Page 7 of Brutal Prince

“So,” Darryn scratches his short auburn hair with his hand, “the society has got people even in the PD doing their dirty work? How the hell are we going to win against that?” This time he was directing the question to me.

“Maybe you need to find a new place to store the evidence,” Ollie said, “otherwise all of this is going to be a waste of our time.”

He’d been sitting there in silence, just taking it all in. But that’s how Ollie is, handsome and quietly spoken with unruly curly black hair that could use a trim. He’s a big guy, linebacker in the Hawks, with a lovely temperament and as his hand moved closer to my thigh, I wondered what his intentions were. I felt safe going through the gates of hell with these two guys, providing they stuck to the rules. As soon as I signal my distress, they must pull me out. No dithering. No hesitation.

“I’m not the one suggesting you should go in and spy on the society members,” the detective reminded us, “and evidence has to be collected by our forensics team, not by untrained twenty year olds.”

“We’ve been undercover in the Vault and in the society for a while now,” Darryn said, “and gotten nothing but bloodied golf clubs and tight alibis. We need to go deeper into the organized ring, perhaps even put ourselves forward for so-called jobs that come up.”

“How do you feel about doing that?” Mathias asked us.

Darryn said, “Gretta will only ever be a Basement Level member, therefore she may not be a witness to the management of the racket.”

“Because she’s a female?”

“No, because she’s not a rich, privileged male.”

“So, what point is there sending Gretta in-”

“-Stop talking about me like I’m not here.”

“I apologize,” Mathias said. “I repeat, what point is there for you to go in?”

“We know Benson Vanderbilt of the famous Vanderbilt ilk is the gatekeeper of the archives and according to Cody Harrington is the one who delegates the jobs…”

“Okay, so maybe I’ll bring him in for questioning,” Mathias suggested.

“Then everyone else will clam up,” I said. “I think the best procedure is for me to get close to Vanderbilt.”

Ollie snatched his hand away from my thigh. “How close?” he asked.

“Whatever it takes,” I admitted I was prepared to do anything to put an end to the violence.

“I just don’t have a good feeling about this,” Mathias sighed. “I want all three of you to check in with me every single day. Got it?”

We nodded.

“I mean it,” she reaffirmed. “Every single day I want a phone call from each of you.”

There was a knock at her door and an officer poked his head into the room. Mathias stepped outside in the hall and as soon as she closed the door behind her, Ollie said, “Are you prepared to fuck him?”

“I’m going to do whatever it takes.”

“But he’s a fucking turd,” Ollie argued, quietly.

Darryn snorted. “You know Harrington stumbled across one of their fuckfests, right?”

“Yeah.”

Darryn continued, “Well let me tell you now, you might not be screwing just one dude at a time. The turd will be the least of your problems.”

“I’ve heeded your warnings,” I snapped, getting irritated.

I glanced at the time on my phone. I had a shift at Stads burger joint in 20 minutes. Unlike the two men either side of me I wasn’t recruited into KVU on the tails of my rich parents. I was born and bred in Kingston Valley and my mom always felt a local gal like myself should have pride of place in the halls of the university over the outsiders. My mom is a little idealistic and completely out of touch with reality. She spends her days watching daytime soaps and reading Mills and Boon from her bed due to her debilitating condition.

Due to her inability to work, I work a forty-hour week as manager at Stads burger joint to pay the rent, and study for my degree in Anthropology in my spare. Despite my mom’s condition and all the great difficulties she has to surmount day to day, she is still a supremely positive beckon of light, albeit an unrealistic one.

Detective Mathias stepped back into the interview room and took the seat opposite us again. “I don’t know if you’ve heard but skeletal remains were found on the shores of Lake Superior.”

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