Page 37 of Convict’s Game (Skeleton Crew #1)

C onvict

Behind the huge desk, and with a bandanna around his throat, Tyler waited for us to settle. I fixed the bright light so it wasn’t in my eyes and collected Mila’s hand in mine then gave it a squeeze.

“Do you have news?” she asked.

Tyler’s gaze carried a weight. He had something to say, and I suspected it wasn’t good.

“Jacobs is still missing. If he went home after the game, he hasn’t come or gone since, or switched the lights on at night.

Nor is he at his workplace, which is a single rented office in a municipal block where no one can tell us anything.

He also isn’t staying with the woman he was known to be dating.

According to her, they were never a true couple and he’d stopped returning her calls weeks ago.

We can’t find that he had any family, and there’s no one checking on his place. He’s a loner.”

Mila’s exhale told me of her disappointment.

I grumbled. “I assume you have cameras up all over?”

“I installed them myself. Here.”

He handed over a tablet displaying an array of CCTV panels. I passed it to Mila, and she tapped through the different views of Jacobs’s house and his office building, lingering on the view of the front of his property.

“I’ve been to this house numerous times since seeing him at my grandfather’s funeral. He never once came to the door, even when there was a car outside. It isn’t there now.”

Tyler nodded. “I have an alert set up for it, so if it’s picked up on a numberplate camera, we’ll know.

Our guess that he’s in some kind of trouble makes me assume he’s done a runner.

He failed in his strategy to gain skeleton crew protection so he moved on to another option, a secondary plan he’d already decided on and utilising a route without cameras so he can’t be traced. ”

“Suggesting not a major motorway,” I observed. “Maybe a boat, or a taxi to an airport. Do we have any clues on the shite he found himself in?”

Tyler drummed his fingers on the desk. “Not directly. On the surface, he’s a finance guy, so it’s possible he lent or borrowed money from the wrong people.

I’m checking any gang affiliation, but my gut feel is it’s to do with his more secretive trade in the flesh market.

Which puts him squarely on my radar, especially if he’s caused problems. If there’s upheaval among the established traffickers, that’s an opportunity I won’t overlook. ”

Mila’s eyes rounded. “Wait. How did we get from the auctions he ran to people trafficking?”

“Hard to imagine that once he’d made money from willing victims, he’d ignore the cash from the darkest side of the marketplace, particularly when coupled with everything we’ve found out about him since.”

She shivered, and I slipped an arm around her, picking up on the same thoughts I guessed she was having. She’d walked into that arena and skirted a potentially devastating situation.

“I hate the fact I was closing in on him but couldn’t find anything out, but at the same point horrified at how close I came to disappearing into that hell he’s involved with. But what could he possibly be doing with my grandmother?” she wondered.

Tyler’s eyes darkened, but Mila’s mind was clearly racing ahead.

She exhaled an unhappy laugh. “I’m working it out.

We have ships. Established routes in and out of the country.

My grandfather did trade throughout Europe, the Americas, and even further afield.

Is that what Jacobs is after? A shipping route he can use for trafficking now my grandfather isn’t there to protect the business?

But then why abandon it and run scared?”

“We’ll know more when we find him. But there’s something else we need to talk about. Something that happened closer to home.”

Her gaze had distanced, and she shook her head, appearing lost in her thoughts. “It must be to do with Salter. Perhaps he’s a middleman in this.”

Tyler’s focus came to me. “Regarding Salter, did you read my message from earlier?”

I drew my eyebrows in and fished out my phone. A message waited, informing me that he’d made a job offer to an interesting individual.

I curled my lip. “Odd choice, but you said you needed boots on the ground.”

“Exactly. He has the skills and is available to hire. But if it will cause you any problems, I’ll back out.”

I shrugged. “No problems here. Do what you need.”

Tyler wrote out a quick message. Almost immediately, a knock came at the door, and Tyler called out for the person to enter.

Kane strolled into the room.

Mila’s attention snapped up, and she stared at her brother. “What are you doing here?”

His serious expression didn’t shift. “Never left.”

“You… They kept you here?” At his nod, she whirled around to me. “Did you know about this?”

“Of course. He’s an unknown quantity. We were hardly going to let him walk out the door.”

Outrage crossed her features. Mila snatched her hand from mine, an expression of betrayal replacing her shock. She stifled it and regarded Kane. “Did they hurt you?”

“No. I accepted their need to manage a threat and I was treated fine.”

“But locked up?”

His jaw flexed. “I said I’m fine. If I wasn’t, I’d never have agreed to a temporary contract with your crew.”

She scoffed. “My crew. You’re in voluntarily? They aren’t making you?”

Kane shook his head once. “I don’t do anything I don’t want to. Hunting down those who captured me will be a piece of cake.”

“You’re going after Salter?” Mila confirmed.

Kane agreed. “There’s something else you need to know.”

She swallowed whatever retort she wanted to give. And she wouldn’t meet my eye. She was angry at me. I didn’t get it, but worry tightened my gut.

Tyler took over. “The woman who arranged your access to the auction was found dead this evening.”

Oh shit. Of all the information he could’ve given, I hadn’t expected that.

The colour drained from Mila’s face. “Esther’s dead?”

He nodded. “I’m sorry if she was a friend of yours.”

She tried and failed to start a sentence, then managed, “How did she die?”

“She was discovered in Deadwater Harbour. Drowned.”

Tyler told us what else he knew, which was only the very basics, and promised more when he had it. We filtered outside, Kane coming with us.

In the corridor, Mila stepped closer to him. “Seriously, if you’re doing this for me, don’t bother.”

“I’m not. It was my choice. I saw an opportunity with your boyfriend’s people. Probably with more sense than you did.”

Irritation rose in me. “Watch your mouth.”

Kane shrugged. “Calling it as I see it.”

I got in his face. I was a big guy, but he was fucking huge, yet that intimidated me none. “At least in part, I blame you for Mila going into that auction. You’re her brother. What the fuck were you thinking?”

“I don’t coddle anyone. Emilia isn’t a kid. She said she knew what she was doing, and I played the role she asked.”

“And if she got hurt?”

“All she had to do was pull her last name card and she’d walk. Her grandfather’s reputation would save her.”

“Except it didn’t, right? Meanwhile, you were all too happy to throw her to the wolves. Why? To keep the money rolling in like all the other relatives harassing her?”

He looked past me to Mila. “How much do you like this guy, because he’s starting to piss me off.”

Mila’s tone was tight. “Kane never took the money. It goes elsewhere in his part of the family.”

Her brother held his steady gaze on me. I got the sense that if I punched him, it would be like hitting a wall of solid rock.

“Not that it’s any of your business, lover boy. We might be colleagues, but I don’t have to like you.” He slanted a final glance at his sister. “I’ve got work to do. See you around.”

He strolled away as casually as he’d appeared, and Mila watched him go. I reached for her hand, but she pulled away.

“I want to go home.”

Heaving a sigh, I followed her out of the warehouse and to the car then got us on the road.

The frostiness from the office descended over us like an icy fog. I peeled out of a junction, still confused over her upset.

“Sorry about Esther.”

“So am I, but how about my brother? I can’t believe you did that.”

I exhaled exasperation. “You thought I’d just release him?”

“Yes! Did you think I lied to you about who he was to me? Unbelievable.”

“No, I just didn’t trust him. The man who’d already thrown you into harm’s way and who could do it again.”

“He’d spent days as a captive already. Can you imagine how that would’ve affected him? I asked you to rescue him and you just swapped out his cage.”

“Seemed fine to me.”

“That’s not the point. I’m so… You lied to me,” she spluttered.

“How? You never asked about him.”

Mila balled her hands into fists on her knees, slices of streetlight cutting over her. “A lie by omission is still a lie. What else are you keeping from me? I can’t believe I started to trust you.”

My stomach gutted out. Everything was wrong. What I’d done was perfectly reasonable. I didn’t understand why she couldn’t see that. “Let’s make one thing clear. I’ll do anything, lie, steal, kill, to keep you and keep you safe. I won’t apologise for that.”

“Great. Then this conversation is over.”

The short drive took us into the underground car park, and inside the apartment, Mila kicked off her shoes.

“It’s after midnight. I get my two hours away from you and I’m taking them now. I’m going to bed. Don’t follow until you have to.”

She disappeared into her bedroom and slammed the door. The sound of running water followed. I trudged to the guest bedroom and showered alone. Then I sat on the floor outside her room, lonely with my thoughts and waiting out the two hours.

If I’d ever been a boyfriend before, which I doubted, I didn’t remember it. I had no clue on how to be a good one. Messing with relatives didn’t hit.

I’d fucked up.

When my phone buzzed to tell me the time was up, I entered her room and climbed into bed. She slept in full pyjamas, facing away, and with her brow still lined. I curled around her. Mila shifted away from me.