Page 67 of Property of Sugar
“Who gets custody of Hannah?”
“Me,” Brock said as if it were obvious. “Hannah ismydaughter. Ashley is her stepmother.”
Whisker leaned back in his chair and watched Brock carefully. “One last question. Were you aware that Matthew and Ashley were trying to sell your daughter to Trenton?”
The explosive outburst I expected from Brock didn’t come. Instead, he sat completely still and stared at Whisker. “What did you say?” he asked quietly, calmly.
Whisker pushed the envelope we found in Matthew’s room across the table to Brock. “I asked if you knew about that.”
Brock opened the envelope and haphazardly emptied the contents. A few photos scattered from the stack and landed face up on the table. Brock glanced down and promptly lost his shit. It took four of us to contain him until he calmed down enough to continue.
“What I said earlier was, ‘That answers that,’” I told Brock. “We wanted to know if you knew, and clearly you didn’t.”
Brock wiped some blood from the corner of his mouth. “What if I did know?”
“We were gonna kill you.”
“Is that what you did with Matthew and Ashley?”
Whisker grinned. “We can’t tell you that.”
Brock bristled. “I need to know if they’re still out there trying tosellmy child!”
“That isn’t a concern you should trouble yourself with going forward. That’s all you get.”
“I’ll take it. Where’s Hannah?”
“Not so fast. We can’t let you leave without some assurance that we can trust you with the information you learned today.”
“What kind of assurance?”
Whisker leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table. He nodded toward the pictures. “Those aren’t all of them. Bring us Trenton, and you can have the others back or watch me destroy them. Fuck us over and you’ll receive the same treatment your wife did.”
Right on cue, Beaver turned his laptop around and played the camera footage of Taco puking on Ashley after Slit handed him her arm.
Brock covered his mouth with his hand. I couldn’t tell if he felt sick or if he was trying not to laugh. Dropping his hand, he exhaled slowly. “I’ll call Trenton and tell him I need to meet with him as soon as possible. It might be tomorrow evening or the next day. Will that work?”
“Yes,” Whisker said. “You and your daughter will stay here until we have Trenton. Leave your phone with Beaver. We’ll come get you when we want to contact Trenton tomorrow. Sugar will take you up to see Hannah. That’s all for now.” Whisker banged the torque wrench and stood. “I’m fucking beat. I’m going to bed. Call me if something happens.”
CHAPTER 25
SUGAR
Cookie and I escorted Brock to the med room where Hannah was sleeping. Brock let out a loud sob and dropped to his knees when he saw her. “Oh, Hannah, I’m so sorry.”
Hannah’s eyes blinked open. “Daddy, why are you crying?” she asked sleepily.
“Daddy’s happy.”
“Okay,” she yawned and closed her eyes.
“Brock is going to stay here with Hannah, so we can clear out,” I said quietly, motioning for Kalani and Birdie to follow me.
We passed Whisker on the stairs as we were leaving. “Night, Prez.”
“Night.”
Beaver came flying out of his room. “Wait! Ashley just got a text from Trenton wanting to know where the fuck she is.”
