Page 12 of Kingston (Angels Halo MC Next Gen #14)

Chapter Twelve

Kingston

Twenty minutes later, I punched in the code to the gate at Sanctuary and drove up the long driveway. A few times a month, I worked security at the women’s shelter, walking the perimeter and double-checking that there weren’t any weak links in the fence that surrounded the entire property.

Women from around the country came to Sanctuary in search of a safe haven from their abusers.

Some brought children; some were on their own.

But no one was ever turned away. They had an entire medical staff to help the women heal, physically as well as mentally.

Once they recovered, they were given the option of staying or starting over somewhere else, with a new identity complete with Social Security number and birth certificate.

They were even given the chance to learn a trade or get a college education through the scholarship program Sanctuary had set up with Trinity University.

Mom told me she’d tried to explain what Sanctuary was to Demi when she first met her, but my girl was so terrified of her ex, she hadn’t wanted to take a chance with the shelter.

And because I was a selfish asshole who didn’t want to risk losing her, I hadn’t tried to go into more detail about Sanctuary being an option.

Parking out front, I climbed the steps and walked into the mansion that had been turned into small apartments for residents.

There was a common room, a communal kitchen, and even a gym for some of the women to do their rehabilitation exercises in.

I knew the layout since I’d been coming to Sanctuary to help out since I was a kid, but I made sure to keep my steps light.

Even something as simple as how a person walked could trigger a patient suffering from the PTSD of an abusive relationship, and I was mindful of that as I made my way to Nishia’s apartment.

I’d texted my cousin before I left my house with Iris earlier, so he was expecting me. Stopping outside the apartment, I tapped three times and waited.

“You keep your ass in that bed, fairy,” Jack growled from the other side of the door. “I’m only going down the hall to the office for a little while. Delaney is on her way over to visit. You better still be in that bed when she gets here, or she doesn’t get to stay.”

Jack opened the door, adjusting his MC cut over his plain white shirt.

“Bear, I’m fine,” Nishia complained. “Can’t I at least sit on the couch? I’m tired of being in bed.”

“No. Stay in bed until I get back—or else.”

“I’m bored,” she whined.

“That’s why Delaney is coming over,” he said patiently. “Hey. Let’s take this to the office. I don’t want to disturb my fairy. She still has a pretty intense headache.”

“No, I don’t! You’re being unreasonable. Kingston, help. SOS. Save me from my unreasonable boyfriend.”

Jack bared his teeth at me, the only warning he was likely to give me before he ripped my head off if I so much as crossed the threshold of the apartment. “Feel better, Nishia. See you when you’re fully recovered.”

“You Hannigans are so frustrating!” she yelled.

Closing the door, Jack led me to the office at the back of the house. Once the door was closed behind us, I dropped into one of the chairs in front of the desk. Jack pulled out his phone and swiped his thumb over the screen.

“Yo, biker,” a female voice I didn’t recognize answered. “What do you need now? The fairy is recovering, so you should be with her.”

“Mieke, say hello to my cousin Kingston. Kingston, Mieke. She’s the wizard we use to create new identities and backgrounds for all our residents. Plus, she was able to help me with Nishia’s recent situation.”

“I prefer genie to wizard, thank you,” Mieke corrected, sounding haughty for all of two seconds before she was back to her bored tone. “I’m going to assume this isn’t going to be a fun Sunday afternoon chat. Or even a thank-you conversation for helping you get the fairy back, Jack.”

“Sure, thanks for nothing. Anya Vitucci and the chip in Sammy’s arm were how I got Nishia back. Your skills were useless.”

“It’s not my fault that you didn’t have a tracker on your girl, dumbass. But I’m rectifying that. The watch with the chip I just finished tweaking is on its way to you right now. It’s waterproof, and the battery never dies. Once it’s on her, the only way to take it off is your fingerprint.”

Jack settled back into his chair, appearing a little more relaxed, but the surly expression on his face didn’t change. “Thank you, Mieke.”

“Now, what can I do for you, Kingston Hannigan?”

“I need to find someone. Discreetly.”

“Okay, guys. Let’s clarify something. I’m a genius, not a mind reader. Can you provide me with a few more details?”

Stabbing my fingers through my hair, I sat forward in my chair.

“Someone I care about is running from a past she won’t tell me anything about.

But she’s terrified of her ex. I can give you what little I know, Mieke, but it’s not much.

And I need none of your searches to trigger anything that could put eyes on my girls. ”

A long pause filled the room. Jack’s eyes narrowed on me, but I shrugged.

He didn’t do deep, meaningful conversations, and he was the last person I would have a heart-to-heart with.

More often than not, he was a loner, but if he needed help, he tended to get our cousin Max to assist him.

River was my person in our family, and her husband Maverick was the MC brother I rode with the most. I’d come to Jack for assistance because he could help me get Demi and Iris new IDs and, hopefully, send me in the right direction so I could get my hands on the bastard who had hurt Demi.

“I’m the number one hacker in the world, Kingston.

Not the state. Not the country. Not the fucking hemisphere.

But the world. I take that title seriously.

There is a reason I’m not in a federal prison for taking little peeks into classified intel.

It’s because I’m the best at what I do, and the one and only time I did get caught deep in the Pentagon when I was a sloppy teenager, the government decided they would rather use my skills for their own gain than lock me away.

Not that it would have done them much good, but whatever helps them sleep at night. ”

She sounded confident, not cocky. This genie wasn’t boasting.

She was trying to reassure me of her skills.

“I can’t promise that any search I conduct won’t trigger any online alerts.

But I can assure you that, should that happen, the people watching will be sent on a wild expedition to the heart of the Amazonian rain forest.”

Jack grimaced. “Whatever is going on, man, you can trust Mieke.”

Going with my gut, I started giving her as many details as I had, but they weren’t much. Mieke started typing away as soon as I began talking, asking me a few random questions.

“Is this your girl?”

My phone pinged with an incoming text, and I looked down to find Demi’s picture on my phone.

“I didn’t give you my number,” I mused as I looked at the photo.

Demi was younger in the picture, her hair shorter, her face fuller.

But still so damn beautiful it made my chest squeeze looking at it.

Her smile was bright, the light in her eyes almost mischievous.

Another photo popped up, this one of some guy in a football jersey with his arm around her waist. She was smiling in the picture, but something was off.

Maybe it was the lighting, but it seemed like some of the spark was missing from her eyes.

My hand drew up into a fist, wanting to put it through the face of the creep hugging up on her.

“That’s her,” I bit out.

“The guy in the picture is Charles William Johnson III. His father is a former two-term Georgia governor. Mother was a pageant queen back in the day, and by that, I mean she was a runner-up for Miss Universe. Daddy dearest is currently running for senator in Georgia. Other than the few pictures of Demi, I’m not seeing many online connections between her and Charlie-boy.

They attended the same private prep schools, but Demi mysteriously stopped any online activity a little over three years ago.

Charlie, though, he’s all over the place. ”

Her clicking sounded more aggressive. “Mommy and Daddy have been cleaning up a lot of their son’s messes.

Why do people think they can hide their crimes so easily?

Do they honestly think unless they get a cleaner in, there won’t be any traces left behind?

FYI, digital cleaners and hackers aren’t necessarily one and the same.

But you need to be good at hacking to be able to do any cleaning. ”

More aggressive tapping filled the otherwise quiet room.

“I’m not saying I would help these dirtbags, but I’ve got clients who pay me very, very good money to keep their records squeaky clean.

With a few keystrokes, I could send this information to Charles Johnson II’s rival.

Those idiots were way too confident that no one would deep-dive their history.

It makes me wonder why no one has exposed them yet.

Hmm… Well, that’s a rabbit hole I can’t fall down just yet.

But it has nothing to do with the current subject matter.

Let me make a note to return to this at a later time for my own personal reasons. Back to Charlie-boy… Aw, fuck nah.”

I wrapped my fingers around the arms of the chair, feeling like I was on a fucking roller coaster with how she was shooting my emotions all over the place as she spoke. Was she even talking to me—or just herself? I didn’t know, and that only increased my agitation.

“She’s good at spiking your blood pressure up,” Jack warned, his green gaze trained on me. “But she doesn’t normally go all country twang on me. That’s new territory. Entirely undiscovered level of pissed-off Mieke that I am unfamiliar with.”

“Sorry, am I causing you cardiac distress?” Mieke asked casually as she continued to tap-tap-tap on the other end of the call, not sounding the least bit apologetic.

“My husband is a cardiologist. I can have him contact your personal physician with some suggestions on how to better control your blood pressure. You’re due for a physical anyway, Kingston.

It’s been over two years since your last wellness check. Don’t play with your health, my dude.”

“How does she know that?” I hissed at my cousin.

“She can multitask,” he said with a shrug. “She probably has one screen open with your full digital history in front of her right now.”

“No worries. I’m wiping your misdeeds as we speak,” she reassured before the full extent of what that truly meant hit me. “No one needs to know you accidentally subscribed to so many porn sites when you were twenty-three. Interesting viewing choices, but no kink-shaming here.”

“Christ, she’s terrifying,” I groaned.

“No need for compliments. I’m not charging for today’s services.

” More tapping. “Just tell me what you want me to do with all this intel. I can ruin Johnson’s Senate run right now.

And believe me, after what I just discovered, I want to do major damage to that entire family.

Or I can hold on to these details for a little while if you’d like.

But no promises on me not getting a random intrusive thought and just dumping this on the major news networks. ”

“I couldn’t care less what you do to that old fuck. What I want to know is where the son is.”

“That doesn’t sound fun. At least, not for me. But okay. I kinda, sorta, maybe a lot, want to make people bleed after what I just discovered. Do a little stabby-stabby for me when you get your hands on him, yeah?”

My head was throbbing with tension from listening to her talk.

What the fuck was she seeing online about Demi’s ex that would make her want to stab him?

I had a hundred reasons—a slice of my blade for every flinch from my woman because she was afraid a touch might cause her pain.

But Jack shrugged again, like Mieke’s rambling was expected.

“I’m sending you Charlie-boy’s current GPS.

He has a few different trackers on him, which is a smart move for his parents since he stays in so much trouble.

But it’s also incredibly stupid, not to mention dangerous, since they don’t have someone monitoring his activities in real time.

Sucks for them that they pissed off the wrong person.

And by person, I mean me. But also you, of course,” she continued absently.

How was she having a full conversation and still tapping away on her computer? That went beyond what I could comprehend as multitasking.

“They must spend a few million a year fixing the little prick’s messes.

And by little, I absolutely mean little.

Why do guys think it’s okay to send people dick pics?

Gag. There are times I need eye bleach for the things I am forced to see.

This job should have hazard pay. Or a licensed medical professional on standby twenty-four seven.

A therapist would make bank on the trauma I’m subjected to by being force-fed other people’s nasty. ”

When my phone pinged with the new text from Mieke, I clenched my fingers around the device. The monster in my head laughed darkly, sending a shiver down my spine. She’d given me the active feed of his location. No matter where he went, I’d know exactly where he was at any time.

Jack sat up straighter in his chair, something familiar glittering in his eyes for a moment before he blinked it away.

That newly unleashed beast roaming in my head took notice and grinned, finally identifying why Jack had always made me a little uneasy.

But now that I saw it, and I understood, I realized I’d only been uncomfortable because I wasn’t ready to embrace that part of myself.

Demi had unlocked something I couldn’t put away again, but that no longer mattered.

“Can I go hunting with you, cuz?” Jack asked, a menacing grin tipping his lips upward.

I gripped the armrest harder, torn between wanting to destroy Charlie with my own hands and needing to stay close to my girls.

“As badly as I want to go hunting, I can’t leave Demi and Iris alone right now.

My little one is still recovering, and Demi is skittish as hell.

I’m not risking losing either of them again. ”

Jack nodded his understanding, but his scary-as-fuck grin didn’t falter. “That’s okay, man. I’ll bring him to you.”