One more thing." Brenner said. " Mr. Kimball asked me to remind you that he has friends throughout this community, business partners, political connections, people who depend on his goodwill. If you continue to attack him, those people will be forced to choose sides, and they won't choose you." It was a threat, barely disguised. "
Keep fighting and we'll make you pariahs. Keep fighting and you'll lose more than just your homes." Brenner smiled. " I'll give you 24 hours to consider. My contact information is on the agreements.
Call anytime." He turned to leave. His two companions followed. At the door, he paused. " Mr. Holloway, a word of advice.
You're new to this. You don't understand the situation you've inserted yourself into. Mr. Kimball has been generous so far, but his patience has limits. Walk away while you still can." Then they were gone.
The fellowship hall erupted. " 10% is better than nothing." " It's a trap. He's trying to divide us." " We can't fight him.
He's too powerful." " We have to try." Voices overlapping, panic spreading. The careful unity they'd built starting to fracture under pressure. Garrett didn't raise his voice, didn't try to shout over the chaos.
He just stood there, waiting. Sarge moved to his side, sat, steady presence in a room that was losing its center. Eventually, the noise died down. People looked at him, waiting for direction, waiting for someone to tell them what to do. " 10%."
Garrett said quietly. " That's what Wade's offering. 10% reduction in exchange for your silence, for your compliance, for your agreement to pretend he didn't destroy your lives." He let that sit for a moment. " Here's what he's not offering.
He's not offering to return the homes he seized, not offering to apologize for the suicides his practice has caused, not offering to stop doing this to the next 43 families. He's offering you 10% off the chains he locked around your necks, and in exchange, you help him lock those same chains around someone else." Robert Patterson stood up. " But Garrett, we're old, we're tired. We don't have the strength for a years-long legal battle.
10% might be all we can realistically get." " You're right." Garrett said. " You are old, you are tired. So am I. I'm 67.
My knees hurt, my back hurts. I wake up some mornings and can barely get out of bed. But you know what hurts more than aging? Regret. Looking back and knowing you had a chance to stand up to evil and chose not to because it was easier to take the scraps he offered."
He walked to the center of the room. Sarge followed. " My wife died 20 months ago. In the time since, I've been a ghost, going through motions, fixing engines because engines don't ask questions, don't demand emotion, don't require me to care. I thought that was safer.
Thought not caring meant not hurting." His voice got quieter, more raw. " But yesterday, I sat in this room and listened to 18 people tell stories about losing everything, about shame so deep they couldn't look their own children in the eye, about giving up, about wanting to die, and I realized something. The opposite of caring isn't safety. It's death.
Maybe not physical death, but the death of everything that makes us human." He looked around the room, met eyes, held gazes. " Wade Kimball is offering you 10%. I'm offering you something else, your dignity, your self-respect, the knowledge that you stood up when it mattered, that you fought back when everyone said you'd lose, that you chose the hard right over the easy wrong." Margaret Sterling was crying, quietly, tears running down her face. "
My husband put a gun in his mouth because of Wade Kimball, because he couldn't face me, couldn't face himself, couldn't live with the shame." Her voice broke. " If I take Wade's offer now, if I accept his money and sign his paper and promise to be quiet, what does that say about my husband's death? That it was meaningless? That I value 10% more than I value justice for the man I loved?"
She shook her head. " No. No, I won't do it. I won't take his money. I won't sign his paper.
I won't be quiet." Harvey stood. " Neither will I." One by one, the others stood. Evelyn, Robert, and Linda. All 18 families standing together, choosing the hard path, choosing dignity over discount.
Douglas had been watching from the side. Now, he stepped forward. " You just did something remarkable." he said. His voice was thick. "
You chose principle over pragmatism, justice over expedience. That's rare. That's powerful. That's how we win." The group spent the rest of the afternoon fortifying their case, more details, more documentation, more preparation for the battle ahead.
At 6:00 p.m., Garrett's phone rang, unknown number. He stepped outside to answer. " Holloway? Mr. Holloway, this is Agent Naomi Pritchard, FBI field office in Phoenix. Do you have a moment?"
Garrett's pulse quickened. " Yes, ma'am." " I received a complaint today from a lawyer named Richard Brenner, claims you and several others are engaged in harassment and defamation of his client, Wade Kimball. He's demanding an investigation." " That's interesting timing.
We were about to contact you about Wade Kimball ourselves." A pause. " Go on." Garrett explained. The pattern, the 18 families, the predatory lending, the evidence they'd gathered.
Naomi was quiet when he finished. Then, "Mr. Holloway, I need you to understand something. Loan sharking cases are difficult. Victims often recant, evidence disappears, and if local law enforcement is compromised, it becomes nearly impossible to prosecute." " I understand.
But" another pause "my father was a veteran, Desert Storm same as you. He came home and got caught up with a loan shark in Nevada. Lost everything. Killed himself when I was 17." Garrett closed his eyes. "
I'm sorry." " I became an FBI agent because of that, because I wanted to stop people like the man who destroyed my father. So, when you tell me there's a loan shark in Arizona who's been operating for 12 years, who's targeting veterans, who's driven people to suicide, that gets my attention. What do you need from us? Evidence, lots of it, organized, documented, and I need victims willing to testify, not just affidavits, actual testimony, on record, under oath.
Can you provide that? Yes. How many victims are willing to go on record? 18 so far, possibly more. Naomi's breath caught.