“Is she fucking serious?” Franks asked Candace.
“She’s nervous,” Candace snapped back.
“For Christ’s sake do I have to do everything myself?” Frank got up, came from behind the desk put her arms down by her side and yanked down her panties.
Portia began to shake uncontrollably and tears welled in her eyes.
Frank took a few steps back and examined her. “Hmm, boobs are bit a saggy and let me see,” he said walking around her until he ended back in front. “How old are you?”
“I’m, ah, I’m…”
“Speak up!” Frank yelled.
“Give the girl a break would you?” Candace said, her tone showing her annoyance with Frank.
“You just shut it,” Frank snapped at Candace. He put his focus back on Portia and said, “Well.”
“I’m thirty-one.”
“You look older. How many men you been with?” Frank asked.
Portia looked to Candace for support but she wasn’t going to get any.
“Go ahead, sweetheart, I told ya’ the faster you do this, the faster you’re outta here,” Candace said.
“One,” Portia answered.
“No shit!” Frank blurted out.
“Yes,” Portia said raising her arms and covering her breasts again.
“Okay, I’ve seen enough, bring in the next,” Frank said walking back around to his chair.
“Here sweetie,” Candace said helping Portia put her dress back on. Dressed, Candace walked her out and whispered to her, “Believe me, you’re the lucky one. He didn’t sample you.”
Portia almost threw up upon hearing that.
“Next!” Candace hollered.
“The job changed, that’s all you need to know. But can you do me a favor?” Tommy said into his phone.
“And the food shipment? You know we need that or the Sinoloa’s are going to be pissed,” Jacob, a Leviathan team leader, said.
“That’s why I’m here, but there’s another reason for my call,” Tommy said.
“Go ahead,” Jacob said.
“This isn’t much to ask for from you, but a slave shipment out of The Collective left a few days ago. I need you to track that down.”
“Can I kill the slavers once I run into them?” Jacob asked.
“Brother, you’re weapons free with them. I’m just trying to track that shipment down.”
“Is this a new job?” Jacob asked.
“Yeah, it’s a job, a quick one,” Tommy answered remaining coy as to who or why he was asking for the favor.
“You’re right, it is an easy ask, but you need to stop fucking around and get that truck and head south.”
“Don’t worry about me.”
“I forgot to ask, but your friend, that driver, did you reach him in time?” Jacob asked privy to the
information of Kyle.
Tommy went to reply but paused to think. Did he want the word out that Kyle was alive or did he
want the world to think he was dead, at least for now? He trusted Jacob, but still, why offer it up. As he always did, he preferred to keep things mostly vague even with other Leviathan teams. “He’s dead, Driver Eight is dead.”
“Oh shit, man, I didn’t know your friend was the Driver Eight. Wow, that’s huge news,” Jacob said.
“Call me if you get any info, I’ll be offline for about twelve, I’ll check in later when the jobs done and I have the shipment,” Tommy said.
“Just watch your back Tommy, we’re being hunted. You lost your partner, you’re flying solo now,” Jacob said referring to the fact that the Leviathan syndicate had become enemy number one in many areas which had resulted in warrants for their arrest or bounties on their heads. It was a reversal of fortune for a group that had created a reputation and legacy.
“I’ll be fine. I’ll call soon,” Tommy said.
“We’ll wait for you, but if no contact for twenty-four hours, we’re setting sail. It won’t be personal,” Jacob said.
“It’s all good. I know the drill. I’ll be in contact soon enough,” Tommy said and hung up. He went back inside the small safe house to find Kyle waking up.
Kyle sat up and looked around. He was in a strange room, a single candle burned on a table next to him. The flickering flame caused his shadow to dance on the wall. He scratched his head to remember how he got there but couldn’t recall. The last he remembered was getting into Tommy’s truck, everything else was a blur.
“I’d suggest getting more rest than that, brother,” Tommy said from the other side of the large room.
Kyle gazed towards his voice but saw only shadows. “Do you always hide in the dark?”
“As a matter of fact, yes. It’s part of my job description now.”
Kyle struggled to rise, his body ached from his head to his feet, but he managed to sit up. “I feel like I’ve been run over.”
“Worse, you were hanging for days, scratch that, being stretched for days. How fucked up is that?”
“What?” Kyle asked before reaching towards a glass of water on a table next to him. He picked it up and gulped it down.
“That they attached that weight to you. As if your own body weight wasn’t enough to pull you down.”
Kyle rubbed his eyes and asked, “How long have I been out for?”
“Oh, about twelve hours.”
Hearing that, Kyle grew stressed. “We have to go, we need to find her.”
“Already working on that, but I just need to know where she went to narrow our search perimeters down. I also called in a favor with another Leviathan. If anyone can track slavers it’s that guy. His team are notorious trackers. Jacob was a slave himself when he was a kid, now in between jobs he hunts down slavers.”
“But it’s still a wild goose chase. One person knows and that’s Barry.”
“And Barry is the guy who stuck you on that tree and more than likely is inside the walls of Collective Prime?” Tommy asked.
“Yes, he’s inside the walls of Prime.”
“I had a feeling you might say that.”
“Getting inside the walls isn’t the problem, getting to Barry is,” Kyle replied.
“I plotted where she could be on this map. Come here and take a look,” Tommy said before reconsidering Kyle’s condition. “Better yet, I’ll go there.” Tommy went over and sat next to Kyle and laid the map on his lap. He turned on a flashlight and shined it across what was an old highway map of the central United States.
First thing Kyle noticed were circles emanating from Prime. “What do they represent?”
“Days. I estimate that if she left the same day you hung from the tree, she’d make it this far on day one, this far on day two and so forth. See these red dots?”
“Yeah.”
“Those are known trading posts or slave markets,” Tommy said pointing at over two dozen dots all outside of The Collective Zone. “If she got here, two days south, she could be in someone’s hands and God knows from there. And if she’s gotten here…”
Frustrated, Kyle said, “I get the picture.”
“Timing is everything, but right now you need rest, so I’ll go in and get your guy, I’ll bring him back.”
“I can’t have you do that alone, it’s too dangerous, plus you don’t know where you’re going.”
“If you tell me where to go, give me details, draw me a map, I’ll be fine.”
“No.”
“Bro, it’s what I do, I’m a fucking bounty hunter for Leviathan, I track motherfuckers like this down all the time.”
“Not like this. He’s a dumpy fat slob, but he’s cunning and he’s got a small army guarding him. No, I can’t let you go alone.”