The Siren (26 page)

“She gets ‘em here and in Houston. Then she sends ‘em to Chicago, LA, and New York,” he said. “That’s all I know, I swear. Warren, man, please let me go. We used to be like brothers!”

I could hear Rex’s gold jewelry rattling behind me as he quivered with fear.
 

Warren laughed. “Brothers? I don’t think so. And you’re not going anywhere except on a little trip with us to talk to one of our friends.”

“You’re never gonna bust her. The cops around here think she shits rainbows,” Rex said. “You’re wastin’ your time.”

“We’ll see about that,” Warren said. “Sloan, when did you say our friend will be here?”

I turned my head to speak over my shoulder. “His flight gets in at 7:30. I told him I’d pick him up at the airport.” I turned onto the interstate.

My cell phone rang. It was Abigail, but I couldn’t answer it with the broken screen even if I had wanted to. And I didn’t want to.

“Parker, you’ve got the next three hours to decide how this is going to go down,” Warren said. “You either help us bring down your boss, or I won’t be as merciful to you as I was to Travis in that alleyway. Do we understand each other?”

I glanced in the rearview mirror.
 

“She’s gonna kill me,” Rex said. I thought he might burst into tears.

Warren shook his head and glared at him. “Not if I kill you first.”

* * *

At 7:43 p.m., I rolled to a stop at the curb where Nathan was waiting outside the airport. I honked the horn, and he waved to me.
 

He opened the back door and tossed the backpack he was carrying onto the seat. He paused for a moment with his hand on the doorframe. “Is that blood?”
 

“Probably.”

Groaning, he slammed the door. “Do I want to know?” he asked as he got in the passenger’s seat.

“Nope.”
 

He looked over, his gray eyes genuinely baffled. “You must be terrified to wake up every day. Just hanging out with you stresses the hell out of me.”

I laughed. “It’s getting that way. How was your flight?”

He pulled the seatbelt across his chest. “Expensive.”

I cringed. “How much?”

“$1,498. The only seats left were first class.”

“I’ll pay you back.” I did the math in my head. “By February.”

He laughed.

“It’s a good thing you find that funny because I was being serious.”

He winked at me. “I know where you live.”

I glanced up at the patch on his hat. It had a picture of a missile and the letter
F
. I shook my head and pointed at it. “I don’t get it.”

“F-Bomb.”

I laughed and pulled away from the curb.

He sat back in his seat. “So, where is this guy?”

“Tied to a chair in our hotel room.”

He turned his shoulders toward me. “You know that’s illegal, right?”
 

I shrugged. “You know Warren doesn’t care, right?”

“Well, if Warren goes to prison, I guess he doesn’t have to worry about getting deployed.”

My bottom lip poked out, but Nathan didn’t notice.

“Don’t use my name around this guy we’re questioning. I don’t want any of this shit blowing back on me and ruining my career,” he said.

I shook my head. “We won’t let it fall on you. Speaking of careers, what did you ever decide about the FBI?”
 

He shifted in his seat. “I turned them down.”

“Really?”

He nodded. “Yeah, I told them I want to stay in Asheville because you’re way more interesting than anything that could ever happen anywhere else.” He laughed and stretched his arm across the back of my seat.
 

Sadly, he was probably right.

“I’ll bet Shannon was excited you didn’t take it.”

He looked ahead down the road. “I broke it off with Shannon when we got home. You were right. I was using her and it wasn’t fair.”

My head snapped back in surprise. “Wow. That’s huge. How did she take it?”

He laughed. “How do you think?”

I smiled over at him. “Well, I’m excited you’re sticking around, even if I don’t understand why you turned down the FBI.”

“I’m glad I’m staying too. Although, you and I both know how much less complicated things would be if I left town.”
 

My heart dropped a few inches. “Then why did you decide to stay? It would make life a lot less complicated for you too.”

The corners of his mouth twitched. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

My eyes widened, and I looked over at him. “Don’t tell me Warren asked you to stay.”
 

He laughed. “OK, I won’t tell you.”

“What? Are you serious? Does he think I need a babysitter?”

“He’s really worried about leaving you, with all that’s going on.” He looked out his window. “Hell, even I’m worried about him leaving.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat. Warren always seemed to be a little more clued in on the happenings around us than I was. Perhaps it was because he’d always been an outsider, observing the world from a distance. Sure, Samael’s warning had rattled me a bit, but if Warren was concerned enough to leave me in the care of Nathan McNamara, that was frightening on a whole different level.

“Personally, I don’t know how you’ve not been locked up in the looney bin yet,” Nathan was saying when I realized he was still talking. “Tell me the truth. Are you doing OK? Especially about your mom and all.”

My hands twisted around the steering wheel. “I can’t even think about it. In a way, I’m actually thankful for the drama in my life right now because I’m afraid if I slow down long enough to really process Mom being gone…” Tears threatened to spill.

He squeezed my shoulder. “I wish I could help.”

I forced a smile. “Thanks.” I needed to change the subject. There was no time for me to have a meltdown. “Warren must be really worried if he’s entrusting me to you.”

He nodded in agreement. “I definitely think this defines absolute desperation.”

I pointed a finger at him. “I still hold you personally responsible for all this. My life was almost normal before you landed me on television. I distinctly remember telling you I wanted to stay out of it.”

He looked out the window and took a deep breath. Surprisingly, his voice came out serious and somber. “I actually feel really bad about it, Sloan. Capturing Billy Stewart was huge, and we probably saved a lot more lives, but you’re right. I got this huge boulder rolling, and now it seems like it’s rolling right over you.” He turned his eyes toward me. “I’m very sorry.”

Suddenly, I felt bad for teasing him. “You had no way of knowing. Neither of us did. I just have to keep focusing on the good things like Kayleigh Neeland and the women we probably saved. We’ll save a lot more when we stop Abigail.”

“Can you even stop an angel?” he asked.

“We’ve got to try,” I said. “This sex trafficking thing is a whole lot bigger than just the state of Texas. Warren’s guy says she’s moving the girls to Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York.”

“No shit?” he asked.

I shook my head.

He started laughing. “Now, hopefully I can figure out a legal way to bring her down.”

I shrugged. “Legal, schmegal.”
 

He rolled his eyes. “You’re starting to sound like Warren.”

I laughed. “I guess I am.”

“Does he really have this Rex guy tied to a chair?”

I shot him a knowing glare.

He sighed and shook his head. “Someday I’m going to be able to teach a training class on manipulating evidence and looking the other way.”

When we got to the hotel room, I used my key and opened the door. Inside, Warren was stretched out on the bed watching football. Rex was facing the wall in the corner, his hands tied to the chair with strips of Warren’s white t-shirt. The sight was pretty comical. Nathan shook his head and dropped his bag on the floor.
 

Warren clicked off the television and stood up to shake Nathan’s hand. “Thanks for coming, man.”

“I can’t let you guys have all the fun without me.” Nathan nodded to the corner. “So, you found him.”

Warren nodded. “Let’s just say I made a citizen’s arrest.”

Nathan sighed. “You make my job and my life very complicated,” he said. “Is he ready to talk?”

“Oh, he’ll talk, sing, tell you a joke…whatever you want him to do. Isn’t that right, Rex?” Warren called over his shoulder.

The back of Rex’s head nodded.
 

Nathan sat down at the table, and Warren spun Rex’s chair around to face us. His eyes were wide with terror, and he had a tube sock shoved in his mouth. Nathan looked him over. “Well, at least he’s not bloody this time.”

Warren reached over and pulled the sock out of Rex’s mouth, then he and I sat down on the edge of the bed.

“Who the hell are you?” Rex barked at Nathan.

Nathan scowled. “You’d better watch how you speak to me because I may be the only reason you walk out of this room instead of being carried out in a body bag. Do you understand?”

Rex withered a bit.

Nathan pulled a small notebook out of his pocket along with a small pen. “How long have you been working for Abigail Smith?”

“About three years,” Rex answered.

“How did you meet her?” Nathan asked.

Rex shifted uncomfortably against his restraints, and looked up at Warren. “She worked for the state when we was kids, remember?”

Nathan and I both whipped our heads toward Warren. “What?” I asked.

Warren was looking at Rex like he’d sprouted a second nose on his pitted face. “What the hell are you talking about?”

Rex rolled his eyes. “Ms. Smith? They’s no way you could forget her, dude.” He huffed. “She was a caseworker for the group home.”

Bewildered, Warren looked at us and shrugged. “I have no idea.”

My eyes narrowed. “She was in Chicago?”

He held his arms up in question. “Not that I’m aware of. I would remember.”

Rex looked pleased that he knew something we didn’t. “I can’t believe you don’t remember her, dude.”

Nathan leaned his elbow on the table. “You didn’t notice anything strange about the way she looked after what, ten years?”

A sleazy grin spread across Rex’s dry lips. He was missing a side tooth. “Man, I didn’t notice nothin’ except that bitch is fine as hell.”

My skin was crawling.

Obviously frustrated, Nathan held up his hand. “Forget about it for now. How did you end up working for her?”

“She came back a few years ago, was volunteerin' at a rehab center downtown. She looked me and a few of the other guys up. Asked us if we wanted to do some work for her.”

I was skeptical. “She pulled some random punks off the streets and put them to work trafficking girls across the country? She’s not that stupid.”

He shook his head. “Nah, bitch—”

Rex didn’t get another word out before the back of Warren’s fist slammed against the side of his head so hard it rocked the chair sideways. He yelped in pain. I expected Nathan to at least shoot Warren a reprimanding glare, but his fist was balled at the ready to go next.

I grabbed Nathan by the shoulder and Warren by the arm. “He’s no use to us dead.”

Warren pointed a sharp finger at Rex, and he flinched.
 

“Sorry, sorry!” Rex looked at me, his eyes a little off-center from the blow. “No,
ma’am
.” He shook his head from side to side like he was trying to clear his muddled thoughts. “The work was legit at first. Me’n a few other guys was rehabbin’ an old building in South Chicago. She said she was turnin’ it into some kind of halfway house or somethin’.”

“How did you wind up in Texas?” Nathan asked.

“When the place in Chicago was finished, she said she had some girls in San Antonio who needed to get outta town, and she was gonna move them into the building we just squared away. She sent me and another guy down here to drive ‘em up to Illinois. He’d worked with her for a while,” Rex explained.

Nathan was taking notes. “Who was the other guy?”

“Mendez,” Rex said. “It wasn’t till we brought the haul back from Texas that I realized what was really going on. Mendez is a pretty sick, twisted bastard. For a while, I thought he was playin’ the broad and sellin’ those girls behind her back. Then, he got busted for breakin’ into his ex-wife’s house in Texas and went to jail, and everything continued on just the same without him. I started making the runs with Tito.”

“Who’s in charge in Chicago?” Nathan asked.

“Tito’s mom. This bitch named Marisol.”
 

“What about New York and Los Angeles?” Warren asked.

“I don’t know, man. It’s not like we do company picnics and shit, ya know?” he said.
 

Nathan pointed his pen at Rex. “If you’re running girls to Chicago for her, why were you taking girls from Larry Mendez to the cantina?”
 

“Since Larry’s been on parole and can’t leave the state, he’s been workin’ at pickin’ up runaways and sellin’ them to buyers around town. We gather intel on the buyers, and after a while, Abigail will claim that one of her girls ratted out another pimp somewhere. Then the cops bring it down, and Abigail is right there to bring the girls in.”

I did the math in my head. “So, she makes money selling them, she gets them back for free, and then she pimps them out.” I dropped my head into my hands. The whole thing was starting to make my head pound.

Warren looked at me. “She also doesn’t have to do the leg work finding the girls and breaking them into the business.”

“What is she planning on doing next?” Nathan asked.

Rex shifted in his seat and tipped his chin up defiantly at Nathan. “Are you gonna send me to jail or what? What the hell am I gettin’ outta this?”

“You get to exist for a little longer,” Warren interjected. “Answer the question.”

Rex was clearly terrified of Warren. He looked at Nathan. “Me and Tito are supposed to be taking a haul back later tonight. She’s been movin’ almost all the girls out of Texas lately.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Do I look like someone who sits at her conference table?” he asked. “I don’t know what she’s doin’.”

“When are you supposed to leave tonight?” Nathan asked.