sadness around him though and a violence that matches ours." Jensen continues, the darkness in his eyes growing.

"Well, that's interesting," Trick replies, his eyebrow raising as he probably wonders, like me, why this is the first time that we're hearing this.

"I thought so too, until I realized that he genuinely wanted to be left the fuck alone, so I left it. I'll have a conversation with him if I see him, but that's it." There's a warning in his tone; he's seen something in Knox that has made him want to help him in any way he can, and in this instance, it's by leaving him the fuck alone.

Trick nods, his face serious, "Okay, dude, I hear you. We'll leave him the fuck alone. Do you think he'd want to know that there's a bad drug being sold at his parties?"

"I can go up there and let him know, but he most likely already does," Jensen replies.

"Got it; let us know if you want someone to come up with you," Trick replies, and Jensen just nods.

"I'll need a lift, but if whoever gives me a lift could wait at the end of the drive or in the car, it would work better. Like I said, he doesn't like people, so it's probably best if I go by myself. It's Saturday tomorrow so I can go up then," he replies.

"Are we still heading to Ryan's new town to stalk him," Luc asks with a sharp smile.

Trick nods, but Jensen says, "We can still do that tomorrow. I'll head up to the lake house in the morning, and then we can go after that."

"Sounds good. I'll come and grab you and take you up there, and then we can swing by and get the others," Trick replies as he pulls into his driveway. "Let's get in and then we can get the conversation back to talking about Tomlinson."

We all head inside and grab drinks before heading up to Trick's room. There's plenty of space for us to sit up here, and we don't risk Rob and Jenny overhearing something that they shouldn't when they get back from work.

"Okay, so Rachel said that she would be able to identify the guy if she saw him, but we can't just traipse a load of guys from Tomlinson in front of her, one because I don't imagine that they'd cooperate with that and two because it definitely wouldn't be safe for them to see her and realize that she's giving us information," Luc says thinking out loud.

"She'd end up dead," I say bluntly, and the others all nod in agreement.

"Exactly," Luc agrees as he continues to speak, "so how do we get her to look over as many people as possible without giving it away that's what she's doing? Could we have her go to another party and hope he turns up again and that she can either snap a picture or tell one of us?"

I shake my head, "I doubt it. I think she's been put off parties for life, and she was reluctant enough to help us in the first place, making her go to a party when she obviously doesn't want to go and getting her to face the guy who had a hand in her friend overdosing probably won't go very well."

"I agree; she was angry and surprisingly fiery. I wouldn't put it past her to say something to the guy, and then he'd know that we're on to him and trying to do something about it, and they could move their entire operation, or up their game, or fuck knows." Jensen agrees.

"Okay, so that ideas out then," Luc replies simply.

Rafe clears his throat, and we all look at him. Now that he has our attention, he starts to sign, "What about the class photos? We had ours done at the beginning of the year; Tomlinson would have as well. There should be a whole school one on their website. So unless he or his parents opted out of having his face seen in pictures, we should be able to see him on there, or at least narrow it down?"

We all just stare at him for a moment.

"Fucking genius, man," Jensen compliments, breaking the silence first and clapping him on the back.

"Thank you," Rafe signs in reply.

While the guys continue to talk, I go on the Tomlinson website and scroll through until I find the whole school photo, I then pull Rachel's number out of my pocket and forward the photo to her asking her to look over it and let me know if she recognizes the guy as soon as she gets the chance to since I know that she's at the hospital checking in with Aurora and her family.

I'll be surprised if she even checks her phone. I know I don't when one of my family is in the hospital, which happens more than I'd like.