Page 70 of Unraveled Love

I didn’t even bother going upstairs to the bathroom attached to the room we were staying in. The main floor had a full bath, so I hurried to it, careful of the mud still drying on the soles of my feet.

I hurried as fast as I could, and once my feet were clean enough, I forwent running upstairs to change my clothes despite the mud clinging to them.

When I returned to the room, the tension was no less thick. If possible, there was an even angrier feel in the air, the only sound Briggs clicking on his computer.

At some point after we’d gone to bed the night before, he’d turned the living space into a command center, similar to what he’d done at Shawn’s house.

“Okay,” I said, breath rushed from moving so quickly. “What’s wrong now?”

* * *

I waitedon pins and needles for Briggs to pull up Charlie and Jaxon on a video call. Their faces blurred and then snapped into a clear picture. Charlie was in the office, the dark gray walls I remembered clearly behind her. Jaxon looked like he was in a truck.

Charlie, with her hair in a messy bun piled high on her head, looked like she hadn’t slept in days and was only alive due to an IV of caffeine. “Do we want the good news with a side of nasty, the bad news, or the really fucked-up news first?”

Mason, who had one palm braced on the table, bent over one of Briggs’ shoulders and smirked. “Sounds like you’ve been busy.”

“Iama worker bee,” she sassed back with her own smirk.

“Roger Bancroft,” Jaxon cut in, apparently not in the mood for any humor, and I didn’t blame him. Normally I’d appreciate the attempt to lighten the mood. Not today. “Charlie was able to hack into his computer. Through that, we’ve been able to confirm Elusive is not just a men’s only social club, but once a month, they participate in auctions of girls.”

“Oh God.” My heart raced and I reached out to grab Shawn so I didn’t collapse. Some part of me had hoped all of this was made up. People actually went around buying women? Bile rose in my throat, and Shawn didn’t flinch as my nails dug into his arm.

Some of the men cursed, but I couldn’t make out who it was.

“Unfortunately, the girls are listed by numbers only, so we can’t yet know who they are, but we’re working on it. We haven’t found a way to track it back to either the Johannsens or Mancussos, but considering the fact that he’s his lawyer—”

“Was,” Charlie cut in.

“We’ll get to that,” Jaxon said, and my eyes gaze went to Shawn. His brows were furrowed, jaw tight with impatience. I didn’t blame him. He wanted to know everything and wanted it immediately.

I might have wanted to know everything more, despite the knowledge making me want to puke.

“As I was saying,” Jaxon continued, “with Charlie’s hacking, we not only learned about this, but also that his tastes definitely skew toward the younger girls.” His scowl deepened and I swore he could have stolen a man’s breath with a look like that. My own body trembled in preparation for what he was about to say. “When I say younger, I meanyoung. Preteens.”

“Fuck,” Shawn growled.

“Are you shitting me?” Lincoln barked.

If I thought the mood in the room was tense before, it was near explosive levels as all the men surrounding me took that in.

“Needless to say, I paid Mr. Bancroft a visit earlier today.” His grin turned evil, mixed with a sick kind of happiness. “I made it clear to him that if he continued being Matthew’s lawyer and didn’t tell us what he could about Daniel, those pictures he’d saved on his computer with some of these girls would go public before he could sayOh shit I’m fucking screwed.”

“He listened?” Briggs asked, though it was more of a statement.

“It helped that I had my gun pointed at him, but yeah, he cracked. Before I left his office, he typed up a motion to withdraw for good reason citing conflicts of interest and sent it to the judge. We’ll need to follow up with that, but Matthew will also be notified by breakfast time tomorrow.”

“That’s good, right?” I asked. At least Johannsen didn’t have some hotshot lawyer representing him.

“It’s only the beginning,” Charlie said. “What Jaxon didn’t mention is we got information on Landon as well.” She leaned in, a terrifying gleam in her blue eyes. “Guess who happens torunElusive?”

“Landon Bancroft,” Briggs stated, and all of us whipped our heads in his direction. He must have sensed it because he glanced at us before diving back into his computer screen. “Don’t be so surprised—I’m filtering through all the info Charlie sent me. But yeah, the son and friend of Daniel is the owner of Elusive. Oh.” His brows rose. “He also has a majority ownership in a tech company that supplies GPS devices, scramblers, and security systems as an aside.” He turned back to the computers like he hadn’t dropped a massive bomb. “Did you go to his house?”

“Bull did,” Jaxon stated. “House was empty, like totally cleared out and wiped down. Looked like no one had lived there for weeks except for the fact that there was fresh food in the fridge and freezer, so we’re thinking he took off sometime recently.”

“Who could blame him,” Lincoln muttered under his breath. “What does this mean?”

“First, we contacted the local PD after ensuring no one in charge there is a member and sent some proof of other images we’ve found and some of the players, so they’re filtering through that. I’m currently outside the PD in the parking lot and plan on going with them when they execute a warrant and shut that place down. I want to see it firsthand.”

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