Page 40 of Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad World

“Your head.”

“That’s just overkill.” Violet seemed unimpressed.

Noah ran a hand down his face, his stomach knotting at the thought of what this gang wanted to do to Annabelle. “Eddie’s been running the Demons for years. It’s hard to believe Annabelle’s the first chance the DA’s had to nail the guy.”

Rodrigo sat back in his chair. “He keeps it tight. The gang isn’t big, and the members are obsessively loyal. Law enforcement can’t get anyone in undercover, as each member is hand-picked and monitored twenty-four seven. If a member’s arrested while committing a crime, he’ll take the fall completely, refusing to say a word about the gang. There have been some serious attempts to turn a member against the group, but they’ve all come to nothing. On top of that, any witnesses to gang activity are dealt with swiftly and violently. Annabelle’s the only witness to last this long.”

“Obviously,” Rochelle said, “they also cultivate sources inside law enforcement. Otherwise, Annabelle would still be safe.”

“They use a combination of money and intimidation,” Rodrigo agreed. “A couple of moles have been weeded out, butthey chose prison rather than turning on the Demons. They were that scared.”

“Even with the promise of witness protection?” Katrina, who’d been taking notes, spoke for the first time.

“So far, nobody’s believed that the WITSEC program can keep them safe.”

A wave of tension rippled through the room, the gravity of the situation written on everyone’s face.

“They’re just people,” Abasi said, breaking the tension. “Every organization, every criminal, has a weakness. Don’t go thinking these guys are unstoppable.”

“Uh-huh,” Violet smirked at him. “And what would you do to stop them, oh wise one?”

“I already voiced my opinion. A bullet in Eddie Hanson’s brain would put an end to this situation fast.”

Rochelle shook her head. “Somebody else would just step up to fill Eddie’s shoes, and the Demons will carry on. Eddie has to be convicted so that the authorities can make his gang believe he’s sold them out. That way, they have a chance of convincing some of the weaker members to testify. And with that information, they dismantle the Demons for good.”

“Our job isn’t to take down the Demon Brothers. It’s to protect the witness.” Abasi showed no emotion as he spoke, even though he knew Annabelle just as well as most of the team. “That makes it simple. If you want to protect the girl, you take out the threat. You want to bring down the organization too, well, that’s something else.”

“FBI, DEA, all the alphabet agencies want this group,” Rodrigo said to Abasi. “We can’t screw that up for them. You were in the life, so you’d have a good idea of what the Demons are into. That shithasto be stopped.”

Abasi’s cold eyes were unflinching as he stared at Rodrigo. “You remove one gang, and another one steps in to take its place.There’s no stopping any of this shit. Trust me. I know. You can’t make that sort of a difference. You can’t wipe out gang life or stop all organized crime. It just isn’t possible. All you can do is what you’re being paid to do—protect the girl.”

Katrina cleared her throat, drawing everyone’s attention. Her eyes were on Abasi, but her face remained carefully blank. “Are you suggesting we do nothing about the Demon gang, or any gang for that matter? That it’s all hopeless anyway? What about all the other people involved with the gang and at risk? The family members whom the Demons make examples out of, the women and children they traffic, or the innocent bystanders whose lives are destroyed because they got in the way? Don’t they deserve to be protected too?”

Abasi was unmoved. “Our job is to protect the witness. That’s what we’re being paid for.”

“Don’t you care about the rest?” Katrina asked, sounding incredulous.

“I ain’t no crusader,” Abasi said evenly.

“No.” Katrina stood. “You aren’t. If you’ll excuse me, I have calls to make. Rochelle, I’ll catch up with you later.”

She strode from the room without sparing Abasi so much as a glance, but he didn’t take his eyes off her until she was out of sight.

“Okay,” Noah said once she was gone. “Let me see if I have this right. What you’re saying is that the Demon Brothers are untouchable, and all we can do is sit here and wait for the next attack. That about it?”

Rochelle headed for the coffee pot. “Unfortunately, waiting seems our only option. We can’t take the fight to them, not without ruining the ADA’s case and law enforcement’s chance of taking down the entire Demon Brothers operation. It certainly looks like we’re stuck playing defense.”

Evan raised his hand and cleared his throat to attract attention.

Rochelle’s expression made it clear she was fast losing patience with him. “Evan, this isn’t a class, and I’m not your teacher. If you have something to say, speak up.”

The young Scot was unfazed. “Okay, so I was digging through the Benson Security records and saw that the London office helped take down the James Family.” He visibly gulped under the sudden intense scrutiny of Abasi Otieno. “Th-they played them off against other gangs and started a turf war. Can’t we do something like that? Can’t we get other bad guys to take out our bad guys for us?”

Attention turned to Abasi, who, as everyone knew, had been high up in the James Family leadership. “It won’t work. The Demons are too insular, whereas the James Family was structured like a classic Italian mob. Plus, from what I’ve heard, no one will fight with the Demons, not for turf, or business, or pretty much anything. But… we could destabilize them another way, depending on how skilled our hacker is.”

“What other way?” Noah demanded.

Abasi shrugged. “We take away their money.”