your house, the guys moved. They knew where you were going and with the GPS knew exactly the route you’d take. Greg always had pictures taken in case he needed some leverage with an overconfident henchman .” Wes gives Luke a look, as Luke is the one who has referred to the men on Gregory Meyer’s secret payroll as henchmen.
“How do you know all this?” I ask Wes. If he wasn’t there, how could he possibly know all the details?
“We henchmen were a fraternity of sorts. We didn’t have anyone else to talk to. We were the only ones who knew what it was like to be controlled by Meyer that way. I had just been brought in and a few of the guys were showing me the ropes, giving me Gregory Meyer’s Ten Commandments. Well, one of the guys was giving me some 101 on how Greg likes things done. He started explaining the technical side to one of his last jobs…how he did the bugging and tagging and another guy drove the car.”
“I want to meet the driver,” I say blankly. “I have a right to face him.”
“You can’t, Layla,” Luke says.
“Why not? If neither he nor Meyer is going to pay for what they did, then he deserves a tongue lashing from me at the very least!”
“Because he’s dead . He was just the driver and was told what his mark was. The objective was to send a message about what Meyer was capable of. If that ended in his mark dying, fine. If not, the message would still be clear. When he realized you were in car, too, he freaked. The thought that he could have killed a child tormented him for weeks. He went to Meyer and told him about there being a kid in the car and asked to be released from his duties, but Meyer didn’t care.” Wes sighs. “They found him dead in his car, closed up in his garage with the engine running. He left a note laying it all out but there were too many cops on Meyer’s payroll for it to find its way into evidence.” Wes’s delivery features his usual cool and calm cadence. He knows how to communicate terrible information without letting the awful details deter him from his objective.
“How could you stand working for him after that? He killed my father…your brother,” I say to Luke. I’m trying not to cry as I think about the insanity of it all.
“I was scared, Layla. I had to stay. He had made his point, and his point was that I was not immune to his rules. I knew exactly what he was capable of. I don’t know what he would have done, who else he would have hurt, if I followed through with my threat to turn him into the ethics board,” Luke says, his face strained and his voice faltering as he relives the pain he went through.
“That’s why you changed your mind about having another baby. You were afraid of what he might do to them.” The pieces of this impossible puzzle are coming together and I can’t believe the picture that is being revealed.
“And why even five years later I convinced Claire that having you live with us would be too difficult for her. I hated that I had kept her from being a mother again. I felt like the more people there were in my life that I loved, the more targets there were in his twisted game. But…when I saw you standing there in the kitchen after the funeral, so afraid that you were about to be abandoned…I couldn’t deny you or Claire the opportunity to have the family you needed. It wouldn’t have been fair to either of you. That’s when I vowed to spend every second of my time at the firm collecting even more evidence to one day take Greg down.”
Wes and Luke wait silently while I absorb everything. This is not what I was expecting, not that I knew what to expect. I’ve heard about, witnessed, and personally experienced the wrath of Gregory Meyer, but the lengths that man would go to prove a point or send a message is now frighteningly clear.
I consider everything that Will and I have been through over the past three years and see how lucky we really are. After Will raised his voice at his father that night
“How do you know all this?” I ask Wes. If he wasn’t there, how could he possibly know all the details?
“We henchmen were a fraternity of sorts. We didn’t have anyone else to talk to. We were the only ones who knew what it was like to be controlled by Meyer that way. I had just been brought in and a few of the guys were showing me the ropes, giving me Gregory Meyer’s Ten Commandments. Well, one of the guys was giving me some 101 on how Greg likes things done. He started explaining the technical side to one of his last jobs…how he did the bugging and tagging and another guy drove the car.”
“I want to meet the driver,” I say blankly. “I have a right to face him.”
“You can’t, Layla,” Luke says.
“Why not? If neither he nor Meyer is going to pay for what they did, then he deserves a tongue lashing from me at the very least!”
“Because he’s dead . He was just the driver and was told what his mark was. The objective was to send a message about what Meyer was capable of. If that ended in his mark dying, fine. If not, the message would still be clear. When he realized you were in car, too, he freaked. The thought that he could have killed a child tormented him for weeks. He went to Meyer and told him about there being a kid in the car and asked to be released from his duties, but Meyer didn’t care.” Wes sighs. “They found him dead in his car, closed up in his garage with the engine running. He left a note laying it all out but there were too many cops on Meyer’s payroll for it to find its way into evidence.” Wes’s delivery features his usual cool and calm cadence. He knows how to communicate terrible information without letting the awful details deter him from his objective.
“How could you stand working for him after that? He killed my father…your brother,” I say to Luke. I’m trying not to cry as I think about the insanity of it all.
“I was scared, Layla. I had to stay. He had made his point, and his point was that I was not immune to his rules. I knew exactly what he was capable of. I don’t know what he would have done, who else he would have hurt, if I followed through with my threat to turn him into the ethics board,” Luke says, his face strained and his voice faltering as he relives the pain he went through.
“That’s why you changed your mind about having another baby. You were afraid of what he might do to them.” The pieces of this impossible puzzle are coming together and I can’t believe the picture that is being revealed.
“And why even five years later I convinced Claire that having you live with us would be too difficult for her. I hated that I had kept her from being a mother again. I felt like the more people there were in my life that I loved, the more targets there were in his twisted game. But…when I saw you standing there in the kitchen after the funeral, so afraid that you were about to be abandoned…I couldn’t deny you or Claire the opportunity to have the family you needed. It wouldn’t have been fair to either of you. That’s when I vowed to spend every second of my time at the firm collecting even more evidence to one day take Greg down.”
Wes and Luke wait silently while I absorb everything. This is not what I was expecting, not that I knew what to expect. I’ve heard about, witnessed, and personally experienced the wrath of Gregory Meyer, but the lengths that man would go to prove a point or send a message is now frighteningly clear.
I consider everything that Will and I have been through over the past three years and see how lucky we really are. After Will raised his voice at his father that night
Similar Books
