Page 23 of Peripheral Vision (Tethered in Darkness Duet #1)

His eyes instantly widen, fear and resignation entering them, before he tries to school his face into something clueless.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.

” But he does, I can see it in the way he won’t look directly into my eyes, the way he swallows, his Adam’s apple bobbing with the movement.

I kneel down and grab the back of his head to get him to look at me.

“But I think you do, Ezra. What are their names again? Mia, I believe, is your wife. Then there is little Amelia and Noah. What’s the address again?

I think it’s 4326 Oakridge Dr... maybe you can help jog my memory?

” The tension in his jaw is so tight I can hear his teeth grind together.

But still he doesn’t answer me. “Hmm. Maybe I should show you this, maybe it’ll motivate you to give us what we want to know.

” I hold my hand out, waiting for Nathan to hand me his phone with the surveillance we had a team set up on his house.

You can see his family through the front window, sitting in the living room engaged in a board game.

We would never actually do anything to harm the family, especially the children, but we aren’t above using tactics to strike fear in the hearts of our enemies.

When I show him, I say, “We have a group of people outside of your house right now ready to swoop in there and do to them what you’ve done to countless others.

How old are Amelia and Noah? Six and four?

I’m sure there are plenty of sick fucks like you out there who would love to use them in whatever way they please.

Now, are you going to cooperate, or am I going to make you watch while we kidnap your family? ”

Whatever was left of his will, snaps as he screams out, “Please, I’ll tell you what you want to know. Just leave them alone, please. They—they don’t know about what I do. They’re innocent.”

I let the smile that spreads across my face do so slowly, a subtle curve tugging at the corner of my mouth.

“Good. But just know if you’re lying and we find out after we’re done with you…

we won’t hesitate to go after your family.

I want you to know how serious I am. Their fate is tied to your cooperation.

Everything you say can either save them or seal their doom. ”

His voice shakes, desperate. “I don’t know their names, I’ve never met them face-to-face.

But I know enough. The whole thing, the network, it’s not just one group.

It’s not just one section. It’s bigger than organs, okay?

That deal I was gonna offer you? It’s rooted in drugs and sex and arms dealing.

There are layers. And for the people at the top?

They don’t get their hands dirty. That’s why they have people like me.

They look clean enough on the outside so that no one suspects them individually, even if the rest of their operations get busted.

They make sure that they’re far away from it and operate under shell companies.

” He lets out a long breath, his voice cracking as he tries to clear his throat again.

“The money going through these networks… it’s endless, and it’s all in their underground dealings.

If you want to catch them, you want to hit them where the big deals happen, the auctions, and the shipments.

But they happen everywhere from border to border throughout the country.

Virginia is a very small fish in a big sea of sharks.

There are at least two people I know of that run the whole operation on the East Coast, and one of them has the connections while the other one is the muscle.

He’s behind moving the… assets, keeping them contained.

He knows how to get people to shut up, how to get rid of them if they start asking too many questions.

Every time a place gets raided or someone’s about to talk—” He looks at me pointedly.

“They just move the operation to the next city or county, leaving no trace.”

I pause, contemplating the information he’s given so far. Some of it we knew, like what was being trafficked, because you never have just one source of revenue. “If you don’t know their names, do they have an alias, a nickname they go by?”

“The guy at the top, the one with the connections, he goes by The Wraith . He never uses real phones, doesn’t show up to any drops.

He uses people for that, obviously. But he’s the one pulling the strings.

So much so that even law enforcement and some government officials are involved in his scheme—they’re all paid for, making it nearly impossible to touch them without being on your ass instantly.

That’s all I know. You bring down The Wraith, you bring down the whole thing, at least on this side of the US. ”

Releasing my grip on his head, I stand up. “Do you know any of their other drop points? Where we’d get a lead to The Wraith’s location?”

He shakes his head. “I’ve told you all I know. I swear.”

It isn’t ideal but it’s more than we had before. “Thank you for your cooperation.” I look at Nathan, nodding. He withdraws his nine from where it was tucked between his back and jeans.

Ezra doesn’t even try begging for his life, knowing that he won’t see his family again.

He knew what he was getting into when he started in this line of work.

As I exit and the door begins to close behind me, all I hear is the resounding echo of Nathan’s gunshot.

He follows me out shortly after, the splatter of blood across his shirt. “What do you make of that?”

“I think that our lives just got a hell of a lot more complicated.” He isn’t wrong. We knew the network was large, we knew there were issues like this all across the country, but the fact that we have nothing but an alias to go off of complicates things.

“If The Wraith is true to his namesake… then we’re going to be chasing a literal ghost. But if we can figure out who his muscle is…

that would be a good start. Ezra didn’t say anything about him not showing up to drops, and if he’s in charge of moving products and people, then we have a better chance at smoking him out first.” The question remains though, where do we start?

Nathan appears to have the same thought I do.

“The East Coast is a large perimeter to search for two guys… there has to be intermediaries that they use in other states, meaning they probably operate out of just one or two. They wouldn’t go to their people, they would make their people come to them. ”

Inhaling a deep breath of the afternoon air, I nod. “We better get to work, then.”