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“Stay down, asshole,” Alec growled.
Staggering to his feet, the recruit squared his shoulders and shot my brother a look filled with pure malice. His face was dripping with sweat and redder than a freshly painted fire hydrant, but he wasn’t smart enough to know when he’d been well and truly beaten.
“Fuck. I’m gonna need to talk to Waverly about him,” Gabe grumbled.
“He one of hers?”
His answering nod brought another smile to my face.
Special Agent in Charge Waverly Mitchell was a take-no-prisoners FBI agent we’d had the pleasure of working with on a few occasions. She was damn good at her job, but there was no way she’d put up with his giant ego. This clown would be begging to get back in the ring with Alec by the time she got through with him.
Looking at my watch, I said, “We’ve got a video call in fifteen minutes, so Alec needs to stop fucking around and end this farce already.”
As soon as the words left my mouth, the conference room door by our offices swung open and Rico popped his head out. He’d arrived about an hour ago to gather a few last-minute facts for our meeting. Gabe and I turned away from the inevitable carnage behind us and crossed the room.
We’d taken a contract with a start-up tech company who’d had issues with security breaches. Since Rico was our cyber expert, he’d taken the lead and what he’d discovered had left a bad taste in all our mouths.
“You ready to teach these geeks a lesson?” I asked.
“More than,” he shook his head. “Fucking douchebags.”
Ten minutes later, Alec waltzed into the room looking freshly showered. I raised an eyebrow at him in question when I noticed a small split in the left side of his lip.
“Fucker wouldn’t yield, so I let him take a swing.”
“Is he still breathing?” Rico questioned with a chuckle.
“Once he finally caught his breath again, he was.” Alec grinned, causing the cut to ooze another drop of blood.
I tossed him a towel from the counter as we took our seats around the table and waited for the video feed to go live. A few minutes later, our clients, Jerrod and Matt, appeared on the screen.
Under normal circumstances, I might have liked these two, however, Rico had discovered Jerrod had taken part in bullying a girl in high school. His role may have been small, but the results had been devastating.
“Do you remember a girl named Shelly Cameron?” Rico questioned Jerrod.
For the next several minutes, we laid out all the ugly facts. Shelly had a major crush on Jerrod so when he asked her out, she’d been beside herself with glee. Unfortunately, he didn’t share her feelings. In fact, he’d been paid to participate in the ruse. Shelly showed up for their “date,” only to have a good chunk of the school waiting there to torment the hell out of her. Meanwhile, Jerrod was probably sitting at home jacking off to the brand-new hundred-dollar bill in his pocket.
Shelly had been a victim of bullying for years because she wasn’t a perfect size two. That night set her on a course of self-destruction, which culminated in her taking her own life a year later.
Gabe excused himself to take a call as I began to explain our plan to approach Shelly’s brother, Shelton. He’d infiltrated their company and had been siphoning money for the past year. A lot of money. Two-point-six million dollars to be exact.
“Here’s what’s going to happen,” I began. “Alec and I will meet with Shelton. We have enough evidence to put him behind bars for several years, but that’s not what we’re after.”
“What the hell do you mean?” Matt interrupted. “Of course we want him in jail!”
“Do you want your money back?” Alec snapped.
Matt looked as though he was about to argue further until a hand on the shoulder from Jerrod stopped him. They shared a brief conversation, too quiet for the microphone to pick up, then looked back to the screen.
“Yes. We want our money back,” Jerrod said. “Please continue.”
“As I was saying, Alec and I will meet with him and lay out his options, of which there are only two. Give the money back or face years in prison for embezzlement.”
Their faces paled the longer I spoke, but they didn’t have a choice in the matter. They’d get their money back, minus our upper five-figure fee and an additional twenty-five percent, which they’d graciously donate to a charity of our choosing.
If they insisted on pressing charges against Shelton Cameron, Rico had an ace up his sleeve, which would surely alter their way of thinking. He was preparing to enlighten them to the fact he’d found their off-shore accounts filled with money they’d neglected to pay taxes on when Gabe stormed back into the room.
“Gotta go,” he said as he slammed the laptop closed, severing our video link.
