Chapter Thirty-Three
Luke
Upon our return to the cabin, we finish searching it and drape our coats over the kitchen chairs to dry. The fire burns low and I immediately throw more wood on to burn. Ana unwraps the blankets we purchased at the store and drapes them over the couch, setting bottled water and protein bars out for our evening feast.
When we finally sit down on the couch, the insulated bag sits on the coffee table, between us. “Why am I not ripping it open?” Ana asks. “What am I afraid of? I want this over. In premise, what’s inside that bag allows that to happen.”
I squeeze her leg. “Maybe a part of you doesn’t want to know just how involved in all of this Darius was.”
“No,” she says. “I want to know everything.”
She reaches for the bag and unzips it, folding back the lid. She reaches for the gun in its plastic bag, which is not labeled. “Obviously this has someone’s fingerprints on it and a connection to a crime. There’s no other reason why it would be bagged and hidden out here.”
“We’ll have Blake check out the serial number and the prints. He can keep it off law enforcement radar.”
She sets the gun down and reaches for the tape recorder. “This is the gold,” she says. “I’m certain of it.” She draws a breath and hits play. A few moments later, a male voice is speaking to us.
September 5th.
Ana.
Ana murmurs, “It’s Darius,” her fingers lock together in front of her.
If you’re listening to this, I clearly ended up dead and that sucks. I’m pissed about it, oh yeah, I am. I’m sure you’re pissed at me, too. I’m sure you found out some things about me. I wish I could tell you this recording was me explaining how I got blackmailed into bad decisions, or how what I did saved even one life. It’s not. Bottom line, I got greedy. I was tired of watching the criminals get rich and the good guys get dead. I figured I might as well get rich and get out.
Ana pauses the recording and looks over at me. “Damn it and damn him.”
“He paid the ultimate price, baby. Now, all we can do is try to save the lives he didn’t.”
She nods and turns the recording back on.
I’m not going to get into the when, why, and how bullshit, Darius continues, inside the notebook, you’ll find a list of packages that I know were delivered, which dates, and buyers names. I don’t know what was in the packages. I didn’t want to know. I wasn’t even involved in that side of things, but you know how I roll. I wanted to know what I as involved with. I did some digging. I followed someone important to the operation. I recorded his conversations. I took photos. There’s a key in the bag. It goes to a lock box loaded with that shit.
On to the topic of Kasey…Yes, let that sink in a moment—on to the topic of Kasey.
Ana’s spine stiffens a moment and then she leans forward and rests her chin on her hands in obvious anticipation. My hand goes to her back, flattening there, silently letting her know I’m right here, I’m not going anywhere, ever again. The recording continues.
You’ll find the one Kasey was delivering highlighted. The buyer won’t know who the big boss was, because there was a front man. That would be our boss, Ana. Mike is the one who pulled me into this. He laughs. See, I said I wasn’t going to talk about the when, where, and how or any of that bullshit, but turns out I have to in order to get you this information.
I repeat, Mike is the front man. I’ve given you plenty enough to put him away for life, but he’ll end up dead before he sees a week in jail. These people are powerful. Don’t move on this until you have the head of the beast. Don’t move on this personally, either. Keep your name out of it. They’re international. Take these fuckers down in another damn country. Get Luke involved, Ana. That bastard has skills and they just multiply. He laughs again. Yes, that’s a play on an old eighties tune, you know how I loved the eighties. And Luke loved you, and Kasey…well, Kasey wasn’t a good guy. I know you know that, but I also know love is blind and shit. He was your brother.
Something to keep in mind.
That list of buyers includes some of the richest people in the world. They’ll have money and resources to kill any effort to destroy this operation. But if you get the right ones behind closed doors, maybe they’ll help you rather than hurt you, just to save themselves a hell of a lot of trouble from law enforcement.
Last but not least, I made a wad of cash, because they wanted you and your family monitored and to keep your nose out of Kasey’s business during delivery windows. It seemed like easy cash. Kasey was going to do what Kasey was going to do anyway. Yes, I was betraying you, but I thought Kurt could handle himself and Kasey, so it was all good. Mike hates Kurt, by the way. It runs deep. There is something there between those two, something deeply personal.
No, I don’t know what.
Anyway, my paycheck got bigger after Kasey died and that package disappeared. Trevor never had it, but they killed him so he couldn’t talk. He had loose lips and you know how loose lips get you dead. Actually, they say loose lips sink ships, but they aren’t us, now are they? For reasons I don’t understand after Kasey died, and the package disappeared, they doubled my pay to report on your activities. At one point, they thought you had the package but I convinced them that if you did, you didn’t even know you had it. I tried to get them to tell me what it was so I could look for it and get the heat off of you. They wouldn’t tell me.
Something happened last week, though. Mike took a phone call. I managed to get pieces of it. Someone was trying to sell whatever was in the package. It had resurfaced. They didn’t know who, but the big boss felt like a fool. He looked bad to his client. He was pissed. People had to die. I guess I was one of those people.
Okay, that about sums it all up.
I suck. I did you wrong. I get that. Maybe you should have dated me and kept me in line. I’m not kidding, but you know, it is what it is. We didn’t happen. But I do have one last parting gift. You’ll figure out what it is. Keep looking. Hasta la vista, baby. Okay, probably not. I’m pretty sure I’m in hell. You better not show up here.
The recording ends.
Ana doesn’t look at me. She digs through the box and finds an envelope with her name on it, lifting the flap to pull out a card. She reads it and hands it to me, pressing her hands to her face. The card reads: Ten million dollars in cash. It’s buried at the coordinates below. You could always just walk away, Ana. And that’s what you should do.
Holy fuck.
“Ana,” I say.
She pops to her feet and turns to face me. I’m standing with her when she says, “We have to go back. We need to—”
My hands come down on her shoulders. “Wait out the storm, go through all the information, and then get on a secure phone call with Blake.”
“I need to do something, anything. I need to fix this. We need to go get that bastard Mike talking. I need to know how Kurt was involved and I need—”
I cup her head and kiss her, molding her close, holding onto her a little too hard, but I don’t care. She needs to be held right now.