JULIAN

Even if I wouldn’t admit to anyone else, I made a mistake with Lindsay Peterson. I’d seen the family at the club on multiple occasions and thought I understood the dynamics within the family. In all the interactions I’d witnessed I thought I read it right that the family didn’t support Lindsay and therefore wouldn’t be a problem for me. Ron Peterson proved me wrong and had no problem letting me know that going near his daughter and grandson would have me dealing with not only him but all his allies in business. Ron Peterson alone I could handle, but the people who owed him favors were vast, and none of them were people I could touch. 

Gus seemed like the perfect way to get Brian to walk away from Justin when nothing else was working. Ryder and Gardner didn’t understand what I was beginning to about Brian. Hurting Brian did nothing. Threatening him did even less. But his little family was something he protected. Brian’s public life told a different story than the one he led away from all the people who only saw the IT boy of the clubs. I looked into Brian’s life and found that he was taking care of his son, then I looked at his life as a whole. He still supported his drunk of a mother, the sister who hated him, and he stayed friends with people who did nothing for him. He could have left the losers when he started making a success of himself, only he continued taking care of them. He did anything they needed of him, not seeing that they were dragging him down. I didn’t get him. Why would he care about a waitress and the friends, when he could have left them and started his climb to success somewhere other than Pittsburgh. I didn’t understand what Justin would see in Brian, other than the looks that Brian did use quite well. What Brian didn’t use was the intelligence that I didn’t realize he had. Brian wasn’t in Justin’s league, but he wasn’t far behind him. Brian could read people better than Justin, and that was something I didn’t need, since it was likely my little threat to Lindsay wouldn’t be overlooked by Brian.  

Justin not answering my calls didn’t bode well for me. I wanted to smash Ames’s head into a wall when he told me the patrons at the bar Justin went to meet Brian Kinney at kept him blocked in, then helped Justin escape with Brian. He did mention Ben was there getting cozy with the group, and that I found interesting. I was starting to doubt Ben’s allegiance to me. Everything Ben did lately was suspicious. He targeted the one person who Brian hasn’t been around lately, Michael Novotny. Gary filled me in on the friendship, telling me that when it came to Michael, Brian was protective of the little man. Something I stored for later, since right now Brian’s interest was centered on Justin. Gary hated Brian for being what Gary thought owning Babylon would make him; a god among the boys.

I left the club after Ron’s warning, knowing I needed to find out why Gary was demanding we talk. Lately all Gary wanted to talk about was Justin. He questioned me about why he’d never seen Justin, and he didn’t buy that it was because what Justin did at my company was too important to waste him on the deviants that would pay top dollar for him. I wasn’t happy with Gary’s interest in Justin. I expressly told him Justin was off limits because what he did was invaluable to me, and there was no price anyone could offer me for Justin. I made a mistake in telling Gary that, because his interest in Justin only increased. He didn’t get that I was telling the truth about why I first hired Justin, the information he could find was the reason people were willing to bow down to me. 

Unfortunately for Justin, he fit all of Gary’s criteria when it came to selection. He also thought that Justin’s life meant no one but me would notice him missing, which Gary got wrong. Justin wasn’t invisible. The people that were interested in Justin’s real talents would notice if he went missing, along with Brian’s network of friends. Which I had to explain to Gary before he agreed it would be better to leave Justin alone. Brian’s interest in Justin also got the interest of half the club, and suddenly Gary got that Justin couldn’t disappear without a lot of questions being asked. It was the one thing that I could thank Brian for, making it so Gary wouldn’t dare go near Justin. It didn’t mean I didn’t want their association to end though, because until Brian, Justin was mine.

If Justin started getting suspicious there would be no stone in my life he wouldn’t overturn, and my father was one I didn’t need Justin to find.  My father was the person who introduced Gary and I, suggesting we help Gary since it meant my father didn’t have to go looking for victims. He could just have Gary deliver them to his door, then get rid of them to avoid the scandal of having someone suggest my father liked little boys. My father was a liability to our name; the family spent years pretending he wasn’t the sick bastard he is. My grandfather left the problem of my father in my lap by giving him his share of our family business. It was hard for me not to want to find a way to rid the family of the albatross that was my father, but my grandfather made sure I couldn’t touch the bastard. The bastard owned forty-nine percent of my business, and that meant dealing with Gary since my father wanted us to.

When Gary contacted me about Justin showing up at his club he thought I sent Justin to ruin him. I waited to see what Justin was doing, and until the night he took off with Brian Kinney, I couldn’t figure it out. I thought everything was fine, and reminded Gary who was the boss. Then he made the comment about waiting for Brian to be through with Justin before he had a taste.

Gary was never happy with having to take orders from me but knew his little enterprise would have been short lived without me, since my father wasn’t interested in anything but what Gary provided him. As far as I was concerned, him using the resources my father provided meant eighty percent of the profit belonged to me. It helped that he couldn't get a hold of the evidence that would have him dying in prison. It also made it so Gary knew better than to think on his own. The idiot didn’t understand at first why I insisted on people no one would care went missing. He wanted easy, not to have to clean them up, and make sure they were what the buyers would be willing to pay for. I made a career out of seeing potential in the people I hired or exploited, it meant making Gary see beyond the surface of the kids we acquired. He only saw what the dirty clothes and the stench living on the street did to them. I saw the package that would have our buyers outbidding each other. It wasn’t hard, since I knew what attracted my father. Which to me said Gary only receiving twenty percent was more than he deserved for his help in getting them to his house on the right nights.

I’d been worried about the attacks on my system only because Gary had been trying for years to get his hands on the video of him and his friends accidentally killing one of the kids they raped multiple times one night, before overdosing the kid when he started to realize what had been done to him. He tried to get me to the parties, but rape was rather tasteless to me, when men were willing to do anything I wanted without anything to make them do it. I was many things, but never would I be like the man who contributed to my birth.

I wanted nothing to tie me to Gary Sapperstein, and thought he understood not to show up anywhere someone would see us together. My father set up the business by funneling the money to our families legitimate businesses. It was my job to make sure the funds left without anyone knowing they were ever there in the first place. At first, when Justin and Gary saw each other I didn’t really worry about it because Justin tends to live in his head. Only Gary noticed Justin, and when I talked to the security guy I found out Justin watched Gary and me in the elevator. I waited for Justin to leave before asking the security guy if Justin asked anything about Gary or why he was here. Nothing Justin did said he noticed anything, until Gary called to tell me Justin started showing up at his club. 

Gary would really be after Justin if he knew what Justin had without knowing it. Justin was the perfect place to hide all the secrets Gary wished he could get. Gary kept records of everything my father requested, but in turn I had proof of Gary’s stupidity, and he knew what he had wasn’t as strong as the video proof of what really happens at his parties. I made sure I had more than just the one night.

I had always kept the thumb drive with everything connecting me to Gary and my family with me, not trusting the information anywhere I couldn’t see it. The morning I waited for Justin I wandered around his house, wanting to hide the drive. After I looked around not getting why Justin kept some of the things he did, I decided the old teddy bear he left in a box in is closet wasn’t anything Justin would bother with. The thing was left as if he forgotten to throw it away. It had a small tear and I stuffed the drive into it, planning to retrieve it if I needed it. I figured with my plans for Justin and me, it meant I could get to it anytime I wanted to. Only Justin refuses to see things my way, refusing all my invitations where I planned to have Brian showing Justin the Brian all of Babylon worships. Which won’t happen if Lindsay tells either of them about dinner.

I’d been working on a way to get out of the whole business, since I started to see Justin in a different capacity in my life. It was taking time to unravel my businesses and clean the accounts. If my father wanted to continue he’d have to find a new supplier because I’d make sure  Stockwell no longer had a reason to protect Gary, but to parade him in Stockwell’s bid for mayor. It was almost done until the accountant that I had working on it fucked up by thinking he was untouchable since he was the one laundering the money. I let Gary and his twisted friends show him what happens to anyone who crosses either of us. Which in hindsight wasn’t the greatest thing to do, since he’s barely making any progress drinking the memories away.  

I pulled up to the back entrance of the club, thinking about the night I watched Justin at Babylon, finding myself jealous and hating the way Brian kept his attention. It was new for me; wanting something. Gary was too busy bitching about the way Brian paid attention to Justin. Something that, according to Gary, never happened with Brian. Gary truly hated Brian Kinney. Gary might have owned the club, but Brian ruled it. Gary was used to wanting things and he wanted what Brian got effortlessly in Gary’s club; all the attention. 

I scowled when Gary got in my car. He seemed to think I saw him as an equal, which I encouraged when he helped me blackmail others to do what I wanted. Only now he was the same liability my father was.

“Is there some reason you think having my phone number means using it?” I ask.

“I thought we could help each other.” He tells me.

It was hard not to roll my eyes at the idea Gary thought anything, much less something that could help me, since he would gladly bury me if he could.

“Once again I have to remind you that I’m the one who does the thinking.” I tell him.

“So far all you seem to be doing is sitting on your ass. Meanwhile, I managed to find out why Brian shoved Gardner and Ryder’s offer up their asses.” He tells me.

“What did you find out?” I ask, since none of my people could.

“He’s starting his own company. Which wouldn’t be a big deal, but the backers are the ones you call the Untouchables.” He tells me.

“Anything else before you go?” I ask, trying to sound like it didn’t matter to me.

Gary started to say something, but the lights and sounds around us stopped. I looked around and only the club seem to have lost power.

“Someone was in my home computer, which means someone could have looked at things neither of us want anyone to know about.” Gary said, getting out to run into the club.

I sat not moving, hoping whoever got into Gary’s computer didn’t have a way to break the encryption to the information Gary would stupidly think was safe. I warned Gary over and over not to store anything on a computer he didn’t want anyone to access, but the idiot didn’t listen. My only hope was it was just some kid playing around and wouldn’t be able to break Justin’s code.  

BRIAN

Mel spent the whole time we were driving to George’s house quizzing us about anything we found. Which at this point wasn’t much, Justin was still working on linking Julian to Sapp. I called Carl, telling him we needed his help and he agreed to meet with us at George’s house. When we got there Carl was shaking his head at the two bickering twins in the living room.

Daphne stopped lecturing the kid I assumed was Hunter to run over to Justin and whisper in his ear. Justin stopped being timid and looked over at Hunter as if he wanted to beat his ass.

“What were you thinking?” Justin asked him.

“That I was here to help, not sit around checking Daphne out.” Hunter said smiling.

“I didn’t want you involved, that’s not why I brought you here.” Justin tells him.

“Why did you bring me here? It’s not like I matter to you.” Hunter asks him.

“Because I’m the one who put you in Julian’s sights. If I hadn’t given him your information you wouldn’t have had to see what a useless piece of shit your father was.” Justin tells him.

“You think it’s your fault for what I did that got me caught? Dude, let me give you a clue. My piece of shit of a father wasn’t news to me, and my life was pretty much shit before Julian got a hold of me. What I did was stupid. I did it because I wanted to get caught. Because meeting you was something I wanted to do since the first time I saw you.” Hunter tells him.

“What?” Justin asked.

“I saw you once, and wished I could be like you. Everyone around you was talking shit about you, then were in awe of you when you seemed to do what no one else in the room could do. Only you didn’t act like it made you better than anyone else. I sort of started looking up anything I could find on you, and wanted to succeed the way you did without anyone helping you. I wanted to be able to not let people bother me... not believe I’d end up the way everyone thinks I will. I did what I did because I wanted your attention.” Hunter tells him.

“I… I’m not a… hero. What you were seeing…” Justin says, looking at me not sure how to explain himself.

“Was his way of coping with a world that didn’t know how to talk to him.” I tell Hunter.

“Unless he’s pissed at you.” Daphne adds.

“What did you do?” I asked Hunter.

“I overheard Daphne talking about this guy Sapperstein, and that Justin wanted something on him. I contacted a few guys who hack around here and they were pretty much thrilled to help Justin. I got in Sapperstein’s home system and downloaded what I could before I had to get out. Only the shit’s in gibberish.” Hunter tells us.

“What do you mean gibberish?” Justin asks.

“Just that who ever encrypted the shit is way above what I can do.” He tells him.

“Daph?” Justin said looking to her.

“Every program I tried only ends up stopping halfway through with error codes. Then it’s equations that no one in the world could solve before the fucking bunnies.” She tells me, looking at Justin.

Justin smiled when she said the last part. “This one won’t.” Justin tells her, handing her a thumb drive.

“Fucking bunnies, Justin.” She tells him, taking it.

“What am I missing?” Hunter says, looking at both of them.

“I wrote the encryption.” Justin tells him.

“How long will this take?” Daphne asked plugging in the thumb drive.

“An hour, I didn’t want it to be easy.” Justin tells her.

“How about we talk about why I’m here and what it has to do with Sapperstein.” Carl tells us.

Carl stayed quiet while I explained what we were piecing together, but we could see the anger Carl was trying to keep in check when Justin asked him why he allowed kids to go missing without looking into it. 

“It’s not that we don’t want to find them, it’s that they normally don’t leave a way to find them. Their cases would still be open, but without any leads they end up a cold file. We don’t have unlimited resources.” Carl tells him.

“Then why did I run into closed files?” Justin asks him.

“All the missing kids were closed?” He asked.

“I didn’t look at all of them, but there were a lot that were closed practically the day they opened them.” Justin tells him.

“Which means Julian got Stockwell to get them closed, and the detective who closed them did it because it was one less problem on their desk.” Carl tells us.

“Then ask them to reopen them.” I tell him.

“That would have them telling Stockwell I asked. And that’s pretty much telling Julian, since the information I gave Stockwell on Brian was what Julian tried to use on Lindsay.” He tells us.

“I want them to pay for what they did.” Justin tells him.

“Then get me the files on the closed cases and be prepared for what we have to do to get what we need.” Carl tells Justin.

“Which is?” I ask.

“Justin willing to work for us.” Ben said from the doorway.

“They’ll only help if I work for them? What about the people who are likely living in hell because of Julian and Sapperstein?” Justin asks.

“This is why I left. It’s all about getting what they want; fuck what happens to people.” Carl tells Ben.

“It’s why I told them no for Justin. They don’t get to blackmail him into working for them.” Ben tells him.

“Ben they aren’t going to be happy with you.” Carl says, concerned.

“I went into this job to protect people, doing things I hated myself for afterwards. But knowing I was helping got me through it. Only this time they don’t care if they get the bad guys and are willing to let Julian and Sapperstein get away with it, if Justin doesn’t agree to be used by them.” Ben tells us.

“Then you and I do what they can’t and Justin tells them to go to hell.” Carl tells him.

Lindsay came in with Gus, and Justin went over to him when he demanded his attention. Carl and Ben left the room, while we gave my son what he wanted. While we waited around George had lunch served and handed me a message from Lindsay’s father.

“I told you he wants to help.” Lindsay tells me, when I showed her the note.

“By offering to make sure all his associates take my appointments?” I ask her.

“You gave him a grandson he loves.” Justin tells me.

“Dude. I thought my father was bad.” Hunter says reading the screen with Daphne.

“What?” Justin asks, handing Gus to Lindsay.

“You know that link you wanted?” Daphne asks.

“Can you just tell me without drawing it out.” Justin tells her, when she blocks the screen.

“Sapperstein keeps a list of product, and who they go to and what they pay.” Hunter tells him.

“He doesn’t name what he’s selling which was smart, but if what I’m looking at is right he has one person who doesn’t pay anything for ‘product’.” Daphne tells us.

“Julian?” I ask.

“Nope, Julian’s father. Which might be why Justin couldn’t find anything to link Julian to Sapperstein. I bet if we look at Julian’s father, we’ll find what we couldn’t find with Julian.” She tells us.

“I’ll find it.” Justin said, wandering off.

“What do we do?” Hunter asks.

“You don’t do anything that makes Justin have to worry about you.” Daphne tells him.

“I only wanted to help.” Hunter tells her.

“If he needs you to then you will, but for now just be happy that you finally got what you wanted in life.” I tell him.

“What?” Hunter asks.

“Someone who cares about you, and will for the rest of your life.” I tell him, knowing how it felt when Deb did that for me and when Justin came into my life.