Page 40 of The Saviors: Part Two
“Judge Stinson had his hands in a lot of fucked up shit. Money laundering, human trafficking, drugs, you name it. He might actually give Grant Augustus a run for his money. Anyway, I’m looking through his contacts now for anything on Charlie. And the fact that he used his real name shows how brave he is.”
“Or stupid.” Axel leans back in the chair and stares up at the ceiling. “What about the guard?”
“Oliver Brickman is an ex-navy seal, honorably discharged, thirty-two, and squeaky clean.”
“But he covered up a murder?” I ask. “He knows Vivian had something to do with that but lied to protect her.”
Sean leans his arms on the back of Nolan’s chair, looking at the computer. “Maybe they were having an affair.”
“She didn’t give me that feeling,” I argue. “Maybe he knew that’s the only way she would get out.”
“We need to talk to him and find out for sure. Ari?” I can hear the hope in Axel’s voice that Nolan hasn’t found anything incriminating. This will be a huge blow to all of us.
“Nothing has come up so far, and I’ve run every number they’ve ever had.”
Axel stands up and reaches down to pull Nolan to his feet. “Leave it to run in the background. We’re going to bed.”
They call out their goodnights, and Sean does the same, saying he’s going to sleep with Chelsea. I sit in the office for a little while when my phone rings, Ari’s name flashing across the screen. I swallow down anything that I’m feeling and slide to answer.
“What’s up, man?”
“Where’s Axel? I tried to call him, but he didn’t answer.”
“He and Nolan went to bed. Is something wrong?”
Ari sighs. “When Nolan gave us our new phones, he put software on there that shows if someone is tracking them and who.” That hits me like a ton of bricks, and I shut my eyes. “Why is Nolan going through our stuff, Cole?” I try to pick up on anything in his voice, and he doesn’t sound pissed, maybe just hurt.
“We have to be sure.”
“I can respect that, but I have to tell you, this fucking sucks. I’ve been on your side since the beginning. We’ve put our asses on the line more than once for you guys. Why the hell would we do that if we were still working with Charlie?”
“Chelsea is our top priority. I can’t worry about hurt feelings right now.”
The line goes silent for so long that I have to make sure he didn’t hang up. “This is more than hurt feelings, Cole. I thought we were brothers, and I have to find out through some goddamn software that you don’t even trust us. Nolan can run whatever he wants to, that’s not why I’m calling. But you or Axel could have grown some fucking balls and started asking some questions. I would never betray you, but I guess you need to find that out on your own. We’ll still be here protecting Gavin. Tell Axel to call me tomorrow to let me know if he still wants us to or not.”
The line goes dead, and I sling my phone onto the table, feeling like a total asshole for even bringing this up. Ari’s never backed down from helping us. He even helped us take down Charlie. But Charlie said heletus get him out of the Saviors.
I move to Nolan’s computer chair and pull up Ari’s file. It goes all the way back to what he was doing before the Saviors. He was black ops for the Army and dishonorably discharged for a mission that went bad. Charlie found him right after that and recruited him into the Saviors. By the time we joined, Ari had been with him for almost ten years and was the first to agree to help us overthrow Charlie. Keon and Tyler came in after Axel was already the leader. When shit started getting real about finding Charlie, Axel disbanded the Saviors and went dark with just the two teams. No one even knows that we still exist except for the people we tell. I think through every mission we’ve ever been on with Ari, and nothing sticks out that he would be deceiving us. If we’re wrong, we just fucked up. Ari will never trust us again after this.
I just hope he understands that we would do anything to make sure Chelsea is safe, including this.
Chapter15
Nolan
Iwake up the next morning practically laying on top of Axel, but his arm is anchored around my waist, so I know he doesn’t mind. At some point last night, Chelsea ended up coming in here to sleep behind me with Sean behind her. Cole crawled into the bed minutes later on Axel’s other side. It felt right, even though we’re still missing a very important part of this family. Kai. I hate that he can’t enjoy this time with us, but I know he’ll get there. Chelsea wiggles behind me to get closer, and I smile.
“Stop moving, Gorgeous,” Sean says, his voice still thick with sleep. “You’ll wake the beast.”
She giggles quietly. “The beast is always awake.”
Axel’s other arm comes up, disappears behind me, and she laughs even harder. “Shhh. Some of us are still sleeping.”
“Get your hand off my face, Axel.” Her voice comes out muffled, and he breathes a laugh. “I won’t hesitate to bite the shit out of you.”
“Bite him, Ladybug.”
“Ow. What the fuck?” Axel jerks his hand back and lifts up to look at her. “That was uncalled for.”
