“From multiple contacts and your personnel file,” she said, cutting him off. “Yes, I’m good enough to have your personnel file. And unless you’re going to tell her, then I get to finish this. So, you wanted to stop this guy. But your higher-ups decided that they wanted the bigger fish. His big, bad boss.” She snorted. “Sounds exactly like something those assholes with the FBI would do too. Stop me if I’m wrong.”
He simply shrugged. She was doing fine all by herself. How the hell had she gotten his personnel file? And more importantly, how the fuck did they know what he did for a living? It wasn’t common knowledge and Brooks would have had to do more than “put the pieces together” to figure it out.
“That’s what I thought. So,” she continued, watching Hadley, “your boy over here wanted to do the right thing. But his bosses considered those women expendable since they were prostitutes. I guess the Feds figured they didn’t deserve the right to live because of their chosen profession. Axel disagreed and tried to go over his head. Didn’t work because the grandboss wanted the head of the criminal organization more than a serial rapist and killer. The guy went on to kill six more women before they finally brought him down. And not all of those women were prostitutes, which is the only reason they brought him in. Not that it matters, because they should’ve listened to Axel right away. And the kicker is, they didn’t even bring down the bigger fish.” Disgust filled her voice. “Does that about cover it?”
“Yeah.”
Hadley turned to look at him and said, “So what happened? How did you go from that to killing people?”
He looked at her for a long moment, unable to find his voice. “I didn’t, not right away anyway. But I turned in my resignation after that. I took a job with them because I believed in a cause, but the people in charge really only cared about getting their faces in the news.”
Not all of them did, he knew that. But he’d gotten burned out fast, disgusted by their complete lack of humanity. He didn’t want to have this conversation at all, but definitely not in front of two virtual strangers. Too bad for him because it was clear that they weren’t going anywhere.
Clearing his throat, he glanced away for a moment, unable to look at her as he searched for a way to get this out. Finally he looked back at her. “I never planned for this to be my job. Never imagined it actually. When I found out that Leo Williams was getting released on a technicality—that was the killer’s name—I took care of the problem as soon as he was let out.” And Axel felt no guilt over it either. The system had failed all the women Williams had raped, tortured and killed. It had failed in general. The system that should be protecting the marginalized had sat back and done nothing. That kind of apathy was just as bad as Williams killing people. “I couldn’t let him continue—and he would have, no question. From there…” He shrugged, not going to give the whole story. Not yet anyway. And he’d only tell Hadley the rest if she wanted to know. But no one else.
Hadley was motionless and so were the others. The only exception was Skye who’d started eating, digging into an egg roll as if she hadn’t eaten in a week.
“So, I’m going to process all that…later. For the issue at hand, why would anyone want to kidnap me?” Hadley asked, looking at everyone, pure confusion in her dark eyes.
Axel saw Skye and Brooks exchange a quick look as Skye set down her half-eaten egg roll on her plate.
Brooks took a step closer to his sister, his expression softening. He looked completely different from the man who’d been in the truck with Axel, ready to kill him. “Whether you want to accept it or not, you’re wealthy. I know you won’t take any money from Dad, but you’re still considered a target because you’re his daughter. And I’m going to be blunt. He adores you and he’s not the same man who raised me. Don’t get me wrong, when I was younger I was considered a target too and he took precautionary measures. It’s part of the reason the ranch is so damn secure. He needed to know that wherever we lived, I was as safe as anyone could ever be.”
“But why not go after you too? Not that I want you to be kidnapped,” Hadley tacked on, her eyes growing wide. “I guess I just don’t understand why me.”
“Well he loves you and he’s made it pretty damn clear to anyone who will listen. He’s also incredibly proud of you. You’re all he ever talks about now. And…” Brooks cleared his throat. “You’re a woman, so they probably view you as an easier target. I have military training and there are other ways to use a woman against my father to get him to pay whatever it is this kidnapper wants.”
It took a few seconds for Hadley to understand what her brother meant, but Axel saw the moment she did because her face paled. “That’s…terrible.”
Yeah, there were a lot of terrible people in the world. And Axel had taken out his share of them. The thought of anyone harming Hadley, using her as a pawn for money or whatever, made him see red.
“So have you guys called the police?” Hadley asked.
Skye snorted and Brooks simply shook his head.
“Why not?” She looked between the two of them, clearly avoiding Axel’s gaze. He should probably just leave but he didn’t want to be away from her. Not unless she explicitly told him to go.
“We’re not going to involve the police for this,” Brooks finally said. “Our crew is more capable of handling this kind of contract than some locals. We’ve got better technology, resources and we’re not restricted by the law. And if we’d known about it a couple days ago,” Brooks shot Axel a hard look, “we could have started digging more intensely.”
“I’ve got a guy working on monitoring stuff,” Axel said.
“Who are you using?” Skye asked.
It wasn’t in his nature to share information but now was one of those times he had to. For Hadley’s safety. When he said the guy’s name, Skye nodded once. “Yeah, Isaac’s all right. He’s not Gage, but good enough.”
“Who’s Gage?”
“None of your fucking business,” Brooks said. “I mean, ah, none of your business.”
Hadley snorted. “You can say the F-word in front of me.”
“So what were you planning on doing?” Skye asked Axel. “Were you planning on keeping Hadley safe while taking these guys out one by one? It’s a pretty tall order when you’re working alone.”
Axel lifted a shoulder. “Pretty much. But you’re right, I can’t be in two places at once. I thought she’d be safe at the ranch.”
“If you’d told someone, we could’ve kept her locked down,” Brooks snapped, fire in his eyes now.
“Enough,” Hadley muttered. “What do we do from here? Because school starts in a week and I’m not missing school. It was hard to get into this program and I won’t let this jeopardize my career plan.”
That might be too bad if they didn’t figure out who had started this contract in the first place. But Axel didn’t say that. He would let Brooks be the bad guy.
Brooks rubbed a hand over his face and sighed. “From this point forward, you’ll stay at the ranch,” he said to Hadley. “And we’re going to figure out who hired someone to kidnap you and deal with him or her. That person is the real threat.”
“What does ‘deal with’ mean?” she asked, though Axel figured she knew exactly what her brother meant.
Instead of answering, Skye gave a sort of feral grin and popped the last part of her egg roll into her mouth.
“Unless you have anything else to offer, you can leave now,” Brooks said, his expression hard as he stared at Axel.
Axel nodded once. There was a lot he wanted to say to Hadley, but now wasn’t the time. Still, he couldn’t leave without saying something. “What I feel for you is real. I never meant to hurt you,” he said quietly.
Surprising him, Hadley reached out and squeezed his hand once. Her expression was guarded but at least she didn’t seem to hate him. A small victory.
Before she could say anything, Skye cleared her throat. “Seriously, O’Sullivan? That’s pretty weak. You’re gonna walk away after all this effort? You’ve already taken out two threats. You’re coming with us to the ranch.”