Breaking Conviction by Greer Rivers
Chapter Ten
“In here, doll!”
Nora jumped out of her chair and headed to the door, but Wes was still too flustered to know what to do with himself. He and Naomi hadn’t had a proper conversation in a week, the last time she chewed him out for being too nosy. Since then, she hadn’t looked at him as anything more than something to scrape off her heel.
“Nay-oh-meee,” Nora sang out the door and disappeared into the hallway, coming back linked arm in arm with the beautiful woman in question.
“Snake?” Naomi’s head jolted back with a confused look on her face. “What are you doin’ here?”
“Seriously? I work here, Naomi…” Wes scoffed, annoyed she would come into his home and still be rude. Normally her attitude was cute, but today he’d been just as thrown off as she was. The last place he wanted her to be was mixed in with all this. Everything BlackStone was caught up in was dangerous as fuck.
At least this time, she had the decency to look chagrined. Her fist scrunched up the hem of her sweater as she studied the concrete floor. “I know. Sorry, I don’t know why I said that. I was just… surprised. I didn’t know you were gonna be here.”
Her shaky voice and fidgeting set off alarm bells. The last sentence could’ve ruined the apology, but the way she’d said it, accompanied by her obvious anxiety, made him wonder what else was behind her reaction.
Is she afraid of me?
As soon as he asked himself, he dismissed the thought. She was terrified of someone else, and somehow he triggered that in her. The need to set her at ease squeezed his heart in his chest, but if he was part of the problem, he couldn’t be the solution. She also seemed like the type of person who might need to figure shit out on her own.
“Here you go, Naynay.” Nora pulled out another rolly chair from the round wooden table in the middle of the room. It was the only other furniture in the roomful of concrete and electronics, and where all the BlackStone meetings were held.
“Not sure I’m a fan of that nickname, Nono.” Naomi muttered under her breath.
Nora barked out a laugh. “I like it, but I’ll try to think up another one, don’t you worry.”
She placed the chair between the one she’d been sitting in and Wes’s, a move he would’ve attributed to Miss Stupid Cupid’s diabolical plan except that it also situated Naomi in the best position to observe every screen.
Nora waved her hand in a voilà flourish and Naomi looked at her like she’d grown a second head before reluctantly taking a seat beside Wes. Naomi darted her glance over in Wes’s direction, but as soon as he got a glimpse of those rich, fiery, chestnut eyes, she diverted them back to Nora.
“Sooo, what am I here for, exactly?”
Wes glared at Nora. “She doesn’t even know why she’s here, Nora?”
Little Miss Matchmaker rolled her eyes. “Okay, so here’s the sitch. There’re these big baddies who throw a party every year for fancy-pants assholes to allegedly give scholarships to a select few—”
“The Ashland Elite Scholarship Fundraiser?” Naomi’s head tilted.
“One and the same, my dear. ‘Kay, so these big baddies... they did a big baddie thing last year. I’ll be real with you. They totally fucked up all of our lives in one way or another—”
“Nora—” Wes warned, unsure whether she should be spilling all their secrets to an employee of a company who participated in the party, but Naomi’s concerned expression quickly morphed into horror as Nora continued on.
“They raped and murdered Ellie’s best friend and kidnapped me, Ellie, and several other women. There’s also a BlackStone agent who’s still in a damn coma because of them.”
“What?” Naomi’s gasp sounded like she’d been punched in the stomach. “You’re joking… right?”
“Definitely not joking.” Concern touched Nora’s voice, more subdued after dropping the bomb.
Naomi’s mouth opened and shut several times before she shook her head. “H-how do y’all know all this?”
“We have tons of evidence from the government and our own recon. And… unfortunately, we have evidence that they’re wanting to do it again.”
“What? No… nononono. This is insane. The Ashland Elite party? My company helps plan this event. That means—” Her voice broke, and Wes’s heart cracked at the moisture already filling her eyes. “Oh my god… I’ve been helping these monsters? This can’t be true.”
Wes’s jaw unclenched as the small seed of doubt about her innocence completely vanished. From the way she’d so freely given him the list, the clue of all clues, he’d figured she was in the dark about who her company was in bed with, but her reaction confirmed he’d been right to trust her.
“It’s true,” he whispered, hating to confirm her horror. “And we have evidence that they’re wanting to do it again.”
“Oh my god! I swear I had no idea. Oh my god…” Naomi ducked her head and pulled at the hem of her sweater. He ventured out to tug her hand to keep her from ruining it, and his heart skipped a beat that she let him.
“We know. It’s okay, we know.”
She looked up to him gratefully before widening her eyes. “Wait, have y’all gone to the police? They need to know about this!”
“We have, but they haven’t been terribly helpful,” Nora supplied with a wince. “They’re not the most reliable source of justice lately.”
“They didn’t used to be that way, you know.” Naomi scowled and Wes resisted wiping the tear that escaped the corner of her eye. She hastily caught it with a shaky index finger, as if she was afraid to show her emotions.
Nora shrugged. “Maybe not, I wouldn’t know. But we’re working with them on it to the extent we can and we have a prosecutor who’s got our back—”
“Within reason,” Wes reminded her and Nora dipped her chin in acknowledgment.
Naomi expelled a deep breath and massaged her temples. “Shit. This… this is a lot of info, y’all. I’m not sure I know what to do with it. Wait a minute…” She whipped her head back up and eyed them cautiously. “Why are you tellin’ me this?”
Nora glanced at Wes and widened her eyes, pointing to Naomi with her head, but Wes wouldn’t take the bait. Nora had cast this line, so she’d have to be the one to reel Naomi in.
Finally, she rolled her eyes at him with a huff and turned back to Naomi. “Because we think that you can help us.”
“Me?” Naomi’s hand shot up to her chest and she looked at them both. “What can I do? I mean, I can assure you that Gail has no idea. She’d never get caught up in shit like this.”
Wes carefully schooled his face. Hell, maybe the CEO of CTI was somehow blind to what happened behind the scenes, but he didn’t think that was very likely. These types of things always had someone at the very top and Gail Haynesworth was high up enough not to get shit on, but in the perfect position to let it all roll downhill. But he certainly wasn’t going to say that to Haynesworth’s right-hand woman. Naomi seemed trustworthy, but she also seemed loyal to a fault, and she adored her boss.
“This list you gave me?” Wes indicated the screens and Naomi seemed to finally register the list on the screen. “We just need you to go over it with us. Help us connect names and faces. We need to know everything we can about the people who’ve attended in the past and who will attend this year. Anything at all that you can help us with could save lives.”
Naomi’s eyes widened with what seemed like fear. Understandable, since they were asking her to get involved with something that could be really fucking dangerous. It was why he didn’t want her there, but fuck, what if she knew something that turned out to be the missing puzzle piece they’d been trying to put together for the past year?
“I don’t want to scare you, but this is very important and we need you,” he explained.
“That’s it? All I gotta do is help identify people on the list?”
Wes and Nora nodded and Naomi bit her lip before continuing. “Is… is it safe? I-I don’t want anything to happen to my daughter.” Her brow furrowed and Wes gave in to his instincts and grabbed her hand and held it this time. Her tight grip back sent currents of electricity up his arm and into his chest.
“We’ll do everything in our power to keep you and Thea safe. I promise. There’s no way in hell I’d let anything happen to you two.”
Naomi’s intense firelight eyes bore into his a minute longer before she slowly pulled her hand from his grasp and turned to face Nora. Wes had almost forgotten they’d even had an audience.
“Okay, yeah, I’ll do whatever I can to help. Ellie has been good to me, and… hell, I can’t believe I’ve played a part in this for so long.” Her voice cracked again, but she cleared her throat. “I’ll do anything to make that right and anything to make sure no one needs our services at Sasha Saves.”
Our.
Apparently, she was already feeling like she was a part of their team, or at least the Sasha Saves team. And from the way Nora and Ellie have talked about her, she fit right in. She was a natural at talking to survivors. Unfortunately, he only needed one guess as to how she knew the right things to say.
Not that Wes had personally experienced her compassionate nature. He loved her fiery side, but only got glimpses of her sweet and calm nature. And that was only ever directed at others. The glimpses alone were enough to take his breath away, though. He wished she felt comfortable enough to give him both sides, but he could tell she was holding back for some reason.
“Okay great, let’s get started.” Nora nodded toward the screen. “Superman, the floor is yours.”
A thrill of excitement at finally finding answers shocked through him. This was one of the things he was good at, identifying the puppet masters controlling the arms and legs below.
Wes pulled up the list and one by one they painstakingly went through it, matching each attendee with online searches, newspaper articles, high school yearbooks and websites, and hell, even hacking into government servers. Wes pulled up the variety of information, Naomi studied it and provided any personal knowledge she knew, and Nora inputted the data in a master spreadsheet.
It wasn’t the most exciting task Wes had ever performed at BlackStone, but having Naomi beside him kicked his adrenaline to the same level he sustained during missions. He had to try his best not to talk too fast or ask too many questions, or reiterate facts they already knew, but eventually they got through a good portion of the list.
“Okay, next on the list: Mitchell Strickland.” Nora gagged after saying the bastard’s name.
“Ugh,” Naomi’s eyes were on Strickland on the screen and her expression mirrored Nora’s. “I can’t stand that guy. He’s so freakin’ creepy.”
“Our prosecutor contact, Assistant District Attorney Marco Aguilar received his invite from him.” Wes supplied.
“I haven’t been a fan since CTI was in that lawsuit.” Naomi scrunched her nose in disgust. “He was one of the jerks who was on the other side. I’m one thousand percent sure he’s a big reason the company was screwed over. Gail doesn’t like him either, but somehow he has enough clout to make us throw his damn party every year.”
Wes’s ears perked up at that and he resisted meeting Nora’s eye. “Strickland’s the slimiest man in Ashland County, and the slipperiest. We haven’t been able to find out much about him. All we know is that he has a brother that’s somehow involved with the trafficking.”
He didn’t mention that the reason they know even that much is because of one of Strickland’s partners, Andrew Wilton Ascot III. Ascot had a son who’d unwillingly played a part in Ellie’s kidnapping a year ago. He’d redeemed himself though by throwing himself in front of a bullet to save a BlackStone agent. His dying words had been that Strickland had a brother.
It hadn’t sounded like a riddle at the time, and it shouldn’t have been. Family trees were usually easy to scrounge up. But it annoyed the hell out of Wes that he hadn’t figured out who Strickland’s brother was. By all intents and purposes, he was an only child.
“I don’t know too much about him, either.” She recited everything she knew and Nora studiously took notes. Unfortunately, Naomi had been correct. There wasn’t much more she could add that they didn’t already know.
They moved on down the list to a few more, filtering through the ones that seemed of no consequence—
“Wait!” Naomi’s soft hand grabbed onto his forearm and he didn’t move a muscle, afraid she’d realize she was touching him of her own volition. “That picture... it says his name is Benjamin Johnson on my list, but the picture you’ve pulled up...”
“Yeah?” Wes asked, his eyes narrowed.
“That ain’t Benjamin Johnson, that’s Nikolai Rusnak, Dmitri Rusnak’s son. Last year he was the one who brought me a last-minute guest list…” She turned her head slowly toward Wes. “One with only two names. I don’t remember the names, but I remember being ticked off I had to add just two more people to the guest list the day of.”
Her words hung in the air like a cloud on the brink of a downpour.
“Do you have that list?” Wes ventured.
Naomi winced. “No. I got so irritated I remember throwing it away outta spite.”
Nora glanced at Wes while she typed. “I don’t know about you Superman, but I think that tidbit of information is worth facing Jason and Devil’s wrath. We should ask Ellie if she remembers him at all.”
Wes’s lips tightened and he nodded his head once. Ellie and Sasha had been invited to go to the party by someone at a college fair at their high school. She hadn’t been able to remember his name, but maybe seeing his face would trigger a memory. They’d just have to figure out how to ask her without Jason and Devil finding out first.
They continued down the list with relatively little new information, and when they finished, they all leaned back in their rolling chairs.
Wes felt accomplished that they’d finally gotten through the whole task, but Naomi was biting the inside of her lip with her eyes narrowed.
“What is it?” Wes asked.
She shook her head slowly. “I don’t know. Somethin’ just feels off.” She tapped the pen they’d given her to write her own notes, since Wes only had two keyboards accessible for him and Nora. “I’ve been trying to trust my instincts more lately, and somethin’ tells me we need to look more into the women we’ve got listed here. Some of their ‘bright’ futures seem a little dim.”
“What do you mean?” Nora tilted her head at Naomi before following her pointed finger.
“Like that one. There’ve only been a few other potential scholarship winners like her, but accordin’ to y’all’s searchin’, she did real well in high school, had plans for her future, friends, all that. And now you’re tellin’ me that she just up and left her family?” She shook her head with more conviction that time. “Isn’t that strange? And as soon as she’s gone, they moved from their mobile home and bought a new house. What’s up with that? And there’s a few more across the lists that aren’t from here but have weird shit goin’ on with them, too. I’m thinkin’ we need to keep diggin’ on those ladies.”
Wes scanned the screens at their version of an Ashland County Elite Fundraiser yearbook with brief bios underneath each picture. As he scrolled down, he saw a few more young women not from Ashland who’d left their homes soon after their attendance at the party.
“Yeah… fuck, I think you’re right.” He took his glasses off and massaged his eyelids. They’d been at it for hours and his blue-light lenses were only helping so much. “Let’s put a pin in it for now—”
Naomi slapped her hand against her hip with a wide-eyed expression. “Shit. Hold on.” She tugged her phone from her pocket and cursed again once the screen lit up. “I-I have to go, y’all. Nora, I’ll call you later.”
She shot out of her seat and into the hall with the phone against her ear. “Hey, I-I was just gettin’ ready to call you.” The lilt in her voice punctuated her lie and Wes winced. If the guy had half a brain, her tell was obvious as hell.
“She needs to leave that bastard.” Wes felt himself grumble aloud unintentionally. “Before it’s too late.”
“Just be patient. She’s trying.”
Wes whipped his gaze to his friend. “How do you know that? She’s got to really love him since she’s stayed with him. What if when she finally figures out he’s wrong for her, her window of opportunity is gone?”
Still not looking at him, Nora’s face hardened and her voice came out flat, almost as if she was somewhere else entirely.
“Women like Naomi hold strong to their convictions. There’s something keeping her there, preventing her from taking that final step. But trust me, she won’t need a door or a window of opportunity. When she’s ready, nothing’s gonna stop her from breaking free.”
