Dash, p.10
Dash, page 10
“Is your boss only interested in his skill as a lawyer? Because he’s really a shark. He’s the best.”
“Probably. I mean, Ax will want to know he can trust the guy.”
“Well, unless you’re his wife, you can trust him.”
“Aren’t you going to lose him business if you’re telling all his perspective clients this?”
Peter snorted. “I don’t tell anyone this. I have no proof. It’s just something I know, and I like you. All the guys who come in here are total zeros on the Kinsey scale. And I want you to be able to keep your job, so you can tell all this to your hot boss and maybe he’ll let loose on the reins he’s holding when it comes to you. If he does, I want all the dirty, dirty details—or to join in the fun.”
Nick smiled. No way would he tell Peter about him and Ax. The guy was nuts. Peter turned over the card he’d given Nick and pointed out his personal cell number before sauntering back to his desk with only a wink over his shoulder. Within minutes, Ax was stepping out of Campbell’s office. As they passed by Peter’s desk, Peter gave Nick a wave.
“Call me if you want that tour of the city,” Peter sing-songed.
Ax turned and gave Nick a look like he’d done something wrong. Nick sighed. Ax would have flirted with Peter too, although Nick hadn’t actually had to work for it.
They all remained fully in character until they pulled out of the underground parking and headed back to the condo. Ax didn’t turn from the window, so Nick was a little startled when he spoke.
“You get any intel out of Thornton?”
Nick was glad Ax wasn’t looking at him, because he couldn’t help the smile that spread as he thought of the crazy shit that had fallen from Peter’s mouth.
“He’s a little bit of a mystery,” Nick said.
“So he didn’t give you anything?”
“Oh, he did. I’m just trying to figure out if he’s the world’s best liar or if he’s really what he says he is, because if he is, Campbell’s got him snowed.”
“What do you mean?”
“He knew where all three of us fell, sexuality-wise.”
“Big deal,” Ax scoffed.
“He knew there was negative tension between you and me.”
“That’s not really a secret,” Jett reasoned.
“Yeah, but I’m sure both of us were trying to act like we were just professional colleagues. He knew there was anger between us.”
This time, Ax did turn enough to give Nick a little side-eye. Nick didn’t want to try to read what the look meant, so he turned toward Jett in the front seat.
“He also admitted that he comes from a family of con artists but tries to ‘use his power for good’. He’s graduating from law school. Campbell took his sister’s case pro-bono, so when he needed a PA, Peter offered.”
“Peter? So he tells you he’s a con artist and that makes you believe everything he says?” Ax asked, his tone condescending.
“I didn’t say I believed him, but why would he tell me he was a con artist if he was trying to con me? There are two reasons I can think of—one, he’s being honest, or two, he thought it would benefit him in some way. Usually if you’re a con artist, that’s the last thing you’d actually admit to people. He also said something interesting about Campbell.”
That had Ax’s attention.
“I asked if all his clients were women and Peter said that Campbell took on a few wealthy clients to be able to afford to help those who couldn’t pay him. He said most of the men who visit Campbell are zero on the Kinsey scale. He also said that he got the feeling Campbell was a manwhore who cheats on his wife.”
“He got the feeling?” Ax asked.
“He said he’d never actually seen any of Campbell’s women, but he just knew he wasn’t faithful to his wife by how he looked at and treated other women.”
“What’s a Kinsey scale?” Jett asked.
“Only a zero on the scale would even ask that,” Ax teased.
“It’s a sexuality spectrum,” Nick explained. “Zero is totally heterosexual and a six is totally homosexual. There’s also an X category for asexual people. Most people fall in the one to five area. I’m a five. I have found women physically attractive before, but I identify as gay and don’t really have a desire to have sex with women.”
“So most of Campbell’s clients are super-hetero?” Jett asked.
“I’m not sure Peter can tell where people lie on the Kinsey scale, even if he does have gaydar as finely tuned as he says. He just meant that all Campbell’s wealthy clients are all hetero men. He also said something about the way Campbell looks at single women. I think Peter wants to believe what he sees, but part of him knows there’s something else going on.”
“And he just so happens to want to date you. What a coincidence,” Ax said.
“Actually, he thought there was something between the two of us.” Nick gestured between himself and Ax. “He offered to be the meat in our sandwich.”
Jett laughed, but Ax gave Nick a look he couldn’t decipher. There had obviously been some kind of sexual tension between them or they wouldn’t have fucked, so Peter had noticed something.
“What happened with Campbell?” Nick asked to ease the tense silence in the back seat.
“He has a ‘gift’ for me. He wants to tap into our supply because he needs more white women, from the sounds of it. He wants some of the women he thinks we’re pulling from Europe.”
“So he’s going to give you one of his female treasures in good faith?” Nick asked.
The very thought had bile creeping up his throat. Would he expect Ax to fuck her in front of him? Nick knew that sometimes they’d have to break some laws—but having sex with someone against their will? The very idea was disgusting and add onto that the little seed of jealousy that sprouted and grew in Nick’s mind.
“Am I on the sidelines for that too?” Nick asked. “I’m not going to learn anything if—”
“You get to come with tomorrow.” Ax said.
Nick had been prepared to argue and be shot down, so he simply shut his mouth as he tried to take in the fact that he would actually get to take part.
Nick’s phone pinged as they pulled into the underground garage.
Chapter Sixteen
Ax
As soon as they were back in the condo, Ax shut himself in the office and did his own research on Shawn Torres and Danny Silva.
For now, he needed to figure out how he could get to Silva. It wasn’t like visiting someone who was in prison for trafficking would blow his cover. He’d have to discuss it with Wade. Maybe one of the guys who wasn’t undercover could give Danny a visit.
Even thinking the word ‘blow’ had Ax’s mind wandering to Nick. He rubbed his forehead and tried to get back to the job at hand.
He’d learned a few hacking skills in his search for his sister. He didn’t want to get his hopes up, because she could be dead. He knew that was easily a possibility, but she’d been so beautiful and fresh-faced. She would have made a lot of money if they’d tried to sell her.
If she was alive, Ax was going to find her. It didn’t matter what country she was in or how locked up she was, he was going to find her and bring her home. He had a rehab facility in mind already if they had her hooked on drugs.
He had a therapist ready to go, too. It would all be in place, no matter how long it took him to find her. Then maybe he’d be able to look his parents in the eye again.
Ax’s phone pinged and he saw it was a message from his mother, inviting him and Nick to dinner again. Just as he was determined to push Nick back out of his mind, there was a knock at the door.
Ax didn’t even get a chance to respond before the door pushed open and Nick walked in carrying a tray. Just from the smell that hit his nose, Ax could tell it was his mother’s cooking. His stomach growled.
“You haven’t eaten anything today and it’s almost dinnertime,” Nick said as he set the tray on the desk.
“Thanks.”
“Your mom had an entire meal for about ten ready to go. She handed it over before I left the house.”
“I saw the bag when you got in the car.”
“Your mom’s an amazing cook.”
Ax grunted in agreement as he started shoveling food into his mouth.
“Okay.” Nick drew out the word to about eight syllables. “Let us know if you need anything.”
“Has Peter Thornton contacted you?”
“No. I didn’t give him my number. He gave me his. Did you want me to contact him?”
Ax gritted his teeth. The angry ball in the pit of his stomach felt a little like jealousy.
“Not right now. We’ll see how tomorrow goes.”
Nick nodded but seemed hesitant to leave. Ax didn’t mind him lingering, and that was exactly why he needed to go.
“Anything else?” Ax asked.
“I, uh…” Nick rubbed the back of his neck. “After dinner, your mom asked me to text her when we got home safe. I didn’t think a boyfriend would refuse, so I did. She texted me today to invite us to dinner again.”
Ax would normally be irate at the Nick’s presumption. There was a little anger there, because he didn’t want his parents knowing what his job really entailed. But he also knew his mom wouldn’t have invited them back if she hadn’t liked Nick. Something about that warmed him, even though it shouldn’t.
“I got the same text,” Ax admitted.
“I can tell her I’m sick. I don’t want to make things awkward.”
“Things are already awkward. Don’t act like you didn’t notice.”
“Does that mean you want to go?” Nick asked.
Ax sighed.
“It’s too bad you can’t meet them in a neutral territory.” Nick suggested.
“It’s not the place, it’s…” The guilt, he thought. “It’s all the history we have hanging over us like a dark cloud.”
“Still, it’s their home, their comfort zone, their territory. If you feel a little like an outsider, neutral territory puts you on a more equal footing.”
Ax nodded. He hadn’t really thought of it like that. He’d assumed that because it wasn’t his childhood home, it was more of a neutral territory, but Nick was right. It was their comfort zone, not his. There wasn’t much he could do about that while he had to keep his cover.
“Why don’t you tell them I’m embarrassed or sick or whatever?” Nick said. “That way you can at least push it off for a few days. You have enough on your plate right now. You don’t need the distraction of family drama.”
Ax nodded as he shoveled more food into his mouth. He didn’t tell Nick that his ‘family drama’ was always there in the background. He’d just learned how to turn the volume down on it so he could get other shit done—other things that just might lead him to where he had been trying to go before he’d joined HC.
Nick turned to leave, but Ax called him back. He couldn’t quite look him in the eye, but he appreciated Nick’s willingness to take the fall.
“Thanks,” Ax said.
“Sure,” Nick said before walking out and closing the door.
Ax went back to his dinner. As he tried to form a response to his mom, he put his fork down. His appetite was gone.
He tried to get back to work, but after an hour of more dead ends, he took his half-finished plate of dinner and headed toward the kitchen. On the way, he heard Nick and Jett playing video games in the entertainment room.
“Fuck,” Jett yelled. “You killed me.”
“That’s the point,” Nick shot back.
“I had no idea you could be such a stone-cold hard ass.”
“Now you know.”
Ax heard them both chuckling. Straightening his shoulders, he moved past and dumped the remains of his dinner into the compost bin. Jett was straight. There was no reason to be jealous of him—except, for some reason, he had an easy camaraderie with Nick. When Jett teased, Nick teased right back. Ax hadn’t even known he had a sense of humor. Whenever he was around Ax, Nick had a stick up his ass. It had been that way since day one.
When Ax got back to his desk, he did a little checking on Peter Thornton and discovered that he was probably telling Nick the truth—or at least a partial truth about himself.
Thornton’s father was currently in jail and his mother had recently been released early, due to good behavior. His mother’s sister and her husband had taken custody of Peter because both his parents had ended up in jail when he was fifteen. He had seven siblings, all of them older and all boys, except one younger sister, who’d also ended up with the same aunt and uncle until she was eighteen.
Every single one of them had a record except the youngest two. Three of the eight children were also currently serving time. None of them had ever done anything with drugs or trafficking. All the charges were about fraud, embezzlement, identity theft, exploitation of the elderly and extortion.
Ax wasn’t ready to trust the guy, but it did seem like he might be telling the truth about his history, at least. His present was still undetermined.
What did look interesting were his financials. Thornton had graduated with honors from Berkeley Law School and was currently studying for the bar. The guy had almost a hundred thousand dollars in student loans, something that would not have been necessary if he were truly in Campbell’s inner circle.
Ax also found the case Campbell had worked on for Peter’s sister Kiera. She had been awarded almost a million dollars because there had been some email evidence of the harassment, which she’d reported to HR, and she had replies from HR advising that it was a first-time offense so no disciplinary action would be taken.
The poor girl had asked for a transfer, which had been denied. The boss had apparently touched her one time too many and she’d slapped him. He’d called ‘foul’ and tried to press assault charges. Ax rolled his eyes at the idiocy and conceit of the asshole. Ax also set his name aside to investigate later.
Ax skimmed through the court documents. Kiera had admitted that the email exchanges and the transfer request had been submitted on the advice of her brother. Campbell had sure done a good job fighting for her. The man was such a dichotomy, defending women by day while exploiting and abusing them at night.
It was probably the most brilliant cover. Who would suspect him, even if they did have a few misgivings about the man? That might be exactly where Thornton fell. Campbell had fought for his sister and supported all the right charities, so if he flirted a little too hard or Thornton’s instinct told him something might be off, Ax could understand him putting those to the back of his mind—or Thornton knew everything and was unscrupulous, but that didn’t seem to add up.
Kiera had purchased a small house outside Berkeley with her winnings and Peter lived there with her. His student loan payments were consistent with his salary but had kicked up once his sister bought the house, since they had no rent. He wasn’t ready to consider Thornton an ally, but he would avoid letting the kid lose his license to practice before he even got it.
When Ax looked at the clock, he realized it was after midnight. He’d spent hours checking on Thornton when it hadn’t been necessary. Part of him had wanted to show Nick he’d been wrong to even consider that the man might be innocent.
He’d wasted time he could have been working on his own research, and that had the guilt flooding back in. Cherie was out there, the third anniversary was closing in and he needed to spend every spare moment he had finding her. If she was alive—Ax took a deep breath at that thought—she was counting on him.
The guilt and shame closed in on him like they sometimes did. They were a weight in the center of his chest, making it hard to breathe. Ax headed for the bar in the main living room. He wasn’t normally a big drinker, but lately it seemed like he was on fire and needed something to numb the pain.
He could barely keep his head above water between work and searching for Cherie. Add to that the demands his parents wanted to pile on top—then there was Nick, who was entirely too distracting and contrary. It was all just too much.
Grabbing a crystal bottle from the full bar, Ax took it to the room where he’d seen Nick and Jett playing games. The room was quiet and empty now, so he collapsed onto the sofa, opened the bottle and took a swig.
Not wanting to pass out on the sofa, Ax stood and made his way down the hall toward the master suite until he heard Nick talking to someone.
Chapter Seventeen
Nick
“How are you feeling?” Nick asked.
“Same as yesterday,” his dad said.
“That sounds like a complaint, but I’ll take it as a win.”
“I was thinking…”
“That’s never good.” Nick joked.
“The doctor cleared me to fly if I take the nurse with me. I could charter a plane and—”
“No,” Nick said.
“Nick, he’s back on American soil. I need to make the first move like I should have years ago.”
“No.”
“You realize I’m not a child.” His father chuckled. “I can actually do this since I’ve been medically cleared.”
“I’m handling it.” Nick gritted the lie out through his teeth. He shouldn’t have told his father Mase was going to be in the US.
Mase had no interest in discussing their father or his health. Nick understood, sort of, but he didn’t understand why his brother wasn’t even willing to hear Dad out. He knew Dad’s health was deteriorating.
And yet, if Nick put himself in Mase’s shoes… He stopped himself. He tried not to see things from Mase’s perspective very often, because it didn’t help to be angry at his father.
“I know you’re trying, Nick, but maybe he needs to see me make the effort.”
“Just give me a little more time, okay?”
“Do you think there’s a chance he’ll at least see me? Even if it’s to curse my name?”
The hope in his father’s voice cut Nick to pieces. His father was a confident, commanding, take-no-prisoners type of guy. At least he had been.
“I think it’s possible, but just give me more time.”
