“Who wants to begin?” King asked. It almost sounded like he was offering a concession, but he wasn’t the one in control of the room or the situation.
The knowledge of which continued to grow in his wary gaze.
Chapter
Twenty-Two
ADAM
Who wanted to begin? Condescending prick. Resentment for the years of towing the line to this man burned in me. First, he’d been some anonymous, dark and distant leader of an unorthodox, secret society.
If you were tapped to join, your choices were gone. Extinct. You served at his pleasure. Whether it was killing, stealing, or torture, if the king requested it, you did it.
In his name and under his direction, we inflicted so much damage. What had once just been a club of sorts for the ultra wealthy to sow their wild oats in and do crazy stunts, had become something of a real gang.
We were all soaked in the blood of his choices.
His choices and our own.
“I’ll start,” I said abruptly. “You’ve arranged sales with regard to people, particularly children and young adults to Eastern Europe. Who are your contacts?”
King’s gaze snapped to me. Shock rippled through his expression before he could suppress it fully.
“While we’re on the subject of selling children,” Doc said, folding his arms and fixing King with a cold look. “Let’s discuss the network you use to get them out of the country.”
“Paperwork,” Kellan Traschel, the current leader of the Vandals added to the list of items we wanted. “You have to do something to remove them or bring in others. I rather doubt it’s export only.” His grimace underscored his disgust.
“While we’re on the subject,” Lainey said, crossing one leg over the other before taking a sip of her cognac. She couldn’t stand the stuff, but you would never know based on her expression. “Let’s also discuss the methodology for how you chose who to sell and to keep. I’m assuming that you began by removing possible challenges and threats.”
The last wasn’t really a question, but I saw her move play out in the seconds after she interjected. We had specific questions, Lainey was going after the big picture stuff.
King took his time in responding. He glanced around the room at each of us. His gaze lingered on Em the longest. I wanted to step into his line of sight, but none of her guys were doing it so I stayed where I was.
Em was fierce all on her own. Didn’t mean I had to like her having to fight any battles.
“Is that all?” King asked. The semi-bored note in his voice aggravated me. Worse, I didn’t care for the way he zeroed in on Lainey with her last request.
“No,” Lainey answered as she pulled a small tin of mints out of her purse. I hadn’t seen those in a while. She carried them because her grandfather often did. It was… another charming facet of her personality. “You’re a smart man, most of the time. Stop asking stupid questions.”
I almost snorted aloud at the dry insult in her voice. King downed the rest of his cognac as though it were a shot and not expensive liquor.
Maybe he needed to fortify his courage. But wrong side of the sheets or not, King was far more suited to the rough streets than the boardrooms and golf courses.
Setting the glass aside, King leaned back in his chair and blew out a breath. “I have a porter in Munich who handles all transactions going from west to east. Conversely there is a courier service available when we need to import product and resources.”
The ease with which he discussed trading people made me sick. I understood business and resource management. While solid employees made for good resources, they were not products.
“As for the paperwork and the supply chain here, that’s on a need to know. You do not need to know.”
“Port resources then,” I said. “Most likely out of Maryland, New Jersey, and North Carolina. Staying away from New York’s ports to distance yourself. He has a list of loyalists in those cities.”
Loyalists who seemed to genuinely like him. Or at least they indicated as much when I’d met them previously. This was before I knew who he was.
“You’re right,” Liam said, snapping his gaze to mine. We’d had to deal with some problems in Maryland. It had been a two day trip, most longshoremen were a tight knit group. They didn’t welcome strangers or offer up their own.
The moment we’d identified ourselves, however, Liam and I had been treated like we were the king. His people there wanted nothing to do with the open revolt in the other union workers.
King’s eyes narrowed. He didn’t confirm or deny. Not that he needed to. Anyone not capable of flying out commercial airliner would need other exit strategies. The same to be said for importing.
Shipping containers.
“You worked with Jonathon Warrick,” Kestrel said in a tight voice.
“More his mother, Ruth. She was the real brains behind that operation. She also had connections. Jonathon lacked stamina. Not that it matters, I moved up and on. I didn’t need their connections. While this whole discussion is far from entertaining, I would have suspected you had more detailed questions for me.”
The blunt speculation in his eyes almost made me laugh. Since finding out King was related to Em and Milo, then Ezra, I’d looked for any trace of those three in him. Just one small inkling…
But it wasn’t there. Ezra looked more like his mother than his father. A kindness for him. Based on what I’d gathered, Emersyn was the spitting image of her birth mother and you couldn’t mistake her and Milo for anything except siblings.
Seven or eight years apart, did nothing to dilute how closely they resembled each other. No, King might have provided some genetic material, but they were nothing like him.
That was a boon for them. All of us really. My feelings where my father stood were complicated. I’d loathed him more than I loved him though. Milo had loved his father, loved and idolized him. That betrayal?
It left a mark.
Em? She had no memories of him. Instead, she got the shit deal with her adopted parents and the disgusting, rat bastard of an uncle. I fought the urge to grind my teeth together. Next to me, Ezra bumped my shoulder.
