“How so?”
I didn’t want to give my whole fucked up history to some stranger.
“Look, kid. I get it, your childhood was fucked. We don’t have time to play nice about that.”
I stared at the floor. “It’s not that. Well, not exactly.” I locked eyes with him. “She’s not right about Simon. Obsessed. Unstable more than usual. She’s a narcissist, but Simon is like…” I wasn’t sure how to explain how twisted she was about him.
Aidan nodded. “My brother’s the more head games one, but I’d say fixated. Simon is an extension of her and she got it twisted in there.”
I blew out a breath. “I didn’t realize how much. Let’s just say the comparisons have been vast and I’ve lacked on every level.”
“So, she’s got a hard-on for her kid.”
I blinked.
“I’m sure there’s some Oedipus thing that my brother would be all brainiac about,” Aidan continued. “Does she know about the kid aspect?”
“None of us did.”
Roth flicked around a small circular thing on the tip of his finger. “Tracker and limited range mic. We usually hide it on a button or collar, but you seem like a nervous sort.”
“You try having your mum and her husband kidnap your brother’s pregnant wife and see how you do, asshole.”
“There we go.” Roth smirked. “Get angry. We need your head clear. Crying about it ain’t gonna fix shit.” He tucked the small tracker on my third button. He moved to a computer and hooked headphones over one of his ears. He frowned and fiddled with something on the laptop, then came back to me. “Got a phone?”
“Who doesn’t?” I took it out of my pocket and set it on the table.
He went back to the laptop, then fit both headphones on his ear. “Tony?”
“Yeah, boss.” A tall, skinny guy with tattoos came over.
“I thought this thing was good with interference from smartphones.”
“It is.” The new guy’s hands flew over the keys and then both of them were crowding me.
“Some space, mate.”
They paid me no mind.
Donovan crossed the room to us. “Problem?”
“We have backups, but something…” Aidan tipped his head then plucked something out of Tony’s back pocket.
“Hey.” Tony turned back. “Oh, you think he’s got a wire on?”
“A what?” I ripped the little tracker off my shirt and shoved it at Roth. “I don’t have a bug on me.”
“Yeah? Guess we’ll find out.” He held out the long, thin wand over my arms, moving down to the rings on my hands, then over my buckle. It started whining the closer it got to the middle of my chest. “Take off the chain.”
“What? I’ve had this since I was boy.”
“Yeah, well, it’s a perfect place to put a tracker. Take it the fuck off, kid.”
I pulled the chain over my head. The clasp had been soldered together after I almost lost it a few years ago.
Roth took it and sat at the table. “Well, shit. Tony, look at this?”
Tony pulled the chain down the table and he put on a pair of glasses. He started tapping away at the laptop again and did a low whistle. “Long range tracker. Doesn’t seem to have a way to listen, but it definitely is a locator.”