Rogue - Jericho's Boys #2 - ch. 19 (Patreon)

Unbeta'd/Unedited. I contemplated not sharing this until the rest of the book is finished, just to make sure I'm not missing something huge. I fear this chapter will only make you guys more nervous...and it should.

Levi

“I’m so fucking bored, dude. Maybe he’s not coming?”

Jericho gave Adam a hard look as he sat on the butcher block counter eating one of Atticus’s prized granola bars. . “Slow down on those things, man. They’re expensive as hell and freckles gets real…uptight, whenever he finds you guys ate them.”

“That’s why they eat them,” Aiden said, mouth a flat line as he looked at his stepson.

That was still so wild to Levi. Aiden was their stepfather now. The whole Mulvaney clan was so tangled now that the branches of their family tree were starting to grow inward.

Adam looked directly at Jericho and began to chew obnoxiously loud. Maybe not breeding outside of the inner circle was a good thing. Those genes were terrifying enough as they were.

Jericho gave a long-suffering sigh. “Why are you even here?”

“Because Noah said I had to,” Adam said like it was obvious.

It was obvious. If it wasn’t for Noah, Adam would probably have become some kind of cautionary tale about a spoiled billionaire turned sloth who didn’t move for so long his couch just ate him. It could happen. Levi had heard about it on a true crime TikTok. He shivered at the thought.

What was Shiloh doing right now? Was he worried? He wanted to call but Jericho had a pretty strict no phones on a mission policy. Previously, when they were at the cabin, it didn’t matter, cell service had been so spotty calls were frustrating and limited to emergencies only. Now there was a cell tower placed on the property, but Jericho’s rules hadn’t changed. Still, Levi checked his phone every few minutes, hoping for a text from Shiloh.

He knew he was fine. Shiloh had Malachi and Nico and as long as Micah was there with them, Shiloh was fine. But that didn’t mean Levi liked being away from him. In this one instance, Levi kind of agreed with Adam. This was boring. He wanted to be at home with Shiloh, curled up watching Rick and Morty, while Shiloh repeatedly interrupted him to show him YouTube videos of reactions to hair fails.

Shiloh should go to cosmetology school. He loved anything to do with hair. Or maybe he just loved having Levi play with his hair? Either way, Shiloh would need a trade or skill once Micah was out of his life once and for all. That’s when their real lives would begin.

He glanced at the time on his phone again. What if Micah waited until midnight? What if he’d brought twenty men and were planning an ambush? No, that didn’t make sense. Micah wanted dirt on the Mulvaney’s, not violence. He was clearly answering to somebody. Shiloh said Micah was freakishly smart. If that was true, he’d come alone so as not to attract attention.

A jolt of static in his ear made him jump, then Noah said, “Head’s up, there’s someone parked on the road about a block away. They look to be alone. Approaching on foot.”

The murder cabin had security cameras sitting high in the trees lining the main road and the drive since Thomas had bought the property surrounding Jericho and Atticus’s little love nest/slaughterhouse. It made things easier surveillance wise and allowed Noah to keep watch over his little missions without being in danger. It was hard enough to get Adam to function even when his husband wasn’t there to distract him.

Another ten minutes passed before Seven broke through the coms. “He’s approaching the house. He’s about ten yards away. Make it look good.”

Adam jumped from the counter with a grin, clapping his hands together delicately. “Places, everyone. Places.”

Aiden and Jericho rolled their eyes. On the ground at their feet, was a body wrapped in trash bags. Well, really it was just a bunch of newspapers wrapped in trash bags and strategically duct taped to give the appearance of a dead body. It wasn’t great but it would pass from the window. Nobody had wanted to worry about dumping a random corpse and cleaning up a real murder. Crime scene cleanup was tedious and time consuming.

Besides, they just needed Micah so invested in collecting his ‘evidence’, he wouldn’t see Seven or the twins coming up on him from behind.

“Do you have a visual confirmation?” Aiden asked.

“That it’s Micah?” Avi said. “No. His face is covered.” The next response was said not to them but to Asa thought the mic was still hot. “It’s one of those balaclava things like you wear to chase Zaney around in the woods during sexy times.”

Thomas’s voice was farther away but his exasperation was loud and clear. “Please spare me.”

It was so weird having Thomas Mulvaney himself on an actual mission. But it did explain why Seven had insisted on tagging along. And why he’d insisted on being on whatever team Thomas was on for this little take down operation.

“We’re sure he’s alone, Noah?” Jericho asked.

Noah piped in. “Yeah, all other cameras are clear.”

“You’ve got an audience. He’s at the window, he’s filming you,” Seven noted.

“Let’s go,” Asa said just before the coms went quiet in his ear.

They stood there doing their part to look like they were invested in this Halloween decoration of a dead body, pretending a camera wasn’t trained on them as they spoke. There was a startled cry, then boots on gravel, a thud against the side of the cabin and then the door burst open, Asa and Avi dragging a man in black cargo pants, a black polo shirt and black boots. Not hiking boots, but the fancy kind that white collar guys paid hundreds for and only wore on date night.

They man was shouting at them and wrenching himself this way and that, but he was no match for the twins. Levi’s stomach plummeted as he met the man’s eyes. That wasn’t Micah. The moment the handcuffs secured him to the chair, Aiden whipped the man’s balaclava off like they were dealing with a Scooby Doo villain.

“Who the fuck are you?” Aiden asked, floating closer.

Levi didn’t care who he was. He pulled his phone from his pocket, mind reeling. He first thought to call Shiloh but then stopped. He didn’t want to freak him out for no reason. Just because Micah wasn’t there, didn’t mean it was a setup. Maybe he just didn’t want to risk it. Instead, he dialed Nico.

“‘Sup, man. Finish him off already?” Nico said by way of greeting.

“Is everything okay?” he asked in a rush. “Is Shiloh okay?”

“He’s fine, what’s up, dude. Are you okay? What’s wrong?”

“Where’s. Shiloh?” Levi repeated a hard edge to his voice.

“Sleeping in your room. He passed out after dinner.”

“You’re sure? You have eyes on him?”

“Dude, hold on.” Levi’s heart pounded as he heard Nico’s footsteps. A moment later his phone chimed. Levi clicked on the image file. Shiloh was curled up on his mattress, his curls fanned out around him, one foot hanging half off the bed. He wore Levi’s Animaniacs boxers and a t-shirt with Jericho’s garage logo on it.

“There you go, dude. Proof of life. Tell me what’s happening? You sound like a lunatic right now.”

“What’s going on?” Levi heard Mal ask.

“I have no idea, Levi is freaking out,” Nico said.

Levi knew he was on speaker phone when Mal said, “Micah didn’t show, did he?”

“No, I don’t know who this dude is but he’s definitely not Micah.”

“Not surprised. Micah only does his own dirty work when it comes to Shiloh and me. It’s weird though, my brother wouldn’t trust one of those morons he keeps around with something as important as this. Maybe he hired out,” Mal mused.

“Just keep Shiloh safe and maybe don’t tell him about this. I don’t want him panicking.”

“Yeah, hopefully he’ll just sleep through it,” Mal said. “But what do we do about Micah now?”

“Fuck if I know. I’ll find out what the plan is and then text you once we figure out who the fuck this dude is.”

Mal made a noise of agreement then the line disconnected. He clearly wasn’t one for pleasantries.

Levi slipped his phone in his pocket and turned on the man, trying to even fathom who he might be. He didn’t look like some low-level gangbanger. If anything, he looked like an accountant or something boring. He was easily in his forties, deep brown hair graying at the temples, a slight paunch around his middle. He was sweating profusely as his eyes darted to all the people standing around the room.

“Shiloh okay?” Thomas asked.

Levi nodded. “All good. Who is he?”

“He won’t say,” Asa said, kicking the man’s chair, snickering when he gave a startled yelp.

“I’m pretty sure that’s Grant Mercer,” Seven said, oddly amused given the situation.

The man snapped his startled gaze to Seven. “Who the fuck are you? Do I know you?”

Seven grinned, floating closer. “Nah, but I know you,” he said in a sing-song voice jabbing his pointer finger into the man’s forehead.

“Would you like to share with the class,” Adam snapped.

Seven turned to the others. “This is District Attorney Grant Mercer. Also known as the guy who helped frame Malachi.”

Levi narrowed his gaze at Seven. “How the fuck do you know that?”

“I saw it on Enzo’s desk…” Seven started without thought, then trailed off as he realized his mistake. “Not important.”

Levi’s brows went up. “When were you with Enzo…and his desk?”

“Irrelevant,” Seven shouted, waving a hand at the bound man. “What matters is that Grant here clearly has Micah doing his dirty work to fuck you guys over. Don’t you want to know why?”

Thomas raised a brow. “I certainly do.”

“What?” Mercer said, spooked. “What are you talking about?”

“Tell us what you want with us,” Aiden said, ignoring the man’s bewilderment. “Why are you using Micah to get information on us?”

“W-what?” he stammered. “I-What?”

Avi walked to the corner of the room and picked up his bat, the one with all the nails driven into it. “I was really hoping to use this on Micah, but I can get in some batting practice before the main event.”

“What the fuck?” Mercer spit, sweat pouring down his face despite the air conditioning that left the small room at near freezing temps. “Jesus Christ. Micah was right about you. You are all a bunch of fucking thugs.”

“Oh, that’s a bit of the pot calling the kettle black, don’t you think?” Adam asked, taking Avi’s bat from his hand, making circles in the air, before taking a stance and swinging like a batter at the plate. Mercer screamed, pulling his head back, a nail leaving a wicked scratch over the man’s nose, but nothing else. Adam grinned, handing the bat back to Avi. “He won’t miss.”

“We already know you conspired with Micah to throw his brother in prison then used him to dig up dirt on the Mulvaney’s,” Seven said.

Levi paced the small room. He would feel so much better if he had eyes on Shiloh, or better yet, Micah.

“What? How can you all have this so fucking backwards?” Mercer asked. “Is that what that fucking asshole told you? Did he set me up?”

They all exchanged confused looks before Thomas came to stand before him, crossing his arms over his chest. “By all means, explain it to us. We’re all ears.”

Mercer shook his head like he had no idea how it had come to this. “He came to me. This was all his idea.”

“Explain. Quickly,” Thomas growled.

Mercer shifted in the chair. “My office was investigating Micah Mizrahi for money laundering. The FBI had been investigating him and his buddies for a while. They brought us a pretty solid case. I assigned Ned Bates as prosecutor and washed my hands of it. But then Ned told me that Micah wanted a meeting with me.”

“Micah asked you for a meeting and you just went?” Aiden asked. “Do you often entertain meetings with low budget criminals?”

Mercer barked out a laugh. “Low budget? Micah Mizrahi has laundered close to seventy-five million dollars—that we know of—starting near as we can tell, his freshman year of college, but we suspect long before that even. We just can’t prove it.”

“Where did a twenty-something year old kid get his hands on that kind of money?” Asa asked.

Mercer rolled his eyes. “This kid isn’t some gang leader. He used his time in college to make friends with a bunch of rich kids with access to their daddies money and then he manipulated them into using their trust funds for everything from embezzlement to Ponzi schemes. Hell, even insider trading. And what do they do with all that money? They give it to him to clean, for a fee. He even makes their books look pretty, which is why it took so long for us to catch him at it. Somewhere this kid has millions stashed in an off-shore account.”

Levi would almost be impressed if he wasn’t a psychotic piece of shit who battered the hell out of Shiloh and Mal their whole lives.

“So where do we come into play?” Asa asked. “Wasn’t he a big enough fish? Why ask him to get dirt on us?”

“I already told you. He fucking came to me. I didn’t give a fuck about the Mulvaney’s until he came to me with an insane theory and just enough evidence to make me believe him. The numbers made sense.”

“Numbers?” Levi echoed.

“Statistics. Micah absorbed a few stragglers from some gang you ran out of town,” Mercer directed this at Jericho. “They told him that you and your kids aren’t the only vigilantes in the family. That the Mulvaney’s have blood on their hands.”

The 4Loco crew. It had to be some of them. They’d done their best to punish the ones they could get their hands on, but once enough started dying they tended to scatter like roaches. It was possible they’d ended up working for Micah.

“Go back to the statistics part,” Thomas said. “Talk to me about that.”

Mercer scoffed. “Man, I failed math. That’s why we have forensic accountants. He came to me with numbers and spreadsheets. Talking about shit like z-scores and standard deviations showing that an unusual number of deaths occur in two separate areas of the city and how Navarro is the nexus of one and the Mulvaney’s the other. It sounded like bullshit but my math geeks said the math was solid. He started showing me how it was possible you people were manipulating your GPS data, your social media…everything. Man, it just made sense at the time.”

“You’re telling me Micah came to you?” Levi said. “He was trying to cut a deal?”

“Yeah, but there was no way I could just drop his case, not when too many of his former classmates were going to potentially get scooped up in the net. That’s when he suggested we point the finger at Malachi, at least temporarily. Micah even floated the idea of pleading guilty when it was all over for a lesser sentence.”

“This is the most Tom & Jerry operation I’ve ever heard of,” Thomas said. “I expect criminals to be this stupid, but not a district attorney.”

Levi shook his head. “Okay, say all that’s true. Why drag Shiloh into this? Why use him to get Jericho’s attention. Seems kind of like going around your ass to get to your elbow, you know?”

“I mean, it kind of does make sense a little,” Seven said.

They all looked at him.

“What?” Seven asked. “Look, Micah was never going to make inroads with the Mulvaney family. It would be like trying to walk up to one of the Kennedy’s or something. He couldn’t just hand them a business card and be like ‘I think you’re murderers, do you also perhaps need a money launderer.’”

“And?” Aiden said, waving a hand in an out-with-it gesture.

“And how has every single non-rich person in the Mulvaney inner-circle gotten there?” Seven asked.

“Marriage,” Levi blurted. “Or, I guess, being friends with one of their spouses.”

“And who is the easiest, most accessible spouse in the Mulvaney clan?” Seven asked.

“Me,” Jericho said, scrubbing his hands over his face.

“Right,” Seven said. “And what do you collect like Pokemon? Traumatized gay kids.”

“I wouldn’t put it like that…” Jericho muttered.

“I would,’ Adam said.

“But how did he know Shiloh would go along with it?” Avi asked.

Mercer shifted in his seat. “The other benefit of framing Malachi was using it to control Shiloh. He said as long as Malachi remained behind bars, Shiloh would do whatever he wanted.

“You were willing to frame an innocent kid just on the off chance some criminal you were prosecuting was right about a powerful family?”

Mercer scoffed. “A powerful family? That other one was right. The Mulvaney’s are up there with the Kennedy’s. Taking down a family like this not for corporate greed but for cold blooded murder? I could ride something like this all the way to the white house.”

Asa snorted. “Talk about delusions of grandeur. Did you really think we wouldn’t catch on?”

“You wouldn’t have if Ned hadn’t gotten nervous and started threatening Micah, which made Micah start pushing Shiloh, giving away too much information.”

“How much does this Ned guy know about this?” Adam asked.

“Almost everything,” Mercer said. “So even if you kill me, you’re fucked.”

“Who else?” Aiden asked.

“Did you think I could pull off an operation like this alone?” Mercer asked, then grinned. “If you kill me, Ned has instructions to mail all the evidence straight to the Attorney General. It’s not perfect, but it will be enough to trigger an investigation. Do you think your house of cards will hold up under scrutiny? You’re better off letting me go and hoping for some kind of plea deal.”

“Can I please beat this dude’s brains in?” Avi asked, staring down Mercer until the grin slipped just a bit.

Thomas arched his brow. “The Attorney General…of the United States? You were going to completely bypass everyone else and go straight to him?”

Mercer smirked. “Yeah. You’re going down.”

Thomas pulled out his phone, thumbing through his contacts, then hitting a button. “Coleman, how are you? Sorry to bother you so late but are you free to talk? It’s about Project Watchtower. This is a secure line?”

The color drained from Mercer’s face.

Levi looked at the twins, then Aiden. “Who’s Coleman?”

Aiden grinned. “Coleman McDougall. The District Attorney…of the United States. Also known as one of the members of the Project Watchtower committee and also Tommy’s golf buddy whenever we’re in DC.”

“We’ve got an issue,” Thomas said. “Seems a district attorney of yours, Grant Mercer and one of your prosecutors, Ned Bates, have been investigating my family off book. Claims that, should anything happen to him, you’ll be receiving a package in the mail filled with said proof regarding our work. Now, I doubt that evidence will ever see the light of day, but should it come across your desk, I’m sure you know what to do with it.” His gaze flicked to the man tied to the chair. “Mercer? Don’t worry about him. I’m sure we’ll come to some kind of…understanding.”

With that he disconnected the call.

“Are you going to kill me, too?” Mercer cried, all his smugness and bravado disappearing in an instant.

“Does he meet the code, Dad?” Avi asked.

Thomas sighed. “Well, we know he’s corrupt. We know he had no problems throwing an innocent kid in prison for an indeterminate amount of time. We know he rigged the system and tried to run some kind of operation out of bounds while he proved his case. But I’m torn. If I’m being honest, I am not sure what we should do with him.”

“I have kids. I have a wife. I’m a good person.”

“I bet Malachi Mizrahi would beg to differ,” Thomas said. “But this little issue is much bigger than you or even me as you can see. There are very powerful people, like my district attorney friend, who have a vested interest in ensuring that my family remains free to continue our work.”

“Your work?” Mercer echoed.

“Yeah, asshole,” Aiden said. “We take out the trash your office lets slip through your fingers. The rapists, the pedophiles, the child killers. If you come after us, you’re basically on their side and that makes you just as bad as them in my book.”

“You…kill bad people?” Mercer said.

“Hundreds,” Avi said. “Shit, maybe even thousands by now.”

Thomas raised a hand and Avi fell silent. He moved closer to Mercer so he was forced to crane his neck to look up at him. It felt like a power move. “The point is, we make the world a better place. And because we’re not the bad guys, we’re not gonna threaten your wife or your kids. And, to be honest, I don’t really want to kill you. But I just don’t know if I can trust you.”

“You can. You can. I swear you can. I didn’t know. I didn’t…understand. I’ll fix it. I’ll make it right. I’ll get Malachi out of jail and Micah where he belongs. I can make the evidence disappear, shut down the investigation. I’ll handle everything.”

Thoma braced a hand on the back of Mercer’s chair getting in close enough to kiss. “I need you to be very clear. So there’s no misunderstanding. If you ever, in any way, attempt to harm my family, or bend the law to frame some innocent kid for someone else’s crimes, I promise you, people with far greater authority than me, will make sure you stop breathing.”

“Yeah, and what I’ve learned about those people,” Aiden added. “They like to make things messy. Stage a break in, a car accident, a random shooting on the street.Often people around you get hurt in the process. People like your family. And while we would never harm your family. I can assure you, those other people could give two shits. You’re not even people to them. Your obstacles. So keep that in mind anytime you think maybe you could take your information to someone else, someone higher up. There’s no branch of the government that won’t bend over backwards to keep this quiet.”

Mercer shook his head quickly. “It’s done. We’re done. I already told you. I will make it go away. And if you ever need anything, you can always reach out, anytime, day or night. My-My card’s in my wallet.”

“Once you’re in your car, I think you should head to the office and get started on that paperwork right away. You’ll find that Malachi is no longer in custody. I had a friend take care of that a few days ago. But I need his record clean enough to eat off of. Got it?” Thomas asked, gesturing for Avi to remove the cuffs.

Mercer was nodding like a bobble head. “It might take a few d-days, but I’ll make it happen.”

“You have forty-eight hours,” Thomas said. “And we will be watching you.” He looked at the twins. “Boys, escort Mr. Mercer back to his car. Be sure to tell him, in great detail, all about how you handled that pedophile last week. I’m sure he’ll find your use of a fountain pen fascinating.”

Asa grinned. “No problem.” He threw an arm over Mercer’s shoulders, guiding him out the door. “Have you ever heard an eyeball pop?”

Levi looked to Jericho, heart racing. “Can we go now? I want to go home and tell Shiloh.”

Jericho looked at Thomas, who nodded.

“Yeah, come on, boys. Let's go home. I’m sure freckles is waiting up for me.”

“It’s like, not even ten o’clock?” Seven noted.

Jericho snorted. “It’s like you don’t even know my husband at all.”