Crime and Passion 6/10
Chapter Six
Pete’s lip was split and dripping blood onto the floor, his hand holding his jaw while Ryan glared at him from where Nick and Tyson were holding him back.
“You dirty piece of shit,” Ryan snarled, struggling against the hands anchored around his arms. “You fucking-”
“Hey!” Patrick yelled, although he looked as angry and on the edge as Ryan felt. “Keep it together Ross.”
Ryan narrowed his eyes and bit back a retort that would only have made things worse. Pete looked over at him, tongue darting out to press against his lip.
“You’re stronger than you look,” he said. “I always forget that.”
“Shut up, Pete,” Patrick said and he sounded tired and close to punching the other man himself. “Just shut the fuck up and explain to me why the fuck you would do something so stupid.”
Pete swiped a finger under the swell of his bottom lip where blood was attempting to pool and said, “I didn’t have a choice.”
“You always have a fucking choice, Pete!” Patrick shot back. “You sold us out to the goddamn mafia and you walked in here acting like it’s no big deal that you let them have Brendon. You made the choice to do that, Pete, don’t fucking pretend it’s anything else.”
“It was Mikey, Patrick,” Pete said like that was supposed to solve everything.
Patrick turned his back to the other man, hand pulling tight in his hair. “Fucking Mikey. Shit, Pete, are you serious? You couldn’t maybe try being a little more discriminating? Enough so that at least you didn’t decide to fuck around with the mafia heirs?”
Ryan watched Pete’s face pull tight. “It wasn’t like that,” he insisted, his split lip making his speech awkward. “I owed him. Because of Jaenae and Alicia. I owed him.”
“What the hell are you talking about, Pete?” Ryan asked.
Pete shrugged. “It was after you left. I got. There were these two women. Sisters. I got involved with them and they wouldn’t tell me what the hell was going on but they were in deep shit. They’d come home fucked up, bruises everywhere, bleeding. They needed help and I needed help to help them so. Mikey pulled some strings and took care of them for me.”
Ryan could feel a headache building behind his eyes. “Pete, how’d you get involved with him in the first place?”
Pete bit his lip and didn’t say anything which was pretty much all Ryan and Patrick needed to hear. Ryan cursed and jerked against the hold on him.
“You gonna behave yourself?” Tyson asked.
Ryan glared at him and nodded.
“You’re a real piece of work, Wentz, you know that? You just gave up a key witness to repay a debt you owe to a mob boss. I hope the guilt of this one never stops eating at you, I really do.”
“Fuck you, Ross!” Pete yelled. “Like you even give a shit about Brendon. Like you give a shit about anyone but yourself. You think you’re so much better than me? Is that why everyone you work with thinks you’re an asshole? Is that why you can’t keep a partner? If you’re so good and I’m such a fuck-up, explain to me why no one thinks you’re worth anything except a betting pool on whether or not you’re gonna make it out of your next assignment alive.”
That one hurt. Ryan didn’t show it, he didn’t wince or cringe away like he wanted to, but it did hurt. It hit pretty close to home and Ryan had almost forgotten how good at that Pete was. How easy it was for him to find the softest spot on a guy and attack it, quick and efficient.
“Okay,” Nick said. “Okay, can we stop hurling accusations at each other? We just had to report Cassie and Brendon missing. Saporta and Asher are going to be breathing down our necks any minute, I think we need to find out exactly what the fuck’s going on so we can take figure out what to do next.”
Ryan looked over at Nick whose features were sharp and whose tone wasn’t one to argue with. Nick shot him a weighted look that said there was probably going to be some shit going down that Ryan might not like to be a part of. Ryan didn’t move, just nodded and looked over at Pete who stared blankly back. Patrick pressed a tissue to his hand and said, “Clean yourself up and then tell us what’s going on.”
Pete wiped his lip and there were still traces of blood on his cheeks and lips and chin, the underside of his jaw and his neck, but at least he didn’t look like something out of a horror movie anymore. He took a deep breath and started talking.
“Mikey got to me through Cassie,” he said. “She explained the situation to me over the phone before she came here. Apparently Flowers has been involved with Way for a while now and he got it into his head to set them up and take them down so he could take over.”
“Bullshit,” Patrick interrupted. “I’ve met Brandon. No way is he going to be staging a coup.”
“Yeah, well, he is,” Pete said with a bite to his tone. “Flowers is a regular customer of Cassie’s and he decided to use her to put his plan into action. I guess one of Way’s guys is a regular, too. He threatened Cassie, told her if she didn’t get in with Gerard and Mikey and steal some diamonds for him, he’d kill her. I mean, he offered to pay her too but that’s not enough incentive to take on the mafia.
“She wouldn’t tell me what happened, just that she got the diamonds and Way found out about it. She went to Audrey, Audrey went to Brendon and the three of them went to return the stolen goods. It was a set-up, though. Flowers set all of them up. The accident, Audrey’s murder, all of it was supposed to lead to the Ways, which they found out about.”
“Of course,” Ryan muttered, because you couldn’t keep something like that secret for long.
“They tracked down Cassie and the diamonds she stole for herself and recruited her or something. She’s working with them to bring down Flowers. I think that’s why they needed Brendon.”
Ryan felt bile climb up his throat. “And you just gave him to them.”
“They need him alive,” Pete said before Ryan could resort to more slurs. “He’s fine.”
There was silence in the room as everyone tried to digest what they’d just been told.
“So what do we do?” Patrick asked.
“I don’t know,” Pete answered.
_._
When Saporta started cursing in Spanish, Ryan stopped listening. In all honesty, he’d stopped listening within five minutes of being in the same room as the other man and his vitriolic partner. He usually couldn’t stand the sight of them let alone the sound of their voices and this situation was no different.
When Carden showed up, Ryan stopped thinking logically. Because he knew, he knew that he was going to be called on to do something really fucked up, something that he would be required to do as a federal agent and he didn’t think he was going to want to cooperate.
“Okay,” Carden said, looking at everyone. “I don’t even want to know who’s responsible for this monumental fuck up. I don’t want to hear shit from anybody, no excuses, no explanations, nothing unless I ask to hear it.”
Asher looked flushed and ready to defend herself but Carden didn’t so much as look at her.
“Ritter, tell me just what the fuck’s going on because I’ve got two missing key witnesses and no evidence tying the Ways to this murder or the diamonds. What the hell have you all been doing all this time?”
Tyson glanced sideways and Ryan caught his eye before he looked back at Carden.
“Cassie engineered Brendon’s kidnaping. She’s working with the Ways to bring down Brandon Flowers.”
Carden raised his eyebrows and Tyson shifted uncomfortably.
“Flowers is trying to oust the family,” Nick supplied. “He set them up for Kitching’s murder. They’re trying to take him out and eliminate the threat. Brendon’s close to Brandon. We think that’s why they took him, so they could get him to help.”
“And there’s evidence to support this?” Carden demanded.
“No,” Saporta said. “None whatsoever. It’s all just a cover-up-”
“I didn’t ask you,” Carden interrupted with a glare. “Ritter. Evidence?”
Tyson shook his head. “No hard evidence, sir.”
“Fuck,” Carden muttered. “Alright, here’s what I need. I need the girl. She’s our key witness in this, she could potentially bring down the Ways and this Flowers guy.”
“What about Brendon?” Ryan asked before he could stop himself.
“We’re going to hope the kid decides to help Way out. If they take out Flowers within the next day or so, that means we don’t have to. And if he doesn’t agree to help, that’s not the most pressing problem we’ve got.”
Ryan’s fists clenched and he felt a stinging in his palms from where his nails were biting through skin. Fuck. He knew it. He knew it and he couldn’t do anything but listen while Carden ordered Saporta and Asher to figure out where the Ways had Cassie and told Ryan, Nick and Tyson to be ready to move in and get her out when he gave the word.
“Let’s not fuck this one up,” Carden said, looking at them all levelly before leaving their midst, presumably to find the chief of police and yell at him for the ineptitude of his officers.
“You’re lucky we have no choice but to clean up your mess, Ross,” Asher hissed as she and Saporta left. “I would hang you out to dry if it were up to me.”
Ryan didn’t say anything. He didn’t know what to say. He was about to do something stupid and completely reckless and all he really wanted was to get on a phone to Spencer and have him say it was the right thing.
“So,” Ritter said, crossing his arms and looking pointedly at the opposite wall. “Nick and I are going to be here waiting for orders and you’re going to be?”
Ryan bit his lip and then grabbed his jacket. “Getting coffee, where else?”
“Yep, thought so,” Tyson said, but he looked at Ryan and grinned as he did it. “We’ll see you when you get back.”
Ryan nodded, not entirely sure that coming back would even be an option. He was about to put his entire career at risk to save a guy that, arguably, he barely knew at all and certainly didn’t like. Except for the part where somewhere Ryan had gotten a little attached to Brendon and he felt obligated to do this and maybe, yeah, just maybe it was that part of him that liked to do reckless shit that prompted him to track down Pete and Patrick and say, “So, we’ve gotta move fast if we want to get Brendon out in one piece.”
Pete’s lip was swollen and he looked miserable and Ryan was a little glad that he did but he was more worried about finding Brendon, solving this problem and getting the fuck out of Vegas, preferably for good.
_._
“Brendon’s in trouble and I need you to level with me,” Ryan said without preamble.
Maja stared at him from her doorway. “How’d you find this house?” she asked.
Ryan thought that was kind of a stupid question considering who and what he was, but if he wanted her help he was going to have try not to be a prick.
“A couple of officers pulled your name for me. You’re in the system for aggravated assault.”
“Trust me,” she said, cocking her head to the side. “That fucker deserved it.”
She didn’t move for a few more seconds and then she backed up and left him room to brush past her and into the house. It was, Ryan decided upon looking around, a nice place. Tastefully decorated and tidy. She led him into the living room where two girls that Ryan recognized as another pair of cocktail waitresses from the lounge were sitting amidst small piles of laundry.
“What’s going on?” Maja asked, settling down on a comfortable looking blue couch and picking up a black t-shirt. “Where’s Brendon?”
“Kidnaped. By Way,” Ryan said, wondering if there was any more tactful way to break the news and doubting it.
The shirt fell from Maja’s limp fingers and she looked up at Ryan with wide eyes. He noticed the other two looking at him similarly and he squared his shoulders uncomfortably.
“How?” Maja asked. “You were supposed to be watching him. How?”
Her accent thickened in her anger and Ryan could see her legs and arms shaking.
“It was someone in the department. They were supposed to watch him. They turned him over instead.”
Ryan wasn’t exactly shocked when Maja flew off the couch and the sharp slap she delivered was more unexpected than painful.
“Maja!” One of the girls said, getting to her feet.
“It’s okay, Keltie,” Maja said, narrowing her eyes at Ryan and stepping back and out of his personal space. “What do you want?”
“I want you to tell me about what Flowers is doing in the mafia and what his plans are for the Ways,” he said, watching as Maja’s face closed over.
“I don’t know anything about-”
“If you want to help Brendon, you’d better,” Ryan interrupted.
Maja’s eyes flashed and then she steeled herself and told the other two to get out. They hesitated.
“Get out,” she barked. “I don’t need you involved in this.”
The two girls moved around them and out of the living room, Keltie pausing in the doorway to say, “Travis? Should I get him?”
Maja nodded shortly and Ryan wanted impatiently for them to leave the room. As soon as they were gone, Maja spoke again, crossing her arms protectively over her chest.
“I’m not involved with Brandon’s business,” she said. “But when I first got the job he would ask me to do him favors. He’s involved with the Ways, has been since before I even came to Vegas.”
Ryan nodded. “Okay, what else?”
Maja shrugged. “A few years ago, a couple of months after he hired Brendon, Brandon fucked up. I don’t know details. He brought Travis in as extra protection. As far as I know, it wouldn’t have helped and it didn’t matter because the Ways didn’t do anything to Brandon. But he lost their respect. They’ve been embarrassing him with shitty jobs and zero responsibility since.”
“What about the takeover?” Ryan asked, not particularly interested in more details than strictly necessary.
Maja hung her head. “I don’t know. Brandon stopped using me months ago. He started asking Audrey for favors instead and Travis. Well, Travis knows but he won’t tell me. He always says that curiosity killed the cat.”
“Yeah,” Ryan said distractedly, raking a hand through his hair and feeling no closer to figuring this out than before. “Look, my boss is sending agents in to get Cassie sometime in the next thirty-six hours, probably with backup, probably with heavy artillery. If Brendon’s agreed to help the Ways, he’ll end up a casualty in this. If he hasn’t agreed to help, they’ll kill him. I need to know what they need him for and where they might be keeping him.”
“Brendon’s one of the few who never knew about Brandon,” Maja said after a moment’s pause. “Brandon couldn’t exactly brag about it and when he might have told Brendon he’d already lost favor with the family. Way probably thinks Brendon’s the best choice for taking Brandon out because he’s the least suspicious.” Maja looked away uncomfortably. “I don’t know where they would take him, though. Travis might. Travis will. He always knows these things.”
Ryan wasn’t sure he had time to waste waiting for Travis to get back from wherever, wasn’t even sure he could trust him. But he trusted Maja to want to help Brendon and he didn’t think she’d suggest seeking help from anyone who would only make matters worse.
“I need to make a call,” Ryan said with a sigh. If he didn’t let Pete and Patrick know what he knew, they’d only get worried.
“I need to check on my roommates,” Maja said. She hesitated before leaving and added, “I told Brendon you cared. You’ll get him back.”
And then she was gone.
_._
Ryan met up with Pete and Patrick outside of his old house, the one he was supposed to have put on the market a month earlier. The sun was setting, dipping below the cookie-cutter rooftops of Ryan’s old neighborhood and it was almost disgustingly poetic that four men were standing on the sidewalk planning to rescue another man from the mafia. Scorsese couldn’t have come up with something better.
Travis, the lounge’s bartender, had tagged along with Ryan to meet Pete and Patrick. He didn’t offer any excuses for himself other than that he liked Brendon and thought Brandon was kind of a dick.
“I’m tired of being involved in this shit,” he’d said. “I only took the job because the bodyguard thing wasn’t panning out. Fuck the mafia, man, fuck it.”
How in the hell Ryan had ended up with not just two, but three people on his side who were just as willing to throw their previous lives away on this one thing he didn’t know. Pete and Patrick wouldn’t have jobs after this, and even if they did Ryan could tell from the look in their eyes that they didn’t want to go back. They’d gone too far; to go back to the station and back to their old jobs would be ridiculous. Ryan wasn’t sure what Travis’ job was in relation to the Ways or how deep in it he was, but that didn’t matter because Travis didn’t care.
And then there was Ryan who was throwing away his entire career on one guy. One guy he’d known for just over a month, one guy that he had spent weeks trying not to care about, failing miserably at that the same way he’d failed miserably at keeping him safe. He didn’t even care, was the thing. Oh, he cared about what would happen in the vaguest sense but Ryan hadn’t been called stupid and reckless for nothing and maybe this was all the therapy he’d needed, to actually give a fuck about someone for the first time in what felt like a long time and to do the right thing because he wanted to and not because he was being given orders.
There was a strange sense of freedom in it, something Ryan knew he wasn’t alone in feeling.
“We’re going to need some place safe to run when we get Brendon out,” Ryan said. “Any ideas?”
Pete and Patrick shared a look and then nodded.
“Yeah,” Pete said. “I know someone. A place.”
Ryan eyed Pete carefully. The other man still had the look of someone haunted and guilty but at least he seemed level-headed. Patrick was a calm force at Pete’s side and that probably had something to do with it.
“Okay,” Ryan said. “Travis and I are going to go in first. Pete, you’re backup. Patrick, you’ll be ready to get us the fuck out of there?”
Patrick nodded and Ryan pushed his hair out of his eyes.
“Ready?” he asked Travis. The other man grinned and nodded.
“Hell yeah, let’s go fuck some shit up.”
Chapter Seven