Page 89 of Born for Starlight

“I’m going to stop them as soon as it gets boring.”

“Ahh.”

I focused back on the men. Simon was holding back. I can’t say that I blamed him. Plus, he was the owner of Onyx Security and older than the rest of them. Maybe wisdom did come with age. Billy had taken Bruno’s spot against the wall. He was either very confident or worried about his dick size. That left Jase, Bruno and Matthew.

Gah!

Now Matthew had said the word auction, and Jase came off his chair.

“Fuck that shit, man! There is no way that Angelica is getting within twenty klicks of something like that. No way.” Jase sliced his hand through the air to make it clear.

Before I could open my mouth, Matthew was talking. His quiet had more impact than Jase’s yelling.

"Sit down, Jase," Matthew said.

"Don't"—

"Sit down. You flew all night, you're running on rage and airline coffee, and we have," he checked his watch, "two hours before she has to be in a car. So, sit down. I'll tell you what's actually happening. Then you can decide who you want to kill, and in what order."

Layla leaned over to me, “I’ve got to go.” I was too busy watching my brothers and my lover to care. I gave her a nod as she stood up and left.

Jase was now sitting. Bruno was against the wall again with his arms crossed, watching Matthew with an expression I couldn't quite read.

Matthew laid it out.

Not the broad strokes. Details. The trafficking, the reason I'd needed a shadow in the first place. He gave them everything.

Instituto Aurora, the second stop on my little charity tour, the place I was due to hand a check to in three hours, was dirty. Not neglectful, not underfunded. Dirty. So many pretty, malleable girls moved through it, and never came out the far side.

There was an auction. It was tonight according to Layla and Matthew’s contacts. My visit, the cameras, the choir, the oversized check on the front steps, all of it was the curtain. Every eye in the state would be on the movie star and her donation while the biggest operation they'd ever run went on backstage.

Then he went on to explain about little Luzia. Discharged from a hospital four days ago by a benefactor with no name, along with two other girls. He couldn't prove it, but he believed she was inside Aurora right now.

He told them about the container. Billy, silent by the door this whole time, gave one small nod, because he and Simon had already stood in the street and seen it that morning.

Simon finally spoke. “It was wrong from the second it turned in. The rig was riding high, empty container, you can see it in how the tractor sits. So, I'm already wondering why anyone hauls an empty box into a school. Then the tractor uncouples, drops it, and drives off without it." He let that sit. "Deliveries come in full and leave empty. Nobody delivers an empty container and leaves it. You only park an empty box somewhere when you plan to fill it right there.”

Bruno swore, quiet and vicious.

Jase didn't say anything at all. He just looked at me, and his face had stopped being furious and started being something much harder to watch. Resigned.

He came over to where I was sitting.

“I hate this shit. You know I do.”

“I know.”

“Both you and Matthew are right. You need to be there. You need to play your part in order to shut this shit down.” He reached out and squeezed my shoulder, then he looked over at Matthew. “You do realize that Bruno and me are now in this op, right?”

Matthew sighed. “I do.”

Chapter Twenty-Eight

At three o'clock on the nose, Beto rolled us back through the pretty gates of Instituto Aurora, and Ferraz was waiting on the front steps exactly where he'd stood at one.

Same car. Same driver. Me and Deke, the advance he'd been promised, right on time. Nothing about the picture told him my op had doubled in the last two hours. Two of them, brothers who still wanted my head on a platter.

"Senhor Grainger." Ferraz came down to meet us. "Punctual."