King of the Don's

eight

Vaughn

After I was done cleaning and bandaging Briar's hand, I called in one of my housekeepers, Gia, to escort her to the east wing and place her in spare room next to mine.

I instructed Gia to get her some clean clothes, food, and let her take a shower as well. I also made sure to assign some guards outside her bedroom door. I had never let a prisoner, or anyone else have a room next to mine, but I wanted to keep Briar close just in case she tried to do something stupid.

Again.

It was the next morning when I heard a knock on my office door, and Kane, my IT specialist, entered the room, "Good morning, Don." Kane walked closer to my desk, holding a manila envelope, "I'm sorry it took longer than normal, we had to do a little digging, but we have the report on Briar James." He told me, and I took the folder from his hand, while telling him he was dismissed.

I sat back down on my desk, and opened the envelope. I saw the basic stuff first, address and date of birth. I quickly took note that she had a birthday coming up, and knew that she'd be twenty. Shit, I'm almost fifteen fuckin' years older than her.

I disregarded the age gap, and kept reading, discovering that she was a student at a local college here in Boston. She was studying for her bachelor's in English, and I noticed that she has kept straight A's. The little lamb is smart.

I continued to read, she had no living family members nearby, only an aunt and uncle who were over a thousand miles away in Washington state. It didn't surprise me that she had no close family, when she thought I was going to kill her, the only thing she mentioned was a cat. A cat that she didn't even own.

Her family situation was pretty similar to mine, except I my mother was still alive. I hadn't seen her in years, she was too busy fuckin' off with men half her age, while galavanting around the world.

I kept reading her file, looking for anything else of use. But it was when I got to her medical records that I saw she had an unusual history at the Boston children's hospital.

I read through the list of her previous injuries, and I myself tense. On several different occasions, Briar's arm was pulled out of the socket. Several lacerations to her stomach and back were reported. She was treated for several things over the course of years, but there were multiple notes in the files stating untreated injuries, like burn marks and suspicious bruising. I read further, and saw her case was flagged multiple times for child abuse, but no one ever checked in on her.

And wasn't until I saw that when she was born, Briar indeed had hearing in both her ears. The records state she lost her hearing due to a severe ear infection at seven years old. It had ended up leaving her permanently deaf, and it was even documented that her parents left it untreated to the point where her ear drum had burst.

From there I went straight to her parents file, and saw her mom had passed when she was five, but that her dad didn't pass until she was eighteen. I looked further into her dad's file, and sure as shit, I found he was a police officer. Her dads buddies weren't going to look into him for child abuse. She never stood a chance.

Once I was done, I placed the file in my shredder. I almost felt a little sympathy toward the girl. My father was much like hers, but that was just considered life in the mafia. Briar didn't deserve that shit.

Then my mind started working toward the night Briar got taken. I recalled that she was freaked out by someone in the bar, but  what exactly did that mean? 

I knew I wasn't going to rest properly until I knew, so I clenched my jaw and called back down to Kane, "Yes, Don?" he answered the phone, and I cut straight to the point, "I want the video of her walking into the bar on eight, and every single moment until she is taken out." I instructed, and he didn't miss a beat, "Yes, sir. Sending it now."