“Consider it done. I’ll have my crew bring them to me when they’re found. I usually find the kids’ computers hold more information than the adult ones. For some reason, crooks think the kids are safe from being looked at too hard.” After telling the lead man what she wanted and where they would find things, she turned back to Tru. “I have a feeling there is something you’re not telling me. Care to share? I have to tell you, Tru, I’m impressed with you. When Anna has time, she’s going to come over and work with the two of us as well. She’s smart too.”
“I’m not really smart. You know that, right?” Rogen asked her if she was serious. “I am. I have this brain that lets me remember everything. I don’t have to study things. I’ve never failed at any classes. Not because I’m all that smart, but I can just pull the information from my ass and use it. That’s cheating.”
“Who told you that?” Tru didn’t answer, but Rogen could see it had been someone. “That’s fucking bullshit. You know that, don’t you? I’d like to hunt this person down—who I’m betting was some fucktard of a man—and show him what cheating is. Mother fucker. He needs to have his ass kicked.”
Tru laughed. “Calm down, Mom. I’m okay with it. I mean, when you really think about it, it is sort of like me having an open book on every test I take. The only time I really enjoy having this brain pan is when I’m working a job. Like in the emergency room when I first got here. That, for me, is where I really use my memory.” Rogen wasn’t happy about it, but she supposed Tru was right. “I have a question for you. Can you arrest Shasta before she gets it in her head to sell off her kids to someone? I’m not positive she’d do something like that, but she might be desperate enough to try. She did mention she was planning to flee the country when her husband was released.”
“Yes. Good point. Those kids don’t need any more trauma in their lives.” She glanced at the screen where the family was. “You should call your father. I’m sure he’s been worried about you for a while now. It would be a good time now that I’m in the house with the computers. I’ve shut them down in the event someone else might try to hack into them.”
“Thanks.” She pulled out her cell and put it back when Rogen offered her a secure landline. “He might not answer. I mean, he might just think— Hello, Dad. It’s Tru.”
As soon as he burst into tears, Rogen turned off the monitor and left the basement. She knew Tru had wanted to call her dad for a couple of days now and was glad she’d been able to make it work for her. She’d have to remind her she could be a nice person once in a while. Laughing, she closed the door behind her when she reached the upper level.
~~~
Tru waited while her mom got on the other line. They were both crying when they spoke to her, tumbling their tales all over each other until she told them she couldn’t understand them. When Mom told her she was going to put the boys busy with something, Tru told her she loved her and would speak to her before she hung up.
“How are you, Tru? Keeping out of trouble?” She told him she wasn’t. “Good for you. I’m sure you’ve heard all about this hullabaloo going on around here. I swear to you, daughter, when I was informed Mike was going to jail, I could have jumped to the moon. You really are all right?”
“Dad, I know you’re biting at the bit to know what I’m doing, but like I told you before, I cannot tell you shit.” He said he was hoping she would slip up. “I won’t. But I do have great news for you. News you cannot share with anyone. Just Mom. All right?”
“You know better than to ask that of me, darling. I’ve been keeping secrets for a long time.” She said she knew that. “You’ve met someone that has finally stolen your heart.” When he laughed, she could only wonder why that was the first thing he’d guessed. “Tru? Is that it?”
“Yes.” Jerking the phone from her ear, she laughed when he whooped loudly. When he finally calmed down, Dad asked her if that was really it. “It is. I’ve fallen for this great man. He’s a pain in the ass, but we’re coming to terms with that. But I can’t tell you anymore. His name would even be trouble for all of us.”
She had fallen for the man. But did she love him? She wasn’t sure yet, but she did have very strong feelings for Houston. Could it be love? She’d figure it out before she saw her parents.
“All right. Oh honey, I’m so happy for you both. I won’t ask any questions about him, but I surely am excited to meet this person.” He laughed again. “You’ll have to tell your mother. I’m sure she thinks I’m off my noodle now. What is it that has you not coming here? I have a feeling you don’t work for any kind of little company that serves the public, do you?”
“I do serve the public, but not in a way one might think. But enough about that for now. I need to know what you can tell me about Shasta and Mike. He’s not ever getting out. I wanted you to know that right now. And they’re going to arrest Shasta soon too. She and Mike were planning to leave the country.” Dad told her about the boys, and that he was going to keep them from her. “I’ll see what I can do for you on this end. Dad, there are two things I want you to do. First of all, I want you and Mom to think about adopting them. They’re going to need someone stable in their life after this. Second thing is, tell them everything you know about their parents. I don’t think they’ll give you any shit, but they’re going to hear a great many things about their parents. Most of it will be true, and I want them to be able to face it when it comes out. They’ll both be better equipped to deal with it if they’re not blindsided by what they hear. I’ll give you what I can when I can, but for the most part, tell them.”
“Adopting them wouldn’t be an issue. I don’t know if their parents will be all right with it.” Tru told him how they’d be going to prison for what they were up to. “Even Shasta? What did she know about this?”
“She knew almost everything, from what I’m finding out. The affairs as well as the money. I think she might have even known about the coke and the prostitution ring he had going on. Shasta had to know the money coming in was coming from someplace. Then when things started to dry up, Shasta had a hand in putting off the bill collectors until ‘things worked out on her end with her husband,’ as she has been telling them.” Dad asked how long she’d be gone. “I don’t know. I just know she will serve some time. Mike will get life. I’ve figured out a couple of murders can be attached to what he’s been up to.”
“Christ.” She didn’t say anything. “I don’t suppose I can save my company, can I? I mean, honey, that’s been in my family for generations. We’ve worked so hard in making it a viable company.”
“I just don’t know yet. I would tell you if I could, but I honestly don’t know how much he owes to all the other companies he and Shasta have been using. Then there are the drug deals, the fines, and sentencing that will come from the drugs and the women he had coming in. I don’t have a handle on that part yet, but I’m working with some people that might know before it comes out. I’ll tell you what I can.” Dad told her he was glad she’d told him about the shares. “Me too. And your pension. The government might well have taken that from you as well should it have been there still.”
They talked for a little while longer. Not much about Shasta or Mike, but more about the things he was planning to do when this shit was done. When Mom came back on the line, she told her about falling for this great man. She was louder than Dad had been when she heard.
“I’m going to have a friend of mine send you a clean phone to use. It will only have a few numbers on it, and that’s all I want you to ever call on it.” Dad asked her if she was safe. “Yes. I am. I’m very safe now. But you have to keep everything we’ve spoken about to yourselves. If you don’t, then things might fall apart for a great many people. Also, you can’t tell anyone that I’m alive. Not Shasta or anyone else that might come around.”
“You know you can trust us.” Dad sniffled a little. “Please call us when you can, Tru. It’s nice to hear a voi
ce that isn’t asking me for money.”
“I’m so sorry about that, Dad. I don’t know what her deal is, but she’s going to have to learn pretty quickly that things don’t always go her way.” Dad said she had that right. “All right. I’m going to get off here. Remember what I said—you have to keep the boys in the loop. They’ll need to know as much as you do.”
When she closed the connection, she sat there in the basement for a while. There was a great deal going on. Not just with her family, but other things as well. Tru had a nagging feeling, however, that Mike had somehow been in on her being shot. How he’d found out what she was and where she’d been was something she didn’t know, but Tru was usually right when it came to her gut feelings.
The woman who had shot her was an agent she’d seen in the book she’d made a copy of. Tru decided to hand the drive over to Rogen and let her have it for her own personal use. It was sort of a thing, she thought, to sit around waiting to do your job and try and figure out who might be around on a different assignment. Thinking of the face of the woman that had shot her, Tru wondered if she’d been working on something else when she shot her, or, and this scared her too much to consider, had she been sent there specifically to kill her?
“How’s it going?” She looked over at Houston’s dad when he joined her in the basement. “I came by to see if I could get one of you girls to help an old man out with something, and Rogen said you were down here. I guess you talked to your dad.”
“I did. He and my mom are caring for my two nephews.” Thatch nodded but didn’t say anything. “What did you need done, Thatch? Anything I can do? I’m pretty resourceful when I want to be.”
“I would imagine you can be more resourceful than Rogen when the mood strikes you.” She asked him why he’d say that. “I don’t know. You give off this feeling like you’re dumber than a bag of rocks, but I know for a fact you’re far from it. Also, and this is something I only just noticed, you’re forever armed. It might not be with a gun or something that fires like that, but you have all kinds of stuff on your person that you can use when you need to. I bet you’re armed right now, aren’t you, honey?”
Standing up, she laid her pistol on the table by her. Then her wire, a long blade, as well as two clips. Putting the small vial with the rest of her things, she told him it was untraceable poison. As she laid the throwing stars, three of them, as well as the barrettes from her hair on the table, he shook his head. She pulled the barrettes apart and made them into what they were used for—long thin blades that could go right into the heart without much in the way of effort. Then she sat back down.
He touched his fingers to the wire before he spoke. “I can understand all this is needed to keep you safe and to take care of whatever job you happen to be on, but it saddens this old man to death that you have to be armed like this. And to be so sneaky about it.” He looked at her before he stood up. “I would like for you to show me and Meggie how to spot someone tagging us. I had a feeling today that we were being followed, but after a bit, she just drove away.”
“You were more than likely being followed, Thatch, if you felt that way. And she didn’t drive away, but more than likely, you picked up another tag. Someone out to get you? I mean that in all seriousness. Do you have a reason to think you’re being followed?” He said he couldn’t think of anything. “Did you get the license plate of the car? A description, perhaps?”
“I did on both.” He handed her the paper it was written on, and she put it in her pocket. “How do I know if I’m really being followed? I don’t want anything to happen to me or Meggie while we’re out and about. Even the thought of it gives me the willies.”
Thatcher came down to ask if she wanted to stay for dinner, that Houston had said it was up to her. When she told him she’d love that, only if Thatch and Meggie came too, Thatcher asked his dad. Before he went up the stairs again, Tru stopped him.
“Your dad needs to have a tracer on his cars. Also, I have a buddy that has a watch business that can make it so they can be found by turning a couple of dials on it. Your dad thinks he might have been followed today. Can you run this shit?” When she pointed to the monitors on the wall, Thatcher came all the way down the stairs, and she handed him what his father had given him. After about five minutes, Thatcher turned to her and his dad.
“It’s a rental car. A woman by the name of Robin Hood rented it three days ago.” Thatch laughed. Neither she nor Thatcher did. “Why would someone be tracking my parents? Do you think they’re looking for you?”
“I don’t know. Do you have a picture of Robin Hood?” He nodded but didn’t move to pull it up yet. “Should I be worried, Thatcher? You know something?”
“I might. A while back, when I was talking to one of the men that works for Rogen, he was telling me there was a group of people out trolling. I thought I knew what that meant, but after talking to Rogen, I had a whole other meaning for it.” Thatch asked what it meant. “Trolling in this business means they’re out looking for every member of a certain group or family. Looking for the way they do things, the habits they have in leaving the house and coming home. They’re trolling for information; patterns, I guess you could call it.”
Rogen joined them, and Thatcher moved out of her way when she started working at the computer. They were being very hush-hush about this. It didn’t bother Tru, but Thatch looked like he was going to bust something if he didn’t get any answers.
“Robin Hood, Marian Maid, as well as Tucker Fryer have rented cars all over the state, and are right here in this county. All three of them on the same day you were shot.” Rogen turned to her. “I’m going to show you some photos, and you tell me if you see anyone you know. All right?”
The first picture came up, and she nearly fell back in her chair. It was of the man called Tucker Fryer, Rogen told her. It was obviously a driver’s license picture, but it was a face she knew. The second picture of Robin Hood she also knew. But it was Marion Maid she knew the best.
“Robin is Agent 1253.” Rogen asked her if she knew the other two pictures. The ones of Tucker and Marion. “Yes. That’s my brother-in-law, Mike Arnold. The woman is my sister, Shasta. Holy fuck balls, they’ve been double crossing the country for at least a year. That’s when Robin started working as an agent.”
They were all talking around her, and all she could think about was that her sister had been in on the plot to have her killed. If she’d not been, her husband had for sure. Rogen mentioned something about the Jolly Men cell they’d been trying to catch, and they had three of them right here, two of them in jail. When someone touched her arm, she looked up at Houston, and he pulled her into his arms.
“Houston, I love you so much. I love you with all my heart.” Houston kissed her deeply. She was glad they’d been left alone so she could do this without being made fun of. “I’m sorry it took me so long. But I told my parents I’d fallen for this great guy, and I just now realized I have fallen for you. I love you more than I have ever thought was possible.”
“I love you too. Very much. When this is all finished up, soon I hope, we’ll go and talk to your parents. All right?” Tru nodded. “Good. I love you very much, Tru Justice Robinson.”
“I like that. It has a nice ring to it.”
They walked hand in hand up to the main floor. Having dinner with his family was good tonight. She figured out she loved them all as well.
Chapter 5
“How did you know?” Thatcher looked at Tru and frowned. He told her he needed more information since he knew everything. “Sure, you do. How did you know to call Rogen down, and that the pictures were of my family?”
“Oh. Well, a few nights ago, Rogen was working, and I came down to feed Jimmy his dinner before putting him to bed. I asked her what she was doing—sometimes, I can learn something easily that way, just casually asking.” He grinned when Tru told him to shit or get off the fucking pot. “So muc
h like Rogen. I asked her if she had pictures of your brother-in-law. She brought up this picture of him with a woman. I told her you and your sister didn’t look a thing alike. That was when she pulled up a shot of your sister. The woman Mike was with was the agent you’re now calling Twelve.”
“He’s having an affair with her.” Thatcher told her it looked that way. “So when you pulled up the information, you saw Mike’s picture and called Rogen. You could have told me, Thatcher. I wouldn’t have hurt you too badly.”
“I didn’t keep it from you so much as I was worried I’d gotten the wrong information.” She asked him what he meant. “I haven’t been playing around with the programs all that long, you see. And when the thumbnails of Mike, then Shasta, came up on the computer, I was worried if I told you, it would be giving you false information. Instead of screwing with your head, because it would have mine, I called Rogen down so she could double check my work. I’m so sorry the information wasn’t better.”
“But it was good intel.” Thatcher then asked her how she came to that. “I know now my sister may be in on this plot to have me killed. She’s the only one that returned her rental the same day. I don’t know why she’d go under a different name, but I’ll find that out. Mike knows I’m an agent, and he got that information from Twelve. Things are starting to fall into place a little better. I know now that Mike is going to have to be put into a federal prison, and his girlfriend is going to go as well. If either of them makes it that far.”
“There are some things I can tell you about Twelve. If you want it.” Tru nodded. “All right. Her name is Alison Parkerson. She’s under surveillance right now. Rogen told me they were waiting to get her alone before she’s simply killed. I didn’t understand that wording, so I asked. Twelve will be shot once in the head, Rogen told me and left where she dies. Seems really cold, but then she’s been playing the wrong side of the job for a while, I guess.”
Houston: Robinson Destruction – Paranormal Tiger Shifter Romance Page 6
