Corbin (The Mavericks Book 17), page 7
“Because, of all of us in here, you seem to be the only one who’s positive enough to keep us sane. It feels like it’s too late for me.”
“I don’t know that sane deserves getting a guy like that. I’ll be looking for a rescue, yes, but whoever it is, I won’t care. I’ll just be damn grateful.”
With the younger brother subdued, Corbin pulled out the kid’s wallet, took photos of his ID and some credit cards—expired—and sent them off to the Mavericks, then put in a quick phone call to Hatch. “Now I’ve got Darwin Embry, the brother who searches for the women and submitted the names for consideration.” He cast a quick glance at his prisoner on the floor. “How’s Aiden doing?”
“He’s on his way to you.”
“Good. This guy needs to talk, and he needs to talk fast.”
“Are you serious? He’s the one who puts in the orders?”
“Yeah, Darwin is a scout. He searches for the women, hands over their names and photos to these kidnappers, and those guys decide if they’ll collect them or not. If they’re collected, … he gets paid. Well, after the moms are killed and the children are sold presumably.”
“Jesus, what a piece of shit.”
“Yeah, not only that, Darwin here won’t help out his brother either,” he added, with a note of humor, as he looked over the unconscious man to his right. “I’d like to beat him up a little bit more, but it only took one pressure point to knock out the asshole. I feel like I should leave it to Aiden’s soft touch.”
“You absolutely should. You might have to add a little pressure to get him to cooperate in the end, but Aiden can handle the beginning.”
“I suspect it’ll take more than a little bit of cooperation for this kid. Darwin seems to think he’s onto the sweet money-making deal of a lifetime and doesn’t want anything, including his brother, to screw it up.”
“You mean, supplying these women?”
“Yeah, these other guys involved may be the ones physically taking the women, but Darwin’s just as involved. He only cares about getting paid.” Corbin reached up to rub the back of his neck. “So this guy among these assholes takes the cake.”
“Right. We’ll leave something for Aiden to beat up. You know how he feels about assholes like that.”
“I know. I know. Keep me posted.”
“Yeah, you too.”
With that, Corbin hung up and turned to look at his prisoner, who was blinking up at him from the floor.
“What the hell happened?” Darwin asked, as he tried to stand, only to find his arms and legs were tied up. He stared at Corbin, and then his gaze widened in horrified comprehension. “You,” he spat out. “What the hell do you want?”
“Well, your brother has been picked up by the cops. So not so sure I want anything from you at all.”
He stared. “Seriously?”
“Yep. After all, you wouldn’t help Earl. Don’t worry. We’re busy reminding him of that too.”
Darwin shook his head. “I don’t know what your game is or what the hell you’re doing in this whole mess, but you don’t know what these guys are like. You need to untie me and let me out of here.”
“Or what?” Corbin crouched in front of his captive.
“Or they’ll kill me.”
At that, Corbin stared at him. “When you lie down with the dogs, you better be ready for the fleas. Why would they kill you?”
“Because they won’t tolerate any interference.” He struggled against his restraints. “I mean it. These guys are serious.”
“Of course they are, Darwin. They’re kidnapping women, stealing kids, committing murder right, left, and center. It’s very serious. You think the cops aren’t just as serious about putting a stop to it too?”
“I don’t give a shit about the cops,” he cried out, with a force that surprised Corbin. “You don’t know what these guys are like. There are no second chances with them. And how do you know my name?”
Corbin wiggled this kid’s wallet in front of his eyes. “Haven’t you figured out that you’ve already reached the end of your usefulness?” Corbin asked him. “Probably as soon as you hired your brother to do your dirty work.”
The guy sagged back down on the floor. “But how would they know that?” he asked, as his gaze went wild. “I know that they didn’t want me to hire out the job, but it was my brother. I knew he was good for the job.”
“Of course you did, and, like they already told you, Don’t do it, but you completely disregarded that and decided to go for it anyway. I mean, if you won’t follow their rules, … why should they follow any rules either?”
He stared at Corbin in horror. “No, no. You don’t understand. These guys mean business.”
“Yes, so do I, in case you hadn’t figured that out by now.”
Darwin looked around in a panic. “What do you want? I don’t care what it is. Just tell me what you want, and let me out of here.”
“I want to know everything you can tell me about these guys.”
He snorted. “Why? So you can get your ass kicked?”
“Or I can do some ass-kicking.” He gave a grim laugh. “What are they doing with the kids?”
“I don’t know. You know what? I don’t give a fuck either,” he cried out. “Let me out of here. Let me out!” And he struggled in a panic, until he kicked over a floor lamp with his efforts.
“That didn’t help, did it, Darwin?” Corbin muttered, staring at him.
“You don’t understand what these guys are like,” he gasped, breathing hard.
“Yeah, so you keep saying. No, I don’t, and I can’t say I’m too thrilled that they’re even out there. I find more-than-enough assholes are out there in this world.”
“Yeah, they’re assholes …” he whispered. “I’m telling you. You don’t want to jerk around with these guys.”
“No? At the same time, I’m really not too bothered about them because I have you in front of me right now.”
He sagged in place. “Please just let me go,” he begged. “If they saw you come in here, it’ll make them really worried.”
“In that case”—Corbin gave a feral grin—“they’ll really love the fact that my buddy is on his way.”
“No, nobody else can be here,” he cried out. “Don’t you get it? They will kill me if they think I talked.”
“I’m sure they will kill you. You’ve already talked. To your brother. Told him way too much. I mean, the cops want to talk to you real bad now. You’ve got an inside line on everything these kidnappers do, and you could make their games dangerous as hell for them.”
The kid stared at Corbin, then blinked. “That’s right. I do know things, don’t I?” A crafty look entered his gaze. “So maybe,” he said, “maybe I should do a deal with you to let me go and then do a deal with them. If I lead you to the women, maybe they will kill you.”
“They won’t give a shit about me”—Corbin waved his hand—“not once they realize you talked to me.”
“But they don’t know I talked to you.”
“Unless I tell them so.”
At that, Darwin started to panic again. “Look. I don’t know what game you’re playing at,” he roared, as he tried to get free of his ties, “but you don’t know what these guys are like.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ve seen guys like this time and time again, and I bet they’re all the same. They’re assholes. They’ve got an agenda, and they take out everybody who’s been helping them. But you can’t seem to get that through your head.” Corbin stared at Darwin, wondering if anybody was really this stupid. Everybody thought that they were indispensable.
“They won’t do that to me. I … I’ve been in this business too long. … I’m a supplier. I go way back with them.”
“And that’s the trick”—Corbin nodded—“too long. You know where the bodies are buried. You know what they’re doing. You’re the one who’s been tracking down these women, and they’re paying you for those names—or at least promising to pay you,” he added, with an eye roll. “You don’t even know how many they’re paying for, and, in theory, you don’t even know if they’re ripping you off.”
“They wouldn’t do that. We have a long-term relationship and all that.”
“Right, like that matters.”
“It does matter.” Darwin glared at Corbin. “You don’t understand loyalty.”
“Not loyalty like this,” Corbin said calmly. “But I really didn’t think you were that gullible. You do realize they have been ripping you off from the very beginning, right? That’s what they do.”
At that, Darwin just glared at him.
“And your brother? Earl? Is he likely to talk when he’s in jail?”
“Nope, he ain’t gonna talk.” His prisoner tried to lash out with his fists and then his feet but got nowhere, as both were securely tied.
“You know that how?” Corbin asked.
“Because he also knows the score.”
“Ah. So you think your brother’ll keep his silence when the cops talk to him, instead of turning witness against you for a lighter sentence?”
“He knows these guys will kill him.”
“Does he though? Did you give him any details?”
Darwin thought about it for a moment, and then a bright smile lined his face. “You know what? That’s a good point. I didn’t give him details, so he can’t tell the cops nothing.”
“Except that he killed somebody on your behalf.”
“Yeah, but I could just say it was all bullshit.” Darwin was evidently warming to the idea, looking remarkably pleased with himself. “That’s a really good line to take on this one. Thanks for that.”
“Oh, I don’t know about you being welcome and all, but, hey, as long as you seem to think that is something your brother will appreciate, whatever.”
“No, he won’t appreciate it, but then he shouldn’t have gotten caught. Everybody knows that. As soon as you’re caught, you’re on your own.”
Corbin nodded. “And is that the same rule for you, when you get caught?”
The guy shifted restlessly. “No, I’m different.”
“Ah, of course you’re different.” Corbin gave a knowing nod.
“You don’t have to make it sound like that.” He glared at Corbin. “When you’ve got a long-term working relationship, you know who to trust.”
Corbin shook his head at him in disbelief. Was this guy for real? “Right. So how many women have you procured for them? How long is a long-term relationship to you?”
“Half a dozen, more, although I don’t know how many they picked up out of all that,” he added slowly, “because they still owe me.”
“Owe for how many?”
He stared at him for a moment. “For a bunch,” he said calmly enough, but a worried look crossed his face.
“Meaning they haven’t paid you for any yet, have they?”
“No, but they were just waiting to get paid on their side.”
“Of course they were.” Corbin shook his head, wondering at the absolute stupidity of this guy. “And you’re expecting them to follow through with it, right?”
“Follow through with what?”
“Paying you.” Corbin stared at his prisoner. “You expect them to still pay you?”
“Of course. I mean, I’ve given them more than a half-dozen names. They need those women.”
“Sure, maybe they did, but they have the women now, so why do they need you? And, if they don’t need you, why pay you?”
Subdued now, Darwin frowned, studying Corbin. “I know what you’re trying to do—but you’re wrong. We’ve been working together too long for them to screw me over.”
“Right.” Corbin waved a dismissive hand. “You’ve got a special relationship with them.”
He nodded. “I do. Hey, I worked hard to cultivate it.” But his voice was starting to lose conviction.
“I’m sure you did, and how did you find these guys?”
“A buddy of a buddy. I got word that somebody was looking for some women. I put in a call.”
“So you didn’t care what happened to these women, right?”
“They’re all bitches,” he sneered. “Every woman is a bitch, so what do I care? They’re only good for one thing, and most of them had kids. They had already been breeding.” At that, he laughed. “Besides, the specifics were pretty clear.”
“Yeah, right. Single women, a couple kids.”
“Young, healthy, and fit but in a spot—vulnerable types, who didn’t have anyone to care if they went missing. Who nobody gives a shit if they lived or died.”
“Nice guy, aren’t you?” Corbin’s stomach twisted at the shopping list. Not that Nellie fit the list.
Darwin shrugged. “It’s not like they didn’t take advantage of a lot of guys. Do they even know who the fathers are for those kids?” he snorted. “Those women deserve everything they got coming.”
Inside, it was all Corbin could do to hold back from hitting the guy square in his face. To think that guys like this were out there and were operating on colleges was unbelievable. But to think this asshole believed his own BS was something else yet again. Corbin kept his calm and asked him, “So, once you hand off the targets and the women’s schedules, then what?”
“Then it’s up to these guys. It’s no longer my problem. I mean, I’m a finder. A supplier. All I’m doing is scouting out chicks they might be interested in.”
“Right, chicks that they might be interested in. I wonder how MI6 will look at that.”
“It won’t matter because I ain’t talking.”
“No, of course not.” Corbin sighed. He didn’t bother telling Darwin that he wouldn’t live long enough because no way in hell these guys he worked with could afford to let him live. But somehow that was a truth that seemed to be completely missing in this guy’s brain. Corbin looked at him. “I suppose you used your phone to text them.”
“Yeah, sure,” he snapped.
“That just implicates you even more.”
“Nobody’ll be tracking the numbers.”
“They didn’t give you a burner phone, did they?”
“No, why would they? I prefer to use my phone anyway.”
A knock sounded at the door. Corbin walked to it and peered through the keyhole; it was Aiden. He opened the door, let him in, and asked quietly, “Anybody see you?”
“Possibly. A vehicle’s parked outside.”
“Good.” He looked over at the kid. “Somebody’s outside watching your place, Darwin.”
He paled and immediately struggled against his bonds again. “Let me go. Let me go, please. You don’t understand. I have to explain it to them.”
Aiden looked over at Corbin. “Are we letting him explain anything?”
Corbin shook his head. “Nah,” and he quickly explained what Darwin had been up to.
Aiden turned, looked at their prisoner, and sneered. “Jesus, so you set up these women for whatever nastiness these guys have planned for them?”
“I didn’t do anything. I just found a couple pretty chicks. That’s all.”
“Sure, a couple pretty chicks who fit parameters these guys were hunting for. You just became a procurement tech,” Corbin snapped, creating the term right on the spot.
The guy looked at him in surprise. “Oh.” Then he brightened. “Hey, I have a fancy job title.”
Aiden sucked in his breath, but Corbin patted Aiden on the shoulder. “Don’t worry about him. He ain’t going to live past tomorrow.”
“He won’t live much longer today either. They saw me come in here.”
Corbin agreed. He looked at the prisoner. “So what else can you tell me about these women?”
“Nothing. I told you that these guys give me a list. I find it. Later I give them a couple prospects, and that’s it. I get paid.”
“How do they pay you? Transfer to your bank account, cash, what?”
“It’s supposed to go into my bank account.” He grinned. “That’s a whole lot easier and less hassle for me that way.”
A half snort erupted from Aiden, but the kid ignored it. Corbin continued. “But again, you haven’t been paid yet.”
“No, because they’re waiting for the payment for the sales of the kids to go through.”
“You know they killed one of the mothers, right?”
He shook his head, shrugged. “Well, it wouldn’t have been one of my choices for women. They were perfect.”
“Right. Well, let’s check.” Corbin pulled out his phone and brought up the picture of Mary. “You find this woman for them?”
Darwin looked at her and nodded. “Yeah, she and her kids were buying groceries one day at a store close to the campus. Only carried what she could. Didn’t even get a cart. On a hunch, I followed her, and there she was. … She was struggling to hold on to a couple kids. Like how is that a life for the kids?” he sneered in disgust.
“How’s that a life for the kids when their only parent is gone? That person, that single mom, was trying desperately hard to improve her situation in order to get a better life for the kids.”
“They’ll have a better life now.” Darwin shrugged. “These guys will see to it.”
“Right, there’s some kind of twisted Messiah message. What do you know about the buyers? Are they like heroes?”
He looked at her photo and frowned. “She’s really dead, huh?” Darwin stared but just with a bored curiosity, as if he’d never seen a picture of a dead person before.
Aiden looked over at Darwin, then spoke to Corbin. “Now that I’m here, what do you want to do with him?”
Corbin glanced at the kid and asked Aiden, “Did you take in his brother?”
“Yeah, Earl has been picked up. He’s downtown in jail.”
“Good enough. Let’s take this guy down too.” Corbin immediately relieved the kid of his phone and began taking several screenshots of his contacts and most recent texts and calls.
At that, Darwin looked at him in horror. “No, no, no, no, no, no. Remember that part about me not surviving?”
“Yeah, we got it.” Corbin nodded. “Remember that part about I don’t give a shit?” Corbin finished his fishing expedition into the kid’s phone. Now he sent all the screen captures to Hatch for the team to cull through. He looked over at Aiden. “Let’s go. We’ll get him off our hands, so we can hunt down the rest of this group.”
