I attempted to shake the hair from my eyes but failed. “Just because you’re my parole officer, it doesn’t mean squat.”
Travers’s green gaze bore a hole through me. “You see, that’s where you’re wrong. I got you out. I can throw you back in. I have the power to fudge records and do just about anything to make your life hell.”
I smirked as I recalled my conversation with Kelton.
“They’ll throw down some threats,”he’d said.
“Something funny?” Travers asked.
“Look, man. First, if you don’t want me to puke on your shiny loafers, I suggest you take off the cuffs.” I wasn’t lying.
He studied me for a brief moment then tipped his head at Frost.
Once free, I rubbed my wrists then combed my fingers through my sweaty hair. “Second, you’re smoking dope if you think my brother will tell me anything. He hasn’t visited me in six years. Besides, Duke is shrewd, cunning, and untrusting.”
“Even with his own blood?” Oscar asked.
“When you come from a dysfunctional family, trust has to be earned.” Duke had trusted me once, but that was a long time ago.
Travers leaned back, setting the flashlight on his lap. “We suspect the man shooting at you today is one of Duke’s men.”
I schooled my features, trying to read Travers and figure out if he was telling the truth. But behind Travers’s condescending attitude and grin, he was a hard man to read.
If he wasn’t pulling my chain, one humongous question stabbed me. When had I pissed off Duke so badly that he would want me dead? Not only that, why would my brother wait until I was out of prison to kill me?
“No comeback?” Travers asked.
The van took a sharp corner as though someone were chasing us. All of us listed to one side.
Then the van began to slow. A solid wall shielded us from the driver, and the back was devoid of windows. So I couldn’t tell if we were at a red light or our destination, wherever that might be.
I straightened and crossed my arms over my chest. “You want me to believe that my brother was at Alvarez’s apartment the night he was murdered and that he now has men trying to kill me?”
Saying both of those statements out loud made me shiver for some reason, probably because of the question Jade had posed.“What if the person who killed your boss wants you dead so you don’t find out the truth?”
Duke knew I would go to great lengths to find anything. I’d searched for over a year for our mother, who had taken off when we were boys. I hadn’t been successful, but I had put my heart and soul into scouring the streets, asking neighbors, my mom’s friends, and even my aunt who had been close to my mom. One of the only reasons I’d stopped was because of something my aunt had said.
“You won’t find her if she doesn’t want to be found.” My aunt knew her sister well. No one could find Mom, not even the cops. They hadn’t even found anything in their database of a woman fitting Mom’s name or description.
I couldn’t blame my mom for ditching my old man. However, I did blame her for leaving her kids with the monster she’d married. I wasn’t sure how I would react if I ever saw her again, but at the moment, my mom wasn’t my problem. Duke was.
Travers sighed. “Look, Hart. I know I can be a dick. But what we’re facing is some serious shit. The paramedics rushed a gunshot victim into the hospital not fifteen minutes ago. That man was in a shootout earlier with a lethal gang in Dorchester. Almost ten or more victims in gang shootings are rushed to the hospitals all over the city just about every night. This shit has to stop.”
“Do you know for sure Duke is responsible?” I asked.
“We know he’s working with the leaders of several gangs in the city. They just had a big powwow the day before Agent Brock and I met you in prison.” He pulled his phone out of his jacket pocket, tapped on the screen twice, then handed me the phone.
The picture in front of me was none other than my brother with two men I didn’t recognize. “I don’t see anything wrong here.”
“The man on your brother’s right is Brian McCauley,” Frost said. “He runs the gang out of Dorchester. The man on Duke’s left is McCauley’s lieutenant.”
The picture still didn’t tell me Duke was selling guns. He could very well be laundering money for them. “Is Tito Alvarez in the mix here?” Travers had mentioned gang leaders in Boston. To my knowledge, Tito had taken over his brother’s spot as leader of the Southside Creepers.
“Not that we know of,” Travers said. “The Creepers are small potatoes.”
“Don’t tell that to Tito,” I muttered. The man had an ego bigger than the universe, and if anyone wanted power and riches, it was Tito.
“Our offer still stands,” Travers said. “Get us something we can use, and your record will be expunged.”
