I nodded. “And I’ll be right here!”
She pointed to her mug. “If someone comes around with coffee, let them know to top me off. Okay?”
I paused. “Coffee is refillable here?”
She giggled as she walked away. “Only if you get a plain mug to mix up yourself! Want me to grab you one?”
“Yes, please!”
As I leaned back in my chair, polishing off the rest of my caramel coffee, my eyes dropped to my purse. I couldn’t leave my phone off all damn day, Ben would surely come after me. But if I turned my phone on and blamed it on battery life before telling him what was happening, he might accept that as truth.
How much information can someone find on a phone that’s being traced?
I hadn’t been on board with Ben tapping my phone in the first place. But I understood—somewhat—since I was in contact with someone he was researching. However, the more I got into this, the more I felt like Ben and his guys had it all wrong.
In the pit of my gut, I knew Sly and his guys weren’t responsible for this craziness that brought my brother to town in the first place.
I took a chance, though, and dug around in my purse. I slipped the battery back into my phone and turned it on, then sighed with relief. Holy shit. My phone actually was dying. I only had thirty-two percent.
Thank God I always forget to charge your phone overnight.
But the second my phone queued up, a phone call came rushing through. From my brother.
“Hey there, Ben,” I said as I picked up the call.
He wasn’t happy, though. “Are you insane?”
I paused. “Uh, what?”
“Why the fuck would you leave this apartment and turn off your damn phone when you’re right there in the middle of—”
I blinked. “I forgot to plug my phone in last night. I’ve only got thirty percent or something like that. Would you calm down?”
He groaned. “Why the hell do you always—”
“Is there a reason you’re bothering me right now? All I’m trying to do is have some coffee and some food without you breathing down my throat—”
“You live with me and you went on a date with someone we’re investigating. So, yes. I’m going to be breathing down your throat.”
“Then, consider this my two-week notice.”
He paused. “What?”
“I’ll be taking the next job offered to me and I’ll be moving out. Because if this is how I’m going to be treated ‘out of the goodness of your heart?’ Then, you can keep your goodness. My phone is going back off so it doesn’t die. I’ll be out the rest of the day. Don't like it? Suck it up.”
Then, I hung up my phone and took the battery out again.
“Someone bothering you?” Joanna asked.
I jumped at the sound of her voice before I whipped around. “Huh?”
She quirked an eyebrow. “Didn’t sound like a friendly conversation. You okay?”
I sighed. “Just my overprotective brother doing his overprotective thing.”
“I saw you take the battery out of your phone. Looks like a little more than just being overprotective.”
My eyes met hers. “I really don’t want to talk about it, Joanna. Okay?”
She nodded slowly. “All right. But just know you’ve got options. And now? You know an excellent lawyer.”
I snickered. “Trust me, once I can find myself a job? I’m out of there anyway. Living with him is only temporary. Just until I can get back on my feet. But now I get to do it in two weeks instead of two or three months.”
She walked up to me. “Well, maybe we should get our chocolate cake to go and have some drinks back at my place. I’ve got this great red wine that would go very well with this cake.”
I smiled. “Then, by all means, lead the way.”
9
Sly
“Church!”
I whipped around at the sound of Link’s voice. “What?”
He snapped his fingers in the air. “Church, you guys. Come on. Back office, now.”
I shook my head. “It’s five o’clock. I’m waiting for some—”
He leveled me with a look. “Now, Sly.”
I bit back a deep growl that bubbled up the back of my throat. I had been watching that clock for two hours now while passing the time with mindless work. I was supposed to be meeting Tara here promptly at six so we could talk. And I had to be here for it.
There was something in Link’s voice that told me that shit wasn’t happening, though.
I’d spent the last two hours busting my ass around this bar just for something to do. Something to busy my hands. I had mopped the floors, wiped down all of the empty chairs and tables, rearranged the liquor on the lit-up shelving, and restocked all of the bar’s little tidbits it always had on stock. Like cherries and straws. Shit like that.
“Sly!” Link exclaimed.
I finished off cutting some limes. “Coming! God damn.”
After wiping my hands off, I made my way back into the back office where the rest of the guys were waiting for me. And I noticed some curious looks on their faces. I furrowed my brow as I walked in before someone slammed the door behind me. To which I peered over my shoulder and saw Link scowling at me.
“What? I’m here. Let’s get on with it,” I said.
His nostrils flared. “Everyone, we’ve got a plan to get Skeleton off the road. And it doesn’t include Chains.”
I sighed, facing the rest of the guys. “Thank fuck.”
Link pointed at me. “There is a lot that we’ve dug up that supports your theory of him being federal. I mean, his cover is pretty good. Even the stuff online that we find is specially-tailored to ‘bad boy’ status.”
Ash snickered. “Which is what’s so weird about it. It’s too easy to find the background information on him that we’re looking for.”
Knuckles cracked his, well, knuckles. “And I did a little poking around myself. Turns out that one of our police contacts I recruited last year has seen a couple of people in dark suits coming in and out of their office on a regular basis. He’d stake his life on the fact that they’re federal agents.”
I chuckled. “I mean if they’re going to wear suits, at least make them interesting suits.”
“Right?” Ash asked.
Bowser sighed. “So, needless to say, we’re all with you at this point. For now, Chains needs to be kept out of the loop on stuff like that.”
Link nodded. “But we still need to make it look like he’s pledging this crew. So, I sent him on assignment this morning.”
I blinked. “Doing what?”
Link grinned wildly. “He’s attending some meetings with ‘distributors.’”
I narrowed my eyes. “I’m not following.”
Bowser snickered. “I pulled it together last-minute. Called up our liquor and food distributors. And let’s just say they’ve been paid very well to keep Chains busy all day today.”
I shook my head. “You guys are sick fucks, you know that, right?”
All of the guys barked with laughter before Link snapped his fingers again, and everyone settled down instantly.
“We’re not out of the woods yet, guys,” he said.
I nodded. “So, while Chains is distracted, I take it we’re about to hit the road and go find Skeleton?”
Bowser crossed his arms over his chest. “We have to find him and get him off the road. And the longer the Feds attempt to track him down, the harder it’s going to be to force him out of his little corner he’s currently hiding in. We have to find a way to get ahead of them.”
Ash clicked his tongue. “Or around them.”
Link paused. “You got a plan or something rattling around in that head of yours?”
Ash leaned against the wall. “Maybe. It’s very basic, but it might work.”
I shrugged. “I’m all ears. What’s up, Mountain Man?”
Ash snickered. “I plotted all of the points we know he’s been to on a map, inclu
ding the places he searched in order to find Knuckles’ girl.”
Knuckles cleared his throat. “And what did you find after tracking my girl on some map?”
Ash rolled his eyes. “Not even like that, don’t even try it. But even with those deviations, I found a pattern.”
Link’s ears perked up. “A pattern?”
Bowser cocked his head. “What kind of pattern?”
Ash pulled out his phone and opened up a picture before passing it around. And when I finally got my hands on it, it didn’t take a genius to see what kind of pattern had been laid out,
“Holy fuck,” I whispered.
Bowser finally spoke. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Ash took his phone back. “The image doesn’t lie. I replotted those points four separate times, and they come out exactly like this every single time.”
Knuckles blinked. “Am I missing something? I feel like I’m missing something.”
I nodded toward him. “He wasn’t part of the crew during that time, Link. Let’s have the story.”
Link puffed out his cheeks with air. “Knuckles, about a year before you pledged, the crew helped the police take down a string of drug houses and hideouts for a massive cartel group that had moved into the area. It’s why we’ve got such strong, dedicated ties to some people in the police offices around here. We helped them, they helped us, and we saved each other’s asses in the process.”
Knuckles nodded. “So, what the fuck does that have to do with this?”
I rolled my eyes. “Lord. Okay. All of the blue points on that map are warehouses, basements, and rundown houses where drugs were found. Whether it was the makers or the stuff itself, we busted about twenty places overall. They had a massive system they’d been working on for years before we knew anything about it.”
Bowser bowed his head. “And all of the points where we’ve found Skeleton setting up, searching around, or even popping up on camera—”
Ash interjected. “—is around one of these drug points.”
Knuckles blinked. “So, you’re saying he’s running drugs and women now?”
I shook my head. “I think they’re just saying it’s a massive fucking coincidence that needs to be looked into.”
Bowser sighed. “You think there’s any way Skeleton’s working with that cartel again?”
Link leaned against the wall. “I mean, it’s no secret that Skeleton and his crew are running drugs on the side as well and that those Red Python women are helping him do it.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “And according to our sources, he’s running meth. Not cocaine, which was what this massive cartel was running at the time.”
Link shook his head. “Still, it’s too big of a coincidence in too many places not to get checked out.”
I scoffed. “So, what? We go clear every single wanna-be drug place because Skeleton happened to be around there at some point in time? Come on, man. That’s gonna take hours.”
Link glared at me. “It’s all we’ve got, and you know damn good and well that until Skeleton is off the streets, none of us are safe. Not us, not our families, not our girls. No one.”
I held up my hands. “All right, all right. I mean I’m going on this damn thing with you guys. Just feels like someone needs to play Devil’s advocate here. Because if you take a step back, it doesn’t look like much.”
Ash shrugged. “But again, it’s all we’ve got.”
“I mean what if we just let the Feds have this one for once?”
The room fell dead silent at my question before Bowser finally had the strength to speak.
“I’m sorry, what?”
I closed my eyes. “What if we just let the crew rest and let the Feds have this one. I mean Skeleton’s gotten away from us how many times now? What if we miss him again and it pushes him underground for good?”
Link furrowed his brow tightly. “And have Chains on our asses until further notice? That what you really want?”
All eyes were on me, but Ash gave me a particularly interesting look. One I couldn't decipher without turning to face him. And I didn’t even want to acknowledge how hard he stared at me in that moment.
So, I shrugged. “Worth a shot, man. Don’t want to see any of us catch the dead tonight.”
Link hissed. “We won’t.”
I clapped my hands. “All right, then. Let’s get to it! That is, if we’re done with church. What time are we leaving by the way?”
Link looked at me as if I’d lost my head to the floor. “We’re leaving in ten minutes. Church dismissed.”
“Wait, wait, wait. Can we at least wait until sun—”
Link charged me, backing me up until my back fell against a wall. “You wanna tell me what your combattance is all about?”
I snarled at him. “Just wanting to make sure you’re thinking this through clearly. Because it’s obvious you’re taking this personally, and I’d hate to see any one of us die because you have a vendetta to settle.”
He gnashed his teeth. “Get on board with the plan or give me your leather cut. Your choice.”
I knew that everyone was on a trip-wire in terms of their patience, but this was a side of Link I’d never seen before. And to be honest, it worried me. Link had always been the level-headed one of the bunch, but there was something behind his eyes that he was desperate to play out. There was a bullet he was desperate to fire and a life he was desperate to take.
And I didn’t like that look on him one bit.
“Why don’t you take a breath and let’s try this again. Yeah?” I asked.
Link’s eyes danced between mine before he backed up. “There are fifteen places on the map that Skeleton has been around more than once. We’ll split up with coms in our ears and each of us will take three areas.”
I scoffed. “You want us to venture out alone?”
Link shrugged. “Only chance we’ve got at winding this up and down tonight. You guys in?”
I looked around the room and saw all of the guys staring at me. As if they were waiting for my answer first. I saw the hesitancy in Bowser’s eyes and secretly chastised him for not speaking up. For not saying something. But when I looked back at Link, I saw something in his face I’d never seen before.
He was begging me to do this.
“All right,” I said.
Link breathed a sigh of relief. “Sly’s in. Who is else in?”
And one by one, the rest of the guys nodded their heads.
Link swallowed hard. “Then, it’s settled. Ten minutes, then it’s time to congregate outside and get on the road. On my desk are files with each of your names on them as well as addresses for the places you’ll be checking out. Once you get your file, go into the panic room and set up your coms microphone. I want all of us plugged into each other so we can move as a steady group out there.”
Bowser interjected. “And no firing your weapon unless you absolutely have to tonight.”
There was so much about this that I couldn't stand, but I also didn’t have a choice. So, I did as I was told. I walked over and scooped up the file folder on Link’s desk that had my name on it, then followed Ash to the panic room in the very back of the bar. And despite its name, our panic room didn’t hold a place to sleep or a way to contact the outside world.
We used it as our primo-weapons and storage place.
I holstered each of my hips with weapons and stacked myself to the brim with magazines. Then, I set up my comms unit in my ear. With my folder in hand and my ear filled with the gruff grumbles of the other men around me, I headed out to my bike.
But, not before catching the time on a clock.
Five forty-five.
I was hoping this would take long enough for me to catch Tara and tell her how sorry I was, but that we’d have to reschedule. I didn’t want her to come to an empty bar and learn some bullshit third-hand information about the fact that I wasn’t going to be able to show up. However, the guys got themselves ready much quicker than I fig
ured they would. Usually, when Link said ten minutes, that meant somewhere in the realm of thirty.
But this time? The guys were actually ready in ten minutes.
Of course, they are.
I wanted to stay behind. I wanted to sit down and have a conversation with the girl who had sunken her hooks into me. But as I mounted my bike at a few minutes before six, I hoped and prayed she would understand.
Then, right as the clock struck 5:55 P.M., we were off.
I had my GPS set for the three areas I was supposed to comb all by myself. And luckily, they weren’t too far out. The first place I needed to search was less than thirty minutes away. And the other two places were only fifteen minutes in opposing directions from that original spot. Maybe I’d have enough time to look through these places, brief the guys, then call Tara and ask her to meet me for a late-night coffee at a diner somewhere in town.
The further out I drove, though, the more worried I became.
There were still so many loose ends to all of this fucking nonsense. I mean the Red Pythons, for one. We acted like we had simply forgotten their absolute betrayal that helped put us in this scenario in the first place, and they still hadn’t been dealt with. Then, there was Skeleton, who somehow always dodged us at the exact right times. It made me wonder what kind of equipment he had on his side.
And as I approached my first searching point—a small, dilapidated warehouse in the middle of bumfuck nowhere— a chill ran down my spine.
This isn’t gonna be good at all.
10
Tara
I held my wine glass in the air. “To the new girls in my life who I feel like have been there forever. Thanks for including me in tonight.”
Joanna raised her glass. “To new friendships and new adventures.”
Hannah wiggled her glass around. “And possibly new loves?”
Simone giggled. “But I will always cheer to good sex and even better memories.”
Hope smiled brightly. “Here, here!”
“Here, here!” we all exclaimed in unison.
We all threw back our second glass of wine together before collapsing on Joanna’s massive microfiber couch. I couldn't believe the house she had. And really, it wasn’t even a house. It was damn near a mansion, if I had any say on it.
Sly (Dragon Riders MC Book 5) Page 6
