Page 106 of Iron

“Then we should have nothing to worry with,” I said with a small shrug. “If they silence the mother because they don’t want any attention, then it dies there, right? Even if they want to get Midori back, they have to see that it didn’t work the first time. I’m sure they realize that they are up against something much bigger than they can handle.”

Garen let out a sigh as his head shook back and forth.

“Petra, they are probably going to kill their mother,” he said. “Who is going to take care of Amy then? Huh? Is she going to come live here? How is Midori going to support her? Or explain to her how she makes a living? Or what about, how are they going to feel about losing the only family they have left?”

I could sense the anger in his tone rising with each word he said but he managed to keep his voice low so that no one would hear.

“I see your point,” I told him, holding my hand up so that he would stop his incessant rant. Maybe a part of me felt sorry about the mother, but sometimes sacrifices had to be made in order to protect others. I had no connection to this woman other than she was Midori’s mother. When Midori came to me, she made it seem as if she wanted nothing to do with her family. So why should it matter?

I already had a few answers to that running through my head.

This didn’t make things easy but that also didn’t mean that I wasn’t going to take care of it somehow.

“What do you suggest I do?” I asked him because short of driving down there and killing everyone that stepped in my way, I had no clue how to handle it.

“I don’t know, Petra. This is bigger than anything we’ve had to deal with before.”

That was true. While I might have come up against more evil people, this problem wasn’t tied up with a nice bow. It was spread out and it seemed like with every head we cut off, another one grew.

“Send Midori to my office when she’s done,” I said and then turned on my heels.

Garen and I would come up with a plan, I knew it. But I also knew that it was something we were going to have to think on. I wouldn’t go in without being prepared, and Garen wouldn’t let me even if I tried.

Down in my office, I pulled the vodka bottle and clean glass from my bottom drawer. I poured a healthy amount before tossing it down my throat.

I waited, having a feeling that it wouldn’t be long.

Midori’s knock was soft and when I told her to come in, her steps entered hesitantly.

“Garen said you wanted to see me?” she asked softly.

Her hair was still wet, and she had on a pair of sweat pants and a baggy shirt that hung off her shoulder.

“Have a seat,” I told her sternly.

She did, her legs seemed to give out as she attempted to lower herself down.

“I understand that this hasn’t been easy for you,” I tried to be as soft as I could manage. “But I can no longer wait for you to snap out of it. I need to know things that you can tell me. I don’t like being blindsided, and I was with this.”

“I know,” she said her head dropping down in shame.

Remembering how shaken she’d been when I watched her on the feed, I figured she knew they were coming for her.

“Did you know they were here?”

“Yes. Well, sort of. I guess, I had a feeling they were coming for me,” she answered. “My father called me a few weeks before… that day. I told him that I wasn’t ever coming home. Then my brother called me and I told him the same. I figured that if they came here then they’d see where I worked and who you were and they’d back off.”

“It seems that didn’t happen.”

“No, it didn’t. But I also didn’t think my brother was crazy enough to kidnap me.” Her anger was showing. I wasn’t sure if it was aimed at me or her brother. “I never meant for things to get so out of hand.”

“You should have come to me right away. I could have fixed it. As it was, you put many lives in danger and one of Iron’s men ended up dead.”

I thought about Iron then, seeing the look of pain that was on his face clear in my mind. It was a burden that I couldn’t help ease.

“I know. I’m sorry.”

“What about now? How am I supposed to fix this and keep it contained? Your ass isn’t the one on the line. I don’t think you understand what is at stake here.”