“I’m guessing by Travis’s reaction that the Richlands were one of the opposing factions,” Suzy said.
Henry nodded. “Not that I have a lot of love for Travis—who, by the way, we only knew as Glen—but he was right. The Richland family was a bona fide smorgasbord of awful men and women ready and willing to do awful things. There were many times I wished I could arrest them on the spot just for talking about the things they had done.” He fisted his hand on top of the table, angry. “But we realized the main aggressor, Arnold Richland, was our golden goose. If we could catch him in the act or tie him to the shipments of guns his people were responsible for, we would potentially stop a mounting gang war before it started. Not to mention keep an influx of unregistered and very dangerous guns off the streets.”
“What about the other side? The other faction, they didn’t run guns?” Dante was leaning forward, attentive.
Henry was used to other law enforcement being interested when he talked about his undercover work. Especially in Riker County. Their undercover work wasn’t as in demand as it had been at his former job.
“They were into drugs, meth and pills mostly,” he answered. “But their matriarch, Nora, was trying to change that. She had started with negotiations to try to convince the Richland crew to combine forces. It didn’t end well. Which is what brought our attention to the ranch in the first place.”
“Sounds like a lot of chaos going on,” Suzy commented. “And not the good kind.”
“We thought we finally were getting the hang of it.” Henry snorted. There was no humor in the sound. “We were wrong.
“The night we thought we finally were going to catch Arnold, his family, and Nora and her cronies in talks with their product in tow, everything went south. Quick. A group of Richland’s guys ambushed the task force before they could take position. Didn’t hesitate opening fire. It was a domino effect that ended in Nora trying to destroy the evidence and get the heck out of Dodge. Before I knew it, the warehouse around us was engulfed in flames. We were trapped. I lost consciousness before we could find a way out. Next thing I know I’m waking up in the hospital, a member from our team having barely pulled me out before the building was too far gone. He said he never saw Calvin.”
“But that was the last time you saw Calvin before today,” Matt said, trying to confirm. “That’s why you thought he’d died in the fire.”
Henry nodded. “That and the fact that one of the Richland men trapped with us shot him three times in the chest before the fire let loose and I passed out.”
“Well, that would definitely convince me,” Matt said.
Henry tightened his fist.
“But I was wrong,” he growled. “Not just about Calvin’s death but him in general.” A thought Henry hadn’t had until that moment finally occurred to him. It was nearly overwhelming, pitting his thoughts squarely between more anger and betrayal. “When I saw Calvin today, he didn’t have a burn mark on him.”
Henry looked to Suzy, the leader of the group, standing tall and ready at the head of the table. Her expression softened. She’d already made the connection. Still, she’d let him voice it.
“Which means, if Calvin’s death was for show and he escaped the building before our guys could get in to grab me, he left me to die there.”
A silence swept through the room. Matt looked sympathetic as he broke it. “If he faked his death, then there’s a good possibility that he could have tipped off the Richlands in the first place.”
Each new theory was a dig to Henry’s side. Partly because he hadn’t thought of them until now. Partly because, if they were true, he hadn’t seen Calvin’s true motives back then. He’d been blind.
What did that mean for him now?
How could the people sitting around him trust his judgment?
How could they trust him period?
“People suck sometimes.”
They all turned their collective gaze to the open doorway. None other than Cassie Gates looked back at them. More aptly, looked back at him. Her eyes were as fierce as ever. Two green orbs that commanded all his attention and held it without contest. “We can account for a lot of stuff with this job, but at the end of the day, some people just choose to suck.”
She took a step farther into the room, unflinchingly unapologetic for interrupting. “And there’s not anything we can do about it but get back out there and work hard for those who don’t suck. Sure, your partner probably ended up being one of the bad guys. Doesn’t mean you stopped being one of the good ones. Okay?”
Henry could get lost in those eyes.
And had done so once before.
“Okay,” he answered.
Cassie nodded once, like she’d accomplished what she’d come for, and then turned to Suzy. “To be totally honest, I just eavesdropped most of that conversation,” she started. It was a bold move, admitting that to the boss. However, Suzy didn’t appear to be angry. Instead she waited for an explanation she must have realized was coming.
Henry was starting to see that normal rules didn’t always apply to the family that was the Riker County Sheriff’s Department. They really were an all-in-this-together kind of group. “But the door was cracked and...well, I think I have some information that might not be so great.”
Suzy motioned to the closest chair.
Henry watched as she sat a little awkwardly, minding her stomach.
A baby boy cradled inside.
Which was why what she said next made his blood boil.
“A man showed up at my house just now.” She held up her hand, as if knowing they all were a second away from barraging her with questions. “It wasn’t Calvin, but it was Michael.”
* * *
THE ROOM EXPLODED in noise. It made her already twisting nerves knot further. Like wind-whipped hair with no brush strong enough to conquer it. Cassie ran her hands through her own hair. It brought little comfort. She hoped no one notice how her hands had a small shake to them.
“I’m fine,” she said, collecting her nerve. “He didn’t do anything other than talk. I don’t know if that had anything to do with me being pregnant or Kristen being there, but he left. I was able to get Detective Ansler on his cell and he said he’d go ahead and notify local PD.” Cassie didn’t meet anyone’s eyes. “Still, it spooked me enough that Kristen drove me here. She’s in the break room. I hope that’s okay?”
Suzy nodded. Out of Cassie’s periphery she saw Henry move forward in his seat, anxious.
“What did he say?” His voice was clipped. Like he was holding back.
Cassie wondered if the others heard the difference. She wondered if there really even was a difference. Or was she just interpreting his concern for something more?
“What did he want, Cassie?”
She exhaled and fanned her fingers across her stomach. Rubbing it, she felt some sense of comfort as she spoke.
“Honestly, I don’t know what he wanted,” she admitted. “But he apologized. For the ‘runaround’ earlier. He said he hadn’t thought I would get involved but complimented my driving.” She remembered how innocent the conversation had been. Michael had been even-tempered, polite and, unless she had misread him, sincere. Then there had been a shift in his stance, his tone, too. “After that he told me that it might be a good idea to get out of town for a few days and visit my parents. Said it would be good for me...and the baby.”
This time Cassie chanced a look at Henry. The deputy was strung so tight she would bet she could have played him like an instrument had she wanted. Though she would rather have known the thoughts running through his head.
“Then he got into the same car he was in this morning and left. That’s when I called Detective Ansler.”
Henry’s frown nearly rolled in on itself.
He wasn’t the only one.
“He threatened you,” Matt said.
> Cassie shook her head.
“He seemed genuinely concerned,” she admitted. Henry started to open his mouth, so she hurried to finish the thought. “Which, I know, doesn’t make sense, but, honestly, I think it was just a warning.”
“One that Henry more or less received himself from Travis Newman.” Suzy’s voice had gone steely. Analytical. They were dancing around something very real. Something much more ominous than a storm in the distance. Something they didn’t fully understand.
But desperately needed to.
Despite his anger, or maybe because of it, Henry was the voice that rang loud, clear and steady throughout the conference room. “We don’t know who is pulling the strings, but I think what Travis did was the start of something. Something that’s going to hurt. ‘The people running this thing got a big plan for everyone here.’ I don’t think the ‘here’ Travis meant was about the county, or the town, for that matter. I think he was talking about the sheriff’s department. Or maybe the people who run it.”
Cassie let out a small gasp.
“Billy,” she realized.
Henry nodded.
“I think we’re about to have an all-out attack against us,” he said. “And what better way to start than by getting the sheriff out of the picture and then taking out our communications?” Henry jabbed his finger down on the table’s top, capturing everyone’s attention even though it was already on him. “‘As soon as it gets dark, all hell will be raining down.’”
Suzy straightened, standing tall.
Tall and angry. “So, whoever they are, they’re going to hit us tonight.”
It wasn’t a question.
Chapter Twelve
“Are you kidding me?” Suzy said, twenty minutes after their meeting in the conference room had ended.
Henry didn’t bother keeping his voice low. There was no point. Not when the department around them was one long stream of bustling noise. “You said it yourself. There’s a good chance that the department will be attacked tonight! And you want to send me home? I know I’m technically new, but you’ve seen my résumé, you know what I’ve done.” He let his hands fly around the air in front of him, physically broadcasting his frustration. “You know what I can do.”
Suzy kept her expression tight and guarded. She was in planning mode. He’d caught her right before she was headed in to giving her troops the battle plan.
The troops he’d been told he wasn’t included in.
“Listen, I know you’re more than capable of helping, but I think the best way you can do that is by not being in or around the department.” She pointed outside her office.
For a moment Henry thought he was being told to leave.
She continued. “Travis Newman would never have talked to us, at least not in time if there really is an attack. He did talk to Gage Coulson. What if he isn’t the only one who’s a part of this who thinks that’s who you really are? Every minute you are here, you are further risking us losing the ability to use that if we need to again. As much as I admire and empathize with what you have done and been through, the fact of the matter is that right now the department needs Gage. If it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t even have an idea of what might be happening.”
Henry ran a hand through his hair. He cursed.
Suzy didn’t mind.
“What about Calvin?” he had to ask. “And Michael? I think it’s pretty safe to say they both know that Gage was just a cover. What if that’s already blown and Travis was just the last to know? Even in the criminal world, there are just some people you don’t trust with the important details. For all we know, this could be a giant trap. One you are asking me to leave you all to walk into.”
Suzy had been indulging him up until that moment, he realized seconds too late.
“I am not asking you do to anything. I am ordering you to leave.” She leaned forward, resting her fists on the desktop. It was a power move. One she pulled off well. “If this is a trap, then having abled-bodied men and women out there will only help us in the long run. But you’re right, Travis may not know whatever plan is out there. Heck, we could all be jumping to one big conclusion. And if that’s the case, I’m going to need you to be Gage again to figure out what really is going on. Which is why you’re going to leave your uniform off and lie low until we figure out what is and isn’t a plan or trap.”
Henry didn’t speak. He was angry.
Angry that he was effectively being benched.
Angry that the reasoning made sense.
“Is that understood?”
Henry met her gaze and nodded. “But I’m not leaving Cassie’s side.”
The words came out before he knew he was going to say them. Yet he stood by them, resolute. “Michael knows where she lives, which means Calvin could, too. If he thinks that he can hurt me by hurting her, he could use that. Let me make sure that doesn’t happen.”
Suzy’s eyebrow arched high. “I want to point out that Cassie has showed that she can handle herself. She doesn’t need any hero or savior to watch over her. I mean, she did come to your rescue earlier. She’s clever, quick and resourceful when she needs to be.”
Henry had opened his mouth to protest what he thought she perceived as a request—when he fully planned on doing it with or without permission—when she held up her hand in a stop motion.
“However, today there are a lot of unknown pieces on this particular chessboard. Ones I don’t like. So I’d like to have a few of our own in place. Ones we can control. I am not her keeper, but I will suggest she consider having you around until we know what is or isn’t happening.”
Suzy was done with the conversation. She grabbed a file on her desk and headed for the door.
“And if she doesn’t want me around?”
Chief Deputy Sheriff Simmons didn’t so much as hesitate in her response. “Then you do it anyway.”
* * *
THE SKY WAS the perfect blend of blue and gray, caught somewhere in between calm and dreary. The humidity was less pleasing. It made the air heavy and wet. Uncomfortable and unforgiving mixed with the heat. It fused clothes to skin and tempted all moods into souring.
Not that Cassie’s mood needed help in that department.
She cast her gaze away from the sky.
Rain was on the horizon, but it wasn’t promised. The change in pressure was pricking at her sinuses. A wicked headache would certainly be in her future. Another problem she’d have to endure.
It was much smaller in comparison to the rest.
At least a headache she understood.
The rest?
Calvin and Michael?
A possible attack against the department?
A man she barely knew with the power to completely and utterly derail her thoughts with ease?
Those were things Cassie was having a harder time wrapping her mind around.
Suzy had made a case for her protection that she had and hadn’t appreciated. One that involved the walking conundrum that was wrapped in a pair of mouthwatering jeans. Henry had stood by stoically, like a Southern bodyguard waiting in the wings for her to try her hand at either fight or flight.
Instead she’d fallen somewhere in between.
“He can come home with me, check out the house and hang around while I get some things, but then I’m going to Kristen’s for the rest of the afternoon and night,” she’d said. “After that he can hang outside in the car if he thinks it’s a good idea.”
Suzy was pushed for time, but she paused long enough to add in another two cents, even using a nickname she’d heard Cassie call herself from time to time. “Better safe than sorry, baby mama.”
Suzy had left then, face grim but ready. Henry’s expression was also dark yet alert. He didn’t speak as they went to the break room to get Kristen. Which was good for Cassie. Two steps inside the break room a
nd she had a crisis of conscience so severe she didn’t speak for a moment.
The department might be attacked that night by a formally deceased undercover cop, a self-proclaimed information peddler, and potentially more unknown faces and motives. Not that Calvin’s or Michael’s motives were clear.
What did they stand to gain going against the Riker County Sheriff’s Department?
What was the point?
Cassie wanted to ask her sister that question, to brainstorm possibilities with her built-in best friend, but what good would that do? Telling Kristen everything that had happened was one thing. Telling her everything that might happen?
One look at Kristen, with her head bent over her phone and brow pulled tight, and Cassie made up her mind.
Her sister, plus her family as a whole, had already been through a lot in the last couple of years. Some of it had been personal; most of it had had to do with the scar that would forever be on Cassie’s neck.
The bullet that had almost killed her, shot by a man who had simply missed his original target.
If someone was actually trying to target her?
Cassie fanned her fingers across her stomach. Protecting her unborn child.
Trying to keep her nerves from overwhelming her.
Some what-ifs were better left unsaid.
“You okay, Kristen?”
Kristen was startled but recovered with a scowl. “Yeah, but no.” She stood, agitated. “Work drama. Apparently the Danvers finally want to look at the Banana House out in Darby. I asked to reschedule and then Candice swooped in, fangs out.”
“Banana House?” Henry asked at their elbow as they moved into the hallway. The department was still bustling from trying to get their communications in order. How would it be when Suzy told them to ready themselves for potential battle?
“It’s this yellow monstrosity of a house about an hour from here,” Kristen answered. “It’s been on the market for three years and this older couple from Florida expressed interest in it a while ago. I’ve been trying to gently push them to look at it and they decided today was the day.”
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