Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen

I t’d been a quiet few days. Their only visitors were ADA Grant, to prep Annabelle for her testimony, and the court’s audiovisual people, who’d set up the remote link for her to testify when the time came. The team was on edge, stretched thin from being constantly on alert. Nerves were beginning to fray, and the younger team members showed signs of cabin fever. Noah almost wished the Demons would attack again and get it over with. He’d rather shoot at them than die from waiting.

Annabelle seemed to be the only person in the building who wasn’t going stir-crazy. Probably because she was used to not leaving the warehouse. She’d stopped worrying about the Demon Brothers, trusting that the team would do their job protecting her. Instead, she seemed determined to live life as usual and enjoy the company. She’d insisted on cooking for them every evening and sent the triplets out to do her grocery shopping. There was even a chocolate cake one day, much to Therese’s delight. Annabelle’s living room had become an unofficial break room for anyone wanting a few moments of downtime, and she was happy with it that way.

But it was her interactions with the triplets that Noah found particularly entertaining. The little group had already formed a strange dynamic. It was as though the brothers had adopted Annabelle while she treated them like the younger siblings she’d never had.

Today, Evan had picked up empanadas for lunch from the local Mexican deli he raved about, and they were eating in the second-floor office rather than the loft. While they did so, Annabelle teased the triplets like she’d known them for years.

“So, have you three ever fallen for the same girl?” she asked, a wicked gleam in her eye.

“Logan and I dated twins once,” Harris said. “Does that count?”

“No, but what happened?”

The two brothers pointed at Evan.

“Don’t blame me,” he said, reaching for another empanada. “I got lumbered with the younger sister because she felt left out. The girl was a psycho. She had Beanie Babies that she pretended were our children. They had names and everything. I had to get out of there before I woke up married and chained to the bed.”

“How old was she?” Annabelle asked.

“Sixteen, two years younger than we were at the time.” Evan looked disturbed by the memory. “She scared me.”

“She also wouldn’t take no for an answer,” Harris continued the story. “So he broke up with her on social media. Her sisters were livid.”

“Evan ruins everything,” Logan said.

“Desperate times call for desperate measures,” Evan said. “I’d break up with her in person, and she’d carry on as though nothing had happened. It was weird as hell. I had to go public. I had no other choice. At least she couldn’t ignore a TikTok video.”

“You broke up with her on TikTok?” Annabelle almost choked on her food.

“She wasn’t on Facebook,” Evan explained.

Noah caught Rodrigo’s eye, and they grinned at each other. If nothing else, the triplets were entertaining.

“Lunchtime’s over, kiddies,” Rochelle said, clearing away her empty plate. “We have work to do. Harris, why don’t you take Annabelle upstairs? Now her new computer’s here, I’m sure she’s eager to get back into it.”

“Okey dokey,” he said, getting to his feet.

Annabelle glanced at Noah, as if checking to see if it was okay for her to go.

“Harris will keep you safe,” he said. “It’s Logan’s turn to patrol, and Evan will keep an eye on the camera feed while we have our meeting. I’m only a shout away if needed.”

“Okay.” She prodded Harris in the back. “It would be good to upload some work to my editor, so don’t go distracting me.”

“You’ll barely know I’m there. And if you need a model for any new drawings, I’m happy to help. After all, I’ve done some professional modeling in my time.”

“I know.” She grinned. “You told me.”

“He’s told all of us,” Rodrigo said.

“Repeatedly,” Noah added.

“Well, it bears repeating,” Harris said before cocking his head toward the door. “After you, pretty lady. By the way, is there any chocolate cake left?”

“Not if you annoy me.” Annabelle sparkled with delight, and Noah’s chest tightened.

As her main bodyguard, he should be going with her. Not Harris. Damn it, he was behaving like a toddler who had to share his favorite toy. He mentally smacked himself on the back of the head.

“Evan,” Rochelle said, “you and your brothers need to sort your gun permits. See Katrina about what you have to do.”

“I looked it up,” Evan said. “We’re in Texas, we don’t need permits.”

“Texas might not require them,” Rochelle said icily, “but I do. And tell them I want all of you at the range. Nobody gets a weapon until I’m satisfied you can fire it without hitting one of the team. Got it?”

“What do we do in the meantime?” Evan said. “I mean, if somebody attacks again.”

“I suggest you get properly trained as quickly as possible,” Rochelle said. “Until then, use your brains and your fists, and let the rest of us take the frontline on this.”

“I’m going to die,” Evan muttered.

“Right,” Rochelle addressed everyone else. “Let’s go over everything we know.”

She spun the whiteboard so the blank side faced the room and wrote the words Demon Brothers and Eddie Hanson in the top left-hand corner.

“In the London office, we had a data projector and PowerPoint presentations.” Violet clearly disapproved of the new, low-tech format. “There were handouts.”

“You’re not in London anymore, Ms. Lee.” Rochelle continued to write on the board while Violet tried to burn a hole in her back with the power of her glare.

Once finished, Rochelle faced her team, all business. “The trial is in ten days, and Eddie Hanson’s still out on bail, thanks to his very expensive lawyer. According to the ADA, he’s keeping a low profile but isn’t hiding. Apparently, he likes to smile and wave at the police detail following him.”

“Polite guy,” Rodrigo muttered.

Rochelle removed her suit jacket, beige this time, and hung it on the back of her chair. “What have we learned about him? If we can get a decent picture of his past behavior and motivation, we can, hopefully, predict what he’ll do next and be more prepared.”

Abasi slowly shook his head but said nothing.

“I read through the police files.” Rodrigo sat forward. “He doesn’t have any family—so no weak points to squeeze, and there’s no close love interest that I can find. With his looks, money, and rep, he attracts a lot of beautiful rich women who want to dance with the darker side of life. None of them hang around for long, and he tends to keep them on the periphery of his operation. When it comes to his personal life, he’s untouchable. There are no vulnerable areas.”

“What’s his usual MO for dealing with threats?” Violet tapped the board marker on the desk in front of her.

Rodrigo spread his hands. “What you’d expect. He gives the order, and the threat dies bloody. As far as I can tell, he doesn’t do second chances. You cross him once, and you’re gone. He doesn’t play games either. Death is usually swift. He does, however, make a point with each execution—if you steal from him, you lose your fingers. If you snitch, you lose your tongue. If you spy, it’s your eyes. One guy lost something a whole lot more personal after sleeping with Eddie’s woman of the moment.”

The men in the room all flinched as one.

“Does he mutilate before or after death?” Rochelle was still very much focused on Eddie’s psychology rather than his penchant for lopping off body parts.

“He doesn’t care what order it happens in,” Rodrigo said. “That’s up to whoever’s carrying out the order. Like I said, Eddie doesn’t play around. If anyone crosses him, he wants them dead. The rest of it’s done as a warning to everyone else, and if his men want to torture before they carry out the kill, that’s okay with him. Just so long as they do what he told them to do.”

“Does he deal with men and women differently? Does he spare children?” Rochelle frowned, her FBI-trained mind paying close attention.

“No,” Rodrigo said solemnly. “Eddie es un hombre peligroso. Y loco también.”

“Yeah,” Noah said. “But crazy like a fox. The guy’s still walking free.”

“I don’t get it,” Violet said. “His gang just blindly carries out whatever order he issues? Nobody has that sort of control. I dealt with some serious gangs in Glasgow, but there were always a few members who thought they knew better than their leaders. Or were just too stoned to care.”

“Not in the Demon Brothers. The gang’s full of psychos and cowards,” Rodrigo told her. “They either enjoy following kill orders or are too scared not to. Word is, he kills anyone who doesn’t follow his order to the letter. One thing’s for sure, he doesn’t like people questioning or arguing with him.”

“What does he cut off if you disobey an order?” Violet said.

“Your head.”

“That’s just overkill.” Violet seemed unimpressed.

Noah ran a hand down his face, his stomach knotting at the thought of what this gang wanted to do to Annabelle. “Eddie’s been running the Demons for years. It’s hard to believe Annabelle’s the first chance the DA’s had to nail the guy.”

Rodrigo sat back in his chair. “He keeps it tight. The gang isn’t big, and the members are obsessively loyal. Law enforcement can’t get anyone in undercover, as each member is hand-picked and monitored twenty-four seven. If a member’s arrested while committing a crime, he’ll take the fall completely, refusing to say a word about the gang. There have been some serious attempts to turn a member against the group, but they’ve all come to nothing. On top of that, any witnesses to gang activity are dealt with swiftly and violently. Annabelle’s the only witness to last this long.”

“Obviously,” Rochelle said, “they also cultivate sources inside law enforcement. Otherwise, Annabelle would still be safe.”

“They use a combination of money and intimidation,” Rodrigo agreed. “A couple of moles have been weeded out, but they chose prison rather than turning on the Demons. They were that scared.”

“Even with the promise of witness protection?” Katrina, who’d been taking notes, spoke for the first time.

“So far, nobody’s believed that the WITSEC program can keep them safe.”

A wave of tension rippled through the room, the gravity of the situation written on everyone’s face.

“They’re just people,” Abasi said, breaking the tension. “Every organization, every criminal, has a weakness. Don’t go thinking these guys are unstoppable.”

“Uh-huh,” Violet smirked at him. “And what would you do to stop them, oh wise one?”

“I already voiced my opinion. A bullet in Eddie Hanson’s brain would put an end to this situation fast.”

Rochelle shook her head. “Somebody else would just step up to fill Eddie’s shoes, and the Demons will carry on. Eddie has to be convicted so that the authorities can make his gang believe he’s sold them out. That way, they have a chance of convincing some of the weaker members to testify. And with that information, they dismantle the Demons for good.”

“Our job isn’t to take down the Demon Brothers. It’s to protect the witness.” Abasi showed no emotion as he spoke, even though he knew Annabelle just as well as most of the team. “That makes it simple. If you want to protect the girl, you take out the threat. You want to bring down the organization too, well, that’s something else.”

“FBI, DEA, all the alphabet agencies want this group,” Rodrigo said to Abasi. “We can’t screw that up for them. You were in the life, so you’d have a good idea of what the Demons are into. That shit has to be stopped.”

Abasi’s cold eyes were unflinching as he stared at Rodrigo. “You remove one gang, and another one steps in to take its place. There’s no stopping any of this shit. Trust me. I know. You can’t make that sort of a difference. You can’t wipe out gang life or stop all organized crime. It just isn’t possible. All you can do is what you’re being paid to do—protect the girl.”

Katrina cleared her throat, drawing everyone’s attention. Her eyes were on Abasi, but her face remained carefully blank. “Are you suggesting we do nothing about the Demon gang, or any gang for that matter? That it’s all hopeless anyway? What about all the other people involved with the gang and at risk? The family members whom the Demons make examples out of, the women and children they traffic, or the innocent bystanders whose lives are destroyed because they got in the way? Don’t they deserve to be protected too?”

Abasi was unmoved. “Our job is to protect the witness. That’s what we’re being paid for.”

“Don’t you care about the rest?” Katrina asked, sounding incredulous.

“I ain’t no crusader,” Abasi said evenly.

“No.” Katrina stood. “You aren’t. If you’ll excuse me, I have calls to make. Rochelle, I’ll catch up with you later.”

She strode from the room without sparing Abasi so much as a glance, but he didn’t take his eyes off her until she was out of sight.

“Okay,” Noah said once she was gone. “Let me see if I have this right. What you’re saying is that the Demon Brothers are untouchable, and all we can do is sit here and wait for the next attack. That about it?”

Rochelle headed for the coffee pot. “Unfortunately, waiting seems our only option. We can’t take the fight to them, not without ruining the ADA’s case and law enforcement’s chance of taking down the entire Demon Brothers operation. It certainly looks like we’re stuck playing defense.”

Evan raised his hand and cleared his throat to attract attention.

Rochelle’s expression made it clear she was fast losing patience with him. “Evan, this isn’t a class, and I’m not your teacher. If you have something to say, speak up.”

The young Scot was unfazed. “Okay, so I was digging through the Benson Security records and saw that the London office helped take down the James Family.” He visibly gulped under the sudden intense scrutiny of Abasi Otieno. “Th-they played them off against other gangs and started a turf war. Can’t we do something like that? Can’t we get other bad guys to take out our bad guys for us?”

Attention turned to Abasi, who, as everyone knew, had been high up in the James Family leadership. “It won’t work. The Demons are too insular, whereas the James Family was structured like a classic Italian mob. Plus, from what I’ve heard, no one will fight with the Demons, not for turf, or business, or pretty much anything. But… we could destabilize them another way, depending on how skilled our hacker is.”

“What other way?” Noah demanded.

Abasi shrugged. “We take away their money.”