Gus thought on that.
She wasn’t wrong, of course. Going in undercover was always a risk. Being an officer, an agent, or a detective lent some protection. One couldn’t simply kill an officer without contemplating the risks and consequences.
But someone who’d just gotten out of prison? Someone who used to be part of the organization?
There was a lot less risk involved in killing someone like that.
The simple fact that he could taste her fear was a testament to how genuinely afraid she was of going in there like this.
Gus truly believed nothing would happen, though. He doubted the SA wanted to risk a murder charge right now. Especially for a known accomplice.
Taking a moment to himself, Gus fully fear-scented her. Drew it in and stored it away. Her strange ocean-like smell with its salt tang.
It went in with the rest of his fully scented individuals. Like Melody, Vanessa, and Trish.
Realistically, it was just in case he had to run Chloe down, or find her if the SA ran off with her. Both were unlikely, but he’d rather not risk it.
“Well, we could always skip this part,” Gus said. “Just move straight to the ‘working for the Fed’ part. Start doing interrogations and interviews. This was your suggestion. We don’t have to do it.”
“No,” Chloe said, shaking her head. “This’ll be a good way to start. A really good way to start. Just… nervous. That’s all.”
“You wouldn’t be human if you weren’t nervous,” Gus said.
“I’m not human.”
“Sure you are. You’re a human with vampirism. Doesn’t change who you are. Just what you can do, and what you eat,” Gus said. Then he leaned back from the edge and gave Chloe’s shoulder several pats. “That’d be like saying you were someone different because you had an amputation.
“It’ll be alright. You’ve got the radio on. Even if I can’t hear what you say, all you have to do is turn it off and I’ll come in. That or just tell them you’re a Fed now. No one says no to a Fed badge, as they say. And they sure as shit don’t want to kill a Fed. Pretty sure the Fed as a government entity is in full ‘martial law’ mode.”
He’d had a badge made for her. A real federal agent badge, with her name and everything. She was listed as a “consultant” but was a legitimate agent.
It was sitting in the glove box of the car. She’d put it there after deciding she didn’t want to take it in with her.
“Want to take your badge in?” Gus asked. “If they search you, it’s a good indication they’d be willing to do worse. They’re not exactly patting down customers over there.”
“I mean…” Chloe’s voice trailed off as she thought on that. “Yeah. I’ll take the badge, actually. I’ll put it… somewhere. Shame my boobs aren’t bigger. I could put it under one of them in my dress. I’m barely a C cup at best.
“Do we need a secret word? Just for us?”
“If you like,” Gus said, ignoring her comment about breast size and the undertone in her question. “I don’t plan on waiting for you to say something, though. If they make a move, I’m going in.”
Gus went back to the car and got her badge.
It was time to get started.
They had all the appropriate documentation for a sting, signed by Mark himself. The only thing they were missing, and simply wouldn’t get, was immediate backup.
Mark’s forces were spread infinitesimally thin.
Worst-case scenario, he could call on Trish for help, since Vanessa was working with CIs.
With any luck, though, this would be the starting point for the case and hopefully their first bust.
Chapter 7 - Feeding Fed
Gus sat on a short wall outside a building across from Vermilion while he fiddled with his phone. He played games, read some of a book, and checked his email.
He didn’t look around, didn’t pay attention to his surroundings, and didn’t bother anyone.
He was doing his best impersonation of “I’m bored and probably waiting for someone,” and he was pulling it off expertly.
What he was really doing, however, was listening to what Chloe was doing. His phone was routing her radio signal through to his earpiece.
He hadn’t been able to hear a damn thing for a while due to the overwhelmingly loud music. But eventually, she’d somehow managed to get to a location where he could hear her. He wasn’t sure if it was a private booth or just somewhere further back in the club.
No one bothered Gus as he listened in on her, and he could just sit there pretending to be in his own little world.
Even though he’d been sitting there for the better part of two hours already. Apparently no matter how long he sat there doing his thing on his phone, no one really cared.
“…sorry, not interested,” Chloe said to someone.
“Come on, we can make it fun and quick,” said the man.
“No.” Chloe’s voice sounded cold and firm.
“We—”
“No. Go away,” Chloe said firmly.
“Fucking cunt,” said the man, and then his voice sounded more distant. “Ugly bitch.”
That makes… nineteen? She sure gets a lot of attention.
Though it’s somewhat disturbing how often they take rejection by lashing out like that.
Nice guys at their finest.
Mm.
Then again, it’s a nightclub.
Scratching at his side, Gus tapped on one of the squares. It was a fifty/fifty shot it would be a mine. He didn’t have any more logic solutions available to him. All he had left were a few guesses to make.
The screen showed a puff of smoke and a red X.
Bah.
Of course I’d fail that.
“…with me,” said a man.
“Sorry, not interested,” Chloe said.
“Come with me, right now,” the man insisted.
“No. I’m enjoying my seat right now, thank you very much,” Chloe said.
“Get up, come with me, or I’m gonna fucking kill you—got it?” said the man.
“You can try,” Chloe said, her voice becoming something altogether different. There was a promise in her words. A guarantee of violence. “Pretty crowded area right now. And we both know the Fed watches this place day and night.
“Wanna see if you can make that happen? Pretty sure I’ve killed more than my fair share of young stupid Vampires.”
“Get up,” said a different voice. “Now. Coven wants a word.”
“Okay,” Chloe said, her voice moving straight to a far calmer tone. “I’m getting up, nice and slow. Don’t pull the trigger. I was just here for a drink.”
“You’re here to die,” said the second man. “Coven’s gonna drain you before they pop your head open.”
That’d be my cue.
Stuffing his phone in his pocket, Gus pulled out his pistol. It wasn’t the same as his PID-issued sidearm, but it might as well have been.
It was almost entirely the same, it just chambered a larger round and seemed to have a reinforced frame.
Pulling back the slide, Gus chambered a round, then flicked the safety and pulled out his Fed badge.
Marching across the street, he had his badge held up long before he got to the bouncer.
“I’m going in there to get a federal agent someone just pulled a gun on,” Gus said to the large, imposing Were as he walked closer. “You can get out of my way, or I can shoot you and get the DA coming after me later. Your choice, but I’m not letting you stop me here.”
Lifting his gun up to the front of his chest, Gus made sure the bouncer saw it.
“Can’t let you—”
Gus lifted the pistol and pointed it at the Were.
All around him, people screamed and bolted in every direction.
“Got it!” the bouncer said loudly, holding up his hands and backing away. “Got it! Go on in!”
Gus smiled, devouring the fear that blasted out in every direction around him. Then he marched into the
club and turned his senses to Chloe’s fear scent.
He could taste her.
There would be no hiding for her from Gus.
Ever.
Gus kept his pistol and badge tucked in low against his body as he walked through the club.
It was loud, full of people, and reeking of fear. Fear of rejection. Getting caught. Getting an STD. Getting roofied.
Practically any fear one could imagine when it came to the opposite sex.
And then some.
Shoving people out of his way, Gus kept moving. Chloe was in a private room on the second floor, as best as he could tell.
“…what’s going on?” asked the second man. Possibly to the first or another person.
“A Fed just busted into the club. He’s got a badge and a gun,” said a third person. “Badge was real, I guess.”
“That’d be for me,” Chloe said. “That’s a senior agent for the Fed. Did I mention I’m also working for the Fed?
“My badge is on my person, if you want to see it. I’m afraid I really was just here to have a drink and see if anyone would make a move on me.”
“You’re—you’re working for the Fed!?” asked the original first man. “You went state?”
“Wasn’t as if I had much else to do while sitting in prison, dears,” Chloe said. “It’s one of the reasons I didn’t kill you all already. My partner is coming up here, and he’d like to talk to you all.
“So how about you just… put the guns down and we all take a trip?”
“Fuck that—”
A man in what looked like a bouncer’s uniform stepped in front of Gus and put his hands on Gus’s shoulders.
“Can’t let you go up there, Agent. It’s—”
Whipping his left hand around, Gus sucker punched the Were right in the gut.
“Stick around if you want to get arrested. Otherwise get the fuck out,” Gus said, then stepped over the laid-out Were and stormed into the stairwell he’d been aiming for.
To be honest, he wasn’t sure how much of this Mark had approved and how much Gus was probably going to get in trouble for.
Right now, though, he didn’t care.
“He’s in the stairwell. He just floored Grint,” said the second man over Chloe’s radio.
“Shit, she really does have a badge,” said the first man.
“Fine, bag her. We’re getting out of here. We’ll deal with her later,” said the third man.
“Don’t eve—”
Chloe’s voice was cut off with a short, high-pitched squeak, and then it fell silent.
Breaking into a jog, Gus started taking the stairs two at a time.
He blasted through a door at the second-floor stairwell exit and found himself in a booth. The sound was dampened here, and it was clearly reserved for people with money or connections.
A single drink rested on the lone table surrounded by chairs. There were no exits here.
Taking in a deep whiff of the air, Gus immediately pinpointed where the men and Chloe had gone.
He moved to that point in the wall, behind a rather large and terrible painting, and lifted it up to look behind it.
Or tried to. There was just a large doorway-like hole in the wall.
Glamour. Can’t see it.
Moving through the gap, Gus raised his weapon and stretched his senses out. He pushed on his heritage, feeding it the fear that was spilling off the men who’d taken Chloe as he hunted them.
Grinning, he walked through a hallway filled with equipment for recording and other things.
As long as they feared him, he’d grow stronger by the second.
“…right behind us,” said the second man.
Apparently Chloe’s radio was still working.
“What?” asked the third.
“He’s right behind us!” repeated the second man. “The fuck, Mack? You said he wouldn’t find it.”
“I… I don’t know. What the fuck,” said Mack, who was apparently the first man.
“Shut up, both of you. We just have to get down to the alley,” said the third man.
Alley, huh? That’s on the south side of the building. We’re still on the second floor.
Gus kept his eyes open as he moved rapidly along Chloe’s trail.
After walking through one hallway, across an open room, and into a stairwell, Gus saw exactly what he was looking for.
A window on the south side of the building.
He moved over to it and gave it a quick once-over. Thankfully it was the type that actually opened, though it was locked tight with a padlock.
Gus grit his teeth and jerked at it.
It didn’t go anywhere.
Taking in all the fear he could, Gus simply dumped it into the dark part of himself. The monster that he was.
He wasn’t a man with a monster inside him—he was a monster wearing a mask of a man.
Everything around him seemed to fade in colors, the world slowly becoming black and white, but brighter.
When he looked at his hand, Gus found his fingers had become claws.
He sheared the padlock away from the window with a twisting motion, then flung the window up and leaned out of it.
Taking a slow breath, he calmed himself enough for his features to revert back to the mask. He didn’t need these three claiming Gus was something else.
Just below him was a van. The type of van you told little kids to stay away from because it was never associated with anything good.
Gus lifted his weapon and sighted it accordingly.
A door below him banged open and slammed into the wall. Three men holding an unconscious Chloe rushed out from the building.
“Freeze!” Gus shouted. “Anyone moves and I shoot! No warnings! I’m using Fed-issued Para rounds!”
All three men froze where they stood.
“Don’t move,” Gus said again. He could taste their fear. All three of them were at a heightened sense of awareness right now. Each one of them was afraid Gus was aiming at them specifically.
“Set Agent Wain on the ground,” Gus said. “Then lie on your stomachs and put your hands behind your heads.
“Noncompliance will get you shot. It’s that simple. I’ll take an inquiry with a smile right now and tell them you were kidnapping a federal agent.”
Slowly, the men put Chloe down on the ground.
She looked fine, though it was clear something had been done to her. He wasn’t sure what.
The men got down on the ground and put their hands behind their heads.
“Good,” Gus said. “Now we’re going to sit here and wait. If you move, speak, or do anything else, I’m going to just shoot you.”
Pulling his phone from his pocket, Gus dialed up Trish with one hand and then put the phone to his ear as it dialed.
It rang once and was picked up.
“Hello, Gus. To what do I owe the pleasure?” Trish asked on the other side of the line.
“Need your help. Get down here with something that can hold three Para perps,” Gus said softly. “At the Vermilion, back alley. You can track my cell phone with that app Melody put on all our phones.”
“I’m on my way,” Trish said and hung up.
Sniffing once, Gus couldn’t help but grin. Massive amounts of fear were wafting from the men.
“Remain still,” Gus said. “Anyone moves, twitches, scratches their ass, I’m just going to fire. And that’ll be the end of it.”
No one moved.
Eventually, Gus heard the rumble and crunch of a big vehicle coming down the alley.
It felt like an hour had passed, but realistically it had probably only been ten minutes.
Which meant Trish had probably kept the siren on most of the way here so she could blow through every single light along the way.
The massive SUV that rolled into view had no markings whatsoever. Though the flashing lights in the grill made it very obvious it wasn’t civilian owned. The siren was off at the moment.
After pulli
ng up to one side, it came to a stop.
Three doors opened and Trish, Indali, and Hailey all piled out. They were all carrying SMGs and wearing “Fed” jackets with armored vests.
Trish had apparently decided she needed to come in full force.
“A bit overkill,” Gus called out from the window. “But you look amazing in that vest and coat. Beauty and intelligence all rolled up in one.”
All three women looked up at Gus in the window.
Trish grinned at him and waved her free hand, gripping her SMG in the other.
“Read them their rights, get them cuffed, and load them in the back,” Gus said. “Kidnapping a federal agent is the charge.”
Putting his gun away, Gus rushed down to the alley.
By the time he got there, Hailey was just closing the two rear doors of the SUV. It’d been modified so it could hold people.
Gus wasn’t sure how he felt about the fact that Trish had brought Indali and Hailey with her, but he was glad they’d agreed to come.
It showed a camaraderie he had to respect.
Squads are born like this.
Walking over to Chloe, Gus found Trish kneeling next to her.
“Some type of drug and a poison,” Trish murmured. “Looks like they injected her with it. Potent, but not long lasting. I think she’ll be awake in an hour. Just make sure she gets some blood in her when she’s coherent and that’ll fix it.”
“I’ll take her then,” Gus said, not really hearing anything other than that Chloe was fine. “You get those three back and into some holding cells.”
“Of course,” Trish said, smiling up at him.
“And… good work, Trish,” Gus finished, realizing he needed to offer her more.
Grinning much wider at that, Trish wrinkled her nose, and her eyes took on a very faint glow. “Of course, Indigo.”
Gus grabbed up Chloe and pulled her over his shoulders, then started back to his car.
***
“Uuuunnggh,” Chloe groaned.
Gus looked up from the email he was writing to Mark on his phone, then locked it.
The Vampire hadn’t stirred since he’d dropped her into her bed. Any change right now was positive.
“Hello,” Gus said. “Before you start to worry—you’re safe, whole, and healthy.”
Chloe lifted a hand up and laid it over her eyes.
Swing Shift: Book 2 Page 8
