Raiden (The Kent Brothers #2) - A.M. Hargrove Page 0,2
were kept. Under each shirt box, they’d stashed the cocaine and heroin. The kid was delivering the shirts along with the drugs. He was getting paid money and drugs to keep up his habit.
Gemini approached me and wanted to know how much experience I had with cyber theft.
“Not much. However, I know a little because most drug operatives run their scams over the dark web.”
Isla Kent, another employee, joined us. “How much experience do you have with the dark web?”
I scoffed. “More than I care to. We did all of our work on it. Tor was my go-to for information.” Tor was short for the onion router. Onion routing was initially developed to protect US intelligence. With over seven thousand relays, it concealed the user’s location from network surveillance. It also utilized an encryption protocol that acted like layers of an onion, hence, the name.
Gemini and Isla glanced at each other.
“What are you two planning?”
“Let’s go to the conference room. This might take a while.”
We sat with our coffees in hand and she told a story that was almost unbelievable. The sad thing was… it was true. It had to do with her, her husband, Acer, who was a frequent visitor at WI, human trafficking, drugs, the FBI, and the mob. By the time she finished, my head spun with this information.
“I remember when the shit hit the fan with the FBI and they charged the deputy director with racketeering. That was you?” I pointed at Isla.
“Yep. All me. Well, kinda. I lost a great friend during that hunt, but I’d rather not discuss it.”
“You also brought down one of the O’Briens of the Irish mob too.”
“That was with the help of WI. That whole incident was how I ended up here.”
“Wow. So what does all that have to do with me?”
“Sex trafficking,” Isla said as she opened a folder and passed it to me.
“Okaaayy.” I inspected the contents, which held numerous suspects. “All of these? Human traffickers?”
“We think and not only that, we believe they’re involved with drugs too.”
“They usually go hand in hand. The trafficker gets the victim addicted.” It was a common theme, and we all knew it at the DEA.
Isla glanced at Gemini.
“What?” I asked.
“It’s what happened to Acer.”
“Right. So where do I fit in exactly?”
Isla handed me another folder. “We want you to team up with Kent Software.”
“Now you’ve lost me. What do they have to do with anything?”
Gemini grinned. “Let me show you. There’s this software that government agencies have adopted for finding missing people who they believe have been trafficked. Raiden, Cruze, and Acer Kent developed it. It’s been so successful, we’ve asked them, with your assistance, to work on something to identify drug traffickers using the same method. Using the same groundwork, and with your knowledge, it could be a winner.”
“I’m in. When do I start?”
“Scottie, I knew you’d go for this. I told Isla you’d hop on this train.”
Isla grinned. “One thing you need to know. Raiden and Cruze. They are awesome business guys but be warned. They’re lady killers too.”
I waved a hand. “Not worried. Men have surrounded me in the workplace my entire career. I’m not afraid of them.”
“I’m not talking about being afraid. I’m talking about being vulnerable. The Kent men are fierce. They’ll sweep you away before you even realize they deployed a broom,” Isla countered.
“We’ll see. So far I’m unsweepable. I’m immune to men. I consider them a convenience.”
Gemini and Isla cracked up.
My first meeting with the Kents was… overwhelming. Acer was more excited than a kid with a new puppy. Cruze was broody, and Raiden… all I can say about him was he was flammable. Now I understood what Isla had been saying. These men were like nothing I’d ever encountered.
“What do you think about this?” Acer asked.
“I think we need to switch that up. You know how the human trafficking works with bids? The drug business doesn’t work that way. The cartels are very suspicious of who they deal with and take their ownership seriously. We have to approach them with much more caution.”
“Cruze, what do you think?” Acer asked.
“She’s the expert on who these people are. We should do what she recommends.”
“And Raiden? What about you?” Acer liked to ask the questions.
I peered over the laptop I was typing on to see him gazing intently at me. Eyes like pools of aquamarines I could gaze at for days, a day’s or more worth of scruff on chiseled cheeks, and capped with dark hair