I Beleive Now (6 page)

There had been a surge in the desire for young, white children, especially in the Asian markets, one of those being in Japan. Many low-level hoodlums had become involved on both sides, lured by the money alone. Routes were fiercely guarded and, once opened, jealously held. A thug named Lucca had needed to control Hunter to make sure he complied.

He'd wanted a computer chip that contained the route information needed to establish the trafficking ring. It had been hidden in a shipment of champagne, supposedly in a label of one of the bottles. Once he had the chip in hand, he'd have most likely killed Hunter and gone ahead with the sale of his sister.

Not on Max's watch. Not with one of Max's own. Hunter was not only an important employee but a loyal friend.

Max was well aware that releasing Hunter's sister had never been in the plan. She'd been kept in the immediate area until Lucca received the chip from Hunter, knowing he needed to continue to show good faith, but he had never intended to give her back.

Through fast hard work Max had found out where Hunter's sister was being held and quietly sent in his men. Cadum made sure the little girl didn't know who had rescued her. It wouldn't do to have her gushing about her big, tall, blond savior. Max's plan was to allow for Hunter to think he fixed all of this on his own.

During the same time Hunter's sister was being rescued, Max had sent more of his men quietly into Lucca's home. As predicted, Lucca had carelessly kept documents and other incriminating things he shouldn't have, or at the very least, not have left them in an easily located wall safe. Of course, once Lucca had understood the precarious situation he was in, he'd immediately told Hunter his sister was released. Then, Lucca had quickly slinked into his limo, tail tucked between his legs, and had ridden off into the deep Chicago night.

That should have been the end of it.

But Jackson had knowledge of those trafficking connections. Jackson had the actual names—or so Max had been led to believe—and Max wanted them.

Originally the plan had been to simply acquire the names of the people involved, flush them out, then let the authorities handle it. But Max had been set up that fateful night when Asher had saved his life. Unfortunately, because of the attempted assassination, Max had not received the crucial information about the slavery ring in order to do what needed to be done. So he'd been forced to abandon that first plan until it made sense to see it through again. It looked like the time had come. Max thought with the two of them, Jackson and Lucca, joining forces like this, there was going to be some kind of connection to that past problem. He was sure of it.

He greatly regretted not taking a more aggressive stance with Lucca, because now that he and Jackson were working together, Asher was the one at risk.

Now, Max needed to reestablish his authority, show whoever it was out there who thought Max was weakening, that they were dead wrong. And he needed to make sure no one ever made the mistake of using or taking anything that belonged to Max Tyler.

He needed another plan. This time he wasn't going to hold back. This time when things went down—and they would,
hard
—there'd only be one man walking out of the debris. This time—
this time
—there'd be no decision to grant mercy, there'd be nothing to come back to haunt him or Asher. He definitely did not like feeling fear or pain. Feelings like that made you weak and vulnerable, susceptible to error—not a healthy trait in Max's world.

So, what to do, what to do?
Max narrowed his eyes. There really was only one plan. There was only one thing he
could
do at this point. He needed to take care of this himself. Personally. But there was one person who he knew might want to be present. Of course it meant Max's little secret of how his sister had been saved was going to be out of the bag. No matter. He took out his cell, found and pressed Hunter's name.

"Max?" Hunter answered immediately.

"Hunter, I have another job. Are you interested?"

There was absolutely no hesitation. "Yes, sir. Absolutely!"

CHAPTER FOUR

The authorities had never found Corrington's body. Max had made sure of that. But Corrington's looks were fairly average so finding a look-alike proved an easy task. Orchestrating it so the only photos taken of the imposter were somewhat far away and blurry ended up being quite simple as well. Max added a couple of eyewitnesses, a fake relative or two, and the ruse was complete. Once they leaked to the press the possibility a murder victim—a victim supposedly murdered by famous politician Wyatt Jackson—indeed still lived, the incident turned into a feeding frenzy. Not only had poor former Congressman Jackson been accused of a murder he shouted to the world he didn't commit, the crime itself had never even happened.

A very simple plan—not one really worthy of Max's office—but all he needed was its effectiveness.

Erasing charges of money laundering and espionage off Jackson's record was just as easy and, in fact, a little more fun. Max didn't like any of the up-and-coming elected officials, no matter what the office title, but there was one power-grabbing, filthy, little weasel in particular, Paul Dunham, who rubbed him the wrong way, so Max picked him to be the sacrifice. Planting evidence pointing a finger directly at this lowlife to basically paint him as trying to take Jackson down was an easy matter, especially since Max had created evidence to do exactly that.

Now it looked as if the so-called money laundering and espionage evidence had all been produced by Dunham to discredit Jackson, with the goal of making sure reelection was impossible. Once again the press pounced on it, even speculating Dunham made up the fake murder charge as well. Max chuckled at that one. It was all about dirt and redemption, and they had not ever had so much of either to report on in such a short period of time. And as far as politicians went, that was saying a whole lot. Jackson quickly took up the mantle of the abused public servant only out there trying to do the best job he could and all for his people. The public could not get enough.

And true to his word, Max did it all in less than a week.

But Max knew none of this was going to buy his Asher back. However, he had to play the part as if he
believed
these actions could accomplish that. He also needed to give his people time to put together the plan that
would
get Asher out. That plan wasn't going to be so simple and needed some details not available yet. By the time Max made the phone call back to Jackson, his heart was once again hurting, something he'd never get used to.

"Max! That was fucking amazing! Not only does it look like all the charges will be rescinded, it also looks like I will have a public apology as well. You are a fucking miracle worker. I don't think I was this popular even before this all started."

"You weren't. Where's Asher Madden?"

"Now, now, let's not get ahead of ourselves here. You know I can't just hand him over to you, can I? I know now what you can do. You're just a little scarier than I even imagined." Jackson laughed nervously over the phone. "What's to prevent you from just taking all of this back the moment I give him to you?"

Max knew Jackson was not looking for an answer to that question. He already knew what the response was sure to be, so there was no reason to hold back. He decided to show Jackson just how scary he could be. "I'd have no need to do that, Jackson, since you would be dead."

More nervous laughter. "See? Now how can I work with that?"

"What do you want now, Jackson?" Max kept all emotion out of his voice.

"Well…" More uneasy chortling. "Ah…"

"Get to the point!" Max closed his eyes for a second to regain the control he let slip for only a moment. "What do you want?"

Jackson could not have missed that momentary falter on Max's part. Max knew he was probably grinning like a cat, thinking for once he had the upper hand, the winning hand. What he told Max was the truth. He was more popular. The whole thing had been like one great big publicity stunt. He could almost hear the stupid man's glee over the phone, could almost see those perfect white teeth bared by his fat shiny lips. Soon the asshole's name would be a household word. There wasn't going to be one man or woman in Chicago who did not know Wyatt Jackson. Of course, not all of the press was favorable but the tide had turned. He heard Jackson sigh contentedly, heard him loudly sip something before speaking. "I have another daunting job for you, but daunting only by a normal gangster's standard. You just might make short work of this as well." He sipped again, pausing most likely to see if he could hear Max's anger once more. Max smiled to himself. The idiot was so predictable.

But just to shake him up a bit, Max remained perfectly silent.

Jackson cleared his throat. "Yes, well…let me get to the point." He was back to the anxious laughter. "You remember that information you were looking for from me about the…um….well, you know…traffic route? As you know by now, of course, I never had it. However, I found out from Lucca that he did have it, or at least the information was on its way, but you took care of that. Now we want that information—or at least a solid route set back up." He stopped talking, obviously waiting for some kind of response.

"Go on." If there was emotion in Max's tone at all, it was cold.

Jackson cleared his throat once again. "Um…and by you setting it up, it will guarantee mine and Lucca's safety. You will be given a time frame—one that's even difficult for you. You will have to use your name and we will have the route. That way you can't touch us. If you do, they come after you. We're not stupid, Max. We do this any other way and we become fish food. If you don't do it this way, your pet will."

Clearly Jackson was being told what to say. He was very good at turning out speeches, not so good at hiding his terror. Max realized for the first time in his life, he was going to have to hide his. "So that's it? I do this and Asher is free?"

"Yes. You set up the route and I will be able to give you back your boy toy." Max noted the relief in the man's voice. Apparently they must not have been entirely sure about him. "Look, Tyler. You stand to make a lot of money and gain more power through this too, right?"

"I want to talk to him."

"Of course, of course. You've been receiving the emails okay? All those pictures? We've been real good about the every four hours, haven't we? So you know everything is fine. But don't worry, I'll set it up. He's not here right now but I'll set it up for you. Do this one last thing, Tyler, and your gay, little lover will be free."

Max smirked. He knew a lie when he heard one but to Jackson's credit, he had been receiving the emails. Max didn't look at them any longer. Jasper reported to him on Asher's condition and on any progress toward figuring out where they were holding him. But unfortunately, the only sure thing they were able to decipher so far was that the location changed in each shot. It wasn't clear if the move was to a whole different place itself or if they simply moved him within a single building or even a combination. He knew his people were working hard on finding out. "When?"

"When what, Max? Are you asking when this route needs to be set up or when I will have your Asher?"

"Both."

"Well, the route as soon as possible, of course. You don't have a lot of time. That's the whole point after all, right?" He laughed. "But time frames probably don't matter much to you. Knowing you, this could be done as soon as tomorrow. As far as your little lover is concerned, I'll have to simply get back to you. I'm not in charge of him."

"Make no mistake, Jackson. You will die for this."

It was Jackson's turn to be silent. Max didn't wait around until he found his voice.

* * * *

Max sat behind his desk. In the fingers of his right hand he held a smoldering cigarette while the fingers of his left hand tapped the highly polished surface as he stared out across his large office. Finding out the name of the gang who was working with Lucca and Jackson had been disturbing. Red Dragon was rogue, an up-and-comer, and they were the worst. The alpha dogs vied for command and it was exactly these kinds of situations, like kidnapping, that helped to determine who came out on top.

This particular group was no different. But Max always opted to be proactive, especially with these volatile new groups, and always tried to have someone on the inside, infiltrating these gangs.

"We have no one inside the group? How can that be?"

"I'm sorry, sir. We had someone close at one time but he got careless and was discovered. He barely escaped with his life and you sent him underground. Unfortunately we've never taken the opportunity to try again…" Jasper's voice trailed off. "We… From what I understand, they are working on it."

It was disappointing to say the least. Of course there was no way his people could have possibly known this particular gang would become involved so directly with their boss. "Don't bother. It's too late. We can't go in that way any longer. They'll be suspicious and it'll take far too long. We need to do something else entirely—something they won't suspect or that is at least enticing enough they won't take the risk of questioning it."

"Sir?"

"Get Atushi on the phone. I need to know where he is."

Jasper nodded once and left the office. Max allowed himself to drop his head into his hands. That damn trafficking route—a human trafficking route. How did he turn this around to his favor and finally shut this down? He let out a small, almost pathetic, laugh as he remembered Asher talking about calling in markers. He wasn't hesitating calling in a marker or two. He had plenty. That wasn't the problem at all. He simply needed to make sure he called exactly the right one at exactly the right time or things could get even uglier. He hated dealing with these unstable divas who once they had a little taste of power, it always went straight to their heads. They were dangerous and unbalanced and they needed to be handled with kid gloves. He took a deep breath. He knew the plan was coming together though, and knowing the name of the group was one of the final details Max had been waiting for. The plan didn't change—even now under these circumstances—because this still put them one step closer to saving Asher.