I saw the way eyes squinted, a complete lack of recognition there. At least I wasn't alone in being in the dark.
"Isn't Lloyd on the case?" Charlie asked. He was right. I could see if he had any contact with him, any way to find him.
"Okay. I will give him a call," I agreed. "And he is outsourcing muscle. This time, it seems like a three-man-crew. Any ideas?"
"They look alike?"
"Tall and dark was about all Savvy could give me. They were in a dark store and then they were chasing behind her."
"We'll do some digging," Charlie promised. "Let's go. Savea doesn't need to be there a second longer than it takes us all to scramble some information together."
And with that, everyone moved.
Including Helen.
Who advanced toward Harry and me with a feral type of grace. A lioness stalking prey.
"You listen to me, you piece of shit," she started, voice low, lethal, cutting. She wasn't even aiming for me and I felt flayed. "If anything has happened to Savea that a little Witch Hazel and a small bandage can't fix, I will personally make it my life's mission to hunt you down and make you pay for it. Slowly," she added, moving close enough that her nose almost touched him. "Do you understand me?"
"Pretty sure he peed his pants, Ma," Shane said, clamping a hand on her shoulder, moving her back to his side. "But yeah, you should be scared," he added as Charlie came back out of the back room, a small black backpack in his hands. In it, I knew what I would find. What I needed to get Savea back.
I snatched it with one hand and Harry's shirt with the other, dragging him with me back out of the bar, into the car.
"The cops aren't going to have a way to find Eamon," Harry assured me, not a sliver of doubt in his voice.
"I'm looking for solutions, not more fucking problems right now."
"I know someone. I mean, I don't know him. But he's been at the games. They were already on a first-name basis by the time I got there, so I never got last names. But some of the people have recognizable faces. There's this one guy. Saw him on a news interview a couple days after our first game. He had secured the build on that new parking garage in River Bank. Seems like a good man, family man. Also mentioned something to Eamon. Something about building something for him. I didn't get details. I'd get kicked out if I looked like I was eavesdropping. But..."
"If he was building something for Eamon, he has to have a way to get in touch with him."
"Exactly."
"Point me in a direction."Ordinarily, you didn't just walk into the offices of a man who made tens of millions of dollars a year. There were secretaries and security to be gotten through.
But, apparently, showing up with a man covered in blood and speaking to the security team as though it was a clandestine matter that needed to be discussed with the boss - and the boss only - got you access pretty easily. It also implied that this Richard Balefire was no stranger to illegal activities.
I wasn't entirely sure if that worked in our favor. Or against it.
But we were on an elevator on the way up to the top floor of a sleek, modern building. All white and windows. Open and airy while still somehow being stuffy at the same time.
It wasn't a long ride up, but my mind worked itself in a thousand directions in that time, sometimes moving from one possible scenario that could be happening to Savea to the next so fast I felt nauseated from whiplash.
But then the floor dinged, the doors slid open, and there was Richard Balefire in his intimidating gray suit and keen blue eyes.
"I know you." His gaze went to Harry, tone curious, guarded, unsure why his nose was broken, why I was holding onto him like he might bolt, who the hell I was in general.
"In a way, yeah."
"Mr. Balefire, we don't want to take up too much of your time. I'm Kingston Rivers. My girlfriend was just kidnapped by a bunch of thugs employed by Eamon Awan. We need a way to get back in touch with him. To pay him what he is owed," I added, and those knowing eyes of his went from me back to Harry, putting things together. It was, no doubt, big news that Harry had defrauded them all, that he was out. It seemed like a close, yet distant, sort of club they had going on.
"Why would he take your girl?" he asked, gaze back to me, penetrating. "I've never seen you before."
"My girl has the unfortunate distinction of working for him," I said, head jerking to Harry. "And she happened to walk in on him getting what he deserved one night. I guess they misread the situation. Homed in on her."