Paladin, page 25
They were supposed to be sleeping. It was only about one in the afternoon, but after lunch, Jericho had sent the other boys home and then shooed them off to bed, reminding them they’d been up for hours and would need to be well rested for what was to come.
Arsen hadn’t said much since the meeting. In the shower, he’d washed Ever’s body and hair, had allowed Ever to do the same for him. He’d even toweled him off and helped him dress, all without uttering a single word. It left Ever feeling untethered, like he was bobbing in the ocean, getting farther away from shore.
He didn’t like the ambiguity of Arsen’s silence. If he was mad, he’d rather he yell at Ever or something. Hell, even hitting him would be better than the silence. It was rubbing Ever’s nerves raw.
It didn’t seem like he was mad at him, though. When they’d gotten under the covers, Arsen had pulled him in, arranged the sheets and comforter around them. He wasn’t sleeping anymore than Ever was. He could tell by his breathing and the rapid beat of his heart. But still, he remained silent until Ever couldn’t take it anymore.
“Are you mad at me?” Ever finally asked, hating how small his voice sounded.
Arsen’s arms tightened around him briefly. “What? No. Why would you ever think that?”
Why wouldn’t he think that? He’d done nothing but cause Arsen trouble since the day he’d rescued him. There were people who wanted to kill them, kill Arsen’s friends, kill the only father figure he’d ever known…because of Ever. People had tried to burn them alive, had wanted Ever dead so badly they’d set Jericho’s business on fire, knowing there was a potential for it to spread to the apartments next door.
“You’ve been really quiet.”
“I’m quiet because I’m pissed off. Not at you,” he hurried to add. “At them. At this situation. At the fact that we gave them a chance to walk away and they chose to engage. So, now, we have to retaliate. We have to hit back harder. These games make me feel…”
Ever tilted his head up. He was just barely able to see Arsen’s silhouette in the shadows. “Make you feel…”
Arsen didn’t answer right away. Ever wasn’t sure he’d answer at all. He returned his head to Arsen’s chest, letting the sound of his heart lull him. When Arsen did speak, the words vibrated through his chest beneath Ever’s ear. “It makes me feel like my father.”
Ever sucked in a sharp breath, jerking his head up to look at Arsen again. “You’re nothing like him. Your father was a monster. He killed your mom because he was a bad person.”
“I’ve killed people, too.”
Ever shook his head vehemently. “You killed Jennika because she was a bad person. That’s not the same. You kill to keep people safe.”
Arsen threaded his fingers in Ever’s hair, blunt nails scratching over his scalp in a way that made him feel tingly and sleepy. “Logically, I know that. But sitting there, in a room full of men who kill for fun as much as for necessity— hearing them throw around words like retaliation and show of force makes me feel like I’m no better than my mob enforcer father.”
Ever’s heart twisted. He didn’t want to be the cause of Arsen’s distress. Maybe it was selfish to want his abusers dead. Maybe things would die down on their own if they just gave it a chance. He’d be okay with that if it made Arsen happy. He only wanted Arsen happy.
“You don’t have to do this,” Ever said, squeezing Arsen in a hug. “We could let the Mulvaneys take care of it. Or we can just…wait and see. Maybe they’ll think the fire was enough to scare me into silence,” he finished quietly.
“‘You’re dead’ is a pretty straightforward threat, besenok. Besides, I do want them dead. I want all of them dead for what they did to you. And when they’re dead, I won’t feel an ounce of pity or guilt. My father never felt that way, either. Sometimes, I wonder if my father and I are just two sides of the same coin.”
Arsen was nothing like his father. His father was a monster who tried to make his son do his dirty work for him then somehow turned himself into the victim. Arsen was sweet and kind and gentle and beautiful. He was bright and colorful and…perfect. He was the best thing that ever happened to Ever.
Then he remembered something he’d read in a book once. “Isn’t a coin’s luck good or bad based on whether it lands heads or tails? That is something real, right?” Ever asked, face growing hot.
What other nineteen-year-old didn’t know the difference between what was real and what was fake? His stomach churned, hoping Arsen didn’t think he was stupid for not knowing something so simple.
“It’s a superstition, but many people believe it,” Arsen said. “I believe it.”
Ever felt something unknot within him. “Well, if you’re the same coin, then you’re the good side and he’s the bad. That’s all that matters.”
Arsen squeezed him, then kissed the top of his head. “I suppose you’re right.”
Ever’s hand slid up under Arsen’s t-shirt, tracing the ridges of his muscles. He wasn’t trying to start anything, just suddenly needed to be as close to him as possible and the heat of his skin was hard to resist.
They lay in silence for a long while, still not sleeping. Ever’s mind began to wander, a new different panic starting to seep into his thoughts. Panic about the future. He couldn’t stop himself from asking, “What happens after?”
There was a long pause, then Arsen asked, “After what?”
Ever’s heart tripped. “After they’re all dead. What happens to us? To me?”
Arsen’s answer came much faster this time. “Nothing happens. We go back to living our lives. You’re going to get a new birth certificate and a new social security number, and then you can do or be anything you want.”
That sounded like a fairy tale. A story much too good to be true. “Not everyone gets happily ever after.”
“Maybe so, but I’ll die trying to make sure you get yours,” Arsen said.
“It’s not that simple. A new name isn’t going to teach me math. According to Jeremiah, I have the education of a sixth grader. I definitely can’t do what I want.”
“Jeremiah also said your IQ was above average and that you’re super smart. Just because nobody ever taught you doesn’t mean you can’t be taught. I’m good at math and numbers, but I’m terrible at reading and history, and I went all the way through high school, barely making a C in my core classes. All those boring facts about dead people who only seemed to make things worse. I don’t care about Poland in the thirties.”
Ever smiled at the disgust in his voice. As if that lesson in particular had been the final straw to kill Arsen’s love of history. “I just want to know what everybody else does.”
“We’re all just faking it, besenok. You know as much as the rest of us. The math they taught us in school? I’ve never needed it once. You can learn addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Everything else was a waste. None of us knew the important things like filing taxes or creating a budget. They didn’t teach us how to be adults, just how to sit quietly in a room for eight hours for little to no reward. You’re not nearly as behind as you think you are. But I can and will teach you whatever you want to know…except history. I won’t do it.”
Ever smiled. “Okay.” Something else occurred to him then. “Will I get to keep my first name when I get my new birth certificate?”
“I don’t see why not?” Arsen said. “In two days, there won’t be enough people left from your old life to matter. Only us.”
Ever dropped a kiss on Arsen’s chest. “What about my last name? Will they just pick a random one for me?”
Arsen was quiet for a bit. “It doesn’t matter what your last name is.”
Ever frowned. “Why?”
“Because eventually it will be mine.”
Arsen gave Ever one long, last look, then kissed his hair and slipped out of bed. He would be upset when he woke to find Arsen gone, but it had taken so long to get Ever to sleep that Arsen just couldn’t bring himself to wake him now that he was sleeping so hard, starfished on his stomach, mouth open, drooling adorably onto Jericho’s guest pillow.
Arsen shoved his legs into the sweatpants he’d left pooled on the floor and pulled on a hoodie, not bothering to zip it up. The others were already gathered, scattered around the living room, likely waiting on him. They could wait another minute. He walked to the kitchen and poured himself a black coffee, taking a sip and wincing as the bitter liquid burned its way down.
After another sip, he shuffled back to the others, not sitting on the couch but on the arm, looking out over the sea of faces. Asa and Avi sat side by side on the couch with Seven, Lake, and Cree stuffed in beside them, not looking terribly upset by the close proximity.
Felix was on the floor in a pair of flowy black pants and a tank top, cleaning his nails with a butterfly knife. Zane lay between his legs, head on his thigh. Arsen couldn’t imagine trusting anyone enough to have a blade dangling over his head like that, but Zane was unfazed.
Other than Felix, everyone else looked like they’d crawled out of bed and headed straight to Jericho’s living room. Most were in sweats and t-shirts. All but Levi. He wore his uniform from the convenience store, having likely come from work. Nico sat on the floor with Levi, staring up at Jericho and Atticus expectantly.
“What’s the word?” Seven finally asked. “Did you talk to Daddy?”
Arsen’s lips twitched as the others laughed. It was no secret that Seven had taken a liking to the Mulvaney patriarch. The fact that the man was married really hadn’t slowed his crush any.
Atticus nodded. “I did. He brought up something that hadn’t occurred to me yesterday during our initial meeting, though it should have. Traffickers have victims. Victims often stashed away in places where they are totally dependent on their captors.”
Arsen’s stomach clenched. Why hadn’t that occurred to him? He felt sick at the thought of more kids just like Ever trapped somewhere, waiting to be sent into a life of misery and servitude. “Fuck.”
“He’s not willing to sanction his sons’ participation until he knows if there are victims and where they’re located to ensure their safety.”
“So, what do we do?” Arsen asked.
“We need someone on the inside to talk,” Felix said, like it was obvious.
Maybe it was. Arsen hadn’t been on his game since the fire. Everything had happened so fast that he was still reeling. His mind just kept coming back to what might have happened had Ever not been awake.
“It’s not that easy,” Lake said.
He was right. Gangs only survived by loyalty and that loyalty came from fear. The potential for retaliation from their own members usually trumped getting the shit beat out of them by strangers.
Usually.
Arsen sat forward, dropping his elbows onto his knees before scrubbing his hands over his face. “These guys are hard to break, man. They get jumped into these gangs. They’re beat half to death by their own crew.”
Avi smirked. “I don’t know. We’re pretty persuasive when we need to be.”
“I mean, the last 4Loco shitbag we tortured sang like a fucking canary as soon as a blowtorch was involved,” Seven reminded him.
Arsen winced. That 4Loco shitbag had shown up to kill all of them and had almost gutted Arsen in the process. They’d gotten the jump on him, but just barely, and only because there were far more of them than him and he hadn’t been prepared.
“Yeah, and I still have the scar to prove it,” Arsen said, hand floating to his side without thought.
“Come on, firestarter,” Asa teased. “You telling me you don’t want a little payback for these fuckers trying to flambé you and your boyfie?”
It wasn’t about that. Of course, he wanted revenge. He wanted all of them dead. He’d said as much yesterday. He just didn’t think it would be as easy to break one of them as the others thought.
Atticus cleared his throat. “The good news is Calliope has identified the cops involved. Luckily, there are only three with a paper trail leading back to the crew.”
Arsen frowned. It had been less than a day. What had changed? “I thought you said she was having a hard time following the money to the cops being paid off?”
“That’s ‘cause the money was flowing in the opposite direction. We thought the gang was paying off the cops to look the other way, but it’s the cops who are paying the gang to do their dirty work for them. Once she realized that, she was able to run them down pretty quickly despite their countermeasures,” Atticus said.
“Who are they?” Cree asked.
Cree’s adoptive father was a former cop. Now, he was a drug addict, hooked on prescription pills following an injury sustained in the line of duty. He’d been a piece of shit before the drugs, but he was worse now. And his mother spent all her time praying, as if that would somehow fix the problem she refused to believe existed. That was why Cree tried to never visit home. He didn’t think of them as his real parents, anyway.
“Two detectives and the police chief,” Jericho said, voice grim.
“You want us to take out a police chief?” Nico said, eyes wide. “People are going to be all over three dead cops, Coe. Four if you count the guy Arsen already took out.”
“You think it’s an accident that we haven’t heard dick about that guy? No. Even if they do suspect he’s dead, they’re keeping it quiet because they can’t afford questions, either,” Asa said. “Trust us, this isn’t our first rodeo.”
“One missing cop isn’t the same as three dead cops. And even if they don’t find the body, nobody is going to ignore a missing police chief. Especially not with three other detectives gone, too.”
“That’s where I come in,” Zane said, waving a hand lazily from the floor. “Calliope is going to make it look like one of the detectives ‘anonymously’ forwarded me information due to a guilty conscience, asking me to break the story about a mysterious cartel with a local gang and even the police chief in their pocket.”
Arsen frowned. A cartel? For all the crime in their neighborhood, the cartel was blissfully far removed from them. Sure, they were likely somewhere in the 4Loco supply chain, but not close enough to be local.
“Do you think that will work? Blaming it on some random cartel activity?” Levi asked. “I mean, won’t the cops try to find out who killed their people even if they were dirty?”
Zane scoffed. “You would think, but that’s not what will happen. We’ve seen it a million times before.”
“Yeah, they just need all the loose ends tied up in a believable story,” Asa said.
Felix nodded. “We point them towards an easily digestible boogeyman, the Keyser Soze of our story, and we make these murders look like retaliation for ratting them out to Zane. A story he can spin any way he wants.”
“Won’t they investigate? Look for this mysterious cartel?” Arsen asked.
“Jamesville PD?” Felix asked. “Hardly. They lack the resources, and this is a bad look for them. They’re going to be under fire for having four dirty cops in one small police force. The local politicians will want to bring in new management immediately and then pretend the whole thing never happened.”
Zane nodded. “An investigation drags things out. They’ll want to close this case and move on as quickly and quietly as possible. That’s why we’re giving them the cartel. It’s an easy out. Nobody blinks about cartel violence and it’s also not shocking when nobody is ever punished for the crime.”
“What about the feds?” Lake asked. “Won’t this draw their attention?”
Avi made a face. “Debatable. But if it does…we have connections. Let’s dive off that bridge when we get to it.”
“Yeah, right now, we need to find someone who will spill all the intimate details of the operation,” Asa said. “Leave us to handle the cover-up.”
“Who has that kind of information that would be willing to talk?” Atticus asked. “Not everyone in the gang can be privy to everything in their operation, no?”
“They’re not a very big crew,” Seven said. “I would imagine, when moving human cargo, you need all hands on deck. Even if they’re taking women and children primarily, not everyone is gonna go without a fight. There are guards, lookouts, enforcers, handlers. They can’t afford to not have everyone pull their weight.”
Arsen glanced at the closed bedroom door, grateful Ever was still asleep. Hearing them so casually discuss the captivity of these victims would probably only make him feel worse, and he was already swimming in unnecessary guilt. None of this was his fault. But it had taken forever to convince him of that.
“So, who’s the weakest link in the organization?” Lake asked.
“Cherry,” Jericho said without hesitation, his expression grim.
Arsen’s eyes went wide. But before he could say anything, Levi said, “What? Wait…you want us to torture a girl?”
He didn’t sound opposed to the idea, more surprised. Torture wasn’t really something they had to do in their line of work. At least, when they weren’t teaming up with the Mulvaneys. Usually, their jobs were like Jennika. Quick and quiet. In and out. Torture wasn’t something any of them enjoyed. At least…not as far as Arsen knew.
Jericho gave him a flat stare. “No, I want you to torture a gang member who happens to be a girl.”
“Not to sound like a misogynist, but isn’t she just…like, one of their girlfriends? What makes you think she’d know anything?” Nico asked.
“You wouldn’t know she was anyone’s girlfriend the way she was all over Arsen,” Felix quipped.
“Yeah, but now, we know she was probably just finding excuses to come check us out for them,” Cree said.
“Male or female, Cherry is the weakest link. She’s easily recognizable, and she’s been running with them since she was a teenager,” Jericho said. “She most likely knows where the bodies are buried, literally and metaphorically.”
