Total pages in book: 42
Estimated words: 40057 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 200(@200wpm)___ 160(@250wpm)___ 134(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40057 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 200(@200wpm)___ 160(@250wpm)___ 134(@300wpm)
I rolled my eyes and leaned back in my chair, stretching my legs out and crossing my ankles. I remained the picture of ease even though I was tied up in knots inside.
King hadn’t said a word so far. He just sat behind his desk in his leather chair, wearing his usual scowl. Watching the room like he always did, eyes calm and calculating.
He nodded at me. “Bring us up to speed.”
I summarized what I’d seen in Elena’s drawings, my theories, and why I’d taken it to Wizard. Then I lifted a brow as I looked at the tech genius. “Since we’re here, I’m assuming you found something significant?”
Wizard flipped his laptop around so everyone could see the screen. “This is the first symbol Onyx brought me. Pulled it from a sketch Elena was working on. Almost identical to one I found associated with one of our files.”
He tapped the screen, bringing up another one of Elena’s drawings. I’d been snapping pictures of the ones I suspected were identifiers whenever she left her sketchbook lying around. I probably should have felt guilty for going behind her back, but this was about her safety, so I’d deal with her wrath later when she wasn’t in danger.
“Since then, I've been running any he’s been able to send me. Same fucking thing: base design, then layered code modifications. Symbolic identifiers, such as rank structure.” His brows drew down as he glanced up at me. “All of them are active.”
Fuck. This meant that with each new symbol Elena saw and reproduced, she was even more at risk.
“This morning, another one of them showed up in a file from last August,” Wizard continued. “Job we did for an informant that took down a trafficking ring in Kentucky. While not in the direct files, the newest one has popped up in the periphery of that mess we’re still monitoring in Atlanta after the COO…disappeared.”
A heavy pause settled.
“You saying this girl’s working for a syndicate?” Blaze asked, frowning.
I shook my head and snapped, “Fuck no. She doesn’t know what she’s drawing. Her mentor is feeding her the symbols as ‘pattern reconstruction exercises.’ Giving her partials to fill in. She doesn’t have a clue they’re active identifiers. Doesn’t think they mean anything at all. But she’s got a mind that sees deeper than surface-level shit. And she’s being trained to use it in a particular way, which makes her valuable if you’re creating a database of identifiers for rival syndicates. It also makes her a target.”
King rubbed his jaw, then broke his silence. “Finding some of her work associated with our work makes this club business.”
I hadn’t really expected King to tell me to fuck off and handle this shit on my own, but relief still hit me low and hard. My brothers would have my back. That meant more protection for Elena. More muscle if things went sideways. And more reach if I had to burn the world to the fucking ground.
While the majority of the club’s jobs were small, very detailed, and delicate work, there were times when we had to do more than just erase one person or family. Like the cases Wizard had found with links to these symbols.
Sometimes we had to go after the devil they were hiding from. Take down a larger group or even an entire organization, especially if they were involved in shit that slashed through our moral code.
Even with just the small amount of information Wizard had uncovered, I had a feeling that we’d only scratched the surface and were facing down a much larger monster.
“This mentor,” King murmured, drawing me from my thoughts. “What do you know about him?”
“Jareth Marks,” I answered, my tone filled with venom. “Big name in the art world. Runs a private studio and is on the board for several associations, as well as the admittance committee for Elena’s program.”
Wizard added, “Doesn’t seem like he does more than consult with other students, so the fact that he’s mentoring Onyx’s girl is a red flag all by itself.”
King’s eyes returned to me, and he was silent for a minute, his gaze probing. He must have seen what he was looking for because he shifted his focus to Ace and announced, “Elena belongs to a Hound. Her protection comes first. I want you to tear apart Marks’s finances. Personal and business. If he’s moving money for syndicates, taking bribes, paying for hookers, whatever. If it’s illegal or even a little shady, I want to know how and where.”
Ace cracked his knuckles. “On it.”
King gestured to Ash. “Run his name past your law enforcement contacts. I want to know if he’s on their radar. Is he being watched? Is someone protecting him? I want to know if he’s beneath their notice, or if he’s a bigger fish than he seems.”