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Exasperation rolls off him in thick waves, but beyond that is fearsome violence waiting to be unleashed.
Conveniently, we’re interrupted.
“Sir. They finished doing inventory. Here are the reports,” a man says.
Arrick scans the report and freezes at something he reads. “The other merchandise. Is this correct?”
Stupidly, the man hesitates in his answer. “The… the merchandise? Kept in storage?”
Arrick stares at the man until he speaks.
“Yes, there’s only one missing. Everyone else is secured in holding.”
“Which one?” The words come through Arrick’s gritted teeth, and I brace for the answer I know is coming.
“The blonde. The one Little John brought in. We can’t locate her.” There’s sweat beading on the poor guy’s forehead as he tries to hold his ground against the boss’s stare.
Arrick swivels to me. “Griffin, you were the one to take her out of here. What happened to the girl.” There’s no question in his words.
Part of me knows this could be the end. It will take every trick I have to pull off this kind of lie. Arrick is a smart man, and he can see right through most people. It’s impressive enough that I have worked my way into his trusted circle so quickly over the past four years.
“You said fuck her or kill her. I picked fuck for a couple days and then threw her back in with the rest.” I keep my voice cold, but I cringe internally.
“Well, what about security footage? Something must be on there.”
Hoping the confirmation the pair of strangers gave me about corrupting the existing security footage when they shut down the system was correct, I commit to the lie.
“Unfortunately, when the intruders corrupted the system, they also managed to corrupt the drives with historical footage. If someone did take her, we don’t have the footage to see who it was. We could bring someone in to try and recover the files, but it will take time.”
Nothing can be done to quell the man’s rising anger. As he begins pacing, I look to the man on my left and motion for him to get out, and like a scared rabbit, he bolts out of the room.
Normally, the office space, if you can call it that, is cavernous and intimidating. But with the palpable emotions coming off of Arrick, it quickly becomes a stifling sauna.
“Sir.” I need to proceed with caution here, but I have to keep moving.
A still target is a dead one.
“Sir,” I repeat. “We do have options here. It’s going to take a bit of time. I need to speak with all the men and piece together what happened. We need to identify problem areas and resolve those before we resume operations.”
“No. What you need to do is find the fuckers who did this. Find my wife. Find my son. Find the girl.”
My only choice at the moment is silence.
“Everything that is mine was taken from me.” He quiets as he speaks. “I won’t stand to have anything else taken. Lock this place down and get shit together, Griffin. You’re goin’ huntin’.”
“Yes, sir.”
I turn to leave, but his words stop me dead in my tracks. “Did you enjoy the girl? She’s a real nice piece. Reminds me of my wife. A good lay too.”
If my back hadn’t been to him when he spoke, everything would be ruined. Hearing him speak about Juliana, my Jules, like this, or rather at all, is too much. He has no right to touch her, talk about her, or even think about her. I want to put Arrick in his place, but it would only get me shot.
But I made a promise to her that I need to keep: to get out and find her.
Giving him no reaction, I respond, “Best I’ve had. But you already know that.”
The words feel vile coming out of my mouth, but I hear the huff of agreement and know I’ve made the right call. I take the response as my cue to leave and stride evenly out of his office.
I can’t alert him to anything suspicious; otherwise, we will have larger problems at hand. I can’t leave the compound, but I need to get in contact with Quinn. He needs to know what happened, and if my instincts are right, I need a plan to extract myself. But that’s Quinn’s problem for another day. But I don’t see this ending well for me if I stay.
