Page 34 of Crowe
“It’s peaceful,” Gator said. “I kept thinking Julius would love it up there.” He paused. “Julius and the giant claw-foot tub would be something to see.”
I smiled. “My grandfather built the place. Back before the state park expanded around it, the land wasn’t worth much, and nobody wanted it. He wanted somewhere he could go and not see or hear another human being for a week.” I thought about him. He was a big, quiet man, more comfortable with a fishing rod than with conversation. He and I had that in common. “He built most of it by hand. It took him two summers.”
“The workmanship is amazing. You can tell he put his heart into it,” Hawk said.
“He did. Now it’s just me and Wyatt,” I said.
Wolfe hung up the phone. “Sorry, I had to take that call.”
“No problem.” I looked at Hawk and Gator, ready to get this started. “How are our guests in the woodshed?”
Gator reached for his coffee on the desk and took a drink before answering me. “The one you shot is fine. Shoulder wound, clean through. He’ll live.” He set the cup back. “The other one has a headache, but he was talking by the time we left him with the agents Chance sent our way.”
“Talking willingly?”
Hawk made a sound that wasn’t quite a laugh. “Define willingly.”
I didn’t push it. We had our methods, and they weren’t pretty, but we didn’t cross lines we couldn’t come back from. Whatever they’d done had been enough to get answers without becoming something we weren’t. “What did you get?”
Wolfe picked up a folder and opened it. “The man who hired them is called Gregor Valen. Mid-level guy. He moves money and people for someone with a lot more resources than he’ll ever have. He’s loyal the way people are loyal when they’re more afraid of their employer than they are of anything we might do to them.” He paused. “Which tells you something about the employer.”
“He gave you Valen willingly?” I asked.
“He gave us Valen once he understood his options,” Hawk said. “Which were limited.”
Wolfe turned the folder toward me, and I looked at the photo Kat had pulled. Gregor Valen. Mid-forties, heavy through the shoulders, and with a hard face that gave nothing away.
“And Valen leads back to?” I asked.
“Anton Corvane,” Wolfe said. “It took Kat most of the night, but she got there. Old money. Political connections that go back two generations. He operates through layers. Shell companies, contractors, intermediaries, but the thread is there if you pull it hard enough.”
“He’s from Selvaris?” I asked.
“That’s where the money originates, yes. He’s based there. He’s untouchable there, and he knows it.” Wolfe closed the folder. “Chance Kelly asked around for us, and he’s on the feds’ radar. Nothing anyone’s been able to move on so far. Which is why Corvane is comfortable enough to be sending people after Noah without much concern about who notices.”
“He’s comfortable,” I said, “because he’s never had to be uncomfortable.”
“That’s about the size of it.”
Wolfe paused, laced his fingers together on the desk, and looked at me directly. The look that meant something was coming, that he’d already decided how to say.
“You drove Noah back yourself,” he said.
I met his eyes. “I did.”
“I sent Hawk and Gator up there to bring him.”
“I know you did.” I kept my voice level. “And I appreciated it. But I wasn’t handing him off to anyone else, so I drove him back.” I let a beat pass. “I’m on vacation, Wolfe. My time is my own.”
Hawk made a sound that he immediately converted into a cough.
Wolfe looked at me for a long moment, then let out a breath through his nose. “Crowe. I wasn’t saying anything. I’m not criticizing you.”
“Sounded like you were about to.” I was sitting in a room with two guys who’d fallen for the man they were protecting, so while it might not be the smartest thing, it wasn’t like they could say much.
“I was about to say that it tells me something useful about where things stand, so I know how to plan. I’m not saying it’s ideal, but I get it. He’s important to you. You just need to make sure your head stays in the game.”
I held his gaze for another second, then nodded once.
