Rowdy’s voice dropped to a whisper. “That’s your way of saying I shouldn’t scare her?”
“Pretty much.”
Rowdy snorted. “Feel free to edit things however you want, but don’t make the mistake of keeping anything from her.”
No, he wouldn’t do that. Pepper had proven more resourceful than any woman he knew. She could handle the truth—and she deserved nothing less. “I wouldn’t.”
“No names, and nothing incriminating, got that?”
So the guy was listening to him? “Understood. Tell me what happened.”
“I was set to meet with a friend at a local bar, but instead, five bozos came in looking for me. I managed to get one of them—”
“How exactly did you do that?” Visions of Rowdy maiming someone, totally screwing the case, got his temples throbbing.
“He was stationed by the back exit, waiting for me. But I’m a faster, harder puncher than him.”
“He was alone?”
“Yeah. The other guys were going through the rest of the bar, asking questions, looking under tables, doing God knows what.”
A muffled protest ensued, followed by a thump. It got quiet again.
Logan choked back his annoyance. “So you punched him, and he decided to spill his guts to you, huh? He didn’t call out to the other four guys?”
Pepper jerked upright. “Other four guys? What are you talking about? Rowdy’s okay?”
“He’s bragging,” Logan told her, making sure Rowdy heard. “I’d say he’s still in one piece.”
Rowdy laughed. “Before he came to enough to start squawking, I stuffed him in my trunk and drove to a secure location to…question him.”
The muffled complaints escalated again.
Logan blew out a breath. “Care to tell me where this secure location is?”
“No.”
Pepper leaned against his back and twined her arms around his throat. He felt the cushion of her br**sts, and her warm breath on his ear.
It maddened him.
Cutting to the chase, Logan said, “How bad is he hurt, and what does he know?”
“He’s alive, but not real happy. He says he’s a top guy for the trafficker—and the guy who took a bullet to the noggin was a negotiator. Seems old Morton had planned to buy several young girls.”
His guts cramped. “How young?”
“Seventeen, eighteen. Thereabouts.”
Bastard. “He’d have used them at the club?”
“The idiot is unsure about that. All he knows is that Morton wanted a shipment, made a deal, but then tried to renege when it came time for final arrangements.”
“He didn’t want the girls after all?”
“Oh, he wanted them. He just didn’t want to pay the asking price.” As if coming to grips with the reality of human trafficking, Rowdy took several slow breaths.
Logan heard a thump, a groan and another thump. He didn’t need to be a psychic to know what happened. “Rowdy, listen to me.” He infused authority into his tone. “You need to get a handle on that temper. He’s scum, and he deserves it, but if you kill him I can’t help you.”
On alert, Pepper leaned back. She left her hands on his shoulders, idly caressing him.
“Help me what?”
“Stay clear of this.” Logan stood to put some space between himself and Pepper’s luscious naked body. She didn’t know the ugliness of the conversation or the fine line her brother walked right now. He needed his wits to talk Rowdy off the ledge before he did irreparable harm. “I know you’d like to kill him.”
“With my bare hands,” Rowdy said in a gravelly rasp. He breathed too fast, too low. “Do you know that he talks about women, about girls, like they’re f**king property?”
“I know.” He hadn’t dealt much in human trafficking, but there were other things just as revolting. The ones responsible seldom put any value on human life, and they almost never felt any real remorse. “I don’t blame you for roughing him up—”
“Good.” A few more solid punches and a few more groans. “I’m only giving him a little of what he deserves.”
“I’d have done the same.” Logan locked his jaw. “But you have to stop.”
Silence.
It wasn’t concern for the trafficker that kept Logan pacing, but Rowdy didn’t seem to be in the mood to listen, so he redirected his attention. “Tell me what you’ve found out so far.”
He practically heard Rowdy gathering himself before he finally said, “Morton tried blackmail.”
“Against who?”
“The traffickers. He said he had cops on his payroll, and on a whim, he could bring the force of the law against anyone on his shit list.”
“Why would he do that?”
“He wanted his supply dirt cheap, but that was a no-go. He got threatened in return, and he found out the trafficker has his own considerable means of retribution. For a lot of people, that sheds suspicion on his timely death.”
“It’d be good motivation to fake it.” If Andrews was believed dead, the traffickers would forget about revenge—and then Andrews could strike against them first.
“The theory is that Morton would get his shipment free, and maybe even try to take over the business. The two were battling for the rights to buy and sell women…” Rowdy sucked in several tight breaths. “Honest to God, I might have to slug him a few more times.”