TANTRIC (Book 3 of the Soundcrush Series)

Chapter 59: FrontMen Set Their Play

So, we've seen Ash set her plan in motion. Now it's time to slink with the Lion as he secures his pride and stalks his prey...

The song is Heathens...because...Dev and Leed. I think I'm gonna love this pair committing high crimes together!

Leed

When I can breathe again, I pick myself up off the airport floor, tuck my feelings back behind the ferocious anger still roaring through me, drink two more shots of tequila in the VIP lounge so I don't punch a pap on the way out of the airport, and then I head toward the Valet in the VIP terminal. It's time to go to work, like fucking Riley.

I call the private investigator and demand a report on everything he can find on Varrick Von within thirty minutes.

My next call is to Adam. When he answers with a casual "'Ay man, how was Costa Rica?" I launch straight into business.

"Nevermind that. Our security is compromised. Sentinel is owned by a man that hurt Ashlynn. Stick with your Nashville security firm when you guys make your way out here for rehearsals in a few days. Do NOT leave your family in the hands of any Sentinel employees, not even John Rourke. Not until I figure out how blind his loyalty is to his boss."

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Adam says.

"Varrick Von. He bought Sentinel Security last year. He was Ashlynn's...Dom, after she left Trace. That's what he convinced her of, anyway. He constantly abused her. She broke with him, and he chased her around the country—she was running from him, not from Trace that whole time. When he caught up to her, and she refused to come back to him, he went full on psycho and carved her up with knife. She has...bad scars and worse trauma. She would never tell me who he was. I just found out today.That's not all. Adam...I'm pretty sure he bought Sentinel right around the time I started visiting Ashlynn at rehab. I don't think it's a coincidence. Not only that...his former college sweetheart went missing twenty years ago. Never found. She looks just like Ashlynn. I think...I think Von killed her."

"Sweet Jesus." After a short pause. "What are you gonna do?"

"What the fuck do you think I'm gonna do, Adam?"

"Hey, hey, hey...be cool. Beating on the dude might be satisfying but that's not the way. He should go to jail, man."

"She won't go to the police. He's threatening to release video of their...scenes. He sent her one today...I...fuck...Adam...it was...rough. I don't know if Ashlynn can take being exposed like that. Kat, her family...seeing it...it might..."

"Give her a real need not to feel," he says grimly. "Send her back to oblivion."

"Yeah."

"Fuck."

Silence.

"Leed? You can't go crazy on this guy, you know that, right? I don't fault you at all for what you did to Cain Gannon in the heat of the moment—I would have done the exact same if I had walked in on him hurting Mac. But if you lose your mind on this guy now, after all this time...that's not the same. Defense is a man's duty, but vengeance is not man's arena. Leave Von to the courts and to God's justice."

I don't care to hear what Preacher has to say about that. My course is set and he can't sway me. I called for a much different piece of advice.

"Yeah, yeah, I hear ya," I blow him off. "Adam...that's not what I'm trying to figure out right now. I gotta bigger problem. It's not just John who's loyalty has to be proven."

"Shit. Ben."

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I can't make everything happen at once. That's the problem. If I tell Tam what I know, she will tell Ben, and that might tip Von off.