Page 29 of Lost in the Light

“My father’s accounts?” Asher asked.

“We checked those too, but there were no matching payments,” Harris replied.

“So he didn’t pay to go to the parties?” Eli asked as he looked to his brother. “What does that mean?”

“He was there!” Addy cried. “I swear he was there. That flashback…it was real.”

“We know that, sweetheart. We’re not doubting you,” Asher soothed as he turned to face her and reassured her. “Were you able to continue following the money?” Asher asked as he turned back to Harris. I heard the tension in his voice and knew he suspected what was coming too.

“Yes. Aleks followed the trail from the subsidiary company to an offshore account in the Caymen’s. That account led us to a company in Nevada called ‘LYFE corps” with an ‘L, Y’ instead of ‘L,I.’”

“The company has a mailbox somewhere in Navada and a business account that money moves in and out of on a regular basis, but other than that they don’t exist,” Alex, or maybe Aleks, since Harris seemed to pronounce it that way, spoke up.

“He couldn’t fucking help himself, could he?” Asher growled as he stood up and interlocked his fingers behind his neck. He looked up to the ceiling, his whole body rigid with rage. “Fucking sex trafficking and he still had to have his fucking name on it!” Asher grabbed his coffee cup from the counter and threw it across the room into the wall opposite where Addy and Jordan were. He roared with anger, and I completely understood, but I worried too.

Addy squeaked in fear as she cowered and grabbed onto Jordan, terrified. If Asher lost it anymore I feared we’d lose her to another panic attack.

I stalked straight over to Asher. Addy’s fear had stilled him in his rage but it was still coursing through him. His fists were clenched at his sides and he was breathing way too hard.

“Brother,” I said as I wrapped my hand firmly around the back of his neck and pulled him towards me, resting my forehead against his. “Breathe,” I told him in little more than a whisper.“Addy and Eli…they need you now. We can spar and get this out later, yeah?”

“That fucker, Adam,” he whispered, sounding more broken than I’d ever heard him.

“I know, bud. I know,” I agreed. I gripped the top of his arms and squeezed them tightly, hoping it would be enough to pull him around.

As I stood I looked from Addy, who was crying curled as small as she could into my brothers lap, to Eli, who was just slumped against the counter, his eyes closed and his head lowered.

“I’m sorry, man,” Harris offered.

“I should have expected it. I think a part of me did, to be honest, but I was hoping…fuck!” Asher stopped talking and wrapped his arm around Eli, pulling him closer into his side and whispering into his ear. Eli nodded, and finally opened his eyes as he looked to his brother.

“I’m good,” he whispered, and Asher nodded. They both turned to Addy but she wasn’t even looking up. Her face was pressed against Jordan’s shoulder and she was shaking with sobs. Jordan was holding her tightly, but he looked a little lost. We all were. How could we even begin to make this any less painful for all of them?

“Sweetheart,” Asher crooned as he dragged Eli across the kitchen to her.

She turned her head against Jordan’s shoulder just enough to see her brothers stood before her. Her eyes were bright red and her pale face blotchy.

“Was it him? Did…did he have me kidnapped on purpose?” she asked shakily through her tears.

Asher turned to look at the others, his face a mask of calm once again, even though I knew he was far from it. Eli was trying to stay strong too, but I could see how he shook as Asher clutched him to his side tightly.

“The company tracks back to another offshore account your father set up about ten years ago. Aleks had to go through a lot of hoops to get to that information though. Joseph Lyle was pretty good at covering his tracks,” Harris explained.

“Luckily, Aleks is better,” The blonde guy, who hadn’t spoken much until that point, added as he slapped Aleks on the back. I couldn’t remember his name, but he seemed lighter than the other three, more relaxed.

“So, he was the one setting these parties up?” Eli asked with confusion.

“We don’t know how far his involvement goes yet. There was millions of dollars in that offshore account though, so if it all came from his ill deeds, there was obviously a lot of them,” Harris answered.

“If I could get my hands on his laptop, I may be able to find more,” Aleks added, only glancing up momentarily from the laptop he’d been working away on.

“I think the FBI have it. Either that or it burned up in the fire at the house,” Asher explained.

“Okay. For now Aleks is trying to trace the payments from the account back to individuals, so hopefully we can come up with a list of the fuckers who were at those parties and anyone else who was involved in the operation,” Harris said.

“He was obviously the puppet master in this whole depraved fucking venture. The question is, did he know he’d gotten his own daughter caught up in it all, and how the fuck do we bring the whole thing down?”

I moved to Addy instantly as a loud sob burst from her. Asher and Eli were instantly back before her too and we all watched as she looked up at us with so much agony on her face. I actually rubbed my hand over my chest, feeling like someone had punched me. It fucking killed me to see her hurting so badly.

---