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BEN

 

After spending time explaining to my contact that we needed someone to get caught by Julian, I needed to deal with what to do about Hunter. Justin wasn’t willing to use Hunter unless we needed to, but that meant finding some place to put Hunter that I could guarantee he’d be hidden. I needed help from a friend to make sure Hunter stayed under the radar, and knew of one person who could make sure of it for me. I understood Justin wanting to protect the kid from what Justin’s work did to his life, since my work was doing the same thing to Justin’s. I smiled when Carl sat down next to me. It had been years since he hauled my ass out of the gutter I ended up in and set me on the path to a better life. 

 

“I should be insulted that you’ve been here and didn’t bother to let me know.” Carl says, looking out at the kids playing around us.

 

“Life in the pickle factory.” I tell him.

 

“Why are they playing in my yard?” He asks.

 

“Yates.” I tell him.

 

“Bad guy there, protect yourself.” He tells me.

 

“I always do, you taught me that. I need a favor.” I tell him.

 

“Name it.” He tells me.

 

“I have a package arriving here today. I was hoping you could pick it up, feed it, and make sure no one figures out it arrived.” I tell him.

 

“Is it trouble?” He asks, not really concerned.

 

“Only if the wrong people figure it out. I promised to make it safe, and I think you’d understand him the way you understood me.” I tell him.

 

“You’ll tell me if you need my help. Don’t make me have to try to solve your murder.” Carl commands me.

 

“As far as I know murder hasn’t been one of the things he’s done.” I tell him.

 

“But the rest would be worse than dead.” Carl tells me, taking the newspaper between us.

 

“If only we could prove it.” I tell him.

 

“What do you know?” Carl asks.

 

“Apparently Justin doesn’t know what he has, and I don’t have a clue what that means.” I tell him.

 

“Let’s go for a walk.” Carl tells me. I smile as cops start wandering all over the place, protecting Carl of all people. Of course they don’t have a clue about the real Carl Horvath.

 

“I wasn’t followed.” I tell Carl.

 

“I’m making sure you still aren’t.” Carl tells me as we get to the car waiting for us.

 

“Miss the old days?” I ask.

 

“Not in the least. But I don’t like how they put you in the middle of something without the information you need.” He tells me.

 

“We thought Justin was the key. Only nothing Justin does leads us to anything to pin on Julian.” I tell him.

 

“Now they’re more interested in Justin than Julian?” He asks.

 

“Of course. But Justin isn’t built for the life they would force on him.” I tell him.

 

“You got attached.” Carl says, shaking his head.

 

“Not like that. You can’t spend as much time with someone as I have with him and not feel something about them.” I tell him.

 

“It's about more than Justin's interest in Brian Kinney.” He tells me, suddenly.

 

“How do you know anything about that?” I ask.

 

“The chief of police wanted me to run Brian Kinney as a favor. Something not unusual, if he hadn’t asked me to dig into Brian’s personal life. Which I might have let go, except he continued talking, like people do when they’re trying to make you buy why they’re lying to you. He claimed he just wanted to know in case he wanted to use Brian’s company for advertising for the city. So I checked into the boy for my own curiosity, and found out you were in town.” Carl tells me.

 

“What does Justin not know about?” I ask, because Justin dating Brian couldn’t be the reason for all of this.

 

“Good question. But the better question is why would Justin leaving his solitude cause all of this? Or how about, why would it matter to Julian?” Carl says, looking at me.

 

“I'm still coming up empty.” I tell him. 

 

“Think Ben. Stop seeing Justin as a person, think of him as the tool everyone wants him for. A tool no one could get to talk to them, but…” Carl said, smiling when my brain

 kicked in gear.

 

“...Could use him, if they were willing to deal with Julian.” I tell him, feeling like a idiot.

 

“Unlike the idiots who fucked in Julian’s toilet, these people could make Julian dance to their tune. Only for that to happen,  they need someone like Justin, and for Justin to stop looking through them. Why do you think Julian watches Justin the way he does?” Carl asks me.

 

“To keep others away from Justin. Does Julian knows about me?” I ask.

 

“No. Because your boss knows I’d come after him if anyone found out about you. Julian’s aware that all of the agencies are hoping to take him down, but he has enough people in his pocket to keep it from happening.” He tells me.

 

“Only if Justin stayed where Julian put him.” I said, thinking.

 

“How many people do you think would be interested in offering Justin whatever it took to change teams?” Carl asks.

 

“I need to get to Justin.” I tell Carl, because some of those people were worse than Julian.

 

“I’ll pick up Hunter.” He tells me.

 

“I really should have said ‘Hi’ when I came to town.” I tell him, wishing I’d contacted Carl from the beginning.

 

“I let you know what I find out.” He tells me.

 

 

JUSTIN

 

I woke up to something that smelled like heaven, which with Ben could be hit or miss. Ben’s cooking was something I ate, not wanting to know what healthy thing he hid in it. I got up, deciding I didn’t feel like getting dressed. Brian texted that he would be busy for the next couple of days. And I needed to get the programs finished to protect the guys who were going to start screwing up Julian’s day. I’d been trying to figure out a way to keep Brian and his friends out of everything, and with Brian busy it would make it easier to do what I planned to do today. I wandered into the kitchen, planning to just take the plate Ben normally sat on the table. 

 

“Yep, I get it.” Emmett says, looking at me in my underwear. “I thought about you know, getting a lift, but then I sort of got distracted by the floor show. Plus my Georgie likes it the way it is, but really I would love to have that to show off to the boys.” Emmett says, tilting his head at me.

 

“Um…”

 

“Oh, did I forget, Brian sort of said I should watch out for you when he couldn’t. Not that he said for me to come here today, but I figured why not, since I’m bored and felt like cooking.” Emmett tells me.

 

“He did? …you know there’s problems?” I ask.

 

“Hold on for a second.” Emmett tells me, grabbing a basket.

 

I follow him, not getting what he was doing. I watch as he goes out the door and starts handing people sandwiches and drinks. All six of them look surprised when Emmett approaches them. And every one of them avoids looking at me, which was probably due to the fact that I forgot I was still in my underwear standing in front of my open door.

 

“Let me know what you think. And if you need a personal chef I’m available.” Emmett yells at all of them as he comes back. “Baby says my cooking is to die for!” He yells, herding me back in the house, but turns out the door one more time. “Hey, if you’re all still hanging out later I’ll make sure to bring you guys some more.” Emmett says, looking at each person, before slamming the door shut. “Well that should get them all away for awhile.”

 

“How did you…” 

 

“Please, I hang around Brian Kinney. Trust me, they have nothing on the men who stalk Brian.” He tells me.

 

“I need to… I have work to do. Thanks for doing this, but I don’t want to keep you.” I tell him, hoping he’ll get the message.

 

Emmett stands in front of me, as if he is trying to figure out something about me. It’s hard for me to stand still under his scrutiny. Shifting from foot to foot, I just sit down and started eating to have something to do.

 

“Running isn’t the answer.” Emmett says, sitting across from me.

 

“Running?” I ask.

 

“You have the look I had all my life growing up in Hazelhurst. I get it, trust me. But you need to get that you have people willing to do whatever it takes to help you. Brian said it to Michael; he knows what being involved with you means to him, and he’s willing to stand with you. Do him a favor and don’t disappoint him by thinking running off is protecting him.” Emmett tells me.

 

“You don’t get it. It’s not just about him, but all of you. His son,... shit, anyone in his life. Julian has the kind of money and power to make all of you wish I’d just disappear. If I’d had a clue what letting someone in my life could do, I would have locked myself in this house. I can’t change what I did, but I can take whatever this is away from all of you.” I tell him, trying to get him to understand.

 

“You really think we’d let you go? Honey, we protect ours. Which you are now, because Brian wants it. Use that giant brain of yours and figure out a way to do what you need to with our help.” Emmett tells me.

 

I got up and Emmett followed me to my office, like he thought I’d run if he didn’t. I got answers from everyone and sent each what they needed to get away with what they were going to start doing today. 

 

“If you want to stay, sit there and do whatever you do.” I tell him, waiting for the systems to crash.

 

“I talk.” He shrugs.

 

“Go for it. Just don’t get insulted if I don’t answer you.” I tell him.

 

“I think we’re going to be great friends. So, Teddy called me to tell me about Brian offering him a…” The rest of what he said was just white noise. 

 

 

JULIAN

 

I really didn’t like Stockwell, but then I doubt he liked me either. He was one of those who stuck by his wife, was the perfect father, and generally didn’t have anything I could use, yet. I had no plans to help the fucker, but he had his uses. He’d covered up bashings and other things, but then, I honestly didn’t give a shit about it. I only kept him in my circle because he supplied me with information, and in the end it would point back to him. 

 

“So what do you think?” He asks, barely concealing the fact that he hated dealing with me.

 

“About?” I ask, since I hadn’t listened to a word he said when he came in.

 

“I plan to run for mayor. With all the favors I’ve done for you, it’s time for you to help me.” He tells me. Making me want to laugh that he thought he held any power over me.

 

“I’ll think about it, but you have yet to get me anything I could use.” I tell him.

 

“Other than he’s well known in the community, there’s nothing but a family he barely talks to.” He tells me.

 

“I keep hitting a wall when it comes to him.” I said out loud, not really to the moron in front of me.

 

“If you’d tell me why you want the information, then maybe I could help more.” He hints.

 

My door opens and one of the idiots in IT is standing there, looking like he was about to shit his shorts having to talk to me. My first thought is ‘YOUR FIRED’, for just walking into my office.

 

“I’m sorry… but we’re being attacked. They managed to crash our network. And all our computers are frozen.” He tells me.

 

I look at my screen, which is frozen, but I hadn’t noticed because Stockwell was annoying me. “Have you sent this to Justin?” I ask.

 

“Sir, we can’t unfreeze our computers and you’ve told us Justin is only to be contacted by you.” He says, pissing me off that he reminded me of my own rule.

 

“We can talk about this later.” Stockwell says, getting up.

 

“Did you find out anything at all?” I ask Stockwell, as I am dialing.

 

“He has a son with two lesbians, but I didn’t think you would care about that.” He tells me.

 

“Send me the information about the kid.” I tell him, as he walks out.

 

Justin's phone just went straight to voicemail, so I dialed Ben to get Justin on this. The IT guy was standing there hopping from foot to foot, making me want to kick his ass for still being there. 

 

“Julian?” Ben asks.

 

“I need you to get Justin to get my system back on line and hand me the head of the asshole who took it down.” I order, hanging up. I look at the idiot still standing in my office. “Is there some reason I pay you?” I ask.

 

“Um… the thing is… well…” He stammers.

 

“The longer it takes you to tell me the more likely you’ll be saying ‘would like fries with that’.” I tell him.

 

“I managed to find one of the hackers.” He tells me, handing me a paper.

 

“One?” I ask.

 

“We were being hit left and right, before the system crashed. This one I managed to trace.” He tells me.

 

I looked at the paper, not recognizing this name. I sent Justin a text to find out who Daphne Chanders is.

 

 

 

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