Page 16 of The Vigilant

I nodded slowly, feeling my jaw clench as I repeated the story Sutton wanted me to believe. “He said she was breaking andentering. She claims the apartment was her friend’s, and she’d left her phone there. Friend was gone, so she picked the lock to let herself in. Said the security guard at the building doesn’t like her, so he called the police.”

“And they brought her here?”

“They gave her a choice. Babysitter or prison. She gave them my name,” I said, knowing it wasn’t a good thing. Sure, she’d thought of me, but it was a pretty bad fucking sign that the only person she could think of to help her was a friend of her dad’s whom she’d only met twice.

She had no one else. No family. No friends. No one but me.

My stomach tightened, hit again with that overwhelming hunger to take care of her that felt like it was going to devour me whole. Maybe she had no one else before, but now that she’d come to me…no.I shoved those thoughts out of my mind.

“You believe her?” Harm’s voice brought me back to the moment.

“Some.”

“And juvie?”

“Record is sealed, and she’s not sharing.” I sighed, drumming my fingers on the desk. “Her dad and then her mom within a year. Her mom was murdered by a drug dealer.” I ticked off the tragedies with my fingers. “Whatever she did, it had to be pretty close to when her mom died.”

“Acting out from all that loss?” Harm said low, bringing voice to my thoughts.

My lip twitched, recalling how she’d just gone and sat on one of our customer’s motorcycles in the garage. “Certainly would be a reasonable assumption.”And to some extent understandable.

“I can make some calls?—”

“Thanks, but I already did,” I said, rubbing my hand along my jaw.

“Talon?”

I nodded again. Talon Rhodes worked for Armorous Tactical, a large private security firm outside of San Francisco. In addition to handling their own clients, they provided support for the city’s law enforcement teams as well as the courts and the Marshals. Talon had connections deep in the city’s court system, so I’d messaged him for a favor: details on Sutton’s record.

It was a long shot. Juvenile records were sealed for a reason. And hell, it probably wasn’t related to…anything about Sutton being here. But goddammit, I needed to know.

The obligation to a man I loved—a man I’d failed—snuck into my system like poison and demanded the antidote of answers. I needed to know what the hell happened to her. Needed to know what other failures I was responsible for.

“What can I do?”

“Nothing right now—not for her,” I told him. Unfortunately, Sutton wasn’t the only mystery I had to deal with. “Take a look at this.”

With a few clicks, I put up on the screen GrowTech’s press conference from yesterday, replaying the moment when Belmont announced Brock Carson would be stepping in as COO of the company.A moment that seemed like a lifetime ago since my past exploded on my doorstep and left a bombshell in its wake.

“Carson…” Harm drawled with a low voice. “Why do I know that name?”

“He’s scum.” In the little time my software had spent digging and combing information on Carson, my initial perception of him had only shaded in darker. “Harvard business grad turned middleman between the wealthy elite and every kind of criminal. Mexican cartels. Chinese Triad. Russian mob. Middle Eastern Mafia. He’ll contract with anyone to get what his clients want. Drugs. Weapons. Stolen art and antiquities.” My jaw twitched.“He’s been worming his way up the food chain for a few years now. Staying slimy enough not to get caught.”

“Why does Belmont want him?” Harm scowled. “Carson doesn’t seem like the face you want to put on a business, especially when Belmont has to be in crisis mode, trying to keep his company appear above board.”

My eyes flicked to Harm.

“What is it?” he demanded.

“I don’t have proof, but I think it has to do with this.” I opened up the image that had been at the top of my results folder this morning and slid the image onto the screen. “Carson has friends in…low places,” I said, watching Harm’s jaw drop.

“Are you…” He snapped his head to me. “You think this has to do with Shazad?”

Amir Shazad was the head of the Pakistani Mafia and the man behind the majority of the illegal heroin trade out of Afghanistan. And this wasn’t our first run-in with the criminal kingpin.

About a year ago, Harm had been hired to guard Daria Sinclair, the daughter of another dangerous criminal, Magnus Sinclair. Magnus tried to form an alliance with Amir Shazad by arranging a marriage between Daria and Amir’s son, Uzair. In exchange, Magnus would run the North and South American distribution of Shazad’s heroin exports.

The image I’d put on the screen was taken at the engagement ball Magnus had orchestrated. It was of Brock Carson smiling and standing next to Uzair, the two of them looking like the oldest of friends.

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