Chapter 2-2
629 Words
“Coffee? Tea?” Caleb asked after letting Brax into the house.
“Coffee sounds good.” Brax followed Caleb into the kitchen, leaning against the counter. “I presume everything is working the way it should.”
“It is,” Caleb replied. “As well as, if not better, than what you installed at the business.”
“Good. So what am I going after next?”
Caleb ignored his question until the coffee was made and poured, much to Brax’s frustration. He didn’t get an answer until they had settled in Caleb’s home-office. At that point, Caleb opened his newly installed safe to hand Brax a slim folder.
Brax opened it, and frowned. “What’s going on?”
“This is a different sort of job. Our client isn’t interested in art.”
Arching an eyebrow, Brax read the description of what the person did want, then whistled low at the accompanying photos. “Are you shitting me? We don’t do this kind of work.”
“I know, and if he wasn’t a personal acquaintance, I’d have told him so.” Caleb smiled wryly. “As a matter of fact, I did, but he convinced me he needed our help. When he told me why…Well, you can see for yourself.”
Brax nodded. “Two hundred thousand is a hell of an asking price. He should have kept it in his pants.”
“Remember what I said about love the other day?”
“Yeah. It can get you into trouble before you realize it’s happening.”
“Exactly.”
“Who’s the lady?” Brax asked, after looking through the very explicit photos. “I don’t recognize her.”
“But you know who he is?”
“Jonathan Frye.”
“Yes,” Caleb replied, “She’s a very high-priced call girl who works for an old friend of yours, Elio Russo.”
“That bastard?” Brax spat out. “Is she a shifter, too?”
“Not that I’ve been able to determine so far. Neither is our client.”
“I know. He’s a self-important evangelical pastor with a huge following and one of those mega-churches. He preaches about the sanctity of marriage and family.” Brax chuckled low, tapping the photos. “These might shock his followers, to put it mildly. Did he really fall in love with her, or is that just his excuse for screwing her behind his wife’s back?”
“He claims he loved her, and that he believed she loved him, until the photos and the blackmail letter arrived.”
“How do we know Russo’s involved?”
“As I said, because she works for him, for starters. Also, she admitted as much to our client. Admitted it, and mocked Johnny for believing that she could fall in love with a pompous asshole twice her age.”
“Damn. Almost makes me feel sorry for him.” Brax remained silent for a long moment before asking, “Do we have any idea where the originals and the negatives are?”
“No. They could be at Russo’s place of business, his home, a safety deposit box somewhere. You name it, it’s a possibility.”
“That sure as hell doesn’t give me anything to work with.” Brax stared hard at Caleb. “I get that the guy’s an acquaintance, but why do we care that Russo is trying to blackmail him? From where I stand, he’s getting exactly what he deserves.”
“He’s—” Caleb sighed. “I wasn’t being quite honest. He’s more than an acquaintance. His wife is my step-sister, from the second of my father’s three marriages. She’s human, by the way.”
“Three? Damn.”
Caleb nodded. “Father’s been around for a while. That said, if Johnny wasn’t married to her, I’d have told him to go fly a kite. But he is. And while I’m not that close to her, I still don’t want to see her hurt.”
“Understandable.” Brax steepled his fingers. “I’m not wild about going after Russo. If he knows I’m anywhere around, he’ll do his best to eliminate me. That’ll make it hard to search his business or home. Before you say it, I am not going to disguise myself as a john to gain access to wherever his cathouse is.”
Caleb laughed. “I don’t think you could pull it off.”
Brax grinned briefly. “Could if he had men working for him, too. That’s beside the point. I walk in there and Russo’s around, he’d know in a heartbeat that I’m there.”
“The same goes for you, so you could avoid him. Or not go there when he’s on the premises.”
“Give me a day to think about this,” Brax told him.
“All right. I understand that it won’t be easy, but when it comes down to it, you’re the only person I know who can pull it off.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
- Writer
