“Did we work on the main offices for the Continental Properties?” I inquired.
“Well, seeing as they’re in one of our buildings renting out space, the answer to that would be yes,” Gunner affirmed. “Did you want the whole building or just their floors?”
“All of it. I want to be able to know every nook and cranny of that place,” I answered.
Ryker gave me a questioning look. He knew the first thing I did for a job was memorize the layout and learn security. The bonus was if we were in charge of the security, it would be even easier to make this happen. I was going to hit these men with everything I could think of to set the tone here and now about what it would be like to deal with me.
Working in the conference room with no natural light access, I had zero idea of what the hell time it was. The only reason I looked at the clock was my stomach rumbled so loud the ground should have vibrated. “Holy shit, it’s already dinnertime,” I blurted.
Looking up from the tablet I’d been reading reports on, I found the guys all had various snacks and drinks scattered around the table.
“I told you she’d come out of her tunnel vision when she got hungry. Now you three owe me ten bucks,” Ryker said, gesturing for those who owed him to hand it over.
Braxton slapped the money on the table. “I knew I shouldn’t have bet against you,” he muttered. “How was I supposed to guess she’d be so one-track-minded that she didn’t even notice when we all got up and raided the kitchen?”
“I’m telling you, when she’s on the hunt, there’s nothing that’s going to stop her from getting her mark,” Ryker pointed out then turned to me. “I hope you don’t mind, but I asked the kitchen to make you a burger with a side salad. It should be arriving any minute.”
Okay, maybe the asshole did know me, after all.
“Thank you. I appreciate that. Really,” I said, getting up and stretching.
Feeling the need to move about, I took a few laps around the table swinging my arms and shaking out my muscles that had clearly been far too tense and stuck in one position. “Tell me where we’re at.”
“How far have you gotten through what we’ve sent you?” Atticus asked. “I just don’t want to waste time going over what you already know.”
“Good point,” I agreed, shooting him a thumbs up. “I’ve read through all the financials you sent me thus far, plus the records Jace has for Raymond’s transactions with the gambling. That seems to be more his vice than it is Harrison’s.”
“So I’m guessing you didn’t get to my reports then because Harrison has expensive taste when it comes to his bed companions. He has two he calls on all the time, Cherry Pie and Alfie. Sometimes he even has them together, but lately, that’s been happening less now that Alfie is a personal favorite to Mayor Wilson,” Braxton informed me.
I paused in my walking to face Braxton. “I’m sorry, did you say they share the same dalliance?”
“Well, Harrison had him first, but then Wilson started to steal him away booking out time and even offered to make him his private paramour if you will. Alfie isn’t one to be a kept man, so he negotiated specific days that would be exclusive to the mayor,” Braxton explained.
“I’d like to meet with both of them discreetly in the next day or two. If I have to go to them to keep this quiet, then that’s fine,” I instructed. “How close of an eye do you keep on your people?” I asked Braxton.
He leaned back in his chair, crossing a leg over the other with a smug look on his face. “Are you asking if I ensure all my people who have high-power clients know they should keep their eyes and ears open for things we need to know? Then the answer is yes.”
“Do you trust them to do so?” I challenged.
Braxton shrugged. “Most of them have vices I used to keep them in line. If they want the best and purest crack on the market, then all they have to do is tell me something I want to know. Since we control who those drugs go to, I know it’s hard for them to get. Others want money sent to family or children kept hidden. It’s part of my job to care for those I employ, and to me, this is part of that. They displease me or fuck up, then they’ll suffer the consequences.”
“As long as you can tell me that when I speak to Alfie, I won’t find that he’s been trading secret notes or plans between his clients, then we shouldn’t have a problem,” I reasoned. “Set up the meeting, but I want to talk to them separately. If something goes down, I don’t want the other to know they’ve been caught.”
“Astin, is it your plan to always assume that the person is lying or betraying you?” Atticus asked, his face betraying his confusion. “Wouldn’t it be better to apply the law of innocent until proven guilty?”
Walking over to him, I sat on the table and looked him in the eye. “Do you believe that in the world we work in, people are innocent?”
He didn’t answer me right away but took the time to contemplate what I asked him. “While I see your point with all of us being criminals of varying degrees, I don’t agree with the thought we’re all guilty.”
“All right then, following that logic, would you say you’re innocent?” I inquired. “I’m not trying to pass judgment, I’m more so wanting to understand your train of thought.”
“On that matter, I can only speak from my personal viewpoint since I’m not an ethics major or know the parameters of good or bad, guilty and innocent. However, I know exactly how many laws I’ve personally broken and what that would mean for me if I were to serve time in jail. According to our law and government… no, I would not be innocent. While I’ve never done anything to maliciously harm anyone or do more than my superiors instructed, I’ve also not said no. This makes me an accomplice in all that has occurred.”
“Okay, I’m following you,” I said, tapping a finger on my chin. “So then, by your own logic, if a man or woman participates in criminal activities without trying to put a stop to it, they’re guilty, correct?”
His brows creased as he followed my rabbit trail leading him right to the point I was trying to make. He looked at me with wide eyes as he understood. “I see that I’ve not been placing my own rules on others, I’ve been assuming they’re following those that the governing parties have set for us. This would be incorrect of me to do since almost everyone in the world isn’t bound by a black and white view of the world.”
“I don’t know, Atty, you sounded pretty gray there to me. You know what the rules are and yet you choose to break them,” I reasoned, giving him a smile and a wink. “That’s all right, we need someone who knows what the rules are so I’m warned when I cross over them too far.”