Lunatic - Necessary Evils #6 - Ch 18 (Patreon)

Mac

Mac woke up alone, sheets tangled around him. He rolled onto his back, stretching until his joints cracked and popped, then grabbed his phone. It was almost nine in the morning. He stood, shoving his legs into a pair of sweatpants and throwing on the sleeveless black hoodie that happened to be at the top of his bag before stumbling into the kitchen.

Noah sat at the breakfast table, headphones in, a half-eaten piece of toast in front of him as he listened attentively to something, scribbling down notes. He gave Mac a small wave of acknowledgement. Mac nodded in return, heading for the coffee pot, relieved when he saw it was already full. He poured himself a cup, then took a long sip, letting the bitter liquid burn its way down before dropping into a chair beside Noah.

“Where’s Archer?” he finally asked.

Noah pulled a headphone free. “Huh?”

“Archer?” Mac repeated.

“Oh, outside with Adam. They’re bringing in some of the toys we brought along from home.”

Mac nodded, returning to his coffee cup, content to stare at nothing as Noah worked. The front door opened and Archer entered, carrying a large red storage container that he dropped just inside the door. He smiled when he saw Mac, walking up behind him before leaning over and kissing the side of his neck in a way that shot goosebumps along Mac’s skin.

“You’re up,” he murmured against his ear.

You have no idea. Mac adjusted himself under the table, flushing when Noah smirked like he could sense his discomfort.

Adam walked over to Noah, grabbing the back of his chair and dragging it out before plopping his large frame into Noah’s lap. To his credit, the boy just wrapped his arms around him and continued with his work, clearly used to the distraction.

Archer sat beside Mac. “The twins will meet us at the Boseman residence after dark. Once we determine they’re alone, we’ll subdue him and the wife and Noah and Adam will take the little girl to meet Calliope’s contact and make sure she’s safe.”

Mac grunted, still not feeling awake enough to communicate with any real efficiency.

Somewhere, a phone began to buzz. Everybody reached for their pockets except Mac. He’d left his phone in the bedroom. The ringing phone was Archer’s. He glanced at the name on the screen, then swiped to answer, hitting speaker before setting the phone on the table. “You’ve got all of us, Calliope.”

“Good. I really don’t want to have to play this more than once.”

“Play what?” Noah asked, removing his headphones and reaching for his toast.

“I’ve been monitoring the bug in Egan’s office. He made this phone call last night. Just listen. Tell me what you make of it.”

Mac didn’t really know Calliope, but her grim tone seemed to make the others uneasy. That didn’t bode well for whatever it was they were about to hear.

Even with the speaker turned to top volume, they had to lean in. The nasally whine was unmistakingly Egan’s. “Hey, we gotta talk.”

When there was no audible response, Mac surmised the bug was picking up a phone call between Egan and someone else. His gaze met Archer’s.

“Yeah, so Terrance confirmed the livestock for the auction will arrive on time as promised. Yeah, all present and accounted for. Fifteen workhorses. Ten brood mares. Eight foals. Five fillies. Three colts. But…” He trailed off. “Now, don’t get mad…but we lost the special request.”

The irritated sound he made let them know that whoever was on the other end had not heeded his request. “I know the buyer had their heart set on that particular…foal, but she dropped early. Too early. The foal didn’t make it.”

Mac frowned as he listened to what seemed like a fairly standard conversation one might have in a small Texas town. There were horse farms all over the state. Hell, they’d passed several on the way home just last night. Mac imagined livestock auctions were also a fairly common practice as well.

Still, he figured Calliope had sent this to them for a reason. Egan’s breaths grew slightly erratic, like he was nervous or maybe growing angry. Mac wished he could hear both sides of the conversation.

They sat in silence until whoever was on the other end of the call finished and Egan said, “We have five other mares ready to drop any day now. Surely, one of those will be enough to—I understand he chose that mare in particular, but these things can’t be helped. It’s biology. He wanted a bab—foal, so he’ll get one. Just because it’s not the one he wanted doesn’t mean we’re reneging on our end.”

Mac’s gaze shot to Archer’s once more. Baby? There was something about the slip up that sent a shiver of unease down Mac’s spine. But he didn’t have time to voice his concerns because Egan was whining again.

“This isn’t fucking Build-A-Bear. Shit happens. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to procure, inseminate, and house these breeders? The amount of man hours I waste on this little side project of yours?” He was growing heated. “No, you don’t get to say that. You just have to smile and bat your lashes and forge some documents. I’m the one dealing with the crying and the hysterics and the whining. You have your daddy to protect you. I’m on my own.”

Once more, he fell silent. Noah and Mac sat, tense, waiting until Egan spoke again.

His response was explosive. “Goddamn, woman, stop nagging. What do you want me to do about it? It ain’t my fault. Even the best breeders lose one every now and again.”

Mac’s stomach churned at the term breeder. Somehow, he didn’t think they were talking about livestock anymore. Noah’s face contorted in disgust and he pushed his toast away. Mac didn’t blame him. He suddenly had no appetite either. What the fuck were these guys doing?

“What do you want me to do? Tell Merk—” Egan seemed to catch himself. “Tell the client that we will give him top pick of the next drop and offer a partial refund for his trouble. If he doesn’t like it, then he can wait for us to start the whole process over again if he’s insistent on having the same bitch as last time. Those are his options.”

Mac rubbed his temples as Egan fell silent, the only sound his chair squeaking as he seemed to rock compulsively back and forth. Then, he said, “Christ, Desiree, this whole thing was your fucking idea. You’re the one who wanted to expand the operation. We were doing just fine with the domestic supply chain. But no, you just had to go designer.”

Noah frowned. “Desiree?”

“Egan’s stepsister. Married to that immigration attorney,” Mac supplied. “Dad’s some kind of Texas bigshot.”

Noah gave a slight nod as Egan said, “Thanks to my guys, the bloodline should be sufficiently diluted, but DNA is tricky. Sometimes, no matter how much white you add, the colors still come out…muddy.”

Mac’s heart hammered against his ribs, his unease turning to anger. Was that what they were hiding? Was this their secret they thought Mac had somehow stumbled upon? Archer’s hand settled on his thigh, giving it a squeeze. Mac took a deep breath and let it out, forcing himself to stay calm.

“Figure it out, Desiree. We still have that other loose end to tie up. Sooner rather than later—They’re already sniffing around—Yeah, I didn’t recognize him at first either, but he’s definitely one of them—I don’t know why they’re here. I’m assuming they figured out it was us that ruined their honeymoon. I told you we should have just let the whole fucking thing go. But no, you always have to be right.”

They were talking about Mac. Or maybe Noah. Either way, it was clear they knew Mac was in town. Though, clearly, they didn’t know exactly where. Part of him was happy they were scrambling.

“We have people to answer to as well, thanks to you, and while they’re not Thomas Mulvaney, they do have the power to fuck us royally.”

Mac was relieved to see he wasn’t the only one freaking out over this conversation. It was weird to hear people casually plotting your death. Noah gnawed at his thumbnail, eyes locked on the phone screen where the minutes of the call ticked down. Adam took Noah’s hand and pulled it from his lips, shaking his head. Mac placed his palm over Archer’s hand on his thigh.

“Don’t underestimate him, Desiree. He’s a billionaire. One of the richest, most powerful men in the world and we just went after his fucking son-in-law.”

Mac was tempted to start biting his own nails just waiting to hear what came next. “You think running a charity makes you altruistic? You run a charity and you’re literally one of the worst people I know. If we all end up dead, it’s on you.”

When the recording ended, Adam looked around like he’d just woken up. “So…how are we feeling about all that?”

“About how I’d feel if I spent the night in the bottom of a New York City dumpster,” Calliope said. “I don’t know what exactly these people are up to, but I think it’s safe to say they’ve met the code.”

“So, they’re definitely trafficking people over the border. Right?” Noah asked. “That’s what all their horse talk was. Code for trafficking? They’re auctioning off people?”

Mac’s stomach churned. “That seems to be the least offensive thing they’re doing.”

Calliope began typing somewhere in the distance. “I’m still searching the darknet for some kind of mention of this auction. It has to be virtual. Nobody would dare try to pull off something like this face to face nowadays. If I can find the site, I can tell you when it’s going down. We need to find out where they’re holding these people in the meantime.”

“Can’t we just kill these guys now?” Noah asked. “Like Calliope said, they definitely meet the code. Let’s just start taking them out.”

Adam gently patted Noah’s head like a dog. “Babe, you know better than anybody that’s not how this works. If there is an auction…if they are selling people…we need to find those people. We need to know how many more auctions like this are happening. We need to know if this goes further than just those three guys who tried to kill Mac.”

“We’re running out of time. They know we’re here,” Noah reminded them.

Mac nodded. “They’re scared. That works in our favor. Scared people make mistakes.”

“Agreed,” Archer said. “It never occurred to me that they’d think Dad was more corrupt than they are. But I guess shitty people always think other people are equally shitty.”

“I mean, Dad’s not corrupt per se, but he’s not exactly Mother Teresa either,” Adam said. “He did, in fact, send us here to dispatch your husband’s would-be-killers, just as they suspected.”

“They’re going to try to come after Mac even harder now. All we’ve done so far is put him in more danger,” Archer said.

Adam shook his head. “You’re too lovesick to see this is a good thing. They’re never going to have the chance to come after Mac. Let’s grab Boseman and the wife like we planned. Hell, let’s grab Egan, too. If they already know we’re here, there’s no reason to hide.”

“They also might not expect us to go after Boseman since he wasn’t there the day you photographed them. He might be the easiest to get to,” Noah said.

“Good point,” Adam said, beaming at Noah. “Let’s put the three of them in a room together with the twins and their toys and see who starts squealing first.”

“And tomorrow, when three prominent members of society go missing?” Mac prompted. “Won’t the others run scared?”

Adam waved a hand. “By the time anybody realizes Boseman and Egan are gone, we’ll already be knocking on their door.”

“Then what?” Archer asked. “We need to know how high up this goes. Does it stop with them? This Desiree chick? Her dad? How many bodies do we have to drop before Mac is safe?”

Mac wanted to say something to assure Archer that he was no more or less safe regardless of what plan they went with. This was a shitty situation with no easy solution. There was a group of people who were abusing and subjugating another group of people. In the grand scheme of things, his life couldn’t be a factor in this. They had to rescue those people, whether Mac lived or died in the process. Whether any of them lived or died in the process. It was the right fucking thing to do.

Adam looked from Archer to Mac and back again. “This isn’t anything new for us. You’re just too involved. We’ll find out who’s responsible for the hit on Mac. We’ll figure out the sordid details behind their operation and we’ll shut it down. Then we’ll make sure the right people get punished.”

“If people in a particular friend group start to go missing one by one, it’s going to draw unwanted attention,” Noah said.

“Who’s talking one by one? Fuck it. You want to take them all at once? We’ll round them up, kill them, and then make it look like a tragic group accident. Come on,” Adam said with mock enthusiasm. “This could be fun. Like a team building exercise. Fun for the whole family.” When nobody joined in on Adam’s enthusiastic plan, he began to pout. “I can’t wait until the twins get here. They get me.”

“This operation has gone off the fucking rails,” Archer muttered, dropping his head into his hands.